It's a bird, it's a plane!

No, it's.....SUPERTOTE!!!

My lovely assistant, Kate, is modelling her fabulous new Supertote. I made this for the mother of a friend who happens to live in the town where they are filming the new Superman movie. She works on the main street where they will be doing much of the filming, so I thought she needed a Supertote to show her Supersupport. I made the little yellow band to mimic Superman's yellow belt.
The inside has pockets, made from the Superman comic book material, all the way around and a key fog to boot.

I fussy cut out an 'S' from the comic book material for the button.

 To add to the fun and excitement of having a movie filmed in your small town, Kevin Costner is apparently playing Superman's dad!

My other finished project this week was an all Minky graduation quilt. The young lady in question Loves, with a capitol L, bright colors and all things Minky. I saw this kit and knew it was perfect for her to take to college. She's going to attend the University of Michigan, where it can get rather chilly, so I used Thinsulate batting in between the Minky layers. It was a little bit difficult to quilt due to the puffiness of the regular Minky quilt top, the Thinsulate batting and the super fluffy Curly Minky on the back. I quilted it with overlapping wavy strands, kind of like a DNA model.

I tried to bind it in Minky, but it did not go well at all. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how badly the binding was going until I was 3/4 of the way done! For the first time in my quilting life, I had to cut the binding off! It was horrifying, I have to tell you. I wasted a whole yard of Minky in the binding fiasco. Luckily I had the perfect cotton fabric in my stash. The black with hot pink polka dots worked out wonderfully.

It makes you want to pet the quilt, doesn't it? The graduate was so thrilled. Several of her friends also gushed over it. It's pretty gratifying to have some 17 year old approve of what you do, since they are so often not approving of adults' taste.

I asked the graduate if she knew it would be a quilt, and she said "No, but I knew it would be something you made so it would be awesome!" That made it all worthwhile.
May all of your handmade goods be just as appreciated,
Vicki

That Old Black Magic

I finally got a chance Saturday to start planting flowers and such. It's been such a bizarro spring here in Chicagoland that we haven't had much time to plant yet. It was literally heat one day, air conditioning the next. Repeat for a month. I really just want the windows open! And since my uppermost temperature limit is 82, there has been much whining and bi%$#ing from me. I'm loving my sewing cave in the ice cold basement this week.
I was at the nursery and saw a preplanted planter I liked, so I was going to replicate it. They were out of most of the plants though, so while looking around, I found this beauty:

I was smitten! I usually go with hot pink geraniums since you can't hardly kill them, and it's a western exposure, which requires a stronger color. Once I saw the magenta/black mini petunias, I went with an all new and exciting color scheme.

I found black regular sized petunias, dark magenta, black small leafed potato vine, the tall lighter purple and to add a little sparkle, the white Crystal Frost. I'm just so pleased with how they turned out! I'm calling it 'Black Magic'. Everything's better with a name. I learned that from Michelle.

I love that Crystal Frost plant. It really looks good all summer.

And this is the one in front of Grandma's buggy seat. I need to oil the wood and do something to help the iron, it's looking pretty weathered and my dad already rebuilt it once many years back.

I'd love to put some of those Pottery Barn mercury globes or string lights in them for nighttime drama, but they're a wee bit pricey.

My friend TJ told me she saw black and white striped petunias. I think a black and white planter would totally rock. Next year, I'm going to try to find them and do a Black Tie planter.

I also tackled a dinky triangle patch of dirt between my driveway and front walkway which I filled with Snapdragons and Dianthus in various pinks. I love the smell of the white Alyssum, so I edged the bed with it.

I dug in at the tip of the triangle and it ERUPTED in ants. It was beyond disgusting!!! I felt like they were crawling all over me the rest of the day. Ick. I ran inside and got the cornmeal. My sister did some research a while back and found out that plain old cornmeal is toxic to ants. They bring it back to the nest, and it kills them all off. We've been using it for over a year now and I have to say, it really works.  It's good to have non-toxic options when you have a Husky and a Golden who both lick everything.
I almost forgot in my remembrance of the icky ants, I also got a little snail friend for the garden! Isn't he cute? And the best part? Someone put a bird on it!!! (Seriously, if you haven't seen the 'put a bird on it' you really, really should. It's freaking hysterical.)

I think I need to name him. Suggestions? Hermy maybe?

I took these pictures this morning at 6:00am. I like how the magenta's glow in the early morning light. The temp today is in the 90's with a heat index over 100, so I really hope they can handle it.

Happy Gardening!

Vicki

Vintage fabulousness!

I went to the Winnetka rummage sale last Thursday. For those who don't know the area, Winnetka is on the 'North Shore', which is comprised of wealthy towns containing amazing houses. Not McMansions, but older, gorgeous houses with a ton of character, are all different and all really, really pricey. I left my house at 4:45am, met up with my boss and headed to the sale. We separated at the door and hit the various 'rooms'. This is the most organized rummage sale I've ever seen, and the nice part is that all the money goes to charity. I hit the linen room first and got a couple of retro table cloths, some fun vintage sheets and Pottery Barn valances for my bathroom.

Next was the pictures room, where I picked up some amazing vintage frames, which will be painted shabby chic-like for the vintage slate chalk board material that I got a few months ago.

The slate is from an old school and the doors were a score that Ashley found for me. I've been wanting to make an old door headboard for my purple and green spare room for a while now. I'm thinking one will be a daybed and one will be the headboard.

Then onto the vintage room (I stumbled across it, I had no idea this room existed) where I found the find of the day, possibly year.
Check out this quilt!!!!

It's an all velvet log cabin, in a modified barn raising pattern. The velvet is hand pieced to a cheesecloth like muslin. But the piping and backing were machine sewn. Look at that spring green! I'm in love.
The front is pristine.
The back, not so much. The backing is silk and greatly deteriorated.

It also came with a matching pillow, which was obviously used more than the quilt as it's a quite dirty.

The woman in the vintage room was willing to come down on the price for it, so I offered and she accepted. It was such a great deal that the woman who checked me out was ticked off. Since I know nothing about velvet quilts, I'm going to have it appraised and find out how to handle it appropriately. I think it's going to end up being framed somehow.

After the vintage room, I had a few bucks left, so it was on to the garden room, where I got the cute little bunny.

He was too cute to pass up for 2 dollars.

 I found the retro sprinkles bottle w/the old glitter in the Vintage room. I thought it was fun that it was from Skokie, near where I grew up. I passed on the naked Peter Pan doll though. He still had his hat at least, since it was molded to his head. He looked a little evil, if you ask me.

 

And if you can believe it, I then went to the sewing room and stocked up on some great wool tartans, one of which actually had the tag from the mill in Scotland. I had to pass on the 5 yards of navy wool though, which about killed me, but I didn't have enough money on me.

Since I still had a few dollars left, I went into the Hall of Woman's Clothes. I wish I had a photo. It was a massive hall, with tables, end to end, piled taller than me with clothes. I hit the skirts table and scored several Pendelton and 'made in England' 100% wool skirts! And they were $2 each. I about squealed with joy.
And after all of that, we were back home by 10:30a.m.!

Since I was in Arlington Heights, I went to Quilter's Destination, where I was just going to have a look around. Riiiiggghhhht.

They had the Riverwoods Pedal Pusher Panel, designed by Pearl Louise Krush as well as the matching button and bead embellishment packet. It's so sweet and summery that I just couldn't pass it up.

I'm planning to cut off the bird house part, embroider the bike outline, bead the flowers and border it for a little wall hanging for my cube at work.

I had about an hour to kill before lunch with DiscoJen and her son, so I also stopped at Touch of Amish, where I happily ran into my quilting friend Linda! It was a lovely surprise. They had some killer retro Halloween fabric they were kitting up, the Spellbound line by Renee Nanneman. The bats in the fabric were fab. And this border print would be great to just quilt up individually as a table runner. I'm a sucker for Halloween fabric.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, after lunch I weeded a bit  and by 2:00pm I was so exhausted that I took a nap.