Friday, April 15, 2016

I'm Too Lazy for Hexagons

I've always wanted a hexagon quilt, but I'm way to lazy to make one. There's just no way I am going to be piece one by hand and it's not much easier to piece one by machine. So when mom bought me an unfinished quilt top for Christmas this year, I was super excited. That means someone else pieced this beauty by hand and did a really lovely job.

I decided to quilt it with a pair of vintage sheets I collected. I had this whole elaborate way I wanted to experiment with free motion quilting techniques, but in the end, I felt simple was best.

Rupert apparently doesn't care whether the quilt is finished or not.

He snuggles one way or the other.

I was pretty freaking excited about this polka dot binding I made.

I made it bias binding because inside corners are tricky.

Here's the finished quilt!

So many beautiful fabrics. Especially this one with the creepy baby with blue zombie lips.

Look how pretty this quilt looks in my little quilt cubby in the livingroom.

Room for one more...

We're Produce

California, Cobbs, Family Friends, North America, Travel No comments

My mom came to visit!

We went to the Golden Gate bridge. It was really windy.

There was also this one sunny day.

But seriously, there was only one. It was rainy the whole rest of the time.

But we made the best of it with things like garlic ice cream in Gilroy (garlic capital of the world.)

We also did weird stuff in stores.

You know, because it was raining outside.

Also, we were produce. This is my favorite photo from the trip. Because produce.

Two Minutes and Thirty-Four Seconds

California, San Jose No comments

We went to the Tet Festival, a Vietnamese cultural festival in San Jose.

There was this amazing (I mean *amazing*!) dragon dancing.

But, truly, the most incredible thing that happened while we were there was that I somehow managed to convince Eddy that it would be a great idea to sign up for a banh mi eating contest.

He was a little nervous.

Because just look at the competition.

I couldn't even fit the whole table into a single picture. Just a little bit nervous.

The competitors had to put their hands behind their heads before the eating contest began.

Then they had to shove a whole sandwich plus a whole bottle of water in their mouth as fast as they possibly could.

It was not pretty to watch.

Guess what. He won! Second place, but just by a hair. I mean, almost first place!

He got a sack full of prizes.

He totally ate an entire banh mi and a bottle of water in 2 minutes and 34 seconds. It was one of the proudest moments of my life!

Afterwards I also ate a banh mi.

But over the course of more like 10 minutes or so.

The Two Month Afternoon Project

Renovation, San Jose House No comments

So we did some work on the front yard landscaping. But then there was the little matter of the hose. I saw this project on Pinterest that was all "just takes an afternoon" or whatever and I figured we could tack that onto our yard project.

But then we spent all weekend working on the yard and the hose holder just didn't get done.

Then one sunny afternoon, I decided to get started, but low and behold, our jigsaw was cutting all sideways.

After a few tries, I got some cuts I could use.

And I painted it white.

Aaaaaaannnnnddddd I added that bunny. I spray painted the hose holder white and installed it.

Here's the final product.

The pictures aren't great since I finished it just before the rain came, but I am glad that after two months I finally finished this easy afternoon project.

Cookies and Cakes

DIY, Family Friends, Ozark, Pals, Quilting No comments

My friend Rachael bakes the best cookies. She sent some to us one day and they are simply the most gorgeous and scrumptious decorated sugar cookies that have ever existed.

Just look at all those cute, yummy bunnies! When I tasted these cookies I immediately thought of my mom, who loves sugar cookies. This year for Christmas, Rachael was kind enough to send a beautiful batch of sugar cookies to my mom.

The cookies were such a hit that I wanted to send her a special thank you. Rachael loves baking and decorating cakes, so I thought this cake pattern from Bee in My Bonnet would be perfect. I cut the pieces awhile ago when my sewing machine was in the shop.