Sharing

We live with my parents right now.  And it's pretty awesome.  But whenever I say "my sewing room" or "my design board," I really mean "my mom's sewing room" and "my mom's design board."  Because she shares with me, I thought I would show you what she's working on right now:

We started quilting at the same time, when I took a class and then came home and showed her what the class did each week.  That was almost 8 years ago, and she is much more a quilting machine than I am now.  She's working on this one for her church auction/bazaar coming up in the spring.

Thanks for sharing with me, Mom!

I'm a Winner

I am the happy recipient of a fat quarter bundle from the Portland Modern Quilter's Guild!  There is a drawing for prizes at each month's meeting and this month I came away with four yards of awesome fabric.  Are you ready for this?

I learned that all the various animal prints were designed by a lady named Tammis Keefe in the '40s for her very popular handkerchief line.  Current fabric duo Michael Miller had them brought back for a tribute set to go with some of their own colorful prints.  Mostly I can't wait to figure out how to rock those alligators and those birds in a project!

Little Leaves Quilt

This pattern came out of Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork.  I've admired pictures of this quilt on her blog and was so happy there was a tutorial in her book!  I'm making mine 5 blocks x 4 blocks instead of 4x4, though.  Yes, that means I'm sewing 480 little leaves onto this quilt.  I've done 96 so far, and I'm ready to knock out the next 96.  Here are two rows up on my design board:

The top row has been all sewn on, and the bottom row's leaves have just been ironed in place.  The rest of the blocks are still in pieces.  I may change up the order once all my blocks are up there.  That's the beauty of the design board!

Here is a close up of one of the finished blocks:

 

To think last week, all I had was a big pile of blank 12" white squares!

Update: click here for a few pictures of this finished quilt.

Shout Outs

We got Josh's grandparents a little computer for Christmas so we could Skype with them since they're in Tulsa.  While Skyping last week, Josh showed them how to get to my blog, so I want to say:

Welcome Mema and Pepa!

I also want to give a shout out to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, from whom I learned the art of the shout out, and who I may or may not listen to on Hulu during my work day.  If my coworkers hear me laughing out loud, now we all know the reason.

I told Mema I would post my most recent quilt blocks tonight, but I have two more that I want to get together so I can post two full rows.  I'm going to work on them right now and will get them up tomorrow, I promise!

Work, work, work

I've been working almost nonstop lately.  I get up and go to work, I come home and work long distance for the Tulsa office until I go to bed so I can get up and work some more.  I have really liked working from home for Tulsa.  I curl up in my parents' living room on their oversized chairs, pop in a movie, and enter donor data to my heart's content.  That's the way to make a living! 
They won't need me much longer though, and my job here will start to need me more.  Our department shrunk by a couple people, and I'll take over their duties and get a promotion of sorts.  I'm quite pleased about it, but enough about boring work things.  All of this busyness hasn't left much time for crafting, but I do have plans.

I got a couple books for Christmas that I'm excited to try things from.  First, a cheese making book.  It's fantastic, and I'm going to be a cheese making machine one day.  Second, I got Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork which has some absolutely wonderful patterns in it.  I chose an applique leafy pattern for my next quilt, and so far all I've had time to do is practice a little:

 And choose the fabrics for my leaves:

Once I've got a block put together, I'll post it.  Unless it's ugly.  And then I'll post about my new ideas.

Ending 2010

The last thing I did in 2010 was overheat my CJ.  It sounds unpleasant, but I ended up having a pretty good time - let me explain.

I was driving home from work on the 31st when the cab of the Jeep started to fill with steam.  I was just at the top of the hill coming out of Portland, so I pulled off at the next exit and into a parking lot.  I like to think of myself as a problem solver, so I thought I'd check out what was going on under the hood:

I'm no mechanic, but I was pretty sure those two loose ends ought to be connected.  With encouragement from a stranger we'll call Helpful McPasserby, I got up the nerve to cancel the tow I had called for and fix it myself.  Before digging in, I of course had to go into the coffee shop upon whose parking lot I was imposing so I could warm up.  The thoughtful baristas saw my plight and gave me a warm drink for free!

Thoroughly warmed in both body and spirit, I walked across the street to a convenience store for a screw driver and some coolant.  They had neither.  But the helpful attendant showed me that a dime will do the trick when you don't have a screw driver.  Wouldn't you know it, that was the only coin in my wallet!

Using my dime, I successfully unclamped, reattached, and reclamped the hose.  But I needed coolant.  Here I met my Waterloo.  I had to call my dad since Josh was at work and have him run some up to me.  While I was waiting, I had 3 or 4 strangers stop and make sure I was okay though.  All in all I lost a couple hours, but I ended 2010 feeling pretty good about my community.