Gifts, the Second

Aha!  A week has fled by and completely unbeknownst to me.

Well, almost.  I am, please hold your disbelief for a moment, yet again recovering from a cold. Say what??  Yes, that's three nasty colds in as many months.  Yes, I'm taking my vitamins, eating right, and getting enough sleep.  Yes, I'm aunt to a toddler who is building an immune system and a substitute teacher who gets the majority of her assignments covering for teachers who have been stricken by illness in various classrooms all over the city. I figure, by the end of 2013, I'll be immune to everything! Mwahaha! [Rubs hands together.] [With Purell.]

Anyways, I have stopped coughing intensely (sorry to the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild ladies who endured the very onset of my coughing during our meeting this weekend.... Yikes!) and can return to blogging without fear that a bronchial spasm will cause premature publication.

Here is second half of the gifts I made this Christmas.

A scarf for my dad using this pattern from The Purl Bee.  I splurged for the specified yarn and was very glad I did so - it's soft, knit beautifully! and is as warm as it looks.  It even held up to six different starts without separating into raggedly plies on me.  (The pattern isn't at all difficult but it took me a while to a) cast-on the correct number of stitches and b) read properly. Once I managed to do both those things at the same time, it was quick and smooth sailing.)  One thing to mention is that because the yarn is naturally hand-dyed, it turned my hands all sorts of black.  Luckily, it washed off easily but I made sure to soak the finished scarf in a vinegar bath before blocking to try and set the colour.  Dad has been warned not to wear it with a white shirt for the foreseeable future.  Luckily, he wears a lot of dark colours.

Mum requested a bag for taking on vacation. She wanted something that would hold a little bit of shopping and could double as a beach-taking bag - something that wouldn't show too much dirt.  She also was pretty specific about the pattern, too,  so I used Amy Butler's Birdie Sling.  I followed the instructions to the letter and took my time with it so I'm very happy with how it turned out.  However, I think I'm now addicted to the good-quality interfacing.  Yep, can't go back to the 99cent/yard crappy non-woven fusibles now...  Stupid Amy Butler, raising my expectations of everyday sewing notions! (Ok, I'm not really mad, but it does change my sewing budget.)

And since a certain auntie gave a certain nephew a train set, she also felt he should have a bag to put all his train pieces in.  I found a paper-piecing pattern on Etsy and then built the panels into a box bag using some fabric from my stash.  It was a last-minute project, but took the better part of a day since I had to take a simple idea and tweak it until it was no longer simple...  It's not the best sewing job but it has the choo-choos required and, perspective, the recipient is 2.  He's happy, I'm happy.

So that's the rest of my Christmas makes.  I have been doing some other sewing but that will come later.  I've rambled enough for one post!

Although..... if I squeak in one more ramble, I am overjoyed that the NHL lockout is finally over.  :D Seriously, I've been watching KHL highlights from Russia.  Still trying to decide how petulant a fan I'll be and for how long.  Mostly, I'm just scared that my beloved Leafs will trade for Luongo. If you've talked to me at all about hockey, then you already know that's my hockey nightmare....

Shadow Blossoms and The Punisher

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a fantastic end to 2012 and are already having a spectacular 2013.  I am already tripping over my feet trying to keep up and I'm hoping that will have disappeared by February.  :-)  One of my goals for the year (subject for another post) is to get a little more organized with my time and start editing in various areas of my life.  I've already started with my bedroom closet; the great weeding of 2013 has begun!

I can FINALLY show you some of the things I made as gifts for Christmas. It'll take me a couple of posts but I'll start today with the big ones.  The photos are not stellar - due to a lack of quilt holder-uppers before the day and lack of sunlight and reasonable temperatures after, it's been difficult to get a good shot.  Indoors on a cloudy day.  Blergh!

Shadow Blossoms

I have already mentioned here that Seester requested a bed quilt to go in the bedroom she painstakingly redecorated this summer.  As I had already been planning to make her one for Christmas, I confessed my intentions, we discussed colours and fabrics, a loose idea of a design, and away I went.  Once fabric was purchased (mostly Bonnie&Camille Vintage and Ruby), I okayed it all with her but that's the last she saw of it until Christmas morning.

The quilting is a mix of meandering for the main and giant pebbles in the border.  I had started out with intentions of doing much more complicated free-motion work but was stymied by both my lack of FMQ skill and the sheer size of it.  It'll fit her queen-sized bed with plenty of pillow-tuck and drape space. Big quilt. HUGE!  (Did anyone else think Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman just now? Anyone? No?)

Alas, this was the best shot I could get of the back.

I'm happy with the way the design worked out - it's my own, right from scratch, and I'm working on a pattern for it.  I do wish the fabrics we'd agreed on had more contrast in value so that it looks more like shadows from stained glass but she loves it so I don't really care.  

She also got a set of matching pillow cases.  I used this tutorial. Very easy, French seams and all.

The Punisher

The gift I was most excited for this year is this one. If I didn't make him a quilt, he'd be the only member of my immediate family that didn't have one.  However, looking at him and his interests, "quilt" is not generally a word that would make the short list of gift ideas. My brother-in-law is a giant(!) and a giant fan of the comic book vigilante, The Punisher.  This skull is his symbol.  Inspired by Dan Rouse's (Piece and Press) totally amazing work, I decided to do it in reverse appliqué. Not wanting it to be boringly solid, I decided to piece random backgrounds (another post) so that the quilt would have a visual texture to it. I had no idea if it would actually work but I gathered up my fabrics, crossed my fingers and started cutting like a hairdresser with no concept of consequences...

The skull is quilted in random jagged lines - very sharp and pointy - while the black is meanders.  I also added a few black "cracks" in the skull.  It turned out exactly like I envisioned even though there were moments in the piecing of the backgrounds that I had serious doubts.  The blacks didn't seem black enough, the whites were going to be too beige, it was all going to be a huge mess...  But it wasn't!  Put black fabric next to white fabric and all is right again. And cutting away the appliqué left all these marvellous raggedy edges after washing.

He was completely excited when he opened it.  He stood to spread it out and get a better look, and referring to the super-impressionable and parrot-like toddler at his feet, said, "You have NO IDEA how much I wish I could swear right now!"  Ah, there's nothing like censored curse words of appreciation...! :-)

The back was pieced using leftovers from the top.  It's just over six feet high and five wide, not quite big enough to fit on a bed. On purpose.  Seester thanked me for that.  :-)  It will go in his man-cave and their newly finished basement for movie watching.

So that's round one!  Thanks for reading this rather long post with very sad excuses for photography. :-)  I'm off to get working on those goals... Did I mention I joined a bee?

Doorjamb: 1, Carly: Zero & Two quilts down, One to go

Doorjamb vs nose.  Doorjamb will take the title every time.   I was putting my bag away in my bedroom without actually entering the bedroom, in that old-fashioned way:  you know, hand on the jamb, lean in with one foot firmly planted and the other slightly off the hall floor.  Motion catches my eye, lean forward to say hi to the now-awake cat, and set bag down.  Go to put my foot back down and exit. Instead, slip.  Face goes crashing towards jamb. WHACK!

Not broken!  But bruised.  Made for a great and scabby story to tell to my students the next day.  Of course, you're always going to have the full attention of teenagers when you start a class with, "Who wants to hear how I almost broke my nose yesterday?"

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Despite my nasal misadventures, I have another project to cross off my Christmas gift list.

I call this lap quilt for my father Square Dance, though I was tempted, albeit briefly, to call it Lap Square Dance. (heehee) Thought he'd find it funnier...  Nothing like an inappropriate joke to get you through the tediousness that is basting a quilt!

Quilted with circles, since I've decided I really like the look, and to break up the insanity of squares within squares.  Made mostly with Moda with some Hometown by Sweetwater, some red Kona, and backed with some brown Essex linen.  Approx 56" x 74".

All that fussing with the paper and super tiny strips - the red squares are 1/2" wide - was worth the effort as I don't think my piecing has ever been so precise.  You'll have to forgive the ugly clamps holding it up. I had a limited stealth-photo window and had to make do without assistance of any kind.  Where are Santa's speedy little helpers when you need them?

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are a Canadian, Happy Thanksgiving to you!
If you are not, here is a random picture of a turkey.

I have a great deal to be thankful for and in the spirit of gratitude, thank you for stopping by, for reading, for commenting, for writing your blogs, for sharing and inspiring, for teaching and passing forward what you've learned, for comfort, for laughter, and for being you.  I love you!

If you were here, I'd give you pie.

The Family Whirlwind

It started about two and a half weeks ago and ended the other day.  First, a trip out here:

Ooohhh, view from the hotel.

California?

Nope.  Vancouver.  I may or may not know the woman posing with the giant sculptures that may or may not have freaked me out.

Attended a beautiful wedding with AMAZING food.  Local, organic, perfectly cooked, and ever-so-tasty... 

Wandered Van Dusen Gardens.

Bought a fused-glass necklace from a Glaswegian artist who tends bar in the hotel.

Had a lovely walk with my dad from from Stanley Park, along the sea wall in English Bay, back to where we were staying.  Random and beautiful art.  And a wee seal but I couldn't capture him properly in photographs...

Played with my favourite photo apps. 360 Panorama, Tilt-Shift Generator, Hipstamatic.  The fun of gizmos when you're stuck in a plane over a wing.

It was lovely to see family out west, and lovelier that we had family coming back to the middle right after.  We've had people here for a week and a half straight and in different combinations, including no-air-conditioning-at-their-house refugees and their dog.  Old family, new family, tiny family, furry family....  A wonderful buzz of energy and excitement and two-year-olds asking, "Where cat? He sleeping?"  A real heartbreaker, for sure.

But now, the wine bottles have been enjoyed. The din has subsided.  The shoes at the door have winnowed. The guest rooms are empty.  I'm enjoying the quiet and the catching up. And the cat is at the foot of the bed, sleeping.

Happy Spring!

Wishing you all the best with the promises of spring!  And now for some pictures of pysanky:

I have survived my first year back at school.  I haven't read anyone in months and I'm hoping I can at least get the gist of what's been going on for everyone in the last six months.  I've missed you all!  My head has been filled with words like epistemology, pedagogy, relationality, reflective practitioning and other things that sound made up.  And a lot of it is, but they espouse it anyway.  :-)

I'm back on the grid for awhile.  You forget how much you need something until you have a taste of it again.  I'm breathing a sigh of relief and joy like the first inhale on the first warm day of spring.  And I'm reaching for chocolate!

Virtual hugs!

Carly

Imminent

This post has been imminent for a long time. Ha!

I have survived my first semester and started back at classes this morning.  The holiday was a whirlwind and I owe a great many emails and back comments - if I've been quiet on your blog lately, it's because I haven't had the time to read it for the last two and a half months.  Sorry - but I know you understand and you know that I'll catch up.  Thanks for the well-wishes!  You'll be pleased to know that the first round of marks were of the RockStar variety so my focussing was not a waste of time...

I made very little in terms of gifts this year unless you count making naps and butter tarts a priority.  I made a quilted stocking and a baby blanket (of which I apparently took pictures with the camera NOT currently on my person.  Read: not my phone.)  They were made to match and to grow a little with their recipient and went under the tree to be opened by expectant parents.  And now, I have a few moments, sitting in a hospital waiting room, wallowing in our catastrophic World Junior hockey gold medal loss, with two hours of sleep in the last 38,  waiting for the arrival of the person I have been more excited to meet than anyone before in my life.  Nephew is Imminent.  Impending Nephew.  Incoming!!

I attended all four of the classes I had today, despite the action.  Plus, the fact that the hospital is on campus made it much easier to zip over between them. All my new college buddies are awaiting word.  He's Eminent as well as Imminent, my Nephew.  I'm exhausted but giddy.  And WAY too caffeinated.  Which explains the silly word play.

I hope that your holiday - no matter your creed or tradition - was filled with hope, anticipation of the new year and  all things good.  Mine, other than the hockey game, most certainly was.

Blessings and happiness!

We'll chat soon.

Thankful for Grover

It's Thanksgiving in Canada, today.  And I am working hard on assignments and reading (no, I haven't really caught up - I've never been a successful skimmer, I pretty much have to read every word...) but on my way to my university log-in page, I travelled through the land of Yahoo! as a portal and lo' and behold:



Maybe because I'm fried or maybe because it's educational and my brain has turned to 'teacher'... But I think it's some friggin' hilarious.

So I am thankful for opportunities, my family and friends who are patiently tolerating my present but absent state of being, and Starbucks for being open when all buildings on campus were locked tight.

Next post:   Man, We Need Groceries Soup

Steamed Milk

I finished the milk scarf. Then I sewed the ends together and turned it into a loop. Then I steamed it. Which I should've done before I sewed the ends together. That would've made it easier to do both.

Looped three times. Super soft.

And Happy St. Patrick's Day, if you're Irish. Happy Big Green Excuse to Drink Day, if you're not but enjoy a tipple. Or a triple. (PS - please don't pinch me; I took this photo yesterday.)

Irish Blessing: May your house always be too small to hold all of your friends.

Latest Endeavour of the Sewing Variety

I have neglected my machine since the holidays. And now that I have a little bit of time on my hands, I've dived headlong into the big-girl version of Lego. :-)

I am NOT a person who does Christmas fabrics. I am NOT a person who does quilt "kits". Typically, I like to take an idea or a pattern and make it my own, choose my own fabrics, make my own mistakes and triumphs. But when I saw the Figgy Pudding quilt top hanging in my local quilt shop, I needed it. It was the prettiest, most modern, holiday-themed quilt I'd ever seen and I fell desperately in love.

And then Santa brought it for me. :-)

There are dimensional tree blocks using a one-seam method that I would not have been able to figure out just by reading the pages...

Very fuzzy photography - there may have been wine involved.

Luckily, I'd seen the technique just before Christmas or I might have gone out of my mind trying to wrap my head around these trees and resorted to something crazy like attempting paper piecing and ruining my precious fabric with an untested method. How serendipitous that Anjeanette of Roots & Wings, Co. featured the exact technique I was going to need - THANK YOU!! (and just for you, I'll tell you that I'd've been Sobbin', Sobbin' Sobbin', Fit to be tied!)

I imagine I'll have the top together in a matter of days....