Flunking blogging, oh well

I haven't been contributing to my own blog. It's not like I haven't been busy!
New Grandson Kian keeps me busy. Just picked up little mister yesterday from the day care. I drove him to his house and we spent an hour playing on the floor. He's in love with the cat, but the cat is old and cranky and doesn't want to have anything to do with a grabby 10 month old.

I have the best part-time job in the world at the Portsmouth Fabric Company. OK, so no job is perfect. It was 90 in there the other day. And there's too much to do. We need more help.
But I'm working with so many talented women. Everyone is generous with their thoughts. People come in with quilts they are working on looking for the fabric for borders, binding and backs. I get to see so many wonderful quilt tops. Most of the staff and customers also knit, sew, paint. I'm in pattern-hue land.

Maybe I'll blog again soon.

Meet Puma - She fits right in, a thoroughbred!

Back to the Studio

Haven't been around for a while. Taking care of "muh babe", the new and only grandchild. Could be a full time career, but his mother won't give him up and he wears me out in a day. Sigh.

New baby pics

Since I became a grandmother last December I've had to prioritize, the same as anyone who has new things in life. I have made a second quilt, but I don't have any pictures of that quilt. All I have today are pictures of my new grandson.

Thanks

It's lovely to have these wonderful comments. Thank you Emilie and Cheryl and Vicki. This makes me want to make more quilts.

Thanks Emilie, I never expected the designer to weigh in, it means a lot; and Leisure Arts too, thank you Cheryl for taking the time to leave your compliment. Vicki, I love bright quilts too. This one spoke to me and said happy. One other thing about making this quilt that makes it even more special is that I'm giving it away, this one to my grandson. That makes it even better.

no one but me is responsible

This is what happens when you get someone with ADD to self-design a quilt. See that little froggy border and the leopard yellow innerborder stripe. See how some of the yellows are from different planets and the froggies don't belong at all. Well, they do if I say they do. So there. This started out as a perfectly respectable and predictable quilt from a lovely book by Emilie Richards. Don't blame her.

All I can say is --- exuberance.

Inner borders with star corner blocks

Aahhhhh. Working towards completion. Here you can see the inner borders. A little small to see the froggies, but I love the stars.

Looks a lot busier on the other side of the Atlantic

Hee's the other side. This is all I'm going to do on the site for a little while. Computer time is biting into time for making the quilt.

However, I'm happy that the primary colors used for the map match much better the crayon colors in the blocks. the green inner border is a little off, but when you count in the bonus of having frogs in the quilt, I could hardly say no.

The world, no less

Here is the replacement border print. I looked through my viewfinder. I'll just cut strips 6 inches wide. the most useable parts of the map are 24" from top to bottom. That'll give me 4 strips at about 55" wide to cut the required 2 @ 6 x 52 3/4 and 2 @ 6 x 63 3/4.

Kian's quilt makes design changes

This is a part of the original six inch outer border. It's a series of cowboys, roping, sitting on fences, etc. You cowpokes have been sent out to pasture to perhaps appear in later productions. thanks for the enthusiasm and all your hard work.

Kian John Clarke

Kian is 39 hours old. His profile is very much like his mother's. They were silhouetted against the window at dusk, beautiful as she held him wrapped up in front of her, their faces close. I took a pic with their camera. It will take a little Photoshop to get it right.

Daddy is asleep on the pull out recliner as this is going on. His missing socks are found in a drawer in the bassinet. they are about the size of postage stamps.

I took a few hours off to visit the Chinese House at the Peabody Essex. There are 16 rooms around an open courtyard. The rooms are the size of a walk-in closet. If even a minimum of 8 families lived in the rooms ( one room to a family) that would make about 32 people at a time living in the house. I do like Chinese New Year, blessings all around, plenty of firecrackers and those great snaky dragons. what a hoot.

The family will likely be going home tomorrow. They will all be happy. They have been living like those Chinese families, except with just a little bit more space and take out from Chili's. The baby is so cute. So cute. Ian mused about how human babies are the most vulnerable babies on the planet. I bet he's thinking about that a lot lately. He's sure-handed, fully at ease. He's a great dad; just the right combination of fun and delicacy. Janine is happy to hold Kian with her boppy. Why didn't they have cool stuff like that when I was a new mom?

Commedia d'el Arte and Real lives

Went up with a friend on Friday night to USM to the Russell Theater to see A Servant of Two Masters - with Truffaldino and all the characters. The costumes were all themed for recycling, with mops and strippy black plastic trash bags for wigs, a carboretor filter for a ruff, bubblewrap for outer skirt and bow trims, curly ribbon for hair, candy wrappers sewed on as an edge trim on a skirt, and on and on.

The ensemble was really working together. The whole thing was so well done, and very funny. What a great time, and pretty instructive too. Now I can see the roots of Lucille Ball, Robin Williams, Gene Wilder, vaudeville too. My companion was knowledgeable and very generous with information. Had a great time.

The rest of the weekend was so much fun. A pre-Thanksgiving party. The Scotch swap was things from our own houses we would put in a yard sale - to be wrapped in a paper grocery sack. It was MUCH more fun that boughtn stuff.

Then a shower for a great niece. Full of charm and laughs and loveliness - a girl is coming. My own DDIL is "so done" She's due in 12 days with my very first grandchild. Her skin is luminescent. My son is going to make a great dad.

Tues. Nov. 14, 2006

- Shopping for fiber

I went North today to the wilderness of Biddeford, Maine where they are just about finished installing Biddeford Complex, a huge complex of all the usual shops, Linens and things, Chili's, Appleby's, Target. Why travel anymore. WalMart is there too, oh, excuse me, a WalMart Superstore.

Anyone out there remember the Gum Department store in pre-Perestroika Moscow. It was practically the only place to shop and all us Westerners pitied the poor Russians with so few choices. Who knows? I was forced to go there. WalMart, not Moscow, because I had looked at three other stores for GooBeGone to try to get burnt on fabric starch off my expensive iron. I'm ready to get out the sandpaper, the GooBeGone is not working.

Kian's almost quilt

Here's 100 blocks up on my design board. They are quarter triangle squares, that means 400 pieces. If I weren't using stitch and cut methods, I'd be off to Chatahootchie. I still have the joining all the blocks, outside bands, name on the quilt, backing, batting and binding, etc. It's all coming along. I just love the crayon colors.

I have to giddyup, Ian and Janine's first baby and my very first grandchild is due in the beginning of December.

sewing and quilting

Then I was sewing, now I am quilting. See what anticipation of becoming a grandmother can do. I like the idea of a grandmother running Congress. What a concept. Grandmothers, wisewomen, crones. The time has come.