a little inspiration

          I've been working on a quilt.  With wool on the inside to keep me nice and toasty. And big summer flowers on the outside to keep me cheerful all winter long.  I got this fabric about year ago.  The wool that I used for the batting in actually a fabric someone gifted me from an old stash.  It was a huge plaid I couldn't imagine ever using but it is so warm and such a nice wool.  I knew it must have some use.  And 60" inches wide even after washing! I practiced my embroidery to keep it in place.  I finally got the chain stitch down.  I think it is funny I waited so long....  it is so easy and pretty.  (I always say this.  Why did I wait so long to try x?  It is so easy!) Desi liked the quilt from the beginning.  You can see the evidence on all the pictures....  That white hair really does stick. (ps- there are even more pictures if you click on any one of these.)

In August, the Bug starts "school".  I can't believe our little boy has only been with us two years and some months.  I can't imagine being with out him.  When I think about things we did before him I find myself searching those memories for him.  Surely, he has always been with me.  He must have gone rock climbing and camping and caving with us.  I'm sure he was in California that month I worked there.  And then I realize how silly it is.  He is only TWO.  You could say he was there, a tiny egg, an invisible thought, a future I had no idea would come.  I am excited for us all to start this new phase.  In all honesty, I need to have a break from full-time parenting.  I don't have the energy to keep up every day with such a potent, fresh life.  I also know he craves the time with others his own age and loves the play that he already engages in on the playground with some of his soon to be classmates. In preparation I ...

I know you have all been waiting with baited breath.  So I thought I wouldn't keep you in suspense any more. Here it is!  I want to tell you about how it came to be- are you ready to listen to a convoluted history of how my brain works?  If not, just look at the pretty pictures. First- I love Alicia Paulson .  You all know her, right?  She makes all these beautiful things with little squares full of flowers and pink and purple.  I always want to do one of these projects when she shows them but let's face it: one- I am not so girly, two- I live with a grown (very wonderful and sensitive but still a) man and a little boy who is showing me each and every day how little boy he is.  Yesterday he bit into his first earthworm.  Today he wanted to go find more.  I did make that last quilt , which was very likely Alicia's fault.  I love it too. Two- I then found this basic quilt style done for boys.  It was already sold when ...

And Opa is here of course.  We are visiting for a few days this week in hopes of some time by the fire where the Oma and the Mama can tie up about 300 squares.  Remember this ?  The top is finally all together and ready to be sandwiched into a quilt the Bug can actually use.  The minky fabric is really what held things up (and you know, all the rest of life) because it is slippery and I am a lazy pinner.   But, this project may have cured me of that problem. Here are a couple views of the top so far.  I hope to be back at the beginning of next week with finished-on-the-bed pictures.

We had a wonderful time visiting my parents this last week.  Getting out of the city and into the woods was just what was needed.  And the weather being crisp, the leaves changing and falling, and so many crafty things getting done was icing on the cake. My camera had an accident last week and the screen is no longer working so it really is just point and shoot now.  Shooting without seeing exactly what the camera is seeing is certainly different.  Here are a few I had to share: For the record, only the first and last images were edited at all.   And he wore the vest almost every single day.  And he picked the orange minky for the quilt. Have a lovely weekend friends!

You can see the yellow blouse I made in the video on the last post.  I really am trying to get good pictures of what I am making but have been failing miserably.  So here is an easy one.  When we were in Tulsa my Uncle Bill gave us a little rocking chair he made (!) for the Bug.  It is the perfect size and gets used everyday.  He can get in and out himself and he also likes pushing it around to different locations.  He has been watching some Sesame Street while sitting in it. (Although, he does prefer to stand up mostly so he can dance when they start singing.) So, of course, I thought it needed a little chair pad.  Easy-peasey. One of those blocks . And a kitty.

Weirdly, at the end of this weekend I felt as if I hadn't gotten anything done.  This must mean I am insane cause looky here: I made three blocks for this month.  I couldn't help it.  I didn't like how the first one was going and then once I decided to go with a more traditional log cabin style I knew I would need one for myself too.  Because I am very selfish about log cabin blocks.  Especially pretty, contrasty ones.  This was the first try.  I wanted to do the log cabin once I had found the fabric and came across this wonky style.  It turned out too wonky for me to like enough to send it away.  And it will NOT lay flat.  But it is interesting.   The second try I went ahead and made two of them because making two is as easy as making one if you know where you are going with it.  I ran out of strips and so only one of them is 10" and the other one then stays here with me.  I LOVE how they turned out. For Barbara: ...

In an effort to get some started projects converted to finished projects I have been trying to sew or crochet a little each day this week. I finished the bloomers I need for this coming weekend first (you know, since I will be using them :) and then moved on the this block. I knew when I made it that it needed to be a pillow. I already had it mapped out in my head. Last night when I went to finish it up I had already had half a glass of wine and none of my (already poor) math skills could see through the haze. So it is different than expected. And then I sewed one of the back panels on backwards and I decided to walk away... Luckily the haze cleared and I finished it today after doing some seam ripping. Lesson learned.

I made a from a pattern (I always think "recipe") in Stitch Magazine . My sweet neighbor Jill asked me if I could use some old pants that needed to be retired and of course I said yes. When she was dropping them off she also asked if I could make a small bag for her out of them. I immediately thought of this pattern (recipe). I had in mind to make myself one as well and almost cut out my fabric at the same time but didn't for whatever reason. And now I am glad. I like this bag, but it isn't the kind I would carry (I need far more room for diapers and rice puffs) and though my bag would be made of different fabric I would have cut it to line up the same (since I was going to use some retired corduroys as well) and I feel like the effect isn't the same as the picture in the magazine where the sides are different from each other. Though it may just be the denim that is throwing me. I tend to keep denim in jeans and the occasion skirt and away from everything e...

Happy 200 posts to me! I can't believe that two years ago I started writing this because I was wanting to craft and be part of the amazing crafting/blogging community I had discovered. These amazing , vivacious artists , mothers and creators . Everyday I would read their blogs and be blown away by beautiful pictures of wonderful things that they were creating. And they had other jobs like being mama or owning a shop. I was inspired! And then we moved into this wonderful house and a month later Senor gave me a sewing machine. I was floored because it meant he believed I could really create something. My family and friends have always been supportive but this was somehow different. Senor has this almost magical ability to take my ideas and help turn them into reality. Okay- before I diverge and wax on endlessly, let us just say, "And the rest is in my archives!" :) I am also proud to present little a! My new business! For this moment I am only taking special o...

Today is the most wonderful Thursday. All day I have been working on the quilt. I made the "sandwich" (put down the backing, laid out the batting and basted on the top) and sewed down each of the seams. Of course, this part isn't perfect. Have I mentioned I don't do perfect? But it is very workable. My next idea was that I could machine stitch the patterns onto each square but I quickly realized I was being too ambitious. If it was smaller I could free hand machine it but it is just too big. So after a couple botched attempts I gave up and got out the biggest hoop I could find. I managed to do just over half the first block before giving in and calling Senor to ask for curved needles. Between the twenty lines of basting this morning and that half a square sewing blind my hands are pretty much pincushions. And I think I have a blister coming up on my index finger. Reminds me of climbing! This morning a man came over to the house to talk about bugs. The oth...

Today my friend Annie left after spending a wonderful whirlwind 36 hours with me. Her kindness and warmth always inspires me. Thank you. Senor is away with his mother for the weekend so I am trying to catch up on some laundry, vacuuming and neatening. In doing these simple things my mind has been free to wonder to ruminations on the things in my hands. I came across a project that fills me with happiness for my mother. In being suddenly a person who can Create things I feel like I can give exactly what I want or think best as gifts. I also came across the card I haven't sent out yet for mother's day. Don't worry mom, it is coming!! Thank you for inspiring my imagination. I've been around the bed all day. Folding clothes on it, taking off the sheets and remaking it. I've also been thinking of quilts all day because of another project I am getting ready to start. I have an amazing quilt that is on my bed almost all the time and has been for the last four ye...

Do you remember the houses... I have been trying to decide exactly what to do with them and then how to do what I wanted. I think I ruined the other strip of them in my first failed attempt where geometry and I were not communicating. But Senor has deemed this one is "Blog worthy." What do you think?

Okay, I have no pictures, Seńor has them hidden somewhere on his ginormous computer. BUT- on Sunday when I should have been doing anything but I started to put together some strips I had cut when I made the yellow bag because I didn't want them all just hanging about. Then as I was putting them together I was thinking about this and also this . Randomly I was also thinking of Haiti and how in the caribbean there are all these cool houses in the artwork. So after the strips were all together I cut them into rectangles and triangles and put them back together as houses and then I sewed them back together as strips of houses. And now, I have no idea what to do with them... Okay, not no idea. I do plan to sew them onto something like a sky and then the ground and last night I was starting to turn them into pillows. Can you have artwork as pillows on your couch? And what makes it art anyway? Is it just a chi-chi little craft project? What is the difference between art, craf...

Here it is. The yellow bag that has been taking up all my extra mind bits. What do you guys think (other than that I should be better with the iron....)? It has four pockets; one big one out side, three small inside. I took apart an old belt for the findings.