You want more.

So, you want more pictures from Pittsburgh? You have such good taste.

Pittsburgh is a great place for families, with lots of fun activities. Poppy and I loved visiting the Carnegie Science Center, where we watched ice cream being made in the food lab, and found Pee Wee Herman's bicycle, and played with robots.

Big Adventure Time!

No danger here!

At Phipps Conservatory, Poppy and her BFF Henry identified gorgeous and weird plants for their scavenger hunt, while we admired glassworks displayed in the gardens.

Like Alice in Wonderland

Some quilty inspiration, here.

Looking for the Old Man Cactus.

The library is not to be discounted! Poppy's a big customer there, choosing books and movies frequently, and making friends with the staff.

Getting books and movies

Excavating a model dinosaur

Summer reading program prize winner,
with beloved children's librarian.

Henry and his family also joined us for mini golf, but this mini golf was indoors, black-lit, Monster Mini Golf! 

Air hockey, while waiting for friends

Sticking close to each other!

The Children's Museum is amazing. A-maze-ing! Three floors of interactive fun! Our friends, Dom and Matteo, joined us that day.

Climbing in the human ant farm.

Building, then racing, Yes, that's Mr. Rogers' trolley
in the background. Pittsburgh was his Neighborhood!

Building and playing pinball out of scraps.

Dams and floods.

Call in the cavalry! Aunt Laura joined us for the last few days of my visit, and we chose the classic outing, a visit to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History.

Dippy the diplodocus, and U of Pitt's Cathedral of Learning

Poppy as lion statue in front of museum library

Fine art scavenger hunt

Outdoor sculpture for kids

"Hmm, may I see that picture?"

Yes, I attended my cousin's wedding in San Francisco. I think this country mouse did pretty well in the big city, wearing a vintage dress I found in a consignment store in Santa Barbara. Yes, I wore black to a wedding, but it's not a somber black.

Okay, so how long did I walk around with my purse popped open?
So much for trying to look sophisticated!

And I'm still working on that Labyrinth quilt.

Marking the quilting lines in the border.
Yes, I use a kids' washable marker.

I finally went back to work this week! I'm at a new school, and I received a very warm welcome from the principal, whom I've worked with before, and the kindergarten teacher, who was very affirming. It's good to be back on a schedule, isn't it?

I won again!

I follow a number of blogs. Most are sewing/quilting blogs, but there are others I follow because they are charming. One delightful blog is polkadotponie, where Jone Hallmark creates lovely little things in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and also shares her love for family and friends, and life in general. Go ahead, go on over there and look around, then come back. I'll wait for you...

 Did you see those colorful, hand painted eggs Jone made? Did you see that she offered to make one for a lucky reader?

She made the rubber stamp for the card!

That's me! I'm the lucky one!

There's so much tiny detail on this little cutie!

Right now it's nestled into the pussy willow branches by my front door. 

After Easter, it will live in this little wooden bowl on my desk, accompanied by two wooden darning eggs, and next to a bowl full of buttons. Both bowls are places where I leave my glasses, and this little bit of brightness will be frequently admired and appreciated.

P.S. Yes, I made pysanky eggs again this year; Cris joined me one evening while our husbands watched basketball, and yesterday John and his girlfriend played along. I wish I'd remembered to take pictures of us at work! Here's a pic of this year's additions in the basket with all the rest.

Pysanky style eggs; ours are free form!

Pincushions

Linking up to Beth's Love Laugh Quilt for her Pincushion Parade! When you use these workhorses a lot, it's nice to have something that evokes inspiration and good feelings.

The blue magnetic pincushion is a wonderful invention. When I was a girl, I didn't pay much attention to the mess I was making and where stray pins might be falling. My sister Grace was usually the one to find the pins, by stepping on them. I'm sorry, Grace.  Now, when I drop a pin, I wave the magnetic pincushion over the floor until I hear the tick of the pin being snapped up onto the magnet. So cool.

I like the magnetic pincushion so much, I decided to make a portable version to use when hand-stitching while watching TV, or for taking to classes and workshops.

Just used a candy tin I already had. (Mmmm, those grapefruit candies were tangy and juicy and good!)

Added two powerful, donut-shaped magnets left over from another project. No need to glue them, they just stick to the tin.

Voila! Attractive and useful!

I made this needle book to try to sort through all the needles in my old tomato pincushion when it finally disintegrated.

This teacup was a Christmas ornament, given to me many years ago by a BFF, Pam. A year ago, after Christmas, instead of putting it away, I filled it with steel wool and a wool felt cover. It's very sweet when I'm hand stitching, with my spool of thread resting on the attached saucer. 

I was brand new to quilting, and brand new to the quilt blogosphere, when I entered Cindy's give-away on Live a Colorful Life. She makes wonderful things using the selvages on the edges of fabric, and made a few of these to commemorate the Bloggers' Quilt Show. I was so happy to win this pincushion, but I have yet to be brave enough to show anything in the BQS. Maybe this year!

Thank you, Beth for such a fun idea!

More travels! Lots of photos ahead!

John and I took a field trip over Spring Break; Ralph had to go to school, poor guy! John and I visited my sister Laura, who held her own feet to the fire in order to finish the first draft of her research project so she could play with us. Hooray, Laura, you did it! (Seriously, Laura is awesome!)

Laura took us on the grand tour of Washington, D.C. We got off the Metro rail right at the Mall,

then walked to the Washington Monument

and the WWII Memorial

Honor Flight from Kansas, singing the National Anthem.

and the Korean War Memorial

and the Lincoln Monument

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here."

"Here you go, the Washington Monument!"
This is Laura's town!

and the Viet Nam War Memorial, including the Three Soldiers and the Women's Memorial. (No photos, it feels too personal, somehow.)

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the National Gallery of Art, and spent hours looking at the collections there, including

Ginevra de' Bencithe only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas

Thinker on a Rock - 1997
Barry Flanagan

Yes, we're dressed alike. Sisters.
It wasn't intentional,
but neither of us could be bothered to change.

We didn't realize the NGA closes earlier than many other museums in D.C., so when we were being shooed out of the gift shop, we took the underground passage to the East Wing and dashed through a few of the modern art exhibits:

"Cakes" Wayne Thiebaud

Calder mobiles

An ice cream at the Smithsonian Natural History museum, and a quick look at the Hope diamond, then back to Laura's for dinner and lots of gabbing!

To be continued...

Appropriate for Fall

I haven't been here for a while. That post about Emmy and Sadie was out of desperation, even though I tell myself this is an obligation-free zone. Still, I want to keep you coming back for more, and you might give up on me if I don't show up. This post might end up being a doozy, if I manage to fit in all I want to!

I've been busy making things. The creativity is rejuvenating to me, but the isolation of staying in my sewing space is a little depressing. Hmmm, I need to figure out how to exploit the former and diminish the latter... actually, I know I should stop watching old British detective shows on tv while I work. I am really enjoying Netflix streaming through John's wii! I've already gone through a lot of funny old British shows.

Last weekend, I had lunch with two of my sisters-in-law. Here we are at Big Sky Cafe in SLO, where R's paintings are on display!

And here we are at Gopher Glen in See Canyon, after buying apples:

The weather is rainy, very unusual for this time of year! But it makes for a very nice fall atmosphere. It was conducive to making a fall leaves quilt I've had in my head for some time. I had some complicated patterns in mind, but decided I wanted to finish it this season, not a year from now, so I went with a simple idea. I'd hoped to finish it in time to give as a gift during M's visit, but Ralph can take it to her later this month.

I've also been busy making Poppy a Strawberry Shortcake costume for Halloween. She and I looked at some online over the summer. We found this one:

Which is pretty cute, but the reviews said it runs small, and that it's poorly made. About what you'd expect for a costume.












The next size costume was this one:

Again, cheap manufacturing, and what's with the sassy pose in this picture? I couldn't see paying $40 for the dress and tights alone.

When I offered to make it, Bethany and I agreed it would be a dress Poppy could wear normally, not just as a costume. Bethany also asked me to model it after the original Strawberry Shortcake doll.

It's hard to sew for someone who isn't here to try it on, but I put a couple patterns together and made this sweet little dress out of cotton sweatshirt fleece. The eyelet pinafore is made from fabric that was once curtains in Bethany's room when she was an infant. *aww*

I modified the embellishments on the pinafore to take advantage of the eyelet, and made pockets and a massive hat, and this is what I'll be mailing to PA this week:

I already sent Poppy green-striped tights to wear with it, along with a sparkly pink pair. You can see here how much she loves them already!   *goofy girl*

I can't wait to see pictures of girl+dress+hat+ tights (on legs)! (Hint, hint, Bethany!)
I hope it all fits!

I titled this post "Appropriate for Fall," and I planned to segue into a bunch of costumes online that are Not Appropriate for Fall. I think I'll save them for a separate post. I don't want to pollute this one!