You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Got bitten by Bonnie's Bargello bug. I started this for my friend Sophie. Took it over to her place yesterday to see if it goes with her sitting room. Since her place is full of gorgeous antiques and paintings, I was a bit worried about the quilt clashing or being too busy, but fortunately, it looked fine. Shows how much time i've spent in her sitting room--i seem to have her color scheme memorized.

a favorite red fabric.

An idea for what do to with all those orphan 10" stars. Maybe a wedding gift for my nephew and his fiancée? Maybe too cold and pointy for a wedding gift?
(considering that knives and scissors are supposed to be taboo)

stars10"layout
Originally uploaded by nhendricks

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

(this fabric has little valentines in it.)

Another star for the swap. It's called Twirling Star and it's from Marsha McClosky's Block Party. I like this book bcs she shows layouts with different values, so you can visualize how diff combinations of fabrics might work in different positions in each block. She also shows a bunch of whole quilt layouts, combining blocks to interesting effect.

I made cardboard templates for the triangles here, and put rubber cement on the backs to keep them from slipping on the fabric while cutting (a tip I got from a book), but next time, I think i'll try another tip: gluing sandpaper to the backs, as the rubber cement makes them so sticky that they're then difficult to store.

I'm thinking of making only one medallion and surrounding it with very wide borders for a baby quilt, perhaps with a very thin pieced border (these same little squares) breaking up the wide border. I didn't follow the pattern Lucy and the others are doing exactly, and ended up bungling it slightly, making the center section too big and not having the center point be a yellow square, but it doesn't bother me that much. At least it's a tad bigger this way. Maybe will add a few more rows to make the whole thing bigger, since i'm only making this one medallion.

My attempt at the Mennonite Mosaic inspired by Lucy's, altho mine won't look antique--didn't have the right fabrics--and the color scheme is slightly off. Was thinking of making something for a friend, but it's starting to look more like colors for a kid, and I just found out that my nephew is expecting a baby in August! The first time one of us siblings will be a grandparent.

This is the cushion cover I made out of the Dutchman's Puzzle block below. I set it at a slightly tipped angle, which turned out to much more trouble than I'd expected, but i think it was worth it. The back is just orange (tiny woven stripes, like the pinwheel at the center).

Step into my humble abode. OK., it's not my only excuse, but one reason I haven't been posting as much is that the kitchen renovations (below) have been making my life a bit more topsy turvy than usual.

This latest round of renovations inspired me to reorganize the china cabinet. The green boxes are for tossing mail and receipts (one for filing and one for action).
New floor in entryway and kitchen: can you believe this is bamboo?

Only newish: the upper cabinets, installed in 2006. I spent months and months deliberating over which style and how to arrange them, glass doors or not, etc.
I'd been longing for one of these Under Cabinet giant drawer thingies for years. Separate containers for trash separation.
And guess who finally has a dishwasher for the first time in her life? Such luxury!
The lower cabinets are not quite finished, but I love it that the dishwasher blends in with the other cabinetry. Trim underneath also still needs to be installed.
The new counter. Not real wood, but much less hassle than the rotting beechwood counter i had before.

Hi, there,

sorry i keep neglecting the old blog here. Part of it is due to Sekrit Projects in the works and part of it is that i've been offline more these days, due to various real-life challenges that need more time and attention. For example, my kitchen is being remodelled soon and there's lots to do to prepare for that. If I have online access at home, it's too tempting to procrastinate, so i hand over my modem to a trusted neighbor, with instructions not to return it to me no matter what i say until a specified date. I hope to be back in posting mode next week.

I ran across a beautiful indigo and orange quilt, here, at the New England Quilt Museum.

Above are the beautiful and inspiring stars that Luisa sent me, in the cool light of Hamburg (i.e. they look much better on her blog :-). I especially love the one upper left (Fifty Four, Forty?).

Setting ExperimentsAbove: on point

not on point. I'll wait until I have all of them to decide, but it's fun to play. Any thoughts? I'm also considering a colored background, inspired by Luisa. Maybe yellow or cinnabar, but i'm leaning toward cream, so that the quilting in the alternate blocks can add another dimension.

Precision

Feeling virtuous because I spent the last several days piecing more stars and finished 15 (only 3 designs). I've been focussing on cutting and sewing more accurately. It took me several tries to get all the points of this pinwheel to meet exactly in the center, but it was very satisfying when i finally got it right. Some designs seem to sort of sing when they're precise.
I usually make five of each block (4 for the swap and one extra) and I'm thinking of making something non-quilty with this particular block. I like the combination of indigo and orange, which i would never have tried if not for my sister Lisa's inspiration from looking at some Moroccan tiles.

Ick bin ein Berliner! (sic)

This may look like an innocent jelly donut, but in most parts of Germany, it's known as a Berliner,* which is one reason the Kennedy quote from the days of the Berlin Air Lift brings a sly smile to the lips of most Germans. You can get them with a vast assortment of different fillings. My fave is filled with a luscious vanilla custard infused with Eierlikör (egg liquor).

Sort of like black eyed peas in the States, eating a Berliner on New Year's Day (or apparently anytime within a week or two before or after New Year's) is a tradition in Germany.

(*in Berlin, it's called a Pfannkuchen.)

Happy New Year!

Hope 2008 is starting out well for everyone. It's funny, i never feel a big compulsion to celebrate New Year's Eve (possibly because there is usually some celebration that i'm more or less dragged into joining, so i don't know what it wd be like not to celebrate, or perhaps because when we were kids, our family always went to big NYE parties that were lots of fun, so i've never had the feeling that i've missed out on The Party). However, I do like the feeling of New Year's Day, full of possibility.



Embarrassing to note, I didn't fulfill even one of my goals for Nov/Dec (see List of Shame left). In fact, i did almost no sewing in these months, for reasons i'll explain later. But I want to look forward, inspired by Luisa's post about setting goals.
1) I want to go more deeply into this Sampler project, and try out lots of different blocks. I'm also trying to improve my accuracy, motivated by the impressive craftsmanship of my swap partners, Luisa and Lisa.
2) Finally tackle the Grandmother's Fan quilt (but first i have to figure out how to go about it).
3) Develop more consistent work habits, e.g. take hand sewing with me when travelling; prepare piles of piecing to do when i've only got a few minutes between other things.
4) Organize my workspace and keep it organized (more or less)!
5) Live more consciously, keeping priorities straight, focussing on what a gift life is.

Wishing you all whatever you hope for in 2008!

Progress on the Star Sampler Swap...

Duck Paddle

Kaleidoscope

Peaceful Hours

Both Lisa and Luisa's blocks arrived in the mail recently. The three above are from Lisa (love the names!) from Marsha McClosky's Block Party. Luisa posted hers on her blog. As you can see, her ochre and rust added much needed warmth to the overall color scheme. These swap blocks are so inspiring, both in workmanship and design. I think the cross-fertilization of ideas and visions is going to make for a much more interesting quilt than I could ever have made on my own. I want to make a double quilt, and perhaps a lap quilt out of extra blocks that i've been making along the way. Haven't decided yet on a setting, but thinking of using a very simple alternate block mainly in indigo, to sort of frame the stars.

A bit premature, I know, but I felt like posting something Christmasy.

You know those funny names that blocks have? I've always been intrigued by the one called "Hobson's Kiss". It raises so many questions. One can't help wondering who this Hobson was and, if he was such a great kisser, why the quilter wasn't on a first name basis with him? Or was this a legendary kiss someone of her acquaintance had experienced? And if so, what did the block design have to do with the kiss? I made five of these today, just because of the mysterious name.

Still working on the indigo and white sampler blocks, but hesitate to post pics, as I want them to be a surprise for the swap recipients. We finally decided to make them all 9" for this swap, which means i've got about 25 10" orphan blocks(!). If anyone happens to be interested in doing a 10" indigo/ white swap, I'm ready! (You can see some examples of the blocks i've already made below.)

We've also decided to include more warm colors, like cinnabar and ochre to warm up the overall color scheme slightly. I've been laying mine out on an indigo background, thinking i'll alternate these blocks with plain indigo, to make things less busy. I like this layout better than just sashing, as the blocks are so different.

Hi, there,

Sorry not to post in a while. I've been rather caught up in other tasks and hesitate to start sewing as i know how obsessive i can be about it and there isn't time at the moment...

The first deadline for the Indigo/ White stars swap is looming, though, plus my friend Nancy and I are working on a quilt for her son, and I'd like to get going on some blocks for that. So far, my contributions have been limited to raiding my stash. It's another Hidden Spools, but this one won't be so "higgeldy piggeldy" (as Nancy puts it). We're trying to make it more orderly, which is a bit of a challenge for me, as it will be harder to make large amounts of color go with other large amounts. I find scrappy quilts easier when everything's mixed together in small bits. Her son just started studying Physics at university and we're thinking he would appreciate orderliness and discernible patterns.

Below is a higgeldy piggeldy version of Hidden Spools. We're going to make Benny's so that all of the squares match within themselves, rather than simply alternating light and dark, as I did here.