Bonus crafty -- mom's mini quilt no. 2

My mom and I had several crafty projects in mind when we planned their trip to Portland. One of them was for mom to make a mini quilt like the one I made a few weeks ago. (A funny aside, even though she is one of my few frequent followers on this blog, she missed the part about my giving the quilt to her, so it was a pleasant surprise when I reminded her she'd get to take it home)

In like fashion, we decided to make hers for her mom (my abuela in mexico!). We used two more photos from our trip to Mexico years ago. It took some figuring and adding to figure out how to fit the two photos (the original design calls for just one). The quilt in general is a nice grid and with some scrap grid paper we got it all worked out.

This part reminds us of the song bird in my grandparent's courtyard.

Benefiting from my experience, we made sure mom quilted the design on top before we put on the trim.

The quilt hanging. We used materials I already had around. Now this lovely wall decoration just has to make it to Mexico.

l to r back row: graciela dominguez underwood, mariano contreras front row: Tio Cuco, abuela dominguez, rachel.db, abuelo dominguez

bonus crafty -- embossing powders to-go

My mom arrived and right away I got presents! Including a few cards I had given her with a bicycle stamped on it, that she embellished and gave back for me to send!

A glittery bicycle, collaborjamma between daughter and mom.

And then she got to work right away making over a dozen cards utilizing all my crafty supplies and extras.

These tags were extra from a project I made for everyone who worked at Paper Zone.

mom rose to the challenge of making good use of my fringe scissors.

After all that glitter (some that I hadn't even opened yet, I just LOVED the color and had to have it around) I thought we needed to send her home with all the colors she didn't have yet.

I knew we were looking for some small containers, maybe ones similar to what the glitter (and embossing powders) come in from the store. Promptly forgetting everytime we were out and about I would remember when we got back to the house. "Oh! We need little jars for the glitter!"

Then on an impromptu run to Fred Meyer for bacon, we popped up to the craft aisle and found the (almost) perfect set!

We got home, and mom used a paper funnel to transfer each of the colors into her new kit.

little containers in a container! Us Dominguez women love containers!

Glitters and embossing powders! She used my collection of Japanese Washi tape to label the embossing powders.

Drawings -- Crater Lake

We went to Crater Lake last week! I have some amazing pictures to post and will get to them when my parents have returned to Michigan. It's just not possible to tear myself away from them when their visit is coming so quickly to an end.

So, to tide you over, here are a few sketches from my little notebook that I wanted to share.  After accomplishing goal 094 -- draw Mt. Hood, I have a sketching bug, combined with an itch to fill up the whole notebook (only 32 pages altogether). Also, the green wool shirt I borrowed from Ian had the perfect pocket for a field notebook and a little pocket for your pencil, genius!

There were lots of things to draw on the way to Crater Lake.

The bottom sketch on this page is my favorite from the trip. It's not particularly realistic, I just really love the lines.

Ian watched me draw this one and after all the scribbles to delineate trees and such said "There's just too much huh" and I said "yeah, I got what I really wanted, the way the cliff is straight down until that slanty part, but then you can't not draw the rest because it keeps going, but I can't draw the whole thing!"

The trip was GREAT. AMAZING. BEAUTIFUL. WORTH IT. For a few more words about it stay tuned.

Goals of Others -- mom's mini quilt

This past week has been a great week for Rachel's 100 goals. I accomplished several in a row (and one more coming up when we visit Crater Lake) and two people very near and dear have said that I've inspired them to make lists of their own!

One of those people is my mom. You may remember how I mentioned she instigated the accomplishment of goal 073 -- do something I'm not "supposed" to do. She's been filling in her list of 100 goals to accomplish, I think she might be around 60. One of her goals is to write 100 goals!

Today, we finished her first (mini) quilt. Her actual goal, I believe is to make a quilted purse. This sampler quilt was great practice to learn a few basic quilting techniques. She says I'm a great teacher (goal 055 -- teach), and considering how beautiful her little quilt turned out, I'll take the compliment!

Graciela (my mom!) cutting pieces for her mini quilts.

We used non-fusible interfacing (it's what I have around). Cutting the backing and the interfacing larger than the quilt top leaves plenty of room to square it all up later.

The quilted, squared quilt. She was adventurous and picked a really cute decorative flower stitch for the quilting. Also, olive binding will really complement the reds.

Graciela (my mom!) with her finished mini quilt. We keep ooohing and aahhhing because it is so pretty!

It's about the same size as a steno pad.

It makes a great tray liner. After this, I also discovered it would be the perfect size to make into a little camera pouch. Just sew up the sides and add some velcro. She seemed to like the idea, we'll see what happens!

Bonus Delicious -- Sweet Stir Fry

The first time this meal came together was kind of accidental. Remember the cabbage I used for the asian coleslaw back in June? Well, I only used a little over half of the cabbage and the rest went back into the fridge.

Then, week in, week out, it would be in my produce tupperware. And I would think and say "We have got to do something with that cabbage," concurrently being amazed that it was still fresh.

Finally, last week, right before my parents got here. . . our cupboards were bare. We could make rice. And what would go with the rice? It was a tuesday, and Ian wouldn't be getting home until after 8. I started pondering. Opening the fridge and staring at all the empty space.

Goal 101-- 9/12 COOK A NEW DISH EVERY MONTH

It's September! My birthday month, and if you've read recent posts, you know my mom and David (step dad) are in town.

One of my unwritten goals for their visit was to have a spot for the four of us to eat family dinner. It's a tight squeeze, yet a gate leg table fits in our kitchen and the four of us do fit around it. The call to dinner includes "dinner time! Bring your chair!" because we barely have four chairs in the apartment.

I love David's pose! And look at poor Ian's face. . . exhausted.

I mentioned that my dish this month would be gluten free because the 'rents steer clear of the gluten (David is gluten intolerant). The original menu written on the week's grocery list was "Grill night. peaches," and I think the intent was to grill some defrosted tilapia filets and PEACHES. I love grilled peaches. Ian arrived home, exhausted from work and kindly informed me we would not be grilling. Mostly because the hard topper from our new-to-us Toyota Corolla Wagon is bungee corded to our small deck-- leaving no room for the hibachi. I imagine he was also relieved because this relieved him of any cooking duties. "Just bake it, it's easy to bake," he said. "I don't know how to do it!" I said. "Look it up!" he replied before closing his sleepy little eyes again.

A quick look at one, two, three different recipes from the internet yielded confirmation to Ian's proclamation. Baking tilapia is easy. It takes little more than a bit of olive oil and salt. Oh! Speaking of salt, I took the opportunity to use some Curry salt from my brother (part of my belated christmas present).

Quite a complete collection of yummy salts, the curry is the yellow one far away.

I was plain giddy when I finished cooking the meal. All the elements were simple, steamed green beans, mashed potatoes and the easy baked tilapia. What I was so excited about is that everything was ready at the exact same time! It was all perfect and hot together! That is a skill that has escaped me and I think it about every thanksgiving.

I think this is the first complete meal I've made for four that wasn't a one-dish concoction.

It even stayed hot long enough for my photo shoot. "I thought dinner was ready" "It is! I just want to take a picture, just one more!"

bonus crafty-- mini quilt no. 2

"crazy quilt" style, adding pieces as you go. To be truly a crazy quilt there would be much more embroidery along all the seams.

Perhaps it was all the nervous energy from anticipating my visitors' arrival. Perhaps it was a little left over procrastinating the last bits of cleaning the apartment. Perhaps it really was the fact that there were a couple of extraneous holes in my wall from trying to put up the final curtain rod (and not knowing there would be sheet metal to block my progress) and I just could not get them out of my mind.

I made a mini-quilt yesterday and I love it! It is mostly scraps from my tool rolls which means heavy canvas and this quilt is, like a good garlic, heavy for its size.

Ian thought it looked right at home, forgetting all about the unsightly holes behind it!