A Summer of Quilting

If there is one thing I know it is how to rock a summer. Obviously, there is nothing cooler than teaching yourself how to quilt off Youtube. I did have some motivation, Eden got chicken pox and we have been in quarantine for the last two weeks. If you can't go out, you may as well learn something new at home.

The first picture is the back of the quilt which MAY not appear to be a stunning or revolutionary view but hot d*mn! it is a thing of beauty. I quilted it on my regular home Janome and there is not one pucker. Seriously, what are the odds. I meant to go get a walking foot for my machine to make quilting easier but with sick kids and exhaustion I never made it out. So this is a double miracle in my books. Now, on to the flashy side...
I think these blocks are called Amish Star blocks. I learned to make them and a ton of other random blocks from Missouri Star Quilt Co. on Youtube. There are some mad geniuses at work in the quilting community. I had no idea. The ladies break down scary, intimidating blocks like these (scary to me anyway) and actually make them so simple that they become monotonous to make.
I also realized that I have had a rotary cutter for about 6 years that I had never used. I don't know why I am so slow to embrace new tools but I can be stubborn that way. The rotary cutter has CHANGED MY LIFE!! sob, sob, sniffle... I'm ok. It is pretty cool and saves so much time and headache that I feel a bit stupid for not using it for so long. Those days are behind me now though, onward and upward.
It was just a quilt waiting to happen in my studio. I had all the fabric ready and purchased for someone who had told me his preferred colour scheme but I just couldn't see how to put them together. I will be giving him his quilt next weekend so for now it is a *secret* ssshhhh.
Each block is 11" so the final quilt is just over 4' x 5'. It should be perfect to throw on the couch for him and his lady to watch movies all snuggled up.

It seems weird to me that I could make this. I am after all not Amish and not a grandma and it was secretly really fun. My next quilt for my own couch is a Bento Box quilt made with a Moda Honey Bun (fancy quilting name for set of pre-cut 1.5" strips of fabric) that Dark Cloud sent me and some fabric from my stash. It's pretty ugly but I'm glad, I won't be as upset when Eden and Arlo spread jam on it and make it into a quilt sandwich.

**edited to add that the Bento Box quilt is not ugly because of the fabric sent by Dark Cloud, her fabric is awesome. I however did not think the design through all the steps very well and the end result, to put it mildly, is incredibly buzy.

Tree Quilt

Here is a quilt that I powered through in the last week. It is for friends that have had a tough time. They need some love. And since I am too far away to go into a mad cooking frenzy (like I usually would) I hurled myself into a quilt project for them. It is truly a scrap quilt, all the trees are made out of bits and pieces left over from Grandpa N's quilt and assorted other green things I have made. I have made an astonishing array of green things it seems.

The top photo (I don't know why it is sideways, blogger issues) is of the back, Captain Obvious, which I decided to semi-piece for added loveliness. This was inspired by the gorgeous work of Red Pepper Quilts. She makes the greatest quilts and all of them have been given extra spice on the back, not to mention some really beautiful long arm quilting. As a novice quilter I am in deep awe of her mad skills.

Parfaits

In another desperate attempt to get both kidlets to eat their breakfast before lunch time we debuted the parfait. Yummy. And with the cherry on top it looks like a treat not a chore to eat. It has homemade granola, Balkan yogurt, homemade marmalade, fresh Okanagan peaches and an enormous cherry on top. Eden was fooled for a while and to my great surprise actually ate the granola. Unprecedented grain consumption on her part.
Arlo really likes granola and yogurt but she was so distracted by the peaches and cherries that she dug them out and left most of the rest behind. The next morning they didn't want anything to do with a parfait. These kids are hard-core pancake lovers. I know this will sound like blasphemy to some but I can't think of a worse breakfast than pancakes. Yeuch. The extra work of making them in the morning means I like them even less.
This is the girls making their parfait protest faces.
"We will not stand for this treatment any longer!," shouts Eden.
"We will not get out of bed for less than 10,000 pancakes a day," demands Arlo.

I know parfait is cruel and unusual punishment for such delightful kidlets but that's how I roll. I am just a half step removed from being Miss Hannigan.

Nightgowns

Eden likes red a lot. We got a copy of "Red is Best" and now it is the only colour. Eden does like a bit of drama and she can definitely pull red off with no problem. When she said she wanted a red dress down to her toes I thought we should start with a nightie.
Both Eden and Arlo are horror struck with the idea of wearing pants pajamas, so another nightie made more sense than a ball gown. She has managed to convince me in a few moments of weakness to let her wear her red 'dress' to the grocery store. I can't help myself really, she's so cute in it and I want everyone to see a kid wearing something that doesn't relate to any cartoon characters at all. I'm weird that way.

New Bag

It was raining cats and dogs yesterday so I let the girls rot their little brains a bit and watch a movie. While they turned into mini couch potatoes, I came up with a new bag. It's the biggest bag yet and is verging on luggage. I reinforced everything with heavy interfacing and quilted it. So it will hold everything and keep it all safe. It has an interior zipper pocket and two deep leather pockets on the front.
I found an old leather coat like one Bad Babs had when I was little. It had some great leather buttons that I saved and used one on the front flap though I opted to use Velcro for the actual closure. I fought against Velcro for a while, but in the end decided that it won out for practicality. Next I will try a zipper AND the Velcro, just in case you have stuff that needs to be EXTRA safe and twice as hard to get at in a hurry.
It occurs to me that this would only be the case if you did not have kids in tow, as all my purse has in it are gum wrappers, cracker crumbs and last weeks art projects from story time at the library all marinating in leaking sippy. Hmmm. Foul, I know.

Dirty words and Dough

We here at LBB are not afraid of carbs. Bring on the bread. Boss Hog has a close relationship to all things home baked. His health nutty-ness inclines him to guilt and avoidance of anything truly decadent. Pity that is not the case with me.

In honour of his love of the more homely baked goods, we tried a few new things. Above is my new favourite bread/bun. It is a 50% spelt dough, slightly sweetened with TONS of chopped green onions folded in and then sprinkled slightly with Maldon Smoked Sea Salt. These are great. In fact I put them up to be considered over the traditional Hot-Cross Bun for the ultimate baked goods to welcome spring.
Above are some buns from this book. It was recommended to me by PH and she was right, this man makes great bread. And he has given me a new pseudo-swear word to throw around when the mood strikes and the kids can hear me.

Below is a photo of bread called Fougasse. I love it, it's beautiful, quick to make, delicious and makes you seem like a very advanced French chef when your bread basket is full of these rather than conventional buns. Very high satisfaction:effort ratio with fougasse. Also the word itself, 'fougasse', is deliciously naughty sounding when you need to holler a truly dirty word but little ears prevent you.
Another brilliant substitute bad word brought to me by PH and her husband is 'credenza'. Do you have another bad word replacement? Let me know in the comments.

My new purse

And the little critters who left me alone enough for a few minutes each night to let me finally finish it. PH and I have often lamented the sorry state of women's handbags. There are too many rhinestones, studs, gold latches, useless-decorative pockets, extra handles and patent leather parts for me to feel comfortable with. I don't want my purse looking like a cheap hooker. Not even with my new hair, it still is not me.
So I decided to make myself a test purse and then, if it worked, make it a flagship purse, one I really wanted to carry around flaunting it's happy existence without all the standard purse-deco, clutter garbage. The front panel is hard felted merino in blues and greens and silvers with a lot of sashiko mermaid stitching. The pocket on the front panel came from the leather coat I used on the back panel. This is truly and unsale-able item due to all the hours of stitching involved in it's subtle decoration.
The back panel is an up-cycled suede leather coat, and the inside is a fantastic flannel print with old cars and the appropriate accessories for traveling around in such ancient vehicles. I wish I had taken a photo of the fabric before it went inside the bag.
This is a close up of some of the stitching and (shame on me) my logo embroidered on in flashy red and white. I am a fame whore just waiting to be recognised :)
When I went to school for ceramics I would have called this red and white mark my 'chop' and stamped it on the underside of all my works as a signature of sorts. Somehow, even with the switch in mediums I still feel like this makers mark is important. Maybe even more important in a world filled with cheap, mass-produced goods where the items aren't even seen by the people whose names appear as the chop or brand.

The Etsy Shop

This post isn't much to look at, but it is big news!!
Little brown badger has an Etsy shop. Indeed, now there are two places to catch the latest in LBB happenings and crafty outpourings. For the moment the Etsy shop is focused on bags and purses, wet felted merino wool and re-purposed leather goods. Come on over and check it out. There are still many things to be ironed out and many more items yet to be listed so keep checking back!!

The Haircut

Somehow, while I was changing diapers, encouraging little people to eat their veggies, potty training and infinite other mothering chores I forgot I had a head.
I know, I feel bad for every single person who has been forced to look at my head for most of the last 5 years. I just didn't know I was rocking such a sad, sad, SAD head of shaggy, neglected dog hair. I am officially sorry. And it is with a sigh of relief that I introduce you to my new hair.


I have a lot to learn about doing my own fabulous hair. I really underestimated how much product I should be using and this morning after doing my hair myself I looked much fluffier. Note to self: pile on the gunk for sleek, shiny hair. I feel like I should have known to use more product. When I woke up this morning, the morning after the great hair revolution, I felt like my head had been buttered. Gross yes, but lovely, oh sooooo lovely.

Grandpa N's Quilt

Here's the other reason I haven't been posting much lately. This quilt is for Boss Hog's dad. I started it last fall intending it to be a birthday gift and now it is three months too late or nine months too early. Either way, we are lucky because Grandpa N is VERY easy going and will no doubt be very gracious regardless of my lousy timing. The top photo is Arlo after about 10zillion attempts to get her to pretend sleep for a photo. "Ha," she says, there is not a camera fast enough to catch me with my eyes closed.
Eden on the other hand, is always up for pretend sleeping. It's one of her favourite activities. Arlo hates this of course, as it usually means Eden appointing herself the 'mom' and repeatedly putting 'baby' Arlo to bed. The fights that result are delightful, I assure you.
The one good thing about the delay in getting this quilt quilted was that I came up with a much simpler method of quilting it than I originally envisioned. After shoving the wedding quilt through my little sewing machine a few hundred times to make circles of stitching around the stars, I decided only to sew in straight lines until I forgot the pain of sewing my own finger. Seriously. I am a crafting martyr.

Wedding Quilt

I was hoping to upload a few more pics of this quilt for you, but for some reason, blogger would only like you to see this one. All the others keep getting uploaded sideways or upside down. Crazy.
Anyway, I know I seemed like a lazy poster here for a while and I just wanted to show you all what I was up to. Boss Hog, the kidlets and I are heading down to Vancouver tonight for my little brother's wedding. Yes it is true, my little baby brother is getting married (and I am getting out the Kleenex for the wedding already). Him and his lovely lady will be wed Feb. 20th. The patch on the back of the quilt says their names and the date and has little interlocking rings sewn onto it with my free-motion foot. If blogger would stop spinning my photos I would show you.
I got the idea from a book I took out of the library. It is full of great quilting ideas that run the gamut from super simple to complex, mind boggling (to me anyway) designs that I will never have the guts to attempt.

I had to photograph this one draped haphazardly over the futon in the guest room because the light hitting our bed was not great during the ten minutes I had to photograph it between clipping off the last errant threads and packaging it up to stick in the car. Meanwhile, Boss Hog was roaming around innocently suggesting that I had embroidered the date wrong on the patch.
Helpful? NOT SO MUCH @#%^&*\
I am no longer feeling all-cappsy but I have taken a few painkillers to keep my head from exploding en route.

This one is for Dark Cloud

Over the holidays we were visiting friends. Somehow diluting red wine with water was mentioned and out of the recesses of their cabinets came this bottle. They brought it back from Europe 25-30 years ago. It seems these split bottles were common as many women liked to mix their wine with water. I had never seen anything like it so I made Boss Hog pose with it so I could show it to DCBS who has a bit of a thing for bottles.
Never one to miss an opportunity, I made him take off his sweater too so you could all see the shirt I made him for our anniversary. It is another freezer paper stencil. I am no longer OBSESSED with stencilling everything, but I do still hold the freezer paper in high regard.

I love invisible zippers!

But as you can see, I'm not a huge fan of ironing. Can't win them all. When PH and DC were here this winter--together! at the same time!--they gave me the rundown on how my whole life would improve with the addition of invisible zippers. Of course they were right. I haven't looked back. I've made five things with invisible zippers in a month!!
This dress is one of my favourites. I bought the green linen in Vancouver this summer and have just been waiting for time to sew it into a new dress. I know the dress is not flashy and linen wrinkles like a son of a gun, but I just love it. This is the second time I've made this pattern and I did a really good job following instructions. The first time there were a few things I couldn't puzzle through in the instructions that I thought I could figure out on the fly. Hmmm. Not so much.
This time I trusted the great sewing gods at Vogue, did their bidding, et voila! it is a testament to mankind. It is lined and fits perfectly (I did have to take in the back a bit and I left off the giant bow, blech) and it's linen, so why waste time ironing it anyway?

Stained Glass

Boss Hog and I did a collaborative project this year. It went really well. It's not often we can work together and still end up happy with each other and pleased with the results. This project was perfect in its division of skills and labour. He took a stained glass course and knows how it all goes together. I have a fine arts degree and large paper. This was Boss Hog's second piece of stained glass ever, and it's about 2feet by 3 feet. Yup, 'go big or go home' is often our motto around here.
He said he wanted a tree in this window.
I obligingly sketched one out.
He took it away and thought about it.
He said it would work and took me to the glass supply shop to pick colours.
Then he, the sheets of glass and the sketch paper disappeared.
Boss Hog returned one night with a roll of copper foil and stacks of labeled rectangles of glass. I was allowed the menial chore of rolling the foil around the edges of the rectangles and squares while we watched a movie.
Then the squares and BH disappeared again.
When they finally reappeared, the window was finished and framed with a lovely and ingenious frame that hangs IN FRONT of the actual window (so we can take it with us if we move!).
So, by working alone on parts of a collaborative project where we never had to be working together AT ALL we managed to complete this window and stay married.