Modern Day Quilting

My hexie quilt for Japan is featured today over at Modern Day Quilts!!!

Heather does a really great job of finding fun, inspirational, innovative, modern quilts and posts them every day. I am super jazzed that she thinks my hexie quilt is fit for her feature! If you don't already follow her, you should. Every day brings new, and ever more beautiful, quilts.

(Her post just links to my sewing blog, but go there and show her some love, too.) :o)

We Let The Wine Do The Painting

Last month, my best friend, Angela, told me about a new (to me) place in Denver called Canvas and Cocktails. They provide all the art supplies, a "goal" painting, and an instructor to guide you through creating your goal painting. Well, and there's a bar in the back in case anyone needs additional assistance with their painting. As Angela and I were trying to figure out when we could go, I had to discuss the dates with Dave. This is pretty much how our conversation went:

Me: "So Ang wants to go to this place in Denver called Canvas and Cocktails. There's a teacher who teaches you how to paint a certain picture and everyone in the room paints the same one. We're trying to figure out when we can go. What are your plans for May 1st?"

Him: "Is it like that guy on PBS that says things like 'this is a happy tree.' or is it different?"

Me: "Ummm, I don't know about happy trees, but there is a teacher."

Him: "Hmmm...that sounds pretty cool. We should do that sometime for a date night."

Me, cocking my head to the side: "What?"

Him: "Yeah, you know I love art. It won't look half as good as yours, but I think it might be fun!"

Me, cocking my head to the other side: "What??"

Him: "Well, I know I haven't had a paint brush in my hand since approximately 1981, but I would really like to do it. We should go together on a date!"

Me, cocking my head back to the other side: "Who ARE you?"

Him: "No, really. It'll be fun. What's the website. I want to see what painting I might want to paint."

Me, cocking my head back again: "No, really. Who ARE you??"

After the shock wore off, we were sitting at our respective computers looking at the different paintings they offer and trying to decide when we could go. He really liked the "guitar trio" painting. 3 guitars, primary colors, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  I tried and tried to convince him to pick another painting, but he was pretty adamant about the guitar trio.  I was not too keen on having two (somewhat) identical paintings in the house, but figured I could at least paint over it if I hated it, right?! :o)

When I called to make the reservation, the girl was all excited, and informed me that the phones had been going crazy since they had just announced that Guitar Trio was going to be the first ever "Guys' Night" where the men would paint for free!  To which I said "Sweet! Sign me up! I'll happily paint a trio of guitars if it's free!" :o)

When we got there Saturday night, the room was pretty crowded, and only got more crowded. Too crowded, but it was fun, so that's okay.  After we paid, they took us to a couple of open stools, gave us our brushes and a piece of cardboard and showed us where to get the aprons and the paints. Then Dave went to the bar and bought himself a nice, chilled bottle of "painter's aid," if ya know what I mean. :o) Brittany, the owner, then introduced herself and proceeded to give us our basic painting instructions. It was really a great way to begin painting, I think. I've dabbled in painting for decades quite a while, now, so it wasn't new to me, but for Dave, who admits he hasn't painted in nearly 30 years, this was really great. She would say "take a scoop of yellow, and two scoops of white and mix them together." She went over brush sizes, paint combinations, light hand vs heavy hand. Good stuff. And she took us through the painting step by step. Again, cool for me, GREAT for Dave and the 34 other men in the room that haven't painted since elementary school! :o)

And as we went, she played some really rockin' tunes in the background. I don't recall any AC/DC, but there was plenty of man-friendly music that she played. I suspect the playlist is different on a night when most of the painters are women. :o)

Dave followed her instructions to the letter, but I chose a different set of colors to use. I chose to go ahead and paint the guitars, though, because Mookie LOVES guitars and she LOVES to play her guitar and she LOVES to play guitar with her papa. So I picked some girly colors for her. Brittany talked us through each and every layer, every highlight, every shadow, every nuance. The way we created the painting step-by-step really made us all feel very successful, I think.

One highlight of the evening was when Brittany called Roger up to the front and made up some excuse to get him up there. As he was up there, he said something sweet about his girlfriend, Kimberly, and asked her to join him up at the front. As she walked up there, he got down on one knee and proposed to her. Right there in Canvas and Cocktails. So sweet. I'm thinking she didn't really care how her painting came out after that. :o)

It took about 3 hours to get through our paintings and everything (there were a few breaks, too), but I'm sure it would have taken me longer to paint a trio of guitars at home. They took pictures, which is good, because I forgot my camera. If you look HERE, it's a picture of Dave and me on their Facebook site. You can't see our paintings, though.

I did take a few pictures with my phone, though. Here's a picture of Dave and me with our new creations. You can see the instructor's painting in the background.  Dave is actually pretty proud of himself -- as he should be! He did great!  (But there wasn't much "creative license" with him...we pretty much had to have anatomically correct guitars.)



And here are the paintings in the light of day. Still not too shabby, eh?



When I told Mookie that I made the painting for her, she said "Really? For me?" and began to clap like crazy. And every 15 minutes throughout the rest of the day she would say, "That's Papa's, this is mine." I love that she's so excited about a painting I made for her.  Since Dave is officially hooked on painting, and I had fun going along and enabling his inner artiste to emerge, I think we'll be doing a LOT more painting in the future. We've already got a plan for painting this Friday night. We're not going to C&C, though, we'll just paint at home. But if they turn out good, I'll be showing them to you next Sunday.

And, no. Angela and I haven't yet worked out the dates when we'll get to go and paint flowers and listen to girly music and chat chat chat the night away.

Should I Leave the 'Stache?

We're fingerpainting today.

I'm not sure, though, how Mookie ended up with a purple moustache. I guess I need to explain the difference between fingerpainting and facepainting. :o)

For 100 Babies

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my friend, Katy, about how to bind a blanket. See, she had a friend who was turning 30, and her friend asked that instead of giving her gifts, she wanted everyone to make a blanket for Project Linus, which gives blankets to babies that need them. Her friend wanted 30 blankets for her birthday. Awesome idea, isn't it? I mentioned to her that I help some ladies from my church make little quilts for a couple of local NICU units, and explained how we make them. We finished our conversation, and went about our way.

Over the course of the past few weeks, though, the notion of giving blankets instead of presents has been stirring in my brain (which has vast amounts of open space right now). I've given blankets to Brady's Smile before, and meet monthly at church to make 45 blankets for the local babies, so it's nothing new to me, really, but I really feel like I need to do something more. Also, I know of quite a few littles having birthdays over the next few weeks, and they all have PLENTY of toys. Pah-Len-Ty.

So rather than give them a gift and add to their toy stash, I've come up with a plan. My plan is to personally donate 100 baby blankets over the course of the next year. I'm not going to include the ones I make at church because that would be cheating. :o)  If I did that, I would meet my goal in just a few months! And I want it to mean something more to me. I need it to be a real challenge. (And it's not like I don't have enough crafting challenges on my dining room table already!)

And I'm going to start my clock ticking from August 8th. My sweet friend, Megan, has an adorable little boy who turned 2 on August 8th, and I'm going to be sending a blanket in Peabody's name to either Brady's Smile or Project Linus. And my next door neighbor's two sons are having a birthday party tomorrow. I'm going to give each of them a small gift, and give their mom a note saying that I'll be donating a blanket for each of them.

I'm not going to do anything complicated...believe you me, I've got complicated and over-committed coming out my eardrums right now! For now, I'm just going to make fleece bow-tie blankets like I made for Sprout.  And I'm going to figure out a way to keep track of how many I've donated right here on my blog. Somehow. Any ideas?

Anyone want to play along? After these birthdays, there's Christmas. And Valentine's Day. And Easter. And Mother's Day and Father's Day and July 4th. :o)  I know I can donate 100. Can you?

We're Baking Cookies!

(although it sounds more like "yooo baking a tookie!") (It's a very exciting endeavor). :-)

They're my favorite - Oatmeal Scotchies. Yummity yum yum yum. :-)

Funny Captured

Oh, I love this picture. :o)

(Sprout is eye-balling a pile of fabric that will become a quilt for her bedroom. I'm going to chop the fabric to bits and give it away to people to sew into blocks and give back to me. I'm super excited!)

I'm Traveling Today

Hey,

I'm over at Aunt Spicy's place today, talking about my fabric addiction, and talking about how humbling and incredibly awesome it is to be a member of the LA Modern Quilt Guild.

You should head on over there. Plus, there's a cute picture, or two, of my little Sproutling. :o)

Instead of Blogging

I've been being VERY crafty lately.

Which could be a valid excuse for not blogging. :o)

But then again, that's a pretty lame excuse considering the amount of time I spend on the computer each day...but let's just forget about that part, okay?

I'm part of a virtual quilting bee (see button to the right), and the first block we have to make is a Spiderweb block. With corners and points that have to match. And I. AM. SCARED.

I can sew straight lines kinda okay, but I don't know anything about joining points and corners! Especially for someone else, you know?

Like, I can sew a pretty good project for someone who is a friend and will love me whether I sew a straight line and match the points or not. But to make a block for someone I don't really know? And expect her to like it?  Again, I. AM. SCARED.



So I made this block as a sample using scraps from fabric I already had (or bought so I could put it in the samples I'm going to make from all the virtual bee blocks.)

Honestly, I can do "wonky", and I can do "improvisational", but I don't think I can do "unintentional".

To my little brain, unintentional = chaotic.  (And the top of my sewing room (dining room!) table is VERY chaotic right now! Scraps are EVERYWHERE. It hurts my eyes.)

But, my eyes are soothed when I look at this finished block! :o)  I learned a few things, and hope to put them in place when I use Abi's lovely fabrics to make the block I will actually send to her.



So, excuse me while I'm off doing new things and wallowing in chaos.

Oh, and actually working to try to finish The Baby Quilt. For which I did NOT beat the baby. (Jack was born on March 15th!)

I've still got some work to do, but the blocks are done, and I made a computerized mock-up to see what the tan sashing would really look like before I committed to it.



I need to finish the sashing, and make the backing, then quilt (or send it off)

I need to get off the computer and fire up the sewing machine...I hope you have a great, and crafty weekend!

Let Me Be Your Etsy!

A few weeks ago, I agreed to go along with the crowd, and make a removable camera strap cover for my new fancy-pants camera.  Tinkerellen thought we'd all want to be like her and make some, too, (she was right), so she set up a kind of a craft-along and said that if we wanted to be super cool (and avoid her crafty wrath), we needed to complete our camera straps by March 31st, and blog about them by April 1st.

I was "do I have to commit to a deadline???" and my neighbor-friend, Kelly, was "in????" so we asked another friend, Emily, to join us for a sew-along at my house one day. Kelly brought (and used) her camera, and took some fun pictures (and one awful one of an unfortunate pregnant lady sitting near my daughter in front of a sewing machine, ahem). There were 3 toddlers, 1 baby, 3 mamas, and approximately 1,349,832 toys in the front room of our house. One sewing machine had never BEEN turned on (and, thus, the user didn't even know how to THREAD her machine!), one machine had some significant bobbin issues, and one sewing machine didn't have electricity run through it at all that day.

Oddly, the newby sewist (Emily) completed her goal (she scrapped the idea of making a camera strap and went with the much simpler bean-bag option) (which was not part of Tink's craft-along, but heck, she'd never even threaded her machine, so we can't fault her, right?).

And after our other neighbor-friend, Angie, fixed Kelly's bobbin malfunction, she was able to go home and complete her camera strap that afternoon (yay for naptime!).

Me? Well, I at least laid out my fabric that day! :o) And then I finished mine a few days later. Even though I followed the instructions (OH - here: removable camera strap tutorial), and I tried really really hard to keep my seam allowance at 1/4", somehow, my camera strap was REALLY snug.

It fits, hallelujah, but it doesn't feel very (tug, tug, shove, shove) "removable"!! :o)

I love love love the color combination of red and aqua, but I don't really love how the colors were combined here. I wish I'd added more reds to the patchwork side. Ah, well, lessons learned, right? Good thing it's removable, because, for all I know, next week I'll want one with blues and yellows! :o)

Honestly, it was a REALLY simple, and VERY completable craft. If I could sew quickly, I probably would have completed it (the sewing part, at least!) in an hour. :o) I know camera strap covers are the latest trend, and if you're looking to buy one on Etsy, but have your own sewing machine, you can TOTALLY make your own! And save about $23!! 

Or you can give ME the $25 and I'll make you one!  Let me be your Etsy, Baby! :o)

Seeing Red

Not that I DESERVE one, but I've been coveting an Epiphanie! camera bag since I first saw one on someone's blog (can't remember who).  If I came across enough spare coinage, I might splurge and buy one. But for now, I just covet.

See, they are LOVELY, and BEAUTIFUL, and NOT AT ALL camera bag-like. (you'll have to click on the link to see a picture). The designer, Maile Wilson, is a professional photographer who would take her camera and "traditional" camera bag to photo shoots, but very rarely with her on personal outings, resulting in a shameful few family photos. She just hated carrying her camera bag! Feeling guilty about so few personal pictures, she started looking around, but just couldn't find a bag that would protect her camera while still looking like a hot handbag.

So she set about to design her own. Three bags (and a few in the hopper) later, and they are hotter than the tarmac at Hartsfield in August!

As I said above, I don't deserve one of these lovely bags -- I barely ever take my camera off Auto, for Pete's sake!

...BUuuuT...

Beyond Snapshots is having a contest and giving away one Lola Epiphanie bag. It's the red one. That looks so soft. And supple. And fashionable. And hip. And trendy. Mmmmm.....yummmy....

The contest is to post a photo that represents "red" to me.  Well, I do love red. I enjoy red. I would like to decorate certain rooms in my house with red. (someday).

But for now, whenever I think of "red" I think of THIS shade of red:

The contest runs through April 2nd, with the winner announced April 3rd. And while I would SO totally love to win the bag for myself (thus, hesitating to tell you all about the contest, lest you win instead of me!), I decided to be a good girl and tell you about it, so you can hurry up and enter, too, and maybe someone I know will win the bag! Which would be almost as stupendous as winning it for myself. :o)

What's "red" to you?

Sweet, Sweet Bowties

When we went to San Diego a few weeks ago, we stopped at a tiny little cottage quilt shop on the way home. I wasn't really that impressed with their fabric selection, but I did find a few inspirational pieces that I sneakily snuck iPhone photos of. :o)

I don't know how to download them here. Nor does it matter. What matters is that I have already made one of them! :o)

We've all seen the fleece tie-a-knot blankets, right? Yeah. 2005 is calling, and wants its craft-fad back. I will admit, however, that they are stinkin' easy, and snuggly warm. And I'll also admit that I've made a few.

One thing I don't particularly like about them is that tying the knots HURTS. MY. WRISTS. And I think cutting the strips does, too. But I know tying the knots hurts. For days. :-(  And since I don't really like doing things that hurt (umm, pregnant, anyone?), I don't really make these anymore.

The fleece-makers of the world, however, do not seem to know (or care) that I don't like to make these blankets, and they have the nerve to continue to make adorable fleece! Dang them.

And since I have been feeling rather less-than-accomplished with my crafting ventures, and since I need to feel like I have, you know, completed a task every now and then, I decided to take some time (about an hour and a half, to be exact) over the weekend and try my hand at making one of these new-fangled, no-sew fleece blankets. And will likely make more.

I would like to say, before I go on, that I didn't see a pattern for sale for this idea, nor did I see any kind of sign claiming intellectual property on it. So I am only sorta-kinda stealing the idea. And I refuse to feel guilty about it. (Unless someone comes along and tells me what I've done is illegal.) (And then I will point them to Etsy and ask what that's all about!)

And so, without further ado, I give you The Sweet, Sweet Bowtie Blankie.

 The finished blanket (30x36"-ish)

A close-up of one bow.

I think the bowties are too sweet for a blanket for a baby boy - do you? And, sadly for me, of the (wait, lemme count 'em) SIX (or is it 8?) pregnant women I know, I am the only one gestating a girl. Wait, no. Make that 9. NINE baby boys. One girl.  Competition is gonna be fierce for my girl in 28 years, no?

So I don't see me making any of these for the baby boys I know. And as much as I planned to save this one for Sprout, Mookie kinda sorta already thinks it's her "ni-ni binkie". So, it looks like I might be using the other half yards to make one for Sprout. Again. :o)  Good thing it was easy!

Do you want a tutorial, or are you satisfied with just a photo? Lemme know. It wasn't really that hard...I mean, I figured it out, and I'm 18 kinds of stupid with this pregnant brain of mine, so I know you can, too. It's just that if I did a tutorial, I could give you a few tips on things I would do differently next time.Plus, if I do a post with the tutorial, then you'll get to see what kind of lame goofiness I can create with an expensive camera. :o)

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 9)

Two more blocks done.

Mookie fixing the block...milliseconds before she wadded it up again. :o)

AND...I went to the LA Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Monday night. WHAT A TREAT!!!

On a side note, I saw a picture of myself on their website... I think I hear Stacy and Clinton coming up the walk to hand me my tail on a platter because I am clearly a candidate for the next episode of 'What Not To Wear'...and if there was a show called 'What Not To Do With Your Hair' I'm sure I'd be on that one, too. I need to put down the quilt blocks and hurry myself down to the nearest salon and have them work some magic!

Wait. Three blocks done. I forgot about the one I made yesterday.

Back to the MQG. The meeting was really inspirational, and motivating, and intimidating, and fun. :o)  I've decided to join a virtual quilting bee (I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds fun!). And we're/they're making a quilt for a raffle for a fundraiser, and I volunteered to make a quilt block for that, too. I think I can do one block for them! If they wanted volunteers to make whole quilts, I'd be slithering out the back door quick-like, but a block? I think I can do that. :o)

Sadly, I'm not sure I'll be able to go to too many more meetings. Dave has an incredibly important meeting the day after each monthly meeting, so he has to work late. And the MQG meetings are WAY up in LA, and I have to leave before Mookie goes to bed and I'm not sure who would take care of her and put her to bed, etc. :-( 

Being a mama is all about sacrifices.

Speaking of being a mama...we had another ultrasound this week, and the conversation was all about the alien. It pretty much shadowed every possible good picture of Sprout's little face. :-(  Mean alien.

I think that's a hand over there on the left of the shadow. And I think that's her little head on the right. Who knows. Well, the doctor knows. That's why we go to him...because he knows! :o) 

And speaking of babies, Angela is still gestating her little one. So I've still got more time to finish the quilt! (Yeah, right! Hallucinate much, Mama?)

Oh, speaking of the QUILT...the whole point of this series...I am definitely enjoying making it. I am definitely loving the process (and I am generally NOT a lover-of-the-process, NOT a lover-of-the-journey...I'm an end-result girl).  But this is fun! Really! There's no tedium, no boredom, no routine, no predictability...each block is purposely different from the rest, and we (the quilt and me) are just meandering our way to the finish line. Unfortunately, I do feel that it's important to complete the quilt, you know, eventually, so we can't meander too much! :o)

I hope you all have a great, productive, sunshiney weekend!

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 8)

alternate title: Feeling-a-Failure Fridays

alternate alternate title: 'Fess Up Fridays - This Baby's Beating Me

I did get a receiving blanket and two burp cloths made for my friend, Kelly, who still hasn't had her baby (Yay!)  I went a little crazy and fringed the edges on the burp cloths. I think it's cute, and might try it again.

But that's all the sewing I got done this week. And that little tiny bit of sewing took me 3 days. (sigh).

Thankfully (for me, at least), Angela, the recipient of THE QUILT, still hasn't had her baby, so I've still got a little time to get it made.

I WANT to be sewing the quilt blocks for it. I WANT to be adding the sashing. I WANT to be figuring out what the backing should be like.  But I'm not.

Instead, I seem to be spending all my good quilting time in bed. This fibroid is just kicking my tail! And, so, my tailbones have been HURTHURTHURTing this past week. And, ohsomuchfun, it's often that my front and my back are hurting at the same time.  yippee.  Unfortunately, sitting or laying down doesn't FIX it. The front and back still hurt, but not as much, which is nice...but I still wake up and hurt all over again.

And, I could go on whining. But this is supposed to be about what I've made this week, not what a wimp I am, and how I'm failing at meeting my goal, and how I feel like a big goober for even starting this 'fess-up-Fridays thing in the first place because now people know that I feel like I'm never going to finish that dang quilt!

I have decided (Mostly. I think. If I don't faint when I hear the price...) that I'm going to send the quilt off to be quilted once I finish. I've never done that before, and have NO clue what it's going to cost, but maybe the fact that it'll be DONE will outweigh the cost. (I hope!)  I mean, I WANT to quilt it, but I just don't think that's realistic for me right now. And I know from experience that this fibroid is only going to get nastier over the next 3 months.

And even though this is supposed to be about the fabric, I've got to include a picture or two of the "fabric of my life" (not cotton, thank you)...

Giggling at Papa...

Those cheeks and neck are just num-num-nummy...

Feeding her baby-doll lunch...

Such a loving Dolly Mama. :o)

I hope you have a great weekend, and a very productive and crafty week ahead! 

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 7)

I have nothing to show for my week except shame.

And good pictures of stuff I've done other than sew. (Like spend some sunshiney time outside with my girlie.)

 

Warm enough for a day in her little Hawaii outfit - a gift from Uncle Robbie and Aunt Tracy.

  

Look at that brilliant blue sky! And that wee wisp of a curl. :o)

 

"Oh, my aching back!"(how do they learn to mock their mamas so early?)

And a good family trip under my maternity belt. :o)  (We went to San Diego this weekend, but I haven't even downloaded the pictures, yet.)



I've got another baby to beat, though...it's no longer just Angela's baby I'm trying to beat. My neighbor almost gave birth to her 35 week old baby-on-board last week, so now she's on bedrest, and I've got to get her sewn gifts D.U.N. DONE!!!


Kelly's baby shower was today, and, I didn't count, but I'm pretty sure she was gifted with over 1000 diapers, but I saw nary a blanket to wrap that sweet little baby boy in! I keep telling her to keep her legs crossed and cook him a little longer. :o)  I found some fun alien flannel for the receiving blanket and burp cloths, so I just need to belly up to the sewing machine and get 'em done!

Angela will be 38 weeks along on Monday, and she's READY!! :o)  When she saw her doctor last week, she was already dilated 1 cm. I laughed and said "I was that far along about 30 minutes before Mookie was born!"  (I went from 0 to crowning in less than an hour...thank God for the epidural, or I'd probably still be in pain!)  I told her I was trying to finish the quilt, and was hoping that she was one of those who gave birth 2 weeks late, and she immediately said "NO!!! I've got blankets! My baby doesn't need your quilt that badly!" :o)  Hee hee, gotta love that mommy-humor!


Hopefully I'll have a better report next Friday. Dave goes back to work on Monday, so maybe I'll have some more time to do things like sew. :o)


Have a great, and crafty week!

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 6)

Saturday Edition

Frankly, there's not much product, and lots of 'fessing up this week. 

I'm trying, I really am. I know how important it is to finish the quilt top in a reasonable amount of time because it's going to take me FORstinkinEVER to actually quilt the thing. And Ang hits 37 weeks along this week...I don't have much more time!

But LIFE, ya know? It gets in the way sometimes. :o) 

Like, for instance (excuse #1)...we celebrated our Christmas last Saturday because Dave was finally home (yay!), and it was GOOD. I had a fun time coming up with and planning and scheming his gifts, and he went OVER. BOARD. Above and beyond the call of "overboard."  For his gifts, I gave him "kitchen passes" to go do specific things with different guy friends he has. Such as a ski day next week. (58" of fresh powder, anyone?) And a day to go golfing with Grant. And tickets to an Atlanta Braves game with his dad this summer. Fun stuff! :o)

He? Gave me? A fancy pants new digital SLR camera. And by fancy pants, I'm not talking Bedazzled fancy pants. I'm talking emblazoned-with-real-diamonds-and-sewn-with-gold-thread fancy pants. The kind that starts with a Nikon and ends with a 5000...and, gosh, it feels like he probably spent that much in dollars, too! Sheesh, this thing is powerful!  And the learning curve? Hello, Pikes Peak!  Good golly. I could (and probably should) spend 24 hours a day just learning about this thing, instead of doing it the severe injustice of just pointing and clicking like I'm used to! But even then, I'm getting good shots. (Note: I'm getting some cruddy shots, too, because I don't know anything, but the good ones are GOOOOOOD!)  This isn't a terribly GOOD one, but I think it's cute. She's all about the "mooches" lately, and is now making her puzzle pieces "mooch."  Usually it's the Mommy Cow and the Papa Horse, but here the cow is smooching the sheep. :o) She's such a love.

But I don't feel like I can spend the time learning about the new camera with my sewing machine sitting, lonely, collecting dust in the corner like it is.

And then (excuse #2) I've got some cards to make for a card swap I do each month. I just need to sit and do them, but I can't easily do them while Mookie is awake because she is SO helpful. Cute as a button with her "mooches" and all, but sometimes Mommy doesn't need her help. :o)  So, those need to get done. And I can't put them off much longer. Here, I'll show you:

I only need to make 12 more... :o)

And, well, (excuse #3), frankly, I have an alien attached to the outside of my uterus, right under my belly button, and it's been giving me a bit of grief of late. I've had them before, and had one in the same location when I was pregnant with Mookie, and it grieved me a bit then, but this time it just seems worse. I go for my next ultrasound on the 1st of March, and I'm not concerned in the least about it, it's just a nuisance. I go to a perinatologist for my ultrasounds, and he ROCKS, and Dave and I both trust him, and like him, and respect him, and think he ROCKS! :o)  He's totally on top of things, and if there is anything to be concerned about, he'll let us know. But there's not. It's just a nuisance. Lack of sleep, abdominal discomfort and pain, blah blah blah. My OB also ROCKS, and she thinks the annoyance-factor (and pain) will abate within a week or so, she said it's really common, and I'm not worried. Just annoyed that it's sidelining me like it is. :o(

But there is a sewing machine collecting dust in the corner, and I'm sitting on a pile of guilt!  I did get SOME sewing done this week...just not as much as I'd hoped. :-(  I got the black border around the 5 blocks I had completed, and I am SO dang glad I did that!! It was good for me to see halfway along what errors I was making, rather than making them with all the blocks and having to un-sew more than I already have! :o)  So, I've got 7 (at least) more blocks to create, and then I've got to sash. SASH!!  I'm still stumped.  I've eliminated the black, just because it's for a baby, and seems too Halloweenish.  I think I'll have to really wait till all the blocks are done, and then decide between natural and tan.  Here's a picture, though, of the blocks just laid on top of the tan (on the left) and the natural (on the right). It's difficult to tell the difference in the picture, but I think the tan looks just a hint better in person.  We'll see, I guess. I need to get the blocks done before I go moving on to the sashing!

And then I get to fret over the backing. Whee!

 

But for now, this is where we are. 5 blocks complete, the sashing almost chosen, lots of intentions, and not enough follow-through.  There's always next week. 

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 5)

I don't think I can post any pictures this week. I'm blogging upstairs having been (lovingly) relegated to the bedroom while Dave is wrapping my Christmas presents.

As an aside, we're celebrating tomorrow since he was gone for Christmas. Yay! I am very excited for him to get his gifts. It was kinda awesome for me to have an extra month to get his presents together! I didn't feel the pressure and stress I normally do when I end up giving him stuff I'm not really that excited about. But this year? Yay! I'm excited! I got to be a lot more creative, and I think he's going to be pleased. He never asks for anything, so it's always tough. Plus, his birthday is one week before Christmas, so it's a double-whammy, ya know?  I guess since I'm 'fessing up, I'll say that I did spend some baby-beating time this week doing some of the last touches to his gifts instead of sewing.

So, anyways, back to beating the babies. I've now completed 5 quilt blocks, and I'm liking this more and more as I go. There are parts of the process of doing an improvisational quilt that I don't like, but they are minor compared to the whole thing. For instance, I don't like that I have to cut the strips for each new block. I am able to cut some ahead of time, but I only want to cut as much as I need, and since I don't know how much I'll need, I can't pre-cut that much!  Right now, probably since I start sewing so late at night, it takes me about an hour to complete each block. That's WAY WAY WAY too much time, but I'm a slow sewist. Even when I'm not gestating. And even when I don't start after bedtime. But my sweet little Mookie doesn't like me to sew while she's up and playing, and since the idea of her sitting on my lap "helping" is a bit off-putting, I just don't do it. I wait, and do it after the house is tidy and quiet.

I'm snagged right now on the sashing, though. I know, obviously, that I need to complete all my blocks before I move on to what goes between the blocks (duh!), but I'm thinking ahead, you know? I hope to complete my blocks this weekend soon, and just don't know what the in-betweens should be. My choices right now are black, natural, and a kind of tan that matches the tan dot in the Katie Jump Rope large dot fabric. I think I'm going to just have to wait till I get the blocks done done and then lay them out on big pieces of each type of muslin and see which looks best. Maybe I'll save that for next week's 'fessing up.

And in other 'fess up news, I bought some more flannel to make some more receiving blankets for a couple of the other babies getting born around me. I'm obviously planning on finishing the quilt for Angela first, but if I have to, I can always stop the quilting and make a receiving blanket and burp cloths. It's important for me to at least have the fabric.

OH, and I was incredibly shocked to find the Alexander Henry Diamond Eye fabric at Jo-Ann's! Shocked, I tell ya! I didn't know they carried fancy designers (other than, like Debbie Mumm and Heidi Grace). I need to do a better job of keeping my eye out for the good stuff! :o)

I did hear that people at Angela's shower were quite impressed with all the handmade gifts I sent, and that lots of people liked the red/black/white blanket I was so worried about. I don't know, yet, how Angela liked it, but I did tell her that if she wants me to redo the backing, I will. :o)  What are friends for, right?

She's at 35 weeks now, and MAN am I hoping that baby doesn't come early!! :o)  Cook a little longer, Baby B...cook a little longer for Aunt Melissa.

I hope you all have a great, and productive weekend!

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 4)

I don't want to spend too much time 'fessing up...I'd rather be across the room sewing! :o)

And the longer I sit in this chair, the greater the probability that I will not get up.

(Maybe I shouldn't have turned on the massage function??)

(But, oh, it feels SO nice on my pregnant back!)

(I am envisioning hours upon hours zipping away from me as my aches upon aches melt away...)

Must.

Get.

Going.

Okay, then. Back to reality. So I spent all that time Tuesday night measuring, and drawing, and erasing, and coloring, and taping my mock-ups...and it turns out that I kinda didn't really need to do that. I spent the better part of Thursday night surfing the web, looking at various wonky log cabin designs and samples, and I realized that if I'm going to do this right, I need to be A LOT more improvisational than my Tuesday night plans would allow. I think I was a bit too analytical about it all. A little bit too perfectionist.

I know, shocking.

After I decided that, yes, I could do this, I got up from the computer, rearranged the stuff on my dining room table, and set about the business of improvisational quilting. Modern quilting. Scary quilting! :o)  Remember how I said I needed all that guidance? And whined about how there was very little guidance? It's just tough for me because there is pretty much NOTHING I can prepare in advance! Which, again, has to be the way it is if I am going to make this quilt honoring Angela and her baby. If I want to make something that reflects her personality, and the beauty that is Angela, then I need to leave myself behind and follow...well...nothing.  Follow my heart, I guess. Follow my impulse.

Impulse. What's that? Do I have any of that?

But to make this wonky log cabin, it's sew, then cut, then sew, then cut, then sew, then cut. Log by log. Block by block. Just like that. No plan. No stack of pre-cut strips to take from. No template. Just go with the flow.

(hurts to even type that!)

But I'm doing it!  And here's the proof.

First round of "logs", before I wonkified it:

And after I very slightly, ever so timidly wonkified it:

And here it is after the second round of logs, pre-wonkification. You can sorta-kinda start to see the wonkiness coming through:

And here it is post-wonkification.

With each level of logs, if I choose to wonkify, it will wonk the block up more and more. My plan (and hope) is to have a range of wonkiness. I'm trying to get away from symmetry and pattern and form. I know in the end this is going to be a beautiful quilt, and I will be a better person for stepping out of my comfort zone to make it unique.

But first I must step away from this computer. And away from this massage chair. Where I might or might not be planning to spend every waking moment for the next 4 months.

*********************
9:38pm Edited to add:
I have finished my first block!! (Can you hear the trumpets toot-toot-ta-ta-tooting?) :o)

Except for the part where I'm not sure how much I like the stark-white in the midst of all that off-whiteness, I think I like it! It's not nearly as wonky as I expected it to be, which is a direct result of my ultra-conservative wonkifying, but I think it might appear more wonky once I add the black border and sashing.

And I am SO glad I spent all that time researching last night because when I came up against a critical error growth opportunity, I knew how to...say it with me...IMPROVISE!!  For some of the fabrics, I'm using strips that I won in a blog contest back in April. The tiny black dot on the outside is one of those winner strips. And it's awesome, and I'm glad to have them, and I have a wonderful variety of them in a vast range of blacks and whites. Except I have mostly only one strip of each.  And when I ran too short of that one strip...

I knew just what to do! Yay! Thank you Interwebs and Bloggy Buddies!

I just inserted a piece of fabric to make the last log long enough! Brilliant, eh? I don't plan on running out every time, so I don't think this extra piece will be a recurring theme, but it might. We'll see.

I'm improvising as I go...

The Blocks That Are Building ME!

I got about the business of cutting out the printouts of my fabric last night. I'm kinda glad I did it this way because I'm so paranoid of cutting the actual fabric wrong!  And so many of the patterns I'm looking at give me painfully LITTLE guidance!!

And I NEED GUIDANCE!!

Explicit instructions. How much, how long, which side, which direction. Explicit.

So, going off the grid, here, with this quilt for Angela? I'm not sure if I'm up for the challenge!

But, armed with my engineering quad-ruled paper, ruler, pencil, scans and paper cutter, I set about to figure out how to make the quilt blocks.

Oh, and I used a few of Mookie's crayons, too. Mostly because they were handy, and I was lazy. And they worked to give me the visual I needed. I wish I could become a fan of Crayola Washable Crayons on Facebook.  I ♥ them.

After much drawing and erasing and drawing, and then cutting, here is the final product:

Block A on the left, and Block B on the right.

Again, these are just paper samples of what I will be doing (hopefully? maybe? possibly? unless I am convinced to do something else?) for Angela's baby's quilt.

I want the large orange dot to be a recurring fabric in each of the quilt blocks, so I plan to alternate between blocks A and B on the actual quilt. I have a variety of oranges for the center of A/outer ring of B, and a variety of blacks for the middle ring of A/center of B. I added (by painting) black sashing around each block because I kinda felt it needed it.

And, much as I would like to just cut the strips at 2 1/2" and run with it, I know I'm going to have to fussy cut at least the fish fabric so they are all swimming in the same direction!  I'm not sure, yet, whether or not the large dots not all going in the same direction bothers me.

Seriously. I think my Perfectionist Badge is getting in the way! And, Lord knows I can't take it off for fear of being excommunicated from the Absolutely Straight Society. Of which I am a long-standing member, thankyouverymuch.

Oooh, ooh. I just had an idea! I'll be right back...

Okay, here's what I've got:  a 12 block "quilt" and a 15 block "quilt". Forgive the ickiness of it all, and just "visualize" with me. :o)

What do you think? Which do you prefer? 12 or 15?

There will obviously be some variety in the blocks, since I'll be using different fabrics for each block, this is just a mock-up.  And the actual pieces in the blocks will be somewhat asymmetrical and "wonky."

Another option for me to do later is to applique (whasachusayyyy??) circles over top of the blocks, (hopefully) randomly.  But I guess that is a decision I can make when (a) I am finished, and (b) if I have time!!

Because I am fully aware that the making of the quilt top is going to be QUICK compared to the actual quilting of the thing! Eep!! 

Or do I scrap it all and make a rag quilt out of the fabrics? Wouldn't that just be easier, doggone it?

Please, pretty please, weigh in. I need the support of my bloggie world. Mookie doesn't seem to care much...

'Fess Up Fridays - Beat The Babies (Wk 3)

You'd think with all this attrocious weather we've been having here in southern California that I would have gotten more sewing done, but my body just wants to sit, feet up, under a warm blanket and forget about the howls and pelts and backyard furniture tipping over.  So, no. Not as productive of a week as I had hoped.

And because all 4 of you are desperately waiting to find out what I decided to do about the bathroom-rug blanket from the last post, I have decided to err on the side of laziness and leave it like it is and just pray that Angela likes it enough to at least use it, and doesn't secretly donate it to a children's home, or something!

As for the baby quilt I'm going to make her, I've been a bit paralyzed in my quilt top design (What? Me? Can't make a decision? Say it isn't so!!)  Hah. So, what I (brilliantly) decided to do was to scan the fabrics I have and I'm going to cut out the printouts and make paper quilt blocks so I don't cut the fabric and then regret my decision! Especially since I've got two retired fabrics and a pile of others carefully selected off the internet! It's not like I can just run up the street to Joann's and grab some more.  So, hopefully that goes well. It's just that I have the confidence of a church mouse when it comes to big artistic things like this. So, I did that, but I'm putting it aside for a week.

Because...I've got a LOT of other work to get done if I want to send stuff for Angela's shower next weekend! I found more fun flannels for receiving blankets than I wanted to, and had to whittle down my decision to 4, and I will use 2 of those to also make some fun burp cloths.

Even though I want to vegetate tonight (like I did Wednesday night instead of sewing!), I am planning on getting each of these pieces of fun flannel sewn into receiving blankets tonight. Planning being the key word, there! :o)

And in the midst of my search for uni-gender flannels, I came across some yummsterlicious butter yellow satin and matching soft minkee which is going to be the snuggle blanket I was planning to make. I'm planning to wrap the satin around to the front and do a self-binding.  (and I have enough to make one for Sprout...how sweet will that be that Ang's baby and my baby will have matching blankies?!)

Sooo..here's the internal debate I would like your opinion on: do I (A) make the snuggly and send it now (for her shower), or do I (B) wait till I know the baby's name and embroider the baby's name on the binding and then send it immediately? (I think I can do most of it ahead of time and machine embroider the name later).

What say you? Name or no name?

Hope you have a great, productive, super crafty weekend!

Well, Alley Approves!

(Warning: this is largely a stream-of-conscious post. Good luck following my train of thought!)


So I'm almost finished with the stroller blanket I'm making for my best friend's new baby, and I have not only struggled with the new type of fabric (hairier than any German Shepherd I've ever met!) (and stretchy, too!), but I've also struggled with not being confident that Angela will love it as much as I do.

I know it's totally simple, so there's really not much to love (or hate, I suppose). And she picked out the Alexander Henry Diamond Eye fabric...but she didn't pick out the reminds-me-of-my-bathroom-mat red minkee for the backside. :o)

I know black/white/red is supposed to be the ideal color combination for new babies, and the soft fabric, and bold pattern, and a couple of textures will delight the little budding genius.  But what I don't know is if Angela will love it because I made it, or because it's awesome.

I think it's awesome. But I tend to like more traditional color combinations, like black/white/red. She tends to go for the bolder, modern, retro color combinations. Like her wedding colors were brown and green. They were stupendously awesome together, and she did an amazing job of creating a perfectly coordinated wedding, and I love that color combination now, but it just didn't turn my head before her big day, you know?

I've gone back and forth and back and forth, again about whether or not the red was the right color for the backing. I could have gone with white, but the AH is not a true white, and it's too dingy to kinda/sorta go, you know?  And I know I could have ordered any number of colors from the web, but I didn't want to blindly order "off-white" and not like it. And I could have gone with an orange (again from the web), but, well, I was kinda doofy about that. Basically, I just didn't think about it! I went with the VERY BASIC color selection of minkee fabrics at my local Joann's, and fell for the red.  Am I a bad friend for not going the extra mile and ordering the orange from the web, so that her baby would have yet another black/white/orange thing for its room? Or for not ordering off-white from the web and hoping that it would be "off" enough to go with the front fabric?

I've got another piece of the AH Diamond Eye. Should I just order the orange minky dot off the web, and start over?

Help. I can't make this decision alone!