Begrudgingly Back to Blogging after Bonaire

My sewing machine was in the shop for weeks. I was out of the country and underwater for a over a week. Boyfriend is working 16 hour shifts. With 3 days notice, I took over teaching summer classes, mid-semester.

...These are all moderately legitimate excuses for my lack of blogging enthusiasm. But the truth is: I should be blogging because the only thing actually in my brain is "It's summer and I don't wanna!" Here we go.

Since my sewing machine really was in the shop for weeks, we begin with hand sewing. This is for Mug Rug Revival.




Then I really was out of town and underwater for over a week. Before we left, one of our three hens laid an egg!


Oh gosh, I love Bonaire! This is the view from the dock. Do you see where the water gets darker just past the boats? That's the coral reef! It goes down to about 150'!!!


Oh, and there are wild iguanas everywhere.


If you want to see underwater footage, here is a video Eliott (one of my friends/dive buddies/roomies in Bonaire) compiled with the best of his GoPro footage from the week. The boyfriend and I were the lighting technicians for the octopus footage! This video also has footage of my favorite fish ever, the honeycomb cowfish. It changes color!


If you don't want to watch all of that, and/or want to see more octopus footage and also a slipper lobster (that I spotted!) that didn't make it into that first video, check this one out.


The chickens seemed pretty happy that we were back stateside.


So much so that they even helped me with some hand sewing.


Especially Eglentine. She was all about it and hopped up in my lap in an attempt to help tackle dog-ears.


Then they just wanted to sneak inside and/or wander away.


Oh! Our tomato plants are kicking ass! Clockwise from top left, Red Phoenix, Juliet, Sweet 100, Black Cherry.


Then I made some taco salads to deal with the random leftovers that I found in the fridge upon arrival. All of the tomatoes went into this.


Now that the boyfriend is working 16 hour days, I'm trying to keep him eating well. Dang engineers. Left to his own devices he would live on ramen and cheese. Luckily the pork tenderloin, Greek potatoes, and roasted veggies convinced him to eat real food.

More Cooking than Sewing

Being mid-move is throwing me for a loop. It seems like nothing is ever where I need it to be (especially my sewing stuff!), so I have not been doing much sewing. There has been no progress made on the kaleidoscope quilt or the mug rug for Mug Rug Revival. I did finish one more 3" half hexagon pinwheel, bringing the grand total up to 23!


A while back I used this pattern and followed the sizing to make this potholder for my mom.


She absolutely loves it. Well, my whole family is fanatical about the "What Does the Fox Say" video. My mom and I even have matching mother/daughter shirts. Oh, you haven't seen the video? Here it is:

Anyways, I made her the potholder and she loved it... too much. She refuses to use it because it is too cute. She even took it to her church group's bake sale to show off but didn't use it! This is frustrating because I make things to be used! So I am making her a slightly bigger version as a wall hanging so she can use the stinking potholder. I printed the pattern to fit on legal instead of letter paper, so it is coming to about 10.5" across (25% increase).


I decided to put some wonky stars around the 4 corners to increase the size just a bit more. These stars finished at 3" across, so they were teeny tiny.


Over the weekend I led the annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving event for the dive shop I work at on the side. We had a great turnout but horrible conditions. The water looked like chocolate milk, there was a ripping current and it was so choppy that holding on to your pumpkin was tough. Here I am all suited up to go in (GoPro and all!).

Here is a picture of everyone who came out and all of the pumpkins. Only 4 people were able to successfully carve their pumpkins.

Here is my boyfriend with his amazing first place winning pumpkin! He won three nights at a resort in Cozumel (so I'm a winner too!)!

Anyways, speaking of my boyfriend and I, we are adapting really well to the giant [to us] kitchen at the new house! We did a crazy amount of cooking this weekend. First up, we have some super tasty Chorizo and Sweet Potato chili. It came out ridiculously tasty. The recipe can be found here. We added an extra can of black beans, and would both have liked maybe a little more seasoning, but aren't sure what. Don't get me wrong though, it was super tasty! We had enough leftover for 3 quart sized bags to be frozen. Yay quick meals later!
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We also made some baked corn dogs and loosely followed this recipe. The main changes we made were: regular flour (because that's what we had), half cayenne half paprika (I hate heat and it was totally okay), and all beef hot dogs. I still had some black sesame seeds from Japan, so we absolutely used those. Mmm, these came out so delicious. My favorite part of any corn dog is the breading and I rolled the breading out pretty thick on these puppies. Om nom nom.


We even made some salmon patties. The recipe is something he and I Frankensteined out of another recipe. I could be convinced to share it if there is interest. They are so ridiculously tasty. ...Now I'm just showing off ;)

Calm Before the Storm

I am in that awkward time of year again: The calm before the storm. I start back up as a full-time adjunct college professor in the beginning of September and until then am relishing my time with only one job. Of course by relishing my time I mean sewing my butt of!

Plus, the power steering on my car went out, came back, went out again, and came back again so I am trying to not go anywhere that isn't a requirement (Can't I just stay home and sew instead of going to work? My car is quasi-broken!) which leaves me with a lot of time at home to sew.

I have been working on another purse except this one is for my upcoming trip to Ireland!

Sadly I selected directional fabric and because of the pieces that fold over, some of my trees are coming out upside down. This is ridiculously frustrating to me, so I didn't even take a picture and will probably never finish the bag in this fabric.

But wait! There was happy progress also! I finally decided to sit down and force myself to try more FMQ. I am still too scared to try anything too big, and had only done a teensy bit on a mini-quilt, so I decided to make a potholder. For all of you Billy Madison fans out there, I made the fox blue because I'd never seen a blue fox and I wanted to see one.

Here are a couple of close-ups that show the FMQ.

I used linen for her tail and cheeks and opted to leave these un-quilted so she would look extra poofy and adorable! My mom called dibs on the little fox potholder before she was even done.

I also started messing around with stuff for Mug Rug Revival. Not sure if this will be what I go with, and I can't say much about my partner's wishes to get advice, but this is what I have come up with so far. I was going to start doing some FMQ on it, but the needle on my sewing machine broke and shot at my eye! Scary!

I also finished up the puppy dog quit.  It is a sample for my local quilt shop. I have no idea what to do with it when it come back to me.

Here is a close-up of the quilting, done by Kenneth Butler.

The reason I wasn't able to get a TON of sewing done this weekend was that it was a scuba weekend. The shop I work at had a trip to Reveille Peak Ranch, about 4 hours away. I was actually leading this trip which meant more talking than diving for me. We had almost 20' visibility which is amazing for a murky Texas lake!

The lake is actually an old granite quarry, so the water sparkles!

We even took the dogs! Of course they spend most of the weekend asleep under a tree, but they did both get swimming lessons!

Right now I am a little in-between projects. Mostly I need to come up with a hand sewing project to take to Ireland. The tricky bit is that it needs to be small since I am limiting myself to just a backpack. But for now, I am leaving y'all with a preview of the 2013 Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop fabric. This is the panel that will be available. It is all postage stamps with the major cites! Ack! Can't wait until September to buy it!

Vive Caribe!

I have been taking an unscheduled hiatus from blogging, and I'm not sure why. Thanks to summer, I am no longer working 50-60 hours a week, so I can't blame work. I have been doing a lot of sewing (I started making samples for a LQS), so that could be it. Unfortunately I have completely forgotten to take pictures of what I have been making. Oh well.

This evening, my boyfriend and I (along with 20ish other people from job number two) are hopping on a plane and heading to Bonaire, in the Dutch Antilles, off the coast of Venezuela. Here is a handy, dandy map for reference:

Bonaire is my favorite place in the world for scuba diving! They have been super proactive with their reef conservation, and it shows. So much coral! So many fish! So much beauty! I have my GoPro packed, so hopefully I will be bringing back some spectacular photos and/or videos for y'all to see. :)

I have to be at the airport in 5 hours and I have no idea what sewing project to take with me! I didn't plan ahead! Ahhhh!!

As a preview, here are a few of my favorite pictures I took in Bonaire last year.

I saw this octopus on my first dive in Bonaire. It was incredible! This is my favorite picture I have EVER taken.

Here is a picture of a parrotfish. I love them because they always look like they are laughing, and I spent the whole week trying to capture a picture of it. This one was taken on the last day of diving, last summer.

Bonaire had a big feral donkey problem, and they are now in the process of rounding up as many as they can and keeping them at the Donkey Sanctuary. This is a little baby that was born at the sanctuary.

Hopefully I will come back with even better pictures this year! For now, I'm off to stare at my suitcase.

Rainbow Ahoy!

There really hasn't been too much sewing going on for me lately. Work is really getting in the way of my hobbies! I have been out of town for the past 2 weekends, thanks to job number 2 (scuba dive leader). I will also be out of town stuck in training for 8 hours a day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Definitely not looking forward to that. I will be drinking so much coffee.

Anyways, I finally assembled the Dresden plates into something useful. They are potholders! I kind of made them for Potholder Pass, but they definitely did not come out how I wanted them to, so I can share them without fear of my partner putting the pieces together. I believe the perfect home for these bad boys will be with my friends Heathur and Jake in Colorado.

Oh! Oh! When I was out scuba diving last weekend, we had 46 divers out with us. Since I was in charge of this diving event, I decided to make snacks. Apparently these are my typical diving snacks to bake. They are bacon cheddar scones and pecan sandies.

I am still trying to narrow down my 500+ GoPro photos into one manageable post of photos. Two of our divers even got engaged underwater and I filmed it!! How exciting!

I also finished the final block for 3x6 Quarter 1. I even managed to sneak away to the post office and get them mailed today! Score! This one is for Nicole.

Today I was naughty. I stopped by the Singer store to play with their long-arm quilter. I practiced my pebbles and stippling. Then I realized their Hemingworth thread was on clearance. They had it for $3.99 a spool! I have never used this particular type of thread, but all the samples looked nice. Does anyone have experience with it? I hope to try it out soon so that I can go buy all of it should I like it. Today I only bought a few colors that spoke to me. I have no idea why I bought neon colors. I never use neon colors! Oh well!

Scuba & Sewing

If you are just passing by and find yourself short on time, please scroll to the bottom of this post and give me some advice on how to finish a quilt. It would be most appreciated!

I got a lot of work done this week. I finished three more of the blocks for the 3x6 bee (First two found here). I am in Hive C, the pinwheels hive. I am making the flying geese in a circle paper pieced blocks, even though they aren't really pinwheels. My hive-mates were okay with the idea. To make these, I am using charms from charm swaps. Now I only have one more of these to make which means I might be done early!

This first one is for Michelle:

This second one is for Nell:

And this third one is for Allison:

I also finished the February block for Quilting newBEES. I really enjoyed the fabric she sent out for us to use.

I also bought a new toy: A GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. Spweee! So naturally, I had to make a bag to store it and the accompanying accessories. This might very well be the only GoPro in the whole wide world with a quilted zippered pouch. My hobbies are fairly eclectic: Quilting and Scuba! What is ridiculously exciting is that I made this zippered pouch without muttering a single curse word! Take that, zippers! Muahahaa!

I used Frolic by Wendy Slotboom which might very well be my favorite fabric line ever (there is even a second project in this post that was able to utilize it). I am practically hoarding it, but actually using it, which cancels out the hoarding...

Speaking of scuba diving, my boyfriend and I drove up to Mammoth Lake (3ish hours away, outside of Houston) for some frigid diving. The water was only 60 degrees, which felt warm compared to the 50 degree air temperature which was coupled with insanely ferocious wind that made exposed skin feel like it was burning. Because of this, we opted to stay in the water and do one long dive instead of multiple shorter dives. Really, I just wanted to play with my GoPro. So here are a few pictures. This first one showcases one of the best features of the GoPro, the lens flare generator. I kid, I kid. So artsy, though.

This is what I look like when I'm freezing to death.

On one of the sunken boats, there was a whole colony of tiny little fish! Also, these pictures are green because they were taken at the bottom of a murky lake.

Here is my boyfriend doing and underwater upside-down happy dance. He has skills.

One of the things I love most about Mammoth Lake is how much stuff there is to see. The owners understand what divers want, which is tons of crap to look at. They are always sinking new stuff. Take this car. To me, it looks like the sort of vehicle you could expect to see Cruella DeVille racing around the country in as she, Horace, & Jasper attempt to track down a pack of dalmatian puppies.

There are many sunken boats, cars, motorcycles, statues (King Kong, a mammoth, a giant bug, etc.) and even an old C130 that has been chopped up so you can swim through it. This next photo is of the inside of boat where someone left the fridge door open!

I also spent some time this weekend making cupcakes for an early St. Patrick's Day party that my cousin hosted on Friday. I made margarita cupcakes because they are green and boozey albeit not Irish. Yumm. I used my old standby recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and made it a little not vegan because sometimes I get rebellious.

Lastly. I started working on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt (Pattern by Cut to Pieces & found here). I used 30's repro fabric for the twisting arms and more Frolic from Wendy Slotboom for the middle hexagon. I was eager to try this because it reminds me of the Portal logo, and that is the quilt I was thinking about making my TA (if he ever shows up to labs,that is!). Hopefully I can transfer these new skills into that quilt.

So here is my epic dilemma with this. The pattern prescribes it to be a picnic quilt, which is great. I could finish it off now with home dec backing and be done with it. But I hardly picnic. I live in South Texas. It is over 100 degrees for most of the year. Picnicking is frowned upon, unless you enjoy heat stroke and sunburns. I could make it and sell it, I suppose.

Or I could use it as the front of a baby quilt, but no one I know is pregnant. C'mon! Someone get preggo!

Or I could add a little more Frolic around the edges to make it bigger and have an oddly shaped throw blanket.

I have no idea what to do. Any input or helpful suggestions?

Picnic quilt? Baby quilt? Throw quilt? Ahhh!

Wow, apparently I did a horrible job of flattening out the ripples in this quilt before photographing. I took the picture inside because the wind was too bad outside. But then I left the front door open in order to optimize natural light, so it was still blowing around like crazy.

Anyways, that would be all my WIPs that I actually made progress on. My goals for the month are to decide what needs to be done with the hexagon quilt and to finish the eye quilt. What have you been up to?