I kind of felt like I was moving in slow motion this year. I'm always looking for the balance between satisfying the everyday have-to's and still finding time for the the really, really want-to's. Looking back, I finished more than I thought. It is kind of nice to see a whole year's worth of work all in one spot.
All marriages are made in heaven. But then, so are thunder and lightning. –Craig Clyde
My youngest brother got married a couple of weeks ago to a very lovely girl. I used my new iPhone to snap a few photos after the ceremony. Don't they make a beautiful couple?
As a side note, doesn't my new sister-in-law have the most beautifully perfect hourglass figure? I mean seriously. And that dress? Amazing.
When they got engaged, I started thinking of ideas for quilts. I wanted to use some Asian fabrics from my stash, but it just wasn't working, so I decided to make something using Ellen's favorite colors, pink and green. I wanted to have at least the quilt top finished for her first shower and then get it quilted for her second shower, which was a week later. We kind of got snowed in and I didn't make it to the first shower {never mind that the top wasn't finished} and I was out-of-town for the second shower {top still not finished}. Then my plan was to finish it in time for the wedding. That didn't happen either.
You see, my brother and his then fiancée wanted all of their family members to dress in their wedding colors, honeydew melon green, robin's egg blue and grey. I knew I would never be able to find such springy colors in the dead of winter without much difficulty. The easiest course, or so I thought, was to make skirts and blouses for LadyBug and me. As the wedding got closer, I realized that I wasn't going to have time to finish everything while still maintaining my sanity. I re-evaluated what I could do and I decided that I'd finish the quilt and just make blouses for LadyBug and me. We could wear black skirts we already had. They were close enough. And then, with only three days until the wedding, the borders to finish quilting, the binding to put on, and not even a start on the blouses, I decided that LadyBug could wear a dress that she already had {which she was totally OK with; she's not that into new clothes and especially not anything that is girly or fancy}, the quilt could wait and I was going to make a blouse for myself to wear to the wedding.
It was probably a little bit of a selfish decision to make myself a blouse and not finish the quilt for the bride and groom, but when my youngest sister got married, I made vests for all the little boys and dresses for my sister and sister-in-law, but not for myself because I ran out of time. I felt out of place and kind of bad that I wasn't wearing something fun and new in the right colors and I didn't want to feel that way again.
If the blouse {and my hair} looks like I had a nap in it, it was because I did. I was up until 3:30 am the night/morning before the wedding, and up by 5:00 am to make it there on time. Apparently, people took bets on whether I'd be late. In spite of the snow, I made it with plenty of time to spare and even a few minutes before one of my sisters. Between the wedding luncheon and call time for photos before the reception, I had a nap {and a migraine } on my mom's couch.
I used a blouse that I've had for several years as a pattern. I've always loved the fit of it, but not particularly the print, so when it frayed at a couple of the seams I decided I could live with cutting it up to make a pattern from it. I love how it turned out {I didn't even make a muslin; as a matter of fact, I'd never heard of making a muslin until I started blogging. I always just measure the person really carefully and then alter the pattern to fit the measurements} and plan on making at least one more top using this pattern.
More fun with the iPhone camera. I love those shoes I'm wearing. If you've ever read The Wizard of Oz, you'll know that Dorothy's shoes are silver {and not ruby}, and my silver shoes feel a little bit magical.
I finally finished the quilt for my brother and his wife last night. I love how it turned out. Please ignore the man behind the quilt. The snow was over a foot deep and I didn't really feel like trudging through it to get to my favorite fence for quilt photographing.
Here's a close-up of the quilting I did in the nine-patches. I used a design from the book 501 Quilting Motifs, which Mr. Bug got me for Christmas and which might have fallen open accidentally after it arrived in the mail and before it made it to the secret present stash.
I think my favorite part is the cat's eye pattern in the sashing. It came out rather nicely, if I do say so myself.
As usual, I did an embroidered tag, half of which I have to blank out so as not to give away too much information and get my identity stolen.
I'll drop this in the mail as soon as the post office opens on Wednesday. I'm so glad to have it finished and on its way.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. –Scott Adams
Have you met P.? She's one of my favorite bloggers. She's down to earth, has a fun sense of humor and great taste in music. One of the things that I especially admire is her sense of style when it comes to quilting. She's equal parts vintage and modern, classic and contemporary. She does amazing things with fabric. I love the combinations she comes up with. She has a way of finding beauty in a diamond in the rough and really making it shine.
So when I set out to make a quilt that was a little out of my calico comfort zone, I tried to channel P. Over a year ago, I'd set aside a number of fabrics with sort of an Asian feel to them to make a Sudoku quilt. Most of them came from a friend's stash. There were some really great fabrics in the bunch. Like this one.
And this one.
I really, really love this one.
I usually don't buy more than 1 yard of any given fabric unless it is for a specific project. The fabric I picked for the border and back of this quilt is some I bought for another project that was scrapped { I love a good pun}, so it became stash fabric and turned out to be just the right amount for this quilt. I was looking forward to making this work because using nothing but stash fabrics for an entire quilt is a first for me. Well, except the dark blue with gold leaves on it, which I bought specifically for this quilt to use in the sashing. But since it's sat in a drawer for a over a year, it totally counts as stash fabric now. Excited about the prospect of spending nothing on a quilt {because everybody knows that once it hits your stash it didn't cost anything} I cut the fabrics up and laid them out. I intended to give the quilt to my brother, who is getting married next Saturday, and his fiancée as a shower gift {for a shower that was four weeks ago}. I laid it all out and was completely underwhelmed.
It is practically impossible to go wrong with fabric choices for a Sudoku quilt. But the lyrics from that song that Mrs. Banks sings in Mary Poppins , though we adore [them] individually / we agree that as a group they're rather stupid, came to mind while looking at the fabrics after I'd laid them out. It was quite a let-down. I'd spent some time auditioning fabrics trying to find the right combination to make something spectacular. I even pieced this fabric so I would have enough blocks in this print {F.Y.I. a fat eighth is not enough to make nine - 4½" squares}.
I left the fabrics laying on my living room floor up on my design wall for entire week, hoping that one day I would wake up and like it. Or at the very least, it wouldn't be as bad as I remembered it.
About day three, I decided that it wasn't necessarily the fabrics that I didn't like, but that the look and feel of this particular quilt were all wrong for the happy couple. So I went in a completely different direction.
Those are my soon-to-be sister-in-law's favorite colors. Some of the fabrics I had in my stash. One of them was even from that same friend who sent me all the Asian fabrics. And I might have channeled P. a little with the pink and green vintage-ish floral, which may be more like 80's vintage than the awesome 60's and 70's vintage stuff that P. does. But hey, I think this quilt works a lot better than the other one, at least for my brother and his almost-wife. Let's hope I get the quilting done this weekend.
I think I'm still going to make the first quilt, which have I decided to call Fusion, because I think perhaps it is not so bad, after all. The possibility of making a successful {ie, not totally ugly} quilt entirely from my stash is just too tempting. I will probably lay it out a little differently. I'm entertaining the idea of switching out one of the fabrics for some of the red that is in the borders and back. There are about sixty zillion possibilities when you lay out a Sudoku quilt, so I might like it better if certain of the prints are never next to certain others. If I have time {and that's a big if; after I finish quilting and binding the pink and green quilt I still have to make blouses and skirts for LadyBug and me for the wedding and then I think I need a nap for a week}, I'm going to make it for my other brother and give it to him for Christmas. I think it fits him a little more.
Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others. –Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
I did a Sudoku quilt class with a group of ladies in my church. We finished up the quilts last fall and we're in the process of getting a very rudimentary machine quilting class together, so that the ladies who participated can see if they want to quilt their own quilts or send them out to be quilted. One of the ladies knew she didn't want to do her own and so we arranged to trade services. A while back, I had a little family get-together and needed to give my house a once-over. She happens to be very good, very thorough and very fast at cleaning and she likes to do it. I asked if she'd come and help me clean and in exchange, I would quilt her quilt for her.
Here's her quilt, all quilted and ready to be bound.
I did some old favorites—swirls in the sashing, of course. And I did arcs in the nine-patches. I used variegated thread, which was really fun, but is difficult to see in pictures.
I tried something different in the border; I did alternating fans, which came out really nicely. You can see them better from the back. I think the back of this quilt is really almost as fun as the front.
She's going to do the binding herself. She's picked out a pretty red, which will make a nice frame. It was so nice to have her help getting my house ready for company. And I really enjoyed quilting this for her. I'll drop it off to her later this afternoon.
Seventy percent of success in life is showing up. –Woody Allen
For the past two years, I've been keeping an index of all the projects I finish during each year. It has been fun to look back to see how much I've accomplished in one year. I humbly submit my 2011 finishes.
One Hired Machine Quilting & Binding Job
One Halloween Costume, Two Pieces {skirt & cloak}
Two Fleece Baby Blankets
Three Abbey Bags
Four Church Bags
Four Table Runners
Five Adult Bibs
Six Aprons {one reversible}
Eight Quilts
Twelve Quilted Notebook Covers
Fifteen Fabric Postcards
Eighteen Fancy Pillowcases
In case you lost count, that is 80 finishes, and I enjoyed every one of them. I hope that 2012 is as productive!
Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. –Tryon Edwards
This quilt was so fun to make! A shout out to P. for the inspiration and to Sarah for sharing the pattern! I'm pretty sure there will be another one in my future.
To quilt this, I marked diagonally through each square and then quilted a series of arcs around the X's I'd marked. It was a lot of fun.
Mathematically, this quilt is awesome. The outer border is 8", exactly double the nine-patch squares, and it divides evenly by 8 as well, so I marked it in 8" squares, drew X's through them and quilted the same arcs as I did in the nine-patches. And with all that stripey goodness, I couldn't resist a bit of stripey bias binding.
I quilted my favorite swirls into the sashing. They are hard to see from the front because the thread is the same color as the sashing, so here's a view from the back.
Here's a shot of the whole quilt. So much fun and so quick to put together!
If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
–John Louis von Neumann
Over the past five months, I've been teaching a quilting class for a few ladies who attend the same church as I do. Once a month, we get together and work on our Sudoku quilts. We're approaching the finish line, and I'm really excited about it. It has been so fun to see each of the quilts emerge. The fabric combinations these ladies picked are really amazing. I took my camera to class on Saturday, but my batteries were dead. The time before that, I forgot the memory card . I took pictures of my finished quilt top when I got home, and besides mine, there are four finished quilt tops and four quilt tops minus the borders. Next month, I'm going to make sure the memory card is in the camera and the batteries are charged the night before so I can show you all the fun we've been having.
I really like how this quilt came out. I pulled the fabrics for the nine patches and sashing from my stash and then bought the stripe for the borders, back and binding. It was a lot of fun to be able to put a quilt top together mostly from fabrics I have on hand.
I even got a bit of quilting time in. I'm a little rusty, but it was fun!
Here's my tag. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started quilting and there's not much left of it after I blanked out the confidential information. But you get the idea.
Sometimes it's harder to attain inner silence than outer silence. The dog stopped barking and the kids have gone to bed, but your mind has a log to talk about and it knows you can't pretend you're not at home. –Linda Solegato
The “What If?” Game
When we were kids, my sister and I used to play the “What If?” Game. It would start with a question that stemmed from a variation on the everyday like, “what if the cat could talk?” or “what if we lived in the elementary school?” We'd imagine all kinds of things as we answered our own questions. My dad didn't like that game too much. But I still love to play it. As a matter of fact, I was playing it the other day.
Several times on my way to and from work in the last week or two, I've seen a Harley Davidson Fat Boy parked at the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. One the way home from work last week, I passed it again and thought, “what if I bought that bike?” That thought led to other thoughts. “I wonder if I could find a cool helmet to match,” and, “oh, and a smokin' kevlar riding jacket.” It would be so much fun to ride! Then I wondered if I'm too old to learn to ride a motorcycle. But, hey. If Willam H. Macy can do it, so can I. Right?
Dear Dad,
Please come down from the ceiling. The “What If?” Game is still just a game. I'm not going to buy a Harley. There are too many hazards out there on the road.
xo -Elizabeth
P.S. LadyBug loves the “What If?” Game too.
Virtual Reality
Earlier this month, I got to meet some of my favorite virtual friends in real life. Amy {of amylouwho} was in Utah and arranged a Sew & Tell live. It was SO much fun. Pink {of pinksuedeshoe} hosted the party at her house and provided the most yummy treats {you have to try her Lime Pie Cakes. They are to die for!} Besides getting to meet my favorite bloggers in person, there were some girls there I haven't met yet in the blogging world, so I made some new friends and found some great new blogs to peruse. We laughed, ate, shared quilting stories and life stories and had a really fun time! Thanks girls for an awesome evening!
Just a few days later, my sweet friend and fellow TwiQuilter, Wanda, was in town and she and her husband took me and my little family out to lunch. We ate at one my favorite local restaurants, The Art City Trolley. Wanda is one of the sweetest people I know. It was so fun to catch up and get to meet her daughter, Liz and granddaughter, Emilia.
Sudoku Quilt Group
If you haven't seen enough pictures of me today then you're in luck because I've got one more. I'm teaching a quilting class. And by teaching, I mean volunteering as a teacher. It is for the ladies who are in my ward {LDS-speak for parish or congregation}, but also for anyone in the neighborhood who wants to come. I've divided the quilt up into six steps and we work on one step each month. Our first month we cut our fabrics and this month we sewed them into blocks. This is the Saturday morning class {we also have a Thursday night class so people can attend whichever is more convenient} with our blocks.
Back {l to r}: Barbara, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Julie
Front {l to r}: Bev, Christina, Sherri, Courtney
Monday Music Spot: Howlin' For You
I don't know if I'm particularly original in my music tastes, but I'm definitely all over the place. It was a toss-up today between Marc Anthony & Pitbull or The Black Keys. I went with the more funky beat.
What this world needs is a new kind of army — the army of the kind. –Cleveland Amory
Another Rainy Monday Music Spot: Rhythm of the Rain
I think I finally put my finger on why I love rain so much. Utah is a desert state and it doesn't rain much here so I see every single drop of rain as a miracle. Since miracles don't happen every day, it is nice to have a front row seat when they do. Today is another lovely rainy Monday. Actually, it's been raining since yesterday afternoon and I've been really enjoying everything about it. Here's another of my favorite songs about rain.
Change Is Bitter-Sweet
I mentioned yesterday that I was released from my calling in the Primary Presidency in our ward. We kind of have our own vocabulary , so if you're wondering exactly what that means {or even if you're not}, this is the scoop. All service in our church is voluntary, from the top on down. Unlike most volunteer jobs, you don't get to choose what you do. I guess you could say that we volunteer by assignment. Each assignment is called a calling, and just as you don't get to pick what you do, you also don't get to pick for how long. I've been in Primary {the children's organization} for about three years now, first as a classroom teacher and then as a member of the presidency {leadership organization}. And I have grown to love it so much. I've worked in Primary before; twice as a teacher, which was hard for me because I didn't have kids of my own yet and didn't know all the tricks that you get to know when you live with little people. I was also the pianist for the Primary in the ward we live in now for a couple of years after we moved here. I really enjoyed that, but this last three years in the Primary have been the best. I am really going to miss the children and the wonderful feeling that accompanies them.
It is sad to say goodbye to something that has been such a big part of my life for the last three years; a service that has been a pleasure to me and more of a blessing than a sacrifice. I feel kind of like a cast-off. Yes. I will miss Primary. Knowing how I felt, and not being able to be with me much after I found out {they let me know a few days in advance} because our work schedules are opposite, Mr. Bug had the most beautiful roses I have ever seen delivered to me on Saturday afternoon. I'm going to pretend I didn't see how much they cost. The note said, Happy Mother's Day! Congrats for "graduating" Primary. I love you. Mr. Bug always knows how to put things into perspective.
Is One of These Things Not Like The Others?
Last week I showed you my list of current projects. The list only covers projects I'd like to finish by June 30th{which keeps creeping closer and closer}. That is probably why I didn't include the Sudoku quilt I'm working on. It is a longer-term project but sill something I'm working on right now. It is pretty much the only crafty thing I've worked on in the last two weeks. Work has been really overwhelming the last few weeks and I haven't had much time at all for anything creative. I did some {more} sorting of the polka-dot fabrics, and I got all nine of my fabrics cut to their 4½" squares for the Sudoku quilt. I'm going to be teaching a class on it for a group of women at my church. I'm really looking forward to it.
I asked Mr. Bug what he thought and he said they go together pretty well. Then he said that the flowers on yellow {thanks, P.} kind of made him think, one of these things is not like the others. I think it is the two prints on either side of it that make it not quite fit in. Admittedly, this quilt did not go in the direction I was planning. I was thinking more mellow-and-yellow to set off that beautiful floral print, but I like this color combination really well. The modern-ish prints on the turquoise and green fabrics contrast with the vintage feel of the florals. I still think it works pretty well, so I don't think I will go stash diving again .
I {still}♥ Tulips
This is what is blooming in my yard today. Most of the buds are closed because of the rain, but they are still exceedingly beautiful. {Right} click on the photo for a closer view.
The End of the Tunnel
I'm starting to get Carpal Tunnel. The heels of my hands had been bothering me for a week or so, and so last week after being woken up and not being able to go back to sleep because they ached so much, I went to the source of all knowledge {the internet} to see if my symptoms matched Carpal Tunnel. Sure enough, they did. It must be all that texting I'm doing lately . I'll be getting new keyboards for work and home {probably those funky, split, ergonomic kind}. And I've started doing exercises to hopefully prevent further damage. I do them while I'm eating breakfast. I do them sitting at stop lights on my way to and from work. I do them while I'm laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep. They seem to be helping a bit.
I'm thinking it kind of sucks when the old equipment starts wearing out. I've been putting off going to see the optometrist for eight or nine months because I can't read small print anymore — yeah, it's time for bifocals . The really hilarious thing is that somebody out there has got me on a 55-and-older list because I keep getting flyers and postcards in the mail for retirement communities. There's nothing like being told you're past your prime when retirement is a good 30 years off into the future.
Much Ado About The Doctor's Socks
David Tennant, my all time favorite Doctor was on a British talk-show promoting his latest Shakespeare performance. Along with him was his Doctor co-star, Catherine Tate, who is also performing in Much Ado About Nothing with David. They got onto the subject of little OCD things that you have to do and I could totally relate to David's OCD tendency towards matching socks. But what was absolutely brilliant was his solution. Catherine's is a bit weird but she's first, so if you want to skip to David, go 36 seconds into the clip.
} on my mom's couch.
I love a good pun}, so it became stash fabric and turned out to be just the right amount for this quilt. I was looking forward to making this work because using nothing but stash fabrics for an entire quilt is a first for me. Well, except the dark blue with gold leaves on it, which I bought specifically for this quilt to use in the sashing. But since it's sat in a drawer for a over a year, it totally counts as stash fabric now. Excited about the prospect of spending nothing on a quilt {because everybody knows that once it hits your stash it didn't cost anything} I cut the fabrics up and laid them out. I intended to give the quilt to my brother, who is getting married next Saturday, and his fiancée as a shower gift {for a shower that was four weeks ago}. I laid it all out and was completely underwhelmed.
} kind of made him think, one of these things is not like the others. I think it is the two prints on either side of it that make it not quite fit in. Admittedly, this quilt did not go in the direction I was planning. I was thinking more mellow-and-yellow to set off that beautiful floral print, but I like this color combination really well. The modern-ish prints on the turquoise and green fabrics contrast with the vintage feel of the florals. I still think it works pretty well, so I don't think I will go stash diving again 
. I'll be getting new keyboards for work and home {probably those funky, split, ergonomic kind}. And I've started doing exercises to hopefully prevent further damage. I do them while I'm eating breakfast. I do them sitting at stop lights on my way to and from work. I do them while I'm laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep. They seem to be helping a bit.
