small hands

Monkey mind big time. I’m not supposed to feed it, but right now it’s munching on a nice fruit salad and regaling me with how much fun we had together this weekend. Monkey mind is like having the radio on scan and it goes from one radio station with stupid chatter to another radio station playing a song that you hate to another and another.

My girl asked me this morning if I liked Halloween. I explained to her that as an adult with children, it’s about making sure that they have a good time. What I didn’t tell her is that it’s a ton of work for me. She’s an artist and very detail oriented. So we have to have more discussions that I would choose to about the details of her costume, how she is going to maximize celebrating Halloween.

I did tell her that I resent, as the parent of young children (one of whom got scared watching E.T.), all the scary movies/media/television shows that they start broadcasting weeks before Halloween. There is so much build up that it will be a relief when Halloween is over.

Not that I’m a curmudgeon. It’s just that there is too much going on for me to process everything. I have to catch up on the school flyers on the weekend before I can throw handfuls of them into the recycling bin.

My son was christened on Saturday at the Newman Center. It was beautiful, in a really low key way. My younger brother and sister are his godparents. He has been looking forward to it and was very nervous and clingy on the morning of the christening. I promised him I would be there holding his hand every step of the way. He stood in front of the church in khaki pants, a white shirt and his first tie (clip on), and got water poured on his head. Afterward he was whisked off to Marine World for Halloween festivities with his sister and cousins.

I went grocery shopping and then home for lunch and a long shower. I was experimenting with piecing another quilt and I was dissatisfied with the results. Monkey mind. I put it to the side to give it and me some perspective.

I cooked dinner for FIRE and we had a nice evening together.

On Sunday I quilted a project that has been languishing for a long time and had a terrible time with it. I vowed that I would never, ever use high loft batting again, because it bunched up and was a disaster. The thread kept breaking, the needles broke, I was not admiring the fabric (planning on folding it up and putting it in the closet), I knew I was going to have to re-cut and re-sew part of it. Then I took it out of the machine and turned it around and saw that the backing fabric was a complete mess. Unfixable.

So now I am most likely going to cut it up to salvage some of the white fabric and throw the rest away. Which is, on one level, appalling to me because I put so much work into it (with some beautiful free motion stitching) and it’s a waste of time and resources. On the other hand, because I’ve made other quilts, I know it’s messed up, I know I can make other quilts, I know struggling with this one that I don’t love is keeping me from working on other quilts.

I ironed some 90 inch wide white fabric and laid out and pinned together the three layers of the Blue Birdcages quilt. The fabric was so inviting, the top looks so pretty to me, that I immediately felt a surge of enthusiasm for quilting and finishing it.

I'm on another fabric buying hiaitus--60 days this time. That means that some of my quilts are repetitive because I'm using the same fabric. On the other hand, I have tons of fabric and I could make quilts from fabric I haven't used before. The fabric buying mentality is nuts.

My son had a very specific christening gift in mind and asked for it as soon as he crossed the threshold on Sunday evening. It was waiting for him and he played with it all evening. The time change meant that he fell asleep on the couch at 8:30PM and I carried him to his bed. Yay time change.

I took a bath and then went to bed and started Amy Tan’s new book Saving Fish From Drowning. I like it so far.

Plan to silence monkey mind:

More gardening.
Less media
Fewer errands
More organization
More cooking/baking
More finishing projects

Back when she was in kindergarten, this girl here



drew the above picture of me. I adore this picture. I scanned and printed it onto a piece of fabric and made this mixed media apron.



The gekko is a patch I got on sale at the fabric store that I was going to use for a different project and didn't, so it's part of the mixed media.

So Jessica, my BTII goddess, sent me this bag filled with goodies:







And getting it was better than any grownup Christmas I can remember because:

A. It's perfect for me and what I like;
B. It's handmade with love and great care and skill(!!);
C. It's incredibly beautiful;
D. I can learn from it (rug hooking--yay!) and expand my horizons.

Did you see the pin cushion? Look at the pin cushion.

So I've been walking around all emotionally delicate since I got it, because it's like having a secret friend who gets you and it's like a long afternoon sewing/rug hooking/knitting and felting with someone completely cool. It's the coziest/nesty-est feeling in the world.

On top of all that, I've always been kinda neutral about Ginger Bliss fabric (ubiquitous, pricey) until now that I've actually experienced it. The fabric is so amazing and so luscious, color and texture wise.

And a notebook and a matching pen? Speechless lawyer, film at 11:00.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

My brain, she ain't firing on all cylinders, so forgive the disjointed post.

This weekend was crammed with activity.

Saturday morning I made this tea cozy to go with my new tea pot. So I am officially an old lady. I am pleased that I was able to use fabric and quilt batting scraps and a little bit of Moda Wuthering Heights fabric (second patch from the left).

The kids burst on the scene, returning home with a bang. I had been quiet and contemplative all morning and then they came home noisy and demanding. It was quite a change.

Per her request, I made my daughter a bacon and fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Then I got showered and dressed and we went to the hardware store for wooden clothespins, Sweet Dreams for a gift certificate, Papyrus for a birthday card, and then the Spirit store for Halloween costumes. Then we went to the Post Office, Yogurt Park, the fabric store for interfacing, and then back home.

I finished a knitting bag for a lovely woman and started a second one.

On Sunday, we picked up my daughter from a sleepover, went to Mass, went grocery shopping, got my son new shoes, went home and had lunch, then went to the movies to see Wallace and Gromit, then came home and played baseball. I fell down stepping into a hole in the lawn and hurt my knee, which ached all night. I'm totally an old lady.

After baseball, my son and I ate chips and salsa, he sitting on my lap, and watched some of the World Series. He was velcro boy all weekend, but in the loveliest way possible. I barbecued chicken per my son's suggestion (which turned out very well) and roasted potatoes and zucchini in olive oil and rosemary for myself (no chance they would eat it). We also had macaroni and cheese and corn and carrots. We had a good Sunday dinner at the dining room table; good manners, good appetites, good conversation. And a big bouquet of mostly Heritage roses, which are very fragrant.





I got my Back-Tack II bag on Saturday morning and it is so incredible it deserves its own entry. I felt so touched, so awed by it. I also had to put it on a high shelf to keep it from my girl. Tomorrow I will post pictures. I am so grateful to Jessica.

Yesterday I went to Target and experienced the Thomas O'Brien products.

The bedding is wonderful. I didn't buy any of it because I couldn't bring myself to spend what they were asking for such muted products. But they're very masculine and handsome. In addition, my linen closet is exploding already. (100 year old house = inadequate closet space)

The dishes are great and I bought mugs, cereal bowls and a tea pot. Now I can make a tea cozy. My girl is rapturous about the tea pot.



The lamps are not good; obviously cheap and the lamp shades are shoddy and too small.



* * *



I got this book from the library. It's very interesting. It is a compilation of excerpts of people's notebooks; artists, mathmeticians, writers.

What I don't understand is how someone who is writing in a notebook can makes such exquisite drawings. I guess I expected them to be doodles and if they are, have mercy.





The reason I checked the book out was because Denyse Schmidt contributed to it.









I like that she is inspired by Nancy Crow. I like how far from her sketches the finished product of her quilts is because it shows where they start from. I like that she's taped meaningful fortunes from cookies into the notebook and music lyrics and musings about life.

I keep a quilting notebook. I have a paper journal. I have a blog. I think a blog can be a terrific amalgamation of visuals, daily life, ideas/aspirations.



I think of a notebook as a place where you can corral your inspirations and encourage yourself.

Thank you for the compliments on my Blue Coin Quilt.

coolbeans asks: Was all the quilting rewarding when it was finished or did you exhale and swear, "Never again."?

It was very rewarding. It makes me want to take a 3 month paid sabbatical from work and just stay home and quilt. It gave me a burst of quilting energy, although I am a bit tired after this project.

It reminds me of Neil Young's interview, where he says that every time he plays guitar he is trying to go deeper. I feel like that with my quilting.

And Jan is exactly right: finished is better than perfect. Way better.

I learned during this project that a good tool for marking the quilting lines is the marking pencil. It's cheaper than the pen (less than $2) and more reliable. It's important to have a pencil sharpener to keep the point fine and the "lead" recently shaved and moist so that it marks better.

I made some notes on the fabric I used, which you can read here.

Kath, here are the patterns for the bag and the hat:

Hat



Bag

Finished!

Piecing completed on July 9, 2005.





In progress:



Quilting completed on October 16, 2005:

ISBN 4-277-43055-4

I received a new book this weekend.







Friday we got home comparatively early, but had to go out again to get a Hot Wheels toy. It was not at the big toy store, so we had to go Rockridge Long's Drugs--the source of all things--where we found precisely what we needed. I also got some cheese to make pasta for dinner. I felt very tired, very disorganized, driving around with children who couldn't decide or agree on what they wanted for dinner, which I couldn't muster enough energy to decide myself.

But when we sat down at the dinner table, after the children had entertained themselves upstairs and out of my way with the Hot Wheels toy, we all ate well and happily, my son eating enormously and making extraordinary conversation and thanking me for dinner afterward.

Saturday my girl asked for biscuits for breakfast, so we got up early and made cinnamon biscuits from this cookbook. They turned out very well. Unfortunately I had rubbish coffee to drink with them.

Later I was on Solano Avenue and bought a half pound of Fair Trade coffee from Peets. Right now I'm most keen on Double Dark roast Mexican coffee from Trader Joe's.

In the early evening, I went to the Mill Valley Film festival (in San Rafael) with my friend J. We saw a documentary about Girl Scout Troop 1500. It was profound, especially showing the bond between mothers and daughters and how critical it is for the daughters to feel that they can count on their mothers.

I remember having a conversation with a friend who is also a mother about how important it is to keep your word to your children. We remember how let down we were when our parents didn't keep their word. I try very hard to keep my word to my children, or to resist promising them something I can't deliver.

After the movies I went home and had a sleepover with my boyfriend.

Sunday I spent most of the day, after Mass and grocery shopping, finishing the Blue Coin Quilt. I explained to my girl that I had been reading looking at the pictures in Japanese quilting magazines and gotten all inspired to quilt a lot on this project. Somewhere in the middle of executing this decision I regretted it, but I was in the middle of it. There were also moments when I loved moving the fabric through the machine, grabbing a part of the quilt to move it around and feeling how stitched it was, seeing what the thread was changing/managing the fabric.

Oh the thread. It probably took 2000 yards of white thread.

I stayed up until past 11PM last night stitching on the binding. My boy was in my bed watching a movie and fell asleep. I moved him into his bed because he's been trying to sleep in mine more often (I think it's all the Halloween images) and I don't find it restful. I love looking at his sleeping face, but I also need my rest.

I will post pictures of the quilt later today or tomorrow. The kids and I have a babysitting date with three lovely young girls this evening.

Whew what a week!! And not in a good way. Thursday morning was a disaster, but the truth is that I've been out of sorts for a while now. Work needs to ease up. Racing around needs to ease up. I need to be able to catch my breath.

I volunteered in my son’s class this morning. I told him that I was going to be there yesterday and he surprised me by getting very excited about the prospect.

This morning we went in and I helped at a learning station, did some filing, hung up some of their projects and observed the class. My boy is quiet but paying attention and not disruptive. He gave me a bunch of hugs before I left, which also surprised me, since he usually doesn’t want me to be affectionate at school. It makes me realize how important it is to my kids that I participate at their school.

My parents anniversary party was magical. The food was exquisite. It was all good friends and family from all over the country. The room where it was held–the Lake Merritt Boat House–was beautifully decorated . My kids behaved well after my son had a melt down at home and didn’t want to go. I dealt with his sobbing and irrationality by giving him a hot dog and getting us all in the car. He ate and calmed down and had a great evening. [I don’t address my children’s emotional upset with food most of the time, but my son occasionally needs to eat some protein to help him get a grip.]

Sunday we went to my friend D.’s house in Petaluma and hung out and caught up. Later we went to the park to play frisbee and then Cold Stone Creamery. The kids had never been before and acted like it was the most amazing place they’d ever been. And this is after going to Fentons all summer. I think it was just that they had exercised in the heat and dust. We all ate kid sized portions, which was enough.

When we got home we were pretty tired from the 120 mile round trip, but I caught my second wind and made jambalaya for Sunday dinner. It turned out well and it made the house smell very good.

Monday we didn’t go anywhere. I finally had the chance to read the Saturday and Sunday papers. My son wanted to know what was in the news, so we discussed the front page stories, especially the earthquake in Kashmir. We played baseball, worked in the yard–autumn clean up and fertilizing--and made a pear cake from a recipe in Country Home magazine. The cake is delicious, about which I am relieved because while it was not hard to make, it had three stages of preparation. There was a bottom, crumb layer (like a cheesecake or lemon bars), the middle layer of cake, and then a topping made out of sugar and egg whites whipped into soft peaks. My boy helped me. He concentrates very well when he’s cooking, though he likes to mess around a little.

My girl sewed and the kids built a fort in the tv room out of sheets, blankets and pillows. They slept in it last night, although it wasn’t as restful as they thought it would be.

Hi Colleen. Thank you for your question. I use either 45" or 90" wide white fabric from the fabric store. The 90" wide is intended for use for quilts, but I don't get the sense that it is finer than any other fabric.

When you go to the fabric store, you are faced with 5-15 choices of white fabric at a range of prices. I don't go for the fabulous $12.99 a yard white cotton or for the practically translucent $.99 a yard fabric. I go for something in between. Because I don't consistently buy one kind of white fabric, I have lots of different kinds of white fabric. One may be brighter than another, less creamy more chalky white. In the Pink Coin Quilt that I made, the binding was brighter white than the rest of the quilt. I figure after it is used and washed for a few years it will even out and not be so noticable to me. My girl didn't notice it at all.



I noticed different whites in this quilt, especially as I was carrying it in the morning sunlight to the post office to mail it to the recipient.



Hancocks of Paducah has solids of varying widths--up to 118" and the price is good. I intend to buy some other solids, rather than white, for my next round of quilts. I also have no problem sewing together 45" wide lengths for the back, rather than spending a lot on a superwide piece of fabric.

The conference was great. I love San Francisco, although the crowds can be overwhelming. While I was sitting in cavernous Moscone Center West listening to municipal law updates, I read Japanese quilting books and got all inspired.

On Thursday there was a unit on medicinal marijuana. Coincidentally I got the mother of all migraines and wondered if some MM would have helped. I rode home on BART clutching my aching head.

Yesterday I got to pal around with my stepfather. We ate lunch--pasta primavera and caesar salad--and then walked through the convention part grabbing free stuff. I got four coffee mugs.

Afterward, I went home and quilted more. See!! It's not going quite as fast as I thought it would, but it's fun.

Tonight is my parents' 25th anniversary party. It should be fun. Masses of family are in town for it. It's also a three day weekend. Yay!! The weather is much cooler.

Incoherent Post Thursday:

I can't remember where I got this picture of this pillow, but I really like it.

My next quilting goal is to finally figure out applique.

I'm headed to a conference in San Francisco.

The weather is beautiful.

I'm gaining on my Blue Coin Quilt. Three more days, I think.

I took my kids to get a slice a pizza last night at one of my old college stops (we had to grab a quick dinner before a 6PM appointment) and they were so good. They liked their pizza and the experience and were just so game. I had a moment where I wished I had known them while I was in college.

Quilt Binding Tutorial for Justine



Pretend this square is a whole quilt. You see you have the three layers--top, batting, back--and they are sewn together.



Cut a strip of the fabric you will use to bind your quilt. This strip is 1-1/2 inches wide. Generally, that's a good width. You can go wider if you want a wider binding.



Iron the strip of fabric lengthwise. That will reduce the width of the fabric by half.



Machine sew your binding onto your quilt. Make sure that the two ironed together ends are facing up and get sewed down onto the quilt.



Using a straight edge and a rotary cutter, remove the excess fabric and batting, cutting very close (~1/8 inch) to the seam which attaches the binding. If you dont have a rotary cutter, use a big, sharp pair of scissors.

Iron the binding up over the seam all the way across the front of the quilt...



and then folded down all the way across the back.



Now you're ready to hand sew. Get thread that matches as closely as possible the color of the binding fabric. It's also good to use a small needle, so that you can get it between the layers of fabric and binding without going through the top of the quilt. I don't buy special needles; I buy an assortment and just use the smallest ones they have.



Start at the end and come in on a downward motion, so that you can hide the tail of your thread and the knot behind the binding.

As you can see, the needle comes out of the binding. You re-enter the quilt back just below where the thread has come out of the binding, which makes a tiny stitch. You then angle the needle to travel through the quilt back (and not the quilt top) and come out through the binding approximately 1/4 inch away from where it went in. This is called a slip stitch, but I don't like using jargon because I rarely understand it.



Repeat to the end of that side of your quilt. It doesn't take very long to attach the binding--maybe two or three hours (tops) for a big quilt. There are, on average, 3 stitches per inch, inch and a half, which is sufficient.

Here is a tutorial which shows you how she makes lovely mitred corners for her quilts. I can't figure out these directions, so I just cut off the ends of the binding, fold the ends in and join them together, and then stitch them closed as neatly as possible. I need to work on my corners.

Please let me know if this doesn't answer your questions about binding.

This Morning:

Wake up at 6:45
Say good morning to my boy who is sleeping in my bed because his bed was not “cozy enough” last night
Make coffee
Wash some glasses
Drink coffee and eat a toasted slice of sour dough batard with butter and strawberry preserves
Wake up girl
Make lunches–a barbecued chicken quesadilla for my girl
Shower and dress
Make breakfast for my girl; boy doesn’t want any
Discover folder for my son which needs to be illustrated and back to school this morning
Give boy folder and markers
Discover school picture ordering form in girl’s backpack which is due today
Brush teeth, comb hair
Try several times to get boy to put on socks and shoes
Try several times to get everyone in the car with all their stuff
Girl requests drink at the last minute; get drink and put it in a to-go cup
Drive to school, listening to boy fussing about socks and shoe strings
Send kids to class, fill out order forms for school pictures, leave in the office
Drive to work, listen to NPR, hear that W.’s choice for Supreme Court considers him “the most brilliant man she’s ever met”, recognize that the institution (SC) is going straight to hell, feel particularly distressed by the information imparted during this interview.

* * *

This weekend was good. On Saturday I took the children to the dentist for a relatively early appointment (8:45AM). Then I took them to my sister’s house and went for my therapy appointment. Then I picked my daughter up and took her to the Elmwood Theater, because one of her teachers wanted to take her to see Mad Hot Ballroom. I dropped her off and then went back home. I was feeling a bit tired, so I had some lunch and worked on my quilt and two cosmetics bags for the secretaries, but didn’t cut the front lawn. My boyfriend came to pay a call, which was really terrific and later in the evening we went out to dinner.

Sunday at Mass was the blessing of the animals and that was a blast. People brought their dogs, cats, hamsters, fish, and a rooster. The was a very yappy little Yorkie, and some intermittent barking, but otherwise it was not terribly noisy. My kids brought their hamster, Fudgie, and my daughter wanted me to bring her stuffed animal, Banjo. She had shlepped Banjo all over Europe last summer and was adamant that he get blessed, so I had to walk back to the car to get him (I had forgotten) in the middle of the homily. At the end of Mass, the kids took Fudgie and Banjo up to the altar with all the other pet owners and the congregation raised their arms toward the altar and the priest read the blessing. It was powerful and beautiful and funny.

After Mass and donuts, I went to the grocery store and got a funky vibe from the check out woman regarding my shopping bags. This is not the first time. They really roll their eyes when I ask for my bag credit. They can all kiss my grits.

I unpacked the groceries and then went to the school picnic. This year they had a Japanese chef grill these incredible meats and vegetables and made a lovely salad with a very light dressing. It was delicious. I hung out for about an hour, then, all of a sudden, I got my period and had to go home.

At home I quilted more, washed some clothes, watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, looked over a huge bag of library books. I was inspired by this book and not very inspired by this one.

* * *

Justine and Jackie I cannot tell you what a high compliment you have given me by appreciating my color sense. There are so many people whose color sense inspires and moves me:

Camilla
Weeks and Bill
Hillary
Denyse


Atomic Betty


Veerakeat Tongpaiboon

* * *

Emily, thank you for the suggestion to do free motion (and for the compliment about my girl). I did free motion for this quilt:



particularly the swirly bits, but I am not so confident about doing it for the straight lines.

* * *

Justine: I will do a little tutorial about quilt bindings, just for you! Watch this site and it should be up in a day or two.