"Sewing" Our Wild Oats

A group of us that bonded at the Sewing Summit last year have been planning a meet-up since the Fall. Our motley crew includes Angela, Kelly, Karen, Cherie, Ali, Michelle, Tracey, Kristie and Cara. When we were planning our little shindig, the priority was finding a central location that was wallet friendly. Being the awesome friend that she is, Ms. Kelly generously offered up the house she and her husband just bought outside of Nashville. They don't move in for another week or two, so we had to bring all the necessities like towels, air mattresses and toilet paper, which was actually pretty fun....like an indoor quilting camping trip! I'm kind of sad now we didn't attempt roasting marshmallows in her fireplace...although she probably isn't because the group of us are a fire hazard, lol

Only me, Cara, Kelly, Ali and Cherie were able to make it this time, but we're already planning one at the beginning of next year that will be bigger & better - woot woot! Most of us got in around 7:00 Friday night and we ate a late dinner at 55 South, so this is what the scene looked like when we got home. Online friends getting together, laying on air mattresses...and not talking...but typing to each other and the friends that couldn't make it via Facebook, lol! Well...except for me, because I'm too cheap to pay for an iPhone + plan, so I just laid there and drifted in and out of consciousness.

(I was too lazy to take photos most of the trip, so all of these are stolen from various members of our five-woman posse)

The next morning we had grand plans of hitting up all the local quilt shops (Kelly even had a printed list of the addresses and hours), but we hit the motherload at our first store and nixed the others. It was like Hoarders: Fabric Edition. The store was HUGE and there were thousands of fat quarters stuffed into every last nook and cranny, and even stacked along the walls in plastic bags. We got lucky and found a pocket of out-of-print Anna Maria Horner prints in those cubbies, so we literally yanked every single fat quarter out to make sure we didn't miss anything. There might have been screaming and dancing involved each time we found another hard-to-find print...

And then we started tackling the dozens of bags along the walls. Cara and I were crawling around on our hands and knees, and I'm pretty sure anyone who had the misfortune of walking up behind me got a healthy view of my butt crack...but I mean c'mon...who has time for pulling up their pants when Good Folks & Garden Party are at stake?!

Also, I'm pretty sure they hadn't swept or vacuumed for about a decade, because I was covered in dust bunnies by the time all was said and done.

 Some pre-checkout bartering...

Discovered this little gem on the inside of the front door as we were about to leave....which is pretty hilarious, because we were in there snapping photos and systematically taking apart their store for the better part of 3 hours...so they either didn't notice or didn't care.

And all that fabric hunting makes a gal pretty hungry, so we made a pit-stop at Mellow Mushroom pizza on the way home. YUM.

And there's really no point to this photo, other than the fact that it's my favorite one by far from the weekend. A mom at peace, in her PJ's, quilting, scooping up Apple Jacks with her bare hand, and reading some good ol' fashioned celebrity gossip. Cara and I shared a table, and I couldn't help but glance up at her every now and then because she looked so darn content :)

And to cap things off, here's some good ol' fashioned fabric porn. Because what's a quilty weekend without a beefcake fabric shot?

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Telschow Drive-In Theater

It's been in the 70's down here in New Orleans since late January, so we've been enjoying grilling out and gardening for quite a while.  I'm pretty much obsessed with fresh basil, and my little plants are coming in nicely out on the front porch. Ray's working on building me a raised veggie bed in the backyard so I can transplant our veggies & herbs back there when it's time.

Using a seed starter I planted two types of Heirloom tomatoes (Mortgage Lifter & Golden Jubilee), some Green Bell Peppers, Lavender, Sweet Mint and Rosemary. I've grown plenty of herbs before, but this is my first encounter with full-on veggie action. The peppers don't seem so bad, but I'm fully intimidated by those tomatoes. If it weren't for the fact that my piggy little snout is watering for heirloom tomatoes, I wouldn't have attempted it. Because let's face it, I have zero interest in gardening unless it produces some kind of food. Flowers...meh.

So any and all advice is welcome - please help me grow heirloom tomatoes! I'm gonna post my plant's progress on here so you all can see how I'm doing :)  I'm so excited about it! Eating fresh herbs and tomatoes from my very own backyard will be a dream come true. Yum....now I'm thinking of all the burgers and caprese salad I can enjoy with them...

And speaking of grilling out, we decided to take things a step further this weekend. My husband is a big kid in the most adorable sense, and since the weather has been so nice, he decided to try out his new brainchild this weekend: movies in the backyard.

 



Ray's been talking about doing this for a while, and it was actually pretty ingenious. We have a big backyard (well, by New Orleans standards) with a very high & sturdy fence. There's also a big gate that swings open because the previous owners owned a boat. Ray's brother owns a projector, so naturally Ray thought we should throw up a white king size sheet on the fence, drive the car in the backyard, and have a Telschow Drive-In Movie Night, lol! Ray's immediate family came over (parents + brother & sister-in-law) and we grilled out and chatted in lawn chairs until it got dark enough to project the movie.

We also bought some tiki torches with mosquito repellant to add ambiance and ward off bugs, which unfortunately didn't work :( I have mosquito bites everywhere, even on the bottoms of my feet! THE BOTTOMS OF MY FEET!!! Curse you mutant swamp mosquitos!!! I shall find you and smote your ruin upon the mountaintop with Deet. And then rename myself Kaelin the White and save humankind from the mechanations of Mordor...er wait...mosquitos.

So for those of you looking for cheap family entertainment this summer, here you go! We plan on revamping our mosquito defenses and trying this again soon for the College Ministry we lead at our church.  We watched Up! this past weekend, but for the college kids we're thinking a fun, summery movie like Jurassic Park, ET, Super 8, or Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm going to try my best to talk them into Heavyweights, but hardly anyone's heard of that movie so it might be an uphill battle.

Also, we went to see one of my favorite bands ever this weekend - The Boxer Rebellion. And they rocked. Don't you just love when a band sounds even better in person? It's a rare and beautiful thing.

 

Here's to GREAT weekends!

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Ruh Roh.

Ray and I have been carpooling this past week because we were having some work done on the 2nd car. Good news is that I love having that time before and after work when we can chat about our days.

Bad news? We get home at the same time and I'm not able to properly "dispose" of fabric evidence.

We pulled up in the driveway yesterday and I immediately spotted the small mountain of packages and thought to myself, "oh crap...it's finally happened....Fabric D-Day". I thought maybe I could snake up to the front door and get everything inside while he was busy getting his stuff out of the trunk.

I unlocked the front door and turned to see if I was still in the clear, only to be met with this knowing scowl (you all don't know Ray, but this is his impish "I know what you're up to" scowl, rather than the "I'm angry" scowl. Phew!)

I just started laughing, and then couldn't resist snapping these two quick photos of the event.

Later Ray said, "you're not going to put those up on the internet are you?"

Me: "No" (crossing fingers behind back)

Ray: "Whatever. You're over there thinking, 'I'll sneak these up on the internet and that rube will never know!' "

And then I just started laughing, because that's exactly what I was thinking. How does he know me so well?

Any of you have funny stories about how your husband has totally busted your Underground Fabric Railroad? Do tell!

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Back in the Saddle

Well I'm back in the saddle again (Aerosmith style, not Gene Autry style) and just completed my first post-neck-injury project! It took me about a week to finish, because I never allowed myself to sew for more than an hour at a time, and I promised my physical therapist I'd stop sewing any time I started to feel pain...so while I had to cut a few sessions short, overall my progress was pretty good!

I had my outpatient procedure last week and they gave me a steroid shot in my neck, so I've been feeling better since then (although the procedure itself was slightly traumatic...bad news is that I wasn't knocked unconscious with glorious drugs as promised, but was wide awake as a giant needle was plunged into my spine; good news is that since I wasn't drugged, I had my wits about me when I got home and was able to eat the last brownie before Ray walked in the door. You win some, you lose some.)

Anywho, I'm no longer wearing my neck brace except when I sew or sleep, which is awesome. But since I think the cone of shame was too hilarious not to share, here's a before and after photo for your viewing pleasure.

Sad Kaelin vs. World Domination Kaelin

But back to the block...

I stumbled across a Stained Glass Whirling Star block on equiltpatterns.com, and once I looked past the hideous marbled fabric, realized it had pretty good bones. It was a really easy paper piecing pattern and I highly recommend it for beginners who are looking to dip their toe in paper piecing - I think it would make for a nice first paper piecing project for those of you who haven't tried it before. My only suggestion is that when you trim your eighths, leave 1/4" overhang on the outside edge. For some crazy reason the designer made the block 12" square, so the final block measures 11.5" instead of 12". Weird, I know. So if you add a 1/4" on the outside edge only (but not the inner ones), your unfinished block will be 12.5".

Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was an issue until I was half-way done, hence the sashing on the outside of my block. Boo.

For my block I used some light blue Monaluna Mingle, Allison Smith's Peacock Dot, and yellow Denyse Schmidt prints (from Hope Valley and Aunt Edna, respectively). Although the solid looks black in this photo, it's actually Kona Navy. It was dark outside by the time I finished, so unfortunately I had to take an indoor shot and the colors didn't turn out that great. I would have waited until tomorrow, but I have to mail this in the morning because it's going to a friend :)

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The Cripple Surprise Group

I love my online quilty friends. They are about the kindest, funniest, and most fantastic group of gals I know.

Last week was about the worst week I've ever had in my adult life. Aside from the neck issues & sewing hiatus, there's just been a whole host of utter crap going on in my life (don't worry - me and the hubs are cool...we're an unstoppable team that competes against other teams...sorry, totally stole that line from an episode of The Office), and last week was the apex of it all. So after all was said and done, I put on my pj's Friday night, settled in on the sofa, and prepared to spend my 4-day Mardi Gras weekend wallowing in a fresh batch of eBooks and self-pity (Jacey was sweet enough to have sent me a hilarious Salt & Pepper themed Amazon giftcard). But come Saturday morning, there was a knock at my door and my mailman handed me what would turn out to be a complete ray of sunshine. My good friend (and ringleader) Kelly had secretly organized a "Cripple Surprise Group" for me on Flickr, and a big group of my crafty friends banded together to send a giant box of happiness.

I can't tell you how completely happy it makes me to have such an amazing group of friends in my life, and I feel blessed to know every single one of them. It gives me such a wonderful feeling of contentment to have caring friends like Angela, Jacey, Michelle, Kelly, Cherie, Elena and Kristie in my life. I'd had such a rotten week, and was so blown away by my coordinated box of crafty fun that I honestly burst into tears while I was opening it. Ray thought I was a complete lunatic because he walked in the living room and found me sitting on the sofa covered in tissue paper and crafts, crying my eyes out, and then I looked up at him and said in my snotty, puffy-faced cry voice (while gripping my new goods in my hands and gesturing wildly) "they made a cripple package Ray! my friends sent me a cripple package! they all wrote me notes and sewed things! look it's a handicapped quilter!"...therein commencing a new batch of crying...and he had that terrified husband look like oh god...i'm cornered and this could go either way....so then after a few seconds he cautiously asked me "sooooo....is that a good or a bad thing???" LOL.  I'm sure it wasn't a pretty picture to behold, because I'm a hideously ugly crier...my face gets all red and blotchy and I look like Mad Madam Mim in Sword in the Stone after she catches germy Merlin. 

My package contained all manner of beautiful things, and they even coordinated the colors to match my newest obsession - pink & navy. You ladies didn't miss a trick! :)

Let's take a tour of my new get-well goodies, shall we?

First there's a 20" Granny Square Pillow from Elena (which has already been claimed by Sir Whiskers - see above), and she was even sweet enough to include some money and a coupon to Joann's in my card so I could buy a pillow form. I also found a super cute sewing necklace from Forever 21 tucked in her package, which I proudly wore to our MQG meeting today :) Stylin' and profilin'...

Angela made me this adorable Scottie pincushion/voodoo doll. I'm leaning more toward voodoo doll, because Whiskers managed to snatch it out of the box and attempt to eat it within the hour *sigh*

Jacey - my movie-quoting partner in crime - made me about the darned cutest wall quilt on the planet. Her quilting is fabulous and gives it really a cool texture - wish you could feel it for yourselves because words don't do it justice :)

And Kelly - ohhhhh Kelly - she made me a coaster that nearly made me wet myself. I texted a picture of it to most of my family, and then took it in to work and showed nearly everyone in my office, lol!

And here's a picture of the rest of my haul. Jacey sent the pink & navy scraps, Kelly the nail polish, and Cherie and Michelle coordinated on embroidery items! Cherie got me a book that I absolutely love! I'd never seen it before, but it's filled with the sweetest patterns for all manner of critters, holidays, and day-to-day items. Michelle rounded out the fun by sending me tons of new needles and thread, which I desperately needed because my local store has a crappy selection of colors, plus all my needles are older than dirt and getting blunt.

And what are those other mystery items, you ask? Well my crazy other half in Canada, Kristie, put together a hilarious gag box filled with candy and irreverent humor. That journal is a scream (I censored it lest innocent eyes be offended), but I doubt Ray will let me out in public with it, because knowing me I'll make some kind of accidental scene by dropping it in church right in front of our pastor or some sweet white-haired grandma. But jealous journals aside, wanna hear something else that's hilarious? After I opened up that journal, moose pencil, and umbrella hat (which, according to Kristie, is to help shade my face from the scorching New Orleans sun), I found the pouch pictured below. After reading the note, feeling the shape of the contents, and taking into account the nature of the package (and Kristie)...hand to God...I thought she'd stuffed a bunch of condoms in there. I laughed for a good 2-3 minutes before I was even able to open the darn thing. 

...only to shake out the contents and realize I was the pervy one who thought a bunch of innocent square needle holders were condoms. My bad...guess I've been living in New Orleans for too long, lol ;)

I heart you my dear, dear friends. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and friendship :) And a big friendly squeeze as well to all my lovely readers - thanks for caring, and for checking in on me each week...it means a lot and makes the crappy days easier to bear whenever they come along :)

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Bad News Bears

First off, I want to thank everyone for all the well wishes you sent my way after my last post. After a pretty crazy and sleep-deprived weekend, I was starting to feel a lot better the last day or so. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this afternoon, and I made a last-minute decision not to cancel just in case my issue was something other than a pinched nerve. Well, I'm seriously glad I went in, because it turns out I have a herniated disk in my neck. Which means I get to wear a stylish neck brace for a while, eat a few packs of steriods, and give up sewing for about 6 weeks. Yeah, you read that last part right. It looks like things will be pretty quiet around here for the next month or two :(

I don't mind the neck brace or the steriods, because the brace reminds me of an Ernest character called Auntie Nelda, which makes me giggle...

But the no-sewing-for-6-weeks thing is a real bummer. And Ray's instituted marshall law. I went to go get something out of my sewing room, and he'd actually locked the door on me! That varmint. I can't say I blame him though, because I'm a bit of a pistol and stubborn as a mule - after 6 years of marriage, he's sure got my number ;)

But back to the giggling, because that part is more fun. Ever since I saw this V-neck sweater in Purl Soho's latest email blast, I can't stop laughing to myself.

Why? Well, because all I could think about after I saw it was this HILARIOUS Saturday Night Live skit featuring Ben Stiller and Andy Sanberg. Seriously...you need to watch it!

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Un-Adulterated Pity Party

Warning: be prepared for no small amount of whining. It's 3:00 in the morning, and I'm up on the sofa ready to start crying like a small disturbed child...again (the first breakdown was at 10pm). I have a pinched nerve in my neck/back again (this happened to me previously in the fall), except that it's waaaay worse this time. I'm no pansy, but this is seriously the most pain I've ever been in. No position is comfortable, my left arm is constantly half-numb (I'm typing with one hand right now), and even worse, I don't think I'll be able to get in to see a doctor any time soon, so I'm probably going to have to ride it out with no pain meds or muscle relaxers because I refuse to go to the Emergency Room and fork over a $200 copay. We recently switched over to Ray's health insurance from mine, and since the gym he works for is owned by a hospital, we have to change primary physicians to one within the hospital network because they only pay for in-network benefits. So yeah, wish me luck trying to get an appointment as a new patient, on the very day I'm calling. Before the weekend is over, I may convince Ray to club me over the head like a caveman so I can be unconscious until this is all over, lol!

To add insult to injury, I had the flu earlier this week, so the only bright spots of my week have been some seriously awesome packages I've received from friends. Kristie sent me a lovely winter package full of my favorite things - cookies, scottie dogs, and witty crafts :)

And there's no real reason for the following picture, but I'm in a lot of pain and wanted to look at something cute. Whiskers has taken to perching on top of the sofa cushions like a cat...because apparently it's not good enough to sit on a pile of quilts on the sofa cushions like a normal person. Life is hard. And yes, that is a giant pile of clothes he's laying on. Ray likes to use the corner of our sectional as a laundry basket. And in case you were wondering, those are Iron Man pajama pants you see. After 6 years, I've learned that married life is about picking your battles, and this is one I gave up a long time ago in favor of more important things, lol ;) Besides, it was 2 against one because Whiskers voted for the clothes to stay since he likes using them as a pillow.

And now back to awesome packages....

Got these in the mail from my friend Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics today...yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. It's 3 am.

Yum! I could eat these Ruby Sundae Stripes with a spoon!

And these are a few little ditties that tripped and fell into my Etsy shopping basket like that cruise ship captain...

Looking at these little trims makes me so happy *sigh*

And that's not all! Here in the Telschow family, we don't mess around when it comes to interfacing. I always wait to buy it until Joann puts it on sale for 50% off, because then I can get an additional 10% off with my VIP Card. I scored an entire 20 yd bolt of my favorite interfacing for $29 (including tax)...which breaks down to $1.45/yard.

So wish me luck on the shoulder this weekend (and feel free to mail me any controlled substances you have lying around, lol!) In a moment of pure weakness, I almost took some pain pills I found in the medicine cabinet leftover from Ray's wisdom tooth extraction back in 2008!!! My better judgement kicked in before I did anything rash though...

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Featured Follower Friday

Hey everyone! I had the pleasure of meeting Anne Marie at the Sewing Summit this past October when she helped out with the Fat Quarter Swap, and she's every bit as nice as she seems on her blog! (she's the one with the gray stripe shirt and adorable baby bump)

She asked me to answer a few questions for her Featured Follower Friday series, so skip on over Gen X Quilters to check it out :)

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A Griswold Family Christmas

The holiday weekend got off to a rough start for me. After experiencing a situation eerily similar to this, the Griswold Christmas Vacation continued when I was up in the attic and accidentally put my foot through the bathroom ceiling. The whole family was over for Christmas Eve and we were short a stocking, so I went up in the attic to grab one. I didn't bother to turn on the light because I knew the location of the box I needed, and while stumbling around in the dark, my idiot self thought there was a board over one section (where there obviously wasn't, lol!) and I stomped right through the ceiling. I let out a yell, and when Ray and his brother came running, my size 11 foot and part of my calf were dangling through the bathroom ceiling. Aside from a small bruise on my knee (and ego), I was completely fine, and we all got a pretty good laugh out of it! ;)

The good news is, it's not as big a deal for us as it would be for most, because my father-in-law and brother-in-law both work at the family roofing & drywall business, so fixing it should be quick & painless :)

The hubs and I are currently laying on the sofa watching mindless reality TV (Ice Road Truckers - woot woot!), so here's a quick Telschow 2011 Christmas in review...

These are the handmade gifts I mailed to my family in Kentucky. The Echino bag & Strawberry clutch were for my sister, the houndstooth bag for my mom, the box pouch sets for my aunts, and the coffee coozies for my mom and dad.

This is a plaid yoga mat carrier I designed for my dad. It wraps around and velcros in place. I didn't know the circumference of his mat, so I made the velcro strips pretty long to allow for adjustment. The inside is flannel to keep the mat from sliding around.

Another Sidewalk Satchel for my future sister-in-law. The purple Keyka Lou clutch was also for her, and the Amy Butler one was for my cousin.

Puppy Adventures...

Human Adventures...

 Zoolander.

 Blue Steel.

 I made homemade cinnamon buns - yum!

My mother-in-law drinking eggnog out of a gravy boat. Long story, but my husband's usual shenanigans are to blame ;)

My new cutting mat wouldn't lay flat, so naturally the logical solution was to lay on it (rather than re-rolling it in the opposite direction)

We're a crazy & colorful bunch, but we always manage to have a good time ;) 

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas with your loved ones (and Santa brought you all the quilting supplies on your list!)

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