Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (Weekend Reads)

For years now I've been treated to pictures of butterflies by The Monster. She's happy, she draws a butterfly. She's sad, she draws a butterfly. She's apologizing, she draws a butterfly. We often find pictures hidden under pillows, stuffed in bags, and not so furtively placed on the table while working.

Lately, the butterflies are getting more detailed and they are evolving into fantastical bugs and birds that she invents, then names. It is quite awesome to see.

I pulled out this book this week, in hopes of feeding her imagination. It was purchased just before the baby was born, but it didn't take. Now it is a different story. We had a discussion about inspiration and catalogues, then I let her loose. I see a lot of apology snakes in my future.

So Close Now

The other night Hubby and I stayed up very late cleaning the floors in our basement. We had to clear out rooms, give them a good vacuum, then wash them in anticipation of carpet going on. I couldn't help but think of the many late nights we spent with mops and a Shop Vac over seven years ago when we flooded.

We are FINALLY in the home stretch of a reno that started, unintentionally, with a flood in the summer of 2005. A month of rain + a house built on clay soil - any sort of waterproofing on a 50 year old house + a cracked foundation = lots of water in the basement. Lots.

It felt wrong to be celebrating colourful floors, finished baseboards and awesome wallpaper in the wake of Sandy and so much destruction for so many, but I had to remember that this was born of our own disaster. And we've worked very hard in the years since to get to this point.

It's kind of been like the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

  To finish the basement we had to waterproof.
  To waterproof we had to dig a trench around our house.
  To dig the trench we had to rip out the driveway and tear down the fence.
  To tear down the fence we had to build a new one.
  To build a new fence we had to grade and landscape our front and back yards.

And all that before we could think about walls, toilets, and colourful floors.

So soon, very soon, the Dining Room Empire will change slightly. I will get my own sewing room (that room on the right there) and the baby gets his own room. I can't wait.

Wink Wink

Wink Wink

34" by 44''

Special Techniques: Improvised Curved Piecing

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Category: Baby Quilt

Made with and completely inspired by Mark Cesarik's Cosmic Burst line. It came out months ago, but I've been playing with these blocks and this quilt since March. That whole baby, new book, working, summer thing got in the way of finishing this top though. The last stitches in the binding finally went in over the weekend.

Check out all the process posts here:
The Fabric
Making Blocks
Layout Options 1
Layout Options 2
Finished Top
I absolutely love sharing the process like this. I don't always do it in such an intense burst (minus the finished quilt) because I'm always working on a million things at once. Or nothing at all.

And, as much as my little girl would love to keep this quilt for snuggles and fort building it is on its way to a baby boy. My husband actually commissioned the quilt for a friend and we'll be delivering it shortly.

Sharing this as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy Ellis does twice a year. She is an awesome lady! And make sure to check out all the other quilts.

Weekend Reads - Launch

In an effort to appease my husband and focus on the family a little more I've decided to not quilt on the weekend. No work (even if a lot of my quilting is for fun) on Saturday and Sunday. That means I'm getting some relaxed mornings sitting in a comfy chair, tea in hand, reading. The girls read with me while the baby naps or we all watch cooking shows while I flip through cookbooks and magazines. Needless to say, I have a million things I could share with you.

This week I'm launching Weekend Reads, a new series here on Dining Room Empire. Each weekend I'll share with you what I'm reading, whether it be fiction, cookbooks, magazines, or quilting books. Perhaps it will involve a little book review, perhaps not. It might just be a capture of my weekend reads.

Take this weekend, for example. We went away to Banff for the weekend. A whole weekend of wonderful eats, total maniac time for the girls, some easy winter hiking/tourist activities, wood burning fireplaces, and lazy mornings. I actually got to read part of my novel yesterday. Now that was a treat!

Right now I'm reading Sweet Tooth, the latest from my favourite author, Ian McEwan. Curled up in a quilt (yes, I bring my own quilt to a hotel) I luxuriated in the time to get lost in a thrilling novel.