Cashmere!

What could be more perfect to warm a brand new baby head than a cashmere sweater, washed and dried until it's extra soft and fuzzy, sewn into a tiny tasseled hat?

The pattern comes from Sewing Green by Betz White, and I modified it a bit by hand-sewing the tassels on (way easier for me than the machine-sewing method she outlines), folding up a double cuff and hand-stitching it in place.

I was so lucky to find this fine-gauge sweater with the baby cables, providing enough material to make two sweet little hats. I've been thrifting avidly for the last few weeks, scavenging unbelievably cheap cashmere sweaters (the kind that go for $100+ in retail stores and catalogs) -- sometimes paying as little as $1 apiece. I have about 30 sweaters now, dismantled and ready to become luxurious cashmere throws -- another Sewing Green project. What a joy to work with, and what a joy to give!

Recess

Here's the quilt I made as an end-of-the-year gift for K's teacher. I love it!

It was simple to make using a charm pack from American Jane's "Recess" line by Moda -- with the squares pre-cut all I had to do was arrange them, sew the rows and columns together, baste, bind and tie -- it took maybe six hours to complete.

The bright colors and lively patterns remind me of my daughter and her Pre-Kindergarten classmates, and the backing with its line drawings and primer words seems appropriate. I have in mind that Mrs. H will use the quilt as a spare "rest time" blanket, but maybe she will find a more creative use. I hope she likes it!

(Isn't the red-white-and-blue binding print sweet? I bought enough to make a skirt or maybe a sundress for K with it.)

Spring cleaned!

Photos from my newly spring-cleaned sewing room! (Still, alas, the dining room.)

I did a major overhaul of my fabric stash and kept only the fabrics I loved or thought would be really useful. "I might use it someday" is no excuse for hoarding items that could be used right now by somebody else. Now I can see what I have and I'm not bothered by the nagging thought that I should be working 24/7 to use up my stash, and using boring or ugly fabric to boot. See how nice it looks in my cabinet?

Then I went in and organized my ribbons, rick rack, pins, needles, elastic, thread, bobbins and other notions. It's easy to find what I need now, and it's easy to clean up, too, because everything has a place to go. I also un-teetered the piles of books that surrounded my sewing table, and organized them roughly according to category. I can't wait to get them upstairs to the new studio where there are real bookcases!

So what to do with the boxes and bags and tubs and baskets of fabric left over? I sent seven (yes, 7) boxes, mostly flannel but some terrycloth and an amount of quilt batting, to TLC for Angels -- they make blankets and clothing for "needy babies" and were happy to accept my donation. I have another seven bags of quilting cotton to give to my church's Prayer Quilting group. But there were still boxes and bags and tubs and baskets full of fabric -- fat quarters (kind of small for the prayer quilters), holiday and novelty prints, home decor weights -- plus a gazillion skeins of yarn and several more boxes of crafting odds and ends. What to do, what to do?

Obviously, this was the perfect time for D's parents' church to hold their annual flea market! We sold all of the fabric and nearly all the yarn, a few of the doodads and even a few handmade-by-me items: 3 small tied quilts, 2 patchwork-covered Moleskine notebooks, and a number of rice-and-lavender heat therapy bags. (We also sold: some clothes, a tv, vcr, dvd player and stand, and presumably some other things since our total intake was over $90, which is pretty darn good for a yard sale. We're still debating over what else we might have sold; it's kind of a mystery.)

And now -- onward and upward! Look for posts about my current projects, some new furniture, painting, thrifting, and more...

Making a change

I've been looking around my house lately and realizing that it has a bad case of the matchy-matchies. Take the master bathroom, for instance. The level of pink-and-green-ness in there is truly nauseating. I think I caused that to happen, over time, because of a needlepoint picture my great-aunt gave me that I hung in there, but really, there's such a thing as overkill. I'm going to need to do something about it.

Recently we replaced the cat-scratched slipcovers in our tv-room with inexpensive white ones from IKEA. I was a little apprehensive about doing this but decided to push ahead with the assurance that we could wash, and even bleach, them whenever we needed to. And we have. We've put in a multi-colored checked carpet and have covered the arms and backs of the chairs with the various afghans, quilts and throws I've made over the years, and I like the way it looks and feels. I'm thinking I'd like to do more of this.

I've already purchased inexpensive white slipcovers for the dining room chairs, but I'm holding off using them until we start using the dining room as a dining room again. I think I'd like to make/buy/otherwise acquire white slipcovers for the living room as well -- I'm really loving white these days, and since the furniture is still perfectly good (except where the cats have dug in) there's no reason to replace it -- though a part of me wants to ditch it all and go with secondhand. I want to decorate with color and texture and freedom and things I love, and not worry about whether anything "goes."

I'm collecting vintage fabrics and am hoping to replace some of my bedroom and bathroom linens with handmade items -- in particular, I want to make a duvet cover out of pillowcases and a shower curtain from a 70's bedsheet (which means I will need to learn how to make buttonholes -- a new skill!) I think I will also make some new napkins and dish towels, and think about what to do for a tablecloth or place mats. And then there is the question of what to do with all of my old matchy-match things -- the sheets and blankets and towels and such -- how can I repurpose them? So much to think about!

What changes would you like to make in your home?

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

I'm filing this one under Live and Learn.

K's Spring Concert was last night and she needed an Outfit.

The Rules were: The top had to be white. The bottom had to be Dark Blue or Black (and could have red accents) but Not Jeans. (K also wanted something she could wear for the Fourth of July.) The Kindergarten and Pre-K were to wear Cowboy Hats if they could obtain such.

I looked first at K's wardrobe and found a pair of dark blue stretch pants and an old white t-shirt. No good. I looked at Target and found a soft white smocked blouse. Good. A short black skort. No good. Tight black lacy leggings. No good. K does have a cowboy hat with red trim. Good.

I checked my fabric stash. Many Fourth-of-July novelty prints but nothing suitable. Feeling fairly certain that the local fabric stores would turn up with nothing, I took a ride out to Jo Ann Fabrics. Looked at linen, denim, silk charmeuse, flannel, homespun, gingham, calico, muslin, organic cotton -- back to the linen, which was soft and in a lovely blue, bought 3/4 of a yard of it along with some bandanna print ribbon, an actual bandanna and some black non-roll elastic, and headed home.

I washed, dried and ironed the linen. Started the Lazy Days skirt pattern and worked slowly and carefully. Noticed that the linen was not 45" wide as called for in the pattern, but 60" wide, but didn't worry about it too much -- figured that the skirt would just be fuller. Oh, how wrong I was! When I threaded the elastic through the waistband, I saw that the extra fabric caused there to be less gathering, not more. So I cut the elastic smaller and sewed it back together. And in my haste I cut it too small. So I cut the elastic apart. And in my haste to remove it, I pulled the elastic all the way into the waistband, rendering it extremely difficult to retrieve.

At this point I began to have serious doubts about whether a 5-year-old would even consider a linen skirt to be acceptable Fouth-of-July or Cowgirl attire. I rooted through my stash again and and found some blue starry quilting cotton, not really of clothing quality by my standards but it would do for a cowgirl costume. I began working on the Lazy Days skirt again, slowly and carefully. All the way to edge-stitching the bandanna ribbon to the hem of the skirt.

Satisfied, I began to iron the finished product. And the ribbon began to fray and pull away from the skirt! Oh no! Nasty cheap craft store ribbon! I couldn't cut the ribbon hem off of the skirt and try again with different trim, because the skirt was already as short as I was willing to make it. I looked through my notions bin (a total disaster area!) for some narrow red trim to sew over the edges of the cheap ribbon. I found some rick-rack and some grosgrain ribbon that would work. Not stopping to think, I pinned the rick-rack on, ran it through the machine, and did the same with the grosgrain. The end result was both sloppy and silly-looking. The trims didn't quite match in color, and why hadn't I thought to use the grosgrain twice, which would have given a more polished look? I was really disappointed. But time was running out. It would have to do.

Unless -- I took my loop turner and pushed it through the waistband of the linen skirt, hoping to catch the elastic with its hook. Instead I poked a hole through the fabric. Done! I ironed the starry skirt and hung it up on a hook to wait for K.

The verdict? "It's weird, Mama."

Could be worse!

Making things to wear

I could not be more excited! I have made two things for K to wear on our trip this weekend to E's graduation from college! First is a smocked sundress from Weekend Sewing, which I made at the largest possible size to accommodate my big girl, but which I may have made too short -- we'll see when she gets home from school -- I was too keyed up not to post these pictures now!

Next is the Lazy Days skirt from oliver + s, which Soulemama pointed to in a post earlier this week. I used the Amy Butler fabric that I bought at the fabric store downtown (it's so great to be able to buy locally!) and some ribbon that I picked up there yesterday when I got the bug to try the pattern. I love it so much, especially the ribbon hem binding, that I'm thinking of making a matching one for myself if only K will agree to it!

So tomorrow we're off to Indiana for the weekend, and I need to be thinking about crafting I can be doing in the car, and things to keep the little one busy. Here's hoping the sun comes out and everyone has a good time!

Catching up

It's been a crazy couple of weeks -- I'm thinking I need to modify my weekly plan to include some flex days where I can concentrate on housework and errands and bill-paying and not so much on creative work, important as that is.  There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day.  But despite all the time I've had to spend catching up on those things I've managed to give a fair amount of time to creating; it just hasn't always been what I've wanted it to be.

I put in a few hours making birthday gifts for K's friends.  First was an unsatisfying hoodie towel for a 6 year old boy.  There just wasn't any flannel in the fabric store that I liked, and it didn't come out looking right.  Then came an unimpressive art-to-go bag for a 5-year-old girl.  The straps came out uneven and I decided it was not a good enough gift, so I kept it for my own use and made her a very nice felt pencil roll and included some watercolor pencils and a brush -- I think she'll like them, I must remember to send them to school with K today as she missed the party last week.

Also, for the last week I've been working on my Secret Quilt Project, which can now be Not So Secret since I've decided that it won't be a gift for anybody because it is clearly a Practice Quilt so I will be keeping it for home use.  I am using the "Go-to Quilt" pattern from the Katie Did blog, with chartreuse and pool blue as my solid colors and a medium-scale floral with those colors and a darker teal for my print, and dark grey thread.  It's attractive to me but I'm not sure it would be to anyone else, and the stitching lines are kind of sketchy and look more like bolts of lightning than straight lines in places and rainbow arcs in other places.  I think that perhaps attempting a queen-sized version of this quilt for my first try was a mistake.

I have also been collecting materials for other projects.  Yesterday I went to Village Thrift in Pennsauken, a wonderful source of vintage materials that I can't remember if I've mentioned before, and collected a pretty 1970's pillowcase and a (slightly itchy) rose-pink wool blanket.  The pillowcase goes with a small collection I'm growing that I hope will become a patchwork duvet cover for my bed; the blanket will become, among other things, a throw for the tv room, a hot water bottle cover, and possibly a pair of slippers. 

In the works:  dawni's quilt, a miniature schoolhouse quilt for K's teacher, baby gifts, some small things with the linens from Philip's, a couple of drawstring bags to hold tights and slips and other unmentionables, hoodie towels for K to take to day camp and if K has her way, boots and umbrella for a 3-inch-tall kitty -- keep dreaming, kid!

Over my head

A quick review of the calendar reveals way too many events and projects for the month ahead. I'm thinking of purchasing (I almost said "making," but that would be one more project!) one of those desk-sized calendars with the giant squares that would let me map out my time right there in front of my nose. I've been using Google Calendar, but my success with that is limited as I forget to look at it and tend to ignore the annoying reminders I tell it to send me.

Focusing on today, I need to:

1. Get the grocery shopping done
2. Tidy the house and clean the most disgusting parts of it
3. Organize my sewing area so I can start my secret project
4. Do the paperwork and pay the bills
5. Get errands done: dry cleaning, post office, day camp registration

I already have a jump start on #1, because it's









Monday -- Crock Pot Pizza Fondue, Italian Bread, Broccoli

Tuesday -- Chicken Piccatta (Trader Joe's sauce), Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday -- Hamburgers, French Fries, Apple and Banana Slices

Thursday -- Crock Pot Garlic Pork Roast, Roasted Potatoes, Carrots and Peppers

Friday -- Breaded Chicken Tenderloins, Crock Pot Sweet Potatoes with Applesauce, Corn

Saturday -- Clean Out Refrigerator Night

Sunday -- Ham Steak, Macaroni & Cheese, Baked Beans

Down by the riverside

Yesterday was by far the best, most beautiful day of the year. D and I took a walk downtown to check out the moving sale at Olde City Quilts -- they will be relocating just a few yards closer to the river, so I did not have to feel sad to see them go; instead I joyfully gathered quilting fabric remnants into my arms until I could hold no more, and headed out with a sack of fun and interesting additions to my stash that I otherwise would not have been able to afford.

We had lunch at Legends, a local gourmet pizza place that specializes in fancy pies named for celebrities. Neither of us was feeling adventurous, so we just had ordinary individual pita pizzas, but one day I'd like to go back and try the Don Ho -- pineapple, apple smoked bacon, mandarin orange (I could skip that part) and fontina cheese. Yum!

From there I decided to push my luck with D and beg to stop in the new (to me -- it's been there a year and a half, I found out when I asked the owner!) sewing/fabric store on the corner "for just a quick run-through." It's a good thing he had his Android phone with him to play with because I was in there for at least forty-five minutes, touching fabric and touching it again and pulling bolts out and juxtaposing them and squealing at the pretty notions and the sample projects. I was grateful to be the only one in the store, so I could fall all over myself without getting embarrassed.

The store is called Just Make It ... Sew and is truly an enchanting place for a textile-crafter to wander through ! The rooms are bright and airy with a wonderful selection of elegant and touchable fabrics gorgeously arranged, and the owner -- whose name I neglected to ask in my excitement -- gave me just the right amount of space. I clucked and fussed over her Amy Butler Midwest Modern prints, trying to match one or two with some lovely bright soft linens that were on sale. I did find two combinations that I liked, and bought fabric to make hooded towels, along with some thread for my big secret quilting project. I will definitely go back there to shop and I am excited that the store offers sewing lessons too!

(In celebration of the weather and the fabric and the end of Spring Break, we stopped at Umm's Ice Cream Parlor for the first time this season. Huzzah! is all that need be said about that, I think. We ate our ice cream as we walked home by the Delaware River. I ask you, could it possibly get better than that?)

When we got home I did some fulling of a couple of pieces of wool suiting I bought a while back that I thought I might turn into blankets. The final texture and amount of shrinkage surprised me. I need to keep practicing until this process becomes really familiar to me, at which point I'm sure something else will have come up which fascinates me more.

Here is the first hooded towel that I made. I under-bought the cotton fabric and had to make the whole thing smaller than I normally would have, but that's okay because this project is meant for a newborn-to-6-month-old and they have such little bitty heads that would get lost in a giant hoodie anyway. Since the baby is due in July I thought it would be nice to have a cooling towel/blanket, and this one fits the bill nicely -- both the linen and cotton layers are smooth and moisture wicking, and they both lack the nappiness of the flannel and terrycloth that I normally use, which keep a child warm but also retain moisture. This will be a quick-drying towel or a light-layer blanket.

What about Studio Saturday, you ask? Believe it or not, I accomplished my goals! I had a nasty bout with insomnia last night anyway, so around 4am I took apart the desk (don't ask what I had to do to find a flat head screwdriver. Why would you use all the flat head screwdrivers and then scatter them all over the house so no one else can find one when they need it? I'm asking you, D!) and moved it into K's room (she was with Grandma & Grandpa,) then put it back together and emptied my closet. D measured for shelves in the late afternoon. Mission accomplished! Woot!

A full plate

What a fun day we had yesterday!  The sun finally came out and we took a friend to lunch, then bought tulips at Trader Joe's and met a new 5-year-old friend who lives two doors down and has a lovely family and a fun swing set to boot.  I think this could be the beginning of Something Good.

While all that was going on I was busy not planning my week, so now it is Free Play Friday and I have yet to Think It Through.  I'm afraid that, this week, I have extremely high hopes and dreams and may find it difficult to stay realistic, but I will give it a shot:

Free Play Friday is a catch-up day and will probably see very little crafting -- I need to pull the house together as best I can for the busy week to come.

Studio Saturday means getting my old desk moved into K's room once and for all!  Then D and I will empty the closet and do proper measuring for custom shelves, which we will purchase at a later date -- maybe in a week or two.  Not sure if we should install them before or after painting.  Suggestions?  (Will also be purchasing fabric for a large new project -- what fun!  I'm being deliberately cryptic about the nature of the project, except that it's a full-sized quilt, because it is a gift.)

Stick-with-it Sunday will have to be forfeited this week, as my sister and nephew will be visiting and family comes first.  Any available time will be spent making the current sewing room as functional as possible for making a full-sized quilt.

Mix-it-up Monday will of course include a menu plan for the week -- the wheels are starting to turn about that, and I hope to include at least one meal that K can help prepare now that I've bought an electric skillet to help make things easier for her.  Will continue to prepare the sewing room for the new quilt -- I want this project to run like clockwork!

Try-it-out Tuesday is the day the beginners' knitting group meets at the county library headquarters, so I hope to attend that.  Otherwise the day will be completely given over to the full-sized quilt -- sewing the panels together and beginning to pin the sandwich.

Works-in-progress Wednesday looks like it will be an exercise in will power -- I may need to set a timer so that I'll be working half time on the new project and half time on older ones, just to keep myself on task.  I want to go through my Crochet-WIP basket to see whether there is some yarn I can give away to buy myself some space; I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating that I just don't enjoy working with yarn the way I once did.

I'll include Think-it-through Thursday because it's a no-brainer:  I'm just going to work on my full-sized quilt until I'm done.  The project instructions say to give it about 10 hours, so I'm figuring on about 24 of my own working hours to get it done properly.  I think I have enough time to get it done -- I'll keep you posted!


What's on your plate for the weekend to come?  Got any plans spilling over into next week?

The overseas contingent

These are the last of the felt rabbits -- the ones who seemed a bit wonky next to their pastel cousins or who just plain didn't fit in with the in crowd. Together they form their own brand of post-Easter cool-cat nonchalance, and I like it way more than I'd thought I would. So when a foreign friend asked if she could have one of the "Easter rejects," it seemed natural that they should all go together. I hope she doesn't mind.



Making the bunny bag to be their home added just the right amount of closure to the felt rabbit project; I feel I can put the felt and the floss into a box for a while now and work on something else. I love the fabric for this bag because it reminds me so much of the bunnies themselves, sort of tall and elongated with a round, flat bottom.

Now to get this project off to Australia and move on to new and exciting things. Look for a plan-it-through Thursday post later in the day. Looks like it's going to be a warm and sunny one!

A blessed Easter

This joyful Eastertide, away with sin and sorrow!
My Love, the Crucified, hath sprung to life this morrow!
Had Christ, that once was slain, ne'er burst his three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain,
But now hath Christ arisen, arisen, arisen, arisen!

G. R. Woodward , in Car­ols for East­er and Ascen­sion­tide, 1894

We could not have had a more glorious Easter. Brilliant sun, beautiful (and packed!) church service, wonderful food, family and friends. K absolutely danced through the day. Hope yours was just as lovely, whatever you did!

Here is the promised photo of the rabbit family -- final tally is twelve, not counting the one I didn't quite finish and the ones I rejected as looking a mite too ... um ... happy for a proper Easter basket.

Checking in

Ok, I am totally swamped but having the time of my life!   I admit to giving up this week's plan back on Saturday when I realized that I had not cleaned out the closet, let alone measured it properly, and we never did make it to IKEA.  And there was nothing to "stay with" on Sunday, so I let that slide, and Monday I woke up sick and went back to sleep for the rest of the day.  So I am now doing tons (if only I were exaggerating) of laundry and catching up on cleaning and still fighting this nasty bug and trying to carve out time to cook and craft and shop for the holiday. 

Despite all the misery, Try-it-out Tuesday was a rousing success.  I whipped up a cute drawstring bag to hold my quilt, which I've been toting around with me in an unsightly paper sack for a few weeks now -- that was an absolute necessity -- and an adorable head scarf from the remnants, both projects from Weekend Sewing.  I also spent some time yesterday at a beginner's knitting group at the county library headquarters, which was an absolute blast -- and with some help from an excellent teacher and this handy web page I think I may have finally figured out how to purl!  Next Christmas, socks for everyone! 

Of course, in my spare time I am still whipping out felt rabbits.  I promise to snap a photo of the whole bunny family before it goes in K's Easter basket this Sunday -- for the moment, I must go tend to the housework and shopping in the hope that I will have some time to sew something before the end of the day. 

Like bunnies

Today I've been making wool felt rabbits in marvelous colors: baby blue, vanilla latte, pink, pistachio green, buttercup, lavender. They are charming to look at but take nearly an hour to complete, so they are not really multiplying like bunnies, much as I wish they would -- I've got big plans for these little guys involving certain small persons' Easter baskets.

As for the week to come:

Free play Friday will probably see me making more wool felt rabbits.

Studio Saturday will definitely involve a trip to IKEA to purchase shelving for my fabric-storage-closet.

On Stick-with-it Sunday K will be home, so no rabbits. I plan to cut out dawni's quilt that day and start piecing if there's time.

Mix-it-up Monday is also Menu Planning Monday; K would like to do some recipes out of the Sesame Street Cookbook so I will plan my mix-up accordingly. She has marked a couple of no-bake cookie selections that look, um, gross to me, so I may have to discuss some compromises with her.

Try-it-out Tuesday is being difficult for me this week -- there are so many things I want to try. I'm committing right now to trying "Jane's Head Scarf" from Weekend Sewing, but I reserve the right to give other projects a go as well.

Works-in-progress Wednesday was a bust last week. There was simply no time to do anything, so I worked a few rows on an afghan I started last summer. This week I want to take a serious look at my crocheting works-in-progress and be brutal with my surplus yarn: What am I really going to make? The rest can go to the Goodwill.

And then, Bang! Holy Week begins with Maundy Thursday. So, as usual, I have my work cut out for me. What will you be working on in the week to come?

Bunny bag

This morning for Try-it-out Tuesday I made this sweet little drawstring bag to fill with felt rabbits for K's Easter. I have since replaced the organdy ribbon with a self-fabric tie, which I think is a great improvement. I'll photograph the bag again when all the bunnies are made so you can see the difference.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to make a similar bag for my nephew J, but the fabric I chose was of poor quality and refused to make up into a suitable product. I'll try again if I can find another appropriate print, but it's hard to find Easter-y prints that aren't too pink and flowery.

*Pattern for the bag came from Sew What? Bags! by Lexie Barnes

Yesterday's Mix-it-up Monday was quite a hit -- I made the Quiche Lorraine, referring to it as "egg pie" to K so she'd understand the concept of what we were making. She thought the concept was gross but was happy to help measuring and mixing and pouring, and even ate a bite or two when the thing was done, a full 30 minutes after the cookbook said it would be. I will definitely make this again, with the understanding that pre-made pie crusts and pre-cooked bacon make the job a pleasure instead of a chore. I may even make it for Easter Brunch.

Behind but still busy

I still have not gotten the desk moved into K's room, but at least it's empty now and ready to go. I have been clutter-busting all over the house, which is good for my overall disposition but less good for my concrete goals. Still, clean is clean. I'm not complaining.

I also got the main fabrics chosen for dawni's quilt. The number of fabric pieces I had to pull out from my stash in order to find them was staggering, and reminded me once again that I need to build up my collection of reds. Hopefully I can start pressing and cutting those mountains of fabric today.

Plus, it's Menu Planning Monday, which means it's grocery shopping day. And I need a bazillion things from Target. Does anybody have an extra hour or two they can spare? I really need to get my spring cleaning done!


Monday: Quiche Lorraine (let's try this again) and black bean soup (left over from last week)

Tuesday: Spaghetti w/jarred sauce, turkey meatballs, applesauce

Wednesday: Marinated chicken breasts, rice pilaf, green beans

Thursday: Manicotti, salad

Friday: Rice and beans (left over from last week), baby carrots

Saturday: Clean out refrigerator night

Sunday: Pizza night

Repurposed

Remember the chococolate-and-vanilla blanket that I felted? The one where the binding got all puckered? I got tired of seeing it sitting on the floor of my closet, where it stayed because it was too sloppy-looking to put on the bed, so I butchered it. In my new favorite sewing book, Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing, there is a marvelous felted-wool baby blanket project, and I happen to know a relatively new baby, so I thought I'd give it a try. It has a gloriously colorful patchwork binding that was too much fun to make.

So much fun that I ended up making two blankets! Heather's project called for an appliquéd monogram, but a) I am afraid of appliqué and b) I liked the simplicity of the blankets as they were, so I left the monograms off. Not bad for a day's work.

As far as Studio Saturday goes, I did not meet my goal of moving my old desk into K's room -- though there is still hope that that might happen today. I did manage to get all of D's books downstairs, and even had him sort through them and choose some to give away, which left enough room to move the travel books and atlases downstairs, too. That leaves me with most of the second Billy bookcase empty; I'm keeping two shelves full of photographs, negatives and cameras because they qualify as "art," and because they occupy K's attention when she's in here and I'm busy with other things.

Because I got carried away with the sewing yesterday, I may not work on any sewing projects today, but we'll see. The bug has bitten and I am eager to get to dawni's quilt.

Made

The "My House" quilt is finished! I love the way it looks with the matching pillowcases.

I love the pieced backing -- it contains some of my favorite fabrics, that I had been saving for a special project.

I was in a big hurry to finish the quilt but I did want to put some kind of label on it. My embroidery skills could use some honing, but that's for another day.

Thinking it through

It's always good to have a plan. I'm doing very well with my meal plan for the week -- I can't say it's been perfect, but dinner's been on the table each night with a minimum of fuss, and I have a good sense of what I can serve for next week as well. So I'm providing a plan for my creative work week with Think-it-through Thursday. Here goes:

• Free Play Friday -- By definition, I don't need to put anything down here. I will speculate, however, that I may spend some time finishing the "My House" quilt and working on the coordinating pillow slips. Since K has the day off from school, we may work on some "'broidery" together, or possibly sort through some photographs.
• Studio Saturday -- My plan is to have all of D's books downstairs by Saturday. Then I want to empty the drawers out and clear off the top of my old desk, so that we can move it into K's room, thus freeing up needed space for my cutting table.
• Stay-with-it Sunday -- Since I expect to be done with "My House," this will be the day I plan and choose fabrics for dawni's Friendship Star quilt. If I have time I will cut and maybe start piecing.
• Mix-it-up Monday -- I want to make the Quiche Lorraine that didn't get made last Monday, so I will do my menu planning and grocery shopping around that. Since K will be in school I will also work on felt rabbits.
• Try-it-out Tuesday -- This will be my chance to make the drawstring bag to hold K's rabbits in. With any extra time I will work on finishing up the rabbit family and piecing dawni's quilt.
• Works-in-progress Wednesday -- There is a poncho that needs about 30 minutes to finish up; there are some journal covers with a little work left to do on them; a baby afghan that needs finishing; and any number of projects that need to be noticed and prioritized.

For the rest of the day, I'm putting ties on "My House." I hope to finish the ties and embroider my name and the date on the back by bedtime. Then I can run it through the wash to give it that antique-y look and spread it on the bed -- at last!

A simple scarf

This scarf turned out exactly the way I hoped and expected it to -- plain, soft and warm -- back in January when I started it! It's an unbelievably simple two-stitch crochet pattern, so there's no reason why I couldn't have knocked it off in a couple of days, but I am just not that into crocheting these days, so it took 3 months instead of 3 days to do. It would still be sitting in its pouch in the passenger seat of my car had it not been for Works-In-Progress Wednesday, my new day to set aside my current project for one that's been sitting around unfinished for a while.

I love the yarn that I used to make this project -- it's Rowan Wool Cotton, which comes in many lovely colors and has a lovely drape and sheen. It's not cheap, but it's worth the price. I bought different-colored yarn to make two other scarves, so I hope I can get over my anti-crochet kick long enough to whip those up. The pattern for the scarf came from Crochet Scarves! by Candi Jensen.

Peeps you can keep

Who better to great you on Try-it-out Tuesday than Peter Cottontail himself, the first of my branchings-out into new territory. He's a wool felt rabbit just about the size of a Marshmallow Peep but with (in my humble opinion) tons more character. I plan to make about 7 more of the little creatures in different colors to give to K for Easter Day, along with a little drawstring bag she can carry them to church in for some quiet play. It was fun to work with the wool felt and embroidery thread, and to fashion the charming little critter in a relatively short time.

This project came from Cynthia Treen's Last Minute Fabric Gifts.

If you're looking for some entertaining and informative reading, you could do worse than to go over to the Peep Research Page .

Contest winner

And the winner is...

#6, dawni!

Thanks for playing everybody! dawni, I'll be in touch with you so we can plan your miniature-quilt prize.

My Quilt

Thanks to all who suggested names for my four-patch scrap quilt. I love them all! I think my favorites were The Amazing Technicolor Dreamquilt, Eight Bit Mona Lisa, and Pelangi, but none of those made it to the top. That's because I remembered a favorite poem by Nikki Giovanni called "My House," from her 1972 book of the same title. I'd love to quote the full text of the poem here but there's something so wrong about that, so I'll give you the quilt-related stanza:

i spent all winter in
carpet stores gathering
patches so i could make
a quilt
does this really sound
like a silly poem
i mean i want to keep you
warm

You must, must, must read the whole poem, however, if you are a lover of poetry. Read it aloud, read it to someone you love. You will understand, then, why my quilt must be called "My House." It is a quilt about gathering patches, pieces of my days and work and family, it is a quilt about taking charge of my life and bringing peace and wholeness to my world, it is a quilt about opening up my self to those I know and love. It is a nesting quilt, it is a growing quilt, it is a welcoming quilt. Welcome to "My House." Come over soon and share it with me.

Mishmash: The long haul edition

Since I didn't get to it yesterday, this is my unofficial report from "Stay-with-it Sunday," my afternoon dedicated to making progress on ongoing projects. Naturally I worked on my nameless quilt, tying and tying and tying till my fingers were sore. I am nearly finished with it and, if I work hard, may have the whole thing complete by this time tomorrow. I also put some small effort into moving books out of the studio; my medium-term goal is to have this finished by next Saturday.

Today is Mix-it-up Monday, which for the time being will be dedicated to a cooking or baking project. Today I'm making Corn Scones from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home -- a recipe I've tackled before with some success. I'll also be making black bean soup and quiche lorraine for supper, assuming all goes well; I'm just feeling a need to branch out creatively and enjoy the fruits of my labor with my family tonight.

I've also decided to join with Laura's I'm an Organizing Junkie blog Menu Plan Monday followers and post my weekly menu plan here. More than 400 women share their menus on Laura's blog every week and find that doing so is a great way to stay motivated and inspired, so I'm going to give it a try. Here goes:


Monday: Quiche Lorraine, Black Bean Soup, Corn Scones

Tuesday: Chicken with BBQ sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli

Wednesday: Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice, Salad

Thursday: Chicken and Noodles with Pesto Sauce (Stouffer's,) Baby Carrots

Friday: Crock Pot Tuna Casserole, Peas

Saturday: Pizza night

Sunday: Clean Out Refrigerator Night


Simple, right? Now I need to haul myself to the grocery store so I can follow through. If this works it will save me time, effort and money and keep my family fed and happy, so wish me luck!

Studio Saturday -- Dinosaur Dig and Book Blitz

Welcome to the first of a series of themed posts designed to keep me on my creative track. The idea behind Studio Saturdays is that I will set a goal each week towards the completion of my crafting studio, and spend an hour or more working toward that specific goal. This week, I actually had two goals: 1) To have D remove his obsolete, dust-gathering computer equipment to the recycling center, and 2) To empty as much as possible the two tall white Billy bookcases from Ikea, to make room for crafting books and supplies.

D came through with flying colors! I had an appointment to keep this morning, and when I returned home at 11:00am he had not only purged the office of cyber-junk, but had also relieved the choir room at church of a useless wooly mammoth of a PC. I was less successful in completing my task, which metastasized as I realized I was going to have to clear out bookcases in our bedroom and in the Great Room downstairs in order to accommodate the exodus of printed material from the office. I did manage to get the space cleared, but only moved out half a Billy bookcase worth of materials from the office. And now my cookbooks are in the bedroom, which just seems wrong. Give it time, I keep telling myself. It'll all come right.

So tomomrrow I'll put a little more effort into getting the house (let alone the office) under control, and I'll work hard at tying my quilt -- the closer I get to the finish line there, the safer and cozier I feel. It's totally worth all the hard work.

What projects have you been tackling this weekend?

Fit to be tied

I finally finished stitching the binding to the back of the quilt this afternoon. It's been a slow five days, but for once I feel secure that the edges of my quilt will hold together -- no fraying and raveling on this one -- and the corners surprised me by mitering nicely. Now it's time to pull the layers of the quilt sandwich together by tying a square knot with white pearl cotton in the center of each four-patch. I started doing that earlier this evening and I'm liking the way it's going. Helps to balance the bright, crisp blue flowered border with the hippy-dippy scrappy-patchy center. I'm liking it. Except.

The whole idea behind the four-patch quilt design was that it should have an amount of structure without being stuffy. The blocks were laid out just so, from top left: light patch, dark patch, light patch, dark patch, so that -- in my mind, as I set up the rows -- the dark patches were like stair-steps climbing up the quilt. Nothing sophisticated, to be sure, and it won't win any prizes for visual effects, but I do think it's easier on the eyes than a totally random layout would have been. And then I take a closer look.

Of course I knew there would be mistakes. There are ten zillion squares in this thing. Some of them were bound to get turned round the wrong way. No big deal. It's when I begin looking for those oversights that I begin to drive myself berserk. Because, of course, they're all I can see.

As I work through the four-patches, inserting the ties, I'll have a chance to notice, lament and remember every single mistake. Then I'll name the quilt, wash it and put it on my bed, and it will mellow and age. I'll read, write and watch TV under it, spread it on the grass and picnic on it, wrap and transport antique furniture in it, and fold it in a laundry basket for an old, old fat cat to sleep on. The colors and textures and harmonious and discordant patterns will become faded and fixed and ultimately, utterly beloved -- no need for any concern about flaws here.

How many "mistakes" can you find in the picture of the quilt top, if a mistake is a four-patch where the dark diagonal is turned in the wrong direction? I'll count how many are on the actual quilt, and if our numbers agree I'll do a drawing and make someone a surprise!

The Amazing Technicolor Dreamquilt Contest

My quilt is nearly bound. After that I will do the ties -- I am finding it so soothing and satisfying to do all of this handwork -- and then it will be time to name and label the quilt and call it done. My goal is to complete the quilt by the end of the day on Monday. In case you've forgotten what it looks like, you can view a picture of the quilt top here.

Now that you've refreshed your memory, it's time to get to work.

Think of a name for my quilt -- the point here is to have as many working ideas as possible. Leave your suggestion in the comments. (If you don't have a new suggestion of your own but really like someone else's, leave a comment to that effect.) For each original comment that you leave, I will enter your name in a drawing to win a miniature quilt that I will make especially for you, colors and design to be determined at a later date. To earn an extra entry, become a follower of my blog or subscribe to its RSS feed and leave a comment saying that you have done so. Or invite a friend to comment on this post and drop your name in their comment.

Contest will be closed at the end of the day on Monday, March 23, 2009.

Midnight shortbread

I love to cook. It's a throwback from my grad school days, when I would spend my daytime hours slaving over piles of books to be cataloged (ah, that new book smell!) and my evenings wriggling about in uncomfortable chairs, surreptitiously nibbling on popcorn from the library school's basement vending machine and wondering how Seven of Nine could manage to save the day (night? how could you tell?) on Voyager each week in that darn silver cat suit and those precipitous stiletto heels. Despite the yummy homemade soup I'd bring for my dinner in the fancy-schmacy Thermos my mom gave me when I quit my teaching job to go back to school, I was always ravenous when I got home from class at, like, 10:30 PM, and I needed to cook because peanut butter and jelly wasn't going to cut it.

I had a book I loved -- I won't call it a cook book, it was more of a food book -- that my sister gave me a hundred years ago. I still love it. It's called Home Cooking: A Writer In the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. It reads (to me, anyway) like a novel, as does her other food book, More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen. I would turn to these books, not so much for recipes as for inspiration -- for such wonderful end-of-the-day dishes as rösti (like hash browns only better) and welsh rarebit -- and for astonishing projects like homemade dill pickles and yogurt. They kept me going during the grind of graduate school -- I would fix myself some amazing comfort food and eat it while I watched The Food Network or Nick at Nite on TV, then work on some hippy-dippy crochet project before I started my homework.

All this is to say that, since grad school and marriage and the arrival of Miss K and the advent of the quilting bug, my cooking obsession has fallen by the wayside. But for the last few nights I have not wanted, I have needed cookies. And I am simply too busy to make them. I have to clean up cat puke off the sofa. I have to launder 1,171 socks (becasue 1,172 would be one too many.) The bed has to be made so we can muss it up again. (Yes, it does. It really is better that way, D. One day you'll understand why.) The answer? Midnight shortbread.

Why shortbread?

1. Three ingredients. Always on hand. Butter. Flour. Sugar.
   
2. Very little cleanup (assuming that, unlike me, you do not fling the flour about as you measure it.)
3. Hands-on time is minimal. (No, don't use two knives to cut in the butter, that's ridiculous. Use a pastry cutter, you'll be done in no time.)
4. Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake. No cookie cutters, no messy drop cookies.
5. Make a fluted edge. Or don't. Cut into wedges.
   
6. Flip on the tv or snuggle down with a book and let the oven do the work.
7. Nibble daintily? Crunch and munch? You decide.

Why midnight?

So you get first dibs, of course. You can share the leftovers in the morning -- they're wonderful spread with a little butter (and, if you're feeling decadent, a sprinkle of sugar) and enjoyed with some tea or orange juice. What time do you get up? I'll be over.

Progress report

I managed to pick up a version of K's tummy bug, but in between bouts of wonkiness I basted the edge of my quilt, trimmed the excess batting from around the edges, created the binding and sewed it on to the quilt top. It's looking more and more like a finished product! Left to do:

• Slip stitch the binding to the back of the quilt
• Make the quilt ties (I'm thinking plain white pearl cotton for these) and trim them evenly
• Name the quilt and create a label for the back
• Sew on the label
• Wash the quilt to give it the "antique" look I'm after
• Make the pillow slips

I'm tentatively planning a "Name That Quilt" contest if I can drum up enough interested readers and think of an appropriate (handmade by me, of course!) prize. Any suggestions?

Welcome

Hi to anyone who is visiting Magnificasti for the first time, and welcome! Check out some of my earlier posts, view photographs of past projects, and follow along with my progress as I work to transform my husband's old office into my new crafting studio. If you like what you see, become a follower or subscribe to the RSS feed and come along for the ride! And do leave a comment with any feedback you have to offer, or just say hello. I'm so glad you stopped by!

Byrd is the word

I try to get to choir rehearsal about half an hour early each week, in order to catch up on filing or in case the director has anything he'd like me to help him with. This past Wednesday he had a whopping pile of music to be distributed into the choir members' boxes -- not surprisingly, since Lent is moving along at a fast clip and we'll be needing a ton of music for Holy Week and Easter. I looked at the first piece and saw that it was a particular favorite of mine, perhaps my actual all-time favorite choral work, and I jumped for joy. Really. You can ask him.

It's William Byrd's "Ave Verum Corpus." You can listen to it here.

Aside from the fact that it's just an unutterably beautiful motet, I think it is a memory I associate with the Byrd piece that causes it to fill me, not so much with hope, but with certainty, that this Holy Week and Easter will be solemn and sacred and vivid and glorious. This is what I remember:

While I was at Carleton I sang in the vocal ensemble in the Carleton Pro Musica. There were usually between eight and ten of us, and we rehearsed twice a week in a little practice room in the Music & Drama building. (Aside: The M&D was one of the few places where you could still enter part-way into the underground tunnels that used to connect the buildings to afford students and faculty some shelter from the harsh Minnesota winters.)

We would sing silly warm-up exercises and then work hard on the pieces we were given to learn, with guidance from the group's director as he dropped in, working his way through the different ensembles. Looking back now, I can see that we were spoiled in that a) we had plenty of rehearsal time, and b) we had in common the drive to perfect our performance. In our church choir (which I have sung in for ten years) we are blessed with neither, which I am no longer bitter about -- that's life -- but sometimes it makes me feel disappointed.

So during Spring term of my Freshman year we were given the Byrd "Ave Verum" to work on, and I think it was a favorite with pretty much everybody. I don't remember much about the rehearsals, except that as time went on I put more and more effort into following the tenors' line, which, if I closed my eyes, would make me feel like I was floating on air. One afternoon we all agreed to troop down to the basement to the tunnels so we could rehearse the lovely motet among the tunnels' astonishingly good acoustics.

When we got there, we mixed and mingled and molded ourselves into an inward-facing circle. Someone gave the pitch and we began to sing. I don't know who hit the lights, but almost immediately I felt hands holding each of mine. We sang the whole piece through, in the dark, holding hands, with that lush sound resonating about us. I can't remember another time when I've felt so real, so present, so completely involved in what I was doing.

It's a reminder to me, today, that when I sing, be it the William Byrd or the Patricia Hurlbutt (yes, you read that right, and the composer's name is indicative of what we'd like to do with her anthem) -- I need to be alive, focused, prepared to work as hard as I can to ensure that whatever piece I'm performing is as perfect as possible, and to inspire others to do the same. This is not a small challenge, but it is definitely worthwhile.

My new digs

It's been a long time coming, but at last I have taken residence in D's former office! I'm still referring to it as my "office" for the time being, since it is clearly set up for paperwork and not for sewing, but some very important things have happened in this room over the past day or two:

1. I have located the floor. (The beige carpet is in excellent condition. This is most likely because, during D's work-from-home years, it was covered in a sea of paper which protected it from all the cat puke and baby vomit. I think, then, that I will keep the carpet and put the money saved toward something more important like maybe a decent quilting machine?)
2. I have pinpointed the problem areas, i.e. the things D still needs to get rid of, and I have made a plan for him to follow through on these that he can actually carry out in a reasonable amount of time. This requires supervision and patience, but it will be well worth it.
3. I have gotten a handle on getting my own things under control. The piles of craft clutter that accumulate after a winter of making gifts and then undertaking a major quilting project were outrageous, and my "temporary studio" still needs attention, but at least things are neatly piled and arranged instead of flung about willy-nilly.
   

I love my French bulletin boards but I think I'll re-cover them; I'm definitely leaning toward reds, pinks and yellows for my color scheme. The Fred Small poster (from a concert in Great Hall my senior year at Carleton! Autographed!) will probably have to go, but I hate to give up Fred entirely -- will have to think about that. And may or may not relocate the diplomas -- maybe keep mine and give D's the boot?

Possibly the best part is the part you can't see because that's where I'm sitting -- my comfy leather armchair (that one in the picture is D's and it's slated to LEAVE because it is NOT comfy) with the fluffy yellow "Lemonade" afghan draped over the back. In front of it my laptop just fits on the top of a thrifted wooden side table that has been loved by some child or children, who left their mark in dabs of brightly colored paint all over the legs. Nothing like furniture with character.

Next on the agenda: Move D's mathematics/computer science book collection to a bookcase downstairs and reclaim one Ikea Billy Bookcase for quilting/crafting books.

Quilt show booty

Early this afternoon the three of us trooped off to the Love Apple Quilters' 2009 "Spring Into Quilting" Show -- what fun! Or it would have been, if K had not been so gosh-awful whiny. Turns out she was coming down with a fever and upset tummy; we plopped her on the couch with some ginger-ale and crackers when we got home. So I didn't get to see many quilts, but I took a turn through the vendors' exhibits and picked up a handful of flyers so I'm now aware of a number of upcoming events. And I rummaged through a lovely merchant's vintage linens to find this embroidered pillowcase -- see how pretty?

I have a book called Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase that gives directions for turning this into an enchanting sundress for a two-year-old girl, and while I currently do not know any two-year-old girls, I expect to know about three of them in the not-so-distant future. Hence.

Then I found some delightfully soft and vibrant scraps of wool. I wanted them so badly but couldn't imagine what I might use them for, so I walked away from them, noting as I did the enormous basket of (clearly hand-dyed) wool roving on the table nearby. On my second pass by the woolens exhibit, I fingered the roving for a moment, then dove in. I came out with the Easter egg colors below:

I know that wool roving is used in needle felting but I've never tried that; the only thing I've ever done with it is make felted rocks, which is probably what I'll do with this roving. I've also seen instructions (in The Creative Family by Amanda Soule) for making little round felted balls, about the size of superballs -- which little children supposedly love -- but they look like a ton of work for not much reward.

So when I went to purchase the roving I asked, just for kicks, what the scraps were meant for, and was told that they were for felted wool appliqué -- which of course never occurred to me because I am mortally terrified of appliqué and have never once considered trying it. But felted wool is all the rage these days, and I know that it is unbelievably forgiving -- and these wool scraps had such a soft hand and such rich and gentle colors. I took a deep breath and bought some. and I found this on Amazon when I got home. I should have it by Wednesday, so look out!

Pinned

It's been a busy, intense week with a lot on my mind and a lot on my plate, but I managed to get an enormous backing (which I love -- I would show it to you but I want it to be a surprise) pieced and the three layers of my quilt sandwich pinned together. I was a little disappointed that the organic cotton batting was so thin and rough to the touch, but I didn't want a heavy batting for such a large quilt and you can't actually touch the batting once the quilt is done, anyway, so I'm not going to worry about those things. The beauty of the cotton batting is that it will shrink when the quilt is washed, giving the whole thing a puckered, "antique" look.

Now my job is to baste around the outer edge of the quilt top so I can trim off the excess backing and batting, and then I will make and apply the binding. Then it's plug-and-chug, tying and trimming the knots until it's time to make the pillowcases (yes, I had enough of the bright blue floral for two of them) and name the quilt and then happily ever after. Onward and upward!

Here's the top

I'm high as a kite from finishing the top of my scrappy four-patch quilt about forty-five minutes ago. It took that long to spread it out on the floor and chase the cats off so I could photograph it for you. You'll notice that the navy blue border I'd had my heart set on was replaced by a subtle medium blue print from my stash -- thus saving me the need to buy any new fabric and, I think, coordinating well with more of the greeny-blue blocks that show up all over the quilt.

Now my job is to piece together a backing that is at least 95 in. by 85 in., to set aside enough medium blue fabric to do a self-binding, and to baste the top and the backing together with a lovely organic cotton batting I purchased at Jo Ann's today. With luck I'll even have enough blue fabric over to make pillow slips. Here's hoping!

What she said

Earlier this week, on Soulemama's blog, I read a post that truly inspired me. You can read the entirety of it here -- and I would encourage you to do so if for no other reason than to drink in the glorious photographs she includes in every post -- but the comments below do a great job of summarizing how I'm feeling without my adding a thing:

Sometimes these things - our passions and our projects - get done in simple, yet miraculous ways: in the two-minute increments of time that may appear at a time; with the help of a sweet husband who carries a little extra weight for a moment so I can do something as silly as knit a sleeve in silence; or as the chosen priority for a day over a pile of laundry/bathroom cleaning/bill paying. Sometimes we go to extreme/comical/ridiculous measures to make our passions happen in the everyday. Because the way it makes me feel - the way it feeds my soul - well, that fuels me to be a better person. And a better mom.

One little stitch at a time.

Quilt quickie

Just dropping in to say that I have waffled once again and I am quite pleased with the results. I decided that I liked the hippy-dippy folksy appeal of the simple four-patch layout and, just for the heck of it, laid out a 10 x 12 array of blocks. It looked great -- just what I had envisioned when I started the quilt!

So I'm currently in the process of sewing rows of four-patches together. I thought it would be tedious work, but I'm finding it curiously relaxing. In the back of my mind I'm churning about what sort of backing I want to do (pieced, I think, using fabric from my stash) and whether I want a border and what color it should be (narrow and navy blue print, perhaps) -- more about those things later.

I'm loving the rhythm of piecing right now, and am using it as a reward for getting some amount of housework done. Projects in the works: A hooded towel for my new first-cousin-once-removed, some receiving blankets and maybe a star quilt for my niece-to-be, many tote bags because I have such lovely home-decor remnants piling up, and of course the mama-daughter pajama pants from the lovely vintage bedsheet. Right, I'd better get busy!

Nowhere fast

Well, after an hour or so of fiddling, I have come to the conclusion that I need professional help.

Oh, you knew that? No, really, stop laughing.

I'm going to the quilt store downtown and ask the ladies what they think. Laying the blocks out in a "random" pattern is simply not working, it's just driving me insane and it looks sloppy and unpolished. I need something to pull it together, some sort of lattice work and border to pull it all together, and I am simply too inexperienced to figure out how to do that on my own. So I'll go stack my blocks back up and put them in a little box and cart them down the street and see what they say. You don't ask, you don't get, right?

One patch, two patch, three patch, four...

Well, all of the four-patch blocks have been sewn together -- the picture above shows them stacked in their neat little piles. That was a job! I spent a fair amount of time the other day laying out possible combinations of 4x4 blocks but found myself stymied in the end. Hmm... Wheels are turning as I type. I had been thinking I needed to make 4x4 patches and then sew those together, but I'm liking the simplicity of the four-patch blocks juxtaposed as they are in my photograph, perhaps with a little tweaking so that all of the dark patches "climb" in one direction. Hmm...

Obviously the thing to do now is lay them out on my fabulous huge design wall WHICH IS STILL TOTALLY IMAGINARY, thank you very much, I will be laying them out ON THE FLOOR, and count out how many I'd need to make a such-and-such size quilt. Which means I also need to figure out how large a quilt I want to make. Oh, how tedious. But these things must be done, so off I go.

Mishmash: Lost weekend edition

February went by in a flash! Crazy things happened, the likes of which I will not delve into here. The most important thing is, I was happily reunited with my sewing machine and we immediately began with that all-important project of re-covering the ironing board -- without which no other project could proceed. I've had the prissy yellow oh-so-utilitarian print in my stash for over a year now, and the ironing board seemed like the perfect place to put it to use, with a big floppy white bow to hold it in place.



My major project for the month was a scrappy four-patch quilt which is sloppily spilling over into March. I ransacked my "large scrap" bin for pieces I could cut into 3 1/2" selvage to selvage strips, then rummaged through the "small scrap" bin and found shamefully many more such strips, cut and pressed them, and sewed them together in pairs. I'm currently cutting up the paired strips and sewing them into four-patch units. I haven't decided exactly where I'm going to go from there, but I want to make a tied quilt large enough to go on our new queen-sized bed, preferably not too ugly, so stay tuned.

I tried to set myself a "No New Fabric" resolution for the month of February. You can see below how that went for me. I only really had three remnant-shopping trips to Jo Ann's, two of which are represented below, but they were fruitful ones. And I bought some vintage bedsheets and pillowcases which, for all intents and purposes, could not be considered new, could they? And see how lovely? I'm going to make matching pajama pants for K and me out of that blue flowery stripe with the wide trim at the end -- for $3.99 at the Goodwill, who could fault me?



No work at all was done on the craft room during February -- it makes me want to crawl into a closet and shut the door to write that publicly. But I've acquired several new inspirational books to leaf through, that have made me want to continue to take my time gathering thoughts and furnishings for the new room and really make it both my own and truly as functional as it can be. This, however, is no excuse for the sacks of paperwork needing to be taken out and shredded or the bin of photographs to be waded through. I must get on the ball, I must.