Alturas Applique


With all due credit to Carolyn Friedlander and Sarah Fielke I must admit to a new addition: hand appliqué. Okay, so it is only in the early stages, but boy do I like it.

Yes, I have a hand quilting project on the go. And a hand piecing project (which I'm really going to wrap up as soon as I can find the first chunk of sewing I did). But over the winter break neither of these were getting me all that excited. I was looking for something to keep me busy as I kept Hubby company at the end of the day while he watched endless episodes of Top Gear and Patrick Dempsy: Le Mans.

You know my aversion to patterns, but I didn't have the brain power to be creative in this instance. Besides, I had Carolyn's appliqué patterns and they are just so cool. So I decided to keep it simple and go with the block based pattern Alturas. Fuel to the addiction for sure.

That being said, I'm not sure I have it in me to make a full size quilt of hand appliquéd blocks. Right now I am committing to nine of them and then we'll see what happens.



Goal Setting for 2014


My oldest, The Monster, is very big into goal setting thanks to her public education. We work hard at breaking down the details and steps necessary to reach her goals. In that process it has reminded me that I need to do a bit of that myself.

So, here goes. In 2014 my studio goals are:

1. To turn all quilt tops sitting in my closet as of right now into completed quilts. There are 10 of them. And 2 others already being quilted.

2. To distribute all the Just One Slab quilts before the end of winter.

3. Stay on top of my accounting with a monthly sit down in front of a spreadsheet and a pile of receipts.

4. Revamp my website and blog (with the input from all of you!)

5. Produce at least 1 new pattern for sale.

6. Finish one of my novels.

7. Complete at least 3 quilts in a series I've got planned. This Mountain Meadows would be the first one in the series, but I have sketches for many more.

8. Teach the girls, as they ask, how to use the sewing machine on their own.

9. Make exercise a daily part of my life again. (I consider this a Studio Goal because it is part of my overall time management for work.)

10. Start and finish my third quilting book.

Those are the big goals. It does not account for the ongoing, must do, and just for fun sewing and writing commitments that are there every day as well. And of course all the awesome unplanned things that could still come up. Oh yeah, and that family thing that happens outside of the studio too.

Yes, I am insane. And I wouldn't have it any other way. How about regular updates on all of these, so you can help keep me in check? They may be more like reality checks, but I am not scared in looking at this list. I think teaching the girls to sew on the machine themselves might the most frightening thing of them all!



Jane Austen Update (Weekend Reads)


So... it's been two and a half years since I confessed that I hadn't read any Jane Austen. I thought I would give you an update.

I've read three now - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park. Phew.

Here is the next shocking confession: I didn't particularly like them. Now, I didn't hate them, but I certainly didn't love them. And I expected to love them. When faced with an evening alone and the TV to myself I search for a period drama. I love Downton as much as as anyone else (and boy are there plenty of parallels between Downton and Austen). I adored all the Bronte books when I read them. But, at times, these three Austen books were a bit of a slog to get through. I finished Mansfield Park at some point last winter and decided to take a break from Austen.

I'm not dismissing their value as literature of the the English language, nor the enormity of their story and the fact that they were written by a woman. There were, however, many, many times that the detail was intense and the plot very, very slow. More than once I wished the BBC had done a miniseries on all of the books.

(As an aside, I do totally get the Colin Firth thing now.)

You know what? I think I would have loved these if I read them in my 20s. When I had a romantic view of romance and still thought drama in a relationship was admirable. I too was daydreaming of marriage and that being an end result as opposed to a beginning. Now, approaching 40, I consider it romantic when my Hubby empties the dishwasher and drama means The Evil Genius thinks the world is out to get her again.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up. I will finish the other three, maybe even this year. I've got lots of tea on hand.