Tuesday, September 18, 2012

To Do List

I don't teach on Tuesdays but I still try to make them productive.  Here's my day's to-to list...
  • Make phonecalls (some long overdue)
  • Get serious about making progress on Amy's wedding quilt-- her 1 year anniversary is in 2 weeks..
  • Buy George a new soccer uniform.  We just registered him for the local "Under 4" club, he starts Saturday.
  • Play around with photos at http://www.play-crafts.com/blog/palette-builder/, like this:
And start to get some ideas for Laura & Katy's Travelin' Pic-Stitch Bloghop.  What? you haven't heard about this yet?  It's an EPP thing, so of course I'm on board.  There are still some spots left if you want to play along so hop on over and read more about it. I think I've picked my EPP pattern, but don't know what to do about fabrics yet. Must go through the 1500+ photos in my "pictures from phone" folder.  There are some real gems from our trip to Greece.. I haven't looked through them in detail or printed more than 5~6 out to frame stick on the fridge.  But now an entire season has passed and I think I'm ready to revisit those days again.   Ooh, here's a good one...
Can't beat that "Aegean Blue."  Looking at these 6 colors-- I think I have all of them in my stash already.  This may be easier than I thought.  And it sure does look like there may be a lot of hidden inspiration in those photos still...
 
Are you accomplishing anything important today?


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Caught between two seasons

Just a few weeks ago I was lamenting the never ending summer and was desperate to get back to the cool rhythms of fall.  Believe me, I'm glad fall is on its way, but every time I have to reach for a sweater or change out of shorts into long pants, I wonder if my longing isn't misplaced or naive.

Nevertheless, I baked pumpkin muffins this morning:

They were good, and I'll make them again. (Recipe here)
But I couldn't help feeling it was too early for them.  And as I cleaned the house and daydreamed about putting up halloween decorations, I also felt conflicted.  September is a great month, why am I wishing it away? 
In September so many good things get to happen, like your husband taking your kid to the park by bike and staying there for 3 hours.  And not yet needing to slather yourself in body lotion after a shower to combat dry skin.  I pulled my house slippers out of the closet, but really, it's still ok to walk on the tiles barefoot.  The weather is perfect, the tomatoes and basil are still abundant in the garden, and I don't have to wear nylons to work yet.  The more I think about it, September is pretty perfect.

Anyway, I would love to show you a picture of my completed Anyway You Slice it baby quilt top, but since I started using my smartphone as my primary camera, I don't have the regular point-n-shoot with the tripod within easy reach, and haven't found the right opportunity to ask C to hold the quilt so I can take a picture (last weekend I asked, but his hands were dirty from the garden.  um, not on my quilt).  Hopefully soon.  I went through several backing trials, and decided that it will look best if I throw an abandoned UFO on the back.  I may regret cutting the UFO up, but I have a feeling that it will work out.  Let's see.

I'm eating a second helping of dinner as I type this (gotta love a guilt-free pregnancy diet), and it's so good I have to share.. if you're looking for a not-too-heavy end of summer pasta, go ahead and try this one from Food & Wine: Meyers lemony broccoli and chickpea rigatoni
It's best hot off the stove top, and when you can sneak the chickpeas inside a piece of rigatoni.  Tart, a little spicy, and very satisfying.  Let me know if you like it.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Baby Quilt

Whew~
Once that "I'm having a baby" post was out of the way, I could start planning, testing, and asking for some feedback on baby quilts.

I have been pinning scrappy stash busters all year so naturally that's where I started to browse when I wanted to find a pattern for the baby quilt.

At first I liked this one, but I thought it might be time to finally do this pattern, and then I found this.

And that's where I stopped and decided to do a test block.

The fabric I initially pulled looked something like this:
And then I wanted George's input and he helped me decide on these:

I started cutting squares based on Blue Elephant Stitches' guidelines and my first test blocks were promising..

so I kept going and by this afternoon, I had this:

I like it.  It needs 9 more blocks to be the right size and I think I want to add in more dark brown and less dark orange.. maybe a few of the lighter blues?  And the tree fabric?
Please send input.. I have to prep classes all day tomorrow and it will be nice to at least have email interruptions of your comments and suggestions.  Thanks.

Free Zoom Quilt Class, October 20.

    Free Live Online Craft Class Learn to quilt with Jessica Wed., Sept. 9 Tues., Oct., 20, Nov. 9 7:00 – 8:00 pm Sign up now.   Take one or...