meguey

It's still a little tentative, but 'outlook favorable' that we are over the flu. No fever since Friday, coughs going down steadily, appetites coming back - it's back to school and work tomorrow, my ducks!

While we've been tending sick kids, both my husband and I have started *huge* digital projects (he's writing on the lap-top, I'm scanning hundreds of old family photos from the Civil War to 1987). It's completely got my old genealogy itch going again. A couple of years ago, before Tovey was born, I did masses of work with Rootsweb and Ancestry.com, and then I downloaded a bad GED file from someone, and lost masses of work. It was too depressing to pick right up again, and I've learned better skills/habits since. Also, the technology has advanced again, and now there are even better on-line data system (hello Geni!) I am eying. Of course, most of them are still ultimately subscription based. And the software I bought 6 years ago will not run on our latest CPU. Really, if it's not printed out, there are times when it's not actually recorded.

I have tons of writing on old 3" disks for circa MACs 1995, including my senior thesis on looking at quilting as a way to find non-dominant voices in American history. Luckily, I do have a paper copy of that kicking around somewhere - maybe I should have it scanned back in to text, and then I could edit it, lay it out properly, send it to Lulu.com, and have an actual bound copy. That's not really such a wild idea, actually. Great. I just talked myself into another huge project. *eye roll*

Maybe tomorrow I'll sew instead of sit at the computer (within easy reach of both bedrooms, no matter how softly they might call me). That would be nice.

Every year our guild makes quilts for Project Linus. Over the course of the year, various orphaned blocks, fabric sales rep samples, left-overs from making class kits, donations, etc, wind up in a big square tub marked 'Guild Fabric". In the fall, we have a meeting to process as much as possible from the tub into quilts. What doesn't get done that night gets taken home by eager/gullible/ambitious/generous guild members to make more. Here's what I came home with on Monday:



Going clock-wise from lower left:
A 'big block', but I don't know which one yet
Something sweet and artsy and tween/teen with mermaids
A cheerful 4-patch
A hip log cabin
The ones in the middle are waiting for a green from my stash, and then I think they'll be a streak-of-lightning, or something else really simple.

And that's my plan for this month.

Anyone else nervous about H1N1? I've been worrying about it for months - vaccinate the kids or don't, isolate ourselves or don't, assume it's all going to be ok or don't - and it was really getting to me. My kids are 13, 9, and 3, and therefore right in the age bracket most susceptible. Worry, worry, fret, fret.

Well, worry no more! It may not be H1N1, but we've got you fevers, your chills, your sore throats, and your delicate stomachs! Tovey came down with 102.8 fever yesterday, Elliot's at 99.7 and chills today - I'm keeping Sebastian home from 7th grade as a precautionary measure tomorrow. Let's just hope that what ever it is, H1N1 or not, it moves quick, and spares at least one parent at a time, so we can all recover soon.

Ok, so I'm *tremendously* glad that my dentist appointment today went so well. She's a great dentist, even doing breath coaching to help with the novicane injections. I was pouring a lot of energy into that tooth just needing a big filling, not a root canal and crown, and that's exactly what she did, without a word from me. So Happy about that.

However.

This thing where the novicane is wearing off, and she had to do a really deep filling because it was really big? My whole face Hurts! Pain in my jaw, radiating to my temple and neck. I know it's just the muscle stress of having an hour-long dental procedur, but yikes! Time to go down a handful of arnica and find a good book to read by the fire till I feel better. Maybe I'll design a couple more quilts.

It's two weeks till my next S&D meeting, and I'm in desperate need of some dark blue denim. Our challenge this week is to make a piece using discharge dying, also known as bleaching. I've made a stack (well, three) test blocks. I've used different techniques for each test so far, and I think I'm on the right track for what I want.


My vision says there could be a cool new thing here for me, and I just have to try. Thank goodness it's warm and dry enough to do the bleaching outside. That way I can take some good pictures, too. See you later, and wish me luck!

A week ago, I got a referral from a seamstress friend to do a quilt repair. The client had a small quilt, about 4'x5', that was in tatters in places. She wanted it fixed, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. ( Details inside )

They get to stay home by the fire today, while I get to run around in the drizzling damp. Lucky cats.


No, we did not get that tiny camp chair just for her, but she thinks we did.

As of 12:58 PM yesterday afternoon, that is, when my oldest turned 13. It's kind of great and kind of scary. He's the best kid ever, along with his brothers. I'm looking forward to what this year brings.

Got something to ask...ask away

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but some of us don't know much about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away. Bonus points if you share a little known fact about yourself to me also!

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

1) Where do you live right now? Do you like it? Where would you be living right now if you could chose another place?

2) I have an image of you in my mind, if I have not already seen a picture of you, but I may be wrong. Post a written description or photo of yourself *optional*

3) Tell me Who Do You Love! Are you married/in a long term relationship? If so, how long? Do you have children? How many children?

4) What do you "do for a living"? Are you happy doing it? If you could do anything else, what would it be? (this is the adult version of "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question)

5) List five of your Favorite Things.

6) List three (or more if you chose to do so) of your favorite hobbies.

7) How long have you had your LJ? What does your LJ name mean, and why did you chose it for yourself?

8) Tell me what you consider your best personality trait, and what you consider your worst

9) Got pets? What animal meant the most to you, of ones you've had?

10) Did you vote in your most recent state or local election?

I'm supposed to be quilting a top for an acquaintance. The design of the piecing is fine, three different sizes of pieced stars, appliqued on a dark blue mini-dot background. The stars are already quilted, really nicely. What's left to me to do is the Most Tedious part: long lines of hand-quilting, radiating from a central point, evenly spaced apart and adding new rows as needed to maintain a reasonably close quilting. It's So Boring! Plus, it's really hard to quilt slightly skewed lines on the grid formed by the mini-dots. She asked me to do it when I was pregnant with Tovey - who turns four in December. I'm half-way done, but I'm also so sick of it I want to hand it back - "Here, I got it a bunch further, now it's back to you!" *Sigh* Why is it that I have projects I want to do, like my oldest son's Buggy Stars, and instead I have this thing in the frame? It's a perfect example of when a design that's beautiful in theory (and it really is!) is just dull beyond bearing in execution.

The top is now complete! I took it to show+tell at my guild last week, and I was surprised to find myself shaking a bit when I showed it - I guess I'm more proud/nervous about it than I thought! I am now wrestling with how to quilt it: I have ideas for the X-wings, because they are big open patches of fabric, but the PP blocks are a whole different kettle of fish. Ideas? Oh, and the whole thing is now 60"x78".

My entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival is really quite recent. I thought about other quilts, and even took some out to look at, but this one is the one. This quilt started as a challenge to my guild from a local independent clothing design house, to make quilts using their (mostly rayon) scraps. I was late in getting started, due to a)joining the guild late in the challenge and b)not getting fabric until July 16th, for a challenge due in August. There's a tag on the side just for Mermaid, if you want to see the progress.

This quilt is filled with new things I'd never tried - faux chenile in the sea-weed on the lower left, seriously padded applique on the figure, the needle-lace shiksa mirror, and this is the most surface texture of any quilt I've made so far. It's also filled with things I've loved and had kicking around my studio for years, like the fish bead, the bit of coral-colored velvet ribbon, and the blue-green cut-glass beads in the upper right.


Lastly, this quilt is full of my grandparents and great-grandparents. My great-grandmother made the lace doily that became the anenome at the lower center. My great-grandfather and both great-grandmother's button collections are represented in the mermaid's tail. All the little metal findings came from my grandfather's work in the aeornautics division of Bendix Corp. I know exceeedingly little about his working life, and he died only two years ago. I'm glad to have these bits of what was common-place to him turn into the unexpeced on my quilt.

A quilt festival for bloggers??! Rock on! I'm entering my mermaid quilt. Or my Ace of Wands quilt. Or maybe my Windmills quilt. Hmm.

I finished the S&D project! Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.


The angles of the yellow were off from what I intended - cheap compass, I blame you!
Next time I'll trace around a plate like my great grandmother would have. I got a little
puckering in the purple stripe, so I might go back and re-do that. I think I was rushing it a bit.

( I also finished the binding challenge from last month's guild meeting. )

I'm really wrestling with the idea of getting H1N1 vaccinations for my kids. I usually am very cautious about vaccines, we delayed all of the kids vaccines entirely for two years, then put off any we could until school age. I understand the reasons for them, I just also understand the need to develop a healthy immune system. So this post is not about the vaccinate/don't vaccinate argument, because I can have that anywhere and I've had it everywhere. ( If you're still interested, read on. )

So, my S&D group has started up for the year. We've got some strict constraints -
-Time constraint: finish each assignment in time for the next month's meeting
-Size constraint: each piece is 8"x10" - leave it unbound so it can be set with the rest at the end of the year
-Design constraint: focus on curved lines and straight lines - aim for precision
-Theme constraint: choose a theme to work with for the year
-Monthly constraint: each month we'll learn a technique that we will incorporate in the next piece

At the first meeting, two and a half weeks ago, we had a big bag of donated scraps to paw through and find something we really disliked. It was tough because there was fabric we *did* like in there too, so we got to choose some of that as consolation. I have to use a fussy, muddy big floral. Ick. It's probably the only Kaffe Fasset that's just awful. I've had it for two and a half weeks, and I've been beating my head against it. I can get behind the yellows and greens and rusts, and even the deep purple, but the bubble-gum pink in there too?? *sigh*



Well, the first thing to do was re-assemble an actual usable shape. Luckily, the repeats worked out in my favor.


I wrestled with various themes, because anything I could think of for the fabric (fussy cut? slice and dice in tiny pieces? use the back?) didn't work with any theme I could think of (my kids? ripples? generations?). FINALLY I hit on an idea two nights ago: buttons. I can totally get behind this fabric as a super-close up of a cool printed button. I think it's going to work.



Those little white freezer paper crescents are the inside edges of the button holes, which you can *maybe* see drawn in pencil on the block. I had to resew the print+yellow curve at each end, because I'd drawn it too tight and it was cupping. This is my very first time machine sewing curves in 20 years of quilting. (OK, not very first, but the Butterfly Quilt was too big to count)

Hey, I made another baby quilt. Two points if you can guess which baby it's for.

The quilt is called 'Fiendish Glee', and it's a stack-n-whack variation. I fell in love with the Edward Gorey print a few years back, and had to have it. Now, if I knew how I wanted to quilt it, maybe it could go on the wall before the 31st. Any ideas?

The best part is making something beautiful with my own mind, my own hands, on my own time.

The best part is the community of like-minded creative people, who may not share political views, religious affiliation, or even aesthetics, but who really understand the joy in creating.

The best part is sewing away at the table, with my 9 year old son working on his 9-patch blocks nearby while my 3 year old son makes a 'quilt' of 1" fabric squares pasted to paper.

The worst part is *knowing* I have the fabric I want, but not being able to find it in my stash.

The worst part is when there's a quilt just begging to be tended to, but I must tend to everything else instead.

The worst part is artist's block, when there are no ideas and everything looks dull and tired and boring, and I'm afraid I might never have another decent idea.