small hands

Well, one good thing about going back to work is having the opportunity to buy stuff at lunchtime. I bought a new digital camera. The irony is that I wanted to use the same memory card as my old one, but the cameras that fit my old memory card start at $899. Um...no.

So I bought a new camera and a new memory card, which has double the storage capacity as the old card, but only cost $15.



I made these ornaments on Sunday night. I printed pictures from this year on fabric and then handstitched them onto felt. I love that I captured my baby when he had no front teeth, which was such a brief period of time.

My sweet girl took a field trip this year to Fort Ross, a nineteenth century Russian settlement in Northern California, and dressed in costume. She looks very Christmas-y.

When I bought Creative Embroidery by Joan Nicholson this summer, I thought that some of her drawings/designs would make excellent Christmas ornaments.

Like this one on page 116:






The linen was about $2 a yard, the cardboard backing was from a used up note pad, there is felt in the back. I used DMC 498 floss, leftover from my law school days.

Hi Brenda. I'm glad you were able to comment. :0)

You asked: When you do machine quilting, do you work free-motion? Do you use a darning foot or a walking foot?

I use free motion for some projects, like this one:



Otherwise, I use a walking foot. I used to think a regular foot was just as good, but I now respect that a walking foot is a better quilting tool.

Thanksgiving was really good; time with my children and my family and excellent food. Friday I spent the whole day in my pajamas, sewing and reading and puttering about.

I could get used to this being at home business.

Note to self: buy Lotto ticket.

I went out to breakfast this morning at Mama's Royal, my favorite diner. Scrambled eggs and home fries, fruit cup with pomegranate seeds sprinkled across the top. *Sigh* Very good coffee and repeated refills. Outstanding waitress and the latest issue of Metropolitan Home. *Sigh*



Lovely house p0rn inspired me to go home and declutter, fueled by a caffeine rush. I confess I am ambivalent about those big plastic storage bins: they enable me to keep my stuff in groups and neatly put away, but they enable me to hold onto stuff.

Danny Seo suggests replacing bins with bushel baskets, but I can't see storing the Halloween decorations in these. Or my fabric, for that matter. It is a good idea; I'll save it for a rainy day.



I love the way the color of the leather matches the wood stain. Brilliant.



This afternoon calls for more dusting, more scrubbing, and some quilting. I'm a sucker for a blue and white quilt.

The weekend started on Friday. My daughter had planned that we would take her friend to see this movie weeks ago, so I picked them and my son up as soon as school let out so we could go see it. We were early, so after I bought the tickets we went strolling through the shopping area.

We all enjoyed the movie, though the pacing/editing was a bit off. It could have been shorter, but it was not as wretched as most kid movies and we got to see a Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix preview. Reminder to self: get my son his own popcorn, because he’s not big on sharing it.

After the movie, I took the kids (and the friend) to their dad’s house, because they had a play to go to. I got to go home and have some quiet time, during which I started to clean off my desk and iron and cut a few pieces of fabric. I wasn’t hungry for dinner, because for lunch I had a salmon teriyaki bento box that was so good it brought tears to my eyes. I always feel that I am taking the best care of myself possible when I eat Japanese food and I eat it very slowly.

Saturday my kids came home very early, before I was even awake. I heard the doorbell in my dreams. For lunch we went to the Emeryville Public Market and had Indian food–tandoori chicken, chicken masala, saffron rice, salad and naan. It was terrific; such a treat. Because my kids can be a teensy bit elitist about food, I told them that the Indian food we were eating was "fast food", which made them gasp in disbelief. I explained that we ordered it and got it right away; thus, it's fast food.

Then we had to pick up crickets for the gecko. Back at home, I cut the lawn and swept the sidewalk–my son helped me with the sweeping–while waiting for my daughter to get ready to go another friend’s house. She went to a gymnastics meet, my son and I hung out at home. [He and I had a lot of time together this weekend, which was fun.] I had an odd lower back ache, prompting me to take Motrin and to ask him to get off my lap.

Sunday we went to Cole Street Coffee to get some new beans (and a free cup of coffee) and then to the grocery store. My boy held the list and checked off the items as we got them. He kept saying “Hey, that’s not on the list.” Back home, we tackled a lot of laundry. My son enjoyed it, folding and putting it away and demanded more when we finally got to the end of it. My son had read the word Kenya on one of the coffee bean jars at the store, so while my daughter worked on her homework, I decided to show him The Constant Gardener. I fast forwarded through the love scene, but otherwise he watched the whole thing and loved it. I had to explain the drug company conspiracy in terms of why it’s bad to conduct drug tests on desperate, vulnerable people, which he understood. He asked to watch it a second time and expressed repeatedly how he can’t wait to go to Kenya.

Since he wanted to help me with the housework, I had him slice lemons and wash the Italian parsley and then season the chicken before we put it in the oven to roast for Sunday dinner. [I handled the chicken, he didn’t touch it.] We had an early dinner of roast chicken, penne with cheese, green beans and yams.

This morning, I proofread my daughter’s report. It was based on an interview with a person who had emigrated to the United States, and she chose my stepfather’s father. He emigrated from Osaka, Japan in the 1930s. I was deeply moved by her report of his life, how hard he worked, how traumatic it was for the family to be sent to an internment camp during World War II.

I only have to work one day this week. I think I can handle that.

I settled a case on Tuesday that was taking up a lot of my time. Wednesday I was able to go to Target and pick up some things, like laundry detergent, socks and underwear for the kids, and a robe for my son. It’s been months since I’ve had the time and the mental space to engage in such a task.

When I picked my kids up, my daughter asked me about the case, because it’s been standing in the way of a lot of activities–like taking her to the movies and going on field trips. It would have stood in the way of my enjoyment of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year. She rejoiced to hear that it settled.

We went home and I cooked dinner. After dinner, I cut out some cards for a learning game for my son and he took a bath. Then he dressed himself in his thermal pajamas, his slippers, and his new robe, with his teddy bear in one of the pockets. He looked so pleased with his ensemble that it made me happy. We played the learning game and then settled down for story time.

While I was in the mediation trying to settle the case, there were several occasions when I felt...miserable and wanted my son very badly. Just to look at him and kiss his nose. I wasn’t able to go home to him and in fact had to go to a board meeting until 10PM the same night, though I was completely exhausted.

Stress is an interesting thing, cunning and circular. It kills my appetite and makes me crave caffeine in the form of mid-day coffee or Big Gulps of Diet Coke. Which keeps me from sleeping.

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to time off.

I want this room. The rug is the icing on the cake, because I love the whole thing.

I watched Reds this weekend; gracias Netflix. I had been waiting for it to come out on DVD. It's pretty terrific and the cinematography is out of this world.

Lest you think I'm highbrow, though, I also couldn't pull myself away from this. See, I interview people for a living, but there's no way in hell I go down the road of inquiry she does; mostly. Plus, I would never piss off Method Man. And I love that she loves candy, the junky Halloween candy, as much as I do.

Inspiration Thursday



According to the December 2006 issue of House and Garden, courduroy is cool and chic. How genius is this corduroy couch with the Arts and Crafts inspired embroidery? The King Charles Spaniel is pretty cute too.

Oh! The election results make me happy.

Since my digitial camera is taking junk photographs, I will post a picture of one of my favorite things: Miyazaki animation.

Yesterday evening was very satisfying. In the morning, my girl wanted to lecture me on why it was critical to clean the gecko's cage in the evening. I didn't need an explanation, so I cut her off to spare myself the gorey details.

My friend J. wanted Japanese food for lunch and to share with me some important work gossip. So we ate Japanese food--chicken katsu, salmon teriyaki, rice, soup and salad for me--and gasped and laughed at the news. After lunch, I went to the pet store and got moss and cypress shavings for the tank. I thought we had enough supplies at home, but I didn't want to get stuck without what we needed which would prevent me from keeping my word to my girl.

In the evening, after the sun had set, I picked the kids up and we went home with job one being cleaning the gecko tank. It was dark in the back yard, but I set up a lamp and got to work. I cleaned and cleaned and put in the new shavings and moss and washed my hands a hundred times afterward. My girl was satisfied and pleased.

I started dinner late, but it came together in about 30 minutes. While I cooked, I finished pinning the Bear Paw Quilt, then moved it aside on the dining room table to work on my son's homework. Luckily, it was math homework, which he really enjoys, though he tried to mess around a bit.

Dinner completed it was on to saxophone practice for my girl, her homework and story time with my guy. I read and I read from this book--hey, it's not literature but he likes it--until he fell asleep.

In the morning I heard him crying and raced upstairs to see what was wrong. He was angry that I had gotten out of bed before he woke up and doesn't care that I get stuff done in the morning.

This morning, I went to my son's classroom to help out. I had so much fun, but I was focused on him so much initially that I honestly didn't hear the teacher's instructions. I hovered over my guy and saw how well he behaves and pays attention. I also noticed, while he was sitting on the rug with the others, that I did a pretty good job at cutting his hair while he slept; I'm getting better at it. I finally was able to divert my attention to the other kids, who are actually quite delightful (mostly).

I remembered when I was pregnant with him, how protective I was of him even then. I know how easy it is for my African American boy to be marginalized and I work like a demon to prevent that from happening. I am especially vigilant at my guy's school and I am so glad that I can stop racing long enough to spend time with him. I ran into the Admissions Director on my way out and she asked what I was doing there. I told her I had been volunteering and hovering and that I was headed to the salt mines.

Yesterday I read a statement in another blog which othered an African American woman in a way that I thought was uncharacteristic of the blog writer, but which was instantly recognizable and disquieting to me.

Thank you for the kind words on my quilts. And thank you for the referral to the Feathered Goose quilt. Wow. I would love to make one of those, though I would like to figure out how to make paper piecing less wasteful.

I really want a fireplace and I don't have one now. I could have one like this, but they're a bit expensive to install.

This morning went well. I got my kids to school early, about which I am very proud. My boy woke up in a good mood. I watched him sleeping and thought how much he looked like a baby and how he will not look like this much longer. *Sigh* He's my big boy and every day he's maturing. He makes me laugh because when he's being sarcastic he will affect a Valley Girl/Surfer Dude accent and it sounds hilarious. The irony is that someone who is not from California might think that he actually speaks that way all the time.

My girl went to the San Francisco Opera yesterday for a matinee and came home deeply impressed. She asked if I had ever been to the opera before. It's funny to me how unformed my children think I was before they started walking upon this planet. I assured her that I had been, several times, and that we could go in the future.



I am in the process of pinning this quilt top to the batting and backing. My son wants it on his bed, where I am sure it will experience very little wear and tear.

Well if I wasn't sure I wanted to buy another digital camera until now, trying to photograph my Dolley Madison Star quilt has convinced me. I think I had the old school perception that you buy a new camera when your old camera stops taking pictures. With these new fangled digital cameras, I guess you get a new one when the old one starts taking awful photographs. And awful is defined as visually garbled.

Anyway, I finished it. And I am pleased with it. I had always planned to give it to my parents for their cabin and I think it's the appropriate quilt to give. The fabric became even more faded in the final wash; final meaning the wash to take away the quilt lines and the chocolate milk stains my sweet girl had accidentally made on it. The fading made me think of the phase Instant Vintage, the good part being that the white fabric is still fresh and new and the quilt has many, many years of use in it.





With the completion of this quilt, I now crave color; rich, staturated color.

I took these pictures in the dining room because it's wet outside. We have been having some rain, which is terrific. I need to clean up my yard, rake and sweep up and put things away for the autumn/winter months.

I am so glad Halloween is completed.