Halloween 2012

It's Halloween today, and it's also our city's beggar's night.  It is rainy and freezing outside.  My kids are not that crazy about the idea of going out in the weather and, truth be told, neither am I.  Luckily for them, I bought candy that they like, so I figured I might just set up a fun scavenger hunt in the house for them to find candy. 

Thinking back to last year's Halloween, I can see how different things were for me.  I was so overwhelmed with work that I couldn't even think about anything other than store-bought costumes.  And I am in no way dissing store bought costumes at all.  There are some really cute ones, and just because you can make something doesn't mean you have to, right?  This year, we're going with a combo of store bought + handmade.  My little guy really wanted to be Batman, so I purchased a costume at Target.  Unfortunately, the mask was too big, and the cape was super lame.  I traced another cape we have to make a pattern, scalloped the bottom edges, and it was a easy way to make a black satin Batman cape.  He loves it!



I tried to re-work the mask from the costume, but that was an utterly comic failure.  So I found myself at Target again this morning to pick up a simple eye mask.  I'm working on an easy black fleece hat (did I mention it's freezing?) to which I'll affix Batman ears.



Lauren has decided to be a gumball machine for Halloween. I saw this costume on Inchmark, showed it to her, and she was all about it.  The picture above is from our first version.  I glued a bowl into a bigger bowl filled with pom poms and added a hanging string, but it didn't go over well with Lauren.  The bowl edge kept hitting her chin, and tears are not a good costume feature.  I reworked that part by using a hot glue to stick a ton of pom poms onto a paper plate in a giant mound.  Not only does it look better, but we can not stick that on the outside of her coat so she can stay warm tonight.  Make it work!



I don't think we carved pumpkins last year. We didn't even make it to the pumpkin farm this year - these are lovely, cheap grocery store pumpkins. A stormy grey Sunday provided the perfect backdrop for carving pumpkins last weekend. Lauren chose the design for the one on the right, and Eli decided he wanted a dragon pumpkin. He is obsessed with the movie How to Train Your Dragon (it really is cute). I searched online for a template, drew it on, and that's how we got a Toothless pumpkin.



We had an extra pumpkin, and we made it into a friendly ghost.



Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

(For Instagram folks, these pictures are old news...sorry!)

do Good Stitches quilt

This quilt was a collaboration of the Imagine do. Good Stitches circle. These ladies are so talented, as you can tell by the beautiful blocks that they put together. Since I was the quilter for this particular month's quilt, I decided to use a block designed by Alissa Haight Carlton for Sew Mama Sew's Modern Block of the Month series. We were to use a white background and bright colors. I have major triangle angst, so this was my way to trying to tackle it. Points, matching, precision...these are not my strong qualities! I loved seeing the blocks pop up on Flickr and was even more delighted when they started showing up in my mailbox!



These blocks were really fun to put together, and it's a great one for using up pretty bits of scrap fabric. These are my two contributions to the quilt.



I have to confess that it was pretty thriling to tackle these triangles and see a few sharp points turn out!



The back was some fabric from my stash that I think I picked up from JoAnn some time back, and the quilting was simple meanandering lines on the diagonal. I hand stitched the do.Good label on the back and sent it off to Threading Hope, which is the group's charity.

These do.Good quilting circles are putting lots of love and beautiful quilts out into the world. Earlier this year, I had to step down from the quilting circle, because my work and life commitments were overwhelming for a while. Happily, there have been some changes since then! Last Friday was my last day at my job, and I have entered the world of self-employment. I'm staying in the same field, but this opportunity gives me much more freedom. I feel really fortunate to have a contract at a time when many are seeking employment. And I hope that this change will free up more time for me to spend with my family and on creative endeavors.

Just for me

I can't help myself
this need
to pull the zipper down
tooth by tooth
and show you all my secrets
I ebb (confidence)
and flow (regret)
An endless cycle
because the moon
refuses to stop its dance
around the Earth
One day, I say,
I'll learn to keep
a piece
just for me

Ohio Still

This quilt has a very special destination this week. It will be hanging in an exhibit by the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild at the International Quilt Festival on April 13-15, 2012. I'm so excited to be a part of the first display of modern quilts at an IQF show. Our exhibit is based on modern interpretations of the Ohio Star, a traditional quilting block. And the work our guild members have created is absolutely spectacular. You can see a few examples of the other quilts that will be on display here and here and here and here. They are expecting around 18,000 people to come to the show the weekend, and it's wild to think about that many eyes on our work. What an honor!



I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out. I started it knowing that I would use three stars of varying sizes, but the rest was mostly improvisational designed. The herringbone centers were really fun to put together, and they add interest to the otherwise neutral palette.



I pieced the binding to blend in to the design with the exception of a few pieced strips to balance out the colors. That strategically pieced binding is starting to feel like my 'thing' now. I do love it.

When we agreed to participate in the show, we had to fill out individual loan agreements for our quilts. I had to do things like place a value on my work and create an artist's statement. Very legitimate artist-y kind of things. Artist...first I had to accept that I fit the criteria for that word before I could craft a statement. I have always dreamed of being an artist of some sort but would never actually have thought to call myself one. In the end, I decided that if the IQF considers me an artist, I guess it must be so.

Below is the artist's statement that I submitted with my quilt:

"This quilt was made as part of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild’s project to modernize the Ohio Star block. My main goal in making this quilt was to reflect what I love about Ohio. While state has three major metropolitan areas, our agricultural roots are strong. Various shades of brown and tan represent the land and fields of Ohio. The green and blue represent pastures and sky. I chose to make three stars in different sizes, each with a pieced herringbone center square. The use of mostly solids, improvisational piecing, and machine quilting reflect some of the techniques used in the modern quilting. The overall quilting design is a series of intersecting lines in light blue and tan, and the binding is pieced to blend into the design. I am so honored to be a part of this series, which shows how the modern quilt movement, much like the state of Ohio, is rooted in rich tradition."



If you're planning on coming down to the IQF show on Saturday, April 14, I do hope that you will join the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild at our Modern Meet-Up at the Hyatt Regency hotel at 8:00 pm. We have some great sponsors and amazing door prizes, and we would love to meet you! You can read more about that over on our blog.

Words from the road

photo by Lauren taken during a walk yesterday.
words by me last week.

Being a working mom means I do a lot of juggling. I handle everything from laundry to permission slips, drop offs and pick ups, conference calls, deadlines and dinner. This week, I traveled the length of Ohio on Interstate 75 multiple times. I missed family dinners and bedtimes and a field trip. It isn't always like that. I'm fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from a home office and some flexibility in my schedule. But then again, some weeks look like this week.

I arrived at my site yesterday after an early wake up and a three and a half hour drive, conducted a long presentation for a room full of people, then drove another two and a half hours to my hotel in the next city. My evening was spent in my yoga pants answering emails, writing reports, organizing, and reviewing until I looked up at eight o'clock and reminded myself to eat. I grabbed a quick dinner and stopped into a bookstore to pick up a birthday gift for a party Eli is attending this weekend. I treated myself to about 30 minutes of leisurely browsing before heading back to settle in for the night.

But here is the gift of this week. Today's meeting is later in the day. I am writing this from a Cracker Barrel sipping a hot cup of coffee, having just read my hotel-provided USA Today. I am sitting next to a couple with their newborn baby. The baby is sleeping in his carseat while both parents are looking at pictures of that same baby on their cell phones. They are pointing out their favorites to each other. They are emitting the joy that comes from those first falling in love weeks of new parenthood. I am happier just having seen this. There are other people here, workers on hold due to the rain, family members meeting up and talking about other family members, older men dining alone.

Sometimes on these rougher weeks, I let myself fantasize about the life I would live if I didn't have a job. I would have a rocking body since I would be at the gym every day. We would eat all organic, from scratch dinners every night. I'd have a plot in the community garden where I could grow my own vegetables, which I would preserve myself to use during the winter. My kids would be in the best activities, and we would craft together every day while they wore clothes made by my hands. Did I mention that in this fantasy we have won the lottery, hired a a gardener, personal chef, personal trainer, and a live-in housekeeper. Yes...it is truly a fantasy.

This is today's reality. We just mailed in the last payment on my student loans. They took a full decade to pay off, and I thought this day would never come. Those loans allowed me to get a degree. To work as a nurse, where I became intimately acquainted with the delicateness of life. Where I learned what matters. Those loans let me pursue a career that would lead me to this current position, which allows me to make it to most of the school parties and field trips and after school activities. It's not perfect, and it's not my passion, but it works for today. And I am grateful for the gift of this leisurely morning. For saying yes to the second cup of coffee. For the adoring smiles of new parents gazing at their sleeping child. For spending time with this notepad and pen. And that will make today's long meeting and three and a half hour drive home a little easier to swallow.

The Peace of Wild Things

The other night, we were getting ready for dinner. It is one of my favorite times of day when everyone pitches in as a team. The kids were helping set the table in their careful way. I peeked over and saw the concentration in Eli's face as he placed the silverware just so at each place. And I thought, 'this is just the best'.

I tend to get overwhelmed sometimes. I think a lot of us creative folk do, given our busy interior lives (often on top of our busy exterior lives). I get overwhelmed when I try to figure out how exactly I am going to be able to learn how to play the upright bass and guitar, paint, glaze pottery, visit France, become a yoga instructor, knit something with cables, develop of meditation practice, become a writer, make all the quilts I want to make, and on and on in my lifetime. When I put all the things I want to learn and do and the places I want to go in a list, it overwhelms me. And this doesn't even include the wish list for our family. It's probably a little too much for one lifetime. I know that. I guess it's probably best not to think of these things in terms of a giant to-do list. Because there's a lot of life that needs to go and will go on whether or not these things get done. Spring will come after winter. Summer will come after spring. And so on.

So on this night, with the music playing in the background and my daughter praising her brother on his table setting skills, I forgot about it for a while. We laughed over the dinner table. We were silly. After dinner, we made popcorn in the air popper much to the kids' delight, and I let them watch a movie. The list would have to wait for another time.

I find so much comfort in nature when I feel overwhelmed. And this poem I ran across illustrates it just perfectly.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

A week in making

Free time is at a premium these days. I've found myself torn between using it to watch episodes of Parenthood on Netflix with my husband, caring for sick children, cleaning up my mess of a house, and writing here and there. Not much time has been left for making, so it felt good to have a few small projects to work on this week.



First up were cards for Valentine's Day with my daughter. She wanted to make pop up heart cards, and it was so fun to see where she took them. We added a strip of red construction paper to conceal the cut out on the card, and then she used bits of washi tape and stickers to decorate the fronts. We taped a piece of chocolate to the front and that was that. Simple and sweet. I feel so lucky that she enjoys doing these projects together. I'm getting so much better as restraining myself from sharing my opinions and just letting her go. I've started to let go of some of my Type A tendencies, and that is a good thing!



The next thing I made was an improvised quilt block for a special project. I made this by sewing two strips of fabric together, slashing them and sewing them back together. It is my favorite thing to do. I completed this block in the time it took my husband to get the kids to bed. It was an excellent reminder to me that I don't need large chunks of time to get something made. Every bit counts. Hope your week was had a little making in it, too!