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Look! I’m growing a garden patchwork quilt! Also, it’s my best spring garden ever. The secret? Sprinkle SO many seeds, way more than you think you need. Currently growing: arugula and lettuce, 2 kinds of snap peas, 3 kinds of radishes, 2 kinds of turnips, chiogga and golden beets, Swiss chard, cilantro, bok choy, tatsoi, 2 kinds of kales, mustard greens, and an Asian green mix. As I told Nik last night, we are officially in the “eat salad for every meal” season. 😍 Also, my dianthus appears to want to take over the world. I just planted this clumps last year and they have probably tripled in size! #salmonandsouvlakigardens #growwhatyoueat #organicgardeningLast fall, we were raising five swallowtail caterpillars. They turned into chrysalises and then did not emerge as butterflies, meaning that in their wisdom, they knew that they were the generation to overwinter and emerge in the spring to continue the lifecycle. Each chrysalis was in its own quart glass jar and we put them out in the garage to stay cold through the winter. I checked on them a few weeks ago and there were no signs of life. And then I FORGOT ABOUT THEM. 😩 Today, as I went out to our garage to get our wagon for the walk to co-op, I realized I needed to check on what was probably the awful butterfly carnage. Instead, we found three live butterflies!!!!!!!!! Releasing them into the world was one of the coolest things I’ve done in a long time. ❤️😍❤️ Now, we just need to plant a bunch of parsley, to convince the adults to lay their eggs in our garden so we can raise swallowtails all summer. There are still two intact chrysalises, so we moved them to our porch where we can see them . Hopefully, we will be able to release two more soon. 🦋#swallowtailbutterfly #savethepollinators #salmonandsouvlakigardensI finally managed to get this name tag in the mail and it’s been received so I can show it to the public. This is one of the secret sewing projects that I posted in my stories a few weeks ago. For the recent @baltimoremqg name tag swap, I English paper pieced three-quarter inch hexagons in 17 different green scraps. Elaine said she liked greens and cream. This was a fun little project! . . . For perhaps the first time in my life, I was also brave enough to hand write those letters, rather than printing some off from the computer. Go me! 👊 #salmonandsouvlakisews #englishpaperpiecing #eppeverywhere #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcialChrist is Risen! Happy Easter! (Click the link in my profile to get to my blog for our full Easter post.)Today I had the fun of teaching an English paper piecing workshop to about 25 students during QuiltFest! at the Maryland Historical Society, @marylandhistory. I taught as part of a team of women from the @baltimoremqg. We explained the history of EPP, did a show and tell with lots of EPP projects (first picture, not all my own work), and then each student got a chance to sew their own hexie flower. We are so grateful to @createdomesticity, @paperpiecesepp, @andoverfabrics, and @aurifilthread for their exceedingly generous donations of class materials. Everyone was thrilled to be able to take home fabric, paper hexagons, and thread! 😍 #baltimoremqg #aurifil #andoverfabrics #domesticitystudio #paperpiecesepp #englishpaperpiecing #eppeverywhere #salmonandsouvlakisews . . . Many thanks to @summer_k_rankin, @urokeay_imokeay, Deanna, and Bobbi for being a great teaching team!Quilts, quilts, and more modern quilts with the @baltimoremqg at the @marylandhistory QuiltFest! My work here includes #fancyforestmedallionquilt, #laurashexiequilt, #carkaihexie, Marko’s HST quilt, and the Facing East mini, pattern by @carolynfriedlander. It’s fun to share the love of modern quilting! #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #marylandhistoricalsocietyWe’re camping at Elk Neck State Park this weekend and the weather was glorious this afternoon! Just right for wading and digging and soaking up some spring sun. And why yes, I have picked up knitting as another portable hobby because I really want to use this yarn that I bought in Iceland when I was pregnant with Marko. 😉 #elkneckstatepark #chesapeakebay #driftwoodbeach #salmonandsouvlakiknitsAHHHHHHHHH!!!! A dragon is living in our yard and keeps trying to break through our windows! First the dragon started chasing Marko. He escaped but then it started chasing Ellie!! What should we do?!?!?! Scream the dragon’s ears off?????? Send help!!!!! . . . This spring silly is brought to you by Ellie and Marko with technical assistance from Mama, as partially inspired by Martin and Sylvia of @sparkle_stories. 😉We have a new loose tooth in our house! 😍 Rather than the tooth fairy, at our house, we celebrate losing teeth with a special Mama-made bag to keep the baby teeth in and a dinner chosen by the child on the occasion of the first tooth loss. Marko finally has a loose tooth and he has been pestering me for over a week to make him a tooth bag. So I finally did. 😉 He requested green with a blue initial and I used some vintage rickrack from my stash for the tie. The design is my own. Swipe to see Ellie’s bag next to Marko’s. I did my best to make them exactly the same although, now that they are finished I see that I made the ties pull in opposite directions. Close enough! . . . See the link in profile to go to my blog and search for “tooth fairy” if you’d like to learn more about why we have chosen these particular traditions for our family. And while you’re there, if you want to, you can search for “Mark quilt” to see pictures of the quilt I made for his first birthday, in which this green fabric is featured. This probably matters to no one else except for me but I find it thoroughly satisfying. First quilt, first lost tooth! #salmonandsouvlakisewsWe just experienced the most amazing living history presentation at the @lewismuseum. We lived Harriet Tubman’s life with her as the actress told us her story. It was such an immensely difficult story to hear but told in such a way that our kids could engage and understand. Thank you to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. . . . Here Marko is standing in front with Harriet, so that we could all see how young and little she was when, at age six, her slave master told her she had to earn her keep. SIX!!I decided today was my turn to be *that* person who comes to the @baltimoremqg monthly meeting, having finished the project that she started at the class the day before. 😂 I stayed up way too late (made even later by the time change) and turned these two 24” square practice quilts into a nice big tote. My children were concerned that it needed a way to stay closed so I even added some Velcro. @jacquietps’s lecture at today’s meeting was fabulous and I had fun showing her my tote. 😀 #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqgI had a wonderful time today at the @baltimoremqg class with @jacquietps! I’ve been quilting with a walking foot for over eight years (as long as I’ve been quilting) but I still learned so much and came away inspired. I’m definitely going to use gentle curves (1st pic) in an upcoming quilt. The 2nd and 3rd pictures are from the same sample piece. With curves, you get the orange peel pattern and with straight line, you get diamonds. So cool! As always, I am now inspired to do and make more. I’m so grateful that I found BMQG three years ago. Thanks to @makergonnamake for convincing me I would like it there. She was right. 😉 And thanks so much to @rauenamy and Marcia for all their hard work to make the class possible. 😍 #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcialCategories
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Monthly Archives: June 2013
Recipe: Mom’s Coffee Cake (easy enough to whip up on a weekend morning in time for breakfast!)
Here’s another one of my mother’s recipes (just like the rhubarb crisp) and it’s a quick and easy recipe that’s delicious enough even for Christmas morning! (Seriously, it’s what we had for Christmas morning, 2012!) If I think far enough … Continue reading
Posted in cooking, recipe
4 Comments
Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along, Part 6: Embroidering the Author and Title Pieces
This is Part Six of my Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along. For an introduction to this tutorial plus the finished book and links to all the other parts of this tutorial, see this post. Put away your sewing machine and get out … Continue reading
Happy 6th Anniversary to Us!
We’ve been married six years! Hooray! To celebrate, Nik made me a heart pizza at our covenant group’s end-of-year potluck. Then I cut it up and ate it. (Lots of puns about hearts followed.) I love you Nik! I’m so … Continue reading
Let’s Go For A Little Balance, OK?
I’ve been seeing lots of posts over the past few months related to this post, entitled, Dear Mom on the iPhone. In it, the author basically tells moms that we’re missing out on a ton with our children because we … Continue reading
Posted in parenting, reflecting
5 Comments
Mark Says, “I’m Going To Learn How To Crawl…
…sooner than Ellie did because… …I have to escape from the tender, loving embraces of my big sister.”
Posted in Ellie, Mark
2 Comments
June Sewing: Pants For Mark
Amid all the color book sewing, I managed to fit in some pants for Mark. Lucky for me, they are super easy, quick (just a couple hours) and fun! I used the super fun giraffe fabric originally intended for the … Continue reading
Posted in Mark, sewing
7 Comments
