Currently Obsessed With: Quilting

As busy as things are I always find time to daydream about more stuff I could be doing. And quite honestly if I spent a little less time daydreaming about it and more time DOING stuff then maybe it would happen.

My current sewing project is another t-shirt quilt for my friend. She gave me all the shirts MONTHS ago and I have only made significant progress on it in the last week or so. (Pictures to come when completed). Partially I have problems organizing my craft time but then I also feel like I shouldn't start new projects when I have some in the works.

Thankfully my latest craft obsession is quilting and I hope that this will motivate me to get this quilt done and to start some new fun projects at the same time.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I visited my Grandmother Marilyn. Her town was hosting it's little 'festival days' and one of the events was a quilt show and 'bed turning'. I had been to the quilt show years ago and decided it was time that I went again. My Grandma, Aunt, Mom, and I piled into the car and drove the mile or so into town. The quilt show was probably small by most standards but the wide variety of quilts was quite stunning.

The bed turning was the coolest part. They had a bed layered with 30 or so quilts on top and then at certain times during the day you could grab a seat and one at a time the ladies would hold up a quilt and tell the story behind it. They had quilts from all eras and it was great to see the history of the area sewn with love into these quilts. My Grandma Marilyn had actually worked on several of the quilts there. The biggest surprise was a community quilt that was about 50 years old.

Each square was hand embroidered by a member of the group and then it was all stitched together. Some of the ladies who worked on the quilt were in the audience.

One square caught our family's eye.

This square was made by my Great-Grandma Anna Dempster! Anna is my middle name (named for her of course!) and it was such a lovely way to witness crafting through the generations.

After this trip I have become obsessed with quilting. I went to the library and got a lot of books on the subject (when in doubt-go to the library) and I have been pouring over new found quilt blogs and posts all over the internet. I found Wild Olive's post to hit really close to home (and she includes some excellent links) and I also loved the Etsy's Blog post on the Aids Quilt. So inspiring! I have a hundred ideas for projects running through my head now but hopefully I will now have the motivation to finish that quilt I have started and then to start sharing some of my zany ideas.

Happy Stitching!

St. John's Block Party

A summer would not be complete without the St. John's Block Party. It is by far the best local music festival in town and it gets better every year! This year they cut it down to one day but that did not mean that they skimped! The bands that played this year included: Pink Mink, Six Mile Grove, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles, Martin Zellar, Solid Gold, and Ok Go.

All the bands were good (I have a girl crush on the lead singer from Pink Mink now!) but Solid Gold and Ok Go stole the  show! I have been obsessed with Solid Gold for a good while now. They played St. John's two years ago and it was mind blowingly good. They did not disappoint this year!

My blurry pictures do not do them justice. They are ALL super attractive. That also wins them points ; )


I had never seen Ok Go before this concert. I had of course heard some of their more popular songs that got radio play and had seen some of their videos but nothing prepared me for how good they were! Not that I was expecting them to be bad, but I did not expect them to become one of my new favorite bands. They also quickly shot up into my Top 5 concerts of All Time list. They sounded amazing live- which is kind of the point if you are going to play music for a living right? I might go so far as to say that I liked them better live than their recordings. The singer's voice is just so good. I kind of felt like he was singing to my soul. Then the played a song on handbells. HANDBELLS! I think I swooned.

Did I mention that they love confetti almost as much as I do?! Any band who uses a confetti cannon AT ALL during a show is in my good book, but they used it a ton! It was so hot out that confetti just kind of stuck to everyone. It was magical.

Since the concert I have been officially obsessed. I watched every music video I could find and I am quickly working on gathering their music into my own itunes library.  I am really in love with their creativity. I am adding 'work on an OK Go music video' to my bucket list.


Any other good outdoor concerts happening?

Tragedy

I had planned to post a mini review of the new Batman film today but the tragedy in Colorado is weighing on my mind. I am so sad for the families. My thoughts are with them.

Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom finally started playing in my town! It was so lovely and sweet and filled with Wes Anderson goodness.

Right now I am obsessed with the needle point project from the film. Wouldn't a handmade version make a great gift?

So much love.

Poison Ivy Cupcakes

Even though the weather has been sweltering lately I have been doing more baking than I have in a long time! My fishing themed cupcakes for my friend's bridal shower turned out cute...but I forgot my camera so I am waiting for my other friend to upload her pics from her camera (which she is notoriously slow at : ).

This week though one of my derby gals was in need of some cupcakes to go with her Poison Ivy costume. I jumped on that task! I knew what I wanted them to look like in my head and I think they turned out rather well. Nice bright red and green (it looked like Christmas threw up in my kitchen because I am a messy decorator!) in two flavors: Red Velvet and white. I threw in some green into the white batter to continue the theme.

All boxed up and ready to go! She really liked them but I am still waiting to hear if they were a hit at her event!

It might not have been one of the better Batman movies (understatement of the year) but I really loved Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. She totally rocked it and looked like she was having an absolute blast!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day! Hope you are not melting from the heat. And stay safe!

 

You know what looks not safe? This vintage postcard of a BABY with a FIRECRACKER. Sheesh.