Paper Starfish

I think this sounds like fun!

You create an index card every day for June and July. It can be a drawing, a quote, a list, anything! I'm really working on my handwriting. It's kind of messy and nondescript (unless I am teaching handwriting to my third graders and then it's pretty spot-on) so I might use my index cards to practice some hand lettering skills. There are some seriously talented artists in the group who produce amazing pieces! Anyone want to jump in with me?

The info posts about it are here: HERE

and the Flickr group is HERE!

I have a finished quilt to show later. The photos are on my laptop and I'm at school!

Lots going on over here at Chez Starfish these days. The most exciting is..... 2 more days of school/work before SUMMER VACATION!

My Easy Like a Sunday Morning quilt is finished and I seriously love it. It was inspired by the book Sunday Morning Quilts.

It uses a lot of my aqua and orange scraps:

It was quilted by the fantastic, fabulous Gina of Ginabean. Pebbles (my favorite), swirls, wavy lines, etc!

In knitting news, I'm chomping at the bit to make a Color Affection. What colors should I use? I'm going to buy yarn tomorrow or Tuesday and take it all with me to the beach this week.

ICAD has started and it looks like I've roped Sarah into it with me! Here's my second card:

I mentioned in my last post that I'm working on my hand lettering skills so I'll be practicing a lot with ICAD! I won't be posting every card here but I will be making one per day.

Ahhh, what a fun evening. Tula Pink came to town to talk about her design process and afterwards several of us went out for drinks and snacks afterwards. I showed her my Modern Alphabet quilt (about 8 hours after I finished the binding):

Tula was amazing. Both her "official" talk (fascinating and funny) and chatting afterwards (hilarious). She is down to earth and spunky and wears ah-maz-ing glasses. ;)

I'm thrilled with my Modern Alphabet (Tula's design) in Parisville (Tula again) fabric.

It's fascinating watching people see this for the first time. Some see the alphabet right away and other's don't see it until someone points it out. Do you see it?

The quilting was done by Nancy Pease who lives right here in NC. I'm thrilled with it. I asked for something special in those open corners and something else all over the rest.

This is my new favorite quilt and also the largest that I've made at 64" by 76".

Thanks for all of your inspiration Tula!

I chose the colors for my Color Affection shawl at Knit Picky. The light khaki and chocolatey brown are both Dream in Color Smooshy and the green is Shalimar Zoe. I'm starting with the khaki and then striping with brown before ending with the green. As I looked through the many, many Ravelry projects, I decided I like the ones that start with the neutrals before going into a pop of color. Being a tight knitter, I added a YO in between the first two stitches of every row and then I drop it when I come back to it at the end of the next row. I think my edge would be very tight without this.

In quilting news, I'm nine squares into a Converging Corners quilt and I'm not really feeling it. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen it (I'm paperstarfish if you don't follow me and want to!), otherwise I will post a WIP picture in the next day or so.

It was sunny and warm but not humid. Friends and family came from all over for our wedding at Wake Forest University. Happy Anniversary Mr. Starfish!

Mr. Starfish and I just returned from six days in Whistler, Canada and oh. my. goodness. was it beautiful and perfect. I put several pictures on Facebook and Instagram so some of you may have seen them. Beautiful. Switzerland and Germany have always been my "most beautiful places" visited but this comes close!

We spent some time hanging out in Olympic Plaza where the medals were awarded during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

There are lots of black bears living in Whistler and I really wanted to see some so we went out one evening with a naturalist and bear researcher and I was so excited to see five black bears. A few of them close up!

This is Alice who is about 16 years old:

And this is Ellie who is about 22 years old:

It was a wonderful 10th anniversary trip but we were so thrilled to return home to our two boys. They are pretty awesome.

I didn't do much knitting while I was away but I did start striping on Color Affection so I'll post a progress pic of that:

How has everyone been out there in Blogland?

Is he cute or what?

I was looking for a quick softie to sew up and remembered loving some of the patterns by Retro Mama so I started in on the Milo and Moxie pattern. I will definitely be making Moxie as well. She has flirty eyelashes instead of open eyes like Milo.

I had this sewn up last night (one evening) and Kid Starfish has already been asking if I made it for someone... ;)

I'm linking this up to:

I have written on my blog before about what I perceive as a lack of cute things to sew and knit for little boys. Baby boys can get away with little bubble jumpers and stuff but bigger kids are harder. Enter Captain America lounge pants:

So, Kid Starfish loves wearing pajamas. For reals. We negotiate at least once a week about wearing pajamas out on errands. I decided some lightweight lounge pants couldn't be too hard to make and said I'd try a pair from cheap fabric for practice. Off to Joann Fabric we go and he picks out this obnoxious Captain America print. I balk. He wins.

I didn't really use a pattern so I can't direct you to one. I used a pair of sweat pants that fit him and went from there. If anyone wants more info or (eep!) a tutorial, I can probably whip one up.

So between these pants and Milo Doxie, I'm excited to sew for my Littles. Now what kind of nicer boyish fabric should I use for the next pair?