meguey

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1917578351/sewing-tour-2012?ref=ending_soon

Watch this video! Fund this project! It's sewing imagination with solar power!!

Totally stole this from opticalbinary, yet again.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Travel to another country.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I think I did? I don't generally make any beyond .

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. One sister-in-law had triplets, and another had a son.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My friend Jelaludin's cancer, which we had thought in July was in remission, came back in September in his brain. He died Oct 31.

5. What countries did you visit?
Italy!

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A government that remembers it's there by the grace and endurance of the people would be great. Barring that, a week-long supply of food and water would be good, as we seem to be getting more and more dangerous weather around where I live.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 1st, when my triplet nieces were born healthy. Wednesday Oct 26 when we arrived in Florence, Italy.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Using the long-arm machine to quilt Emily's Sky, holding the Sex in Gaming workshop at Lucca, writing Psi-Run, and homeschooling Tovey. Also, donating significantly to harmanhay ' s excellent project.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I take it as a sign of grace that I can't think of it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not that I recall? Certainloy nothing like the flu last fall. Oh, except we all had head lice in July. That sucked.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
New jeans! Not from a second-hand place, where I can usually find stuff I like, but from an actual store! With the saem pair of jeans in lots of sizes!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
All three of my sons, and also my friends named Jennifer. All three of them.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Goodness, can I just start at the top of Congress and work down? What a disaster. And the folks who continue to deny global warming make me want to spit.

14. Where didmost of your money go?
Fabric, as usual. Also a new porch roof, new car tires, airline tickets, and Sufi camps.

15. What did you get really, really,really excited about?
Going to Italy!

16. What song
will always remind you of 2011?
Love Locked Down, as perfromed by Pentatonix. Also that song in Italian about shoulders that the guys sang in the street the last night.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Wicked more stressed! Trying to finish writing a book the same season as dear friends get married is crazy.

18.What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping! This year has been super busy. Also weeding, because I want that garden to work.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stayed up too late to get anything done, spent stupid time on-line.

20.How will you be spending Christmas?
At home, hanging out and quilting/playing games.

22.Did you fall in love in 2011?
Totally. I love falling in love, and I do it regularly.

23. How many one-night stands?
None. I should really think of a different question to go here, since that's so not my style.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Community is great, and The Misfits is good, but The Sing-Off is a family favorite.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope. Hate's not very productive.

26. What was the best book you read?
Castle Waitng, by Linda Medley. There are other great books, but they have been pushed aside for thelast two months while I finish writing mine.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Pentetonix, also The Doubleclicks.

28. What did you want and get?
My passport.

29. What did you want and not get?
A wheelbarrow.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I loved going to see Glee:In 3D with Emily, because it was so great to hang out with just her.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 40, and my friends and family had a lovely little Spring/Gardening party for me.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I'd managed to actually finish my huge list of UFO quilt projects.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Y'know, I look awesome and I have some awesome clothes. Time to stop moaning and get some decent jeans, pull out my cute cloths from behind the practical cloths, and go for it.

34. What kept you sane?
Watching my birdfeeders, talking with my kids, singing in the car with my husband.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Also Sean Stockman.

36.What political issue stirred you the most?
The Occupy Movement and the police brutality that came along with it.

37. Who did you miss?
My father-in-law.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
All my Italian friends.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
I've got things  to say about game design!!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection - the lovers, the dreamers, and me. - Kermit the Frog

I can't seem to upload photos anymore.

And it rocked my world. More later.

I'm making a baby quilt that's not a Convergence! This is for the newest baby in the family, and since his closest older sibling got a convergence quilt 2.5 years ago, I wanted to make something different for him.

Yesterday I completed conservation + restoration work on a beautiful old linen wall-hanging from the 1900s.
Hand-woven, hand-dyed, hand-everything linen. There was a huge bite out of the lower left edge.



The curator and I were able to find a reasonable match to the linen in the collection - we have a couple hundred scraps that are contemporary tot eh wall hanging.



Basted through all four layers of linen.



Quilted it all in place.



Ready to go on exhibit! I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The piece is about 6 feet square, designed to hang in a double doorway and block drafts.

Got this one from mutive. If you're interested in playing along, comment on this post and I will list five words I think of when I think of you. You then get to talk about these words and spread the love. (Or whatever.)


I got the following words: Quilts, intricate hair styles, traditional arts, gardening, and cute children.

1. Quilts
Even though I mademy 1st quilt block at 5 or 6, I didn't really start quilting until I was 18. And I had a big break (due to having tiny kids, see #5) for most of the Aughts. So even though I've been quilting for 20+ years, it's only in the last three that it's really taken off again. For about ten years it was just the occasional baby quilt, and barely that.

I have two distinct quilt loves - things that are wicked fast, done in a weekend (or would be without the needs of #5) simple things that only look complex, and very difficult fiddly blocks with lots of pieces or complex paper piecing or intricate needle-turn applique. Guess which one I do more often?

2. Intricate hair styles
I've always had long hair (except that time in 9th grade when I cut it), and I've always loved playing with it. I'd wear a lot more intricate hairstyles if I could get away with them - classical Japan comes to mind, along with medival Europe and various pre-contact American Indian tribes. Mostly, I wear it down, because I can do amazing things on *other people's heads* that are nearly pysically impossible for me to do on my own. As it gets colder, I'll be wearing it braided a lot more, to keep it from tangling horribly in my sweater collars, and maybe I'll do some complex things again.

I love the silver at my temples!

3. Traditional arts
Now this surprized me! I don't usually consider myself as being a traditional arts person, but when I think about it, I do have rather a lot of traditional arts skills. I always want to learn more! I'd love to be able to make cornhusk dolls, or can food well, or make braided rugs!

4. Gardening
This is a buddign hobby (no pun intended, really!). My mom always had a big garden when I was a little kid, and I love the idea of growing mor eof my own food. And flowers! I want lots and lots of fruit-bearing trees, and bird/butterfly flowers.

5. Cute children
They really are, aren't they?! It's kind of amazing watching my boys grow up; I feel so honored and blessed to have kids I really respect and admire.

For homeschool yesterday we talked about relative sizes, color theory, number squares and related math. Tovey designed this quilt in the process, using 1" ordering swatches and scrap patches. Today I will sew it up for him. I'm happy about this.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out is a celebration of all things geeky. I think we're all geeks, just about different stuff. My grandpa was a model train geek. My uncle's a Wiley E. Coyote geek. Apparently, lots of people are football geeks. I'm a role-playing, quilting, ElfQuest, National Geographic, anthropology/archaeology geek, with forays into the middle ages and belly dance. That's a lot of geek! But for the sake of the SOWYGO week, I think what's most called for is a repost of a quilt I made last year for my middle son:



It's called Use the Force, Elliot, and you can read more about it under the utf tag.

Lately he's been talking about making a Minecraft quilt. Hmmm. I think at least two of my geek things might be genetic.

40 in 40 list

1 Take a bubble bath and read a book while soaking
2 Contact all my cousins and my parent's cousins, particularly Joe Lord and the South African Swedes
3 Do the 100 Push-ups program - last time I got to 75
4 Do the 200 Sit-ups program
5 Hang up the family pictures
6 Hike the ridge across from Poet's Seat with the family
7 Bike to Unity Park with the family
8 Go canoeing with the family
9 Get physical therapy for my hip
10 Donate blood, or at least try to
11 Join the League of Women Voters
12 Join Historic Deerfield
13 Visit Old Sturbrige Village
14 Climb Mt Monadnock with the family
15 Conquer my reservations about stovetop cooking
16 Get metal markers for the iris and other plants
17 Schedule a monthly afternoon with each of the older boys
18 Plant a garden
19 Make jam, applesauce and pickles
20 Swim in the ocean
21 Publish my uncles WWII letters, or significantly work toward it
22 Learn a new needlework skill
23 Paint a Baronial scroll
24 Enter an Arts & Sciences competition
25 Enter the county fair
26 Learn three new songs, and sing more in general
27 Visit Montreal with the family
28 Start and keep a book journal
29 Read "In the Garden" by Samuel Lewis
30 Increase our life insurance policy
31 Build a professional website
32 Learn more summer constellations
33 re-learn pattern-making on the inkle loom
34 Visit the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum with the family
35 Put up a disc swing in the back
36 Go contra dancing with Vincent at least six times
37 Finish my 52 outstanding quilt projects
38 Set up and keep regular phone dates with my mother-in-law
39 Print off the stack of photos in the 'to print' file
40 Scour the various places I post on-line and collect the bits I want to print out and keep

12 down, 28 to go.

52 UFOs (57 quilts listed, because I added 5 after the first count)

Daisy Boxes - gave to guild to finish and donate to charity; half credit
2010 Snippets - BBQBL
Peggy's Posies - BBQBL
Elliot's Stacking Coins - QBL; progress!
Quan Yin - FINISHED
Gone w/Jacob - gave to guild to finish and donate to charity; half credit
Use the Force, Elliot - BBQBL
Lemonade - gave to guild to finish and donate to charity; half credit
Flight of Fancy - QBL; progress!
Fiendish Glee - BBQBL
Kiss Me in the Garden - SBT - BBQBL
Guardians- SBT - BBQBL
Pink + Black Linus - FINISHED
Purple Dragon - needs lots of work - I have the fabric and some key pieces
Pinksplosion - BBQBL
3 Good Reasons - Borders, BBQBL
Peach Blossoms - SBT - BBQBL
Emily's Sky - FINISHED
Lady Sing the Blues - FSCT - BBQBL
Queen of Heaven's Crown - BBQBL
Elements - BT, BBQBL
Piggy in the Puddle - BT, BBQBL
Dandelions - BBQBL
Delectable Strawberries - CSBT, BBQBL
Geisha Window - CSBT, BBQBL
Dinostars - CSBT, BBQBL
All That Jazz - SBT, BBQBL
Cleopatra - SBT, BBQBL
Rapunzel - SBT, BBQBL
Kachinas - needs everything but the pattern
Sun+Mum=Dahlia - needs everything but the pattern and some of the fabric
Leafdance - BBQBL
Window to Summer - BBQBL
Wonderpool - needs everything but the pattern and some of the fabric
Lindsay's Baby Blocks - FINISHED
Walk in the Woods - BBQBL
Sebastian's Trains - FINISHED
Elliot's Animals - FINISHED
Tovey's Bright Winter Star - BBQBL
Buggy Stars - FINISHED
Debra's Car Quilt - FINISHED
Alia's Vintage Stars - FINISHED
Alia's Vintage Baskets - minor quilting left
Esther's Woolen Quilt - needs a new back, some new blocks
Abigail's Still Waters Run Deep - FINISHED
Hannah's Frolic in the Garden- FINISHED
Neka's The Sky's the Limit- FINISHED
Green Stars - quilt commission; half credit
Tulips and Flowers - quilt repair; half credit

These are my Mother-in-law's UFOs that I've been given to finish, so although they are on the list, they didn't start with me, so they *could* only count as half mine.
Veea's Pinwheels - SBT, BBQBL
Veea'sBear Paw - SBT, BBQBL
Veea's Courthouse - BT, BBQBL
Veea's Sunbonnets - SBT, BBQBL
Veea's Garden - BT, BBQBL
Esther's Black -SBT, BBQBL
Lillian's Pink - SBT, BBQBL
Ellen's Peach - SBT, BBQBL

12 down, 45 to go. 41 if my MIL's only count as half.