Friday, June 29, 2007

Doll Quilt Redux

So, the quilt seems to be going over well but I still wasn't quite satisfied. I did some fancy machine quilting and turned it on its side and I like it much better!
I know that is cheesy but the middle needed something and I like to do the freehand writing.
The funny thing is, I am not even really a quilter and almost never will start something from scratch. But give me a couple of squares and I cannot keep myself from putting it together. In this case I had a stack of scraps and four squares of the four stripe gingham. Someone had donated this pile to a big charity project I was working on. So now it is a cute baby quilt with a flannel backing.


This is in the center square.

I love the challenge of taking something that I would never have started with and making it into something that I actually like--or at least someone would like. This will go to a local charitable organization.



Thursday, June 28, 2007

I am a neglectful mother

Here is my daughter's hair. What you see there is one gigantic dredlock. She is on swim team and apparently has not been combing, brushing, or even running her fingers through her hair. (But she has been washing.) I have noticed that the bun she has been wearing for the past couple of months has been looking a little raggedy but I really had no idea it was this bad. It took two whole hours for the hairdresser at Fantastic Sam's to comb it out. I was gonna have them just cut it off but the nice hair lady wouldn't do it. And she only charged me $19.99 for it (haircut too)(I gave her a $10 tip, because well, two hours!!? (I felt like such a cheapskate at that)).

Sorry, no after photo (she is off swimming again).

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The elusive title

So I got all ambitious and joined the doll quilt swap and then completely dropped the ball on blogging. I finally got google reader going for my blogroll and that made it so easy to keep up but less easy to stay involved. My class is over on Friday--can't come soon enough--and swimteam is almost over. Hopefully then I can get back to some mental order.

Anyways, here is the doll quilt I put together. I am not sure if it is good. The middle square is actually a vintage square that I found in a random bag at the thrift store. My swap partner asked for quilter's choice so I just started sewing. So I ask you my loyal readership if you would enjoy getting this quilt in the mail? I have a couple of other ideas so I could do another but I don't really feel the vibe right now. But I will re-do if this one is not up to snuff. (you see I am not really vibing on this one either but maybe it is good?)It is machine quilted but I did hand finish the bias tape and label -- which for me is sayin' somethin'.
Ok, new topic. I found some calico iron on letters. The white is the back of them and you can see what color the calico is from the rest of the square. This is all there are so I need to figure out a series of words that use up all of the letters. I am a waste not, want not kind of a person and having a few orphan letters is just going to kill me. So if any of you are word puzzle kind of people, help me out here!


And now I leave you with a convocation of bad guys waiting for their comeuppance.





Friday, June 15, 2007

I am not a philisophical person.

It has been a while since I have posted or crafted. I did make a baby blanket last week for a shower but I had to rush out the door clipping threads to get to the shower late--so no picture.

I rearranged a little in my studio and got it all cleaned up but I have been snowed in with this class. My first graduate course and let me tell you I am not impressed! It is an internet course--which should have been my first clue--how do you do an ethics class online? Well in this case you do it by requiring the class to meet in groups and do all the work in groups (group paper anyone?). Mix this together with a five week course. At first I was sick with worry, 'it will be so hard' I thought, 'my first graduate course I won't be able to keep up' I said. Ha! So I have to read the whole textbook but I don't actually have to prove that I did (I am reading!) All of the assignments (two papers and some discussion questions) are group assignments. We do have to participate in a one hour chat session with the instructor, which I did. One hour of blather and sentence fragments--I couldn't even think of anything to say because the topic was so inane and self explantory. Ay yi yi! What have I done???! I just cannot believe I have paid almost a thousand dollars for this.

So I am signed up for the fall.

I am taking this course because I need a career or a skillset. My art degree is not cutting it. I don't really want to work a 9 to 5 job. I stay home with my kids now which has been a blessing but my giant brain needs some stimulation--hard problems, ethical dilemmas, other people interaction. I have a really hard time making friends and so many people seem to have no time to do anything anymore but attend to their jobs and kid's schedules. Busy, busy. I guess I am busy too but so often it is not a good kind of busy--it is a 'driving across town again in the cauldron we call home' kind of busy. It's a 'I have to clean the guinea pig's hay off the floor again' kind of busy.

So now this is turning into a whiny kind of post and I did not mean for it to be--looking inside myself right now I feel pretty good. Or at least not unhappy. Sigh. All of my life I have felt that there must be something more exciting than this. Of course, there is, but not without giving up some other things that I have come to rely upon.

Clearly I need to see a therapist.

Anyways, my plan is to put together a few things this weekend to put in my shop (something not baby or bag related). I am still ironing out the details but it is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, so time's up people!

Monday, June 4, 2007

Studio improvements

As you may know, I live in Arizona, the land of the blazing sun. The house we bought is fairly large and on half an acre. However, the previous owners were very averse to yardwork and apparently anything green. So our yard is a half an acre of gravel (even though the house is 30 years old). We are slowly putting in trees and I am jealously guarding any wild ones that spring up (which means the previous owners were assiduously ripping them out because we have several). In our backyard I have my studio--400 square feet of space with air conditioning but no water. There is a concrete patio but it is in the full afternoon sun so we were not getting much use out of it and the studio itself was very hot in the summers.

Enter my father-in-law and a pile of wood. Here you can see the beginnings of work (and my view)

The end of the second days work.

The framework is done and Mr. Plum is priming (I was helping too!)


The roof is going on, there you see Father-in-law Plum. Isn't the roof lovely?

The kids are already enjoying the shade.

I have to touch up the paint in a few places and put up some fun lights and soda can flowers (and wait for the camera batteries to charge) then I will put up a finished picture. And then I need to have a party!
That's 200 more square feet of shade in the yard folks!