New Year's Resolutions

No, it is not a mirage. It is actually I, Shortcookie, returned as if from the grave!

It has truly been eons since last I checked in, and it's been about that long since I was last in a regular sewing groove. But there was something about the coming holiday season that has returned my sew-jo (aka, sewing mojo).

Since I relocated back to the east coast from Utah almost a year and a half ago, I've been doing freelance work as an educational researcher and writer. It's directly related to my former life as a professor, but it is quite a different pace, with most of the work done from home in what I call my "day-time pajamas"—clean, fresh pajama bottoms with a comfy sweatshirt—as no one can tell from my email and reports what I'm wearing! No complaints about my work clothes, but it has been a bit of an adjustment to the pace. My consulting work is not yet up to full speed, so I have felt guilty over this past year when I spend any time sewing instead of working on drumming up more business.

So, day after day, I've walked by my mostly unpacked sewing room upstairs, trying not to be enticed by all the fabric yumminess. I did occasionally pull out my machine to work on my medallion round robin with my Utah quilty friends, and I think I may have made one baby quilt, but other than that it was one big goose egg for sewing over the past year and a half.

And then Christmas approached and I got that crafty vibe that you just can't say no to!! I have an abundance of fabric, extra time on my hands, and some ideas I've wanted to work on, and so it began anew!

I had made a vintage Lilly Pulitzer quilt for my mother almost three years ago, shortly after I began sewing and quilting. It is a smaller lap size, and it was early in my skill development, so I decided to make her a larger one with a bit more finesse. I was inspired by the baby quilt designed by Allison Harris over Cluck, Cluck, Sew. Her design is for a wonderful baby quilt that uses the WOF of each color, with a strip that inverts the color array. In order to make mine larger enough for my mother's use, I decided to create two rows of pieced fabrics for each color (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Turquoise, Light Blue, Purple, and Pink), with white in between.

This is a lot of color to through into my mother's life (and decorating scheme), so I decided to make a more muted backing that still ties to the front scheme. A while back I had ordered a ton of Lotta Jansdotter's fabulous Kita fabric, intending to use it for drapes, but we ultimately decided that the print was too small a scale for the room we had targeted. Such a sad thing it is, having 8 yards of fabric without a purpose! So I used that fabric for the backing, with a panel of color strips.

This quilt still needs to be quilted and bound (see below for explanation of that), but it should be about 63" x 63". I know that usually only baby quilts are square, but I find them a satisfying shape for a cuddle on the couch quilt.

What's more fun than doing just one large quilt just before Christmas than doing another one! I decided to do a quilt for my brother and his wife, who live up in Boston. I had made another lap-sized quilt for them a few years ago. I wanted to do something that would fit well with their lovely 1920s' home and balance both a masculine and feminine aesthetic. I found several versions of the quilt online of the quilt I've made for them, although can't find a source, so I apologize for not giving credit to the original designer. If you're out there, let me know and I'll give you proper credit!

UPDATE: Thanks IPatchandQuilt for letting me know that Ludlow Quilt and Sew calls this the Shadow Box pattern. 

I was originally going to use the Kona slate grey for all the shadows, but had a brief, panicked meltdown when I thought I didn't have enough for the whole quilt. Karen, as always, stepped in with both a calming influence and a great idea, suggesting that I alternate the slate grey Kona with the Lotta Jansdotter Kita. I later realized that I actually did have enough of the slate to have done the whole quilt, but I found I preferred the alternating light and dark shadows. 

For the backing, I used a similar approach as with my mom's quilt. My back was starting to act up, so Karen took over the sewing. She came up with yet another great idea and created a patchwork panel using all the fabrics from the front, set between Kita. This quilt also needs to be quilted and bound, but should be 62' x 72'.

They were both quite a hit at Christmas, even though they each remain unquilted and unbound. And now for that story . . . What I have not yet mentioned is that this great inspiration to make these two quilts was five days before Christmas. Knowing that we would be driving to my mother's on Christmas Eve, that left only four days to get it all done. Apparently my back and shoulder didn't quite like non-stop marathon sewing sessions, so I hit the wall. I woke up on Christmas morning and couldn't raise my arm above my shoulder. 

So, dear readers, I have likely overwhelmed you with too much quiltery after so much radio silence. But my chief 2015 quilting resolution is to get back quilting and get back to blogging, so stay tuned for much more soon! Lots to report!!

A Little of This and That

So I'm still working away on my Twisted quilt. I don't think I mentioned this in my last post about this fabulous pattern that it does require an awful lot of cutting! The pattern calls for layer cakes, so not having my fabric already cut down to 42 10" squares I had that to do, then I had to cut 32 2" strips, and then cut those strips into 2x14 1/2 strips and 2x6 1/2 strips. I was pretty satisfied (that is, ready to sew) at that point, but there was still more cutting to do! At that point I had to cut the 10" squares into four pieces--essentially 2 triangles and 2 pentagons. You do this by cutting an "X" through the center of the 10" square. After doing that 42 times, I had this:

Only after doing all that was I FINALLY able to begin sewing. Phew! Now, did I mention there's also a lot of pressing in this too?! The (very clearly written and most excellent) directions tell you to sew the shorter white strip to the top left peak of the pentagon (see picture below:

and then to sew the small triangle to that white strip. It does not come out as a neat triangle, however, and has to be trimmed down. 

These pieces are then sewn together to create one block, which when put next to another block creates this: 

Lining up the two pieces was a bit tricky at first, but once Sue showed me the trick of how to line up the two sides, my assembly time sped up considerably! All well worth it, mind you, but definitely labor intensive!!

12 down, 30 to go!!

On other fronts, I realize that I haven't ever really reported on my Christmas gifts. Part of that is that I was so intently focused on sending out holiday gifts in a timely way that I forgot to take pictures. Oh no!! I was hoping that folks might send me pictures of their gifts, but their lives are as busy as mine, so I'm giving up on that hope! Fortunately, some of the gifts never left the house, so I realized that I could report on at least those gifties!

Karen has been known to fling her iPad off the bed in the middle of the night, so at her request I came up with a solution: an iPad bed cozy! I had read a number of tutorials on iPad cases, and I bases my cozy roughly on those, but I added a long, reinforced strip of duck cotton that attached two cases to each other, so that a case could hang from either side of the bed for each of our iPads. I found this totally fabulous Julia Rothman fabric from Windham that I thought was just perfect for the project!

I also used Julia Rothman's fabric for the interior as well--typewriter keys! I had to go back and make the first case a bit bigger, because I realized that you really want to be able to get an iPad in and out of the case without struggling against the fabric--especially when it's late at night! You want it a bit snugger when it's a carrying case.

Now, for the cute shot of the day, a pic of my girl Sophie waiting for me to come home from Emily's fabulous retreat a few weeks ago!

Elves busy at work!

Happy holiday season everyone!

The household has finally emerged from 3 solid weeks of battling the plague, just in time to finish up last-minute sewing and quilting projects, tackle holiday cards, and ship off gifts to the four corners of the globe. Phew! I've been doing a ton of sewing lately, but most of it has to stay under wraps until the gifts are unwrapped! 

I'm not good at keeping secrets, however, so I did let Karen open her gift early. Here's the pieced border scrap quilt which I've been working on recently: 

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It's 65x65 (I'm not one for standard-size quilts if it's not meant for a bed), so it's a perfect snuggle nap quilt. I contemplated (briefly) quilting concentric squares in the white, but my little machine has such a small neck I couldn't bear the thought of wrestling with the quilt that much almost broke me! So, I stuck with the straight line approach. Not too exciting, but it's much easier to manage with my machine! 

Other projects will have to wait for their reveal until after the holidays!

Okay, back to the salt mines; more holiday cards to send off!

Tablerunner Finish!

Sorry for the brief radio silence . . . I had a work conference in Denver and then the Thanksgiving holiday, so am just now trying to catch up!

On other fronts, yay, I'm done! Thanks to the amazing head start I got at the Utah Valley Quilt Guild retreat last month, I finished my tablerunner for the Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap I'm doing on Flickr!

From checking out my partner's mosaic I figured out that she (along with several other people!) kinda liked trees. Fortunately, that's sort of my paper piecing thing. I've recently discovered these stars, so I thought I'd combine the overlapping trees with some stars.

I had originally finished the first panel of trees (meaning I had finished a set of three trees), when I discovered that the big tree was too short. The bottom of the tree came too close to the bottom of the bottom of the tree on the left, and it looked all wrong. I was so frustrated, because I loved the fabric and everything else about the trees! But back to the drawing board I went and redrafted the pattern for the trees and started over (insert sad emoticon here!).

One of my goals for this tablerunner was to use a lot of non-holiday fabrics. I love the way that bright modern fabrics can be used to make something look holiday appropriate without being explicitly holiday themed.

I did use Riley Blake's Doodlebug Design Santa Santa's Workshop Snowflake fabric throughout the piano key border and in the stars, but other than that I relied on the reds, greens, and turquoises in my stash. I particularly love how the American Jane Punctuation looks like ornaments in the trees! I also have a weakness for birds, so I always try to sneak a bird fabric or two (or three!) into my trees! That's Cloud 9 Heron fabric on the bottom. I also used P&B Textiles' Velocity Feed the Birds in there too. 

So, my tablerunner is pretty much ready to go! I just need to make a Christmas tree ornament. I'm strangely stumped about what to do . . .  any suggestions??

Getting Ready for Retreat

Do you remember packing up for summer camp when you were a kid? The packing would begin with excitement weeks before departure day. Now, I'm not talking about packing clothes and necessities -- that, my mother would largely take care of (thanks Mom!). No, I'm talking about the fun stuff. The flashlight that had what seemed like 15 different flashing functions (as if I was going camping alongside the Alaskan Coast Guard station), the 32 snack assortments, the hot pink fan (yes, Ella, I know you would have wanted that one!), the walkman I had wanted forEVER, the Sweet Valley High novels (remember those?), etc.

I would pack and repack, add more things to the ever-burgeoning piles, try to cram the lid shut on the oh so nifty trunk we had purchased at the Army-Navy surplus store. I was so thrilled to be going to camp, and I think the packing represented my excitement for all the experiences I was going to have. If I just packed the right things, If I only had the right accoutrements, If only . . .  then the experience would be AMAZING!!

Well, here I am  . . . cough . . .  years later and not much has changed!! I'm heading to my retreat with the Utah Valley Quilt Guild in just a few days, and I feel that same sense of excitement! And yes, that same packing frenzy! My piles are continuing to grow. You'd think that I'm going on a month-long quilting cruise, rather than a 3 and a half day retreat! But to have a whole three and half days of sewing seems so wonderfully intense that I've set a rather rigorous agenda for myself, and one that just keeps growing by the minute (especially every time I read a new blog post and discover a new wonderful project I could add to my Christmas "to do" list!). And how horrible would it be to be stuck in Park City (gasp) only to discover that I'm missing some critical piece of fabric?! Egad! So of course I'm  planning on bringing what feels like half my stash.

So, this is my current plan of action as it stands now (see my prior post for some more detail on a few of these projects):

1) Pieced scrap border quilt (thank you red pepper quilts!): I've pieced all the blocks, so I "just" have to sew the blocks together, baste it, quilt it, and bind it.

2) Polka dot baby quilt: I've pieced the blocks, so again "just" have to sew, baste, quilt, and bind.

3) Denyse Schmidt quilts: I have a bunchload of DS blocks pieced, from which I have a few baby quilts' worth of sewing to do! (not a top priority)

3) Ruby & Camille Scrap Quilt: I have all the scraps cut for this, but need to paper piece the blocks.

4) Christmas tree skirt: I have the sketches for this and the fabric picked out, but that's about it!

5) Modern Christmas table runner swap: I have my sketch and my fabric picked out.

6) Ana White work apron: I have the fabric and the pattern.

7) Tote bag (Christmas present): Fabric and pattern: I've made a ton of these, so this is a quick sew

8) An unmentionable project (Christmas present for one of my readers!)

9) Dog bone quilt: Fabric and pattern (Christmas present)

Getting the picture?? I may be biting off quite a bit more than I can chew. This may not be just a shortcookie, but quite a large cookie!! Just take a look at my "to go" pile (so far)!

Swap Happy!

I've been on the road so much the past several months that I've missed out on a few great swaps. With the Christmas holiday fast approaching (8 weeks people!), I've been hankering for a swap opp, and now I've found just the one!

As you may remember (because I just know that you've been committing all my blog posts to memory!), I participated in the Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap last fall, run by Swap Mama Susan of Canadian Abroad. It was my very first swap and my very first tablerunner, and it was simply a fabulous experience. This is what I made:

I had never done paper piecing before and thought I'd just pick it up (not realizing how difficult it is). But I fell head over heels in love with paper piecing during the process.

And just look at the totally amazing tablerunner that Emily at Strawberry Patch Ramblings made for me! Go check out Emily's blog; she does beautiful work!

I'm so so lucky! Isn't this completely gorgeous?!












I was so inspired by this experience that when I heard that Kirsten at Gemini Stitches is going to be Swap Mama on another round of a Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap, I just knew that I had to jump in! Susan did such a great job leading this swap last year, but she has her hands full right now, so Kirsten is stepping in to keep the swap going. Yay!

I'm particularly excited because when I did this swap last year I was really just starting out as a sewist. While I still have so much to learn and improve on (FMQing, anyone?!), I'm excited by how much my skills have developed and I'm really psyched to try out some new techniques and play with some new ideas. This swap last year also really got me in the mood for the Christmas holiday--nothing like stalking your swap-ee and making something for someone else to get the holiday spirit going!

For anyone interested in joining this swap, there is going to be a fast turnaround, so sign up now! Sign-ups close on October 29th, partners assigned by October 31st, and the finished tablerunner should be in the mail by the end of November. You can sign up here on Flickr. It's going to be fun!!

Retreat Planning

So to continue on the retreat wagon . . . here's what I'm thinking about working on during the retreat:

1) Pieced Scrap Border Quilt

I found this great tutorial on Red Pepper Quilts' blog. It calls for 20 different fabrics, but only in small, 1.5 x 5.5 inch strips, so you can totally use fat quarters (or less) for this project. I'm using rainbow-ish colors (yes, I'm still on the rainbow kick!): aqua blue, dark blue, green, red, and orange, and I'm using 4 fabrics for each color.

The tutorial is for a 45.5 x 45.5 inch quilt. Perfect for a snuggly baby gift! I'm thinking, however, I might try to make this a full-sized quilt. I had insomnia last night and spent several hours cutting out 228 strips--enough for the original size. I'm not relishing the thought of going back to the cutting board, but I really do want this a bit larger!

2) Christmas Tree Skirt

I also want to work on a Christmas tree skirt. Last year I made a Christmas pillow for my mother, using a paper-pieced tree and gifts and an appliquéd rendition of my puppy Sophie. I want to build on this idea and turn it into a tree skirt. This picture is what first inspired my project:

Isn't this card so sweet?! So, here's my plan for the skirt: I'm going to have the tree and gifts in one corner, with one of our pups on top of the packages and the other sitting at the base of the gifts looking up. In the opposing corner of the skirt I'm going to put our two pups and a friend cruising down a snowy hill on an old-fashioned sled. I got the idea from Stephen Huneck's fabulous dog print.

Aren't these three so cute! Sophie (our black lab mix) and Zoey (our brown border collie-lab mix) have a little friend, Teddy, who is a yellow lab mix, so this is a great image of the trio! I even found some great wood-grained brown fabric that will be perfect for the sled! I'm kinda dreading the appliqué for Zoey, however . . . she has a wonderful border collie coat (unlike Sophie who has the more typical lab coat shown in the woodcut image above), and as a result she has all this wispy, feathery fur that flows off her. It's beautiful, but the shagginess is much harder to capture neatly in appliqué!

I'm still sorting out what to do with the two remaining corners. Paper pieced trees? Houses? Suggestions are welcome!

3) Ruby & Camille Scrap Quilt

Last year I won some great Ruby & Camille fat quarters and pre-cut strips in Film in the Fridge's giveaway. She has a great tutorial for her Ruby Strings quilt. It's a whole lot of paper-piecing of the strips, but I love the finished look! This one will be a gift for someone very special to me who is currently going through a tough, tough time.

This project is made more appealing because most of the strips are already cut. Phew!



4) Ana White Work Apron

At her book tour appearance the other day, Ana White (see prior blog post) was giving away a few of her great work aprons. I didn't happen to win one, so I want to make one for Karen. In addition to all the fabulous furniture plans she provides on her blog, Ana White has also shared a tutorial for the apron. Hopefully this will be a quick project!

I know, I know! Too much to accomplish, but there is so much I want to do! Project mania!

Live from Broadway!

I've taken my show on the road and am blogging live from Broadway! Or almost . . . I'm actually in NJ at the moment, having returned from NYC yesterday. I had a glorious day in THE CITY with my mom. We had a great lunch at The Modern, MOMA's (the Museum of Modern Art) fab restaurant, followed by a great showing of Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along." We then did some early Christmas shopping (if you can believe it) at the MOMA Design Store, which is really too much fun. After what seemed a long train ride home (it was making ALL local stops), we picked up some sushi, and then I crashed hard with a migraine (an easy price to pay for such a great great day!). Having lived in NYC for three years and having grown up a quick train ride from NYC, it was so great to be back again in that vibrant place! So so different from Salt Lake City--like night and day!

I did, of course, bring my sewing machine home with me for the long weekend. Surprisingly easy as a carry-on, actually. Brought just a little bit of fabric, because my plan was to surprise my mom by working on some window valences for her. I think that's today's plan.

On other news, I am now eagerly awaiting arrival via post of this beautiful work of art from Emily:

Isn't she just absolutely beautiful?!?!?!?! Emily posted a picture of one she had done a week or so ago, and I just simply fell in love with her and had to have one of my own.

I had fallen in love with Emily's work back during the Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap last winter, when I first watched with awe the stunning table runner she was making for some lucky swap partner and THEN later discovered with total glee and amazement that I was in fact that lucky swap partner!! Emily sent her package out a wee bit early, so I had to keep my total excitement under wraps (which was near to impossible, as I was ready to burst) until the others in our swap began to receive theirs a few weeks later. I have the world's most gorgeously made table runner, which I will treasure forever! I was hard-pressed to pack her away (I actually do keep pulling her out of the Christmas box, frankly!).

Having fallen deep in love with Emily's little girl work of art, I was originally just going to put her in my Evernote file of things I might like to try "someday when I get better at stuff." But then I had an inspiration!! I knew that sweet Emily's trip to the FQ Retreat had been jeopardized by an ill-timed and costly pet emergency (and who can say no when our dear pets need us?!), and that she was having a sale of several of her wonderful pieces to help raise funds to support her trip. Ta da! Brilliant insight (it seemed to me)! Since I knew I couldn't conjure up the magic to make that wondrous little girl image, but Emily could, I could commission her to make one for me!! And faster than it's taken me to write this poorly written blog post, she has already designed and made my sweet little girl in a pink polka dot dress, swinging on her apple tree swing set, set against a setting sun!!! Thank you so much to my talented friend Emily!!!

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

January 4, 2012

Happy New Year! Alright, alright, so I'm a few days late! I'm now into week three of a sinus infection, so I'm operating on a delayed schedule. At least that's the explanation I'm using for still working on a last few overdue Christmas presents!


It has been a productive start to the new year, however! I have conquered a few sewing hurdles (drat! I forgot to add those to my 2012 goals!). Just yesterday I figured out (okay, I confess, I was taught) how to make buttonholes and sew on buttons with my nifty buttonhole and button feet! They look so complicated but are so hopping easy!! And then, feeling all crazy brave, I dared to risk my big fear . . . . the ZIPPER!! (dum dum dum!). I deconstructed a zipper makeup bag I had gotten from Clinique years ago, so I could figure out how they're made, and then I reconstructed it with fabric I liked--my red Pez! Without further ado . . .

I'm now dreaming of everything zippy. Who knew zippers could be so easy?! I made this case originally to hold my sewing machine feet, but I love it so much it's now become my new wallet, so back to the salt mines to make something else for the poor lonely feet! Perhaps a special case with a zippered slot for each foot? Okay, perhaps I'm getting a bit nutty!



In the small hand clutch mode, I've also been cranking out these fabulous little envelope purses from Keyka Lou. So easy to make, such an affordable pattern, and so so cute! They're the perfect size for a phone and a few credit cards/cash.


I've also been making a lot of canvas tote bags lately, which I've been loving. So much fun! I decided to branch out a little bit and try mini tote bags. I thought these could be really cute for little gifts, favors, hostess gifts, etc. I have two on the way (including the one below) as a thank you for someone. I pulled together this fabric because it brought out the preppy in me!

Finally, a big huge thank you to Ashley at Film in the Fridge for her fabulous giveaway of her scrumptious scraps! First, if you don't know her blog, stop and go directly to her blog! She takes phenomenal photos, makes gorgeous quilts, and shares amazing tutorials. I was lucky enough to receive a recent giveaway of her Ruby scraps left over from her gorgeous string quilt. She sent a huge bunch of scraps PLUS some big pieces of of this yummy fabric. Thanks so much Ashley!! Now, if only I can make something half as nice as her quilt!

Happy Boxing Day!

December 26, 2011

I think Sophie best captures the essence of this day after Christmas with her intense afternoon snooze, because, after all, playing with all her Christmas goodies was quite exhausting!! She and Zoey made off like bandits--between Santa and their Uncle Christopher, I'm not sure a chewie, frisbee, yum-yum, or stuffie was left ungifted (although don't tell them, but a lot of their gifts have been hidden away so as not to spoil them all at once)!

As the vastly improved quality of my blog photos suggests, Santa brought a new camera to the household, so my sweetie has been taken shots of everything around the house. What a difference a quality camera makes! I can't wait to see what it does with fabric!

I did get back to the sewing machine today--I just couldn't stay away! I finished a project I had hoped to get in the mail before the holidays (but had run out of time and steam). I tried my hand at FMQ'ing which was both better than I had hoped and still a cause for some entertainment and/or frustration (depending on the particular moment!). Clearly more practice is in dire need!

The Sewing Room is Finally Silent

December 24, 2011

The sewing machine is off, the fabric is put away (kind of!), and I've resigned myself that no more Christmas gifts are getting made before tomorrow! I managed to get a few more things finished today (details omitted to protect any remaining surprises!) under the wire, and gave up on a few over reaching projects.

The Christmas tree is looking plumper, now that she is harboring a few more gifts beneath her branches. The mantle is completely filled with gifts for Zoey and Sophie--Santa and Uncle Christopher have clearly been spoiling them this year!!

Poor Karen has succumbed to the same bug I've been suffering from, so we are now officially a household filled with tissues and cold remedies. While I so wish we could be with family this holiday, perhaps it's for the best that we're keeping our germs to ourselves!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. I am so grateful for all the love, friendship, and blessings in my life, and I hope everyone's year ahead is filled with peace, joy, and happiness!

Munki Munki Christmas!

December 22, 2011

I'm such a sucker for Heather Ross's Munki Munki fabric. I think she conveys such a sense of whimsy and storytelling. Funny (and frustrating) though, that the Munki fabric can only be found in pajamas, so bits like this end up in the form of sleeves or with buttonholes! I love this flannel strip with the Christmas tree lot: the mom and her two kids looking for the perfect tree, the man sawing the end of a tree, a man falling in love with his perfect tree (the heart!). I keep pulling this out with myriad projects, having squirreled it away to save it for the PERFECT project, but hoping each time that maybe THIS time it'll be the time. Not yet. . . sigh. I just haven't found the right setting for this yet. Perhaps some of this may find a home in the tree skirt I'm working on? But I'm not sure. Any suggestions?

I've gotten one crazed wave of Christmas sewing done with, with my package now mailed off to the East Coast. I'm taking a day's breather to let my body recover a bit from this sinus infection, and then back again to the salt mines to finish up on projects that are, shall we say, targeted for closer to home. I've had to scale back some of my ambitions, but I'm pleased at how much I've actually been able to punch out in a short amount of time. Definitely want to get things knocked well in advance in the future, though! No more sewing marathons!

Paying it Forward -- there's a giveaway!

December 19, 2011

Okay now, so this is clearly not a Christmas picture, at least not here in Utah in December! This is a photo I took several years ago when I was fortunate enough to be able to travel from Beijing, China to Lhasa, Tibet on a train and I saw this rainbow. The entire trip was extraordinary; this rainbow just a symbol of how remarkable every interaction and every place we stopped was along the way. Before I began sewing and quilting over this past year, I was drawing and working with colored pencils, trying to capture the intense colors that are depicted in the amazing religious and cultural art of the Tibetans. I'll share some of that in some of my future blogs. The colors and images are stunning--lots of vibrant colors used both in religious art and also to depict nature. I've started to think about using textiles (which the Tibetans also do), but through a modern quilting approach to capture some of the Tibetan images and colors which are still swirling around my head.

Tied to this project idea for me is also the idea of gratitude and generosity. The Tibetans have experienced (and continue to experience) oppression and occupation at the hands of the Chinese (although there are dissenting perspectives on the history of the relationship between these two lands), but the grace and persistence and generosity of the Tibetans I met was extraordinary. I had powerful interactions with men, women, and children there during the too short time I visited and the deep spirituality and presence of those people stay with me.

This leads me to my wanting to find more ways in my life in general to give more of myself to others to improve the condition of the world around me. Karen and I participated in a very modest way recently in a Christmas drive organized by an amazing young teenaged woman who works at a favorite cafe of ours. On her own she spearheaded a drive to get toys and items of need for children and their single moms who were re-starting their lives after difficult circumstances. Proving that one person can make a significant impact, this young woman inspired enough volunteers to contribute enough to support almost 100 families! In addition to the toys and other goods that we donated, I made Christmas stockings for the children and their mother, so that they would have something special of their own every year to pull out to remember that they are special. I have so enjoyed the personal gratification of designing and creating new things, but I am mindful of how fortunate I continue to be in my life, so I am committing this year to donate a good portion of what I sew to charity.

With this idea of paying it forward in mind, although perhaps in a slightly different way, I'm picking up on Janine at Rainbow Hare Quilt's 'pay it forward' post, and offering my very own goodie giveaway! First, I suggest that you check out Janine's fabulous blog. She's so creative and has been a wicked busy bunny sewing away in preparation for Christmas (sure, just make the rest of us look bad!). I participated in something like this last year through Facebook and I was floored by the amazing painting that a friend sent me. Nothing more special than a handmade goodie, especially when it comes unexpectedly sometime during the year!

So, here's the deal:

1. I will make a handmade goodie for the first Three people to comment (I'm trusting I have that many people who stop by occasionally to read my blog??!). I will happily send internationally.

2. The goodie will arrive sometime during 2012 (when you least expect it!!)

3. You've gotta pay to play . . . you must commit to send a handmade goodie to the first 3 people to respond to the blog post that you will post on your own blog

4. You must have your own blog (so that you can post your own pay it forward post!)

5. When you leave a comment, I'd welcome a suggestion of how we can add a twist to this pay it forward "game" that includes a pay it forward to the universe element . . . .

Not Quite Ready for Santa's Lap!

December 19, 2011

Alright, I have to confess straight off that this, in fact, a photo of last year's Christmas tree, but I think it is just such an amazingly adorable shot of Sophie and Zoey that I couldn't resist!! Sophie (on the left) seems to take her photo shoot so seriously!

We have put up Stella (don't you name your Christmas trees too?!), and have hung the lights, but we're waiting until later today to hang the ornaments. I've been told that the house smells wonderfully of evergreen as well as of the cookies that Karen has been cooking up all weekend, but my sinus infection is keeping me from enjoying the smells -- but not the sights -- of Christmas preparations in the house. I finally buckled and went to the doctor and am now armed with all sorts of good (and legal) drugs with which to combat this monster of a Christmas cold that has invaded my poor little sinus passages and lungs, just in time for the holidays. It has, unfortunately, weakened my holiday craftiness and shopping drive quite a bit, although I'm trying to soldier on!

Meanwhile, Karen has been a Christmas baking champ! She has made her family's amazingly fabulous and famous carrot cookies, chocolate espresso wafer cookies (some of which I will whisk away to become a chocolate whipped cream Christmas log, recipe to follow!), and sugar cookies with lemon and orange zest. Meringues and biscotti coming up! We hit Costco and bought one of those monster bags of flour and are steadily working our way through it (that would, of course, be "we" in the royal sense, since I, in my germy state, am keeping miles away from the scene of all baking--except from the mandatory taste-testing!). Sophie is being a fabulous sous chef. Have y'all seen Ratatouille? I think Sophie secretly dreams of being a chef, not quite realizing the obstacles facing a Blue Tick Hound-Black Lab mix wanting to be the next Iron Chef!

Work in Progress

December 17, 2011

I did this cathedral window a while ago, but thought I'd use it for some visual interest. . . definitely more interesting than the in-progress shots of my works-in-progress (WIPs), which are mostly piles of fabric at this point! Karen's Grandma Opal was had an amazing gift with cathedral windows and apparently would just sit and whip them out with invisible little stitches. Mine are not so invisible, but I'm working on it! I'm not yet sure how I want to use the windows, but I'm thinking of some funky, modern way. I have some Lilly Pulitzer fabric, so I thought maybe I'd use that?? I'd welcome suggestions!

Okay, back to Santa's salt mines! This wicked cold of mine is not helping! It came out of the blue and is one of those nasty 10-year colds that just feels miserable. Okay, pity party over, sewing recommences!

Oh, and before I forget, while I'm sure I've "won" none of the neat little giveaways from the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day, I so enjoyed reading everyone's amazing blogs! I especially loved reading everyone's stories! Thanks so much to everyone who participated! I'm so impressed by everyone's generosity and talent! I'm committing myself to participate next year!

O Christmas Tree!

December 14, 2011

Santa's workshop continues to bustle! This is a pillowcase I'm making for my mom. Because I saw her in CA last week, I gave it to her (in progress) early, then took it back so I can complete it before sending it back later this week. That's my Sophie pup on top of the packages looking up at the star. As those at Pam's recent sewing retreat may remember, I got the inspiration for this from a cute Christmas card I found at Whole Foods (of all places!). I'm using this as the demo for a tree skirt I'm making next. For that one I'll add Zoey (our border collie/lab mix) at the bottom of the tree. As you can tell with the tree, I'm still wrestling with curved piecing. What a monster to figure out how to do!!

Now that I'm finished with the hand quilting and have added a border, I'll machine quilt the front, then add a back to the case then send her back east to mom before the holidays! I had been struggling to find the right yellow/gold fabric for the star, and then I discovered the Star of Bethlehem shaped star right in the purple Anthology fabric--how cool is that?!

Santa's Workshop

Tuesday, December 13
Crack-a-lackin! Now that I'm back in town and back to the sewing machine, no messing around! Santa's elves have a long list of to-dos still to do!! One has to be discreet, with inquiring minds snooping--er, possibly inquiring--about, but I will give a peek into one project I've been busy with:

Given my poor camera skills, for those who reasonably might not be able to make this out, it's a canvas tote bag with the adorable dog fabric I found on Etsy. Suffice it to say, there may be a few other tote bags lined up on the assembly line (and it may have been in the line of tote-bag-duty that my finger was skewered!). Once I figured out how not to sew the handles upside down and inside the lining of the bag (harrumph!), the pattern was completely easy to follow. I'm using bijoulovelydesigns's pattern, which I found on Tipnut's posting for 50+ reusable grocery bag patterns. I've skipped the bottom plastic insert (which provides helpful structure for grocery use), as I'm intending these bags for more day-to-day "soft" use. I'm making this large size, but I love these so much I'm now contemplating some cute handbag sized ones (about 5x5). By the way, how cool is it that folks share their patterns for free online! Thanks Bijou Lovely and Tipnut! My Christmas wallet is thanking you!

On other project fronts, I'm also cranking out (theoretically speaking, of course!) Keyka Lou's easy envelope clutch wallet. It is a perfect fit for a smart phone and cash and cards, and is a really quick sew.
(photo credit to Keyka Lou--this is from her site. My own wallet has already been used so much it doesn't look this tidy, and I want to hide away the ones I'm making!)

I love love love Keyka Lou's patterns--they're easy to sew (and that's saying something coming from a newbie like me!!), and totally affordable! This envelope clutch takes almost no fabric, so completely affordable. An aside to family who might possibly read this post: please don't think I'm cheap; just saving up for the big gifts! ;-)

Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful for the solid and dependable service that my stolid, 40 year-0ld Susie Singer has provided me, but my yet-to-be-named Oh Brother! has totally changed my sewing! I can actually FMQ with her (and it doesn't look laughable)! I can sew in straight lines without wrestling with the fabric! I'll go back to the free-motion quilting phenomenon, because that blows me away. I thought that was going to take years and years of practice; I hadn't realized how much a steady machine (with really good, reliable tension!) really mattered! Yay technology!

And now, finally (for now), a shout out to my friend Arpana! Karen and I met up for a very quick catch up with our friend Arpana who was in town at the Y (that is BYU for non Utah folks, not the YMCA!) to give a few academic talks. We haven't seen her since the wedding (more than a year ago!) and it was so so wonderful to be able to reconnect with such a dear friend!! Time passes far too quickly and it's hard when we're living in different parts of the country!