small hands

I made this pincushion, trying to approximate this one. Mine is much wider and less elegant, but that's fine because I don't have to aim so carefully to get my pins in the cushion.

I was delighted to be able to pick up these straight pins and my local chain drug store, rather than having to take a special trip the fabric store. I needed the smaller pins to finish up this quilt.



The pattern is called Honeycomb. It's a nine-patch, the piecing directions I got from Two Color Quilts by Better Homes and Gardens Books and Carol Dahlstrom.



I really like the book and I love the colored fabric, which is a Ralph Lauren Kimberly sheet. The dimensions of the quilt are 72 x 78, which is small for the quilts I make. It's more throw size, but I ran out of the white fabric, so I didn't extend it past the dimensions of the pattern in the book.

I bought some new fabric from Fat Quarter Shop, which sent it lightning fast.



* * *

During the holidays, my niece slept over. My kids adore her and it's perfect for me because they occupy and entertain themselves and I get a respite. This time, left to their own devices, my daughter made my niece a reversable bag.





I think they did a great job.

On Saturday, my baby turned 12.



It has been a magical 12 years and I love my mighty girl.

This is a scan from Fine Living Cookbook. [Larger version here.]

This buckle is heavenly. I use peaches, rather than apricots, and in the dead of winter, I buy frozen raspberries and peaches and defrost them before I use them. The almond extract is the secret ingredient. Also, I use a medium sized rectangular pan, because the middle tends not to cook using a 10 inch springform. It tends to bubble over (and fruit juices leak from the bottom of a springform pan), so a cookie sheet on the bottom rack keeps the smoke from the oven to a minimum.

I acquired my son's nasty cold. He asked me if I blamed him and I said no, I had chosen to kiss him knowing he was sick, but I couldn't help myself; he's my little guy. There's so much work involved in raising children, but I love it. When I think of what I could be doing--getting into mischief and navel gazing mostly--I am grateful to be a mother.

This weekend we went shopping at H & M. Pre-teens are expensive. Even when you say you're going to hold the line, the essentials end up costing more than you expect. I bought myself two dresses and a cardigan for work. H & M is becoming a source of work clothes more and more often. My son got pants and Yu Gi Oh cards. I promised him the cards after he sucked it up and went to school, though he didn't feel well, on a day I had to go to court. [My mother never let us stay home with a cold.]

Sunday I went to lunch with my sisters and caught up on the family news. Then I went grocery shopping before returning home to work on what I think of as an in-between-quilt. It is in between more thought out, planned quilts, but is the product of a desire to use fabric that I love and to make a two color quilt. I'll post pictures when I finish piecing the top--I'm 75% of the way done. Then I will start my cousin's baby quilts.

Monday (Martin Luther King Holiday) was very restful. The weather was very cold and rainy, so we stayed home and sewed, did laundry, completed homework, did yoga, cooked, cleaned (including the freezer), bickered, made up. I am looking forward to working in my garden, but this weekend the weather did not cooperate.

Yesterday was nuts. I had to go to court four times for hearings on six matters.

Isn't the above picture a great combination of blue, white and red? It's a scan from House and Garden, I think. I was very sad to learn that H&G will stop publishing, because I've always considered it the very best of house p0rn.

Magazines are such an important source of inspiration for me. Either it's the way a home is decorated or the juxtaposition of colors that always gets my quilting juices going.



It's all about nesting anyway, so I am particularly enamored of a picture of a bed with a quilt on it.



My cousin is expecting twins, so I've been considering what kinds of baby quilts to make for her.



And I would adore a buffet (and windows) like this:



[Another scan from H&G]

I currently subscribe to:

1. Martha Stewart Living
2. Domino
3. House Beautiful
4. Country Home
5. Country Living
6. Elle Decor
7. Elle
8. Vogue
9. New York
10. Home Companion
11. Metropolitan Home
12. Marie Claire Idees
13. Cooks Illustrated

I love this photograph of a room in William Morris' Red House.

The weekend was good. Yes, it did get eaten by my daughter's swim meet, but what are you gonna do?

We had to be at the pool at 7:30 AM. It was freezing in the morning, yet hundreds of kids got into the water, steam rising from the pool, and swam lap after lap. At one point I wondered at the point of it all, then I instantly remembered that these kids are very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the event and to have the physical ability to engage in the activity.

Saturday, I took my daughter to the meet, then took my boy to a playdate with his best buddy. Since I was in the area and I had a question, I swung by the car dealership to get it answered. Then I went back to the swim meet. The kids' dad showed up around 1:30, so I was able to go grocery shopping and then pick up my sweet boy. He had played so much Wii that his arms were sore the next day.

My girl came home and I made dinner and did a mountain of laundry.

Sunday, we had to be back at the pool at 7:30AM. It really helps that my son has a good attitude about the hours and hours we spend at these meets. I read the New York Times and he played with his Nintendo DS. We tried to stand in the sun as much as possible. I was wearing a snowboarding jacket, a fleece jacket, and a fleece scarf on top of my clothes. I didn't get really warm until after noon.

I was able to take my son home around 2PM, with my daughter remaining until the last race and getting a ride home with her father. She enjoyed herself and improved her times. She's my mighty girl.

Throughout the meet, people referred to my children's father as my husband and I would tell them that we're divorced. I didn't feel the least bit emotional about correcting them; I just felt that their presumptions needed to be corrected.

There was another mountain of laundry waiting for me, but I did yoga first, which made the mountain seem less formidable, and made dinner--penne bolognese, caesar salad and green beans. With oatmeal cranberry cookies for dessert.

I tried and failed for the third time to get through Pirates of the Carribean At World's End. I just couldn't do it.

Last Saturday I bought a new car. A silver Toyota Highlander Hybrid. My daughter is very pleased with the hybrid status of the car, and we as a family are delighted with the car. Though I did not want to be in an accident or to be forced to buy a car right now, it's a very positive change. We're safer and more comfortable.

It's interesting to drive differently in this new car; way more defensively and way less like a gladiator.

This week has been nuts, it terms of work, and this weekend my girl has a swim meet, which eats up the weekend in its entirety. The weather has been overcast and rainy, but not stormy.

Next week is going to be much more sane, I'm sure.

Courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle, this is a very cool, very melodramatic picture of the results of the first of three storms that are hitting California.

I must say though, that it was quite terrifying to drive next to big rigs, across flooded freeways, this morning in order to get to work. But I'm a worker and there was a big pile of work to be done, sitting on my desk and waiting for me.

My secretary said, as I sat down at my desk, that she could have PDF-ed the six motions that I need to oppose and e-mailed them to me, and then I could have worked from home. As.If. I would have ignored the e-mail, consumed cup after cup of coffee, watched ER on DVD, and sewed. When I woke up and heard the rain, I wanted to skip work and do that anyway, but I felt like a wimp at the notion of a little [lot] of rain keeping my from my appointed rounds [lawyering].

Plus, my favorite client likes to visit me on Fridays with a big stack of questions. The work week has shrunk for our co-workers to four days, so on Friday we feel especially virtuous and productive when we discuss these matters.

Plus, two more motions were delivered to my office today, adding to the pile. But I'm on top of it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

EDITED TO ADD: Hi Barb. Leave me a comment with your http address, because the homepage link on the comments section doesn't work.

Also, I finished The Name of the Wind and confidential to Patrick Rothfuss: 661 pages of throat clearing is not cool. You should note that writers that you are obviously biting off of, in the epic serial tale genre, like Tolkein and Paolini, still managed to get stuff done in each installment. Cover some ground. Don't save it all up, like Robert Ludlum, until the last 5% of the book.


Also? Why are so many fantasy heroes so chaste? Just saying.

Happy New Year everyone! I have a really good feeling about 2008.

I was reading in Amy Butler's new book Midwest Modern [not as good as Found Style--more like a fabric catalogue] a quote that impatience is self-importance. As a very impatient person, I have to disagree. When I am impatient, it is because I feel that my time is being wasted. However, I don't want anyone's time to be wasted, by inattention, lack of seriousness, whatever.

Let's resolve in 2008 to waste as little time as possible.

I finished 2007 with yoga* and a hot bath, then cuddling with my children and hanging out.

After a quick errand, it's back home to make black eyed peas and collard greens for good luck in the new year. Tomorrow, it's back to work. *Sigh

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.




*I figured out something in doing the bow pose. I can make a more bowed shape if I don't pull on my ankles, but lower my hands to my shins and push my feet up. I like figuring stuff out.