Aytan asked me for a dinosaur costume.
I found one! I ordered it from an etsy seller, but latter I saw that Simplicity still prints this one. I can highly recommend it. Together we went to Joan’s and Aytan chose the fabric, green of course.
He is an impatient little fellow, he thought I could wip it up in an hour. Of course he was happy to help stuff the tail. He was unhappy to go home without the costume.
The scales are made from felt, I added strong interfacing, I really want them to stand on their own.
A very well designed costume. with claws on the feet and a seperate hood. There also are gloves, but I skipped those. He will need the use of his hands.
It was a hot summer day when I finished this. Let’s hope it is cool on Halloween.
A very happy Aytan! He immediately put it on and started roaring. Saba Joel does a good job roaring even without the costume.
First it was a run around the yard.
Then he took his matching dinosaur puppet and we had to go for a walk to the park.
People stopped and looked, which was fine. Aytan just told them that it’s not dark yet, but soon it will be and it will be Halloween.
I like the elastic under the shoe, it did help the foot stay in place.
I just love this dinosaur proudly walking around.
Yes, there was a meltdown the next day when he couldn’t wear the costume to school. Luckily, soccer started that weekend and a new interest started. No, he hasn’t forgotten about the dinosaur, there is simply fun things in life to keep him busy.
First, we have Stu, the resort cat. He really reminds me of our old cat Mina, also a tux, also had a clip in her left ear.
He really must have reminded Joel of Mina, because he brought out a saucer of milk. I sort of feel sorry for the next guests, Stu will be hovering outside their back door. Well, maybe the previous guests fed him, cuz he was hanging out long before Joel gave him milk.
On the southern tip we saw a family of goats. I think they belong to someone, it’s just easier to let them out to graze.
They didn’t let us approach, but they didn’t show any fear either.
The remains of a crab, someone had a good meal.
Someone else has a good sense of humor. Down at La Pareuse bay are the lava fields. This area looks much more like the Big Island, the last lava flow on Maui, 1790. It is common to create ‘art’ with coral on the black lava rock. The apple was a very nice touch, any closer to the goats and they would be up there eating it.
Speaking of human creativity, it can be found all over the island.
Often it’s man and nature, the railings in Lahaina are man made of course, but sun, sea, and wind are taking their toll on the railings.
Tiki torches are everywhere and are really part of the feel of Maui.
The sunsets are amazing, I have plenty of pictures, but really, who wants to see all my sunset photos, this one is special, Joel, Craig and a glass of beer. This really captures the essence of the week.
Hawaiian Fabrics are full of tropical imagery. They actually see these plants all around them, and not in hot house pots.
In this case, the leaf is much more interesting than the flower.
Another example of colorful leaves.
The ginger plant has many interesting flowers.
Other flowers are tiny, yet beautiful.
And then there is fruit, the mighty pineapple.
Sugarcane as a crop is over, most of the agricultural land will have a wider variety of crops. Luckily the mighty pineapple is going strong.
The coffee bean, most plantations are on the Big Island, this one is just decorative.
Then there is lichen that thrives in these wet humid conditions.
Trees that are doing their part to erode the lava rock.
Onto the fauna, geckos thrive, thought this was the first time I saw this little jewel.
Not all chickens are brightly colored.
Some shore birds also favor being dark.
This fellow was on a manmade pond, I don’t know if he is a local wild bird or not, but you can see the orange koi fish in the pond behind him.
I finished the linen sweater. Here it is, a little shapeless, a little crunchy with all kinds of wonky stitches.
A lot of unevenness going on. Some people don’t like to knit with unwashed linen, they say it hurts their hands. Some cotton can do that to me, linen – never, even if it stays stiff as I knit, it warms up in my hands.
After the washer,dryer and steam blocking, look how even the stitches are. They have bloomed a little and have relaxed into place, no more jagged look, as if I had knit with twine.
The ends have softened considerably. You can see how the ends are soft and crinkled, I find it easier to weave in the ends after the wash. I had tied a knot when I added the new color, so I wasn’t worried about any unraveling.
This artistic image is the dryer lint – that is a lot of lint from one sweater. I will wash it again soon, to soften it further, I doubt I’ll get this much fuzz.
The color blocking worked beautifully.
Yes, the bottom edge is jagged, I cast off very loosely. Seeing these pictures made me realize how unprofessional it looks. Although I didn’t take another picture, I did remove and re-cast off. Much nicer now.
I LOVE linen. Much more than cotton. Sure cotton breathes and is a good warm weather fiber, but it is heavy – especially when spun into yarn and knit into a sweater. Linen is also plant based, it is made from cellulose – but for some reason, it doesn’t have the weight of cotton. 
These days I can hardly wear synthetics, I’m not allergic in that I don’t get a rash. But synthetics rob me of my body heat. A linen sweater like this will retain my body heat and keep me warm. Not like wool of course, but for those times when I’m a little chilly, like summer nights – linen will keep me warm. If I wear something like this on a hot day, it will breathe and not suffocate me like synthetics do.
I knew when I started knitting this that I’d probably need a camisole, I was right. The elongated stitches are very transparent, but to be honest, the whole sweater is. I tend to run cold these days, even in summer, so I don’t mind a camisole, and once it gets chillier, even a long sleeve t-shirt will be nice.
The only yarn that has any real yardage left is pink. I am so happy that I finally put this linen to good use! I find that as I get older I want my garments to be simpler. Gone are the days of everything but the kitchen sink.
Like this linen sweater I made 8 years ago. The cables, the peplum, the bell sleeves. I love the color, I love the feel of the fabric, but it’s just too much. I guess that is a product of getting older. Works for me, I’m enjoying the journey.
Especially when there are two a week and I never know what technique will be used. This bee was made with English paper piecing method, which means, it was all done by hand. It had a few more items but I simplified.
Unlike this simple applique coneflower. I understand, you are asked to design one small block for a major project and you want to put in everything but the kitchen sink. As someone who did learn design – less is more, and if there are 100 unique blocks, there has to be somewhere for the eye just to rest.
A good old fashioned pieced block, my choice of fabrics makes this busy enough! I am trying to have a number of blocks with dark backgrounds, rather than have all the backgrounds light.
Ahh, paper piecing. This is becoming a favorite technique for me. This project with its myriad of different paper-pieced projects has really taught me a lot. I bought the add a quarter ruler, I use my light box all the time, my paper piecing has improved immensely. Of course, I still need to rip out here and there, but not as often as before.
I could have machine appliqued this one, I decided to do needle turn applique. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking that one of these days I may want to make a Hawaiian quilt, now I’m not so sure. The Hawaiian design elements are much larger – so I’m not giving up on the idea yet.
This mid-century modern block had a cloud and a bush by the front door – I nixed them. I also fussy cut the old fashion phone in the window.
The original sample was much scrappier, I put some thought into the colors, but still was surprised by the final block. Not in a bad way, I thought it would look different.
Yay for more paper piecing and a color palette that I love.
An off center Dresden plate gave me a chance to get scrappy. The original block had a pieced background – more overkill. My background fabric is busy enough.
A week late I jumped in.
I had to play catch up. My color scheme is yellow, all kinds of yellow. All the blocks are pieced, so that makes it much easier.
But 100 blocks in 100 days is a lot faster than a whole year.
I’m using all kinds of fabrics I have lying around. Some are from previous projects and some are fabrics I’ve picked up at the guilds where people are getting rid of what they no longer want.
Some are the tiniest scraps that will only show up in one block and there will be fabrics that will be repeated more often. Of course I caught up, actually, I am much more than caught up. I’m in Hawaii this week, having a backlog of completed blocks, means that I can upload the pictures on the correct day. There is some kind of challenge with prizes, my prize will be another quilt.
Much smaller of course, but the same themes, like how to make menswear exciting for the runway.
Or, computer generated desgin on printed fabric.
In the accesory catagory, it’s all about the tie, really the only place a businessman can hope to express himself.
Then there is the banyan, or house coat, for lounging around the house. He still looks overdressed, Fez and all.
At least the embroidery is delightful. Looks hand embroidered in the good sense of homemade. Good quality but a certain freedom of design.
Unlike 18th Century formal wear that was exquisitly embroidered, also by hand, but by people working in an atelier. About as close as machine perfection that you could find in those days.
So did this caftan come west? Was it worn by a man of liesure in Europe? Or was it saved from some nomads tent and cherished as a beautiful example of central Asian textile and not as a garment to be worn?
A fabulous example of the Smoking Jacket, made from Cigar silks. There ae many jackets and quilts that took advantage of these thin strips of silk.
Even with the company names stamped right in the middle. Lovely hand embroidery was used to attach one ribbon to the next. Using silk thread in matching colors, the gold and red.
And finally, a little humor. How riske are this boxer shorts. A true fantasy for any man.
BLUE waiting for sunrise on the top of Haleakala, from black, through midnight blue. Of course we missed the actual sunrise, the cloud came rushing in and all was grey.
Steel blue.
Parrot blue, we have three photos through the years with our boys and these birds, the his time, I just got pictures of the birds.
All that moisture makes for verdant rain forest. 
The massive Banyon tree in Lahaina has had surgery through the years.
Another part of the Banyon tree. 
The silver aloe, found only on Haleakala, covered with rain drops.
Dragons teeth, created by the flowing lava.
On a much smaller scale, this is the Chritmas cactus, here they are huge.
lichen.
Amazing Maui sunsets.
Tropical flowers.
Lantana gone native.
and the Atomic gold car we are driving!
The dirt.
Chickens gone feral.
Red flower up against the pink of our building.
Using linen yarn I’ve had forever and a pattern I just bought on my trip to DC.
I’ve been wanting to use this yarn forever, but just haven’t found the right project. Although the store sample was made of cotton, the pattern is written for linen, so why not! I have to knit this sweater in stripes because I have all these colors. This is a top-down raglan sweater, so when I knit the stripe on the body, I want the sleeves to correspond with a similar stripe. It’s a guessing game, as well a playing yarn chicken.
So far I have won! I finished the sleeve stripes without running out of yarn! although as you can see, I got pretty close to losing. You will have to wait until I’m done to see how this all works out. But now, back to quilting.
I rarely buy charm packs, those 5″ squares all cut from one line of fabric. LAMQG was having a fundraiser, people brought all kinds of fabric they no longer wanted and things were sold for just a few dollars a piece. So I bought this charm pack and got to work.
Once a quilt is finished, I’m not sure it matters which direction the seams are ironed. It was easier to simply iron the center patch out, but, by ironing the seams in, the patch stands out a little from the background. So that is how I ironed them.
Boy am I having fun with my new design wall, it does make a difference while making quilts. Looking at something on a wall in front of me is very different than looking down at the floor. This pattern 
I’m not switching over to precuts any time soon. It certainly is fun to follow these tutorials from time to time. At first, I thought this would become a charity quilt.
I’m selfish, I like this too much, this will have to be a gift for someone I know and care about.
I kept changing and rearranging my blocks. Scrappy only goes so far with me, I need a certain order.
All four blocks are done.
Quilt top finished! So now this is waiting to be quilted, while I still work on my Splendid Sampler. Since that is a year long project it is fine to make other quilts, the problem is I now have two other quilt projects going as well.monogamousllen off the monagamous wagon! More on those quilts soon.
As soon as I knew the birthday (same as Aytan! Yay) and Sea Monkey’s real name I got to work embroidering the label.
I thought I was done, only to discover he does have a middle name.
So I squeezed the Ezra in and sewed the label on the back of the quilt.
Interesting construction, you knit eight legs, attach and knit up the body.
Love the bottom! I just realised I didn’t put a label on him, oh well the Other Leah will know that it was made by the Leah.
Since he is so much larger than the image on the pattern I needed to get creative with the eyes and the moustache. The eyes were easy, I simply covered a self-cover button with black fabric.
The moustache was a little harder to find. Thank God for Etsy, I think I found the perfect one. 
Great little top hat.
All this hardware means this Dandy isn’t baby safe. That is ok, he isn’t meant for Asher, he is meant for mom. A few weeks ago there was a video going around with a bright pink cephalopod, the Other Leah mentioned that she wants one. I couldn’t tell her that one was one the way. She is thrilled with how big he is, it’s part of his appeal.
Dad can claim him as well, he won’t be chewing off eyes or moustaches.
Here they are, the two cephalopods before they went to live in their forever home.
The other Leah had her baby! She and Abram went old school, they didn’t want to know the sex of the baby. Since they love everything about sea creatures, it was nine month of being called Sea Monkey.
I went to work months ago, I found this 
Then it was time to think about the background I went with SewKindof Wonderful, 
I went with an interesting color choice, as the other Leah said, this color combination isn’t in our wheel house at all. It was new for me as well, not knowing the gender, I wanted something neutral, I wanted someting that would be powerful but wouldn’t over take the octopus.
He fits in perfectly, I had no idea how perfect this would be. I thought I’d be cutting more into the background. Serendipity, perfect match.
I realize I was influenced by 
I am so happy with my glue basting.
I love the FMQ, and yes, my feathers are killer these days.
You get a better idea from looking at the back. I’m a dense quilter and that is how I like it. 
For the octopus, I outlined him and did some pebbles on the beach.
I have mentioned how much I love my feathers, right?
Hand binding comes next.
I finished this months ago, and I have kept it secret for months! The funny thing is, I shared this with both my quilt Instagramt LAMQG someone put it up on instagram! Yikes! The other Leah had already seen the octopus and had commented when I shared it on instagram. I really wanted this to be a surprise. Somehow she missed that post, and next time I shared the completed quilt, I asked that no one hashtag it. So yes, it did end up being a surprise.
I always piece the backs, the thought of buying five or six yards just for a back is very hard for me. I love using the leftover blocks. You will notice that the upper grey fabric wasn’t quite big enough. This is the only part of a quilt where I use any kind of improv.
I love a quilt that isn’t wavy or funky, so yes, having this beautiful square corner shows good workmanship. For me the accuracy and the workmanship are very important. I don’t call myself an artist, I’m a crafter who is very very proud of my craft.
Having the right model never hurts. When Leah and Abram settle down to being parents they will share pictures of Asher on his quilt.