One

This wild and crazy guy is 1 today. ONE! I can still remember the sunrise on the morning he was born, the feeling as he was placed on my chest seconds after being born, the moment my husband told me it was a boy, the fuzz on his beefy arms, the look on the girls' faces when they met him the first time.

Not to mention the days and months since where he surprised us with his ability to tolerate the girls' shenanigans, his pleasure at being in the company of anyone new, his quiet curiosity at the world, his insatiable appetite for anything but a raspberry. Then there is his insufferable cuteness. Okay, I'm pretty biased on that last one.

We aren't ones for over-the-top first birthday celebrations. We will make a cake and let him smash it wherever he wants (although, this boy does not like to waste food). I will rewrap the toy we've given all our children for their first birthday. We will shower him with affection and love. And he'll be wearing some cool/funny looking pants while we do it.

I adore the Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner. I'd made him some when he was a newborn, then slacked off. A few new pairs were in order for my growing boy. I'll admit, I doubted my fabric selection, thinking it was all a bit much. The combos worked great flat, but as pants I'm not so sure. Ah, whatever, right? You're only 1 once.

Just Sit Down

There are times in life when we need to push ourselves, when the teacher becomes a student, when the one who can't top talking needs to shut up and sew. This pillow serves a reminder to me to do all of that.

After my two days of teaching at QuiltCon I had the pleasure to take some classes. The pillow is the end result of my class with Yoshiko Jinjenzi. I jumped at the chance to take a class with her, even though I wasn't thrilled about making a pillow with sheer fabric. Whatever, it was Yoshiko Jinjenzi.

Turns out we were making a project from her book, Quilting Line and Color. I have the book, I constantly pull it out and drool, but I've never been inclined to make anything. The instructions seem fussy and overly complex. Well, this pillow was actually dead easy to make. We had a total of 5 minutes of instruction from Yoshiko and then we set to making.

As our first step we got to go and dig through scraps to create our own bits and bobs to highlight on the pillow. Every single person in the class had to resist the urge to squirrel away extra fabric. We were cutting little bits so it was quite fun to think about this fabrics on a very small scale.

After we picked our fabric, cut them to whatever size and shape we wanted, and laid them out on this gold fabric she provided we layered it with a sheer gauze. Some basting stitches to hold everything in place then we set to quilting the heck out of that sandwich.

That is, when we weren't crowded around her fondling the quilts she shared. It was half pillow class, half trunk show. But it was when she was showing her quilts that you saw the potential of this layering technique. Something I was quite easily dismissing at the beginning of the class suddenly provided inspiration. Of course, the intricacy of her work and the extreme attention to finishing details might have also had something to do with it.

In the end, I did get my pillow almost done. Despite the distractions of the quilts and my neighbours Marianne and Leanne and my SIL (way to represent Alberta in Austin!) All but the actually turning it into a pillow. Just as soon as I could I turned it into a finished project, minus the tassels. I knew that if I let it sit it would never get done.

This pillow is so far removed from anything I would normally make, from something I would likely every make again. Gold? Sheer? A Pillow? But it serves as a good reminder for me to just shut and sew sometimes. And for that reason it will keep a place of honour in my heart, if not my room.

Vacation Books (Weekend Reads)

Time for a bit of a vacation. In my perfect world I would stay at home - a clean home - and sew for weeks on end with only myself to feed. This would indeed be a break. But my Hubby wants us, and rightly so, to take a real vacation from our lives. That means no sewing and writing for me and no Blackberry for him.

(Yeah, we'll see how long either of us last.)

So I've collected a few books for some uninterrupted afternoons. Maybe I'll actually finish a novel or two, instead of it taking me 6 months of reading five minutes a day before I fall asleep, book in hand and drool on the corner of my mouth.

If you've got any favourite vacation read suggestions, I'll take them.

In other news, today we tackled the first project in my new basement studio. It isn't quite done yet, but it is clean and is now home to a cutting table and sofa bed. The girls and I made a Christmas present and everything about it was perfect, right down to their erratic hand stitches. Just perfect.

And ready for a vacation.

Happy Holidays to all of you, we'll see you in January!

Pressing Issues

I need a new iron.

This one is, literally, out of steam. And I like my steam.

Any irons you LOVE out there? I've frankly always gone to Canadian Tire and just grabbed something that looked decent enough. I pay attention to where the cord emerges and whether it will stand easily. It must also have an automatic shut off. But the last two irons haven't lasted long so it might be time to look a little more closely.

Any suggestions?