Whitniffic Whatnots

It's been a while since I've made an update on the progress of the homebrewing stuff I'm working on. That's probably because I haven't made a ton of progress. Ha ha. About a week after I dropped of the old wood desk at my Grandpa's house, he decided that it was probably best if I kept it elsewhere since he hasn't been feeling the best. "Elsewhere" ended up being in my backyard, covered with a tarp to hide it from Homebrew Hubby. And then it snowed a bunch. Joy! Fortunately, Neil had a rare burst of ambition (no doubt inspired by my slightly dramatic meltdown about not being able to give any gifts this year at all) and cleaned out one of the little rooms in our basement for me to work on "secret" projects in. So that's where that sits for the time being. I did get the pieces cut to add the shelves and patch up the sides, although I did forget to trim the top piece to length... darn. I'll just have to bring it to work with me. ...

I FINALLY made the time to take a longarm quilting class! So excited!!! Our local tech school has an Artisan Center branch downtown, and they have a textiles studio with three Nolting longarm machines on 12-foot tables. I signed up months ago for the intro session which consisted of two Wednesday night classes, each about 3 hours long. I paid $75 to register, and all materials and thread were included. I did notice that going forward, the class price has dropped to $60, but oh well! I ended up being the only one in class, so I got one-on-one instruction (which isn't normal- the other lady who was signed up forgot all about it). I absolutely LOVED it. Lynn, the instructor, was really nice and walked me through the process, but didn't do too much for me so I had the opportunity to do it myself and retain the information. It is quite a bit to remember! I've got a pretty solid background in sewing machine use, since I started sewing at age 4; it was really just th...

My good friend who owns the wedding/event venue recently opened a second location, and she's doing something really cool with it. She has a small staff helping her out with everyday business, and she's encouraging them all to host events as fundraisers for organizations or causes they're passionate about for no cost, which is super generous and awesome! This concept is a win-win all around. It helps the venue get their name out, plus they have a liquor license and a full bar for beverage sales. It helps the charity or cause with awareness and monetary support. And best of all, it gives people in a small town some fun things to do for a night out! I don't work for Gina (although I helped translate her vision for the new venue space!), but she asked me if I'd be interested in teaching "Paint Your Pet" nights to raise money for the Humane Society. Of course I said I would be honored- but I hadn't painted in years! I would need to get some practice and...

All my husband wants for Christmas is stuff for brewing beer. Since I know he doesn't read my blog (lol), I figured I could share with you all what I'm scheming. I've been scouring Craigslist and Ebay for cheap useful things, and I've acquired a pretty good collection already. Aside from the random yellow junk I bought before to make him a lamp (NOT home brew related, by the way), I bought a neat antique scale, a vintage bench-top bottle capper, an old grain mill, and a rough-looking solid wood desk. What on Earth, you ask, might I be doing with all this stuff? Let me show you... First, I'll start with the grain mill. I bought this from a gentleman who is selling off all his home brewing stuff. I talked to him on the phone and he seemed very nice, and his wife was also very sweet when I picked up my purchase from their home. I'm not entirely sure why he's throwing in the brewing towel, but I'm glad he's selling his stuff for a good deal! ...

I'm so excited about how this disappearing nine patch quilt turned out! You may recall I started this one a while back... and I finally had an open weekend to visit my mother-in-law's sit-down long arm! I had a really productive Friday evening and got a whole bunch of stuff prepped and ready to finish, including sandwiching this pretty little quilt. Figuring out HOW to quilt it was a bit of a challenge... there really isn't a focal point to the quilt with it being all repeating blocks, so all-over pattern was the way to go, but I still wanted to use the lines of the blocks as a guide. I tried to hint on butterflies a little bit, so I used wingy, petal shapes in the larger squares. I went for a denser wishbone filler for the colorful narrower areas, and it kind of makes me think of how butterflies fly around all loopy-swoopy. Doodle a dozen, quilt once! I was kind of really nervous at first. I've only used this machine once before (to quilt my blue-...