My Old, Old Project is coming along: Now the Starburst Quilt

The Starburst Quilt in process, 2013

I feel I need to add the year as I do these steps because as I suggested previously, I started this project while I was still in high school. (I think I did anyway. Or maybe I started it the summer after first year. Regardless, in the early 2000s.)

My normal clutter mantra is to get rid of things like this. This has been my one exception because when I took out, I felt inspired. I don't know why. Old, unfinished projects rarely give me this feeling. And then I just get rid of them because I am busy and I don't need to feel guilty about things that I am not doing--because I am doing plenty of new things. And new stuff is always funner than old stuff.

Except in this case.

Now I have appliqued the pieces onto this dark blue fabric and I'm debating what to do. The blue fabric was at the recommendation of my mother who thought it would give it a good contrast. I agree. But now what? Maybe my mom will have to take it home with her and think about it... (Heads up, mom.)

I am also debating on whether I should make it big enough for a twin because we are increasing the number of twin beds we have in our house yet again.

Slow Cookbook-ing

Since finishing up all my quilts last year, I decided to take a little break from sewing. Mostly this is due to my more active baby coupled with the fact that my sewing room is deep in the basement, about as far away from everything as possible.

Instead, I started reading more. And I read Francine Jay's The Joy of Less. What an unbelievable book! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to streamline their life. So I started to purge and downsize and generally question why I have so many things in my life. And one of the things that I have a few of in my life is cookbooks.

We all have them: cookbooks we like for only one recipe. Cookbooks with nice photos. Cookbooks that we got as a gift from our husband on an overnight trip to Denver about quesadillas when we really just like our standard quesadilla recipe with the cheese and salsa. Okay, he's a great guy, but maybe not the best gift giver. I am very happy with him.

So we have these cookbooks, but if we were honest with ourselves, we know that we really only use a few recipes and can chuck the rest.

Enter "Slow Cookbook-ing."

I am compiling all my favourite recipes (about 100 including 50 dessert recipes!) into one book that I will then get printed off. It is a full colour monster and I am about half done. To finish it off, I am going to write the most awesome index in the world so I can find all the recipes that I want instead of flipping through my hodge-podge cookbook with the glued-in recipes that I currently have.

It's a dream that's becoming a reality. Very slowly. Especially with the kids. But I plug away at it everyday and I'm hoping to be done sometime before my birthday in February.

Happy 30th birthday to me!

My Old, Old, Old Projects

A colour wash flip-n-stitch

I started this maybe when I was in high school. There are only two blocks finished, but I still have it and remarkably, I still like it.

This is in direct contrast to other quilt projects that have come and gone in my life. My mother pointed out that every quilt you make tends to be more beautiful than the last. I believe this to be true because our brain, the amazing machine it is, continues to change as we do new things.

As you may note from my other quilts (notably my I-Spy), I like the vibrant colours (no thank you to beige) and I also like the colour wash effect.

So this quilt is on my mind. I spend a lot of time just thinking of things as I'm doing the dishes and sitting with the baby and... I'm hoping to come back to this one again, although I'm thinking of changing the pattern a bit.

Redwork Nursery Rhymes

Redwork

This is a first. I don't really have any projects on the go.

Okay, that's somewhat a lie considering that I don't believe in sitting still and I am notorious for neglecting my housework to do my various projects. These days, this includes dealing with all the photos since I got married 9 years ago, editing and restructuring a YA book I wrote in 2005 and sorting through my junk in the basement.

For sewing, I am working on a redwork project. Redwork is basically embroidery done entirely in red. This comes from a time when there was only one colour of cotton thread which was... wait for it... red. (Other threads were made from silk and much more costly.)

These are all nursery rhymes. I will have 12 of them eventually, but right now, I have one.

The week of endings

I Spy quilt finished. Pleated border. Buttons. 384 appliqued "I Spy" squares.

And then the I Spy quilt. It is finished! For many of you who see me out and about, you know that I have been plugging away on this baby for the past two years or so. I had a little Le Kit box that was from my childhood which I carted around in my diaper bag. At every spare moment, I would sew on a couple of little squares. At the drop-in centre. At the pool. At the playground. I was trying to bring in applique like the knitters brought in knitting.

For the backing, I used an old sarong I got from Nelson, BC back when I was in high school. It was the sarong I was wearing when I met my husband, although I haven't worn it in a long time and I don't plan to again.


My Non-Quilt Related Observations--Making It Work

Detail of "I Spy" quilt. 2012

I am often asked how we can afford to have four children with only one income. In the first place, my husband is a skilled professional who is an excellent provider and husband. (This is why I married him!) That being said, there are many people in his place of employment where BOTH parents are skilled professionals. I sometimes think that I could be a skilled professional if I had someone to watch all my kids, but this isn't the life we are choosing.

My life works well because I use two "exciting" economizing strategies: "making it work" and "waiting it out." Making it work means using things I already have to do tasks that often require other tools. This works for cookware (using a wine bottle for a rolling pin or envelopes for a funnel) to kids toys (yogurt container sandcastles, anyone?) to quilting (sarongs can be a backing!).

The point is, if you have something that works okay, just use it. Marketers and stores are trying to tell you that you NEED a quesadilla maker. (I will admit that I currently have two waffle makers though.) Also, I fight the urge to get all the attachments to any product that I use. I don't need the pasta maker that goes onto my mixer. I just don't. I look at a need I think I have and then spend my time trying to find another way to fill it. D doesn't have any shorts, but he does have a pair of holey sweat pants.
holey sweat pant + scissors = shorts

My second strategy is waiting it out. I use this primarily in our housing, but also in many other things. I might think I need a bigger house, but I'm planning on waiting until I feel I NEED a bigger house and then I plan on waiting another year. I try to do the same for everything else as well. When I feel I need a new t-shirt, I start by doing laundry. Then eventually I realize that I only have one shirt that doesn't have oil stains on it before I go out and find more. (This oil stains are getting more common since we started an exciting future with "Deep Fried Sundays." Good for the tastebuds, but not for the waistline.)

These could both be summarized by "buying less" but I believe that people generally know that to live more economically, they need to buy less. (Or maybe they think they can just buy cheaper although I don't subscribe to this.)

Finished?

Finished Sashiko Lone Star May 2012

I am done! And a few days left until the Regina quilt show.

I have come to really love the simple lines and shapes of sashiko quilting. They are so appealing to my math brain.

I have long thought of myself as an "unartistic" person, but I realize now that most of this is from the fact that I am not a great sketcher. Compared to the kids, I am pro, but I use many Ed Emberely books to get my bugs and creatures to look realistic-ish.

Sashiko Lone Star detail

But sashiko appeals to me because it seems so "mathy." I used a pattern called Ganzezashi or sea urchin stitch from a book I got from the library. If anyone is at all interested, there are tons of books you can get from the library. I could see decorating many things with the geometric marvels of sashiko.

I am wondering if I should have done more sashiko on the corners. More diagonal lines. More star points. Thoughts?

I Spy progress

I Spy quilt with pleated borders and buttons

 We are really progressing. I have stalled out a tiny bit because I am working on my Lone Star quilt which I am also almost finished.

Am I just procrastinating because I don't actually really want to be finished? Maybe. But also, what am I going to do once I am finished these two big projects?

More buttons on the I Spy quilt

I'm sure I will find something. I did get some interesting books out of the library. Anyone heard of Furoshiki?

And I do have about 30 dress shirts that are in a box downstairs waiting for me.

Or maybe I'll play with my kids more. I can't hide behind unfinished quilts all of the time!





PS My number one comment about this blog thus far has been about the "pre-cut dental floss." I admit, I thought this was very funny. Unfortunately, I am not the funniest member of my household and it was my darling husband who, regarding a new great idea I had for economizing from my favourite book*, said, "I hope you don't read something about cutting my dental floss."

How crazy is that? So I asked him how crazy he thought I was. The short answer: very.

He elaborated: "I wouldn't be surprised that after some type of analysis, you would have us all wearing black garbage bags with holes cut for the head and arms."

I questioned this: "Aren't plastic garbage bags very unenvironmental?"

Then he used my greatest asset against me: my inability to take anything on feel ("Kraft Dinner doesn't feel expensive") and instead get out the calculator and crunch the numbers**  ("Kraft Dinner is ridiculously expensive compared to homemade macaroni! We are never buying it again!"***).

Him: "You'll factor in the resources used in black plastic bags compared to the pollutants created per article of clothing from harvesting the cotton, to sewing it in a factory, shipping it to Canada, and driving it to the store... You are just too rational."

*The Complete Tightwad's Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
**In the past week, I have have calculated:
1. How much my iron costs to run (4 cents per hour on cotton with high steam)
2. How much it costs to make a pot of coffee at home with a paper filter (2.5 cents/filter, 3.5 cents/coffee grounds, water and electricity are negligible)
3. The return on keeping $1500 in our chequing account so they don't charge us fees ($72/year equals 4.8%--much better than putting this money into savings)
4. How much money we have spent on Cadbury Cream Eggs since Easter (much too much, but I won't go into those details)
***He told me that we could have it for "special occasions." I took this to mean our 9th anniversary coming up this summer. Romantic. If you would like to come, tell us ahead of time and we'll splurge and get two boxes!

I Spy is almost there

I Spy appliqued quilt with pleated borders

I am really getting there. Now I need to decide how I'm going to quilt it. I am not feeling like machine quilting it. Nor am I feeling like I want to hand quilt it. But I was thinking that I could use little buttons to sew it all together. I have a million little white buttons from various dress shirts that I have been given for recycled quilts.

Unless there is a better idea that I'm not thinking of...

I Can Wait

People say it all the time, mostly without thinking.

"I can't wait."

I probably say it. My main source of feedback right now is a four-year-old who repeats things like, "Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness." Which is something I must be saying. (She also says it with an inflection that I find really funny, which I now realize means that I am laughing at myself.)

I-spy quilt April 2012 These squares are all hand appliqued. All 384 of them.

In life, there are things that we look forward to. But can we really not wait? Can't we enjoy the process?

I must admit that I have been working on my I-spy quilt for a long time now. Finally, it is starting to come to the end. But I can still wait for it to be finished. It will be finished... I just need to keep plodding along with it. And I don't want to start rushing now because I am (relatively) close to finishing it.

I've heard it a hundred times, but a person who writes a page a day will have a book at the end of one year. Like many resolutions, few people will ever go to the trouble of writing a page a day. I just need to remember to keep working.

But I must say this is really starting to shape up.