Scrap Therapy

I finally finished quilting Phoebe's quilt. I'm trying not to have guilty mother syndrome. Hers ended up with two puckers on the back. Two tiny, little puckers. Eowyn's was pucker-free. Hopefully she won't compare and add the two wrinkles to her second-child syndrome. Now for my favorite, favorite part: binding. All that I need is a good movie and it will make for one snuggly evening.


I pulled out all the stops today and organized my fabric stash. I've heard interior decorators say that if you're not sure what colors you really like, you should look at what colors you tend to wear. Once I brought home a sea green sweater from the thrift store and happily proceeded to hang it in the closet. Husband looked at my recent purchase and said, "Don't you already own two sweaters that color?" Well, yes, but this one is different, dear.

My fabric stash is as severely lopsided as my clothing: Tons of greens, blues, pinks and reds. A handful of purple. And about six pieces of orange. Apparently I am not a fan of orange. When we moved in to our current home, the dining room was pumpkin orange. "Good," I thought to myself, "I'd never pick it. I'm broadening my horizons." But the orange and I just couldn't handle each other and I ended up painting it.

While I was folding and refolding, Husband was standing over me asking me the whys and wherefores of the collection. Finally it was, "Which do you like better? Fabric or books?"

I told him that was like asking me to choose between my children.

Hibernation

I'm afraid I'm going to go a bit crazy if Spring does not come, say, in February. My beloved 88 Corsica currently has no breaks, leaving us totally homebound after Husband goes to work. I try to tell myself peppy things about hibernation: "Just think, Self, of all the work you're going to have to do outside when Spring rolls around. You might as well hunker down and do all your inside projects. Yay." However, mid-January, I somehow lose the ability to listen to this chipper voice, promptly tell it to SHUT-IT, and mope about until it gets warmer. I even give my winter decorations the evil eye.

On the cheerful side of things, I finally finished the top of my scrap quilt. 3.5 years later. You can have a glimpse of the back and hear the full story when it's complete.


This week I started quilting Phoebe's quilt, which is a green version of Eowyn's quilt. In the spring (dear, sweet spring) we're going to combine the girls' rooms and bunk up the beds. This is the second round of identical quilts I've made. Making two nearly-the-same quilts is rather brutal; you can imagine why: quilting the second one is a total bore. No creative decisions to be made, same old, same old, just gettin' her done. While I quilt I dream about that tiny nursery room turned into my own little sewing nook.

Well, this was a totally depressing post; forgive me. I think I need to force myself outside for some fresh zero-degree air.

Hey there

So we decided to quit Xanga, but have taken our dear sweet time doing it. Here we are at Blogger. Here's to another year of the delightful mix of wonderful inspiration and wasting time, dosed up with a few of my "I'm going to quit blogging" threats. Cheers.

I finished Eowyn's quilt a while ago. She got it around Christmas time without a lot of fanfare. I thought about wrapping it, but couldn't find the point. After all, it's not like she hadn't seen me sewing it every day and stopped by to confirm that yes, it was hers, and yes, it would be done soon.


I am a fan of cotton batting, stippling, and crinkly vintage. I put several surprise messages in the quilting which I suppose she'll find once I get around to teaching her how to read :).

I'm happy with it. She is too. What more could you ask for?

$6 Later

Two $3 frames from Wal-Mart, fourty-five minutes, and viola. Eowyn saw hers and giggled, "That's a picture of my crazy hair!" Phoebe's looks a little less recognizable, plus I added a little hair in an attempt to make her look like a girl. Maybe in six months I'll update hers.



1. Have your kids stand sideways with good posture and take a few pictures. I had Eowyn talk to Phoebe while I took her picture, but after I traced it, it looked more alien-ish than like a baby, so I ended up using a different side pose that I had.

2. On your computer turn the pictures black and white.



3. Size them so that their heads are similar in size and print them out to match the size of your frame.
4. Put the picture against a bright window, put a piece of white paper over it and trace the profile.
5. Cut out the tracing, then using it as a template, trace it on whatever color you want the final silhouette to be.
6. Cut out the final silhouette, then use a glue stick to glue it to a white piece of paper. Put it in the frame. You're done.

I was thinking about doing the whole family, but, quite frankly, I'd rather not see what my face looks like from the side. I think these could be the start to a very cute wall. You could add monograms, do Grandpas and Grandmas...