A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

coming soon

We managed to come in from the Spring-y outside long enough for me to piece together this quilt top. It's for a lap quilt I've been planning for the living room and it's the biggest quilted piece I've attempted so far. The squares have been sitting around for a while as I put off actually spreading them all over the tile floor to figure out the arrangement. You know, with the dog skidding into first on my precious arrangement about the time I have it just so--which was pretty much what happened. Finally, I just decided to go row by row and it all came together rather quickly. Now, I'm putting off sandwiching it together and working out the backing. The quilting part I'm actually looking forward to, but I haven't decided what kind of design I'll use. I want something not overly quilted so it will stay pretty fluffy and snuggly, but I don't want to just stitch in the ditch either. Any ideas?

There won't be much crafting going on tonight, though, as my sweetheart has been out of town for a few days and I am eagerly awaiting his return. <insert groovy 70's love theme music here> But, I'm working on a little surprise for you that I'm super excited about. A fun new tutorial! These things take an amazing amount of time to put together and I'm always super grateful to find them. Especially the PDF files--geeezzz! I wish I was half that organized. So, while I can't promise some pretty little thing you can print out, if you like step-by-step photos and know how to follow directions, I've got something just for you! For now, here's a sneak peek to get those creative juices flowing...time to oohh and aahh....

soaking in the sun

The weather has been just beautiful here and very Spring-like, especially compared to the almost 100 degree weather we had been having, so we've been spending as much time as possible outside and away from the computer. I haven't missed it a bit. All I seem to want to do is to sit outside and knit between little spurts of puttering around in the garden. The whole family has enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, we have not yet found a new home for Beyond, the rooster. And although I still have some sentimental feelings for him, I am more than ready to let him go. He has become so brutal with the hens that we have had to separate one of them. Chi-chi (above) was hurt so badly by his talons that we didn't think she was going to make it. Thankfully, after many tears and prayers from the kids, (God is so gracious in answering children's prayers!) she's pulled through. Now we let her enjoy a little free grazing while the bully paces back and forth protesting vehemently. The poor dog wants so desperately to sniff her butt but intuitively knows better than to get too close or he might just lose a nose.

What I've been working on: the scarf that had such a difficult beginning, but is now coming along rather nicely. Imperfectly, but nicely. I am recognizing my stitches from one another and knitting the knits and purling the purls. Mostly.

An earlier practice project: another washcloth. I found some nice knit dishcloth patterns here but I was almost finished with this one when I somehow ended up knitting on the wrong side of the fabric...?? Two rows of purl bumps where nice stockinette v's ought to be just sent me over the edge. Suddenly the gaping holes, extra 14--yes, 14!!!--stitches I added along the way and uneven texture screams to be frogged. I took a picture for posterity but next time you see this yarn, it will be woven into something altogether different. I do think I'll keep up the washcloths, though. Once you've used a hand-knit cloth on your skin, the once-so-soft-terry feels like sandpaper. Seriously.

I'll tell you about my final project a little later, but here's a peek. I'm using this yarn that I was able to find locally. It may not be designer, but I think it is scrumptious. Light & airy, soft and very organic feeling. The colors are nice, too. I think it would be perfect for a baby blanket. Actually, I wish all my clothes were made out of this stuff. But, back to the project at hand: it's my first attempt at stripes, making my own pattern and using circular needles all in one. Maybe a bit too ambitious, but fun.

Well. It's time for me to get back outside. I already have a headache from staring at the screen and we only have 2 more days until it is back to summer-like heat in the 90s. Have fun!

work in progress friday

Friday's a good time for evaluating the week's work in progress.

The embroidery has been in process for about a month now. (I started it on the way home from Tennessee.) But it is likely to be several more months before it's done. Maybe it is a little too ambitious of a project, but after seeing this, this, this one, and this I am determined to make 2 or 3 more. I may even buy one of those crewel kits from the craft store, maybe something like this one but on a brighter background and minus the ruffles. I should probably actually finish at least one thing first, though. But there's no time for projects today. This afternoon we'll be doing crafts and making cookies at a friend's house, but I can definitely see some time with a needle and thread in my newly arranged living room in my future. Oh, yeah. And the last few episodes of Carnivale. I'll be so sad and sick to see it end, but a little season one of 30 Rock might just ease the pain.

keep on moving

I was so thrilled and inspired by sweet jessie's recent tour of her sewing headquarters. But that is pretty much the complete opposite of what I have to show today. God willing, all this mess will be out of my house by the end of the day and I can start on phase 2 of the Big Purge of 2008: redecorating.

As of now, there are boxes and piles in every room of the house. Here we have cast away toy bins no longer needed because the toys will be going to someone else's home. Bye-bye!

Too many blankets, sheets and pillows, unfinished paintings from high school--the Van Gogh-ish period, Christmas decorations still out from two Christmases ago. Bye-bye!

Books, books, and more books. And we still don't have enough shelf space! This is where we have the conversation about building a library versus hanging on to beloved books that we may actually read or use as a resource again in our lifetimes.

But we're not even talking about the stuff already outside awaiting the World's Largest Garage Sale Ever.

We've all given until it hurts (I'm talking about a huge box of perfectly good fabrics, people.) and the thing is that I know we'll have to do this again, we'll call it phase 3, to get rid of anywhere near the amount of stuff I envision getting rid of.

So what about you? Have you started your Spring cleaning yet? I promise, it feels great. Like losing 20 pounds overnight. And once the excess is gone, I can start beautifying the place with the new projects I'm working on. Or as my husband says, I can start filling the house I just cleaned out with more crap again. Ahem. But this time is different. Please, God, let this time be different.

see, i still sew

I finally took some time to work on something a little more creative than dusting and organizing. It is all about balance they say. I don't know, but it feels sooooo good to create not just order but beauty out of the chaos. And it still feels too much like chaos around here. So a few patchwork panels with no other purpose than to look pretty and be fun to make were called for.

I've also got my heart set on making some new pillows for the living room since going out and buying a brand new couch would kind of defeat the purpose of this whole downsizing/being-content-with-what-you-have thing I'm going for, so I set aside some fabrics that make me happy.

I mean, who cares that there is a giant hole in the couch that's Spiderman's secret hiding place for jumping out and surprising the bad guys? So what that I could fill the pantry full of food from the crumbs underneath the cushions alone?? (I will be keeping the vacuum.) New is not necessarily better, right? Let's hope some pillows do the trick.

ready or not

Well, I've finished all I'm going to finish and tomorrow we are off to wind our way back home. We'll be taking the scenic route so we can get an up-close glimpse of the Ozarks, visit some friends and family, and finally cross the entire gigantic state of Texas. Did you know it takes a day of driving to get from one end of Texas to the other? Well, let me tell you, it does. And those last 150 miles from Corpus Christi to the Mexico border are brutal. Absolutely brutal. Flat, ugly, nothing. Nothing.

We all have mixed feelings about returning home. Glad to be going home, sad to leave everything behind. Even the kids have been going back and forth, excited to see their friends, sad to leave Memphis and the trees. I'm not sure how I'll feel pulling into all-too-familiar-territory, but I'm glad we'll be taking the long way home.

I wanted to use up some leftover Christmas fabric and miscellaneous scraps I've accumulated, and I came up with this bag for a friend. I was pretty happy with it, but now that I see the picture, it seems to be missing something. I wish I had added a mix of trims among the strips.

I guess I'll see you in a few days. Ready or not, here we go.

feathering the nest

I'm trying to hit all the good thrift stores one last time before we leave town. I've been thinking January should be a good thrifting month after all the bingeing of the holidays and then new year's purging. So far, I've been right on. Sunday's thrifting uncovered these goodies. The art deco-ish bird calendar dish towel is my favorite. And the rhinestone shoe clips. But yesterday's spree was even better and I came home with a giant rocking sack of fabrics that are still going through the laundry so no pictures yet, but take a look at these.

I came across a sewing project online using Tracy Porter's fabrics from Joann's and fell in love them. Aren't they pretty? I haven't been this excited about a line of fabrics in a long while but the best part is actually the price: $5 a yard! So I bought a yard of everything. Well, not everything, but a lot. I'm going to use them in a lap quilt for the living room. A kind of welcome home gift for the family. Or, you know, for me. Whatever.

I've saved a special piece of this pretty print for an embroidered pillow. I've been freaking out over Anna Maria Horner's needlepoint pillows and wool rugs so I'm seeing something kinda like that to keep me calm until I can get one of Anna Maria's for myself. I'm trying to save the embroidery for the trip home, but we have less than a week of cable left--no cable TV at home, thank God--and I need something to do while I watch just one more episode of Law & Order SVU into the wee hours of the morning. Then I'm going to bed. For real this time.

looking forward

My pin cushion using Bari J's tutorial. I tried to use a more elegant combination of fabrics like Bari does, but I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have gone for the animal print. But, hey, I gotta be me.

Good things about being back home again:

• Seeing friends and spending time with them again.
• Getting back into regular Bible teaching. We've visited several great churches here, but it just isn't the same as being there every week studying through a whole book of the Bible with the same (excellent) teacher. I think we'll be back in time to start Romans 1-5--yippee!
• Being in our own home and back into our regular routine of life. We've tried to keep up the routine here but it has still been a bit like being on vacation for 3 months--which is a good thing, but gets old.
• Having the dog back and seeing the chickens. We've since found out one of the chickens, Beyond, is really a rooster. We thought she was just a really huge, mean hen. Turns out....
• Having access to all my fabric.
• Having a place to paint and make a big mess creating.
• Even though it isn't Winter in the strictest sense and I will miss it so, this time of year is nice in South Texas. Very Spring-like. 
• Actually getting started on the down-sizing. This might be a negative, too. I get a little panicky thinking about how it's all going to work.

I'm trying to finish up as many projects as possible before we leave so there are lots of works in progress spread out all over the place.

Still into the Christmas crafting. This will be a pillow but I'm planning on a little embroidery work in the white square and some hand quilting elsewhere that I'm saving for the drive back to Texas. I love the look of patchwork with embroidery mixed in.

My--ahem--Winter coat. Just in time for returning to the Equator where it will be completely unnecessary. I only have the sleeves, hem, and button holes left to do. Not my favorite parts so I keep putting it off.

I also have a stack of clothes to be finished up and a huge pile of new fabrics to be ironed. Why is ironing pretty fabric so much more enjoyable than ironing boring old clothing? Or is it just me?

you know, for kids!

Just taking a few minutes away from flipping back and forth between watching my man Van Morrison on Austin City Limits and Raising Arizona (one of the funniest movies of all time) to give you a little update on a few works in progress. All I can share are the pretty little piles just yet, but if you're geeking out over those sweet red & white fabrics--and I know you are!--then hightail it over to Sweetflavor before December 7 for a little Christmas inspiration. Besides great Japanese fabrics, you'll find some lovely cotton prints at good prices. I'm also planning a list of some of my new favorite handmade shops to share as soon as I can  get it together--my life, not the list. Before Christmas, though. Promise.

Finally, *most* my gifts for the 12 Days of Xmas Exchange are in flight to their new homes, so I should be able to start a new project this weekend. A Winter coat pour moi.

I've been feeling so unproductive lately and having a really hard time getting used to the shorter days in Tennessee. Knowing it will be dark by 5 pm, I start feeling panicky around 4:00 thinking of all I still need & want to do with the day. No wonder I'm utterly exhausted by 8 pm.

superstar stock report

I think I've stumbled onto a completely new but logically resulting artistic path. (Does that sentence even make sense??) What I mean is that the new path, when considered, is actually a very logical progression of the way I've been going. I mean, it makes sense to me, but it is all still in the "very abstract hard to put into words but if you could only see inside my head you'd understand and think it's cool" stage of development. I'm playing with a few things, tweaking a few things, and most importantly having funfunfun. The only kink in the plan is that we've started homeschool up again so I don't have the free time that I did this summer. Soooo, I'm thinking house cleaning should move to the bottom of the priority list. What do you think? I mean, am I really going to look back on my life ten years from now and think, "If I could do it all over again, I'd have cleaned house more."???? Thankfully (for my family) home decorating has a place along the new path. And too much clutter literally makes me crazy. An inch of dust over everything, not near so much.

To celebrate and make some room for creating, I cleaned up the studio today and even did a little decorating.

Some vintage aprons made into a curtain! I used to have tags and swap stuff hanging here but suddenly the aprons began to curse me as I resurrected them from the very bottom of a leaning pile of fabric. I couldn't just leave them there any longer--I mean, look at these ladies!! All handmade. Each one is so unique, the designs so unusual that they really deserve their own spotlight. But for now, this will have to do. I'm loving the cheery look of the fabrics here near my desk, but I might add a few more and make a curtain along the back window eventually.

I've been rereading an old favorite book that I really should reread every year or so: Freedom of Simplicity. I highly recommend all of Richard Foster's books, especially this one and Celebration of Discipline which is about the spiritual disciplines of the historic Christian faith (prayer, silence & solitude, learning, devotional reading, etc.) Each of his books have changed my life in a profound way and I find it important to remind myself regularly of what I really value in life. By the way, another book that changed everything for me was Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Both books are classics and I know that Sider's book has been updated in the last decade with more recent statistics, etc.

My rereading Freedom of Simplicity converges with some recent personal goals I've set for myself and my family. It never ceases to amaze me how daily observations, conversations, struggles that seem so random at the time can suddenly make so much sense when fitted together. So, long story short, it has become increasingly important to me to rethink the ways my family and I consume and accumulate. Though we've always tried to do this, recently the need for a change has struck me as more urgent than before. My new daily mantra has become "change is good". I admit, I have a pattern of fiercely digging my heels in against the threat of change.