The Art of Richard Thompson

The company I work for (when I'm not on maternity leave) released a new short film today, titled The Art of Richard Thompson

It's a profile of sorts of a local cartoonist - a guy thought of as the "cartoonist's cartoonist."  It seems like either you have no idea who he is or you loooove him and his work.  6 months ago I was the former, but now I belong in the latter group.  The guy is so smart it's scary.  He has changed the way I look at cartoons - not just strips but magazine illustrations, caricatures, all of it.  I always knew drawing is something that I cannot do (it has become abundantly clear when trying to color with the Rupper) but I completely took for granted how brilliant it can be.  Anyway, take a look if you've got a minute or two or twenty.  Maybe it can change your view as well.

Also, obvi, I sewed.  I'm on a serious roll here.  Here's what I did today:

Another quilt using my favorite pattern.  Looking good.  This is a pieces of candy quilt - the turtles and the frog/paisley fabrics come from my mom's stash.  They look real swell.

Also:

I finally finished the snow men quilt!  This is also straight out of pieces of candy.  It's sat idle for a while.  But now it's done and ready to have someone snuggle underneath it.  Yay!

All Pinned Up

I've had this snowman top in my possession for almost three years now.  It's a part of the pieces of Candy collection, one of the last almost completed projects she left behind.  All I had to do was add buttons to the snowmen (eyes, noses, smiles), quilt it, bind it.  Apparently, easier said than done.  But here was are, one step closer.  I have no idea how I am going to go about quilting it, maybe that's been what has put me off.  We shall see.

The truth is, there has not been much crafting going on over the past few weeks.  I am the circle of life embodied.  And either side you look at is tiring enough, but birth and death happening at once is downright exhausting.  Nausea, heartburn, trying to keep up with a two year old on one hand... hospice, funeral arrangements and trying to keep up with a two year old on the other.



My uncle had a good line.
"It's like someone telling you that the Atlantic Ocean isn't there anymore."
Pretty much sums it up.

Epic Scrap Quilt and a Few Other Things

The Epic Scrap Quilt was born out of a few objectives.  One was that I needed a project that I didn't have to measure, count, match, or really thing about at all.  The other was that I wanted to use up as many of my crappy scraps as I could.  So I started cutting strips that are 1.5 inches in width and haphazard lengths.  And I started sewing them together randomly.  Strips started out quite short, only 2 or 3 inches long.  That quickly started driving my crazy, so I decided to make some longer pieces, like 9 or 10 inches.  Here's what I've got so far.  I decided that this Epic Scrap Quilt will be 72" square.  So it's gonna take some time.

Pile o' Scraps

 

 

Pile o' Strips.  Got a ways to go.

Here's a project I'm determined to finish - it's from the Pieces of Candy collection:

The top is all done except for sewing a few buttons on to act as eyes and mouths.  Then it will just need to be tied (I'm way too terrified of ruining it to attempt to machine quilt), bound and labeled.

And here are just a few shots of some random quilts.  Finished projects.  A rarity that needs to be noted.

blurtastic

I made four quilts that are almost identical.  The fabric is flannel... so warm and snuggly.

snuggletastic

One more day until vacation.  Can't.  Hardly.  Wait.  I get to hang out with this kid for a week: