Five Otter Colonies

Long, long ago, my mom made this intense jacket. Called the "Me" jacket (I think), it was a patchwork blazer with fussy-cut fabric representing her and important parts of her life. I remember walking around fabric stores with her little plastic square trying to find things that would make a nice patch.

I distinctly remember finding one of the more distinctive fabrics. See, when my parents were first married they lived in Monterey, and Mom wanted some fabric with otters on it. I think it was Hancock fabrics that had it. Little otters frolicking on a rocky coast.

And when my sister-in-law decided that she was going to Cal State University, Monterey Bay, I remembered that fabric hunt. And sure enough, Mom still had the rest of the quarter-yard of fabric that she bought, one five inch square cut out. I got five more 6.5 inch squares. The other light blues are scraps from previous projects (and a little cannibalization from a future project). You've already seen the design. And here's the finished object.



I wish I had made the outermost border a little wider. Unfortunately, I cut all the strips before I realized that I had enough fabric to do so. And then I thought a seam down the middle of the border would look silly. The binding is a blue and white stripe that I got from the remnants bin.



Yep. All the fabric except the dark blue came from my stash (or Mom's. Which is really mine too, right?). Oh, and the backing. A chambray sheet that I found at Goodwill. The only blue 100 percent cotton sheet they had in the place, and remarkably awesome.

And yes, I've failed at the twelve days of Christmas. I knew I should write these posts ahead of time and schedule them, but I failed. And what am I going to do when friends call and want to hang out? Set myself a curfew so I can write my post for the day?

Three Sets of Reindeer

Between my husband and myself, we have three sets of grandparents. And I find his grandparents particularly hard to select presents for. So when a local quilt store was going out of business and I saw these adorable panels for $3/yard, that settled it. I'm pretty proud of how good things look together considering the store was pretty picked over by that point. The only thing I got somewhere else was the red sashing around the cornerstones.

The panel shows eight reindeer. I'm not quite sure who's missing, since Rudolph is there front and center.


There's a tradition in my family to read "A Visit From St. Nicholas," otherwise known as "The Night Before Christmas" on, you guessed it, the night before Christmas. Apparently this year they must have gotten into a debate about the names of the reindeer because my dad called and demanded to know what the name of the reindeer that came with Blitzen was. I definitely vote for Donner, but apparently the original manuscript calls him Donder. I think he must be having an identity crisis, and that's why he doesn't show up in these pictures. What do you call the reindeer who flies with Blitzen?

Making their life warmer

(alternatively titled--"At Last!")

The weekend I went to pick up A. from Boston this summer, we went to the wedding of some college friends. I love weddings! Anyway, I decided sometime way before the wedding that I actually had time to make a quilt, so that's what I wanted to do (note to my friends who got married in '07 or before--want me to make you something? I'd love to! Either ask, or have a baby. Those will both light a fire under me).

But then I didn't actually work on it until the week of the wedding. But I had pretty well planned out what I wanted to do, so I managed in a night or two of work. I took the quilt with me to Boston, figuring I'd have plenty of time to get the binding and label sewn on before the wedding. And then I didn't. So I brought it back home. And sewed on the binding. And then waited and waited and waited some more to sew on the label. I finally did it yesterday while watching 'Jeopardy!'. It didn't even take the whole show. Oh well, like I said before, I like to take full advantage of the generous gift giving window for wedding gifts. So now it's wrapped up and ready to wing its way back to Boston.

Sorry it's a little wrinkly. I picked green because I'm 80% sure it's the bride's favorite color. Plus the 'Save the Date's were green and white.
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And here's the back.


In a particularly nerdy moment, I decided to quilt the zig-zags themselves in intervals corresponding to the digits of pi. It's approximate, but I think you should be able to make out 3, 1, 4, 1, ... starting from the top.


The pictures were taken before the label was on and before it got its final washing (washing a quilt for the first time often gives it that all-over wrinkled look that makes quilts so snuggly), so now it's good-wrinkled instead of bad-wrinkled. I like it a lot for how simple it was.

And since there happens to be a quilt festival over at Park City Girl, I'm adding this! Click on the icon to be taken to see more quilts

Bedroom Makeover

They say that if you don't like the weather in Nashville, wait five minutes. As a matter of fact, I think I've heard that same adage said about pretty much everywhere I've ever lived. Oh well. Suffice it to say, spring in particular is a time of great variability and unpredictability. Which is why pulling out our "let's try to not spend the inheritance of our firstborn on air-conditioning" quilt in March might not have been the best plan. But I do believe the worst is behind us. And in celebration, a picture of our spring/summer setup.

To compare--here's what it's like in the winter*:


*I really wanted to do one of those nice rollover effects, where you put your mouse over the picture and it displays a new picture. But trying to figure that out took me down a whole wormhole of JavaScript and/or CSS, and at this point I know too much of these things to just follow instructions blindly, and too little to really implement it well. Maybe later.

Photo meme

I've been tagged.

1. Find the fourth folder in your My Pictures folder.
2. Post the fourth picture.

Unfortunately, my fourth folder is my blog folder. So you may have already seen the fourth photo (check out my post on the Jack Daniel's distillery)

So I decided to play again. After all, in middle school drama I learned that 3 is the magic number. My third folder is pictures from this year--sounds good.

But the third photo? Part of a surprise that I don't want to post!

Try again. Second folder, second folder, second picture? A photo of someone else who may or may not feel like being on my blog. Man, this game is hard!

Finally, a winner! Fifth folder (my "inspiration" folder), fifth item (the first three are more folders):


It's a stained glass pattern, from this site. I downloaded it to help me with a present, a sneak peek of which is in this post.

But I've never put any of the other pics up (for shame!). Look! It's a wall-hanging! A sort of stained-glass version of some friends' "family crest." Otherwise known as the super-late-wedding-gift (of course, I don't have a super-hot track record of getting wedding gifts to people before or during their weddings. I like to take full advantage of the "acceptable 6 month window" for wedding gift giving).



There you have it folks. My adaptation of the photo 4 meme. And a follow-up picture. Now if only I could think up a couple more interesting things about myself for the Facebook "25 things about me" meme, I'd be golden.

My first quilt--maybe, kinda, sorta

Several years ago, I decided I wanted to try quilting. So Mom presented me with a panel and I set out on my merry way. I quilted for a bit, and then, as happens with my projects sometimes (a lot of times), it got put aside for other things.

Including other quilts.

Oh well. This one was still first. I picked it back up before Christmas, put it down again to do Christmas crafting, and just clipped the last threads from the binding (Pictures were taken pre-thread-clipping. Sorry about that).

It was my first bias binding. Also, the first time I attached binding by machine.

The wonkiness of the binding is not my favorite, but I love the bias-ness, and the yellow! I think it adds a nice touch. And as Mom points out, it's probably sturdier when machine sewn than it would have been with my standard slip-stitching job.

It was also my first time doing any sort of free motion quilting. Which I think is fun. I think I'm going to have to make a bunch of quilted pouches and stuff to practice, though.

Aren't the bunnies cute?

It's been folded up and put away for the next time I see my parents. Either my mom or my grandma will get it to some sort of charity providing quilts for kids. I hope they like it!