Big News.

So I'm pretty excited to publicly share some big news about a project the Momcat and I have been working on.

We're publishing a book with the American Quilter's Society! 

We submitted a proposal for a book about making containers out of fabric using our nifty English Paper Piecing technique. And they accepted it for publication! Woohoo! Our manuscript is due in November, and we're hoping the book will be published in Spring 2014. 

I wrote a longer post on our new website www.prairiesewnstudios.com. We're (well, mostly me!) a bit nervous and anxious about this adventure, so any support or comments on the new website would be much MUCH appreciated! 

Off to keep writing and sewing! 

Lions, and tigers and... flamingos!

I'm digging this whole relax and vacation thing so far. Especially now that I've stopped waking up at 5:45 and have managed to catch up on some sleep instead! In addition to working on projects, the parentals and I have tried to head out for an adventure each day.

Saturdays adventure...the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo!

Omaha actually has an AMAZING zoo, complete with a jungle, desert dome, butterfly house, aquarium and of course the most important aspect of a zoo-flamingos! We had a zoo membership growing up and I remember going there often as a child. Now that us kiddos are out of the house, the Momcat and Daddo decided to join again so they could go for a few hours every once in a while and not feel like they had to do the whole zoo in one day.

I was slightly worried about the field trip since Omaha recently tore down the old Rosenblatt baseball stadium, building a new stadium downtown and making the old stadium and its parking lots into additional parking for the zoo. The zoo parking was desperately needed, but I'm not a huge fan of tearing down childhood memories. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd made a little park with some of the old seats, bases and pitchers mound in the middle of the parking lot. They also left up the vertical foul ball markers and marked where the bases originally stood. Gold star, Omaha.

We didn't hit everything, but I think we saw everything we really wanted to see. Or in some cases, ate everything we really wanted to eat. 

Snow Cone of Deliciousness! 

Butterflies in the new (to me) butterfly house.

Daddo and the Momcat. 

Mr. Crab

 And last, but not least, the most important animal at the zoo...

Flamingos!

Work is over, Vacation has begun!

Wednesday was my last official day at Notre Dame. I keep waiting for it to feel real that I've moved on and don't work there anymore. The facts that yesterday was a holiday, my part of the office is closed today and that I'm going back in on the 16th for the official goodbye party probably aren't making this any easier. I hope it kicks in soon, because for right now...

I'm on VACATION!  (or, as Daddo put it "now you're unemployed!" Thanks, Daddo).

CatCat, Friday and I spent nine hours cozied together in Fluffy the Scion xB yesterday driving to the parent's house in Omaha. We'll hang out here for the next week before I head off to the next adventure and they remain here for a vacation from stress of moving across the country and selling a house. I somehow feel like the cats have gotten the better end of the deal here...

I'm actually going to be pretty busy here working on things with the Momcat (more on this VERY exciting news next week!) and learning how to parallel park from Daddo. The N-boy is alarmed that we didn't have to learn this in driver's ed, especially since it does seem to be a required skill for living in San Francisco. What can I say? Nebraska seems to have PLENTY of space so parallel parking is rarely a necessary talent. Given that Daddo recalls his New York City days saying that "parallel parking is an art form," I'm really quite surprised he didn't teach me when he taught me to drive. I'm sure it will be fine. I learned how to drive on a manual, and today demonstrated my driving prowess by successfully negotiating back onto the interstate, in a manual while eating an ice cream cone and ignoring two very grumpy cats. (A feat that did not seem to impress the N-boy when I told him about it.) Surely parallel parking is easier that that.

Basically this next week promises to be...

Baby niece baby quilt.

I'm excited to finally share the baby quilt that I made for my niece, the first baby in the family. I actually gave it to her (well to her parents really since she's only 10 months) at Halloween, but didn't get a chance to share the pictures until now. 

I started the quilt just over a year ago when I went back to Omaha to visit the parentals. The Momcat should know by now that anytime I'm standing in her quilting space and start a sentence with "so I was thinking it might be fun to..." that some new project is about to launch. Just ask her about my brilliant idea to make wall hangings for my bridesmaids and a quilt for my new in-laws before my wedding. 

Momcat and I looked through her extensive collection of books and landed on a churn-dash in a straight setting with cornerstones. I'm proud (or somewhat terrified depending on how you look at it) to report that ALL of the fabric in this quilt comes from the Momcat's stash. I like to think I'm doing my part in helping her use fabric so she can buy more. You can thank me later, Daddo. 

I put the Momcat to work, and by the end of my short visit home we had the whole top pieced together, with just the border left to sew on. 

Each block had a fussy cut fairy in the middle of it, with more fairies appearing in the corner stones and in a corresponding print on the backing.

 I worked on the quilt off and on while the N-boy was in Russia. A couple of other projects (Prairie Sewn Companion) kept me busy and out of trouble during this time too. Finally after the N-boy came back and we settled into the Fall semester I set out to finish it in time for the Halloween party.

I'm SUPER proud of how it turned it. This was my first real-project attempt at free motion quilting and it was lots of fun to work on. Except for when my thread kept breaking. That was less fun.  But I"m  happy with it and I hope that niecy-niece loves it.

I did a swirly-loopy-vine in the sashin and pebbling in the cream and gold rectangles in the center. I also did stitch in the ditch to stabilize the whole thing before I started. In the borders I did a simple meander. I got a TON of help and inspiration from the materials on Leah Day's blog. She's an amazing quilter and her videos and blog posts made me positive that I could do this.

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but the back print has fairies in the center with more of the sashing fabric framing it like a picture frame. I used the same pink for both the border and the binding.

 I'm actually looking forward to working on quilting more of the tops that are languishing in my closet now. The free motion quilting wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and it made me feel really good to get a project that was important to me out the door to its intended recipient.

Jealous.

The Momcat and Daddo flew out to visit BabyBrother today. He moved from Chicago to San Francisco in January for a new job. The new job part was pretty awesome but I miss having him just a train ride away in Chicago. I'm not sure what all they're doing during the visit (other than meeting BabyBrother's girlfriend(!!) who has already joined family Google+ Hangouts), but I'm sure it will be super fun. Pretty jealous I'm stuck at work and missing family adventure time.

BabyBrother and I at Christmas. Let's not ask why we were showing off our muscles. Or lack there of for some of us. 

Daddo, BabyBrother and the Momcat hiking in Colorado a few years ago. Without me. 

Have a good time, family, and take lots of pictures! 

Raised Vegetable Beds

In this third year of home ownership I decided to again try my hand at a vegetable garden. We planted a garden the first spring we were in the house, and I learned some very VERY important lessons about reading and believing the information printed on seed packets.

Lesson 1: If the seed packet says that the acorn squash seeds need to be 3-5 feet apart, it is serious. It is not an attempt to deceive you. Do not plant the seeds one foot apart.

Lesson 2: If you fail to follow lesson one, you cannot use tomato cages to corral fully grown squash plants. But your husband will get a kick out of watching you try.

Lesson 3: Gardens have to be weeded, not just watered. That same water you give to the plants is also a favorite drink of the weeds. Your husband will not get a kick out of coming home after a week away for research and discovering that you have adapted the mindset that if you ignore the weeds they will go away.

Last year because of some crazy uncertainness about what our plans were (moving or not) we didn't do a garden. But this year we decided to give it another go, this time with raised beds. Our house sits on the side of an old railroad embankment, so even though the trains and tracks are long gone, a lot of bricks, glass and other debris remain in the soil. My friend Bob helped me build the beds [this adventure, aka Laura's Adventure with Power Tools, will be elaborated on in a separate post], and then the MomCat volunteered herself to fill them with soil when she was here for an extended visit.

Daddo started the seeds and then sent the seedlings out with the MomCat. Here is how they looked when I planted them on May 14.

Note the tape measure. Yes. I really did measure. 

Daddo sent me a several types of each vegetable, so I buried the cups next to the plant so I'll know what's what. 

I'd like to raid Pinterest for cute little plant markers. Maybe this weekend. 

And here is how they look on June 11. I can't believe how much they've grown in less than a month! 

I've got broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. So far I've only lost one of the tomato plants, and he was sickly looking to begin with so it totally doesn't count.

What are you growing in your garden this year? Any tips for a successful garden?

American Quilter's Society-Day One!

The Momcat and I left South Bend bright and early this morning to head down to Paducah, KY for the American Quilter's Society Annual Quilt Show! This is our fourth time going down to this show, and I think we've FINALLY gotten this whole adventure down to an art form, leaving bright and early and stopping at the Outlet Mall for a few hours for mid-afternoon break. After driving a few more house and checking into our hotel, we headed into Paducah for our first stop at Hancock's of Paducah!

I'll take some pictures of the inside tomorrow (so you get the full idea of the craziness), but needless to say we found a few things! 

These are our happy "we love fabric!" faces. 

After our first shopping adventure we headed to Texas Road House for dinner. It's become one of our traditions to go here each year, and this was the best night in our schedule to do so.

One of my favorite things is how so many of the businesses welcome the quilters with special signs and banners! Yay for quilter love! Last year there was a lot of tension with the local community and the quilt show because of evacuating from the flooding, so I'm hoping we'll see more of a welcome this year.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where I photographed the damage for the day:

Mondays are for Muggles...or Moms!

Holy smokies that weekend was FAST. Luckily I only have one day of work this week before the Momcat and I head off to Paducah for the AQS show! [insert ridiculously happy and muppet like dance here]

This last week was highly unproductive, in part because I was super busy trying to catch up from being at a meeting last week, and in part because I just had other things to do. Like accompanying friends the Apple store, because clearly my supervision was required.

I did however:
-Work out two times
-Host book club on Monday night
-Have a good time at the craft fair on Saturday with the Momcat

-Feel like we're almost-kinda-sorta ready for our trip

Not bad for a busy week with lots going on.

This week I will:
-Have a great time with the Momcat!

Seriously, that's all I want us to do. Have fun, be safe, and buy lots of fabric! This show always reinvigorates our love for quilting and give us lots of new ideas. Our hotel has wifi, so I'm hoping to post as we go through the week this year with updates from our adventure.

Festive for Friday...Paducah Time!

This Friday is especially festive as the Momcat has now arrived for our fourth annual trip to Paducah, KY for the American Quilter's Society Quilt Show. She decided to drive out this year, so after unpacking the car we headed to Rocco's for pizza and beer!

Needless to say we're both SUPER excited! We have a busy weekend planned before we head down south next week, with a lot to get done here before we go!

On Saturday we're setting up a booth as Prairie Sewn Companion at the Great Cloth Diaper Change event at Concord Mall in Elkhart. Even though we don't have kids yet, the N-boy and I would really like to cloth diaper so I'm really looking forward to being a part of this event. And even more excited that I get to wear the new vendor apron that the Momcat and her friend Christina made! It's a little hard to see in the picture from Audrey the iphone, but Christina embroidered "Prairie Sewn Companion" on the top pocket! It's so festive!

3...2...1..Liftoff!

Houston....our Etsy site has liftoff!

We actually launched it officially a few weeks ago when the first listings went up, but now I've added a few more things and feel like it's possibly on its way to becoming an actual shop. It's also been fun to spend more time on Etsy exploring the site and looking at other people's shops. There are so many cool things to look at, that I'm pretty sure I could waste A LOT of time just browsing around.

The Momcat and I are super SUPER proud of the work we've put into this little adventure, and excited to see where it takes us. I think we're going to get to do a craft show after she arrives this week (for the grand Paducah Pilgrimage-more on that to come!) and I'm excited to have the chance to talk to people about Prairie Sewn Companion when she's actually there, instead of just describing our collaborative efforts to people.

So if you're reading this (which likely means you're related to us or I've cornered you in the office) take a minute to check out our Etsy site! Here are a few of my favorite things that we've posted.

The Momcat has been working super hard on drafting some new patterns, too, so I'm excited to see what she's come up with when she arrives TOMORROW!

Mondays are for Muggles

So...awesome weekend. I'm super proud of getting that PR for the 5k on Saturday. And for limiting myself to only one bowl of marshmellowy deliciousness this morning.

It's a BUSY week for me. Work is ramping up like crazy. We head to Paducah in just over a week. I still haven't finished the Challenge Quilt for this year. And I'm hoping to be doing another craft fair on Saturday at the Great Cloth Diaper Change at Concord Mall in Elkhart. The Momcat and I were contacted through the the Michiana Team we joined with our Etsy Shop, as they are looking for vendors who support a green lifestyle. Although most of what we've been focusing on is not baby related (although the Momcat is whipping up a few flannel baby items), fabric bowls, table runners, vases and napkins most definitely support a green lifestyle! So I'm sending in our information today and keeping my fingers crossed that it works out!

In the meantime, may I present the recap from last week and the goals for this week:

LAST week:
- Work out two times [completed 1/2]
- Run 5k on Saturday! Try and PR! [Rocked this.]
- Inventory and organize items from the craft fair [Major fail]
- Post three items on our Etsy Shop [And again a fail]
- Finish Bel Canto for book club [Done! Book club is tomorrow!]
- Three blog posts [Done here, here and here!]
- Two items of correspondence off my never ending and ever growing list [1/2]


THIS week: 
- Work out four times
- Submit materials for craft fair on Saturday
- Inventory and organize items from craft fair
- Three blog posts (including this one)
- Two items of correspondence
- Finish prepping for our Paducah trip!
- Host book club on Monday night


And I leave you with this festive image. I can't believe it's almost time for our trip again! Happy Monday everyone! 

Festive for Friday...What Quilters Do

I came across this somewhere out in the Blogosphere and thought it needed to be shared. These memes have been all the rage on Facebook, and you could probably find one for just about any category of people!

Also festive on the start of this lovely three day weekend, Prairie Sewn Companion (post on this to come soon!), the sewing and quilting company that the Momcat and I started this year are going to be at a craft show in Goshen, Indiana on Saturday. It should be lots of fun, so come by and check it out if you're in the area!

Finished for Friday: Chloe's Quilt

The parentals came to visit about a week ago and the Momcat and I finished up the Clothesline Quilt for baby Chloe! The pattern we used is by Elizabeth Hartman and can be found on blog Oh, Fransson! It's a supercute patten that uses 9 pieces of fabric to make nine-patches, which are formed into a nine-patch, which are then formed into an even bigger nine-patch which is the quilt!

For the quilting we used a squiggly stitch on the seams. This added a little bit more dimension to the front of the quilt.

Here's a shot of the back. It ended up being fairly heavily quilted; I'm happy we decided to skip some of the lines going one direction or I think it would have been too much.

The quilt was a present for my cousin and his wife (and for their baby girl, of course!) and they seemed to like it! The Momcat and I are also working on a quilt for their 3 year old with dinosaurs! It was a challenge to have the two of us work on a quilt when we're 10 hours apart, but it was fun too. And we got it done and out the door, so woohoo for that!

Be sure to check out what others have finished over at Lit and Laundry's blog!

Paducah Day 4 and Assessing the Damage

Saturday dawned with cloudy skies and the sad realization that today was our last day in Paducah.

We started the day out at Carson Park where we wanted to see Eleanor Burns' live show, and shop her store that they'd set up out there for the week.

First we snagged seats in the performance tent, and then we entered the wonderful land of the ....

A huge tent filled with nothing but fabric for $5 a yard. I mean, how could this be anything but wonderful and magnificent! I ended up with just a few yards of pieces that matched some thing I'd already picked up at Hancock's of Paducah. Because I clearly needed more still...

Then we wandered over the the third large tent where there were books and patterns and notions and...

Eleanor Burns herself taking pictures and signing books!

 

After the show and some more shopping, we headed back to Hancock's of Paducah for one last hurrah. 

I found this sign funny, as it shows how many WOMEN are at this show! 

With that, we braved the outdoors (it was still raining off and on-heavily at times) and went back to Fluffy the car for the long drive back to Indiana. Despite the rainy weather we made good time and were happy to get back to the cats. 

And the cats were happy their humans were home! (And no, their eyes are not that creepy in real life.)

Assessing the Damage, or 

Paducah: the Aftermath!

On Sunday we sorted through all of our goodies, got the Momcat's stuff packed up and ready to head back to Nebraska, and put my things away. 

It doesn't look that bad when it's all just lumped in a pile...

But when we spread it out we ended up with a table of fabric:

And a table of patterns and notions:

This is all of our stuff put together. But when I counted  things up, my fabric alone was 35 1/2 cut yards plus 5 charm packs and a jelly roll! I had more than the Momcat! We were sad to see the trip come to an end, but I think we have enough fabrics and ideas to keep us busy for a while!