What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.....

I really do feel that way after finishing this project today.  The Catch All Caddy is so sturdy you could carry rocks in it.  Cross my heart!  The pattern calls for Soft and Stable which is marvelous stuff.  I love to use it in some purse patterns.  For the caddy I bought some Pellon Flex-Foam which is not quite so thick and stiff as Soft and Stable.  Good thing!  By the time I was sewing on the binding I was sewing through the outer pocket (two layers of fabric quilted to Flex-Foam), the body (two layers of fabric quilted to Flex-Foam), the sides/bottom (also two layers of fabric quilted to Flex-Foam), side pockets (also quilted with Flex-Foam), and the bottom part of the handles which are tubes of fabric with strapping inside, folded double.  Then add the binding fabric.  GOOD GRIEF!

It was quite a wrestling match, but I did it!  Thank goodness for the larger space under the presser foot on the Bernina 710 and the even feed feet.  I've also made even better friends with my stilletto.  Once I got my head around the pattern designer's way of thinking I found her methods and sewing tips spot on.

So I survived to tell the tale.  This will sit on my cutting table to hold all my junk tools.  No fair guessing how quickly it will take me to fill it up with odds and ends.  :-D

Gardening in the North Carolina summer weather will make you stronger too.  As long as the mosquitoes don't get too much of your blood.  A few pots of vegetables are starting to produce, as long as I dash between the mosquitoes to keep them well watered.

And the weather.....oh my!  Check out those black clouds.  (click on the pictures to make them larger) We are supposed to be dodging storms this whole 4th of July holiday weekend.  Sigh.

And the bugs.  Have I mentioned the bugs here?  I'm still not used to southern snakes and bugs.  This chap surprised The Viking and I right outside the library door a few days ago.  It's huge!  I didn't know they had such things here.  A bit of research tells me it's a male Eastern Hercules Beetle, the largest beetle in the United States.  'Nuff said.

Then there is the matter of small people.  In this case The Viking.  As his mother says, he has turned into a "threenager."  Some days lately my survival is in question.   :-)

Good thing he is cute.  This was "I am a monster" day.  All day.

Storytime at the library keeps him entertained, for a few minutes anyway.

He sweetly allowed his lemur to "sleep over" at Nanny's apartment for a few days.

Always a comic.

"Are you scared Nini?"

The joy of a pizza face selfie.

If it's too hot or wet he works off energy at the mall while I sit and sew.  Never have I been I happier to have the mall so close to home.

Enjoying his "hot spoiled egg."

The park is fun too.

For both of us.  I'm sure each day we survive together makes us stronger.  :-)

I also survived some kitten making.  I can't survive real cats as I'm highly allergic, but these are the cutest darned things.  A great tutorial and I've made six so far.  They are a bit like potato chips.

(Yes that's my La Passacaglia quilt behind/under that kitten.  Rosette number two is in progress.)

Three kittens and and a plastic canvas carrier are on the way to Stardust in New Jersey.

Also a couple of sleeping bags for her stuffed animals.  I added a zipper to the original pattern so it's an exercise in wonkiness, but I'm sure the animals won't care.  ;-)

Will the world survive Amazon Prime is a good question.  I ask myself that each time I get a huge box with something very small in it.  I almost couldn't get this one out of the mailbox!  Normally the mail carrier would have put it on our porch, but on this day it was pouring rain so they wedged it in.  I'll bet going in was a lot easier than prying it out was!  

The box in the mailbox contained exactly one package of sewing needles.  On the left was the box from the day before which held something equally small.  What's wrong with a small padded envelope?  I feel guilty ordering small things.  But then again, I've ordered large things that come in equally oversized boxes.  It seems to me this kind of excess could possibly kill all of us in the long run.  :-(

Thursday was a happy day all around.  The highlight was a fairy garden workshop for children at a local garden center.  ED and I scrounged around for the container and some decorative items.  The garden center provided soil, colorful pot shards, rocks and moss along with a little plastic fairy.  I bought a few small plants.  The boys and girls were given a choice of pink or blue princess tiaras, and superhero or dinosaur masks.  The Viking was adamant, he had to have a "crown" and was very happy telling everyone during the remainder of the day that he was a fairy princess named Patrick (Patrick being one of his family's dogs).  We also sprinkled fairy dust (glitter) over the garden so he was hot, sweaty and glittery too.  So much fun.

I'll bet you wouldn't have guessed it, but I'm told the blue pinwheels are radio towers for the fairy and gnome.

They had to endure helicopter traffic overhead too.

Awwwww.  My little fairy princess for a day.

No words are needed.....

Babes

Stardust is quite the glitter girl.  She loves her face painted.  Don't you love the gems!

It's been cool and rainy, it seems like forever.  The creeks have been flowing and everything has been endlessly damp until the past couple of days.  I thought I was going to rot.  Now I'm afraid of heat exhaustion.  :-)

In the cool of The Sandbox I've been trying to catch up on the 365 Challenge quilt.  The fabrics are in the two clear bins and the fabrics collected for La Passacaglia is in the large white bin.  If I ever put all the fabric away that is stashed with projects it isn't going to fit into my fabric cabinets!!

I've made a start on the blocks for May.  The larger blocks that have a lot of detail sometimes take four times as long to put together than the crazy small ones.

But they are coming along now.  No particular color scheme in mind besides the dark blocks being red and purple.  Just what takes my fancy at the time.  :-)  It's going to be an amazing quilt.

I decided to dip into garment sewing for a moment.  A simple blouse.

And the rain continued.  At least it's making everything grow and bloom.

I've been playing around with the "big" camera.  Usually I despair at my abilities, but once in a blue moon I caputre something interesting.

Dad fell and broke his collar bone.  He's bounced back very quickly and this was our first outing.  The Viking was more interesting in the workings of the cart than in the shopping.

More rain.  The pond is still an ugly brown.  Sigh.  Though I shouldn't complain.  Too dry is worse.

Give a boy a cape and make him run!  Down and up, down and up.  Got to work off the energy somehow.

On this day he was sporting stickers on his cheeks, his name bracelet, the cape, and "hair like Mommy."  Love it!

The North Carolina Quilt Symposium has come and gone for this year.  My secret sewing was gifties for my three symposium buddies.  One of the husbands has dubbed us The Quilting Babes.  lol!  I made them each a binding kit from this tutorial.  A fun item to make and give.

Since it was close to home we "commuted" to symposium each day and that gave us opportunities to eat out in Raleigh.  We enjoyed the best food at this Korean cafe.

I took Karen Eckmeier's Random Roses workshop with two of the Babes.

Karen runs an efficient workshop and we were well on our way with our table runners before the day was over.

The Quilting Babes at the end of the day.  A bit wilted and stuffed full of the best hamburgers/turkeyburgers any of us could remember having.  (That's the blouse I was making.)  Until next year friends!

I finished my first La Passacaglia rosette.  Woot!

And laid out the second one.  I have no clue what it will look like in the end.  I'm just determined to have fun with it.  :-)  The only constant is the purple star points.

The weather has improved!  Though now we are having to take walks in the cool of the early morning.

And we've had our first day at the lake.  Joe Cool really enjoyed himself.

The goslings are big and growing feathers.  They look different every day.

Tada!  It's bordered, quilted and waiting to be bound.

Nothing fancy quilting-wise.  I had a big oops when my Bernina 710 dropped a plop of oil on the border while I was sewing.  It washed out thankfully, but now I'm nervous it could happen again.  Grumble.  Time to call the shop and ask why it was oily enough to drip.

I also finally finished the Chain Reaction quilt.  I haven't quilted much besides straight lines in quite a while so it seemed sensible to practice.  I wanted the feathers to follow the chain links so tried out a few versions.  It's a pretty good effect on plain fabric.

So I feathered away the afternoon.  Of course you can't see the feathering at all on the busy fabric.  That's ok.  I know it's there....and it's probably best it doesn't show up anyway.  Heh.

Now I have a little quilt binding to get done.