It's funny what you'll do for other people's kids

I'm Supermom today. I don't hold this title very often. I'm a bit of a workaholic and I've always got a million ideas running around in my head that I want to work on. Steve is the one who takes our daughter to the beach, the park, the ice cream parlor, etc. He gets down on the floor and makes the animals talk and the dolls cry and all the other stuff that goes along with four year olds. He's wonderful with her. But today I am not going to work and I have the privilege of spending a half day with my friends daughter while Mom takes a CPR class for work.

It's amazing what you'll do for other people's kids. I tend to be a little freaked out by the idea of making a mess, but give me someone else's kid and suddenly I loosen up about the idea of a kid cracking eggs, measuring the flour, and anything else that might cause a spill. (I know what you're thinking....that's what cleaning supplies are for, get a grip, woman!) Yeah, I know, I'm weird. And before you worry that my kid doesn't get to do these things, don't. She spends a TON of time at her Grandma's house where Grandma has all the patience in the world. I hear that there is a lot of egg cracking taking place in her kitchen. I also hear a lot of, "you know mom, Grandma always lets me crack the eggs." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Good thing you have a fabulous Grandma.

Anyway, back to me being Supermom. Our little guest has me loosening up. We got out all of the ingredients to make pancakes and they went to town measuring, pouring and stirring. We poured the pancakes, watched them turn brown, and decorated. They were pretty smiley the whole time.

Measuring the flour. Look there's flour spilled and I didn't even freak out. Although, Sydney kept mentioning that there was flour spilled on the table and the floor. I guess she's my kid.

Now, this Supermom is off to the zoo. We are going to go look at the monkeys and the bears, and as our little one puts it, "the mangos." I think she means the flamingos. They seem to be a big favorite of the little ones. Then we're off to the park next door. The one her Mom and I used to play at when we were wee ones.

Block Swap!!!!!!!!!

Scottie Dog Quilts is hosting a 1930's block swap!

What is a block swap, you ask? Swap participants make a set of 8 identical blocks using the pattern provided. Blocks are turned in by the deadline and a few days later, you will receive 8 blocks back. They will all be the same pattern, but made with different fabrics. If you want more than 8 blocks, you can make additional sets, up to 10 sets. To make the quilt pictured, you will need to make 6 sets, that way you will receive 48 different blocks back.

The deadline to turn in blocks will be October 22. If you are mailing your blocks please mail them early enough to allow sufficient time to reach us by the 22. Make sure you provide a SASE with proper return postage. If you are a local participant, you can just drop your blocks off at the store.

Once you sign up, we need you to follow through. If you commit and then do not turn in blocks, there will not be enough blocks to swap. If for any reason you do sign up and something comes up, let me know ASAP.

If you have more questions, ask away. If you think you would like to sign up or want more info, you can email me at radromy@aol.com. I will email you the pattern and instructions. Or if you are local, just stop by the store and ask for the swap packet.

I am so excited and can't wait to see all of the beautiful blocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A super great day at the Humboldt County Fair

Today we went to the fair to demo our AccuCut die cutting machine. Steve and Sydney rode rides while we did our demo. Sydney announced she was going to ride 600 rides. I'm not sure she met her goal, but she did a little bit of everything at the fair.

First on her list was a hot dog for lunch. She ate all but one bite! Then it was off to ride some of the rides with her Daddy!

Sydney LOVED the "horsies." I didn't realize my big four year old wanted to ride by herself. She did not want her mama standing next to that horse while she rode. I was relegated to outside the fence. What happened to my dependent little baby?

So after many, many rides, we headed over to the livestock barns to look at the animals. I loved visiting the animals when my parents used to take me to the fair. Sydney wanted to take home a rabbit. We said NO.

So while we are in the barns, two little girls come up to us and tell us they are giving miniature pony rides in the arena. It's only $2, she says. That sounded like fun, so we followed the girls through a maze of pens into a back area and just as we were starting to wonder where we were going, another girl shows up with two cute little ponies. One girl asks us for the $2, so I paid her and they put a helmet on Sydney and helped her on the horse. I took out the camera to take a picture and a third little girl who couldn't be more than six says, "usually pictures are an extra $2, but I'll throw it in for free." Suddenly as I look around I realize that there are no adults around and all of these girls are barefoot. The little girl started telling me how her rides were the best deal at the fair because they were really long and they weren't ponies tied to a chain. Then I noticed the sign that said "No riding in arena without written permission from office." She kept telling me how she would even let the pony trot with Sydney because Sydney was four. I could tell this little girl had been on the fair circuit for awhile and was a little sales person in training. Hopefully the horses did belong to these girls, but either way, I had to admire their entrepreneurial spirit. Sydney had a great pony ride and I have to admit, it did beat the little ponies chained to the wheel. But I did kind of wonder where those ponies came from.....

It was a hot day for Humboldt County, so we decided to get ice cream. Sydney chose chocolate. After she got her cone, we saw a little dog show and stopped to watch. They asked for volunteers from the audience and Sydney desperately wanted to be picked. She is the girl on the far end in the light pink shirt. A little terrier did tricks and jumped back and forth over the girls.

I really never thought I'd see these again!

So I went to the fair today. And here's one thing about the fair; for the junior high kids, it's an early preview for back to school wear. I'm not a big fashionista, but I do realize that the tapered leg jean has been coming back into style. It's not my fave, I don't think it looks that great on me, but fine, whatever. I was dealing with that until I saw something today that weirded me out just a bit.

From the time I was about 12½ to about 14½, all of the best jeans had zippers on the bottoms of the legs. This was so that instead of pegging our pants to make them as tight as possible around the ankle, we could zip them on tight. That's right, my L.A. Gear Jeans were zipped as tight around my ankles as they could be without cutting off the blood supply. My mom always told me that fashion just keeps repeating itself. I guess she's right. I really never thought I would see these again. But there it was in line for the ferris wheel. Zippered legs. There's only two differences to my junior high days and this girl's. Her zippered jeans have the zippers on the inside of the leg, vs. my day when they were on the outside or the back (sometimes with a heart cutout at the top to show a little bare leg) and we wore slouch socks over the top of the jean, while she clearly wears hers underneath the leg.

So on what has been a fantastic day at the fair, a little walk down memory lane was fun!

So I know I have been totally slacking on the blog.....

It's been a busy summer. That's putting it mildly. That's my excuse. Quilt Camp, The REQG quilt show, Kids Quilt Camp, The Stitch & Snip Craft Extravaganza, Fortuna Guilds Market Night, a couple of camping trips and a Quilting cruise to Alaska have been keeping me a little busy. Not to mention all of the planning for the Fall schedule at Scottie Dog Quilts. It has been one busy Summer.

We kicked off Summer with a family and friends camping trip to Watts Lake where my husband tore his hamstring right as we started packing up for home. He made a lot of loud noises and didn't look so hot. So after we made the three hour trip home we spent four more in the urgent care.

Quilt Camp was the next weekend, and it was a blast. In between trips home to deliver meals to my husband who was under strict orders to stay off his feet, BrendaLou and I taught a great pattern from Moda called "Sweet."

Then came Fourth of July where Sydney rode in her first parade and became a pro at flag waving.

Then off to vend at the Redwood Empire Quilt Guilds 2009 quilt show at Redwood Acres. On Saturday of the show, Sydney was asked to ride in the parade at the Fortuna Rodeo and to bring her flag to wave.

The next week was The Snip & Stitch Craft Extravaganza presented by the Crafty Mavericks and Arcata Main Street. This was a great Craft show on the Arcata Plaza where we sold lots of kits and had a chance to talk to a lot of crafters and let them know about our store. The same week, we packed up and went to the Fortuna Guilds Market night.

On to Kids Quilt Camp. This year we used our AccuCut die cutting machine and cut out rag quilts. The die has the raggy edges pre-cut, so the girls sewed their quilts together and then threw them in the washing machine. They made cell phone totes as well.

With Kids Camp over, we flew into Cruise mode to get everything packed for the cruise. It takes a large amount of luggage to pull off a quilting cruise. There were all the supplies for the classes and boxes and boxes of fun giveaways for all the participants. Many of the wonderful companies that we do business with sent great gifts. I tried to explain to the hotel that would be delivering us to the pier how much luggage we had. (19 pieces of checked luggage, some were large trunks.) She said, "It's a cruise. Everyone has a lot of luggage." Needless to say, when they saw how much luggage we had, they had to schedule a new van. The cruise was absolutely wonderful and exceeded my expectations. I will blog much more about that in the week to come.

It's Tuesday

This morning, Sydney and I tagged along on Mrs. Goodwyn's class field trip to the Headwaters Forest Preserve. I've actually only gone once before, about 5 years ago. It was magical! I forget sometimes that we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Just about ten minutes from my house, we set foot onto this amazing piece of land with an incredible history. The logging town of Falk was located there from the late 1800's to the late 1930's, and a few remnants of the town are still standing. There was a guide there to tell us the story behind this forgotten town. It was great. We walked about two miles total and had a great time. My good friend Larissa (who is Mrs. Goodwyn's daughter) had invited me to come and I'm so glad she did. We had a blast.




So, I promised pictures of some swap quilts I've made. This quilt is from a swap that Larissa and I hosted together. The rule was, 6" blocks, your choice of block. My sister had given me 100 six inch squares of 1930's fabrics, so I put them into the middle and then put the swap blocks all around the outside. I absolutely love this quilt. I know several of the people that made the blocks and it's like a little scrapbook. The little yellow plane on a blue background at the bottom of the quilt is the first paper pieced block I ever completed. (notice I said completed. I attempted several times before.)

Here's a sneak preview of the block swap that I'm putting together for the store. It is simple enough that most skill levels will be comfortable with, and makes a neat pattern.

Block Swap

A couple of months ago I was itching to participate in a block swap. Over the years I have done a few and hosted some as well. They are quite a lot of fun and I have missed participating.

If you haven't heard of a block swap, a traditional block swap has a hostess that sets the rules for the swap. In this case, the block was set at 8" and was to be a basket block of your choice. The participants will make a set of 8 blocks. Seven of the blocks are sent off to the swap hostess with a self addressed stamped envelope and a small hostess gift to show appreciation for the host. (You keep one block because you will not get your own back.) A couple of weeks later, in the mail, will arrive seven different basket blocks. Now I signed up for 5 sets of blocks, so I will receive 35 different blocks back, plus the 5 I kept for myself of my own blocks, for a total of 40 different 8" basket blocks. Pretty fun!



The really neat thing is, you get these blocks from all over the country. Most people will put an address label on the back so you can see what part of the country they came from.

I finished my blocks today, and packaged them up to send off to Louann in North Carolina. She is our swap hostess. I bagged them up into sets and can't wait for them to be mailed back out. There is a twist though, instead of putting my address on the return envelope, I put someone elses address. Someone that I thought would like them. I thought it would be really fun to open the mail one day and find 40 1930's basket blocks just waiting to be put into a quilt. It will be a nice surprise.


Now for some more fun news. Scottie Dog Quilts will be hosting a 1930's block swap of it's own. I have just finished quilting the sample and am writing up the details. Anyone can participate, whether you are local or live across the nation.

I'll have more details to follow soon and I'll share some of the swap quilts that I've made.