Love Thy Neighbor

I think I'm a bit of an introvert, as most sewists out there tend to be.  Just give me my machine and fabric and I'm happy for hours.  But there's something about getting together with friends, old and new, that just really fuels me. 

I think that's why I love shows like Friends - people just enjoying one another and mutual commraderie.  The laughs, the tears... God created us to be with others, not isolated in sewing bunkers. 

So as summer is winding down I feel like there's a few things we just haven't done enough of.  One of them is entertaining.  We used to have people over at least monthly but excuses, excuses... we just haven't been as frequent lately. 

Until now!  I organized a Progressive Dinner Party with three other neighbors/couples and it was GREAT!  It's been almost a week now and I'm still riding this wave of excitement.  It was like living in sitcom land where the food was great, the laughs were abundant, and everyone just really enjoyed one another. 

 We had drinks and appetizers.  Yes!  I fretted a while about what to serve, how to serve it, etc.  I asked for suggestions on Facebook the night before and got some great responses.  I finally decided to go with Baked Brie. 

 It was super easy.  And looked super awesome.  Well I made two of them and the one at the bottom here on the blue cake stand did not look as awesome but it tasted great!  Again, very easy recipe.  Check out the link.

So the night continued with much success and I must say I loved it.  We ended up next door around the fire eating peach cobbler.  A fantastic night all around.  If I may urge you to organize something as well, you will not regret it.  And do so while it's still nice out so you can entertain outdoors and not have to clean the house.  wink, wink. 

I currently have two commissioned quilts going.  One is consisting of the above colors.  Holy Vibrance, Batman!  I'm so excited to be working with such electric colors.  The client must have a very exuberant personality because not many people go this bold for a baby.  I can not wait to see the finished product.  The fabric should arrive any day now.  I can barely wait to get started!

 Back to people... here is my husband's aunt from Italy.   We have had such a lovely time visiting with her and her husband.  Oh how I wish I could speak with them.  My Italian is limited to yes, thank you, and shoes.  Not really conversational, per se.   But we would take walks around my father-in-laws gardens, peach trees, and sit at the table fussing over the baby together.  At least I think that's what we were gesturing about....

I hope she knows how much we love her even though I could only tell her she had on shoes. 

Back to sewing... my other current commissioned quilt is for a little girl who has been adopted from China.  Her family here wanted to make her a "good luck quilt".  So the client sent 100 squares from various family members consisting of different novelty-type fabrics.  Lots of ladybugs, butterflies, etc.  This is only a portion of it as it will be much bigger than my little design wall can hold at one time.  I try to make the larger quilts in sections and then stitch them together.  I LOVE when the quilts have a story.  Getting to know my clients through fabric and the history and how it came to be is really the best part of this little gig. 

And now I must start sewing these squares together.  Nap time is coming to an end and I need to have a little more to show for it!  ;)

Frog Tape Winner

YAY KATE! 

 The winner of the Frog Tape Giveaway is Kate!  Thanks to all who entered. 

 In other news, I dress my baby in the same shade of aqua as my walls.  (Windswept)  I think I find this more humorous than said baby. 

 Seriously cute.  I love this boy. 

My husband has some family in from Milan, Italy.  In typical Italian fashion I had less than 24 hours notice of their arrival to our house.  Nice.  I will admit it caused a teensy bit of marital stress, but thankfully I was able to pull together a good-looking table for them.  Prosciutto, golden honeydew (way better than the regular, BTW), parmesano reggiano, salami, 53 other kinds of cheese, Italian Meatloaf, and some red wine.  Bellisimo!

 The summer is winding down and honestly I am quite thrilled.  Don't get me wrong, summer is always nice but for real... I hate watering flowers every single day.  (They barely made it to July 4th this year.)  And it's been so hot that being outside has been uncomfortable.  Especially with a baby strapped to me. 

So now that it's not 300 degrees outside we've been doing everything on our trusty picnic blanket.  This particular day we did scratch art.  I always thought you had to put black paint on top of the crayon-ed paper but this lovely blog post said nope!  Put black crayon on top of the colorful crayon.  Okey dokey!
We did and it worked!  And since we were outside, the girls used twigs on the ground as the scratching devices.  Very cool.  I love sharing art projects with them that I remember doing as a kid.  I remember doing my first scratch art thinking it was so magical. 

Our little homeschool will start soon and I am loving the build-up to it.  The planning, the book buying and lending, the new materials here and there....  Such anticipation for all of us as we explore these unchartered waters.  Sewing has been a great resource already as we've used it for measuring, counting, adding, and of course fine motor skills. 

Isabella is making a pillow for a penpal and although we're about a month past the penpal's birthday she has done most of it by herself.  I am super excited to have her finish it up and hope that she will be encouraged to make more things for others.  That will be a blog post for sure!

Enjoy these last summer days.  Hopefully your flowers have fared better than mine.

A Frog Tape Giveaway!

YAY!  I've written about my new love for Frog Tape and guess what... I can now share my love with you!  The fabulous people at Frog Tape have generously donated two rolls of their super sticky tape, gift bag, and an awesome-possum T-Shirt! 

So whether you are about to baste some quilts or paint the town green, you can try Frog Tape for free and love it like me.

Dude, it's like $8 a roll.  This is major.

The frog rocks my basting world.

In other news, Mipsa made a ZIG ZAG quilt!

Isn't is gorgeous?  Here she is - my house, her quilt, my baby, her, my dog.  Try to keep up.
 

To win the Frog Tape giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite summer memory from this year.  Mine is watching the girls swimming in the pool for the first time.  Half freaking out and half really excited for them.  No picture of it - that's where the freaking out comes into play.

Anyway, leave a comment and I'll pull a random winner this weekend-ish. 

Edited to add: If'n blogger isn't allowing you to comment on here, head on over to The Facebook and comment there.  Thanks!