Friday, January 28, 2011

Hey baby, what's your sign?

Yes, that title should definitely be followed by a very intricately hand pieced and quilted cosmetics pouch!  If a guy ever tried to pick me up with a quilt-related line, I'd be his for sure~ (of course, I'm not on the market, remember the hubs did get me a Janome for Christmas...)
 No, but the real reason for my cheesy title.. birthdays.  Not mine (I'm Sagittarius, btw), but my friends.  Do you have several friends with birthdays close together?  I totally do, and I realized at some point that it must mean that I get along well with Aquariuses, Libras, and of course, other Sags.  Last weekend, I had two special birthdays-- my grandma (who got the pouch above at long last-- I started it in 2004!), and Shannon, who got the pillow below (made from the some of the scraps she sent me).

So what do me & the Aquariuses like about each other?  apparently, according to Glamour.com,

"Both of you are individualists and can't stand stuffiness. You understand each other and don't ask for more than you should."  So true. 
The site is fun, click away if you've got time, trying out all your relationship combos.  When I put Capricorn (Costas) and Sag (me), this is what I got:
"This friendship will find you shaking your head in disbelief. You have too much common sense to put up with Sagittarius's freewheeling ways. "  hahaha.  Too bad he doesn't believe in horoscopes, that one's spot on.

And now that I'm home safe and sound, I thought I'd post a progress shot of TQ#3.  All but the 6 on the bottom were pieced and joined in and around the Chicagoland area.  Not bad really, for a 2 week trip.  The last few nights I was there though I was totally getting bored of the fabrics I had brought with me.  And I realized I hadn't packed any purples.  How random, but the first thing I did when I got home was to cut some :)
I've tucked it away again and moved on to a bigger project with a deadline (the end of winter), so stay tuned, I'd like to see it done before the NYC Metro mod meeting next weekend, and I'm sure you would too ;)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Ahh, naptime

Yes, naptime is wonderful, isn't it?
Since we've been in Chicago I've been sewing stars like a machine, my fingers move on their own, working over this pattern that they know so well.  The travel portion is growing (I've got 2 more to add on to what's in the pic) and I'm happy to have a chance to work on this again.
But when the little one naps and no one else is home.. it's soooo tempting just to fall alseep with him.. 
In my own house I have a million things to do once he's down for a nap, but here.. well, it's not really vacation, but nobody minded the other day when I took a nap too. :)
I've been doing a lot of quilting in public here as well-- one day at the OL library:

(On a side note, I love how diverse the neighborhood has become since I left home 14 years ago.. lack of tollerance and diversity is one of the reasons I wanted to get out of here as a teenager.  But look! now even the library has books and toys in Arabic!)
And yesterday I went to the EP library's monthly quilt group.  That was pretty nice too.  I took some pictures, if they're decent I may write a separate post for them.  But for now I've got to go make the most of naptime and attach the next two stars..

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Saturday


Just checking in with a shot of my pumpkin muffin breakfast from this morning.  C will be on his way to the airport again today to drop off one of our two holiday houseguests.  F had a good visit on her first trip to the States, and C did his best to show her every inch of NYC.  I hung back from most of the outings, but I did tag along to go see American Idiot on Broadway, which I totally LOVED!  The set, the music, the story-- I cried more than a couple times. 
I have been quilting, but sewing time is limited due the proximity of the sewing room to the guestroom and George's latest boycott of naptime.  I have put quite a few stars onto Travel Quilt #3 though, and it's ready to accompany us on our trip to Chicago on Monday. 

I'm bringing a few other hand projects (all ancient UFOs) and we'll see how much time I get to sew over the next 2 weeks.  My quilting goal for 2011 is to finish some UFOs, and I'll try hard to stick to it.  I'd also like to stop buying fabric, but whenever I put that restriction on myself I find I break it on purpose.  I'd rather just try to appreciate what I have and put it into as many quilts as possible.  I finished 5 quilts and 2 miniquilts in 2010, which is really good for me.  I also gifted 3 of the quilts and both minis, which is HUGE because I am not the most generous person by nature and I really made an effort to change that last year.  At the moment, I have 2 gift quilts planned for this year, but I'd like to up that number by December if possible.  Fingers crossed for a productive quilting year in 2011. 

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2011, please be good to us all!

(*This wall hanging was a present from Mrs. Ito of Tomakomai, Japan.  Appliqued with traditional new years motifs.)

**ETA: Julie has a great post describing the traditional Japanese motifs over at My Quilt Diary.

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