toys are good food

Yarn Bounty!

Oh - what a great and wondrous plentitude waited for me when I got home! It's like I was showered in Berroco goodness and riches.

A great big THANKS to fireballhead for the PEZ 4 Yarn trade. This is what she got from my end of the bargain. (Of course, it's the hubby's PEZ so I made out like a bandit all around! Bwa-ha-ha.)

As for the detail bits and parts, this is what I got in my bundle-o-yarn goodness:

• 2 Berroco Plume FX in Soft Blue (6740)
• 2 Berroco Plume FX Colors in Be Bop (6836)
• 2 Berroco Mosaic FX in Breakfast at Tiffany's (4697)
• 2 Berroco Jewel FX in Rhondonite (6905)
• 2 Berroco Opulent FX in Platinum (7808)
• 3 Berroco Quest in Platinum (9808)
• 1 Berroco Zen Colors in Nippon Blues (8117)
• and 3 balls of Stacy Charles Asti in 'colore' 3

Can you see some fun/funky scarves in my future? I know I can.

I'm back!

Yay - I'm back from my trip to Honduras and no worse for the wear. It was a great trip and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. (But give me a chance first to learn more/better Spanish!)

Over the next few days, I plan on posting my journal entries and pix from my time there. I had limited camera action (didn't bring enough with me), so I hope to supplement my fotos with those taken by others in my group.

So check back and read up on my great Honduran adventure! And to start you out, I'll leave you with this image of what I needed... no WANTED to do once I got home. (Click the read more... link.)

Adios!

Well, I'm off on my adventure. There's no internet where I'm going, so you'll have to rely on Matty for your entertainment. He's clever and amusing, I'm sure you'll do fine.

See ya' later, alligator!

And just so you know how clever and darling Bonez is, when I asked him to take my Smurfette pic (cause I was busy w/ last minute packing) he made a Dukes-of-Hazzardish, police chase photo-montage purely for my entertainment. In it, Smurfette is being chased by a Trex in a cop car. Yeehaw!

A few quilts for the road

A big part of my Honduras trip is volunteering and charity. Not only giving my time, money and energy, but what we bring to the villagers is also an important part of our trip. We bring them items that are difficult to get in their region, like toothbrushes, non-lye soap, and tools.

Another item to bring is quilts. Although freezing temperatures isn't a scare, comfortable bedding is hard to come by. In fact, the only comfort from a concrete floor I'll get while sleeping is from the quilts I can bring.

So I got some material that I had on hand, hit the thrifts for blankets, and went about making a couple quilts.

I was able to sew up three quilt tops in two days. (Yikes, was my sewing machine smokin'!) True, these aren't the perfect quilts that you'll find at stores or made by anyone's grandma, but they're simple and put together well.

Although the colors didn't come out in the photo, this quilt is made up of richly colored and feeling upholstery fabrics. The long strips of solid color are chocolaty brown corduroy. The backing was some plain brown fabric which kind of felt like a thin wool (but unknown).

Most of the fabric is stuff I had on hand; scraps from previous quilts (already cut to size), bits from my grandma's stash, and discontinued fabric samples on super clearance (purchased about 1 year ago). As I stated, batting and backing are thrift score linens (all in good shape). So these are bargain quilts!

This second quilt has a more feminine look to it. It's made up of (again) upholstery fabric samples cut into blocks. There were mostly plaids, but a few solids and some flowers give it a lighter face. The back on this one is an even more hideous pink and orange striped fabric that reminds me of a circus tent, but should hold up well.

The third and final quilt in this list is both my favorite and most hated. Most of the squares I had on hand from a previous quilts, so it was just a matter of sewing them together. Because I didn't want to make more work than what was necessary (and all those small squares together would make your eyes hurt), I threw in some strips of blue prints (but not obnoxious prints). And viola!

That was the easy part. When it came to the backing, I had found a Tonka® sheet that looked like construction blue prints. It was a little thin, so I used two blankets as batting instead of just one. While sewing the edges together, there was some moving and shifting. Not good. I was able to work with the damage, but by no means is this a blue ribbon quilt.

All in all, I had a good time making these. I've been knitting up such a storm that my sewing machine was getting dusty. When I get back, I've got to figure out a way to work on both of my loves. (Oh... and Matty, too.)

Bonus for sticking around this long... a couple of pix of our new flower boxes. Sure, the plants are still a bit small, but they're loving this Texas heat and sun, and are bursting forth in glory!