Applique trick

Once I was helping my roommate with a quilt square and I had to go to 3 different stores before I found freezer paper. Apparently nobody uses freezer paper these days, and I honestly don't know what it's for outside of quilting.

I found another way to make applique pieces lay down the way you want them to here:
http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/2007/02/super-circles.html
Thought you guys might like it.

Wrap with Love donations

An Australian charity collects knitted squares to make large blankets that are donated to needy communities. You can knit a square and send it in or donate excess yarn. Donations are due July 13. Thought it might be a good way to use up those bits of yarn that I'm too lazy to move (and a good way to procrastinate packing for me!). Check out
http://whipup.net/2007/06/17/wrap-with-love-drop-in-stitches-challenge/

and
http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/WrapInformation.htm#Delivery

for details.

bridesmaid dresses

Here are the dresses in action (well, not that much action, but in their intended use). Check out my picasa site for a bizzillion pictures from the wedding weekend.
http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyJaneFisher

p.s. I should point out that the guy in the tux in this picture is not the groom. He's the "bridesman", a good friend of Sarah's. We tried to keep him off to the side to accentuate that point, but I thought I should point it out in case you look at the rest of the pictures and see her kissing some other guy :)

Book recommendation

I just finished a book I think you'll enjoy. It's Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I've enjoyed her novels, but this one is nonfiction, about food and farmers and why we should grow and eat organic food. They live on a farm (in Virginia, I think), and decided for one year to eat only food that was produced locally, including a lot that they grew themselves.
I usually lose interest in nonfiction books, but this one was really interesting and well written to someone who knew nothing at all about the subject. It wasn't preachy or too unrealistic, although I thought her children did seem unnaturally cooperative. But maybe that's just me. It includes some good recipes, too.

Alphabet Book

This project goes WAY back...when Zachary was born, Geri Laney made him an alphabet book. I don't know if she used a pattern or not, but it is darling. She used corduroys and calicos in mostly primary colors and it had really cute objects to illustrate the different letters, some of them quite elaborate and some with removable parts (like a flower that buttoned on and off). It became a favorite toy of ours (note the stain on the front, and several missing parts) and despite having been made 26 years ago (!) it doesn't look dated at all. I always wanted to try to copy it, and recently made one that is a hybrid, using some of Geri's ideas and some from a pattern I had bought for an alphabet book. I made mine with felt pages and adhesive appliques with zigzag stitching. I used the letter templates from the purchased pattern, and for the pictures I used a combination of ones copied from Geri's, some from the purchased pattern, and some I made up. It's cute, but I used much simpler designs and construction, and Geri's is much cuter! Next time I think I'll copy her patterns more closely.

Switched-at-Birth Sister Checking In

I guess it's official: I was switched at birth.
You guys are amazing with all these projects.
I haven't picked up as much as a knitting needle, other than three weeks ago when I went to my knitting group and felt obligated to take some knitting (I dug around and found an old half-finished washcloth and worked on that).
Reenie, your trip sounds fantastic.
Everyone's quilts and dresses and costumes and projects are fantastic.
My only project is to help Mike do a little movie for Tim for his video Father's Day card - we have a big pile of dirt behind our house (new house being built in the lot) and we're going to take some Barbies and Ninja Turtles out there and make a movie. Reen, we've been researching the Amalfi Coast for our possible vacation next summer, and we've decided to push the Barbie Dream House into the side of the dirt pile for Barbie and Shredder's Italian coast summer home. If it turns out, I'll send it to everyone.
Diane

Altering a Bridesmaid Dress

I'm going to be in the wedding of two of my best friends, Danny and Sarah, next weekend. Sarah is a great bride from a bridesmaid perspective (and her fiancee's too) because she picked great, affordable dresses for us to wear. The dress I'm wearing is super-cute and great for a hot June day. The ceremony is at 5 and we didn't want dyeable shoes, so Sarah and Jen (another bridesmaid) decided we should add black sashes to the dresses. Sarah and I worked on them 2 weeks ago and I think they came out really cute.