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!

Last Full Week of Maternity Leave

Sigh.  It's the last full week of my maternity leave.  Oh, what I wouldn't give to have another month to look forward to.  Not only because Baby E is becoming less larval everyday, but she's also settling into a delightful nap schedule which has allowed me to do all the laundry, dishes and tidying I need AND do things like sew and exercise.  Which makes my heart very happy.  But on the bright side, I did get a lot of things done around here that I'd hoped to.  Setting goals when dealing with a newborn is a dangerous thing.  The whole cliche thing of moms not being able to shower, brush their teeth, or feed themselves?  Totally and utterly true.  It's really amazing to go from a fully (mostly?) functional human being to a person who is just happy if she's got clean underwear on.

Anyway, on to today's sewing:

This is the 4th or 5th time I've used this pattern.  I keep going back to it because I love it.  You get lots of different fabrics, the rectangles aren't supposed to match up so you don't have to sweat lining corners up, basically it doesn't take a lot of brainpower and it's virtually impossible to screw it up.  Which is very important when every moment counts and the last thing I want to do is have to re-do something.

LOOK WHAT I DID TODAY

 

I SEWED.  I hoisted my sewing machine up on to the table, I threaded the needle, and I SEWED.  This is a moment almost three months in the making.  Even before Baby E was born (oh, right, I also gave birth.  Somehow that seems like less of a big deal.  Cuz, you know, that had to happen.  This was effort), I had to put away my sewing machine due to the kitchen construction taking over the rest of the house and my thoughts and energy.  But the kitchen is put back together at long last, Baby E is mercifully beginning to settle into a nap schedule so today was the day.  I SEWED.  Oh if only I didn't have to go back to work in 2 weeks.  Stupid mortgage and desired to buy food and things.

And speaking of the kitchen, there's this:

 

 Kitchen: done.  Ish.  Mostly.  Enough for me.  Please enjoy this fancy panoramic, complete with plastic bags strewn on the floor and boxes and milk crates shoved in the corner.  Martha Stewart, I am not.  But this is about as neat and tidy as this room is ever going to be.  I love it.  I love it love it.  Needs stools (oh and to pass inspection but that's another matter and it don't have anything to do with functionality of the space).  And new windows are on the way for the whole house.  Dude, I'm such a grown up.

And, just for cuteness, Baby E:

Complete with velour purple pants.  Girl clothes are every bit as fun as I thought they would be.

A Mistake Becomes A Revelation

That moment when you realize you just spent 20 minutes sewing the binding on to a quilt that needs to be done TONIGHT... to the wrong side of the quilt.  Panic.  Rage.  Regret you even chose this hobby.  And then... wait a second.  Instead of hand stitching the binding to the backing of the quilt... why don't you just fold it over and topstitch the binding to the front of the quilt.  Saving approximately 1 quadrillion hours of time and frustration.  Mind: blown.

Debut of Urban Zoologie monkey print.  Love those little bastards.

Finished quilting this one tonight.  It's the sister to the Bayside Baby Boy's quilt (that I believe I was too lazy to take a picture of).  So the next time one of my reproductive friends creates a girl human, I will be ahead of the game. 

Also, pancakes with attitude:

Two Quilt Tops

Two quilt tops done!  Complete with Capers' seal of approval.  The blue one is destined for Bayside Baby Boy 2013.  The recipient for the red one is TBD.  I'll keep you posted.

Quilt in Action - Foreign Service Edition

Remember the trip to the post office to send a baby quilt to Lima, Peru?  Probably not.  Well, I do!  And here is that baby and that quilt!  They are currently in Pennsylvania before heading out for another foreign service stint.  This quilt is going to be more well-traveled than I am...

Pretty Nice Little Saturday

Spent the morning on a private island in the Potomac.  No Big Deal.

And then unto us came a 3.5 hour nap (and still counting).  I have spent it creating a new custom cross stitch for my Etsy shop and sewed up these 135 squares.  Not Too Shabby.

Hey blog

Not much new to report. Currently in Aspen aka a completely different reality. One that does not involve bedtimes or diapers or trying to translate the utterings of a toddler. But does include television production that is a whole other world of its own. Mind: blown

[update]

I never actually published this post.  I blame the flips.  But regret nothing.

 A bunch of stuff has happened since last I posted some two months ago.  Here's a little tour:

We went to a baseball game.  Go Nats!  This was back when there was hope for a winning season.  The Rupper seems to know that no good can come from this team.

This hair happened and was hilarious.

I painted this.  So proud and a little tipsy.

We enjoyed the Memorial Day Parade in my hometown.

4 hours in the ER, 5 stitches, and 1 clumsy baby.

On our flight to California.  What an angel.

Summer time and living is easy.

Why aren't we still there.

The Rupper reluctantly enjoys the beach.

Home from vacation and met by a flat tire.  Insult to injury.

The Rupper's attends his first birthday party.  There were reservations about the ball pit.

More summer fun.

Let's not forget why we're here... the crafting.  Quilt top for Baby Girl RFL.

Binding will have to wait for another night.

Here's a little tease of the quilt top for Newest Corlette - hot off the presses today at 11 lbs. 4 oz.  Yowza. 

The last pic is of a full Pieces of Candy creation.  The Newest Corlette has been assigned the butterfly as her spirit animal, so of course I wanted to create a quilt accordingly.  I scoured the internet for the perfect fabric and came up with this:

Super cute, right?  I secured the delivery of two yards of this fabric with absolutely no idea what I wanted to make with it.  As I started looking through my stash I found 2 fat quarter medleys from Keepsake Quilting - butterfly themed batiks that came as a part of my stash inheritance.  It was too perfect to pass up - all the coordinated fabric I would need (backing and binding included) to make a cute little quilt.  And the sentiment was there as well - my mom knew the Corlettes and had in fact made a few gifts for MJ - a little sweater and adorable pair of pants.  I think she thought of her as kind of a starter grandchild.

said sweater.

As always, I love making things to share with my friends and family, especially when there is a baby involved.  Let's be honest, there's always a baby involved.  I love working on these projects, feeling thankful that I have people in my life that I can inflict my obsession upon, and looking forward to getting to know whoever this little person will become. 

Braving the Post Office

Wow.  I just had the most wonderful experience.  At a post office, no less.  I wanted to send a package to my Diplomat Friend, who is living in Peru.  And while I like to think of myself as a savvy internet person, the USPS website was, let's just say, less than helpful with this endeavor.  I was very close to just giving up altogether and saying screw it, I'll give her the gift when she gets back in August.  But then I realized that my huge ego wanted validation that NOT ONLY did I hand make a quilt for her baby, but I was thoughtful enough to make the effort to figure out how to send something to Peru!  As it usually does, my ego won out and I decided I should just suck it up and go to the Post Office.  Which is usually the most dreadful experience.  Long lines, stupid people.  Not today.  The place was deserted and the guy behind the counter was dazzlingly knowledgeable and fast with the customs forms, labeling and everything else I needed.  So while I did nothing really at all, I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

Here's a photo of said quilt:

 No big deal.  (I'm practicing my humble brag)

March Madness

Well.  Haven't the last two months zoomed by.  I'm not quite sure how that happened.  But I can say that I have spent a lot of time on my *fab* new Etsy shop - pieces of candy crafts aka https://www.etsy.com/shop/piecesofcandycrafts

I had a few quilts lying around that I decided to try and sell online.  The photos came out, well, crappy.  So the ads do not convey the well crafted snuggliness of said quilts.  But I have a few baby gifts that I need to dole, so I suspect all will work out for the best.

The main products I am schilling on pieces of candy are cross stitch patterns.  I could probably spend weeks on end playing around on MacStitch, my cross stitch pattern software program of choice.  *buzz market*  The most popular pattern is that of a baby announcement that is very simple and modern, with a little elephant design.  These designs are certain nothing ground breaking and I will have to keep my day job.  But I like them, they make me happy, and the 6 or 7 people that I have customized the pattern for seem happy as well.

I was commissioned to stitch a few of these for a nice woman in NY.  I am waaayyy undercharging her (basically just for the cost of materials plus about $10, which works out to approximately $.00000001 per hour of labor), but they are fun to work on and I like the idea of my work hanging on someone's child's walls. 

So we'll see where this goes.  I'll have to post photos of the Fetus Charlie's Hungry Caterpillar quilt - the only other project I've been working on lately.  I boldly decided to free motion quilt.  I had a lot of faith in my Husqvarna quilting machine. *buzzzz*  I won't keep you in suspense - it turned out beautifully!  It seems pinning the crap out of it yielded great results.  I loved the way that you couldn't do it wrong.  Unlike stitch in the ditch or lines at right angles, anything went and you didn't have to sweat the small mistakes here and there.  The most annoying part was that my thread broke alot - I don't know if I should have been using a heavier thread or what.  Something I will have to investigate before my next FMQ project.

And for good measure, here is the Rupper:

My 3rd Quilt - from way back in the day

Pulled out a blast from the past this weekend and grabbed a few pics of it.  This lil guy doesn't really have a home.  Between being made with not the most beautiful fabric in the world and being too small to be a lap quilt but too big to be a wall hanging, it has been doomed to spend it's days folded up on my bookshelf.  But for a first time out with the flying geese pattern, it's really not so bad at all.

Today was Day 2 of my attempt to complete Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (cue buzz marketing).  I am making the somewhat small concession that this will have to be mostly a weekday activity since weekend go by in a bit of a blur and even carving out 20 minutes for a fitness routine can be an impossible dream.  Day 1 was Friday - I took a chance and started with the Level 2 workout.  Lo and behold I was able to complete it and even felt great afterwards.  Apparently my daily encounters with the Rupper have built up some decent strength.  So 2 down, 28 to go.  We are a far cry from marathon training... but it's something.

Ali finally finishes something

2 things, actually.  Here's the first:

 

This here pacifier clip is going to go with the blue and yellow quilt currently in progress for the yet to be born Swets Thing 1.  Progress on that quilt and the pink and green quilt for Swets Thing 2 has been laughably slow.  They were starting in April.  They are not complicated. Ah well.  I'd been wanting to make a paci clip for a while, since it is one of the most useful inventions of all time.  It took some doing to figure out what I could find to make the loop.  Since I don't get out to brick and mortar stores all that much anymore, I relied on internet descriptions and ordered a few products that weren't quite what the doctor ordered.  Finally I happened upon some silk rat tail cord which seems to be doing the trick.  Unfortunate name for a nice product.

Before I share the 2nd thing I finished, above a few happy pics of cute guitar fabric that I Amazon'd while working last Saturday (Treat Yo Self), a few scraps thrown in by the good folk at ShuShu Style, and Angry Cat making use of The Rupper's playmat.

This item can be filed under the good new/bad news category.  Good news:  I finished this beautiful quilt.  Bad news: The top to this quilt was created by my mom and left unfinished.  It's just one of so many projects that I found in her craft room after her memorial service.  Half a dozen were in progress, and she had bought fabric for at least another dozen projects of various sorts.  I remember one day hanging out with her in that room (which used to be my bedroom, before that my brother's room, before that my parents' bedroom) and she said half joking, this will all be yours when I'm dead.  And so it is.  I've committed myself to finishing each and every project she set out to make.  An honor, a legacy.  This is the second thing I've finished - for Christmas I made a little cupcake mini quilt for my sister-in-law.  There was no indication that she had meant it for Kim, but there was no doubt in my mind.  So back to the good news: I had an epiphany today that I would send this quilt to my Uncle Jim (my dad's brother).  Bad news:  I thought of sending this to Jim because he's stuck in the hospital with hepatitis.  Dragsville.  But hopefully the quilt will cheer him a bit, and it makes me feel good that it will go to a good home.

I'm new to the quilt labeling game.  Needs improvement.  A well placed little star helps balance out the poorly centered inscription.