quilt #1 for project swaziland

this morning i was up bright and early, so i decided to make good use of the time alone and finish my stash-buster quilt top. i looked at it, and looked at it, and pondered. should i keep it? it was meant to be a quilt for me originally. but the more i looked at it, the more i thought about how dang spoiled we are already, and how even though all the quilts we personally have in house are, um, well, wannabe quilts from target and ikea, they are still blankets and we are warm when we need to be.

so.

this is going to be the first quilt i make for the children's ward at good shepherd hospital in swaziland. i feel good about this decision.

my oldest, however, is upset that we're not using the quilt top as a permanent curtain. i can't say i blame him, it did look pretty rad with all that morning sunlight shining through. as per usual with my stupid camera, the picture is lame.

swaziland on the brain

ever since our church announced they'll be returning to swaziland this fall i've had it on my mind. i keep thinking about quilts...more quilts...LOTS of quilts.

i mean, i think about quilts a lot anyway, but this is sort of...above and beyond the normal obsession.

our church will be going over to swaziland with a lot of different goals in mind: building water tanks for a village with a crocodile-infested water source. (i'm trying to imagine being in fear for my life every time i need a drink and it just boggles the mind.) they're also going to be doing VBS for the kids there, a youth conference for the teenagers, and (and this is the part i keep thinking about) bringing supplies to a local hospital.

obviously i don't have a secret store of medical supplies hidden up my sleeve. but i do have a sewing machine and fabric scraps. and one of the things they've asked for are quilts for the children there. a lot of them live there and have no personal items at all, and i think that a handmade quilt would be something lovely to give them. if i have time i'll try to do some more softies, but my main priority right now is quilt making.

remember this from last fall? (ugh, those wretched photos! the quilts weren't THAT ugly, i promise) i had very little notice, but me and my friends managed to whip up some quick blankets and softies for the ladies to bring with them. it wasn't much, but it was the best i could do at short notice (and while the 1 month old baby slept. ah, the good old days when making stuff didn't have to be crammed hurriedly between naptimes!).

this time, however, i've got PLENTY of notice. nevertheless, the idea of making 25+ crib and twin sized quilts is...daunting. and so, once again, i'm throwing this idea out to everyone. if anyone is interested in helping, please let me know. if you can't swing the sewing, but have some nice fabric you'd like to donate, that would be rad. i think this is a really great cause and i would love to be able to help bless these kids with some lovingly-made things of their own.

here is a link to the website, just in case you think i'm a criminal trying to steal quilts and resell them or something: Hope Alive 2010

PICTURES OF THE LAST TRIP TO COME LATER. the lady who took pictures last time is one of the busiest people i know and i'm trying to pin her down to give me some! :)

vanilla, baby

okay, so i have a confession. for most of my life i considered vanilla to be like the ultimate tasteless flavor. vanilla ice cream? booooring. vanilla perfumes and soaps? blech!

and then at some point my mind began to change. little by little, one day at a time, i fell in love with vanilla. my boring adult self began to detect subtleties in the smells and tastes of different vanillas. vanilla bean ice cream became my favorite. what is the meaning of this? i asked myself. the answer is probably that i'm getting old and boring. but i don't care!

then, about two years ago when craft magazine was still in print, i came across this article. oh. my. gosh. DIY vanilla? how freaking cool is that?! unfortunately, i had no money for pricey vanilla beans. so i waited. and schemed. and waited some more. i saved every empty vanilla bottle i used in the hopes that someday, maybe, i'd have my own little vanilla stash, and could bestow delicious fragrant homemade vanilla on all my bakey friends. yes, i know bakey is not a word SHUT UP. 

well the other day i bit the bullet and ordered some vanilla beans online. and yesterday they arrived. i could smell them through the box and ziploc they were in. heavenly! 

today, i jaunted into the liquor store with a baby on my hip (because i am always a classy person) and picked up a giant, look-what-a-lush-i-am bottle of bourbon. i then went home and made me a big old mason jar of vanilla. 

(note the lid. that's right, i save spaghetti sauce jars, too. don't hate me because i'm a cheapskate.)

i'm really stupidly excited about this. i can't wait until it starts to develop. i can't wait to hand out little bottles of brown vanilla joy to passersby on the street, while my halo of benevolence is shining behind me. the fortunate people of tampa, florida, will go home clutching their precious extract and telling their children bedtime stories about the crazy vanilla lady who tosses around small glass bottles with reckless glee.

on a side note, i also used to hate the color pink and would mercilessly mock those who wore it or used it in pretty much any context. and now i sort of guiltily like it. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME.

labyrinthine

taking some time of from quilting after the wedding quilt madness, back to my old friends the ink pens. inspiration: brain coral. 

i think.

if you look closely you can find a whale.

how does your garden grow

 i can't tell you how excited i get to see things grow. here are my little beet seedlings sprouting away outside. i think i'm the only person in my family that's excited about growing beets. i know. i'm weird. 

these are my mystery plants. well, okay, the one on top is some kind of pumpkin, i know because i threw one of the moldy jack-o-lanterns into the compost pile last fall and as soon as it started warming up a little i had fifty thousand pumpkin seedlings growing everywhere. we decided to just transplant them to the side of the yard to see what would happen. either they'll die, or we'll wake up one morning with our backyard turned into a labyrinthine pumpkin patch. anyway,  i don't know if these are white, orange, or what. the plant on the bottom is...chamomile. i think. it sprouted forever ago and i've been babying it to find out what it would become. 

here is one of my million tomato plants. i've got sweet 100, big boy, better boy, and beefsteak. the funny thing is, i don't even like tomatoes. i guess i'll be doing a lot of canning.

zucchini!! yay! off to the right are acorn squash, but they look exactly the same so i didn't take a picture. 

i've also got some carrots starting to sprout, and in a few weeks i'll be getting my sweet potato plants. a friend of mine is bringing me some blueberry bushes this week. :) 

now if only i can keep from killing all these pretty green things.

blood, thread, and tears

15+ yards of fabric, 3 weeks of cutting and sewing

100 straight pins, 1000 meters of thread, 49 squares,

 one trashcan full of scraps and trimmings, an unspecified but embarrassing amount of money, and one partially severed finger later

and you get this:

i hope they like it.

wedding quilt progress report

The day before yesterday i got the wedding quilt top put together. at first it was going to be more of a rectangle but it looked weird so i left it a square. yesterday i added a gray border to the outside to beef it up a little, then i made the backing. then i did one of my least favorite parts of the quilt-making process: i pinned all the layers on the torture--i mean, uh--quilting rack.

now, actually quilting the layers together is something i don't usually enjoy. it's tedious, and whoever the sadistic jerk is who designed quilting frames to begin with just wasn't taking people's backs into consideration. it's at this awkward height where if you sit the frame is too high, and if you stand you have to hunch over to see what you're doing. i've been using this frame for a year now and every time i use it my back and neck hurt for weeks afterward. i'm not kidding. it sucks.

well today i came up with the perfect solution, and i'm kicking myself that i didn't think of it sooner. a long time ago, i bought these thingies that are for making your bed higher, only they didn't work with our bed so i just stuck them in the closet. until today!

see how perfect it is! now it's the ideal height! no more hunching! no more anger and headaches and pathetic pleas for backrubs! okay, well, i'll still probably beg for backrubs cause they're just nice. but now i won't be so desperate. 

so anyway, it's coming along nicely i think. it might even be done on time for the actual wedding. let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

my head slopes thataway

i've decided to nickname my finger gumby, cause that's what it looked like when i changed the bandage yesterday. when i went to borrow neosporin from my neighbor, who also quilts, she showed me her gumby finger to make me feel better about my general clumsiness. i'm not alone!! i'm not the sole klutz of the sewing world!

in other news, 45 squares down, 11 to go. queen size quilts are so time consuming...

consolation by cookie

okay, so obviously i'm a bit out of sorts about my finger. what's a girl to do, then? invent a cookie!!

these are so yummy, and the innovative result of being bored, in pain, and craving something sweet while also having a plethora of weird ingredients laying around. the sour cherries go so good with the bittersweet chocolate, and the cereal and coconut give it texture and solidity. so here's a recipe of my very own:

jenn's consolation cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp. soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup five grain cereal (or oats, i just opted for "healthier")
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• walnuts if you like them

cream the butter and sugar, mix in the egg, then dump the rest in. i know some people employ traditional, fussy ways of baking but i'm not one of them and it turns out exactly the same when i'm sloppy about it. so don't judge me.

drop on a baking sheet (i use a small ice cream scoop) and bake for about 12-15 minutes at 350. et voila! yummy cookies.

after all is said and done, i could only eat one...

my kids, at least, will enjoy my efforts.

why i shouldn't be trusted with sharp things

me and my current quilt are not getting along. 

first there was all the craziness of trying to get the fabric i wanted from like eight different sellers.

then there was the getting on a roll only to run out of fabric, spend hours finding fabric from eight MORE sellers, and then waiting for days while the time till my deadline runs down. oh yeah, i still don't have my fabric. 

then today...i decided to just try to eke out a few blocks out of the scraps i've got so i'd be DOING SOMETHING. cause y'know, i hate doing nothing. well, i was happily cutting and piecing and humming pleasantly to myself when ZIP goes my brand new rotary cutter right over my left index finger. hmm. i had that giddy feeling like i did NOT want to look down to see what i'd just done. so i calmly betook myself to the kitchen to get a paper towel for the blood, only when i tried to bring it near my finger yelled, "NO!! WHAT THE #@&!!! ARE YOU DOING??!!" and then of course, since it was being so rude and loud, i had to look down to see what was up. 

the whole side of my finger next to the nail is gone. bye bye. i giggled. then i put a band aid on it. i mean, what else do i do? i had to cover the band aid with tape cause blood was leaking out.

then i went in and saw the cleanly sliced off bit just sitting there on my cutting mat. ew. i then fed it to my curious four-year-old.

so i'm not talking to my quilt right now. she's totally in the doghouse. that is, until the UPS guy shows up with my fabric, then everything will probably be right as rain.

apparatus, and the start of a new quilt

i have nothing to say about this drawing. every time i look at it all i can do is giggle nervously.

starting a new quilt this week. i'm excited and anxious about it, because it's something i'm being PAID to do, for someone i've never even met. kinda sketchy. i'm never quite sure if my idea of a cool thing is someone else's idea of a cool thing, and nervousness ensues.  hopefully it will work out.