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.