Unraveled

Whew....

I may have bit off more than I can chew. I am now involved in THREE quilting bees/block swaps. This may not sound like much, but two of them require two blocks each, so that's a minimum of five blocks a month. Even thought this is a little bit crazy, I love the bees. They give me a chance to use fabric I had not yet tried, learn new techniques, and work in other styles. Plus, I know that no matter how busy I am, I have to make time for a little bit of quilting. Unfortunately, the holidays really threw me off. Plus, in DC, the inauguration made everything crazy until only a week ago. Then, add in a new job, a barely sleeping baby, and a crazy crazy toddler, um, yeah. I was a little behind. Fear not. I am caught up. They will all be going out on Monday. Here they are, in all their glory. First up, Alissa's blocks for Block Party. If you want to hear more about these blocks, check out the Block Party blog. Next up, the January block for Sew Connected 2 Now the December blocks for the About.com Birthday Block Swap Finally, the About.com swap January Blocks What a relief to be all caught up!

Labels: "birthday block swap", block party, Quilting, sew connected 2

First quilt of 2009...

I made this quilt, called "Traffic Jam," for two dear friends of ours who are about to have a baby boy. The mom-to-be had her shower last Saturday, and the poor thing has definitely reached the "get this baby out of me!" stage. I was hoping that this quilt might brighten her day and help them feel ready for the new baby. This is my first "boy" quilt and I am very happy with the result. The quilt features a mid-tone solid grey, probably Kona, and pieced strips containing various primary colored prints, along with a few focal car prints. Some of the car prints are from purl soho and some are from pink chalk studio. As for the quilting, I quilted straight parallel lines in the grey "road" sections, and stipple quilted the patterned sections. My stippling is starting to improve, although I find that because I have to set my tension fairly high to keep the back looking neat, my thread often breaks while free motion quilting. This can be very frustrating, and often leads to a string of expletives on my part. Has anyone else experienced this? My machine has a scale from 0 to 9, and I have to keep it at about a 7 in order for the back not to look loopy. What do you keep your machine's tension on when free motion quilting? I bordered the quilt in a solid yellow, which I like, but do not love. It makes the quilt look a little less sophisticated that I wanted, maybe because the grey/yellow combo screams construction site. The back is pieced from a large piece of rocketship printed fabric from Purl, along with some other pieces from my stash. The white/red check is from Joelle Hoverson's Cake Rock Beach line.

Labels: boy quilt, Quilting

Well said...

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - Barrack Obama's Inauguration Speech As Joe can attest, one of my biggest disappointments and frustrations during the last administration was the rampant trouncing of civil liberties in the name of "freedom" or "terrorism." While I do not discount the need for safety and security, I have long worried (along with many others) that we might find, at the "end" of the war on terror, that we had left our core freedoms in the dust. I agree wholeheartedly with Obama that the rhetoric of the past eight years presented us with a "false choice." We simply cannot give up our ideals, especially in such perilous times. now, back to your (ir)regularly scheduled crafty postings...

Labels: "hard stuff"

Happy Inauguration!

Today I had the pleasure of joining 2 million other people to watch the inauguration. My heart swelled with pride as I watched Barrack Obama be sworn in. I have never felt more proud to be an American, more certain that something great is on the horizon, and more thrilled to be celebrating with millions. We watched from up high, on the rooftop of my lawfirm. Unlike many others, our day went quite smoothly. We had no delays, no trouble on the metro, and did not shiver out in the cold. It was perfect. here are some pictures: 1. Mom and I in front of the capital, 2. The Capitol, 3. The reflecting pool..., 4. Obama cupcake

Labels: OBAMA

You know you are obsessed with fabric...

When the only thing you can focus on during Grey's Anatomy is whether Erica's Hahn scrub cap is made from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope fabric. And the answer is.... Yes!! See below for photographic evidence: Apparently, I am not the first to notice the magical meeting of awesome fabric with craptastic televsion. Happy New Year to all fellow fabric obsessors!!

Labels: fabric