Dirtbike racing injury and the pretty cold pack cover

Well happy Friday/ Memorial Day Weekend Blogland Neighborhood. Sorry it's been such a long time since we last blogged/blabbed ..... we've been sidelined by an injury (among other things). The injury in question happened last Sunday as a result of a jump landed wrong on .....





....this darn thing while being ridden by .....





...this darn kid (Moonbeams boy Matt) That's right Matt .... you better hide behind that laptop for not listening to the Moonbeams Mamma to stop racing that dangerous dirtbike!!!! But nnnnnnnNNNNNNNOOOOOOOO !!!! And now you have a major BOO BOO in your knee that requires SURGERY !!!! Mamma is NOT happy !!!!! So, the very LEAST you can do is let your mamma put the ice pack in the...



....pretty blue Hot pack/ Cold pack cover the MBIAJ Sewing and Design Depts made last summer.



Anyhow, after Matt's knee surgery coming up on June 7th, MAYBE things around here will calm down so the MBIAJ Sewing Dept can blow the cobwebs off of the sewing machines and get busy .... more future quilts are being planned to add to the quilts that need to be quilted pile including 2 more graduation quilts and ....


....a quilt for a special Moonbeams sister's BIG BIRTHDAY coming up next year (the MBIAJ Quilting/ Sewing Dept thought they'd give her the official I.O.U on her birthday THIS year to get a jump on things and hopefully have it finished by the big day NEXT year , instead of giving the I.O.U. on the actual day when it would automatically be already LATE!!)

Be back soon (hopefully!),
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Quilt Market or BUST !!!!!

Good morning Blogland Neighborhood! Well it seems like the entire quilting world is heading to Minneapolis this week for Quilt Market. Kitty was hoping to be the Quilt Market correspondant for the "MBIAJ Quilting & Sewing Dept" however there seems to be a lack of cash in the MBIAJ Travel Allowance Funds. Therefore, we had to break it to her that we can't afford to send her. She left in a huff (as usual) and said she'll figure a way to get there herself ....



......(sigh) oh brother ..... well it doesn't look good that Kitty will make it to Quilt Market so if you're looking for reliable reports of all the action your best bet is to tune into ....



Radio PKM now with Zombie.
Monica and Pam plan to be your up to the minute correspondants with their finger on the pulse of all the action at Quilt Market.

So, don't forget to check in with those gals daily, and if you happen to see Kitty sitting on the side of the road could you please give her a ride? Thanks !

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Flowers everywhere ......

Good morning Blogland Neighborhood! The MBIAJ Sewing/Craft Dept has been having fun this week cutting out lots of wool felt flowers .... flowers, flowers, flowers....




.....flowers everywhere ...... why? well it's just a continuation of a childhood
"thing" for .....


......flowers on bathing caps like these and .....


.....these! Childhood pal Suzy and I spent many a summer day diving to the bottom of the Valley Pool to retrieve flowers that had fallen off of bathing caps. By the end of summer we had quite the collection of bathing cap flowers ..... we were the champion bathing cap flower collectors of the Valley Pool! AND, in addition to bathing cap flowers, we made tons of "mod" flowers using .....



......this very child safe (NOT by today's standards!) "Thing Maker Fun Flowers". Do you remember this? My brother also had the "Thing Maker Creepy Crawlers" to make plastic bugs ..... which of course went well with our "mod" flowers .....

Anyhow .... just what will the Sewing/Craft Dept be doing with all of those wool felt flowers? They have no idea ....yet. They'll let us know when they have a brain storm.....until then, they're just having fun cutting out flowers !

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Happy Mother's Day !!!!

Happy Mother's Day !!!





(this is a picture of my mother being held by her mother in 1930 )

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne

Field Trip !!!!

Good morning and TGIF Blogland Neighborhood! A couple of days ago the MBIAJ Sewing & Quilting Dept had the opportunity to take a quick field trip to



.....this place .... from afar it looks like a typical little brick house BUT it's not! It is .....





....Quiltmaker's Cottage! A jam packed quilt shop that just so happens to be one of the featured quilt shops in the upcoming issue of ......




...... Quilt Sampler magazine !! (that 2nd close up picture is the one in the magazine ....obviously taken last fall!)




.....and here is an autographed copy of the magazine they had for sale in the shop. These 2 nice gals were as friendly as can be and were busy cutting kits for their featured quilt in the magazine. (of course the MBIAJ Photography Dept FORGOT THE CAMERA so they were unable to take pictures while they were in there .... SHEESH!!! However later they came back with the camera but the shop was closed ... so , like FBI surveillance, they parked across the street and snapped a picture before leaving town .....that's that first picture up there)

Anyhow ..... WHERE is this fun little quilt shop you ask? ......well, it couldn't be in a more perfect location because it's about one mile away from where they make .....




.......THESE !!!! and all things CHOCO-LATE in Hershey, Pa ! You can literally SMELL chocolate in the air! Which I'm sure inspired .....




......a few of the projects displayed in the quilt shop! (image from the magazine since, as we noted before the MBIAJ Photography Dept FORGOT THE CAMERA!)


Snnnnnnnnnnif.......AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhh....we can still smell the chocolate .......what a great combination.....fabric shopping and chocolate sniffing!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Therapeutic ball wrapping ...... CRAFT ball wrapping that is !

Good morning Blogland Neighborhood. Well, we've been having more than the usual stress around here lately and felt in need of a quick and fun project to lift our spirits ...... but what .....





.....oh I know !!! Ethel call the girls (you know, our "Thurs-day Afternoon Fine Arts League" that meets on Wednesdays because nobody can meet on a Thursday) and tell them to come over to do some Therapeutic Ball Wrapping ...... what? what am I talking about? well, you know that table in the foyer .....




....this one .....



...well that bottom shelf looks pretty blah ..... at Christmas time I put xmas balls in that basket thing and in the glass hurricane thing .... and in the fall I put colored leaves and acorns in there .... but now there's nothing there and it looks pretty blah ..... I could put silk flowers in there I suppose, but thought "nah"...... so how about some fabric wrapped balls? OK .... fabric balls it is! Here we go .......




....first you'll need whatever size styrofoam balls you want to cover (and bigger isn't always better ..... ahem .... just depends on what you need them for), and you'll need whatever cotton fabrics you like , some straight pins (we used some with the little yellow balls on the top .... going for a total "ball" theme here) and scissors. (and the MBIAJ Photography Dept says to please excuse the lousy night photography since we slapped this project together sometime after midnight .... when we can do our best thinkin').....


.....so for the bigger balls, take a piece of fabric (an approximate size that will wrap around the ball) ..... place the ball in the center ....


....bring the fabric up around the ball .....


.....and secure with 3 decorative straight pins



......now take 2 little scrap strips of contrasting fabric and gather up and tie the excess fabric on either side of the ball ..... so it looks like a giant wrapped popcorn ball ....




.....and here's another one ... OK, so much for the big balls, now on to the little balls.....



....now this method of fabric ball wrapping is certainly not our original idea ... there have been alot of other bloggers that have shown how to do this (and probably better than we're describing it here) .... anyhow, we just cut some long strips of fabric (about an inch wide) and wrapped each strip around the ball and secured with a straight pin (we removed excess straight pins as we went along to keep it from looking lumpy ....)



.......so we covered 3 little balls with 3 different fabrics . All done!



......Let's see .... OK, plop the big balls in that wire basket thing and ....



....stick the 3 little balls in the glass hurricane thing ....... and we'll take a step back and see how it all looks .....



....MUCH better (I think) ... now it at least looks colorful......bright, cheerful and colorful ..... now we just need to do something about .....








.....that lamp and that chair that are also in the foyer .... well, we'll bring it up next Wednesday at the next "Thursday Afternoon Fine Arts League " meeting .....


Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)