the banana tree

2012-01-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

sparkle punched out.

wow. the quilt-along continues. i am not elizabeth hartman. i am wonky-stars challenged. 1 hour of sewing produced two sets of stars. at this rate i might have to quit my job to keep this on time. i will be talking to my husband to see how he feels about that. i picked kona champagne for my solid. i thought it was a fitting name for a quilt called sparkle punch. after rippng out 8 seams, and almost ruining the one set of pink polka dots i have, i read the part of the instructions when elizabeth says, "...If you've never done piecing like this before, it may help to practice on some scraps before moving on to your "good" fabric". oh how i wish that i would have read that 30 minutes earlier. i think i have the hang of the squares now so i hope to be a little more productive the next time i sit down. sorry about the busy background behind my two stars... champagne matches my floor too closely and the next closest surface was my pressing table. (also just noticed that picture 1 has a really odd color tint. things are not going my way tonight.)

2012-01-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

i'm gonna make me a dress.

ok. there's a commercial and i cannot even tell you what the product is but i can tell you that there is a girl at a coffee shop counter who is wearing a navy blue dress with BIKES ON IT! i. want. this. dress. thank goodness for google. (seriously, what did we do before google?) i found the dress! but alas, it is an old anthropolgie dress that is no longer for sale. thank goodness for etsy. (seriously, what did we do before etsy?) but alas, i don't have $125 for a dress.

so i've decided that even though i have not sewn clothes since 7th grade (when i sewed and modeled a pair of pink capri pants & matching shirt for the fair, wonder if there is picture of that somewhere?) I AM GOING TO SEW MY OWN BIKE DRESS! i ordered my favorite fabric in the whole-wide-world & cannot wait. what fabric you ask? her cruiser by jay-cyn designs for birch fabric. (thank you fabricworm for the photo)

2012-01-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

rachel & josh.

i had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of rachel & josh on december 30. the wedding was beautiful and the couple was radiant. visit my website to see more photos.

2012-01-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

happy new year!

yeah, i'm back. i hope. spent most of the morning cutting fabric to finish oh fransson's paintbox quilt-along which, yes, i started in APRIL OF 2010. also, fabric has been found (found, not bought!) to particpate in oh fransson's current quilt-along, sparkle punch. i settled on polka dots. not sure if they are going to actually match or not but since i have cut approximately 490 3 1/2-inch squares of polka dots, polka dots it is! i'm attempting to actually quilt along in a timely manner this time. i love good intentions. mickey helped me for awhile.

here are the blocks that i have finished sewing for the paintbox quilt along. almost done with the blues. then onto purple, yellow, red, orange and pink! 42 blocks down, 38 to go!

and then i cut squares. and more squares. and still more squares. here is part of the stack waiting to become a sparkle punch quilt!

2010-04-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

late to the party...

i decided to participate in oh fransson's paintbox quilt-along. it started in january. i started yesterday. technically i started closer to january because i ordered my robert kaufman kona solids jelly roll in january. i lovingly photographed it when it arrived.

and then i shopped. and shopped for prints to go with the solids. then all of the fabric sat on top of my sewing machine for, well, a couple of months. yesterday i sorted and started! cutting.

i've decided to not use the brown solid or two of the three white solids that came in the jelly roll and instead i'm going to use a black solid and two additional gray solids. i also have one more blue solid to find a print to match, more shopping for me!

today i started sewing! i started with the gray solid because it is my favorite! i love gray! and then sewed the white because it is b-o-r-i-n-g. i continued with the greens because they are my least favorite and thought i'd work from not so exciting for me towards the colors i like better. except that is just today. sometimes greens are my favorites. i guess my real strategy is that i piled them up and i'm just working through the pile. i only sewed for a bit and then i cut some more.

8 blocks down... 72 to go!

i wanted to photograph the stack... it looks pathetically small but i am not discouraged!

2010-01-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

a new quilt for the bowerbaby! pattern from Oh Fransson's mod quilt sampler quilt along

first time i have attempted a pieced back on a quilt. it's bit wonky, but that just makes it more charming, right?

2009-12-29T21:22:00.000-08:00

ok. watched two movies yesterday that i feel like writing a bit about. first i watched "julie & julia". this movie was fab-u-lous. seriously, i usually don't like movies that i watch after reading books as much as i liked the books but this movie was perfect. i so totally enjoyed julie powell's book and the way that story was intertwined with julia child's story was just plain wonderful. i like very much that fact that julia was portrayed as julie's image of julia, not a caricature of julia. and meryl streep, my goodness that woman is good! amy adams was excellent as julie powell.

then came "(500) days of summer". so good. so good. i think that maybe i loved this movie so much because it was visually stunning and the soundtrack is excellent.

besides the fact that i had time to watch two movies in one day (excellent itself!) what an excellent movie watching day i had!

2009-11-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

it's been a long time....

a new quilt for baby michael so he can remember our trip to yellowstone this past summer. i was so excited to find yellowstone fabric!

2009-10-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

welcome baby chayse!

2009-08-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

spent my sunday sewing a new lunch tote for myself. three more weeks until i have to use it! pattern from coats & clark

2009-07-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

nathan in centerfield @ the tacoma rainiers game
(nate is 2nd from the right)

2009-07-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

two quilts for two babies! welcome to the world baby a and baby b hildebrand!

2009-05-13T21:10:00.001-07:00

a sock monkey quilt for a friend @ work

2009-03-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

2008-12-18T12:52:00.001-08:00

still snowing, 9:00am - thursday

2008-12-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

snow @ 9:00am

snow @ 3:00pm, still snowing!

2008-12-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

happy birthday nate!

2008-12-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

fun with photoshop

2008-11-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

call me crazy, but i have been wanting to do a photo-a-day blog for awhile and now my cat has motivated me. i take too many pictures of my cat, probably because he's always around and doesn't mind me taking pictures. so, a day in the life of michael "mickey" collins has been born. click on the link to the right (a day in the life of mickey) and enjoy!

2008-09-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Me after 60 miles (more like 65). The Breast Cancer 3-Day was one the most amazing experiences of my life. Seriously, the birth of my son, my wedding day and these 3 days were life changing. Physical recovery has been nothing compared to the emotional recovery from this event. I'm ready to walk next year! If anyone would like to donate....

2008-02-20T19:35:00.001-08:00

Lunar Eclipse. This was pretty cool.

2008-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

The SUN came out! We actually saw the sun today and decided to make a run for the beach. It was gorgeous outside, rarely a better day at the beach even in the summer. Although it was only about 60 degrees, there were some brave souls in swimsuits trying to catch a wave. Not us. It was lovely out though.

2008-02-14T22:14:00.001-08:00

I'm going for a little walk - check out my other blog! or my official Breast Cancer 3-Day page. Thanks to Barbra Kates for the photo!

2008-02-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

PLEASE VOTE!!!

2008-01-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm still here. Just too busy to ever sit down and actually post anything. I have been dreaming about a new camera and think I will actually own one soon....then let the blogging madness begin. We are stuck at home today - SNOW DAY - yet there isn't a drop of snow to be seen. It keeps "snaining" here. Snaining is Nathan's word for the combo of snow and rain that has been falling for four days straight now. 33 degrees and snaining stinks. OH BUT WAIT...the most exciting thing happened, after the boat show (33 degrees and snaining), Vince and I went to see U23D at the IMAX in Seattle. 100% Amazing. Bono in 3D. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

2007-06-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

our new ride! 2007 Jeep Patriot... more pics to come!

2007-03-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

The boys went to work on the boat. I went to check on them. I found Nathan shimmying up the mast. YIKES! He of course, had the biggest smile on his face. To put it in perspective, on the bottom picture you can see a green tarp. I can stand up under that tarp. Nathan is higher than he looks!

2007-02-21T19:04:00.001-08:00

nathan, 02.19.07

2007-02-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

vince, 02.19.07

2007-02-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

mickey. 02.20.07

2007-02-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

sunrise, 02.01.07

2007-02-19T18:35:00.000-08:00

well, so much for posting everyday. how does one's life get so busy? maybe i should set my goals for once a month? oh well, since this is strictly for my entertainment - WHO CARES? once i actually get in the swing of things, i will invite family and friends to view. here's a pic from vince. nice, eh?

2007-01-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

The Boat Show, the Boat Show the Great Seattle Boat Show..."

I'll start a few days ago (January 27, 2007) Vin and I headed up to Seattle to look for our dream boat. We have been going to the boat show since we met. This time I took a ride ON TOP of the Alaskan Way Viaduct...never been up there before. Notice Vin looking out the window in the rear view mirror. If you are from the greater Seattle area, you will know why this is newsworthy.

Then it was off to the "Boats Afloat" show on South Lake Union. Our new dream is a 40-foot Sabre...
Proof that I was there...

ME ON EDGAR MARTINEZ DRIVE! I LOVE EDGAR!!

Southbound I-5...the mountain was out in all of her glory.

2007-01-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

my goodness...

...my guinness (taken at the "gravity bar" atop st. james gate, dublin, ireland)

2007-01-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

SNOW DAY!! again...that's 7...

2006-12-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

So, we just had a HUGE wind storm and didn't have power for 3 days...I slept on a boat and at grandma & grandpa's house. Now I am home and it's time to relax...

Me and Vin are glad to be back on our own couch!

2006-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest member of our family! His name is Mickey...

2006-10-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

2006-07-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I went to the zoo yesterday...we had a pretty good time and of course saw some MONKEYS! (ok, actually they were gibbons, but they look like monkeys to me!)

2006-07-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

well...we just spent three glorious days aboard Sway and i really didn't want to come back to shore. vince and i left friday afternoon and sailed to hope island. we snooped around the island and took pictures. vince took pictures of me taking pictures which is funny.

the weather was perfect and i found myself many times sitting and looking around and thinking, "i can't believe that i live here." while sipping our morning coffee we were treated to two eagles, perched at the top of two very tall trees, singing away to one another. i have never heard an eagle sing and they have a very pretty song. vince and i motored down to boston harbor and picked up nathan.

the three of us continued on to mcmicken island and moored for the night. we went to shore a couple of times and nathan had fun stepping on clams and geoducks trying to make them squirt him. he eventually got brave enough to try to grab the necks of the geoducks and screamed as they pulled themselves back into their shells deep in the mud. nathan found a shell for me and we were all surprised when out popped this little critter (not exactly a bug o' the day but it will have to do)...

rowing back from the shore, i snapped this photo of Sway...

nathan and i returned to shore later in the evening and landed on what we called "sand dollar beach" because you couldn't walk without stepping on sand dollars. the live ones bury themselves and can survive being stepped on thank goodness.

so needless to say i wasn't excited when we pulled Sway back into her slip at fiddlehead and jumped into the car and headed out into traffic. can't wait till we can take her out again!

2006-07-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

ok. so here goes. this is my first blogging event. exciting! i will officially kick off the banana tree with a bug o' the day for matty. this critter greeted me as i came home from school on tuesday. i'll include the first photo i took, it's blurry but i was in a hurry. he had these cool attenna things all fanned out. by the time i got the macro turned on, he tucked them away. he was big, about 2 inches long. he made a funky hiss at me too! so, here ya go mg...