Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Any seat in the house is a good seat - even if there is a pole in your face. It's great because you are there experiencing the organ music, the roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat and the umpire as he yells "steeeeerike!" against the visiting team!
Mom liked to take us to the ballgames from a very early age. These photos are from when I was just 5 years old. My sistah would have been 3. I don't have pictures to prove that sistah and I were actually there on this day, but somehow I think we were.

I love looking across the field over to Waveland Avenue and seeing the ballpark as it was so long ago. This is twenty years before lights were installed. People in this crowd would have told you were crazy and booted you out of the ballpark if you were to suggest that Wrigley Field would EVER have night games with big ugly lights. But times change and now there are big ugly lights but the same great baseball.

When I think of Wrigley Field this is the ballpark I remember. No lights and no bleachers on the houses across the street. I remember people standing on the rooftops or sitting in folding chairs but nothing like the fancy bleachers that are there today. This is also the era of players I remember best: Fergie Jenkins, Randy Hundley, Ron Santo, Billy Williams and of course Ernie Banks.

I remember being at a game with Mom and Sistah one afternoon and Sistah went down to see if she could get some autographs. She was a little squirt at the time, maybe five or six. Suddenly she came running up the stairs, out of breath, with her curly blond hair disheveled under her Cubs hat. Her face was flushed with excitement. "Mom! Mom! I got his autograph!"

Sistah still has Randy's autograph. It sits on her living room shelf with her other Cubs memorabilia. My oldest daughter is staying at her house right now and has promised to scan the program and autograph for me so that I can include it in this post.

Flash to 1960's

Found this hanging on my sister's refrigerator while visiting with her

and was very excited to use it as a flashback photo. Me, Mom, Sistah, her Dad and our Aunt in West Virginia.

Passport Wallet Sample

A month or so ago we received a prerelease of the book

"Pretty Little Presents" by Lark Books at work.

I immediately loved the projects

and knew that I would have to make some of them.

There is a very cute flower needle book I made but forgot to photograph and

I have another project from the book in the works that I will finish

when I return from vacation but in the meanwhile I'll post this passport wallet.

There is a zippered vinyl pocket, key loop, pen loop on the left
and two vinyl pockets with a larger pocket underneath on the right.
It is larger than I expected, but would be very nice for keeping together your
passport, airline tickets and other items for traveling. Definitely the prettiest way to travel.

Cheeks

This past week we've seen a lot of little children with cheeks I've wanted to kiss and squeeze. There is nothing cuter than a little child's cubby face and so when I ran across these pictures of my Mom as a small child I had the same reaction: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

That is the sound my mother would always make when she pinched my arm because she wanted to pinch a baby's rolls.
Just look at those cute cheeks!
Nnnnnnnnnnnn!

Citrasolv Photo Transfers

Last night at my quilt meeting I demonstrated how to transfer a photocopied image to fabric using a cleaning product called Citrasolv. Several of the ladies asked for written instructions, and so here they are:

1. Make Copy of Image: Find an image you would like to transfer. If you have words in the image you will need to print the image backwards (also referred to as a mirror image). The copy shop may be able to help you with this if you cannot do it on your computer.
Once you have your image, take it to your local copy shop to have the image color copied. It is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure the color copier they have uses TONER not ink. ONLY color copies made with TONER will work for this method. The ink from your ink jet printer will NOT transfer. (I learned this the hard and expensive way) I have read that Color Laser Prints also work for this method but I have not tried them as I don't have access to one.

2. Prep Fabric:

Once you have your copy made, wash, dry and iron your fabric. I have only tried cotton and silk organza. The image didn't show up very well on the organza but works beautifully on cotton. (I have read that you can also use this method to transfer images to paper, wood and metal.)

Tape the fabric on all sides to a flat surface - One that you don't mind getting wet with the cleaning product. I have found that my large square quilting ruler works very well. In the above photo I have used a piece of fabric slightly larger than the ruler and taped it to the back of the ruler giving me a larger work surface.

3. Transfer Image:

Place photocopied image onto fabric with image down and tape at least two corners down to keep the image from shifting while burnishing. Put Citrasolv onto cotton ball and rub over the top of the photocopy. As you apply the Citrasolv you will be able to see the image through the paper (as in the photo above.) To fully transfer the image rub over the image with the back of a spoon or other flat object (I forgot to do this last night, sorry). You can also rub across the top with the cotton ball but a hard surface transfers the image better. Burnish the image several times in different directions. You can lift a corner to peek at how well the image is transferring and gently rub places that need a little extra and then remove photocopy.

4. Set Image:Iron the image to set inks and then rinse Citrasolv out of the fabric.
You can enhance the colors of the image using
Prang colored pencils, paints and/or thread
as I did in my Price of Peace quilt:

NOTE:  I have discovered that you can use a colorless blender to set the transfer, keep the color from fading and make the piece washable as well!  (I have been using Jacquard textile colorless blender with great success)
Leave a comment or email me if you have any questions.

Obon Festival

This past weekend was the Obon Festival at the Buddhist Temple downtown. Through the years we have talked about going but we always seem to have a conflict. This year we were finally able to attend and enjoyed the sights, sounds and tastes. We were surprised at the number of people we ran into that we knew. Although with my husband, I should never be surprised as he seems to know someone everywhere!

Unfortunately though I left my camera sitting on the kitchen table after I recharged the battery, one of my many senior moments, but luckily I have a camera on my phone and was able to capture a few images to share here:

The Taiko drum performance was my favorite part of the festival. The festival is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor deceased ancestors. One of the many activities is dancing the Bon Odori to celebrate and honor these ancestors. The line of people wanting to dance was long and included everyone from small children to those with lots more years under their obi. The little children were especially entertaining, with some just tapping their fans and watching those around them dancing. My two youngest girls enjoyed the drumming and dancing but were most excited to visit the food and merchandise booths. Inside the Temple's gymnasium there was a long line of Japanese food to be purchased. The line to get in went down the hallway and out the front of the Temple. We got into line thinking it was the line to see the Temple. We were very embarrassed when we discovered it was the line for food! We had just finished dinner before arriving and so we made our way out and then into the chapel for a look around.

Later we visited the booths outside which offered everything from Snowcones with Azuki Beans (we chose to have snowcones with ice cream instead) to hotdogs and cotton candy to Japanese Fabrics (drool) and Kimonos to stickers and toys to fans and umbrellas. Everything seemed to be very nicely priced and so the girls treated themselves to a souvier. One bought an umbrella and one bought a fan. Both were beautifully painted and made of a nice silky fabric. As we inspected the fans an elderly gentleman approached us to show us how to flick the fan so that it opened quickly. We are still trying to perfect the method he taught us.

First Fruits

I wandered out to the garden yesterday

for the first time in a week and I found these:

They were delicious!

Why I love Aprons?

Ever since the apron craze took over a few years ago

some of my favorite aprons have been ones like these.* They fit over the shoulder and usually slip over the head.

They aren't the fanciest apron and they aren't very frilly but I love them.
And now I think I know why. . . Notice the apron my Grandma is wearing at my second birthday. . .
Hmmm, might my love of this type of apron have something to do

with the love I have for my Grandma?

*(Click on the above photos to visit the etsy shops where I found these great aprons!)

My Babies are 12

Where have the years gone?

Happy Birthday Babies!

Art Journals

During our visit to the Arts Festival my daughters and I were facinated with the beautiful Journals made by this artist. Her art journals were well made and called to us, but our pocketbooks would not respond to the call, and so my youngest daughter and I decided to try making the journals ourselves. I found a great tutorial on the internet and we went to it.
We used watercolor paper for the pages and a pleather we found on the remnant rack at the fabric store.

The pleather doesn't have the same wonderful feel that leather does, but it did the job.

We were both very satisfied with our first attempts at art journal making and can't wait to fill the pages with words and drawings.

Batik Class

This evening I ran into a friend I haven't seen in some time.

She asked me what I have been up to lately.

I thought for a second and said, "playing."

I think thats all I've been doing lately - and here is more proof:

Last week Tuesday I participated in a Batik class from my friend Anne,

the queen of batik quilts.

She teaches the all day workshop in her backyard.

Here she is giving us the run down on how it is done: And then she let us loose. . .

I cannot tell you how excited I was for this workshop!

Well yes I can - I was so excited that I could hardly sleep the night before.

I'm sure you can see it in my eyes (or lack of eyes).

On my first attempt I dove right in to the waxing of the fabric.

The wax on this piece was applied with rosette irons and a beater.
Below is the waxing tent.
The mix of half beeswax and half paraffin wax
was kept melted in doubleboilers on electric burners.
Down the small hill is the tent where the dye was kept.
Here is my first waxed piece hanging on the line after I applied some dye to the centers of the flowers.
Once the piece was dry I applied a second coat of wax
and then dyed the background a deep purple.
Everyone made some really wonderful batiks.
I ended up doing quite a bit of batiking in the 7 hours I was there.
I finished three pieces and then I have three more pieces
that have wax on them and are awaiting more dye.
Our quilt group is having a dye party in a couple of weeks
so those pieces will be finished then.

I had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

This has opened a whole new art world for me -

however along with that new world comes a whole new set of supplies.

Maybe I should just stick to the world I'm in.

Happy Independence Day

Me with some of my first cousins. . .

Me (on the right) with some of my second cousins. . .
Me with an Aunt by marriage. . .
And one of my favorite childhood pictures of me on a boat in Lake Michigan.

Hope you are able to spend this weekend enjoying family, friends and fun!

Ugly Box, Beautiful Pictures

The other day when I was at Juliette's house quilting she showed me her homemade light box. I was amazed that something so ugly could do such a wonderful job. So after a little research and finding some great instructions here I made one of my own:

I used a box I found in the hallway at the gym where my daughter is participating in volleyball camp. The white paper on the sides is velum paper I bought on clearance a couple of years ago. The only thing I had to buy today was the 68 cent piece of poster board in the middle. I know I have some poster board downstairs but I wasn't sure if I had white so I splurged.
And why would I care to have this 68 cent box? Because now I can take awesome professionalish photos like this:

Photo Booth Obession Continued

It looks like I won't have to stick the whole family in a closet afterall. One of our good friends was kind enough to have a photobooth at her wedding reception and we all squeezed ourselves in for a picture or two or three.
If only my son had been there, then we could have made one of the photos into our Christmas card.

Oh well, we all had a great time anyway.



We made lots of silly faces,









and a few serious faces,












very few serious faces actually,



















because when it comes right down to it, we just can't help but be ourselves in a photo booth.