Give It a Go ::

Summer,

2011-08-26T23:11:00.000-05:00

when you have a baby...

2011-08-19T12:23:00.001-05:00

you don't sew.

At least for a little while.

{Elizabeth Erickson Brown. Born 05.12.11 at 8:35 in the morning. Weighing 8 pounds, 13 ounces & 21 inches long.}

{yesterday, 14 weeks}

I still knit sometimes (working on this (a sleeve and some kitchener to go), this (almost as close), started this, this is in queue once I choose the right yarn) because I can do that lazily in front of an episode of this.

Because 2 kids, they tire you out.

At least I'm enjoying using and loving the (2!) quilts I finished before she was born (but no time yet for photos!)...and am gearing up to do a little project for my Libby, plus another one for another Elizabeth, due next month. Simple, simple, but it will surely feel good to quilt something.

PS: I did manage to finish this bee block

(and another just like it) before Libby was born, and this one,

dreadfully late, a couple of weeks ago.

PPS: Have you heard about this book? I'm honored to be a contributor. See that light-blue-and-lime block in the upper right? Mine!

Thursday smatterings

2011-01-06T13:19:00.000-06:00

leftovers and photos from yesterday's birthday dinner in the city are calling to me...

frozen custard is so much creamier than ice cream.

this website is so amazing. I might even pay for it beyond the free trial...

thinking about decorating a lot right now...a big boy room for Alex, revamping the nursery, hanging pictures in the basement (and really the rest of our house too...)--much inspiration here and here and (of course) here.

thinking even more about knitting. Ravelry is so amazing, and whether it has led to an explosion of awesome, easily-available patterns or just opened my eyes to them all, I now have about 1,000 patterns in my queue and my next-up-to-knit changes every day. Current favorite is this, followed closely by this and this (though I'm not sure I have the patience to knit a garment out of sock yarn). I'm working on this right now with a skein of Cascade 220 in brown, gifted to me by Alex this Christmas (with help from daddy of course). Slow going; I guess I've been sewing too much!

and finally, I (finally again!) mailed off some bee blocks the other day.

new things

2011-01-01T20:46:00.000-06:00

for 2011...

:: beignets.

:: making for myself and my family first.

:: 365.

:: finding a middle ground between inertia and perfection.

:: and being mom to two small people, starting in May.

quiet, but still making

2010-12-13T19:31:00.001-06:00

for the flickr embroiderbee:

for The Bee's Knees:

for Bee Liberated:

and for the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap:

more to come.

in and out

2010-09-17T22:13:00.000-05:00

Recently...

In:

(from so very long ago) a coordinating! doorstop and a plastic bag dispenser from Corrie for (the first!) Urban Home Goods swap...

my stunning dqs9 quilt from Anita...

and lots and lots of bee blocks and swap blocks for the second Mod Bento Block Swap.

Out:

spider web blocks for Greta...

sampler blocks for Leanne...

and 3x6 mini-bee blocks for the whole hive.

on the machine now: Corrinne's giveaway winnings. More on that next week, fingers crossed.

Happy weekend!

the right track

2010-09-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

Most times, when I make something, I picture it and then do it. Which is not to say that there aren't changes and mistakes along the way (case in point)--but the finished product is usually pretty similar to what I had in my head to begin with.

This swap was different.

What I ended up with could not be farther from my original plan, which I had deliberated over for quite some time as it was.

I do like the finished product, but there's a part of me that's kind of grieving for my first idea. I'm not sure there will ever be another time to use it.

Maybe, someday, for myself.

Onward. The front is fairly straightforward, though I did get a chance to play around with positive and negative space.

I had planned to hand quilt the entire thing, but then I discovered that I really know nothing about hand quilting. I kept the bird (since that motif from the back...

...was the inspiration for this final version), but opted to machine quilt the rest.

Bound, labeled, sent (again!) with hometown-made lemonheads, with half an hour to spare.

alex in wonderland

2010-09-10T00:38:00.000-05:00

The amusement park, not the fairy tale.

We visited Amarillo, Texas this past (Labor Day) weekend, where my husband was born and lived until he was four.

We rode horses, saw cars growing out of the ground, "hiked" Palo Duro Canyon, went to a rodeo, toured his family's old stomping grounds, and had tacos and margaritas for (my birthday) dinner...

...but the highlight was certainly our trip to Wonderland.

Which Alex loved "this much"--

which was delightful in itself, but not too bad either was the perfectly glorious sky that was the backdrop for the perfectly glorious colors of this place.

See any quilts in there? Thought so.

Also, I somehow managed to photograph a rainbow.

eggplant and bone

2010-09-07T00:42:00.001-05:00

first attempt.

first-and-a-half attempt.

the right track.

finished now, and in the dryer...just needs a label. photos tomorrow, before I mail it, right on time.

an owl haikoop

2010-09-01T12:24:00.001-05:00

Have you heard about the Embroidereading Contest, hosted by Melissa at Checkout Girl?

Alex is into owls—like really into owls—and loves to ask me again and again about where and how they live. One day on a forest preserve walk, he asked, “why don’t we see owls?”—even though he knows they’re nocturnal. It’s as if it fascinates him that there are creatures that are allowed to stay up past his bedtime. That question became this (haiku) poem about what an owl is doing while we’re up and living.

The only things I bought for this project were the floss and the hoop—all the appliqué fabrics are scraps or cut from thrifted things…the cloud is batting, the owl’s body is from a wool herringbone blazer. My fabric is less than organized, but I just knew I had this tiny scrap of yellow dots, and I was miraculously able to find it to make the sun.

My one regret (besides the fact that the word "sleep" looks a little bit balloonlike--I was using my own handwriting!) is that the weather here is dreary and so therefore is the photo. He is much perkier looking in real life.

I'll be celebrating my birthday and my blogiversary in Amarillo, Texas...see you next week!

we need a staycation.

2010-08-09T14:28:00.000-05:00

Like nobody's business.

where my mind wanders,

2010-07-26T15:16:00.000-05:00

...when I'm doing most anything, is to quilts.

We pulled out the Perler beads before camp today and Alex started working on a circle (he's a perfectionist, already at almost-four, so this process will take a while), and I saw a mulberry bead next to a baby blue one (or was it the petal pink?), and before I knew it...Quick, grab a photo. A perfect quilty color scheme.

Alex wanted to add another pink--too peachy--and I asked him to wait until the photo was finished. Does everyone take pictures while playing with their kids? I suppose I should compartmentalize things a bit better and unplug from craftiness sometimes, but this is how my mind works. Maybe I am somehow inspiring him artistically? Either that or enhancing said perfectionism. In either case, overthinking, probably.

Anyway, have you seen this new flickr group? Fun just to browse, but I like it especially because it lets me know that there are other people out there like me.

a challenge

2010-07-19T21:28:00.001-05:00

Like most of its peers, the CMQG is just getting off the ground, but we've already done some really neat things in the few months we've been meeting.

Top of the list for me is the ICE challenge (blanking on the acronym's origin, but I'm pretty sure "inspiration" is in there somewhere...). It's kind of like DQS with a twist: each person chose four fat quarters and made an inspiration block using parts of them. Then we brought the block and the leftovers to a meeting, where we sent our blocks home with another person chosen at random who would use it all, plus her own fabrics as needed, to make a mini quilt.

I got to take home a block made by Debbi, one of the more accomplished members of our guild, and was kind of nervous to be adding to her beautiful work (she's very unassuming, though, and seemed genuinely excited to see what I'd come up with). I neglected to take a photo of the block itself (how?!), but here's the finished quilt:

The left side is her original block, and I was planning to add some improv sawtoothish shapes Marston-style, but to combat the busy-ness, the swath of blue seemed in order. Which then seemed too un-busy, hence the white strip. And then the quilt seemed to lack depth (or something? Not sure I'm expressing that too well...) and so I took the plunge of cutting the entire thing, Debbi's block included, to insert that last medium blue strip. Which was stressful (is it ethical to cut someone else's block? I actually sat there for a while considering this with the rotary cutter in my hand, and then took a literal deep breath before I did it), but the result, I think, makes the quilt.

I discovered that I have a thing or two to learn about dealing with bias edges, and even with some basting (the only thing I knew to even try), the pieces moved enough that the top and bottom don't line up. I ripped it once and tried again, and of course it was worse the second time, but then really better. That little bit of movement seems to add some character that was missing before. Debbi's block had a lot of movement, and I was aiming for moving from complex to simple across the quilt, but it was pretty stagnant until I made that mistake. I squared it up and was satisfied.

The quilting took a long time to come together in my mind, but then it was quick to do. I thought about hand quilting, which I think would have been a great fit for this quilt, but was reluctant to try it on someone else's quilt (Do I say that a lot?). What I ended up with is actually one continuous line, which I love in that it unites the three parts of the design, and I used the gray thread as another unifying element as there was a lot of contrast in Debbi's fabrics.

After auditioning a lot of binding choices, I decided to continue the gray, with just a bit of black to kind of weigh the quilt down. Not like it's going to float away, but just that I wanted it to seem more solid.

The show and tell at the meeting yesterday was terrific--each quilt more beautiful than the last. A bunch of them are shown here. This was a tremendous exercise, and Debbi seemed to like the final product (I hope!). And wait until you see what I got back from Terri!

As an aside, here's what happens when I take photos of a project I'm supposed to deliver in half an hour, when the drive there will take 45 minutes.

It's a miracle I got any shots of the quilt at all.

As another aside, we're talking about a second round of the Mod Bento Block Swap--check out this thread if you're interested. Full details by the end of the week.

unbelievably,

2010-07-15T10:32:00.001-05:00

this is the sum total of my black & white fabric.

Becca sent strips of various colors to each of us for ASB, and asked us to try a new method for spider web blocks from Collaborative Quilting (2?--by Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran--bee overlap!). She accdientally included just enough black & white for the corners of one block. Since I'm clearly deficient in this area of fabric accumulation, what's supposed to look like this:

is just this

for the second.

Love this method!

For Bee Liberated, Susan asked for liberated log cabins using fussy-cut owls for the centers.

I had never made a log cabin block before! My only issue was that Susan asked us to build the blocks clockwise around the owl, but I ended up a little narrow on one side and had to add one last piece out of order--didn't have enough fabric (or think it would look good) to go around the whole block again.

But I'm sure that everyone who sees this quilt will only have eyes for this guy, anyway:

I've decided:

2010-07-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Pillows are the perfect subset of the perfect craft. Small, portable, quick(ish).

Sharon gave me just enough to go on once we started planning back in late May...warm colors, more modern than traditional, likes AMH and this quilt.

And so here it is, tiny-style for a pillow cover.

I already had everything but the chocolate Kona solid, and this was a great exercise in coordinating fabrics from different lines in the same project, something I'm continually working on.

The backing fabric: perfect--an AMH print I also already owned, and love, but it just wasn't at home in my home. Large-scale, and so a nice contrast to the prints and layout on the front, and home-dec weight for a little heft. I'd almost say it makes the pillow reversible, though who would ever want to hide a pieced quilty front?

Straight-line quilting is still a little maddening to me...I'm not sure I could sew slowly enough to keep the entire design perfectly parallel. A little bit of the backing in the binding because piecing a binding is a compulsion. I almost used a brighter print, but am now glad I went in this direction as I think it would have been too distracting.

A couple of other goodies in the package:

And off it went to sunny California.

out the door

2010-07-12T15:27:00.037-05:00

in the car, actually, ready for the PO in a bit. We were too tired to go after (the first day of) camp.

People, this was so much fun. Watching the flickr group and choosing fabrics and meeting new quilters...which all of us could do...but also having all 669 quarters on my dining room table at once,

and sending packages to bee friends,

and seeing the possible combinations as I sorted made it even better.

And such happy things in the packages! Like this on the back of a return envelope,

and fun cards (like a paint chip from Audrey!),

and a Hawkeye block (an excellent inside joke from Susie for which I already have a gifty project in mind--because let's be clear, we're Illini fans in this house!),

and extra blocks from Karen. And a butterfly pin.

I think another round is in order.

pro/con for VQBs

2010-07-07T14:18:00.000-05:00

pros: working with different fabrics, making a block style that you might not have otherwise, trying a new technique, and being creative within structure, which is a good thing for this overthinker.

These baskets were so much fun to make for Kimber for Bee Liberated. In truth, I had skipped right over that chapter in Liberated Quiltmaking, and even though the bias handles (especially the tall one--my own fault, due to a cutting error, but I figured out a solution!) gave me a run for my money, I *so* love the finished blocks that I'm contemplating a basket quilt of my own.

Which leads to the con: I need a new quilt idea like I need another bag of scraps. High-class problem, I guess.

"problems"

2010-07-06T14:51:00.001-05:00

with hosting a swap might include:

overflowage of your awesome free storage bag...

...or realizing that you probably don't have enough fabric or time set aside to make sufficient blocks so that you can keep one of each design for yourself...

Seriously, I have been mostly resisting the urge to tear the envelopes right open so that nothing gets lost, but in the interest of keeping the sent/received thread current, I've had to make a few exceptions. These blocks are stunning--all of them. Check out the flickr pool and see for yourself!

blue

2010-07-04T14:13:00.007-05:00

Normally, I would have chosen a contrasting bowl, but this one seemed perfect for the Fourth.

Enjoy the day.

these things are tiny!

2010-07-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

Compared to 12 inch blocks, which is what I'm used to, I guess.

I also felt a little like I was back in junior high, writing my first name with some boy's last name, as I tried to figure out which penmanship looked best. Except this was on Kona white instead of on wide-ruled notebook paper.

there's less time for sewing...

2010-06-27T00:14:00.022-05:00

when school's out. But there's still a lot to love about summer:

::small-town parades
::cherry picking
::walking downtown to the Ferris wheel...
::and the view of your house from the top
::farm camp
::a quilt at the car show
::caterpillars
::shaved ice
::bubbles
::looking forward to two more months.

a winner!

2010-06-23T15:38:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my little centennial giveaway...the winner (per random.org) was #14, Colette. Watch for an email from me later today--looking forward to collaborating with you!

A little Wednesday eye candy (and aren't these candy colors!?):

Some Tula Pink Hushabye for round 2 of the Modern Siggy Swap. Planning to work on those blocks and finish the pillow this weekend while my husband is relaxing by the blackjack table in Vegas. And maybe some hexagons while we stay the night at grandma and grandpa's? Nobody can tell me I don't live on the edge.

a different species of bee

2010-06-22T08:31:00.002-05:00

If you're here from QBB, welcome!

Speaking of quilting bee blocks, have you heard of the 3x6 mini bee, hosted by Tiffany? A little different than a typical bee, but so much fun. Each quarter runs three months (hence the name), and the group for a particular quarter is divided into hives of seven. Each person makes six of the same block in the colors requested by each of the others.

Or, in my case, seven--one for me!

The photos of the others are too embarrassingly dark/grainy/taken-at-midnight-like to be posted here, but they're up over on flickr...

Five of the six (I asked for orange and pink) have already arrived...

Can't wait to get the sixth so I can start laying them out! And, of course, to get started on the next round...

100th post, and a giveaway

2010-06-17T00:15:00.004-05:00

...of sorts. It's real, but it's a little off the radar, as are a lot of things I do on the blog and otherwise.

But first.

If you're here for info about the Mod Bento Block Swap, just click here or scroll down. Not quite two weeks before the suggested US mail date (June 28)...you've still got time! If you're on the fence, check out the gorgeous blocks over at the flickr group...just think: some of those could be yours!

Back on task.

I guess the 100-posts point is a sort of arbitrary time for blog reflection, but wanting to commemorate the occasion anyway while lacking a solid idea on how to do it has kept me on bloghold for 2+ weeks. No good. So I guess I'll just make it simple: after 100 posts, I like blogging, and I'm planning to keep going with it. Thanks to everyone who pops in here from time to time; your visits and comments make my day.

To celebrate, how about a giveaway?

It's a secret giveaway.

It involves a pattern, a quilt, and that whole "custom work" thing--speaking of which, a peek at Sharon's pillow-in-progress:

Beyond that info, you'll be in the dark either until you win or until you read the details here as they unfold. If you're willing to take the plunge, just leave me a comment; I'll draw a winner at random on Monday night.

how 'bout a swap?

2010-05-27T00:53:00.007-05:00

As it's just about the only quilted thing that I have made and kept in my own home, I am a little bit obsessed with this pillow. Except I didn't make it in its entirety, which you already know if you've been around a while...Ashley, from the much-beloved Film in the Fridge, made it for her Modified Bento Box Block tutorial...and it became my first and only giveaway win.

I would love to make a full quilt like this someday...and might...but one day I got to thinking how much fun it would be to swap these blocks. And so, I give you The Mod Bento Block Swap...

...mod from Ashley's "modified" tutorial, and also for modern fabrics. The basic deal is that you make as many blocks as you want to, quarter them, mail them, and get back that same number of delightfully-mixed-up quarters for your own awesome project. Ashley was kind enough to allow me to base the swap on her tutorial--thanks, Ashley!

Through a little graph-paper geekery (which I'll post in the next day or two), I figured that you can get all of the components you need for one block from a quarter-yard (not a fat quarter) of fabric, and so 5 quarter-yards will yield 20 coordinating-but-different quarters. Do some assembly-line cutting and sewing, and end up with a great variety once the swap is done. Of course, these can be scrappy, too...more thinking, but maybe more fun.

Some ideas for smaller numbers of blocks (in case you're not up to making a full quilt's worth)...

4 quarters:: a pillow, 4 placemats
12 quarters:: a wall hanging, a table runner
20 quarters:: a lots-of-solids quilt (I'll throw some possible layouts around in the coming days),
48 quarters:: a lap quilt with dimesions like Ashley's original (40" x 54").

Sound like fun? Here are the specifics of the swap:

Please use modern (there's that "mod" again!), quilt-shop quality fabrics. There are plenty of lists floating around the web of what constitutes "modern fabrics"--I'm guessing most people who are participating know them when they see them, butif you have a question, just send me an email or post to the flickr group.
There are no color police, but to keep everything coordinating pretty well, let's aim to use primarily neutrals and saturated colors and prints. Also, please try to use a mixture of colors in each block--no "blue-only" blocks, for example. Solids are great, and it's fine to use different fabrics within a particular "ring" of the block.
Please follow the tutorial! Nobody is perfect with seam allowances & block sizes (least of all me!), but the strips in each quarter need to line up fairly well with their neighbors in order for the blocks to look good. To allow a bit of wiggle room, let's go ahead and follow Ashley's suggestion of squaring up to 15.5" (before cutting), which will result in 7.75" quarters.
This is a centralized swap, which means you'll mail me your block quarters and a stamped return envelope (the same amount you used to send), and I'll mix everything up and send you back the same number that you made.
International swappers are welcome! I think the best way to deal with postage is through Paypal, which we can handle as needed.
A suggested mail date for US participants is June 28. Allowing a week-plus for the blocks to get to me, I'll mail what I have on July 9. I'll plan to do another switch-and-mail for stragglers after a week or so if needed, but for best variety, the blocks should arrive here no later than July 5.
Feel free to keep one of your quarters (i.e., make a block, send me 3 quarters and keep one for your project).
I'll do my best to give you a variety of quarters, but depending on what I receive, you may end up with a couple from the same set of fabrics.

If you're still with me (I know, I'm kinda wordy) and want to participate, please send me an email at bento.giveitago@gmail.com with your name, mailing address, and a guesstimate of how many quarters you'll send (not that I'll hold you to it--I'm just nosy).

From here on out, we'll handle questions, discussion, etc. at the Mod Bento Block Swap flickr group. Join us!

**edited to thank Christina for catching an error in the button code...if you've had trouble with it, try again as it should be fixed. Thanks, Christina!**

sunday smatterings

2010-05-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

::April bee blocks;

::and May (did I mention I started a bee?).

::such an interesting post.

::amazing.

::sprinkler weather in May? At six o'clock at night?

::a winner! Thanks to everyone who entered and welcome to those of you who've decided to stick around.

BQF!

2010-05-21T10:51:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited about this spring's Blogger's Quilt Festival (hosted by Amy)--last time, I was still a quiltgawker, so it's nice to finally be on both sides of the equation. I'm so looking forward to browsing all the beautiful entries.

My first quilt--named Pink Lemonade--is still my favorite. The layout was kind of an accident, but I think I prefer it to what I had originally envisioned--and it was an great lesson in keeping calm and carrying on (something I've come to actually love about quilting, a la Gwen Marston...sometimes plans change for the better!).

I adore both the colors and the big blocks of white. And it was so satisfying to finally execute all of the steps I'd been reading and thinking about for so long...from piecing the blocks all the way through to sewing the last stitch of the binding...and of course to pulling it out of the dryer.

It was just a little bit hard to give it away...at least it went to an adorable baby girl, and of course there are always more quilts to be made.

Thanks for stopping by!

giveaway day!

2010-05-16T21:05:00.009-05:00

Winner, allow me to make you a pillow.

Not *that* pillow, but your own, designed and made according to what you would love to have in your home.

That's the giveaway. It stems from a few places--Elizabeth's giveaway from December was so cool...pillows are fun to make...it's hard for me to think of and execute something that someone might or might not want, but who doesn't want to be a part of Giveaway Day?...I might like to do custom work someday and this will be good practice...and mostly, I missed the signups over here. I figure that I got a good chunk of my bento pillow (above) from Ashley, so this will be kind of like the other half of a swap, right?

If you're new here (or even if you're not), that last paragraph might seem a little busy and cryptic, and I apologize. Moving on, here's the info that you're probably here for:

If you win, I'll make you a quilted, bound, zipper-closured home dec pillow cover.
You and I will work together on fabrics, colors, size, etc. I might ask you to make a flickr mosaic or browse over there (or here) so I can get an idea of what you might like. I've got a couple of fabric stacks in mind that you might choose from (some Amy Butler, some Anna Maria Horner, some Sandi Henderson), but I've got a lot of random stash and scraps too. And I'm always looking for an excuse to buy a little something!
I'll include some of the scraps and a couple of other fun fabrics in case you want to make something that coordinates.
I'll probably throw in a couple of magnets, too...And another (little) surprise. The surprise from last time was my favorite part of the package!
The deadline for mailing per the Giveaway Day guidelines is May 24, but since this prize is custom-made, I'll probably send it more like June 1.

To enter, just leave me a comment with a favorite fabric line, designer, color, whatever...just something that I can brainstorm about until we start emailing about the particulars. Please make sure that you include your email address if you're a "no reply" commentor...you can't win if I can't get in touch with you! I'll choose a winner using the RNG on Thursday night, May 20th.
Thanks for popping by!

Don't forget to check out all the other terrific giveaways over at Sew, Mama, Sew. So much fun!

lake is the new charcoal

2010-05-15T15:42:00.002-05:00

This is my block for my TBK quilt. Inspirations here, here, and here; that last one is a block made by my friend Emily from CMQG, who sparked the idea that tied it all together. Every print in my stash ended up in my packages, along with the lake blue Kona solid. So much rethinking went into this design and I almost didn't go forward with it. But I'm really, really glad I did.

The wind and sun were not cooperating with our photo shoot, hence blowing, wrinkles, and shadows.

Luckily, Alex *was* cooperating...I'm just starting small and preparing him early for when he'll be made to hold up an entire quilt.

coming down the pipeline...

2010-05-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

the sewing pipeline, that is, if there is such a thing.

My month for one of my bees.

Still need to make those spider webs...

A birthday gift.

A block for the next CMQG meeting.

Giveaway Day!

A block swap.

My husband calls me overcommitted (in the nicest possible way) and maybe I am, but having sewing projects with deadlines fills some of the void that was created when I quit my job, but in a much more fun and less lucrative way.

Having nothing to do with sewing whatsoever, here's the guard dog at Cook Mansion. Can I tell you how much I love living in a town that has a mansion with a guard dog statue? A lot.

tea leaves

2010-05-09T19:52:00.003-05:00

I know I keep talking about these famous sheets, but humor me one more time, if you would.

Margaret, from TBK, is a really accomplished quilter...an award winner...and she has her own longarm quilting buisness too. It's only fitting that her blocks for the bee were the most challenging so far. She gave us plenty of lead time (I think I had my fabrics at least a week before March began), and posted a thorough tutorial, but I was kinda busy in April. They were the first thing I did after that craziness was over, because I hate to be late with bees & swaps (shhh! I still have my Spider Bee blocks to do!--Tuesday at the latest, Tracy!), and I finally mailed them out midweek.

Paper piecing is terrific, friends. I had only tried spider web blocks before, but am now even more obsessed with seeking out other paper-pieced blocks. I've been known to have issues with 1/4 inch seams, and for the most part, this process eliminates that stress. Everything is so precise and tidy! My only concern is the bulk when four or five pieces of fabric came together, but hopefully smooshing the life out of them with my iron and quilting will take care of that.

Aren't they cheery?

improvising, DS-style

2010-05-08T14:38:00.005-05:00

My partner for the Urban Home Goods swap on flickr really made things easy on me. She put "wall hanging" first on her list (with an exclamation point!) and loves Denyse Schmidt as well as charcoal, yellow, orange, and aqua together. That combination really sort of spoke to me (and I already owned three of those colors...though who can resist a few extra Kona solids?), so I was off and sewing.

I actually own Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and while I have long enjoyed browsing the photos, I realized I had never really looked at the patterns very carefully. Talk about picky! So many pattern pieces! I was kind of looking forward to improvising, wonkiness, and etc., so I ended up going in a different direction. The "pattern" I ended up using was inspired by the beautiful DS Run & Fall...the description talks about the complicated pattern and math that goes into achieving a random look, so I guess I was kind of wrong about the improvisation process.

I'm more of a rotary-cutter person, so I went that route, a la wonky log cabin/Gwen Marston slicing (even without a ruler sometimes!). I think the idea comes across pretty well, though there is a certain something about the shapes of the pieces in the DS quilt that I'm missing, I think--maybe that's what the pattern pieces are for! I wish, too, that the scale was a little different....I think narrower rows with two charcoal strips might have looked better.

On the up side, she was certainly right about that color combo! I had originally planned to use two different oranges, but in person, they were almost the same...so one orange it was--still, though, it's a good mix. Can you spot that one yellow-and-white poka dot piece? Using a little bit of print with mostly solids seemed kind of DSish, and it's also a nod (along with the bigger stripes of dots on the back)

to the dots my partner loves (sorry they're not red!). The binding is charcoal (though it looks almost royal blue in the photo of the back...not sure what's going on there).

The quilting was fun. I scoured flickr for inspiration, as most of DS's work seems to be hand quilted...something I'd like to try but wasn't ready to do for the first time on someone else's project. This is kind of what I was after, though there's no part of me that's ready to quilt leaves!

My partner also mentioned magnets, and somehow I thought of this project...it was fun to look through my photos for favorite shots of fabric.

All packed up with some Lemonheads (the factory is right next to my hometown, but these were made in Canada?) and off to New Jersey, an hour before the last FedEx pickup. Whew!

Next up, the sheets (for real this time!), then some shots of the beautiful things my partner made for me.

Happy weekend!

a diversion

2010-05-06T10:59:00.001-05:00

Probably, it wasn't the best idea to make a quilt for the same event I was chairing, but it was actually kind of nice to have something I *had* to do that I also *wanted* to do. A break from talking to the printer and coordinating ticket sales and knocking on doors for donations.

The downside was that the photos were taken five minutes before I left to set up the raffle table, where it was bundled with tickets to an outdoor concert and gift certificates to wine and gourmet stores. An embarrassingly large number of my own raffle tickets went into that bag, and though I didn't win, at least I know the person who did...so maybe I can at least visit it once in a while. Because it wouldn't be weird to visit a quilt!

The fabrics are all the pinkish/orangeish Kaffe Fassett prints I could choose in the (short) time a 3.5 year old is happy at the LQS, plus some Kona solids.

Hot pink quilting in a loop/pebble hybrid, made denser by the fact that it's harder to control your (faithful but not-meant-for-quilting old Singer) machine when you've attached an oatmeal lid to it with painters tape in order to cover the feed dogs...(such fun to have the new machine die mid-quilt!). There are some puckers.

Machine-bound in the pink solid and a pink KF diagonal stripe. First time with that, and likely my last. Doesn't look as good as Rita's always do. But it's a picnic quilt, not a bed quilt, so I'm mostly OK with that.

Tomorrow...my sheets are here!

back on the grid

2010-05-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

and this is all that's left of The Fundraiser.

That and some money. More than a thousand, less than a million. But a good chunk of money for a worthy cause.

Now, sewing, sewing, sewing!

taking a break...

2010-04-28T16:21:00.001-05:00

to order some solids swaps, bee blocks, etc.

They won't be used together...

But wouldn't they make a tremendous quilt?

Maybe for my month over here...

Off to design a scavenger hunt.

a breather

2010-04-20T22:55:00.001-05:00

It's April in Chicago, but this photo is from August in Vegas.

Why? one might wonder.

Because it's crazybusy around here (fundraiser--basement remodel--bee blocks--swap project--raffle quilt) and I think I might just rather be sitting by the pool, gazing at a blue sky, frozen bellini in hand. Or maybe flying far, far away in one of those helicopters.

It'll all get done, I know. It'll just be pretty quiet in this spot in the meantime.

See you on May 2nd.

camera dump

2010-04-12T16:03:00.003-05:00

Also known as Christmas gifts in April. But such is what happens when you leave your camera at a far(ish)-away friend's house, and having an extra to use in the meantime (thanks Mom!) means you have no incentive to rush to retrieve it.

The far(ish)-away friend is also mama to my Godson, and though we don't exchange anything huge at Christmastime, I wanted to give them a little something (their gift to us? The puzzle cheese cutters!):

A Dr. Seuss book and matching FP-stenciled shirt for the littler guy--

And this bag, my first project on my new machine (had to try out the overcast stitches and the letters--kinda small, no?) for his big brother--

which held this random assortment for printing:

We've got our own sunprint kit around here too, just waiting for the right collection of treasures and the perfect bright, lazy day.

autumn in the spring

2010-04-11T21:58:00.002-05:00

Theresa's great-niece is named Autumn, so even though it was March, she wanted fallish blocks for her month of ASB.

Her color choices were so thoughtful, and though I tend to choose brighter colors when I buy fabrics, between what she sent and some scraps I'd gotten in a swap a year or so ago, I had a pretty good selection.

As usual, the less I thought and analyzed, the better they looked.

I couldn't resist cutting into a thrift store shirt for the mulberry plaid,

and adding in some scraps of AMH

from this project. Not quite fall colors, but close.

Easter

2010-04-04T08:30:00.004-05:00

Wishing everyone a bright and wonderful day.

little things

2010-03-30T22:48:00.001-05:00

Sheets for a swap, fresh from the dryer, ready to cut. Top, bottom, and 2 cases, all for three bucks.

A partner for another swap. And wondering: who has me?

the coolest birthday gift of All Time

2010-03-27T20:05:00.001-05:00

A great friend, who was first a freshman-year-in-college next-door-neighbor, then sorority sister and next-door-neighbor-again, then after-college-roommate, then bridesmaid, then bride-who-had-me-as-a-bridesmaid,

(let me interrupt here to say that I was never a bridesmaid until after my own wedding--not sure what if anything this says about me)

has a daughter who's turning four.

We brought her this.

Filled with these.

To use with this book, to make really delightful thumbprint creatures. Ed Emberley is some kind of genius.

The awesome idea of pairing do-a-dots EE's book belongs to Amy from Let's Explore--she has some links to do-a-dot printables in her post--throw in a Sharpie and you're golden. Do you ever get a pop-in-your-head idea, though, that you just can't let go? I had one at about 7 o'clock last night...

The pouch (clutch? bag? not sure what to call it) is just fabric & batting sandwiched HouseonHillRoadCoffeeCozy-style, quilted TallgrassPrairieStudioUrbanGarden-style then sewn up the sides. I tacked the flaps down, because they were flipping up like a part time job.

The exterior is a fat quarter from Connecting Threads (not so crazy about the quality of these fabrics in the long-term sense--anyone else have thoughts?), and the lining is almost the last piece of my all-time favorite thrift store shirt (which also made an appearance here).

Kind of Hope Valley with the violet, don't you think? It even coordinated with the Tinkerbell wrapping paper.

I don't kid myself that the do-a-dots will stay inside permanently, but I'm sure she'll be able to think of plenty of four-year-old-type things to put inside.

Please feel free to copy this idea (it's not mine, after all--my m.o. of late), unless you're planning to be invited to any parties-in-common with me.

my 15 seconds of fame

2010-03-26T23:23:00.003-05:00

Remember this?

It's a bee block that I made for Claire for TBK...and it's part of the masthead for the new Quilting Bee Blocks blog, an offshoot of the awesome flickr group of the same name.

Have I mentioned how much I love flickr? It is the most ingenious website on the internet. Where else can this and this and this coexist happily?

Anyway, of course, the credit for the block belongs to Claire...the idea for the blocks was hers--all I did was arrange the colors. Still, it's kinda neat to see something I made up there in lights!

Happy Weekend!

overheard...

2010-03-23T20:21:00.003-05:00

From his room after lights out:

Daddy!?! Why do octopuses have a lot of arms?

under the wire

2010-03-19T23:21:00.002-05:00

Now it really is finished, without a second to spare. I literally took it out of the dryer and got into the car to take it to the auction. It was one of those situations where I really wish I'd had (or really taken better advantage of) ten more minutes. The rush meant that Alex didn't have enough time to acclimate to the busy and the noise.

There are so many kids here. Some tears.

His wonderful teacher held him for the beginning of the sing ("Danny Boy" + "Toora Loora Loora"--he whispered along) and by the time they were ready for his specialty ("Michael Finnegan"), he was back in business.

This wonderful teacher is part of our wonderful preschool, where the classrooms are painted (and named) yellow, green, and blue, hence the fabrics. The top is modeled after this beautiful quilt, though the fabrics are from a variety of lines.

I cut the 16 fat quarters that made the team (I smiled when I saw this collection, because three of the fabrics I used appear there as well--which I'm wrangling into some sort of personal fabric selection validation, since I really love all of Rashida's work) into 17 inch squares, and arranged and rearranged for a good while. I do wish I could swap one of the dark blues for one of the greens in the upper right corner, but every switch necessitated another, like dominoes, and so I finally drew the line and sewed them together.

The backing is mainly some (soft!) chambray that I already had, along with some scrappy patchwork from the prints. I really had almost nothing left, but I'm so glad to have used what I did for something I'm keeping because I love this combination of fabrics. A lot.

I quilted it in thread to match the binding, a risk I'm really glad I took, with imperfect (Jacquie calls them organic) lines about an inch apart--this took forever with a capital F. I finally found a speed that my walking foot could handle without the process stealing years of my life. It's bound in the teal-on-teal dots, along with some Kona everglade.

It's home for the weekend so I could photograph it and go over the binding, and then back to school on Monday it goes, to meet its owner. Next up is Alex's quilt (while I was working on this one, he kept asking, "Is that for me?")--but this one is hard enough to let go that I can see its cousin somewhere off in the future.

when it's 60 degrees in March...

2010-03-17T21:43:00.005-05:00

you might decide to eat lunch on the porch. You'll wear a sombrero, and bring Curious George along to enjoy the sunshine. You'll share a little bit of that delicious mango, but not too much.

testing...

2010-03-16T11:09:00.001-05:00

It's finished!

Just kidding. This is just a mini-quilt (even though it's not Monday) that I made from scraps to test out quilting design and thread color.

The real thing (check it out in the background...) is actually almost finished, and it'd better be totally finished by tomorrow at 11:15 a.m., because that's when the very-much-anticipated preschool St. Patrick's Day all-school sing and potluck and benefit auction (whew!) will be held. Have you ever heard a preschooler practicing Michael Finnegan? I have now, and it's cute.

it's not her, it's me.

2010-03-05T21:39:00.002-06:00

These blocks are making me crazy. Sewing is making me crazy!

The coolest idea from Debbie at Esch House Quilts for her Bee's Knees blocks--positive/negative versions of houses, swapping out a black-on-white and a white-on-black for the "sky" and the house itself, and colorful doors from our own stashes. She offset them in the table runner she made to test out the block (which she designed herself)--it looks great. So clever! I can only hope to come up with something so neat for my month.

Anyway, I had a little time this afternoon while Alex napped (the same child who, at 9:22 p.m., has just called for someone to fluff his pillow. Goodness.) and thought I'd get a head start for the month. I measured perfectly, sewed my seams at turtle speed, and instead of being 8 1/2 inches, they're more like 8 3/8. Maybe 8 7/16 after pressing them with every drop of glycogen in my biceps, and I know she'll be able to work with them, but it's the principle. This is not a new problem for me--I just don't know what I'm going to do about it, other than always make quilts where the blocks require serious squaring at the end. I really wish I could interview (or watch in action) some of the notoriously accurate piecers out there--including Debbie herself, actually...check this out! Can you even tell they're fabric? Perfectly smooth, and flat, and probably the right size to boot!--just tell me what to do so that my blocks aren't too small, and I'll do it!

Anyway again, they're done, they're cute, and I hope Debbie likes them.

Thanks for indulging my vent. On to the rest of the weekend.

sewing a bit of spring

2010-03-04T14:20:00.002-06:00

Just a quick project I made for my women's club fundraiser--this tutorial from House on Hill Road, with five bucks to Starbuck's inside.

Not sure how I feel about the button (it matches, but there's just something I'm not crazy about)...

but the fabric (and lining) sure felt like spring.

on your mark, get set...

2010-03-02T16:36:00.004-06:00

I've got two weeks to turn this into a quilt.

(Give It a) Go.

Marching

2010-03-01T18:40:00.004-06:00

This is March to me: mostly shadows, a little sun. Not quite spring, but getting there.

In March, I suppose we should be looking toward shedding winter gear, but the hat I just needed to finish is finished.

For now, we're calling this particular model the Monsters, Inc. Cap, but the "pattern" is called Tweedish because that's just how it looks to me. I'm planning to write up a tutorial one of these days, because it's kind of a cool technique, and a good way to use up scraps of different yarns.

Interest really started to develop when I got out the pompon maker,

in an effort to work a little bit during playtime, and it actually went pretty well. I am now a devotee of this tool (I actually bought a bunch of sizes with coupons and another project in mind), and once we noticed that the colors matched favorite characters Mike & Sulley,

he's barely taken it off.

These blocks are for ASB--mailed off to the UK this afternoon. Very springy, even if the weather's not. This quilt is going to be gorgeous.

more metacognition

2010-02-26T16:11:00.000-06:00

of quilting, that is. I finished my February Bee's Knees blocks last night...

:: I officially love quilts made only of solids. There's a flickr group for this, in fact (I think there is a flickr group for every topic conceivable to man). I'm not sure I'll ever commit to a solids-only quilt, though, because there's some small part of me that would feel disappointed to not be using prints, which makes no sense, but so it is.

:: Even though I didn't love each of these colors individually, or even each pair of geese, I definitely love how they work as a whole (also true of my star--the less I thought about it as I went, the better it looked). I can't wait to see this quilt finished!

:: I had a theme as I sewed, but you'd never know it to look at the finished blocks.

:: Bees blocks are great for motivating me to try new things. I don't think I would have chosen this block on my own, but making these certainly got my wheels turning. Half-square triangles and variations are amazing to me. So many different design possibilities from such a simple base.

:: How can the back of a quilt play off the top? In the tutorial Claire asked us to use for the blocks, Crystal mentions using the triangle scraps for mini-pinwheel blocks...how cool would those be scattered over the back? I'm sending my scraps back to Claire in case she wants to go that route.

:: it is extremely satisfying when points match. It is extremely irritating when they are off by a hair.

and finally...

:: For heaven's sake, what do I have to do to get my blocks to lie flat?

Happy weekend, all! Mine will be full of cleaning the kitchen, spider web blocks for Brioni, and pizza! Oh, and we'll get our basement floor back.

what's happening?

2010-02-23T10:03:00.000-06:00

Not too terribly much.

A star.

Some bee blocks in the making.

A quilt in my head.

A stack of fabric for another.

A hat I just have to finish.

Fundraiser business. Do you know how annoying it is when graphics files don't upload properly?

The highlight? A meeting. Check out the photo on KateKwiltz...I'm third from the left. A terrific group of talented women. Fun!

as promised...

2010-02-20T14:56:00.005-06:00

What most people would call the guest room, we call Grandma's room. Other people have stayed in it, but she is our most frequent guest. Since I try to keep our room relatively gender-neutral, Grandma's room is the landing spot for all things pastel.

When I was pregnant with Alex, my nesting instinct zeroed in on his room and this room--I was obsessed with tiny details that she probably didn't even notice when she stayed with us after he was born, but they were critical to me. I'll never forget how I forgot to buy flowers (difficult to do with a newborn and a c-section), and was crushed.

Fast-forward two years. 71 to1, I was the winner of this giveaway from Ashely at Film in the Fridge; in my comment, I thought I'd try a pillow if I won. This was early in my quilting life. I didn't have a sewing machine that could handle free motion quilting, and so once I got them in the mail, they sat.

Fast-forward six months. A new machine, a first quilt under my belt, and a little courage in my heart since I hadn't inserted a zipper since about 1997--and the blocks are, as promised, a pillow.

I spent a really long time deciding how to arrange them (which I'm OK with because in the process I came up with another really fun idea), and finally settled on this design, where the centers face up on one side and down on the other. I think it best spaces the prints, and adds some movement to the front. I know the actual bento block design doesn't use sashing, but since the quartered blocks weren't switched out with others made of different prints, I liked the way it broke things up.

The sashing and back are Kona muslin, and I tried a kind of longer stipple on the diagonal, to both echo and contrast the design of the blocks. Ashley was kind enough to include her scraps, and I used them in the pieced binding (with tips from Malka of A Stitch in Dye) and for the back,

which I love because it's like the butterfly is flying through the pillow.

These photos employ the time-honored blogger photo technique of cropping out the disaster that surrounds the subject. When you're remodeling the basement, everything has to go somewhere, and somewhere at our house is Grandma's room. She had to climb over all of this junk as she made her way to bed on a recent visit, but our Grandma is a good Grandma, and she doesn't complain. Of course, the pillow is hers.

scrambling

2010-02-15T15:57:00.004-06:00

The perfect February show and tell item, beautifully made by Mike's grandmother back in the early '80s or so and a recent obsession around here,

was missing three stuffed cuties. What with the valentine signing and all the night before (conveniently, show and tell and the Valentine's Day party fell on the same day), I was stitching and dodging stuffing ball launches up until the moment we left for school.

I have not a clue what the originals were (we'll likely find them around here one day), but together, we came up with a couple of ideas. W is for water, L is for lollipop:

and my favorite:

"H is for heart, mommy. It's perfect for Valentine's Day!"

My even-favoriter favorite:

P is for pilot. He came up with that one all on his own.

happy hearts...

2010-02-14T20:55:00.000-06:00

because it's hearts day, and because that's what we have around here.

Funny how after you have children, holidays totally revolve around them...pink foods:

heart ice cream sandwiches:

and writing A-l-e-x over and over (32 times!) and stamping and a 'copter, o my!

My valentine for Mike is still in the car. I hope he knows I love him.

lemonade, a long time in the making

2010-02-11T20:29:00.004-06:00

Finally, I am a Fresh Modern Quilter.

A year or more since I figured out that there was such a thing as modern quilting, and a lot of planning, researching, thinking, and new-sewing-maching-buying (thanks, Mom & Dad!) later, I have finally finished my first quilt: Making Lemonade. Aptly named for its colors, but also because the layout for the top evolved from a cutting mistake--forgotten now, because I just love it so much.

I remember reading on one blog or another (maybe here?) about how wonderful the moment of pulling a first quilt out of the dryer would be, and it really, really was. Certainly a highlight of my crafting career; maybe one of the top ten moments of my life. Anyone who's a crafter probably doesn't think I'm crazy for saying so, and anyone who does should definitely take up quilting. I really liked knitting when I first learned, and still do, but the combination of thinking, planning, rearranging, designing, actual making, and the handwork at the end makes quilting just the perfect craft. I'm completely hooked.

The top is pieced from Ginger Blossoms by Sandi Henderson, with a liberal amount of Yellow Tiled Primrose from Heather Bailey's Bijoux line (which I didn't love until it was quilted and now I wish I could buy more) and Kona muslin. The backing is random scraps with more of the muslin, and I stippled it novice-style and pieced the binding like crazy. It measures about 49" by 36"--hopefully a good size for a baby quilt.

No matter that I'm giving it away...I've already bought fabric for the next one, which I'll be keeping right here at home.

under (and prisoners of) the weather

2010-02-10T12:56:00.001-06:00

Of course we're not the only ones to be dealing with fever, coughs, sneezing, and etc., but a few days home from school, cooped up with a foot of snow outside (plus an earthquake!?!), sure does make it feel that way.

Symptoms aside, he feels fine, so at least we've been keeping busy.

Heart crystals (also above).

Beads. With which we make bracelets for each other, with names. I personally am proudly sporting a princess bracelet and a Celia bracelet, which look almost the same. Very definite ideas about which colors should be used. Next up for Alex are a fireman bracelet and a fire chief bracelet (not sure how, or if, those will differ).

Stamping, for Valentines and just for fun. "I choosed black and red for the ladybug because ladybugs are black and red." Later, for a funny joke, a purple and green ladybug was made. As an aside, taping down our paper with painters tape is my smartest idea in a long time. I'm sure I'm thwarting some kind of keep-the-paper-still-on-his-own developmental skill, but the decrease in frustration trumps that for now.

Chalk. We (I) also drew a bug house and a monster house. Very definite ideas about furniture. Note the Mike bracelet.

All with our monster soundtrack in the background, including songs from Justin Roberts, Laurie Berkner, Sesame Street, and of course, the movie. Dancing was interspersed.

Tomorrow, a quilt.

a little February cheer

2010-02-03T15:03:00.001-06:00

I saw this idea here first, and during our art-and-craft-athon on Sunday, we pulled out an old MSL and punched. The heart punch was a hit, for sure.

Then, I put the hearts in a bag, and forgot all about them until this morning. Not a moment to waste.

We wound the bobbin,

sorted the hearts,

saved a favorite for later (in a zookeeper hat, of course, the safest place of all),

and (I) sewed.

Lessons learned:

layering back to back will make heart flipping and reflection irrelevant (a lesson for next year), and it's difficult to take a quality photo of a mirror.

Sunday inspiration

2010-01-31T20:54:00.003-06:00

Getting inspired to...

read actual magazines again (I get a lot of inspiration online, but sometimes it's nice to hold paper in your hand and make that pile of pages to keep);

keep trying new things (anyone who knows us in real life will be shocked to see Alex coloring on purpose--I had given up hope, but he was all about it today);

finish this quilt!

be a more intentional, professional mother--just ordered the book, in fact (we already have a really steady dad around here);

and keep my bathroom clean.

Thanks to Jennifer for the lovely inspiration inspiration.

spiderwebs on the brain

2010-01-27T18:24:00.001-06:00

I did so much thinking while I was piecing these--call it the metacognition of quilting.

Partly because making them is simple and therefore meditative--right down to peeling the paper while watching Law & Order--

but also because their scrappiness brings to the forefront of my mind so many parts of the creative process. I am not particularly "scrappy" by nature--not because I don't like the look of scrappy quilts when they're done well (like this one, or this one), but because I tend to obsess and then become paralyzed by anxiety over fabric (and other design) choices.

I guess, then, that it's encouraging that even my least favorite block looked pretty good once trimmed.

A favorite block developed as I worked, and I only added favorite fabrics to it, as if to preserve it. I wonder if anyone else could identify it? I wonder if that person would have to be someone who knew me well, or whether the fabrics would be universally appealing so that it was obvious to anyone? And no, this is not it.

Fabric choices. How and why had Anna chosen these different fabrics? Some I would have chosen, some not...how do people develop their preferences? Would she like the outcome? Stressful to make something for someone else.

Deliberate randomness--maybe there's a technical term?--is scrappy the same as random? If I'm supposed to be working randomly, then is it wrong to skip or replace a fabric that's "next in line" because there would be two greens in a row, or because it wasn't a favorite? Would it have been OK to put two Christmas fabrics in the same block, or would that have made it a Christmas block? How long did others spend choosing the perfect fabrics, or did they truly work randomly, or did they develop a few rules to guide their choices? Many designers (Bill Kerr & Weeks Ringle and Denyse Schmidt come to mind) incorporate improvisation and randomness into their piecing; is this a feature of "modern" quilting, or, in a way, a return to the most organic kind of quilting (Gee's Bend, or quilts as the most basic form of reuse)?

Too much thinking, perhaps, about how to sew together some scraps of fabric.

For me, though, this is what makes quilting more interesting than knitting. There is thinking to be done in knitting, for sure, and math, and problem solving...but the effects of changes are more subtle and realizing them is slow (for this turtle knitter, anyway). In quilting, I can see different designs just by rearranging. Immediate.

So much to learn.

In the interim, I hope Anna likes her blocks.

muffaletta, Chicago-style

2010-01-24T22:57:00.001-06:00

I've never been to New Orleans, but man, can they make a sandwich. Or, rather, man, can I make a sandwich that is sort of like their original.

Bread.

Provolone.

Salami.

Cajun-spiced chicken.

Olive salad (1 part Kalamatas, 1 part Spanish green, a couple of roasted red peppers, chopped and drained--don't skip that!).

Stack in order on foil, wrap tightly, bake for 20 minutes at 375°.

Seriously, so good. The perfect Sunday-dinner-in-front-of-the-TV.

On a completely unrelated note, I finished my January blocks for TBK:

They're wonky pinwheels for Tracy, tapered outward per her request.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this quilt comes together--such an interesting variety of fabrics.

On to Monday!

these boots get a lot of wear.

2010-01-19T14:43:00.002-06:00

Occasionally, they're firefighter boots, but recently, they're Santa's boots. Santa's been getting a lot of attention around here, more since Christmas than before it, actually. There's flying in the laundry basket sleigh (strictly with Dad, that game), lots of ho ho hoing, reading and rereading of many Christmas books. And ever shape-aware, if a slice of bread comes to resemble Santa's sleigh as it's munched, all the better--except when you have to keep eating it.

Tears erupted, full-on, like I had taken away his yellow bear forever. Things got even worse when I said no, he couldn't take the bread-sleigh up for naptime. Racking brain, racking brain.

That's a paper towel, everyone. Cut into a sleigh and accessories. In a fit of "genius", I cut some slits so Santa's boots fit into the sleigh and the sack fits onto his back. He's upstairs sleeping with it right now.

I wish I'd had the video camera to capture the delight. A tinkly giggle that I never want to forget. I'm sure he will have moved on in a day or a few, but really, that's my favorite thing about blogging--I took a minute to take the pictures and tell the story, so long after this time, when he can still be consoled by something so simple, I (we) will remember.

when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

2010-01-16T23:12:00.002-06:00

My first spider bee block=a new addiction.

They're fast, the seams don't have to be exact, you don't have to love every fabric (these are extra scrappy, as Anna is using the bee to help her get rid of all of hers). Also, there's something strangely satisfying about peeling off the paper.

The best part is that this (if you think it looks messy, you should have seen it before I trimmed it!):

becomes this.

My mind is racing with all the spider quilt possibilities. And what other paper-pieced blocks are out there (besides this one, of course)?

I'm thinking a lot about Haiti. Don't quite feel qualified to donate here. So many posts, so many perspectives. So much to think about. Feeling so fortunate.

Finally, how could I have forgotten this photo?

I made it.

2010-01-15T09:46:00.000-06:00

The famous caramel corn.

It was good.

Have a great weekend.

do you know how much time I spend looking for matching socks?

2010-01-09T23:32:00.002-06:00

A lot. Too much. And pants, and undershirts, and that's just for Alex--I won't even get started on finding an outfit for myself. My problem isn't having clean clothes, it's having folded clothes, and I've always been this way, and I know I need to work on it, but that's a new year's resolution for 2011.

This year, I resolve to have Alex's clothes ready the night before.

Originally, I had planned to sew a drawstring bag for every weekday, and to fill them all on Sunday nights. Might still do that. Bags (rather than a spot on a chair) because sometimes we get dressed downstairs, after breakfast--easy to lug. But a bag with a T for starters, because not only can it represent Tuesday or Thursday if I do make the set, but right now, it can also stand for tomorrow...get it? I knew you would.

(It also doesn't hurt that Alex's favorite letter is T. He spots Ts everywhere we go...on signs, in arrangements (like if two pretzels fell into a T shape), even on our doors. Eagle eye, that one.)

And so, I give you The Tomorrow Bag. I pushed to finish it during the naptime after a particularly "hectic" morning, which may have resulted in conversations held in a sterner tone that I usually prefer to use. When I got myself together, we had a talk about independence as it relates to getting dressed, three-year-old style. And about sleeping in a little bit later, please, it will make Mommy less grumpy, but I don't think that part really sunk in. To drive it home, I pulled out this book at bedtime, still in heavy rotation even though we're 2-months-plus past Halloween. And when we read the last line (covered by chubby little fingers here: a costume for tomorrow):

we looked over at his tomorrow bag, filled and hung ready on the closet door,

and I think the connection was made.

Tutorial in the sidebar.

my muddy buddy...

2010-01-06T20:59:00.000-06:00

is always wondering something. Recently, it was "what's that?" about the recipe for Chex Muddy Buddies he saw on the back of the box at my feet (yep, you read that right). Not usually one to love cooking except for cracking the eggs (and even that's sporadic), I decided to jump on this spark of interest, and into the kitchen we went. Wearing his apron and his fire hat sweetened the deal.

I used natural peanut butter so they'd be healthy. Kidding!

We measured, we poured, we stirred.

We did hit a bump in the road when the concept of the chocolate chips synthesizing with the rest of the ingredients really sunk in.

But I'll MISS them!

Shaking the bag was a good time, but not as much fun as seeing the MBs' appearance in his MTM--though this particular expression belongs to the cheddar popcorn off in the corner.

Yes, those are spinach leaves. And no, he did not like them. And yes, that is puzzle cheese.

Tomorrow, a tutorial.

oh, fransson's trash...

2010-01-04T13:56:00.001-06:00

is most certainly my treasure. Sometime before Christmas, Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson cleaned out her fabric closet and put together ten packages of "outgrown" fabric for her etsy shop. So much good stuff in this box of awesomeness (some that I've always wanted, and some that I wouldn't have bought but am glad to have...): Amy Butler, Kokka, Heather Ross (both Far, Far, Away and Munki Munki martians), Tula Pink, Lizzy House, Erin Michael's Lush...and on and on. And a fat quarter of the exact AMH print that I need for the lining of a bag I've had in my mind since November. I can only imagine the fabric she actually kept!

A great and unexpected thing: lots of sizes. A huge stack of big pieces (including a bunch of fat quarters):

A few small squares:

And lots and lots (and lots!) of 2 inch-ish strips--more than this, even--

This was the best part. I'm thinking about some kind of strip quilt where I just sew together pieces from the stack and see where it goes.

My favorite piece: a tiny square of this (Kokka?) print.

Just look at that squirrel! And that hedgehog! And the bluebird on the mushroom!! Definitely destined to become something special for my critter-loving little critter. Not sure exactly what, yet, but it's definitely going into the special pile. This box was such a great way for me to build my fabric stash--and now there's no denying it--once the basement (and therefore my "studio") is habitable, I'll need to plan out some system for keeping track of what I've got, sorting scraps, and all that good stuff. The fun kind of organizing!

In keeping with today's theme...great friends of ours are moving to Phoenix this week, and last night I went shopping from their fridge--all the stuff that can't be taken across the country but is perfectly good and so would have gone to waste. I came home with this (plus two more bags of cleaning products, etc.):

and it fits perfectly into my self-imposed freezer & pantry raid for the month of January. I'm following along with this challenge (other favorite bloggers are playing along, too) and my goals are these: 1) a $100 budget for the month, 2) no meat or starches in the grocery cart until I've used up everything we already own, and 3) only one "lazy" (unplanned) restaurant meal.

I did a good stock-up on some pantry staples last week (still within our regular grocery budget), and we were the lucky recipients of a huge box 'o meat (ham, turkey breast, bacon, chicken breast) at Christmas time, so that should definitely help. We'll see if we can make it the whole month buying only fruits, veggies, and dairy. Even if not, it'll definitely be interesting.

if you spend an entire naptime...

2010-01-01T16:21:00.000-06:00

thinking about a blog post on streamlining life in the new year, then that's kind of counter to the point, no?

Instead:

Wishing everyone a delightful 2010. Goals, lists, and plans in the coming days. And a cake.

A (kind of) handmade Christmas

2009-12-29T16:14:00.001-06:00

I had a million ideas for handmade Christmas gifts for Alex swimming around in my head, and ended up getting two of them finished. No matter, he certainly had enough to open and seemed to really understand Santa this year. One of them (if you can even call it handmade) was not his favorite to open (not so showy and not easy to just jump in and use it), but we certainly had fun with it today.

A quick web search led me here, so I chose my favorites and then added in this, plus supplies for this, and this, (most of which we has around the house...all I bought were the containers, a new box of food coloring--because coloring liquids adds interest to all experiments--and goggles--because goggles add interest to everything).

Today, since we had no power and it's way too cold to go outside, we got down to business. Raisin and bubble business, that is. As a former teacher, I know I should have tried the experiment ahead of time...since I didn't, I'm glad I didn't tell him what was going to happen, because...no dice. It certainly makes sense that carbonation would carry the raisin to the top of the glass, but there was just a mighty fizzing action and that was it. No matter, it was still pretty impressive.

As was the food coloring action.

And no, we did not use beer...but we did learn that yellow plus blue makes green.

Tomorrow, or the next day, a 2009 recap and some goals 2010.

a wintry breakfast

2009-12-24T20:42:00.001-06:00

Banana pancakes from the freezer + a paper towel, scissors, strainer, & powdered sugar =

snowcakes.

They seem to have been a hit.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful day with family tomorrow, some relaxing and a little selfish crafting over the weekend, and sharing some of the rest what we've been up to around here sometime early next week.

Wishing everyone a joyous Christmas.

you know it's winter when...

2009-12-17T00:45:00.000-06:00

you've used up the last of the freezer jam. Or so the saying goes. Or something like that.

You also know it's winter when, nine days before Christmas, you have a bunch of presents that have to be sewn, painted, and glued, and all you want to do is knit. Very cool presents, to be sure, but wouldn't it be cozier and less complicated to be toting one ball of yarn and two needles, and making one of these?

Or one of these?

Or two of these?

I feel a new year's resolution forming. Or something like that.

Because a pictureless post is boring (I say that a lot, don't I?), and I haven't gotten up the gusto to photograph the awesome fabric I got in the mail recently (well, I guess I sort of did)...or the ten beautiful ornaments that we have been so enjoying (Alex claimed the adorable gingerbread house in an instant; I may never get it back!)...or the eleven five-minute gift card holders I made for (group) teacher gifts at preschool--just kidding, I did photograph those!--

I'm including this. When your husband is slaving away on your basement remodel and the power has to go out in one half of the house, your child will have to watch TV since it gets dark at 4:30 these days and you can't play in the living room. But, somehow, these two things will still have power:

A pre-Christmas miracle. Or something like that.

jumbled

2009-12-14T12:19:00.002-06:00

is how it's shaking around here. A little making, lots of going and doing. And strep throat. And good packages. More on most of that in a couple of days.

Fire it up, antibiotics!

the surprise pillow, unveiled

2009-12-09T16:05:00.003-06:00

Not only is it "the surprise", but it's also called "the surprise pillow"--just call me the double entendre explainer.

It all turned out OK, but there was some stress at our house the night before SMS Giveaway Day. The book gift bag was giving me trouble, but I wanted something more substantial than just the gift card holder & supplies...and at about 9:00, "the surprise" came to me.

Thankfully, my saner self took over and I decided not to try to make it that night. And then I figured out my issue with the book bag, thought of the giving theme, and wrote my post, and all was right in the world.

Once that was done, I had to switch gears back to the blanket, but on Monday I was ready to get back to my sewing machine. Another bit of stress when I washed it (a reminder to always press seams toward the darker fabric, lest the wet, transparent lighter fabric with red peeking through give the illusion of a fabric bleed, thereby inducing a heart attack), but a little QT with the seam ripper and I was back in business.

Excuse the photo quality; we've had gray dreariness and snow. It's cuter than it looks here.

Simple, simple. The front is one tree (à la this quilt) and one tiny maverick star block (I started out with 1 /38" squares), with creamy muslin elsewhere. I am officially in love with the maverick star block.

I adore the quilting (inspired by this quilt), but the back is where it's at. I love this print so much that I just ordered more, and so didn't even flinch when I used it for the top panel and the pocket.

The pocket is the giving part. The point of the pillow is that it's a secret place to leave surprises in your house for small people (or bigger ones, I suppose!)--a (wrapped, please!) chocolate, a silly note, a penny. Nothing big, and not necessarily just at Christmas time (I have a whole slew of other-seasoned surprise pillows floating around in my mind), just a little, secret, I'm thinking of you message for someone special.

And that button!

Since there's no way I'm going to finish that quilt before Christmas (a side benefit to making this project, my first quilting endeavor--and man, am I hooked on that now!--, is that I realize that I really do need a walking foot; good thing this guy is little or he'd be pucker central), I think I'll carve out some time to make one for our house. It'll ease the pain of sending this one away (at least it's going to a good home!), and I know a three-year-old who would love nothing more than scouting for surprises in pockets. That darling boy of mine!

to the Christmas tree patch! (and a winner, too...)

2009-12-07T23:15:00.001-06:00

Really, to the Christmas tree farm, but when you're three years old and your last u-pick-it experience was here,

in June,

it's the Christmas tree patch to you.

We really had to earn it--a tollway bottleneck (but don't worry! It's the best road construction project of 2009!), a just-as-slow alternate route, and a missed-sign-induced backtrack--but by the time we got there, we had the place all to ourselves.

Tools of the trade:

Cutting it down (it didn't take long at all!):

Following Daddy back to get it bagged up:

A small disappointment because the popcorn machine wasn't up and running, but they did have a much healthier snack (kidding! But he did love them. Who remembers this bag from the 80s?), and a juice box is great for improving a preschooler's mood.

Look what they let me take home for free! Here's hoping I'll be able to turn them into what I'm picturing in my mind. More on that in a couple of days.
***
Now, onto the real-er deal. I was delighted by the response to my SMS giveaway...thanks so much to everyone who visited. The surprise is indeed finished, except for finding the perfect button (hoping to do that tomorrow on my marathon trip to Joann; photos then too, when there's some sunshine!). Now, can you believe this?:

Has this ever happened in the history of the RNG? I guess it just goes to show that random is random! So Kari, check for the comment I posted on your blog. If I haven't heard from Kari by Wednesday morning, I'll choose another winner. Again, thanks to everyone who visited!

I am a Godmother

2009-12-05T20:50:00.001-06:00

Again, actually. I'm guessing that two will be my limit, but the two I have are darling so I'm OK with that.

I finished the blanket. Just in time. Wove in the ends this morning.

It wasn't a gift for the baptism, but today was the right day to give it.

I am 80% pleased with it. Blocking certainly helped it along, and I think it would have benefited from another round, but see above. There's a sort of unintentional wonkiness to it that I don't adore, but it's soft and warm and cozy, which is all a baby cares about, I suppose.

I decided to crochet the panels together, because Jared Flood knows everything, and I think I'm pleased with the result. Unlike his gorgeous blanket, I think there's definitely a wrong side, but the other seaming options I tried just weren't cutting it--plus the stretching Jared talks about was a real concern here. The border is four rows of garter stitch, which necessitated weaving in eight ends instead of two (knitters, if you think about it, you'll know why), but I just wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to do five. Of course, I have an entire small ball left--always the way.

I had planned to make his actual baptism gift, but am trying to be more realistic about my to-do lists and decided that something handmade by someone else would be lovely and just fine. I wanted it to be traditional but not stodgy,

and I think this qualifies. It's from this wonderful, accommodating etsy seller, whom I would recommend in a heartbeat. He basically worked his tail off to make sure I'd have it in time (because who doesn't order an important gift on Thanksgiving when the event is a week away?).

The air was cold, the kids were cheerful, and the church was gorgeous.

A beautiful day for a baptism.

earth-shattering preschooler snack idea

2009-12-03T15:38:00.001-06:00

Here it is:

Mix cream cheese and honey.

Spread on pumpkin bread.

Original, right? I did think of it all by myself, actually, but like many great ideas, someone else has already done it. Delicious all the same.

How good would it be with some dried cranberries and/or walnuts sprinkled on top? Of course, to make that work, one's child would have to like dried cranberries and/or walnuts. I think I'd have better luck with chocolate chips.

:: Here for my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway? Just scroll down! Thanks for visiting!

giveaway day!

2009-12-01T23:26:00.007-06:00

**Thanks to everyone who visited! I'm closing the comments, and will choose a winner (and hopefully post photos of the surprise!) tomorrow.***

It's finally here! I'm thrilled to be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's December Giveaway Day...and thrilled to finally be able to see what everyone else will be giving away. It's like a reward for sewing!

Here's the deal at Give It a Go. With me, there's always a theme...parties, meals, presents--you name it, I theme it. What better theme for Giveaway Day than giving? The Give-It-a-Goods:

:: a five-minute gift card holder, Christmas style;

:: fabric (including Amy Butler, Robert Kaufman, and even some of my beloved AMH), Steam-a-Seam, and snaps to make 3 more;

:: a handmade reusable book gift bag--perfect for giving a gift of books...and then as a child's library tote, a spot to corral bedtime read-alouds, or to pass on with another gift of books inside. There's even a pocket for the card!

:: a surprise. It's handmade, and kind of a neat thing to have around the house, and though it is about giving, it's not about gifting. I'm not showing it here because 1) I haven't made it yet (I'm nothing if not honest) and 2) it'll have its own post once I have.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post by the evening of December 6th; I'll pick a winner using the RNG. Please make sure I know how to contact you! I'm happy to ship internationally.

Happy December!

glowsticks

2009-11-26T18:22:00.000-06:00

That's what I'm thankful for. Hope everyone else's day was as great.

a winner! (and a recap)

2009-11-25T15:24:00.001-06:00

and the winner is...

inthepeppermintwind! Look for an email from me later today. Thanks to everyone who visited and entered! Another giveaway next week...this one for the super-exciting SMS giveaway day. Can't wait to see what everyone has up for grabs.

Finally, a bit more about the Chicago Craft Social...what a terrific event! I was a little worried about the social part of the craft social since I went solo, but everyone was friendly and we were certainly busy! There were so many different tables to choose from that I didn't even have time to think about the knitting I'd brought. The main thing I wanted to do was freezer paper stenciling (led by the master), but as a warmup I tried this cool project,

...which I love (but I still don't have a cord for it!). Simple and so cute. We mod-podged cutouts to wooden disks, sanded the edges, and then finished them with Diamond Glaze. At first I was bothered by the little bubble (see it on the leaf?), but now I kind of like it.

The freezer paper stenciling was SO MUCH FUN--I'm kind of addicted.

The VW bug is kind of a family joke, and I thought it would be something Alex would like (of course he refused to wear it when I first showed it to him, but by the end of the day he didn't want to take it off). The cutting part was fun, like doing a puzzle in reverse (though if the fps obsession continues, I might need one of these--the regular model is a little hard on the fingers). And when you get to peel away the paper...coolest thing ever.

for baby ben

2009-11-24T15:15:00.004-06:00

Our neighbor and friend just had a baby boy, and as soon as he was born (so I knew the sex and the name), I got started on this:

and this:

We had a beautiful day yesterday, so I was able to get outside for some photos (unlike last week when I had to take every picture indoors since the sun was always hiding!). We were also able to get the Christmas lights on the bushes...which is a good thing since weatherwise, it's apparently all downhill from here.

One more day for the giveaway!

luckily, fedex is open 24 hours a day...

2009-11-23T10:49:00.000-06:00

The Small Fox Ornament Swap (first-annual, and I hope she does it again next year!) mailing deadline was Saturday, and I have never been late with a swap, but this was a close one. I've had the sweaters felted and a sample made for ages, but I was a little busy last week (and we've been going through some bedtime issues around here too--put to bed, squawk, call/go upstairs, repeat until WAY too late), so my hopes of make it to the good ol' USPS by closing time were dashed. And I almost ran out of glue, as in I was keeping the bottle upside down between applications.

I used this tutorial from the so-talented Betz White, and learned the following: I don't love making a bunch of the same thing (could I really need 16-20 circles per ornament? Why yes, I could!),

...Alex will tolerate crafting and even help if I find the right task for him, and I have more research to do about how to felt a sweater for optimum finished texture--perhaps an email to Betz is in order? She seems like someone who would answer.

I'm having a great time looking at the SMOS flickr pool, crossing my fingers that each ornament I see will find its way into my package.

Many thanks to Sarah for organizing!

**Off topic, don't forget about my little giveaway...there are still two days left to leave a comment.**

who wants a headband?

2009-11-20T16:38:00.003-06:00

Or rather, who knows a little girl who wants a headband?

I had such a great time my guestblogging stint over at presserfoot, and the pattern is great, but a girl only needs so many of the same accessory. I'd love for this one to go to a good home:

And with it, I'll send some covered-button hair elastics using fabrics from the other headbands I made this week (I had to get creative with the scraps!):

Give It a Go is just a baby, and I'm looking to make it as great as it can be. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. I'll use the good old RNG (if you get a second, read their explanation of how it works...and the "go somewhere random" button is kind of fun too!) to choose a winner Wednesday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

my first giveaway!

2009-11-19T23:06:00.002-06:00

My last presserfoot headband project was my favorite of the four by far...but since it's little-girl-sized, I'm giving it away!

A clue:

Check back on Friday afternoon to enter to win the real thing...(and a couple of other tiny surprises, too).

See you then!

because fabric is prettier than cardboard...

2009-11-18T23:35:00.003-06:00

I loved the fabric from Kelli & Rian so much that I couldn't let any of it go to waste. Here's what I had left...

after I finished this:

Much better than that glossy folded "case" you get with a gift card. Tutorial in the sidebar.

Don't forget to check out two more headband posts: reversible and beribboned!

Also, Chipotle (recognize that gift card? I linked in case you want to buy me one!) is the best food on planet Earth. And, they're building a new one two blocks from my house. Big trouble. At least I'll have to cross a busy street to get there.

headband happiness

2009-11-17T19:17:00.000-06:00

My first Heather Ross headband post is up at presserfoot...go check it out!

Now back to the headband grind...tomorrow's version is reversible!

Sunday smatterings

2009-11-16T00:20:00.000-06:00

Just a few. Because I should be in bed right now.

:: Christmas shopping is now in full swing. Ordered this and this tonight, and have this (from here) waiting for a pretty cool nephew.
:: Speaking of Christmas, I will definitely be making these this year (Alex will love it when I hang skewered bread upside-down on dowels).
:: This was awesome. And I saw someone I went to grade school with whom I haven't talked to in at least ten years. Small(ish) world. More on what I did later this week.
:: Alex has an imaginary friend. It's a mouse. We are not surprised. Maybe he needs a mousehouse for Christmas?
:: Does everyone know about craftgawker? I didn't even know about foodgawker, but it's probably best that I skip it altogether. I'm having enough trouble avoiding the leftover Halloween candy.
:: Tomorrow's the day!

OK, now I should really be in bed.

it's Friday...

2009-11-13T09:51:00.003-06:00

and life is super.

I've got some pumpkin bread in the oven...
I joined another bee (someone stop me!...I can feel an addiction forming!)...
and I get to go to this tonight; can't can't can't wait. Can't wait!

Happy weekend!

disappearing friendship block

2009-11-12T10:17:00.002-06:00

The first block tutorial for the Block Party QA was up earlier this week, so I made a friendship star block using some of the fabric from my Christmas-quilt-in-progress, thinking it would be fun to incorporate it into the back.

Then I started thinking about this block, and wondered what would happen if I quartered the friendship star. Fun ensued! So many choices.

How about just sashing in between?

Not sure what to call this one:

I tried some other arrangements (note to self, when basement is finished, get a design wall up...my cutting mat on the floor isn't so inspiring)--boats? birds?--but finally settled on this one,

which I love because of the mini-star in the middle, and also because I think that a quilt with staggered rows of this block would look so cool--the quarter stars matched up with others in contrasting fabrics.

For some reason, I'm really into this quartering thing, or rather, into cutting and rearranging blocks. Next up, I think I'll make a couple of other traditional blocks for quartering...maybe in some of the other fabrics from the Christmas quilt--might as well have a use for my experiment.

If you haven't heard about the Block Party blog and (companion flickr group) that inspired all of this, take a second to check it out. What started as a virtual quilting bee has grown into a book deal for the admins, a quarterly quilt-along for anyone and everyone, and the flickr group...which has inspired a bunch of new bees, including mine! I've been wanting to join one for a long time, but they seem to fill up so fast! With so many interested people in one place, the flickr group was the perfect opportunity to start a new one. The Bee's Knees is up and running, with a start date of January. So excited!

making progress

2009-11-10T14:13:00.005-06:00

Well, I didn't quite finish the entire thing...but I did do all the knitting and start the blocking, which I'd say is pretty good for someone who's just finally over a nine-day stay from the swine cold (I never had a fever, but apparently this is possible?). This is my first time blocking a knit (embarrassing to admit, but there, I said it!) and I have to say that I'm really enjoying it. The blanket's visual success depends, I think, on corners as perfect as I can get them, and with so many knitters making the individual panels, some coaxing was required to get everything to match up. I'm about a third of the way there (maybe some sort of faux pas in blocking? but such is life with a preschooler) and am really excited to see the difference the process will have made.

Back on task.

Another item from my November to-do list was that leaf wreath...which I contemplated giving up on till next year, because (did everyone know this but me?) the leaves are about finished falling before November even starts. I have a door decoration for Halloween so I figured I'd wait till that was finished...but the leaves were mostly crackly and dirty and faded. We made the best of it, and of the glorious day, by taking a family leaf collection walk yesterday, made all the more official by the fact that we were accompanied by a zookeeper who started out reluctant but took the "leaf collection" very seriously by the end.

I felt a little odd just walking up to people's parkways and taking their leaves, but nobody seemed to mind and I even met a new-to-me neighbor who asked me to please take them all. :) It was actually kind of a rush to see a big pile of fresh-looking leaves (ooh! an apartment building! They don't rake!) and then scurry over and bag as many as I could.

I ended up needing to make a repeat leaf run because, as Mollie mentioned, this thing took a lot of leaves. I made the frame as suggested by Britt on her post at Infarrantly Creative, and then just started threading 'em on there. What gave me the most bang for my leaves was using the taped sections for the sides, since the tape kept the leaves from falling and clumping at the bottom. I actually added some extra tape at intervals along the sides and then again on the corners.

We went to JoAnn's last night for some ribbon, but the line was way too long, so I went with this orange satin ribbon from a grab bag I bought a while back (best investment ever!). Not my favorite, but for this year, it will be just fine. Once I had it hung, I trimmed the stems, and it was finished.

Next year: brighter, fresher leaves...and maybe I'll splurge on the fancy ribbon.

good night, gorilla

2009-11-09T14:56:00.002-06:00

Maybe it's a little late to be writing about Halloween, but since Alex is still wanting to wear this costume every waking moment, even out of the house, I hope you'll indulge me.

If you have small people at your house, you've probably read this book about sixty-five thousand times. And you know what I mean when I say that I'm a little disappointed that the final costume didn't include a banana or a balloon, but a zookeeper only has two hands--so we went with the essentials.

The jumpsuit was adapted from the Raggedy Andy version of this pattern. I shrunk the collar (a little too much, it turned out), lengthened the legs, and added a placket for velcro instead of using a zipper. I made a tie with a velcro neck strap, and the belt was black cotton webbing with a black clicky buckle (that's a techincal term). He wore brown topsiders because even though the perfectionist in me said they should be black like the book, the cheapskate in me won out and it turned out to be just fine.

The fun parts: the hat (a post all by itself, but basically I just crossed my fingers while I made it up as I went along--turns out to be my favorite part!), the patches, a flashlight, a stuffed gorilla ($2.50 on clearance!) and a mouse from this pattern...he turned out to be a little bit wonky due to some gauge issues, but nobody seemed to mind. And the keys. I love them. Just felt sandwiched together, stitched, and cut.

Grandma helped me with the finishing touches at the very last minute, and I'd say it was a hit--both because people recognized him as being from GNG and because he still wants to wear it all. the. time. As Grace mentions here, this is what makes late-night costume crafting worth it: the fun they have with their costumes after Halloween.

a pleasant surprise

2009-11-06T14:46:00.000-06:00

You know how there's that person who will always volunteer to coordinate /run/organize something? That's me.

My oldest friend (really! I've known her since birth!) had her second baby in July. Her mom is my Godmother, and I'm to be the Godmother of this too-cute babe (make sense?)...definitely an honor. Theo's mom is a knitter, so her sister-in-law hosted a sip 'n stitch before he was born and asked me if I'd be willing to teach newbies how to knit. Sure. Could I help choose a project, so we weren't all just sitting around knitting for no reason? Sure. After lots of thinking, I finally remembered this beautiful blanket (check out all the awesome finished versions on Ravelry!).

Seemed perfect, since most of the pieces weren't huge, we could assign the biggest ones to people with experience, etc. More emailing ensues, we settle on this yarn to go with the baby's beautiful nursery, spreadsheets are constructed, I wind 14 balls of yarn, no problem--I can finish whatever the guests don't, it won't be much--we have the party, and...nobody really loves knitting.

Which leaves us (the knitters--there were five of us, and I think one other person who liked it enough to finish a rectangle) with lots and lots of garter stitch.

A couple of months later, Theo's mom brings me a bunch of the finished pieces. And there are still five left for me to do, plus I'm the one who's going to seam it all (party time!) and knit the edging.

Responsibly, I set it aside for Far Too Long.

Guilt creeps up on me. The baptism is approaching, and I really have to have it finished by then, plus I've got his gift to make. I've been plodding along on one of my pieces, but am imagining a really lot left to go. So today, full of dread, I pull it all out of the bag.

And...it's not that bad! I discovered in laying out the blocks we have that my knitting must be really loose, so a piece I thought would fill one spot can actually (miraculously!) take the place of the biggest piece, and like dominoes falling, the whole thing all of a sudden seems pretty manageable.

When this kind of thing happens to me, I get in a mood...I want to finish this thing THIS WEEKEND. We'll see if I can pull it off.

an exciting development!

2009-11-04T16:53:00.001-06:00

Who reads presser foot? If you don't, you should. The concept is so smart--a blog that features a different project each month, with photos & explanations, along with finished projects. Such cute things.

Anyway, they've been having monthly giveaways, where the winner gets fabric to make the month's selected project and then guest blogs about the process. For November, they're doing three smaller projects that would be great for gifts, and I'm one of the winners! I'm really excited to make two darling headbands from a pattern by Heather Bailey...the fabrics are beautiful. I can't wait to see the other two projects too (because who doesn't need coasters or a zippered pouch?). What fun.

And because a photoless post is no fun at all, here's an old one of Alex, which I thought of when I read this one...wish mine liked sweet potatoes as much as adorable Fiona does!

Can you even stand it?

november

2009-11-02T14:22:00.000-06:00

November plus 1, actually. Needed a breather after Halloween, which was really terrific this year...a recap later this week. Out with the old...

and in with the new.

A few crafty goals for the month:

some kind of handmade Thanksgiving decoration (one for me, one for Mom, I hope!)
Theo's blanket (lots of nighttime TV garter stitch in my future...)
Theo's baptism handkerchief
project for tutorial (plus the tutorial!)
this wreath (my first mention in a blog post...kind of exciting for me!--the idea originally came from here--I hope there are still some pretty leaves left!)
finish Small Fox swap ornaments
Christmas quilt (finish top, piece backing, baste, bind, quilt)--I really want to be cuddled up under this thing come December 3rd (Thursday is an important TV night at our house)
Whatever the first block ends up being for this cool project--check it out!
Christmas cards designed, drafted, to printer, ready for assembly (my goal mail date is December 10)
Alex's (handmade--more on that later) Christmas gift--designed & supplies bought
Knit a tiny Santa hat--for the turkey!

We'll see if that's doable. My husband is probably starting to sweat (I tend to get a little crazy this time of year), but it's nice to have it all in one spot. Off to cut some ornament felt!

a special kind of solitude

2009-11-01T20:10:00.000-06:00

Which for me, actually, comes in a very public place.

I love me a train ride.

Not sure I would really love a train commute, but my once-in-a-while suits me just perfectly. Maybe because I'm wearing something a little more interesting than usual. Maybe because I'm guaranteed a little bit of quiet time. Maybe just because it means I'm going into the city (miss living there, kind of), and am about to do something fun (like this time, which turned out to be a great dinner followed by my best experience in a theater, ever).

But no matter where I'm headed, I think I might look forward to the train ride the most.

There are train ride rituals: a snack, some (audio and in this case kind of gratuitous) reading, some knitting, and some being alone. I always bring a notebook, planning to make lists and draw craft ideas, but usually don't get to it...just having it along is what's important.

This trip, I finished (finally!) the first knitting project on my kind-of-long list. Cast off ten minutes before I got off the train, and thought dropping the stitches would take a couple of minutes (don't stitches seem to drop in an instant when you don't want them to?)--just kidding, took me the whole train ride home too. No matter, it's delivered now.

I love it. I hope my mom loves it too.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T19:24:00.003-05:00

Wishing everyone lots of candy and warmer weather than we had in Chicago!

all hallows' eve eve

2009-10-30T20:59:00.001-05:00

Say that fast a bunch of times.

Not that anyone is dying to do a craft right now, but there's always next year...we did this at Alex's Halloween party today and I thought it was about the cleverest thing I'd ever seen. I also really liked it because it appealed to my mess-hating craft-indifferent kiddo. I cannot take one ounce of credit for it--it's the brainchild of the wonderful Miss Lisa at school.

Basically, cut three sheets of scrapbook paper like so: one triangle (the roof), one intact square (the "inside"), one square (the façade) into which you also cut doors and windows, using, I'm guessing, an x-acto knife and an angled ruler. Precision was not the key, and the result was some serious wonk--all the better when kiddos are doing the gluing and the final product is a haunted house. Some kids used regular Elmer's (including one who made a glue pond while my head was turned--they're so fast!), others glue sticks, and spider confetti was available. You must make one!

In the background, a moment.

And off topic, I really love the second life of a bouquet of flowers. The original arrangement in this case was beautiful (and, alas, unphotographed--a surprise from my husband, just because!), but once the rest of them started to wilt these few were rescued, I re-vased...and I think I like this one even a little bit better. Nobody's going to confuse me with Eddie Ross, but I sure smile when I see them--like I cheated flower death and eked out another couple of days of walk-by happiness.

Trick or treat!

moments I

2009-10-27T19:56:00.020-05:00

So the official title is “Moments”—and since yesterday’s photos were of clean things (though I bared my imperfections in the text!), today I’ll share some of our life in its uncropped glory. A disclaimer: I did edit these a bit—just to improve the composition & color (though it’s official—we’re in the market for a new camera). And another one: I did clean up the table a little bit before we started, realizing that if we had a tidy place to work, I would feel more relaxed as we carved. But worry not--you’ll still see our house living life.

Another kind of blog perfection that sometimes pokes at me a little bit is how much kiddos seem to love doing all the activities suggested and hosted by their moms. Oftentimes, mine doesn’t. I love crafting (obviously!) and Alex would rather do a lot of other things than crafts, or really, than whatever I want him to do at any particular moment—though of course, I’m never allowed to go to another room (that’s how I know he loves me!).

Anyway, I imagine that in the perfect pumpkin carving post, the kids would be helping to trace the face onto the pumpkin, and then watching in awe as mom or dad deftly brought the jack-o-lantern to life. Mine thinks pumpkin guts are gross and wanted to push buttons instead.

So we came up with bringing the keyboard over to the table, so he was with us, and it was fine. We were together.

My real "moment" of the day? Alex wanted to put the “hat” on the pumpkin.

So he did.

a peek into my fridge

2009-10-26T10:47:00.001-05:00

Because I love it. There are a few other inanimate objects around here that I really love, but in the kitchen, it's my fridge. I love it because it's a really nice fridge, much nicer than any fridge I've ever had before, but also because it's clean.

When we got the fridge a few years ago, I promised myself that I would keep it clean by taking everything out once a month, pitching the junk, and wiping down all the shelves and drawers. I actually do this process with the entire kitchen on the last Sunday of the month. We get takeout for dinner so I don't have to mess up my entire kitchen after scrubbing it down, and now I even get some help from Alex, who takes all the condiments and then hands them back to me once I'm ready to replace them. His price? A maraschino cherry.

I share this not because I think you'll care so much about the inside of my fridge, but in light of this post by Amy at A Commonplace Life. Actually, there was another related post this morning at Small Notebook--and I remember reading some others recently (maybe here?)--so the theme is running through the minds of a lot of bloggers (kind of like the field posts from earlier in the fall). In short, the post discussed perfection (or its appearance)--Amy put it, "posting only the lovely"--in the blog world.

Besides the pressure to share posts (and in great part, the photos that go with them) that show something prettytidy, and extra-interesting, she also mentions that blogging has helped her to become more mindful about her life and her days, about noticing "the lovely"--and I've also experienced this in the short time I've been blogging. I am more likely to stop and photograph--or at least think about--events that might seem mundane. But my reality is that though my life never looks like this, which is OK with me (and the author would agree, I'd guess), so I do find myself styling photos I take for the blog. For every breadboard with a homemade loaf, there were fabric scraps, index cars, and trains--and maybe even some crumbs--to be moved out of the way for the picture.

Yesterday, the fridge really did look like this; I didn't change anything. But I would certainly hesitate to show you the scene behind me as I shot that photo (my husband is breathing a sigh of relief right now, I'm sure). Because though we don't want to hold ourselves or our readers to an impossibly-high standard, let's face it, nobody wants to look at a picture of someone's dirty kitchen for its own sake. And I suppose I could wonder, too, whether the contents of my fridge will be up for scrutiny (our brand of beer? Store-bought bread? Pop? A fast-food product? Non-organic eggs?).

I'm looking forward to the series Amy is thinking of starting, working title: "less-than-perfect" because I'm hoping it will help me focus some on what I guess my eventual goal is: to have just a couple of pairs of darling shoes on my stairs, and a hall that's clear of stuff when my little guy runs through. I'm guessing Amy didn't share the photo to inspire any feelings of inadequacy--that'd be counter to her point? What I mean is that it (and my fridge, clean but imperfect) represents to me the balance I'm trying to find: posting interesting things but showing them the way that they really are, keeping my house organized because I'm more relaxed and we live a better life when I do, dealing with the clutter made by making, putting aside the making and the cleaning to enjoy these wee years with my son, sharing with the outside world without worrying about judgment, and being glad (as Rachel reminds us) that my life is full enough to generate fabric scraps, index cards, and trains.

in the wee hours...

2009-10-23T23:04:00.000-05:00

not quite, but it sure feels late to me.

Just have to finish that O and I'm off to bed. First thing tomorrow: sewing some keys.

smatterings

2009-10-21T15:54:00.001-05:00

I'm sure there are "official" names out there for the photo memes and things to love & be grateful for right now and lists of links to cool stuff, etc., but this is what I'm calling mine.

smatterings:

:: this from rebekah

:: relief

:: an adorable tutorial--must make some today!

:: a new blog for the old google reader

:: and another one

:: a couple of great ideas of my own

:: statistics fun

:: a salad (croutons from this!)

:: the perfect Halloween accessory (and already owning the yarn to make it!)

:: a happier-today child who let me measure his head (don't ask!) and even tried a new food:

:: finishing a blog post before naptime is over