Miscellaneous Crafty Catch Up

In keeping with the end of year catching up, here are some crafty projects I was working on. I'm tired just looking at it all! I honestly don't know how I did it all in two months.

I was really pleased with my craft show set up. Don't look too closely at the prices. I already know they are too low. 

The princess totes went to Abby & Olivia in Denver. The 2 mug mats were commissioned. I like that they are similar, but different. The two pillowcases were for Mollie's new pillow.

 My niece asked for collars and leashes for her girls' doll pets. Lily's dog is wearing the new collar, but Anna wanted to put hers on her new unicorn. It's a good thing I made them adjustable!

I liked the NYB postcards so much, I put them in tow blog posts! I spent one night in front of the TV making origami stars for a small Christmas tree. I need to get my paper folding fix from time to time! The brownie trees were my go-to party contribution. The candy cane bow tie is for my super cool son.

 

Twelve key fobs made from my father's ties were gifted to all of his kids and grandchildren.  Some people cried. Mission accomplished.

In addition to all the crafting and quilting, I did take a few breaks to cheer on my kids. Pete participated in the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps birthday ceremony. He's on the 45 yard line on the left, 6th from the front. (Julia and I watched the ceremony live streaming on line.)

That's Julia, number 11, playing in a rugby tournament that her team won. We also went to her Christmas concert to hear her sweet solo. She has the most beautiful singing voice, but can throw a mean tackle!

 

 There was some beautiful color in the house: birthday roses, pretty poinsettia and anniversary roses. Someone knows my favorite color!

Quilt of Valor for Tom

 I was very happy to present this Quilt of Valor to my cousin Tom at a family reunion last week.

I had been working on this quilt, on and off, for several years. You know how that goes. Once I finished Leo's QOV, I decided I needed to finish one for Tom, too. And you know how well I work under the pressure of a deadline!

I had a minor mishap while quilting the border and quilted through the tip of my machingers. At least it wasn't my actual finger!

I turned to my brother for help with the label. Tom has written a book about his experience in Vietnam, so most of the info came from there. He did not, however, earn a Bronze Star. I'm not sure how we got that wrong. I know a QOV label is supposed to just have the first name of the quiltmaker, but in this case, I thought it was fitting to include my full name. 

 My son, the Marine, presented the quilt to Tom while I read my presentation speech. Another cousin's son graduated from Marine Corps boot camp a few days ago.

Tom was totally surprised and rendered speechless, which is really saying something for a Martiniano and a prolific author. And, yes, our family is so big, we wear nametags!

Throw Me a Curve

 I know it's not Throw Back Thursday or Flashback Friday, but I had to share this quilt from 2007. I was scrolling through Facebook this morning and saw a pic of my fabric box in a Mark Lipinksi post! Thanks for the link, Mark!

This got me thinking about the times I met Mark in person. In 2006, I took a mystery class with him called Throw Me a Curve. Thank you, Clamshell Quilters, for welcoming me.

I was that annoying girl in class who wants to be the first one done with each step to get the next clue first. I had all my units done before the end of the day, and Mark crawled around on the floor with me to lay them out. 

The blue and yellow top was fine, but a little flat. The 2000 print added a little sparkle. I added some (too many?) red hearts, covered some buttons, and quilted with red thread.

The arrow is pointing to a quilted baseball - a little nod to the class title.

 Oh, my! Look at my little baseball player with long hair! Whenever he pitched, he would take his hat off to flip his hair out of his eyes. After almost every pitch. So funny! Who would have guessed he'd grow up to be Marine?

 Julia and I got to see Mark again in 2008 at Quilters by the Sea. He asked if his PG-13 lecture would be OK with Julia in the audience! I believe in embarrassing my children equally, so here's my awkward middle school girl with braces! Who would have guessed she'd be in Tanzania now?

Throw Me a Curve

Started September 2006

Finished February 2007

60" square

Mark Lipinksi mystery class

Orange Giveaway Winner and Fire Update

Random number generator did his thing.

The winner of the orange giveaway is Jacqueline in Pitt Meadows. Many thanks to all of you who visited and entered the giveaway!

In family news, Pete sent me this pic just before he was evacuated from Camp Pendleton yesterday. This is the Talega/San Mateo fire creeping toward his barracks. He was not happy to spend the night back in boot camp (Recruit Depot San Diego), but he is safe.

Blogger's Quilt Festival- Pete's Quilt

 In honor of Armed Forces Day (tomorrow), the Recon Challenge (today), and because I miss my boy, I'm entering Pete's Album Quilt in the large quilt category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

While Pete was in recruit training for the Marine Corps last Fall, I was stitching this album quilt with a few of my bee friends. We used an assortment of modern red and blue prints on a background of Kona white. 

I presented the completed quilt to him at his graduation at Parris Island, SC in December. He wasn't interested in having his buddies sign it in traditional album quilt style. He's too cool for that. We were thrilled to have him home for Christmas! Don't you just love a young Marine in dress blues?

Since he is still training to be a Reconnaissance Marine at Camp Pendleton, the quilt is on his bed at home. When he is assigned to a permanent duty station, I might let him have it! 

His area of Camp Pendleton has not been affected by the brush fires except as a staging area for evacuees. He was doing well in Recon training, but suffered a setback with tendonitis in his knee. He has recovered and will be joining the next class when they begin phase two in Coronado at the end of the month.

I asked my friend Pat Harrison to quilt it with a patriotic design of stars and stripes. That's Pat on the left, holding up the quilt with me at a guild meeting.

The blue print on the back is from a Quilts of Valor collection that includes phrases such as Miss You, Proud of You, Home Safe. The binding is a bias stripe.

The album block was getting some vintage modern love last year, but I couldn't find instructions that were quite right for my quilt, so I wrote up a tutorial for my bee mates.

Head on over to the Blogger's Quilt Festival and vote (next week) for your favorites in every category.

Scattered Tuesday

This is what my kid did at work today! OOHRAH!

(He's not in the picture. I'll probably never get a picture of him doing anything this cool.)

I couldn't focus on any one project today, so I worked on four! I made this cute drool bib/bandana for Mollie. It was a request from her mom, and I'll make more if this one works for them. I used the dimensions in this post from Begin with B.

 

I quilted a few rows on this donation quilt so I could remove most of the pins. I'll need them for my father-in-law's quilt.

 

Speaking of my FIL, I pieced the backing for Garnet and Gray, but no picture. 

I picked up this quilt from a customer who wants me to replace the worn out binding. This is one well-loved quilt! Judging from the calicoes that I recognize from my own wedding quilt, this log cabin was pieced in the late 80's. Other than the binding, it's in fairly good shape besides being very faded. It's super soft and cozy, so I can see why she wants it repaired.

I'll let you know when Pete starts jumping out of helicopters, instead of just dangling from them!

Military Update

 My beautiful daughter was whisked off to the ROTC ball by her handsome soldier. Her best friend has become her stylist and always does a wonderful job! Genevieve chose the dress, and did Julia's hair, makeup and nails. All I had to do was hem the gown.

 Who needs a horse-drawn carriage when you have a truck?!

The roses from Fred look lovely on my EPP table topper.

 

Pete is doing great in Recon training. To give you an idea of how intense this training is, the class has gone from 84 students to about 30 in just the first two weeks. Some drop on request when they realize the job is not for them, but many are unable to pass the qualifying tests along the way. He's eating 4,000 calories a day and losing weight. The best news is that he will have Friday off (Good Friday) and my husband will be in San Diego on business this week. They will get to spend the whole day together! I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

OOH RAH!

Random Monday

My blocks are done for the first round of our guild's Friendship star swap starting next week. I like the high contrast of two fabrics, as opposed to the scrappiness of the block I made for the instruction post. That block may be destined for the spare block bin.

 Pete wanted to replace a worn out pair of cammies, so the name tape needed to be moved to the new pair. Three months of boot camp was enough to wear a hole in one knee.

My reward for sewing for him is that I get to keep the old cammies! I'll be surfing the web for ideas on what to make. I'm thinking tote bag, zippered pouch, key fob...

 

On New Year's Day, hundreds of brave souls plunged into the freezing water to raise money for charity. Don't let the beautiful view fool you. It was only about 20 degrees!

 

 Bill and Pete were two of the crazies. I had the camera and Julia had the towels. I hope this is one of those things they only need to do once.

 

 

 There are uniform pieces all over the house. I hope he remembers to pack it all!

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I've loved having both kids home, but I had really gotten comfortable in our empty nest! Julia will be home for two more weeks, so we're hoping to get started on a New York Beauty block of the month from our local quilt shop. We've wanted to make one together since we met Karen Stone in 2005. I think we're ready!

Parris Island

 It was a truly amazing trip to South Carolina for Pete's graduation from Marine Corps recruit training. As we were driving to the base on Thursday at 0545 for family day, I took a look at facebook on my phone and had a bunch of notifications. Oh, hey! It was my birthday! We had all forgotten.  We were all so focused on Pete and getting to where we needed to be. It was my best birthday ever! (even better than 12-12-12)

Our first glimpse of Pete was when the whole company ran by for the motivational run at 0700. 

Pete loves his new quilt, but it will have to stay here for a few months until he finishes training.

 Pete served as a lay reader for his platoon and led the Catholics in prayer every night before lights out. He and the other Christian lay reader gathered the platoon together after graduation for one last prayer. See the Marine in the foreground with the camera? Her photo appeared on the Parris Island facebook page with this caption:

New Marines of Platoon 3100, Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, embrace after being dismissed from Parris Island, S.C., by their senior drill instructor Dec. 13, 2013. The Marines spent 13 long, demanding weeks alongside each other as they were molded into the nation’s finest. Today, the young men are more than training partners – they are brothers in arms.

This might be our Christmas card photo.

 

I'm so glad my brother came with us. He's been proud and supportive from day one. I love the shirts we wore for family day. The 3rd battalion logo is on the back.

 

Julia has the best shirt ever. Who needs a superhero when your brother is a Marine!

Julia got some good news on family day. She was offered an internship at the Pine Bush Nature Preserve. It is a great opportunity to see if this is really the career she wants to pursue. We knew she was perfect for this job with all of her Girl Scout experience and environmental education.

We had some time to kill before our flight, so we stopped at the Angel Oak near Charleston. 

 

I've always had a thing for taking pictures of my kids walking away from me. I've done it on hikes and on vacations since they were little. Here are two more for my collection: Family day on base and on board USS Yorktown at Patriots Point.

Before heading home, we introduced Pete to little Mollie. He's rocking the high and tight haircut. His Eagle Scout promotion to Private First Class went through at the last minute thanks to a very kind Master Sergeant who called me on Monday morning for documentation.

He reported to the recruiting office this morning, and I miss him already. It's hard to let him out of my sight. We're looking forward to celebrating the holidays together before he ships out to Camp Pendleton for SOI West- ITB in January.