Happy New Year!

I received the sweetest email from Gwen yesterday, basically asking me what the heck had happened to me. Yes, it has been a month since I last posted what with Christmas and football keeping me from sewing a single stitch. (By the way, War Eagle!) I took the last two weeks of the year off and headed down home to Cotton Creek, AL. I had a lovely time - it was a wonderful Christmas, and the Carpenter came too, and experienced all that Cotton Creek had to offer. Let's see . . . we had snow flurries on Christmas day and we ate a lot; that's it, you are pretty much up to speed.

For Christmas, he gave me the Alabama Stitch Book, which I have been eyeing for ages. He apparently bought it after seeing it at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts when we went to see the Quilt Exhibit. The author, Natalie Chanin, is from just outside of Florence, Alabama, from a little corner called Lovelace Crossroads. The first page of her book shows an arial view of Lovelace Crossroads, and one of the houses was her grandparents', and is now hers. I find this love of home to be typical of folks from Alabama, and no matter how far they move away, it seems they usually race back as soon as they can.

The book is an interesting one because all of her stitching is done by hand, even her seams. As you know, I avoid handstitching like taxes. I usually find that one quarter inch Steam-A-Seam can fulfill most of my handbasting needs. I thought I would be bored, but I read every bit of the book. I don't know if it will inspire me to the extent that I would actually hand stitch reverse applique, but you never know. I do think her skirt is adorable (the one piece pattern is included in the back of the book) and it is made from old t-shirts. I do like the idea of recycling old t-shirts into a new purpose. I've never actually sewed any knits before, and this simple skirt may be the best way to start. Cheap, too. I don't have to embellish by hand like Ms. Chanin unless I want to.

Speaking of saving money, I went out and bought a dress from Anthropolgie to wear to my company Christmas party in December. I brought it home, tried it on again, but then I scrambled around in my closet, and found this dress which I made for the cruise Mother and I took in 2009. I decided to wear the dress I made instead because it fit better, looked more like a party dress, and saved me $ 168 since I took the Peggy Sue dress back to Anthropolgie with no regrets. I wore it with the full crinoline and no sash and got tons of compliments on it all night. This photo doesn't show much of dress, but it does show the Carpenter in a suit!

We had a great time at that party, but my re-entry into the working world this week has been brutal. After two weeks of cooking, eating, reading, and in general doing whatever I wanted to do, the enforced routine of getting up and out the door for work seems like the Bataan Death March. Not to mention the reduction in calories after a month of eating like I'm in Scotland on vacation (three full meals, plus medicial afternoon tea with restorative shortbread cookies). Trying to come down from that and exist on merely 1800 to 2000 calories a day appears somewhat ridiculous. When can I retire?

And speaking of retirement, I'm having lunch with VickiW tomorrow to collect my Christmas present, the fab tablerunner. As soon as I can I'll get a photo of it on the table the Carpenter made. I know it will look fantastic!

Crowded Head, Crowded Room

January has been an incredibly busy and stressful time at work. Those Christmas holidays were so long ago. And everything that I am trying to think about at once manifests themselves on my desk, my dining room table, the kitchen counter, and the floor of my bedroom. The more stressed I am, the messier my outer environs. Bottom line: you can tell what is going on in my brain by what my office or home looks like. This is what I was looking at this morning:

At last count, I ended up with nearly 20 fabrics for the black/white/red Double Wedding Ring Quilt. I only need 8. These are the six I picked for the arcs:

The DWRQ is a traditional pattern, but the color scheme I'm working with isn't traditional. And I wanted non-traditional black/white prints. I loved the one with the women dancing with the musical notes. And the rest I like because of their geometrical shapes. This is what they looked like once I cut them in strips:

For the corner squares, I wanted red and a tone-on-tone black. I had several reds to pick from as well; VickiW donated to the cause, as did Eileen. But in the end I went for this one, with a cool geometrical shape on it:

I needed 60 squares of this fabric, and I found the tea box VickiW gave me was perfect for storing 10 squares in each of the six compartments. Next, I chose my black, which I already had in my stash. It is tone-on-tone paisely print that I used in my mother's quilt:

I cut 60 of these squares and added them to the red ones in the tea box. Now they can't escape during this project!

With work being out of control, I decided I needed a day of sewing to help me get back in my meditative groove. After picking out my fabrics, I was ready to play with my new 18 inch templates from John Flynn for the DWRQ and make a test block. You may remember that I made my first block with the 15 inch templates and decided the 18 inch must be easier. I was right.

I made my first arc:

And then I made another three for the first block:

Only 94 more to go! Here are my first "footballs" as John Flynn calls them:

And here is the first block:

Here you can see the difference between the 15 inch block and the 18 inch I did today:

I can testify to the fact that the 18 inch is infinitely easier for a beginner like myself. My 45 mm rotary cutter was able to handle the curves on the templates MUCH better. Sewing the curves was WAY easier, and overall, it was a happier experience. I love the result. I love my red fabric. One block down, only 19 more to go.

Things I learned today:

1. The 38 mm rotary cutter I bought for this project is the brand I don't like. I need to remember that and not buy another one and give this one away.

2. I need smaller, finer pins for pinning these curves. The long quilting pins I have just aren't getting the job done. I think what I am looking for are applique pins.

3. I tried an experiment in making the "footballs": I used both the walking foot and my regular quarter inch foot in sewing the arcs to the curved middles of the footballs. Hands down, the regular quarter inch foot was better, easier to handle, and resulted in a smoother football which laid flat.

4. I need more Saturdays like this; sewing at will, baking bread, shopping for grocerys, and watching golf, to make me feel more composed during the week when work threatens to consume all my attention. Yay for the DWRQ!

No Parting Shot tonight; I wore myself out uploading these photos!