Cody Loves the Beach

I love this picture of him! Absolutely Cody-licious!

The harness works great for him at the beach because he doesn't have anything tied around his neck and he can swim easier.

He really swam for the first time last weekend. Bruce was out in the water and he followed him right in. It's fun to see him porpoise his way out, then paddle away!

The water temperature is really warm right now for January. It usually chills off pretty good and we don't do much swimming in the winter, so we're really enjoying it.

Cody's Tiki Hut

This is Cody's new outdoor kennel. Bruce built it and it has a very nice wooden deck floor - and don't you just love the bamboo screening? I'm not a big fan of chain link, so I really like it. Even my niece, Kimber (who loves anything beachy), siad she'd like to move in!

Cody likes it too, and I think he really appreciates having a place he can get away from everyone once in awhile.

If you look carefully, you can see Cody peeking out.

Black and Whites

These are some of the black and whites I have - I'm looking for more of the same. Very subtle black-on-white prints, so you see more of the white/lighter value.

Calling All Readers - I Need Fabric Help!

I am gearing up to start work on my Lily of the Nile quilt, which is quite large. I've been collecting fabrics for it for a couple of months now, but I am coming up short on the black-and-whites I need for the background.

So, if any of you out there in Blog-land have a regular quarter or fat quarter of:

A black on white print, where the black print is very fine
and/or subtle so you see more white than black,
that is 100% good-quality cotton and would like to trade
for an equal amount of Bali batik fabric
(you name the color) I would be absolutely thrilled.

I seem to have enough of the dense black prints on white, but the fine black on whites are hard to find and I'd like to get a good variety.

We could even email pictures back and forth. I will post pictures of what I have this weekend.

As we say in Hawaii, MAHALO! (Thank you!)

Making Waves - Quilt Related

For Christmas this year, I made two of these for gifts. What is it? Well, I figured they could be used for mufflers (I sent one to my Aunt Kathy who lives in northern Indiana), because they have yummy polar fleece on the back (aloha print, no less!), but my mom thought it would make a great table runner too. How smart is that? You can have dinner, then whip it off the table, wrap it around your neck, and race off into the snow! Hee hee!

I pieced them using a technique that my friend, Nancy Meyer, showed me how to do a long time ago and one I use frequently in my quilts. I thought I'd show you here in case you'd like to try it yourself.

Step #1

You can see I've already started...but the basic idea is to take your Piece #1 of fabric (the one I've started will be #1) and lay it on your cutting mat. Lay the Piece #2 (the blue marble) on top, just slightly overlapping Piece #1 by about an inch or two, so you don't have much waste.

Take your rotary cutter and cut a gentle wavy line, taking care to stay within the 1-2" overlap of fabric.

Step #2

Hopefully, you can see here, as I pull up the trimmed off piece, the beginning of the wave.

Step #3

Voila!

Now take the two pieces, fold them right sides together and begin sewing the seam. Use a scant 1/4" seam allowance, and match the curves up gently, stitching about an inch or two at a time, then match up a little more, and stitch a little more.

Be careful and try not to stretch the fabric, just ease them together, bit by bit.

Press one direction or another. Do not press open.

This technique is great for water or sky backgrounds! I used it to create the sky background for my Kula Sunrise quilt.

Thanks, Nancy!

Cody the Giant

Now you can see how big Cody is getting!

He loves to sit on Bruce's lap (I'm sure the obedience trainer would frown on that!).

Puppy school starts tomorrow night...pictures coming soon!

Something Silly

Check out this link that I found on another blog this morning. You can make a fun street sign, or scroll down to the bottom and do church or warning labels. Silly fun!

Drawing Class

A little known fact about me: I LOVE office supplies. I love going to the office supply store for work or for home. Oh, the possibilities! All that paper, those pens, stickers, bins, post-its, colored pencils, inboxes, storage goodies, desks, files, WOW!

Even better than this was yesterday's trip to our teeny, tiny art supply store, the only "real" art supply store on Maui, the Golden Palette. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the owner carried everything I needed for my upcoming drawing class with Kit Gentry later this month at the Hui. As much as I love my island home, you can almost never find what you need, so this was great! I was especially relieved because I checked several art supply websites and each was out of stock on something I needed, so I wouldn't have been able to place just one order anyway (and shipping here is ALWAYS expensive).

I've been waiting to take this class for two years now...the time/offerings never worked out with my schedule. I've also never taken an "art" class, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The Granddog

More Cody pictures for the grandparents! I promise to post more quilting stuff soon.

Cody loves to ride in the truck, though he's not allowed in my lap when I'm driving!

He also loves the sand at the beach; so much in fact, that he eats it too. I wish he'd confine his digging to the beach. Our yard looks like a mine field.

He's learning to like the water and will be a swimmer in no time. We haven't been in the water much because it's been pretty rough. As soon as things calm down a bit I'm sure he'll follow.

Puppy school starts soon!

The Way of Four

I want to play, too, so I'm not waiting to be "tagged."

Four Jobs I've Had
Domino's Pizza Delivery Girl (for one day!)
Newspaper customer service agent (UGH!)
Quilt shop owner, teacher, long arm quilter (all one job!)
Incentive program planner

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over
Pretty Woman
Gone with the Wind
Bruce Almighty
Pale Rider

Four Places You've Lived
Laguna Beach, California
Anaheim, California
Chino, California
Buena Park, California

Four Favorite TV Shows
CSI (the original Las Vegas version)
Survivor (all episodes and locations)
House, M.D.
Any Food Network show

Four Places I've Been on Vacation
(Some people think I'm on permanent vacation since I live in Hawaii, but its not true!)
Maui, Hawaii
Kauai, Hawaii
Laughlin & Las Vegas, Nevada (with a little Bullhead City, Arizona on the side)
Bourbon/Plymouth, Indiana

Four Websites I Visit Every Day (or most frequently)
google
quilt-antics blog and various other QA ring blogs
thehawaiichannel.com
Hawaii Public Library website

Four Favorite Foods
Cabernet, Zinfandel, Viognier & Chardonnay

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
Spending outdoor time with Bruce and Cody
In whatever space I can eek out to create and quilt
Papeete, Tahiti
Napa or Sonoma

Four Albums I Can't Live Without
Supernatural, Santana
The Long Run, Eagles
Legend, Bob Marley
Greatest Hits, Alice in Chains

Just Me