small hands

The kids are watching a movie in the living room, the laundry is going, the heater is on. We've been to Mass, Caffe Strada, and the fabric store. Now we can hang out and wait for the new year at home.

Happy New Year everyone. Be safe and content.

Here are the rest of my Christmas-present-Japanese-craft-books:

Ma deco a Paris
ISBN 4-573-01184-6









Cotton and Paint



A cute hedgehog with assembly instructions.







Ateliers de Filles
ISBN 4-07-244920-2



I covet this bookcase.

Hi Zara. Thank you for your comments.

Ordering Japanese books is very, very easy. Amazon Japan has an In English button, which will make the process the same as using Amazon.com. To find a book, just put in the ISBN without the dashes and it will find the book. It will also show you other books that people have ordered when they ordered the book you are interested in.

Yes Asia is also a terrific site, where you can follow the same ISBN process. I go between them to comparison shop, because the prices are different.

Crafting Japanese is an excellent resource for ordering information and currency conversion.

More Japanese craft book images.

I really like the Idee series. I find that it has a lot more interesting images and inspiring projects than some magazines.

Idees, vol. 4

ISBN 4529043045












There was also a cute little insert:



With instructions on how to make the stuffed animal:



The instructions were only one page; I'm not holding out on you.


Handmade Magazine

The children and I went to see Dreamgirls yesterday. It is excellent. I was worried because I've always loved the musical, but they did an incredible adaptation. And the costumes are amazing.

Later, after dinner, we watched Little Miss Sunshine. I skipped over or muted some of the grandfather's monologues, but otherwise the kids loved it, loved Olive and Dwayne, and wanted to watch it twice.

As I promised, here are some images from the books I bought:

Createurs a Paris
ISBN 4-573-01127-7













Paris Kitchens
ISBN 4-07-246400-7

Happy Holidays



I bought these books from Amazon Japan and they came in less than a week.

The small books in front are, left to right

Ateliers de Filles
ISBN 4-07-244920-2

Paris Kitchens
ISBN 4-07-246400-7

Createurs a Paris
ISBN 4-573-01127-7

Ma deco a Paris
ISBN 4-573-01184-6

These books are super terrific--photographs of different stylish Paris residences-- and I promise to share many more images in the coming days.

The Japanese craft magazines in the back are, left to right

Idees, vol. 4

ISBN 4529043045

Handmade Magazine

Cotton and Paint

Another awesome Christmas present was learning that Cia's Palette is selling this gorgeous fabric, which I've admired when different Australian blogs have shown it in the past year:



Cia's Palette is such a wonderful fabric shop; outstanding customer service.

Hey and speaking of fabric, I finished my Lost Ship Quilt.



I'm surprised that I got it quilted so fast, but I didn't have to draw any lines, which saves two or three days. I quilted around each triangle. I debated for a couple of hours (with myself mostly, though my son gave his opinion too) on which fabric to use to bind it. I decided on this magenta Japanese fabric (an impulse buy from equilter which I did not have to regret) because I had the notion that if it wasn't going to be bound in white, it should be a strong color for the binding.



There's something about the quilt that makes me think of a jigsaw puzzle. I have to admit I really dig it. It uses so many of my favorite fabrics and when a quilt is made from such, I get a continuing charge out of it.





To Heather: Yes, I wash the sheets before I use them. I wash all fabric before I use it in a quilt.

To Amandajean: Welcome to my blog. Thank you for your comment.

Good morning.

One more hearing today and then I have a week off. I want to watch movies, sew, garden and hang out with my loved ones. I hope not to drive too much. We have a Hannukah party to go to tonight; I'm supposed to bring salad or dessert. Salad or dessert. I had a lovely beet, walnut, blue cheese, lettuce and tomato salad yesterday at a cookie decorating party, so I'll probably bring a salad.

Friday Work In Progress



This is the Lost Ship Quilt, hanging up from the crown moulding in my dining room. [Yay crown moulding, so useful.] I used a bunch of clothes pins to hang up the backing fabric, the batting and the quilt top. Then I pinned the three layers together, using about 200 safety pins. This is the first time I've used this method and I like it. I hate getting creases on the backing fabric, which I do all the time, and hanging the layers and looking on both sides to see how its going, then pinning it so very much, helps eliminate the creasing problem (I think).

I've started sewing it and I'm having a blast. One thing I'm trying this time is using a 400 thread count 100% cotton king sized flat sheet for the backing. The sheet is like buttah and it doesn't break the bank because I bought it here. Since the set is only $30, I can use both the fitted and the flat for quilt backs; $15 per back which is considerably cheaper than buying white fabric of sufficient length and width and much, much higher quality. [Now don't y'all go and buy up all the sheets sets, leaving me high and dry as a reward for sharing this little tip with you.]

I am so looking forward to some work time off.

Bear Paw Quilt



I pieced this quilt in 2005 (I think), maybe 2004. I used these piecing instructions, which make piecing super fast.

I fell in love with the blue/turquoise fabric



at a quilt store on Solano Avenue that I will never shop at again because one psychotic employee was mean to my son. Think of the big fabric bucks they have lost!

Completion of this quilt falls into the category of Finish What You Have.





It is approximately 102" by 108" and it is the heaviest quilt I can remember making.

My son expressed admiration for it while I was quilting, so I am giving it to him. We'll put it on his bed and maybe one day he'll sleep under it. [It was 33 degrees this morning.]

I learned something important while I was making it. I was struggling with monkey mind and some motivational deficits (which prolonged the completion of this project), when I realized: there is no perfect way to make a quilt. Sure I knew it before, because I've never made a perfect quilt, but this epiphany came in a soothing, motivating voice and got me out the weeds and back on track.

Blue and white again; yeah I know. But I think I've gotten it out of my system for now. I wanted to quilt it in a scroll-y, elaborate way, but I don't know how and this quilt is way too big of a project to bollocks up.

I think I'll take a quilting class in 2007.

My hands are a bit chewed up from pin pricks while sewing on the binding (and from pruning rose bushes). This is quilt number seven for 2006. Next up for quilting is the Lost Ship quilt.

I made a chicken pasta salad to take to a caroling potluck this evening. Chicken breast halves baked on a bed of Meyer lemon (from the back yard) slices, salt and pepper, marinated artichoke hearts, finely diced celery, grape tomatoes sliced in fourths, and balsamic vinegarette.

I also mostly finished the Bear Paw quilt. It will need a bit of re-stitching, as usual.

Yesterday, I walked with my son through the Ashby Flea Market while my girl was earning another cord in capoeria. I love attending batisados, but time was critical this weekend. I was able to pick of three Christmas presents in the time I would have spent at the batisado. There is something about the Ashby Flea Market: I always experience sensory overload, I always feel self conscious. But walking around it with my son I felt a familiar sense of discovery and protectiveness, exactly as I feel when we're traveling. I hold his hand and we walk and look and he's just so good and patient and curious. He wanted to try some of the Jamaican food at the stand, but he didn't mention it until we were driving away. Next time we will; the curry smelled wonderful. I bought some more bath salts from my favorite vendor.

My girl:



went up another level in capoeira. She makes me so proud my heart aches. She also tried out and got on a swim team of Friday evening, about which she is completely psyched.

My kids have a dog who lives at their dad's house, which means he's the perfect pet for me.



Seriously, he is a sweet little guy.

The sun was out today--clear and cold--and I went to Cole Coffee after Mass to pick up a pound of beans. I didn't have my guy with me and one of the workers asked of his whereabouts. I asked her for a pound of Ethiopian, but to mark the bag Kenya because my baby is obsessed with Kenya. She said sure and when she handed me the bag, she said "Here's your pound of Kenyan beans" and gave me a big wink.

I was able to do some weeding and plant the daffodil, tulip and ranunculus bulbs. Now I'm waiting for me kids to get home. I think I hear them on the porch!!

Inspiration and Light

Light. I would like more please. I wake up and it's dark. I climb out of bed and go make coffee and turn on a special lamp over my sink to see the coffee pot better as I rinse it. I get home and it's dark and I can't check on my plants, my lawn, my flowers.

I love Flickr. I mean really love. There are probably lots of folks who do this: go to a favorite picture and look at the favorite pictures of other people who also consider it a favorite. It's like following different paths in a forest.

Yesterday, the purl bee blog posted about its love of Flickr and its inspirations. Which led me to this picture. I love it. I realize that I need more light in my quilts. I tend to like darker colors, but next year I would like try something like this.

But here's the flip side of inspiration. I love, love, love this quilt. It moves me deeply. But then I read she hand pieced and hand quilted the whole thing and I open my mouth and shut it again in awe. My monkey mind says that I'll never be that good, I'll never have that kind of time/patience/creativity.

Then again 2007 is a new year and I'm already jotting* down quilting goals/aspirations. So far, I've got: make a log cabin quilt, finally get the hang of applique, make a quilt with a more elaborate border, add more light.**

*Jotting helps me when I'm bored at work. I do a lot of crafty fantasizing. Also, I was in the midst of another heavy duty brief writing push and jotting down crafting ideas helps me keep my sanity.

** I remember watching a bonus feature on Miyazaki and they were interviewing his protege, who said that one of his goals always it to put more light in the animation.

I made this as an ornament, sometime in March of this year. It was during the Use What You Have month, when I was spending a lot of time hanging out with my son watching movies. I would lounge on one part of my bed, he on the other, hand sewing while he watched a movie and enjoyed my presence.

I think, due to its size, that it could also be a door hanging.

My son's pickiness about food is dampening my cooking mojo. After a long day of work, I just want to cook something I know he'll eat. I was pondering what to cook for dinner on Monday night when I had an inspiration. I had made a roast chicken for Sunday dinner and there was plenty left over--my kids are not big meat eaters--so I thought that I would make a rice pilaf with shredded cooked chicken.

I got home and changed from my work clothes. I instructed my son to get his homework out of his backpack and put it on the dining room table. I diced a medium sized onion and sauteed it in about two tablespoons of olive oil until it was translucent. Then I placed 1-1/2 cups of long grain rice (rinsed and drained) in the onions and sauteed it for about two minutes. I added Penzey's Cajun seasoning and about 3 cups of chicken broth. I tasted the broth and added as much Kosher salt as it needed. Then I added the chicken, stirred, brought the mixture to a boil, then covered it and lowered the heat to medium for about fifteen minutes.

During the cooking time I made a pot of frozen peas and completed my son's homework with him. I could have added the peas to the mixture, but my son wouldn't eat it.

It turned out well and my boy ate it.



That little bit of creativity in the kitchen made me feel good.

The children, my mother and I went to the De Young Museum in San Francisco to see the Quilts of Gees Bend.

The De Young has been redesigned and I think it's outstanding, though it's been subject to a lot of criticism. We had lunch first in their cafe (because one should not go through a museum hungry) and then went to see the quilts.

The exhibit does not have all the quilts, but this one



is the first you see and it is so beautiful, made of denim and Sears courduroy. A photograph can't really capture the essence of the quilts, the movement conveyed by their imperfections, the texture of the materials, the evidence of the utility of the quilts while also being museum quality art.



I loved the grouping of the quilts, especially the Work Clothes group and the Sears Courduroy group. The quilts made of courduroy are really extraordinary and it is an amazing experience to be able to walk up the quilts, look at them from different angles, peek at the backing, all the while not touching.

My mother was inspired to try quilting, though she's not sure she has the patience for it.

The children were great, very well behaved and interested. The weather was cold and rainy and it really started to come down as we left the city. San Francisco is so beautiful.

Work In Progress Friday

Thank you for all the kind comments on my sweet girl and her new look.

I've had eight hearings this week, so it's been a bit hectic.

As many have stated before, I was very sorry to hear/read about James Kim. I was hoping against hope for his safe return.

The kids and I are in our pajamas, waiting for the rain storm, drinking cocoa and watching movies this Friday evening.

It's time to get tulip and daffodil bulbs into the ground; we'll see if the rain lets me.

The photo above is the Bear Paw quilt, which is progressing very slowly. I tried to start quilting it right after finishing the Dolley Madison Star, but my crafting nature asserted itself and I pieced another quilt in between the two quilting tasks.

I also made my little guy a pouch according to his specifications, from the fabric he chose on one of our forays to the fabric store:





Inside, he stores his drum sticks.

This girl



decided that she wanted a haircut. She was adamant about it. So this weekend, we went and got it done.



I watched her instruct the stylist that she wanted it chin length. So the stylist cut it and I watched her hair cascade to the floor. I had my doubts, but my girl is most pleased. She gets to call the shots on her hair length, though I still can veto outlandish outfits and hoop earrings that are too big.



And her friends love her afro. I love it too.



We got a tree on Saturday; our customary Noble fir. It's not quite as zaftig as I like them, but this is the one on the lot which suited us. It was fun and emotional (as usual) to decorate it. Each ornament brings back a flood of memories. My son was an excellent helper again this year, positive and energetic, and didn't know when to stop putting more ornaments on. Lots of ornaments clustered at his eye level.

While we were decorating the tree, Myra's fluffy banana bread was baking in the oven and making the house smell wonderful.

I made these ornaments awhile ago, from leftover materials:





It's been a busy, productive weekend.