Resolutions

I truly used to hate New Year's resolutions. It seemed so lame to start the New Year with new goals each year. It seemed like I was always trying to quit bad habits and lose wieght. It usually took about 48 hours for me to break them all and give up on them by the end of January. Now that I am a lot older I find New Year resolutions a good way to make simple promises to myself. Here is what I think I will be able to do this year:

1. Eat Less, Move More - stop buying snacks so much and walk the BIG block with the dogs at least once a week. When its very cold or very hot here our walks can be quite short but one big walk a week should work well for us My ultimae goal is to do this more than once a week but let's see how I dowith once a week for a while.
2. Finish UFOs - okay, this was on the list for this year with a goal of one a month. I found myself catching up every few months or so this year no numbers. The definition is being refined to included projects where I have all the bits and not started on them as well things I have started and not finished. As I sit here I see at least three projects that fit into the new definition so I think I will not be at a loss for old projects to complete.
3. Make a weekly collage - My concept is that every week I will sit down and play with all the stuff that comes into the house on a weekly basis. Add to that the little bits of stuff that I generate plus all the little bits of stuff that are collecting in the corners and I should have enough materials to last a long time. I have a bunch of 6" x 6" primed canvasses that would work great for a weekly little project. I could practice new techniques on a small scale and maybe get the creative juices running again. The real bonus to all of this is that I will keep track of my sales taxes for the tax man on the back of the canvasses so I will not have to spend a couple of days running the ten key to add them all up at the end of the year. So, a little creative but way practical for me as well. Definitely speaks to my acocuntants soul and my wanna be artistic self!

So that's it - three simple resolutions. None seem particularly onerous and all are pretty open as to what it would take to keep them. I'll see how it goes and I am actually looking forward to the third one as I think it will help give me a boost.

Are you making any resolutions for 2009?

PS - The big doggie quilt from a couple of posts ago will be going to the Vet that looks after Alex and the girls. She is a great Vet and did not charge me for some fo the many check-ups he had while he was recovering from t he dog attack in the Spring. She is very pregnant and I think this quilt will work well for late night feedings and is varied enough in its fabrics to hide any little stains the new one baby may generate. It's in the dryer right now so as soon as its done I will be off to the Vet to pick up more heart worm pills and drop off the quilt.

So Long 2008...

and good ridddance to you!

2008 was a crappy year in many ways for me.

Most of the year seemed to center on my Father's deteriorating health, and his eventual death in September. Since then I seem to be spending a lot of time focusing on his estate. Although I thought I was well prepared for all of the issues surrounding his care I was really just figuring it all out when he passed away. I try to forget about his weird mood swings and infantile behavior but it is hard to remember the articulate and loving Father he could be. I am also trying to forget all the unhappy stories I have heard over the last year from my brothers and others. I really do miss talking to him about the stock market or the latest proclamations from the Roman Catholic Church. Those were lively discussions and we agreed to disagree on many issues.

Financially, 2008 really ended on a down note. It's kind of scary when I hear that my retirement savings will be earning 4.5% in 2009 only because that is the lowest rate allowed in the retirement plan. When 4.5% is considered an excellent rate and money market accounts run at about 1.0% I really begin to wonder if the magic of compound interest will ever come back.

Creatively 2008 also sucked. I tried a lot of new things but I find myself going back to tried and true when I am asked to teach at an ASG group meeting. Maybe its because I have been using my stash more than in the past but I really think that I was too distracted to really spend time on learning anything new.

2008 was also a lousy year for Alex. His battering back in April has left permanent scars on his body and on his temperment. He continues to be hyper-alert when we are out for our walks. We still can't walk past where he was attacked without him tugging to go back home. Carefree wacky walks will return with more time but I'm getting a little tired of the power walks home.

There were some high points but they seem hard to quantify right now. One thing about being a gloomy gus is that I have started to work on my 2009 New Year Resolutions. 2008's were, generally, to eat less, move more and complete UFO's. I did complete about 15 UFOs (including the Doggie Quuilt from last time) and I am still lighter than this time last year but I think I need to work on other things next year.

Until I figure it out, have a great end of year celebration. The pack and I will be celebrating with some BIG doggie cookies and a lovely bottle of wine.

Two for the Price of One

Last year some time I was at Quilts by the Bay and saw some cute fabirc designed by Loralie Harris. You know her stuff ... cute line drawings of women , a little naughty, a little nice. Well the Doggie Delight fabric is just as cute and it had been put into a kit called 'How Much is That Doggie in the Window?'. It was darling and had these incredibly neat paw print blocks to outline the central panel of fabric. I took it out the other day, intending to make it into a wndow shade for a window that the dogs like to sit in and bark at everyone. My hopes were dashed when I realised that the panel would not make a great window shade and that the paw print blocks required a zillion bitty pieces of fabric to complete.

On to Plan B. I added a few borders and added a bunch of 3" inch blocks as the exterior borders. Here's what I came up with using the fabric in the kit:

It came out to about 54" x 71".... a good size for a twin size bed of some dog lover OR a great size for my three to lie under during this cold weather. I haven't bound the edges yet but I intend to do them all by machine... double stitching wherever I can in case the crew decides to chew on the edges... they seem to do that a lot with my quilts.

While I was sorting the scraps I realised I had a lot of strips about 22" long and various widths. Instead of putting them into the scrap bin I sewed them together, added some black fabric and ended up with this Chinese Coins design quilt top.

Its about 40" by 54" and I don't know what I will do with it. Heck, you can never have too many quilts when it gets close to freezing here! And, does anyone know why this design is called Chinese Coins? It certainly doesn't look like any coins I have ever seen.

So that's one project almost completed and another I need to finish up. The larger one I will probably finish tomorrow. The smaller one will probably need to wait until I can find a black batt before it can be quilted. Even though I am hibernating like a bear these days, its nice to know I can get something done.

I hope your Christmas went well and that the coming New Year brings lots of good things to you and yours.

Fabric Sorting

A local group that works with young women had gathered fabric to teach the women to sew. They have abandoned thier sewing program and were about about to throw out three huge boxes of fabric. The incredible Ms. L. was visiting them, saw the fabric and decided that I would be the best person to sort through it and find fabrics for the Once Upon a Time Bee of the local quilt guild.

I took me about two hours to burn test each piece and divide the results into five piles. The piles I sorted things into were quilting cotton, polyester, polyester blend, knit (for cancer caps), felt (for kid crafts) and miscelleaneous real fabric (wool, deco cottons, linen etc.). The largest pile was for the polyester, the next was for the knits, then the blends, the miscellaneous, the felt and the quilting cotton.

Yup - the quilting cotton was the smallest pile and consisted of just one piece of fabric.

There were two funny finds in all this fabric. One was a huge piece of fake brown sheep skin. It's huge so I am hoping to find someone who makes stuffed anmals to take it off my hands. The other odd find was a very scrappy, twin-sized quilt top. It is machine pieced and seems to include about 100 different fabrics. It had been washed in the past and is falling apart in some places but that does not take away from the excellent workmanship of the many complex seams.

Here's what it looks like:

Can you believe that red plaid?

I don't know what to do with it. Right now I have it gently soaking in a mild soap to remove some funky smells. I think I will repair the blocks but then I am at loss as to what to do with it. I know people collect these little wonders but I am not sure if anyone would want one in this condition. Is it worth money? Should the proceeds go to the Bee for more fabirc purchases or back to the for-profit group that threw it out in the first place?

Is there a gem like this hidden in all those 60's polyesters you inherited from a relative? Have you looked?

I'll let you know what happens to it.

The Best Darn Glue

The other day when I was in Texas Art Supply I was looking for a great glue to repair a paper fan that had ripped. Yes, I have lots of glue in the house but I think what I had would have changed the look of the paper. I did not want it to wrinkle the paper, make it shiny or add any lumps. I saw Nori glue and thought to give it a try. What a revelation! It dried invisibly and did not change the look of the fan at all. Of course it could not replace the paper that had come off but it did a nice job.

Here are the results:

The other thing that is great about this glue is that Alex decided that it would be a great toy. Even though his jaws were completely locked on the bottle it did not break. That is a great bottle of glue.

The fan, you ask? It was part of a grab bag exchange at one of the sewing guild parties I went to in th last couple of weeks. It was created by the incredible Carol Watson and came with a dozen Japanese head wraps. The ones I received are about 14" wide and 36" long, white cotton with script or figures printed on them. I still don't know if I will just make them into tea towels or use them in some project. The possibilities are endless!

Growth Sector

I saw in the New York Times today that handmade gifts/crafts are a growth sector in the economy these days. I guess that means my recent stash additions have really been helping! Check out the article here for more information.

Quick gift Idea

Kumihimo is a Japanese style of braiding. In general you take a circle or rectangle of some rigid material, with a hole in the middle and weave thread through the middle to make a cord. For about $100.00 you get a fancy set-up and create beautiful braids. OR for about $4.00 you can buy a kit for kids and get a similar result. I took the cheap way out when I saw the kits at Texas Art Supply the other day. In about an hour and a half I produced this:

I did make an error at some point so my yellow diamonds became a little wonky but misson accomplished. I now understand, at least a little, why this is such a mezmerising activity. I also think this is a great kit for a gift that can be used for many months by a young crafter. Now that I have the basic technique down I know I am going to try other colors in this pattern and other weaving patterns. Maybe use more strings, different kinds of string, different weaves .. the possibilities seem endless.

UFO #14

As part of my effort to end the year with a burst of finishing I finally finished up the quilt originally talked about in my 'Tale of Two Quilt Kits' posting just over a month ago. Then I was loving the cheater cloth quilt and hating the Infinity Blocks quilt. I decided last night that I just had to get the Infinity Blocks quilt off the floor and into a finished quilt.

Here's how it came out:

Weirdly enough I am now almost in love with the Inifity Blocks quilt. It's very lightly quilted and I pretty successfully machine sewed on the binding without any hand work. It came out to about 60" x 60" ... agood size for three puppies to suggIe up with their favroite human. must admit though that what really makes me smile with this project is the back of the quilt. I originally planned on just using plain muslin for the back but ended up using a lot of dribs and drabs of sample dyes to produce this:

This has even been through the washing machine and dryer and the gold dye/paint stayed put. I did the dying with the fabric hanging off the metal gazebo in the back yard on one of those windy, sunny days we have a Texas. I guess the sun really can set al kinds of dyes without all that heat setting by an iron.

This project took about four hours to get done. How do I know? I watched two very different movies while quilting it and doing the binding. I watched 27 Dresses for the first half and Rendition for the second half. 27 Dresses is definitely good for this kind of work and is a nice light romantic comedy. Rendition is just too scary and I had to pause my work several times to replay key scenes. Rendition also plays with your sense of time with past and present intertwined seamlessly until near the end when the whole thing straightens out. I had to replay the last half hour before I got it all straight.

Have a great week!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Today I had the distinct pleasure of delivering a wole trunk load of kid suitable craft supplies to Sew Crafty Houston so that the Mothers and Daughters Craft Club could create craft kits for the Star of Hope Mission. Sarah, the owner, thinks the stuff I brought doubled what they had already collected. The kits are being made up on Monday and I am sure the kits will be much used by the kids.

The neatest part about all this is that this project was dreamed up by the kids in the club. They wanted to do something for the homeless kids and, since they are way too young to volunteer their services (aged 6 - 8 years old) the kits were what they decided to do.

What a great idea! I am scheming with some folk out here in Kingwood to provide a similar service to the kids at the battered women's shelter or to other organizations helping displaced families locally. If we can properly assess the need I hope we can make this a regular project. My concept is to take orphan quilt blocks and/or other stash fabrics and make tote bags for the kids, fill them up with craft supplies and a quilt. I think most kids would enjoy having such stuff during a dificult time.

I'll let you know if this all works out. Wish me luck!

And for those of my friends up North... so sorry about the snow but you can be a little grateful that its a weekend so you can fully enjoy it!

Doggie Cam

As I mentioned yesterday a friend got me a Pet Cam for Christmas and I just had to try it out immeadiately. Here is what Alex saw today:

A pile of fabric scraps:

Ginger out the bathroom window:

More ginger outside the bathroom window:

Ceiling watching:

Most of the pictures were of the wall of the bathtub while he was sleeping while I was out.

So this is Alex's exciting life - staring at things we never pause to see. I think I should tidy up my quilt scraps before I let hm have it again.

Have a good weekend!