Quilt

This weekend my brother and his family visited from Alabama, so Monkey and I were able to hand over the quilt we made for their little boy. I am so happy with the way this quilt came together! I love the way the colors went together so perfectly and I think that the rectangular blocks make the lattice design really interesting.

I had a rather embarrassing learning experience in the early stages of this quilt: rectangles are directional. That means that when you are bisecting the blocks, half must be cut slanting one direction, and the other half must lean the other way. They can not be rotated 90 degrees, no matter how much you want to and how stupid you might feel.

This is the first thing larger than a potholder that I've machine quilted using the darning foot. I ended up using chalk to sketch out my meandering line; it was just too much space for me to think about while muscling around the quilt and looking at a small portion of the whole. Monkey helped lots on this quilt- he loves to sit on my lap and help me run the sewing machine. He also will pull out little snips and scraps of fabric and put them under the presser foot working the needle by hand when I'm up cutting fabric or ironing; it is a good thing he's too short to reach the peddle or I'd have to pick things up better.

Poem

A poem for the 4th Annual Brigid Silent Poetry Reading, penned by myself this year. Haiku, of course. Maybe by next year I'll be good enough at iambic pentameter for a sonnet.

Won Ton Soup

tasty little fish

swimming in broth, cooked on the

surface of the sun

Keeping Warm

We went to Hohenzollern Castle today. It was amazingly beautiful. And freezing cold, as evidenced by this picture featuring 6 different hand knits (you can only see five, but I'm wearing hand knit socks), also a fleece sweatshirt and jacket that I sewed for the Monkey.

Solstice

Monkey and I were going a little crazy, with the sun going down here at 4:30, so we took a little road trip. Piled in the car and visited the N.O. Aquarium. Ate biegnets. Sang along with Trogdor. Danced with buskers. Not a bad day to turn 32. It might be the darkest day of the year, but it is looking up.

Birds

It finally stopped raining Thursday night, so this morning I was able to shampoo smelly dog and acquired a large branch, broken off my neighbors tree. A firm believer in power tools, I used my skil saw to hack up a branch for my kitchen and stuck on a few fabric birds I made the other day using this pattern from Spool. I think it needs more birds, so if I'm feeling really brave I'll call a friend and see if she wants to have a bird party. I'll bring the stash.

Also, my dog stinks.

Totally Lost.My.Shit. on the phone with Lawyerguy yesterday.
It wasn't pretty.
For the first two months the deployment really wasn't bad at all. I had projects to do, visitors planned. Monkey and I went to Disneyworld. But it seems all my good ideas and projects took about two months to finish, and on a day where I had been sick for the last 6 weeks (not sleeping means you catch every single microbe to come along), it rained 4 inches preventing Monkey, the dog, or me from going outside, and a 15 time-zone move "somewhere within the next 10 months" looming heavily on my mind, Lawyerguy tactfully mentions "You sound a little stressed".

You think?

After much eye related leakage I was reminded that I need to get out of the house every single day (you forget this when you don't talk to grown-ups every day). So Monkey and I participated in a little retail therapy and came home with another Engine for his train set (Mavis-we needed a girl train) and flowers. Because a girl should remember to get herself flowers when she needs them.

Potholders

Good news! If you forgot to get graham crackers yesterday for a cheesecake crust and are too agoraphobic to brave the Commissary today, Ritz crackers make a perfectly tasty crust.
On the crafty front, I recently acquired a darning foot and practiced free motion quilting on a couple potholders. Free motion quilting is lots of fun. Crazy, holy-crap-we-are-all-over-the-place fun. The fall colors quilt top is done, and I would love to quilt it with leaf shapes (which will probably be more of a meander with vague leafy hints). At least for now I can loose the dangerously beat up (and hideous) snowman potholders.

11 years

Happy anniversary Lawyerguy!
You still make my heart go pitter pat every time I see you, even now when it is just on Messenger.

I will see you soon.

I can has mood swings?

Today while on the webcam with Lawyerguy he told me a friend in the Pentagon (I know, WEIRD) called him to say that his new orders just cleared, and next summer we are PCSing to Kadena AFB in Okinawa.
Since then I have accomplished absolutely nothing.
I am really really really excited; years ago Lawyerguy and I spent a summer in Japan on a study abroad trip and I loved the country. I think about it all the time. My kid has grown up on a steady diet of onigiri and My Neighbor Totoro (um, not that he is eating Totoro. That came out weird.) My sister took Monkey on the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot 3 or 4 times, just so I could run out to the Japan area. I was actually thinking about how much I would like to go back yesterday.

But just between you and me, I have a bit of a stomach ache. When my dad responded to my news with "Oh no!" it didn't help.

Quilt decisions

Home from my trip and life is back to as normal as it ever is. My big event today is deciding which color sashing to do on my fall colors quilt. Opinions?















The pattern on the dark might be a little too linear. But it is so beautiful, and the colors make you want to snuggle under it with a cup of tea and a good book, and listen to the leaves blow.











The light, leafy print looks better than it photographed here. The scattering of leaves is subtle and is thematically perfect. Instead of reminding you of quiet nights inside, it makes you think of walking outside under a bright sky, white from clouds covering the blue and acting as a giant diffuser.










Then there is the option of combining the two, with small squares of one color where all the corners meet to add interest. But which should be the main color? Once again I am so busy seeing both sides of an argument that I am unable to make a decision.

Frogs

The amphibian, not the knitting type.
A girl can only sit in front of Netflicks watching Red Dwarf and knitting a sweater for so long. Plus, visitors are coming soon and my ratty looking ironing board lives in the guest room.
I followed no particular pattern or tutorial; it's an ironing board cover, not rocket science. The fabric was from my stash too, so I get to feel all wholesome about that. The real question is why did I have 2+ yards of poison arrow frog fabric sitting around?

Totoro

No trick or treating for us last night; we got dressed up after dinner and when asked if he wanted to go get candy, Monkey replied "No thanks!"

Really? You don't want to go next door and get a treat?

Nope.

Huh.

So we stayed in and watched My Neighbor Totoro for the millionth time, and I painted Chibi Totoro in Monkey's bedroom, to go with Chu Totoro who sits on top of his closet.

Happy Halloween!

Monkey is running around quite adorably, wearing a wolf suit I made like Max from Where the Wild Things Are. He likes the tail but is generally a stink about wearing the hood.

I am dressed as the planet Pluto. Rhinestones in my hair like stars, and a pink slip in my pocket from where I was fired. Very nerdy am I.

Have a wicked good night, everyone.

Netflix to the rescue

I have been knitting a pair of slippers for the last 10 days now, which seems pretty rediculous considering I am using worsted yarn held double on huge size 11 needles. But I haven't been especially rushed because I am mailing them off to Lawyerguy and his box won't be mailed out until something I ordered him arrived.

Well, it arrived today. Now I really need to get these knit.

They look so humongous, I keep chanting "believe the swatch" to keep myself from panicking. He has big feet, but still...

Thank goodness for Netflix. Now that Monkey has left for school I'm going to park myself on the couch until the second slipper is done.

Flight Suit

Pictures of the birthday project I made for my nephew. My brother is a helicopter pilot for the Army, so I made him a tiny flight suit.

It is sewn with Otaku-level attention to detail (except no pocket zippers, to keep it from being too stiff).

Happy Birthday little buddy!

Bed, version 1.2

The first major construction project since Lawyerguy left has been rebuilding Monkey's bed, since he is a destructive little demon. I really loved how it turned out initially, but between the jumping and the kicking he knocked the foot board loose. Not a problem! More screws, and I assumed all was well.

Assumed was the correct term because I must have had my head up my ass to think that furniture constructed with mere inch thick boards could survive my kid. The destruction continued and I needed to upgrade to 2x8s, 3 inch deck screws, and Gorilla glue. I also re-worked the mattress supports, as they had suffered too. There is no way to upgrade this bed in terms of strength now. If he destroys this, he is back to sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Next up is a bed frame for me, as soon as I stop being a chicken about committing to a design. Also, these cute little 9 patch blocks seem to be constructing themselves at my machine when I need just enough distraction to keep me from thinking.

Happy Monkey Day!

Happy Birthday little Monkey!

5 years old! I love you so much!

I'm back

I admittedly did not take a complete craft hiatus while preparing for deployment, because you all know darn well that sometimes preparations require a little craftiness. This made me feel like I could help him after he had left.


So Lawyerguy has been gone for 2 weeks now. We get to talk on the webcam every day, which makes things easier. Not easy, but easier. Monkey gets off the bus from school and runs to the computer to "say hi daddy!" which absolutely makes me swoon. Free from my Make Something Interesting For Dinner duties, I have concocted quite a list to keep me occupied. First up: Halloween (completed for Monkey, in progress for Nephew). Next in line is some major organizational projects, mostly involving power tools.

Friday flowers

As I've been absent for a couple weeks now, it will come to no one's surprise as I announce that I'll be on hiatus until Lawyerguy deploys on the 6th.

There will be much craftage after that. Right now I'm pretty occupied with gathering paperwork, special passports and sewing patches to new uniforms. I've also taken the wisdom from my friend Heather that "starting new projects is a sign of hope for the future" and created a To Do list full of awesome.Until then, the sunflowers that make me feel better about my gardening abilities; sweet yellow salve for the disappointing scar of my scraggly sad tomato plants. See you soon!

Self-defeating behaviors

Because I need another project like I need a hole in my head.

(Did I mention I just started Durrow for Lawyerguy? Who asked me yesterday if I would knit him a sweater? For Germany! He leaves in a month, holy crap.)