Mugshot Monday: Tax Day and My Story

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

It’s a “two-fer” Mugshot Monday (yes, on Tuesday, again). Last week, we were recovering from the flu or some crazy virus that decided to infest my house. Luckily, it was just my little guy and I who were hit hard. My daughter had a sore throat, and my husband had his own issues… which we’re afraid came from bad food? All you need to know is that we were on. the. couch. sick. Nothing got done in this house. Nothing. Then I had to play catch up with our taxes, ugh. I was one of those people at the post office at the very last minute. Maybe next year I’ll hire someone. I don’t know why I punish myself like that.

Last week’s Mugshot Monday prompt was “What’s Your Story”. Like my husband says – I like reminiscing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that as long as you’re not living in the past. My t-shirt quilt sort of says it all, and this morning’s mug (actually, my daughter’s) is resting on my high school yearbook. Read on, more pics!

Mugshot Monday: Sickness

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

After a fabulous Easter week (including getting back on my bike), I was down for the count today. Camped out on the couch, did absolutely nothing but sniffle, cough, and whine about how achy I am. Yep, not pretty. And the ~~world~~ housework came to a halt. Also not pretty. Life goes on – hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Today’s mugshot is my little concoction for when I’m sick: hot water, lemon slice, ginger, and honey. It’s soothing. If my sinuses are acting up, I’ll steep a cinnamon stick, ginger, and a few whole black pepper. Let that cool a bit and add honey. You better sit with a box of tissue because your nose will start draining like crazy.

Have a great week everyone! (And go, Michigan!)

Making A Memory Pillow

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

… or you could call it a Keepsake Pillow.

Years ago, I wanted to make a memory quilt with prayers and well-wishes for my aunt and uncle. At the time, my uncle was battling an illness. Thankfully, he recovered – and then the project lay in my “to-do” pile. Fast forward to this year. We celebrated his 60th birthday. (Time has been very good to him. He stays active, keeps good company, and stays youthful with his 20-something-year-old kids.)

I resurrected the gift idea. You know, something thoughtful… but I downsized it to something manageable, like a pillow. A pillow cover, I could do; this time I added a zipper instead of doing an envelope enclosure.

Materials used: 20 in. square pillow form, fabric, iron-on sheets for an ink-jet printer, 22 in. all-purpose zipper

Wish I could say I documented all the steps, but this was really a free-flow, stream of consciousness project. No definite measurements, but I could probably go back and figure it out. Should I?

The front and back of the pillow cover are giant quilt squares. 20-1/2” square, to be exact. Something so heartfelt about handwriting on fabric. And, then to pair it with printed text… Kinda wonky, kinda cool. I worked out our family and friends’ names on wordle.net, and while I love color, I just ran out of colored ink for our printer. So black and white, it was.

(This zipper tutorial was really helpful.)

Hooray, it worked!

This is why you unzip before sewing

Another thoughtful project completed. On to the next one…

Mugshot Monday: If my mug could talk

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

Yes, I should sit…

I could sit at my sewing machine, at the desk to finish our taxes, at the table with my kids, at the tea bar, on the couch to watch a few shows on the DVR (anyone watching Dallas?!).

… but yesterday, I sat for a few minutes with my leftovers from a wonderful Easter weekend.