Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Grounded Grandparents Sew and Saw

      Creating banishes sadness or stress. Last week, with personal deadlines, I sewed eight quilt blocks for a Project Hope quilt (a bug theme).

      Joe and I had to find Hannah a birthday present. We knew she wanted Mattel's Monster High bed for her dolls, but we wanted to make one. Joe used my favorite tool to saw (then paint) the bed, coffin shape with spider headboard that Hannah can embellish. I made the quilt and pillow by scanning logos on a printable fabric. Below is  my favorite tool for cutting shapes in wood, but you could also cut up shoeboxes.





      Our real present is a Schilling Little Red  toy accordion that is fun for adults to play (Tabs 4Toy accordion).  I found harmonicas (harptabs.com) are similar in the playing, so we got those for the other kids. I learned so much about playing a toy accordian and harmonica that I wondered why I had not ever done that before. There is plenty of music at those sites. According to the the Schilling insert, these instruments belong to the reed family and go back 5000 years to when the legendary Chinese "Yellow Emperor" Huang Ti wanted to reproduce bird songs such as that of the Phoenix. We'll see.

      I made a quilted birthday card for Hannah that says "Sew Fine Hannah is Nine." Her mother saves these quilted greetings. The accordion fit into my shiny MFA bag so it can be treated with care.

      How is that for a scattershot blog. Oh, and we added some books. Grandparents are crazy. Click on photos to enlarge.

       Oh! I forgot to mention the kolaches that West, Texas is known for. Visit the Homesick Texan to learn more. I made a batch this weekend and did not eat just one.


9 comments:

  1. Your creativity never ends! The musical instruments really impress me!

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  2. Grandparehting opens many new doors. You two have found so many. Lucky you! Lucky and loved grandkids!

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  3. Great Birthday for Hannah! Lucky girl! ss

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  4. Linda, definitely I need to learn more about your favorite tool! I love all the quilt blocks you got made for the group project--they are clever and beautifully constructed. And I tried to click to enlarge the photo of the doll bed and for some reason, this didn't work! Frustrating!
    Anyway, I think I need a tool like you have; please, in an email, tell me more about it. What size, how expensive, how much room does one need, etc. etc. As you may remember, Katie PM told us about buying a saw to make the frames for her "painted and stitched" framed canvas quilts. I need one to finish mine!

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  5. Fabulous! What a great way to deal w. stress. You are so creative! Love, Katie

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  6. Loved seeing and reading all quilts. Saw the concertina! SH

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  7. Linda, I wish I could be your grand daughter. What wonderful memories for them. Ellen

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  8. OK. You're still the most creative person I know, and I work in a pretty creative field. Keep those blogs coming. We too love the Neue Museum and were there for the first time this Fall. Warmly, Phyllis

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  9. Great saw and sew. What a team you make. Loved all your quilted gifts. As I've said many a time: you (both) make great grandparents.

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