Frustration

I never knew exactly what day my mom's birthday was. I knew it was around this time of year, but I could never remember if it was on the 22nd, or the 23rd. I would usually call my mom on the 22nd and just sort of feel her out. I'd ask her what she was doing that day, and if she mentioned birthday plans I knew I had the right day.

Now that she's gone, I don't always notice that her birthday has come and gone (it was the 22nd by the way). Some years, I wouldn't even remember that it was her birthday until I started thinking about what do do for my own birthday, which is in a few weeks.

This year though, I was thinking about her a lot. I go through phases with it.

It's been a little over eight years, and lately I've been thinking about the things that are going on in my life that I'd like to tell her about, but also realizing that if she were here none of them would be happening. Her passing was one of those moments that fundamentally changed the course of my life, and so many of the things that I have now are only because she's gone. She would have been 61 this year.

I did find this great picture of us though, when I was cleaning out my house. I thought I lost it, and it is my favorite photo of us. It was taken about six months before she died.

We were at the Trevi Fountain. I love that you can see a little glint of the coin my mom was throwing.

The whole reason I mention it it is that I was feeling a little sad on the 22nd, and luckily enough, there was an all day sewing event for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. It was the perfect distraction for the day. The frustration I refer to in my post title is that my computer ate the photos I took that day which I intended to use to illustrate this particular post.

And there were some pictures I really wanted to post! Oh well. Such is life. I previewed some data recovery software to see if I could recover the photos directly from the SD card, but no luck. You'll just have to take my word for it that the event was exactly what I needed that day.

I did get a few photos of an experiment I did to see if I could create some sort of border for my upcoming Baltimore Album quilt that was based on papel picado. These are really rough cut outs, but I think the technique will work. I used paper backed heat and bond to create enough stiffness to fold and cut the fabric.

I think with some work, this could be viable.

It also helped keep my spirits up that my friends Amelia and Jeremiah came over that night. They were running the Zombie 10k the next day, and stayed over so they didn't have to drive up from Salem for it.

It was great watching them put together their costumes. They decided to go as zombie hipsters, and the preparation of the costumes involved a lot of terrifying use of scissors.

It also involved a lot of fake blood.

I missed the race itself, but I gather that they were pretty awesome looking zombies.

Swap!

We had our PMQG meeting this past Thursday, and got back our solid blocks.

Elsa got my block, and made me an awesome mini-quilt. Hilariously (to me anyway), she's a vegan. She was a good sport about the bacon and eggs though.

This was such a nice swap. Elsa did a lot of things that I don't normally do with my quilts, like a pieced back, hand sewn binding, and stitching in the ditch, so it was fascinating to see what my work looks like with those elements applied.

It's the details that are so great too. Elsa handed it to me with wrapped in this ribbon, with nicely cut edges. For some reason, it just makes it so much better.

Also, this weekend we had our all day sewing event for the guild at Fabric Depot, and it was great, as always. Lots of talking, laughing, and sewing. I didn't bring my sewing machine this time, but I did make a cutting guide for my quilt for the Project Modern organic challenge, and bought the fabric for it, which is always fun. I wish these events were more often, but I realize that not everyone in the guild's biggest responsibility at home is taking care of one weirdo cat and watching episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

If they made a Law and Order: Cat Intent, they'd have at least one viewer.

Fritz seems to have "settled" once again. He's taken to sleeping/living on top of the gas stove.

It's fine now that it's warmed up a bit (for Oregon anyway), but come Fall and Winter he'll need to move on. This is an interesting place for Fritz to hang out, because it's not quite big enough for him to really lay out on, so often times he'll be cleaning himself and fall right off the side, which is hilarious to me, but probably less so to him. We'll see how long this spot lasts.

PMQG Banner Block

The PMQG is going to have a small show at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show this year, and we, as a guild, are going to make blocks for a banner.

We're supposed to turn them in at the meeting tonight, and me, being the last minute lady that I am, finished mine just now.

It's not my usual style, but it was fun to make.

The red bit was an attempt at roses. I saw a really pretty bush with red flowers awhile back, and thought that the combo of olive green and red was very interesting, and sort of unusual. Someday I might want to make a quilt in this style with those colors, so this block was a perfect opportunity to see what it might look like.

Breakfast Time

I've missed out on a lot of swaps at the guild lately, and it's mostly due to my own laziness. The last swap was a mug rug swap, which I totally forgot about until I met up with some people ahead of time and saw all of their mug rugs to swap.

Luckily, my friend Jill had made two mug rugs, and is the kind of person that when she came into the meeting and I yelled across the room "Jill, give me one of your mug rugs to swap because I am lazy and forgot to make one!" she said "Sure!".

That's real friendship people.

I mention it because for once, I am not making my swap item at the very last minute. In fact, the meeting is almost a week away and I am done, done, done!

If you haven't known me long, this should tip you off as to what I think about 95% of the time.

When I was thinking about this swap, I initially thought that it was going to be a straight swap, a solid block for a solid block. I wanted to make a block that someone could get and either incorporate into a larger project, or use without adding anything at all.

Then I read on the guild blog that what was really happening is that we are giving our block to someone else and they will do something (unknown at this time) and then give it back to us at the next meeting.

Well, that's even better! I really like this block, and am happy to have it back.

Problem is, now I want more blocks like this. I have a whole page of sketches of different foods so far, but we'll see if it goes beyond that. I think a quilt in this style could be neat though.

Just in case I do make a quilt with this theme, I made the block twice. One for the swap, and one for me.

I like that the one on the right is slightly deformed.

In other news, Fritz continues to cycle through places in my house. Now, when I say cycling through, I mean that he exclusively lives in that part of the house, and would only leave it to eat and use the litter box. If you remove him from that area, he will run as fast as he can back to it, but he won't stay there permanently. He has to move on at some point and start again.

He's a little nuts. He started with the kitchen, then the living room windowsill, then the bathroom, and, for a short time, the sewing room windowsill.

This was sort of fun, because I could always see him when I was entering the house. Less fun was the fact that he kept knocking the curtain down.

That was short lived. He then moved to the top of the box my new computer came in.

This was also fun, because it doubled as a scratching post.

The box was an interesting place, only because I was in the room when he decided he didn't want to live there any more. He wandered around the room, darting back and forth mewing pathetically. He'd sit on a lot of things and refuse to settle. Finally, I put a board on one of the chairs, and he settled in.

For Fritz, settling in is a relative term.

Even though he is totally nuts, I can't help but love his stupid, stupid face.

Honestly, normal cats look strange to me.

Between Quilts

My quilt for the second project modern challenge is finished, washed, and photographed. I have my scrap quilt to baste (ugh), an idea rattling around for the third project modern challenge, but I don't have a quilt that I'm really working on.

I don't want to baste my scrap quilt quite yet, I just did all that with my monochromatic quilt and I could use a bit of a break from that kind of quilting stuff.

I have a lot of leftover fabric from my monochromatic quilt, so the past few days I've been sort of playing around with it. I know I want to make another scrap quilt using the leftover fabric of quilts I make this year, and I want to make a medallion type quilt this time.

I took my monochromatic scraps (for this block is was more like unused yardage) and made the center piece for the medallion. I used a pattern I've been sitting on for awhile, and wanted to test to see if it would be fun to make for a larger quilt. It was inspired by medieval tile patterns.

I think this kind of block, but it needs some real precision work to look really good, so I'm not sure if I'll use it again.

I'm also thrilled to use my new design boards that Paula gave me. She was getting rid of them, and I snapped them right up when she offered. They serve a much different role than my old "design wall", which was just a happy birthday banner.

All bits and pieces from my last scrap quilt.

I've gotten so used to that banner that I bet I'll use both the design wall that Paula gave me, as well as the banner for just holding stuff.

On Thursday I went to the opening of the PMGQ show at PNCA, and it was great! There were a lot of people there who weren't involved with the guild at all, so it was nice that we were able to show the community what we are all about.

I didn't even have to make anyone pose, this guy did it all on his own.

There was also a lot of free, delicious food. What a perfect kind of event!

Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Well, well, well. Look at you!

Yesterday, I set up my new computer and am now officially working from home. I'm so excited. I think this will be one of those things that really changes my day to day life. It's been a little bumpy setting up the computer, and some of the changes I've had to make are very nerdy, like deleting screen fonts so I can run my own, but it makes me feel somewhat professional. Which I need, because I'm wearing my pajamas right now.

I've always wanted to be the kind of blogger that posted regularly with funny and engaging content, and now that I'm at home more, I'm hoping to work on the "regularly" part. Someday I'll get to the "funny and engaging" part. We'll see how it goes. Work is ramping up with the most intense project of the year, so I'll be tied up for a little while.

I've been gaining momentum on my Project Modern quilt, and last weekend's all day sewing event sponsored by the guild really helped. I've said it before, but I really love that I can go the guild and know that somebody there will know something about what I'm doing, and can offer advice or commiseration.

I also like that this photo was taken during a 20 minute conversation about where to eat the best sandwiches in Portland.

I've been working with someone who is doing a class project about the guild, and she very kindly gave me a gift certificate to Fabric Depot for my help.

I used it to buy notions that I always want, but never end up buying. Usually when I'm at Fabric Depot or Joann's, I'm buying fabric or thread, or something else that I need, and by the time I get to the notions I never quite want to spend the money on them. I'm pretty happy to get these things with Bonus Monies, rather than real monies.

Shangela from RuPaul's Drag race approves my choices.

I ended up with a ruler rack, a bobbin saver (goodbye plastic bag!) and a Kwik Klip. I'm hoping the Kwik Klip will make it easier to pin baste. Basting methods can be a topic of debate, but I think it really comes down to personal preference. I'm pretty over spray basting. I don't have the space for it, and I always mess it up. I'm hoping that this new tool will make pin basting a little easier on my fingers!

Harry Potter and the Game of Skee Ball at the Avalon

The past few weeks have been interesting for me. I'm really enjoying teaching, but it has been a significant change in the way I spend my time. I've been pretty busy preparing for class, and then teaching class, and driving to and from class. Work work has been busy too. As a result, sewing has sort of fallen by the wayside, but I'm hoping to balance it better soon. I feel like I'm settling into a rhythm. I'd like to sew more than I am now.

This week was pretty awesome. I gave a presentation on color at the February PMQG meeting, and it was fun to prepare for. Saturday was also fun, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is finally at the second run theaters.  Some friends and I went to see it at the Avalon theater, which also has a bunch of nickle games.

When you walk by, the light make a great click, click, click sound.

 You can tell the Avalon has been around for awhile, because it has a ton of creepy clowns outside. No one would have these types of illustrations now that so many people think clowns are scary.

Surprisingly, these are the least creepy of the clowns.

My friends Leslie, Foxx and I had one game on our mind, which was skee ball. We spend almost all of our nickles on it.

Foxx had the first roll of the night.

 Eventually we got the three skee ball games next to each other, and we did not take turns with anyone, we just played until we ran out of nickles.

We spent a lot of time wondering if we could get a skee ball game in one of our houses.

My friend Leslie, who is normally very cautious and safety conscious, really surprised me by being an aggressive bad ass with the skee ball. She hurled the skee balls with a rage that I had never before witnessed from her. She kind of kicked our asses.

In this photo, Leslie had tossed the ball so hard it bounced out of her lane and into the top of mine. I still don't quite know how it happened.

Skee ball was just a warm up for Harry Potter though. You can tell we are all huge Harry Potter nerds because a) we have huge smiles on our faces at the thought of seeing the movie again, and b) because I had someone in the row behind us take our picture so I could put it on my blog.

I wish the background could have been an image from the movie, but I'm not sure how the rest of the theater would have felt about it.

On Sunday, I finally got some sewing done. I headed over to Cherri's studio and spent some time free motion quilting (not on the long arm though!). I was happy to get a start on this quilt. I've been hemming and hawing about how to quilt it, so I was happy to get it started. I like how this turned out, but, as Cherri correctly predicted, it's going to take a lot of time. 

These rows already used two bobbins. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I hate winding bobbins for some reason.

As far as Fritz goes, he seems to have settled into living in the bathroom, and I sort of don't mind. He's taken to sitting on the windowsill, which is easy to clean, and I get to see him a lot, which I didn't necessarily do when he was hanging out in the kitchen.

 His habit of putting his paws on my shoulder has developed into full blown riding around on my shoulders.

I think of the two of us, Fritz has the more awesome expression on his face.

I always wanted a cat that would ride around on my shoulders, and now that it's happened, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I'm not discouraging it, but I'll really have to keep his nails trimmed. He can have quite a grip. When he gets up there I've been I've been trying to walk around like normal, and he can hang on for quite awhile. We'll see if he keeps it up.

There have been better pictures of me, but probably not better pictures of Fritz.

Weekend Weekend

Last week was full of work, so I had to cram all my fun into the weekend. Luckily, there is more than enough to do in Portland.

On Friday my friend Jennifer and I hit up Namaste for dinner, which is an Indian buffet. Usually Indian restaurants only have the buffet at lunch, so I was super psyched to find a place that did the buffet for dinner. I always want a bunch of different stuff, which can be quite spendy, so a buffet is a perfect for me.

Jennifer steers the traditional Indian door wheels

The best part of Namaste is that it used to be some sort of family dinning place, so all the decor is all American Logging Nostalgia. I'll take just about any kind of decor if it means I can have unlimited naan. Looking at the pictures now, I'm ready to go back. The food on the plate looks so good, but it could just be that I haven't had dinner yet.

Check out the awesome booth fabric.

On Saturday my friend Cherri had an open house for her studio, and you could tell that we were a bunch of quilting bloggers because everybody had their cameras.

Cherri's studio itself is lovely, and it's right next to the St. John's bridge. She had a bunch of cookies and milk, which was a very nice touch. She even had little packets of color pencils for everyone. She's a lady how knows how to throw a party!

What a very Portland type view!

Cherri just bought a long arm machine, and had a charity quilt top for everybody to try their hand at quilting. I love the diamond quilt that is behind Jenn.

One of the things I like best about the Portland Modern Quilt Guild is that is such a fun social experience. I got to talk to a lot of people from the guild at this party, and it's fun to get to know everyone better.

Joan told me that she was considering trying to quilt 15 minutes a day in February. Do it Joan! Do it!

And of course, on Sunday it was me and Fritz. When I went to Winco I bought one of those toilet cleaner tabs, solely for the reason that it turns your toilet water purple. I think it matches the horrible green and pink tile nicely. After I got it I wondered why there weren't a range of colors available to match any bathroom decor, but maybe most people don't really want their toilet water to match their bathroom.

Fritz is very interested in the purple water. That, or annoying me constantly.

Fritz hasn't stopped living in the bathroom. He only leaves to eat or use the litter box, and every time I go in there he demands a lot of attention.

Don't ask questions about this picture you don't want answers to.

He makes a pretty pathetic face, but I love him anyway. Today was back to work, but at least I'll have the thoughts of another fun weekend to keep me going.

Indecision 2011

I spent most of today in Salem getting some training for the class I'm teaching. It wasn't so bad, and I sat next to a woman who was going to be teaching Wine Marketing at the Chemeketa Viticulture center. My dad teaches almost all of the Viticulture (grape growing) classes, and it turns out that she and her partner David Adelsheim had bought grapes from my parents for many years.

Small world huh? The grape world seems even smaller.

Last night though, I got together with some of the ladies from PMQG for some much needed food and sewing. As always, I had a fantastic time. We hadn't gotten together for awhile due to the holidays, so it was nice to see everyone.

Jill was kind enough to let me take a photo of her and her awesome quilt.

I spent my time at Modern Domestic putting together the green stripe in the quilt top below. All the rows are made up of scraps leftover from other quilts, except the big one which is made up from leftover yardage.

All of the diet root beer cans in my living room are tastefully cropped out

Here is where the indecision comes in. For some reason, I thought that all of these pieces together would give me a much longer quilt. It's not a bad size. It's roughly 5 feet by 6 feet, but a really good couch quilt should be bigger. At least for me anyway.

So, I could wait until I have a few more scrap rows and add them on (which would be after a few more quilts), but I'm sort of liking it the way it is. Considering the amount of time it took me to put all of this together, I'm not sure I would use this as a couch quilt anyway. I eat a few meals on my couch and it seems inevitable that I would get spaghetti sauce on it. It may be destined for the safety of my closet.

I can't decide if I want to wait and add more, or just quilt it now. I think I'll sleep on it.

As for Fritz, he's been driving me nuts lately. He's been knocking stuff over.

I'm going to go ahead and blame most of the messiness in this picture on him.

And it's no surprise that he's hanging out where he shouldn't be.

Would you believe that Fritz left all those dirty dishes in the sink?

So tonight when he started jumping up on my sewing space, I decided he could use a little time in cat prison. Hopefully it will scare him straight.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've never done the Blogger's Quilt festival before, so I'm excited to participate!

Looking back on all the things I've made this year, my absolute favorite is the Hey Cherri quilt, which is my version of the Dear Jane quilt.

The finished Hey Cherri Top

The original Dear Jane quilt

I sat down with a friend of mine named Cherri (pronounced Cherry) from the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and we talked about modern updates to classic quilt patterns, and the subject of Dear Jane came up. It's a quilt I really love, but since I don't really applique or paper piece it seems beyond me. We floated the idea of creating a modern version, and that was all it took.

The result was a month and a half of intense creativity, in which I sketched every block I could think of that fit a 4 x 4 grid. I poured over magazines, flickr groups, and books, and made block after block after block.

I started the project in May, and was leaving town for the summer. I knew I needed to finish the top before then, so I really pushed myself to finish it within a short timeframe.

I really love this project, for a lot of reasons. I never would have started it if Cherri hadn't asked me out to coffee, and I never would have met Cherri if I hadn't joined the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. Joining that group has really added a lot of fun and inspiration to my life.

I'm also so glad that I was able to finish it. I've had a lot of creative pursuits that sort of fizzled out from lack of interest, so I'm so happy to finally find one that I can stick with.

One down, one to go

This past Saturday my friend Jennifer came over, and we went out to dinner.

File photo of Jennifer

While we were hanging out, I had a moment of panic. I thought I hadn't quilted at all that day. It worried me because I was trying to finish a surprise gift quilt for Jennifer, and I needed to get it done before she left her job on the 5th. She works at an Outdoor School site and I want her to get it before the session is over.

I shouldn't have panicked, because I forgot that I had worked on quilt stuff for five hours that day, at the PMQG all day sewing event. It apparently didn't register with me, because it didn't happen at my house. What a weird thing.

I got the quilt for her basted at the sew-in, which was the part of the process holding me up. It's a little bit smaller than twin size, and is just rainbow stripes.

It's a real quilt, not just a bench top! Promise!

I tried a new type of quilting, using a specialty stitch on my machine, and I like the way it turned out. I wish I remember whose blog I read it on, so I could give them credit. I like that it makes a straight stitch a little more interesting, but doesn't take the effort of free motion quilting.

It shows up better on the back. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and I'm sure I'll use this type of quilting again.