Yummy yummy! I've got berries in my tummy!

We've been berry picking! Yeah! We picked about 15 lbs blueberries and 3 1/4 lbs black raspberries. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I think I might want to pick all the berries I can get my little paws on.

We went to Paskorz Berry Farm and the picking was nice and easy, really, except I managed to get the raspberries all over my fingers and must have even smooshed one on my foot since there was a nice stain between my toes. But I enjoyed it and I think I shall snack on them frozen. Yum.

B&W Progress

I've gotten started on my latest obsession - black & white. Here's a peek.

Zoo

Some random pics from our trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo yesterday.

Festival of Lights

Tonight we finally made it downtown to check out the Festival of Lights as part of the Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass thing. They were interesting. I did my best to take pictures of them and they didn't turn out too bad.

This is from the website:

From June 5 - July 1, the Pittsburgh Festival of Lights-powered by Duquesne Light, will showcase the unique work of Artlumiere, founded by noted French artist Lucette deRugy. By using state of the art technology to project large scale images, de Rugy takes advantage of existing architecture to transform the facades of buildings into true works of art. Working with designer Corentine Buron, she's brought these colorful, distinct exhibits to sites throughout the world. This unique type of lighting has been featured in Paris, Singapore, Kobe, Japan, but never has Artlumiere produced an installation of this scale in the U.S. You don't want to miss this spectacular illumination!!!

The Omni William Penn Hotel

the Highmark building

The Duquesne Light building

Katz Plaza

Huge Quilt

I finished up this blue & green quilt a little while ago, but I discovered a small problem in the binding and was too annoyed and lazy to fix it until Friday. It is done now, though, and I ran it through the washer at Mom's. I did get one picture there anyway, but I'm not quite sure how to photograph it best. It is for sale, but I haven't gotten around to listing it just yet.

Baby Repeat

I whipped up a couple more baby quilts with the leftover fabric from the quilt I made a few weeks ago for our friends and listed them for sale on Etsy tonight.

Sold - Yay!

Buy me!

Doilies as Art

I found Moonstitches blog the other day and I was surprised how much I loved the doilies. The picture is so neat with all the pins sticking out. Very interesting. Makes me want to try it.

Sloooooooooow Motion

So this is what I worked on all weekend. First of all, I don't understand how to hand quilt properly. I think I know how its meant to be done but I can't seem to do it right. So I stab stitch. I've been working on this quilt for ages, maybe 3 years? I can't remember. I was bored out of my mind this weekend so this is almost all I did and I still haven't even finished this block. It is #12 out of 20. Eek. I think I shall be old and gray when it is finished. I don't have nearly enough patience for this, me thinks.

NQA Photos

I just found Sophie Junction's NQA photos on Flickr. There are 580 pics. Check 'em out.

In Black and White

I've developed a sudden and very serious obsession overnight. I must have a black and white quilt. Now I have to decide what exactly it should look like. Yikes. I think is what happens when I have too much free time on my hands.

The dish

Yay! I bought dishes. I know, it sounds very exciting, doesn't it? I found these a little bit ago and simply had to have them. They're so pretty and they will mix in with anything. They'd look awful nice on a china hutch if I had one, which I don't, but a girl can dream, can't she?

They can be had at Amazon.

Miscellaneous Nothings

I'm bored. My husband is at work and has scheduled extra work for 3 days in a row after his shift, which will be helpful since I've made a list of all the things that we want to buy/do in the next few months and its crazy long. But dang if it don't make the weekend long!

There's been nothing new on buying the house. Its an estate sale and there's some paperwork that has to be done regarding the will before we can even sign a sales agreement. Its been 3 weeks already and I'm impatient! But hopefully it will be done soon and we can finally say that we've bought a house! We've been saving for ages and have a good stash for this, but wow, its going to disappear in an even bigger hurry than I expected! We've picked out the grill, couch and an entertainment center that we want. I still need to pick out an oven. We're hoping to rip up the carpet and get the hardwood floors refinished and get all kinds of painting done before we have to be out of our apartment at the end of August. I haven't packed a thing here because I'm still worried that it will fall through somehow and it will have been a waste of time.

So here's a shop I found on someone else's blog the other day. I love this and this, especially, but also this.

I'm actually tempted to start a new quilt, but I think I shall have to talk myself into finishing a project or two first. Just have to decide which one I want to tackle.

Yo Yo Quilt is Finito

And here it is. . . nothing came loose in the wash. I was afraid it might, but it looks lovely.

Oh, and if anyone should happen to want one like it, I'd suggest here at Gooseberry Patch. Now that I've finished one, I'd say $150 is a bargain if you consider the time involved. Making it was worth the experience & entertainment for me, but I wouldn't part with mine for that much.

Violas

I've finished my yo yo quilt and all you get is this sweet little pic. It is finished after a marathon weekend of sewing (for lack of anything else to do, really) and I'm tired. We were at my parents again today so I sewed the last few on during the drive up. I washed it in Mom's machine, since she has one of those front loaders (no agitator) and I thought it might be easier on the quilt. I'll share pictures tomorrow. I'm going to go to bed now.

Yo-Yos Ad Naseum

I'm in a bit of a yo-yo sewing frenzy. I've now got on 254 of the little buggers, meaning only 146 to go! Hopefully I haven't lost any of the dragging them all about.

Another Yo yo Quilt

We've spent the last couple days furniture shopping and my poor little brain is fried. This is stressful for me for some reason and I feel like I could go lay down and sleep for a couple days.

Today, though, we walked into Ethan Allen and I actually saw a yo-yo quilt on one of the beds. I couldn't believe it! Its black with multi colored yo-yos actually placed next to each other. It looks like they did similar to what I'm doing - adding the yo-yos to a finished quilt. Except theirs were attached with larger running stitches that showed up quite clearly on the back of the quilt and the yo-yos were somewhat smooshy. It was a whopping $699 for the queen! I tried taking a picture of it with my phone and it didn't come out too clearly. The picture on the website is clearer, but its hard to tell that they are yo-yos. Its kinda cool, though. Even if the colors are not really me at all, it was very stricking in a mostly black and white bedroom.

Baby Things

Ta da! Finished baby quilt and blanket for the baby who is still nameless. Just kidding. I'm sure she has a name, but we don't know what it is! He was my husband's roommate for 3 years of college and best man in our wedding. We have them down as "friends" in MySp*ce, but we still don't manage to keep in touch well. How terrible is that? I've been harrassing my husband to e-mail him or call, but haven't had any luck there.

Anyway, on to the quilt . . . in all its soft & wrinkly glory. Its a little girly for me, but its sure cuddly!

Pink & White Striped Binding

Then I also had an irresistable urge to crochet a baby blanket as well, so I did, using Alicia Paulson's Tiramisu Blanket. Its was very easy to make, although I ended up starting over about halfway through and using a hook several sizes bigger than the pattern calls for. Maybe I stitch really tight? I don't know. But it turned out very cute at any rate.

Don't sew your fingers

I stayed up late last night because once I started on the baby quilt, I couldn't stop. Okay, it wasn't that much later than I normally go to bed, but later than I ought to be allowed to operate a sewing machine. I was very nearly finished with it when I realized that I had just stuck the needle through the fingernail on my thumb. It only grazed my finger enough to draw blood, but I almost didn't even feel it. Okay. That scared me. The funny thing was that the machine didn't even hesitate. I just kept going because I only had a few seconds left. Wierd.

Anyway, I put the binding on today, so it is finished, but I want to wash it before I show it to you because I'm not sure I like it as well without washing. The quilting really dominates and you see it almost before the fabrics. So maybe tomorrow.

So here's a picture instead. This is some variety of peony that shoots up in the middle of my tree peony. I suppose I should chop it off, but I only seem to remember that right before it blooms and then I don't want to.