Still Alive!

Ok, it's been a while.  I am happy to say that I am still alive, and currently waiting for my overdue baby to arrive.

When it came down to a choice between:

- working

- gestating

- writing / blogging / spending time on the internet researching quilting
- quilting & sewing

I had to eliminate one.  The blogging went.  And now working seems to have eliminated itself, so maybe I can actually update!

Most of the sewing I have done has been much more boring than previously - various contraptions to keep babies warm and their poo in appropriate places.  I have done some quilting, though:

Back in about Jan 2009, I had a baby shower for a friend.  We each painted a 6" block (the top right and bottom left are fillers).  I promised to put it together into a quilt before the baby's first birthday - in other words, I barely got it done in time!  

Another quick project over the Christmas break:

I made this one because I wanted to see if I could quilt the circles.  It is just a quick jelly roll quilt.  It was my first time playing with batiques - they are really nice to work with!

We ended up giving this one to a co-worker of Kevin's that has a 1-year-old.  She gave us tons and tons of stuff (car seat, bath, etc.) so it seemed like the least I could do.

There have been other quilts, which I will add later.

Kirsten

Baby Blanket Re-visit

The number of babies (new and upcoming) in our family keeps increasing, which means I might have to spread the baby blankets out a bit - rather than 2 4x4 blankets, I will have to make another 4 blocks and make 3 3x4 blankets (but it is important that all cousins have the same sort of blanket, right?)

I have been working on it.  It is a lot of fun to be able to try random, crazy stuff without worrying about the overall impression.  Plus, I can repeat patterns I really like!

I now have:

For this one, I thought I would see how tight a spiral I can make with a walking foot.  Turns out not very.  I decided to fill the space with some spirals.  Kevin thinks it looks unfinished - I may come back to it and put something in the corners.

I just wanted to see if I could do something really easy to fill the space.  I really don't like it - I didn't even bother finishing it when I ran out of bobbin string!  At least I tried...

Pointsettas from Leah Day / 365 Free Days of Free Motion Quilting.  A bit season-specific, but I really liked working on this one.

Another one by Leah Day.  Ok, but I don't like my "beads".

Stomach lining by Leah Day.  Sorry that the chalk is so bright - I could barely see it on the quilt itself!

Some fun...  I'm considering using this one on my Shattered Dishes quilt.  I've done it before, and I really enjoy doing it.

Peacock feathers by Ferret.  I really should learn how to do feathers... but I'm still intimidated.  Apparently this is how she started.

From Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques by Sue Nickels - thank-you for the recommendation, Sylvia!  I think I need to work on making really fine squiggles - this is about as small as I can go. 

Another one from Sue Nickels.  This one is really fun and easy.

An old pattern that I have used before (like 5 years ago, when I first tried free motion quilting!).  Now that I know some other patterns, I don't like this one as much!

I am now half-way there.  Like I said, I can start repeating patterns, which is nice - at least for the patterns that I enjoyed!  I still want to master paisley, as well, so there may be some more variations on that one coming.

Kirsten

Trying to get ready for Christmas...

I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas thing this year.  It could be the nice weather.  It could be that there are more interesting things going on in my life.  It could be that I just really, really don't want to face the yearly trudge to the Toys"R"Us website to get angry about how condescending toys for little girls are.

We got out the tree.  Our cool fiberoptics have burned out.

We tried shopping.  It required a 2-hour nap to recover, and we didn't manage to buy any gifts.

Finally, I decided to make Nanaimo bars: a very, very Canadian Christmas tradition.  And one of my few skills (making them, I mean). 

Since every year someone ends up calling me asking for my recipe, here it is:

Base

1/2 cu. butter or margarine

1/4 cu. white sugar

5 Tbs. cocoa

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cu. graham cracker crumbs (I use crushed digestive biscuits in Britain)

1 cu. coconut

1/2 cu. walnuts (I usually skip this)

Combine everything up to and including the egg.  Put it in the microwave and cook (stirring frequently) until it has the consistency of custard.  Then mix in the other ingredients, and press into a 9x9" pan.

Frosting

Make vanilla frosting/icing as you usually do, but add 2 Tbs. of custard powder.  Spread over the base.

Topping

1/8 cu. butter / margarine

1 cu. chocolate

Melt the chocolate and butter.  Spread over the frosting.  Let solidify partially, and then cut into 1" squares.

Keep in mind the better the extremes between the bitterness of the chocolate layers and the sweetness of the frosting layer, the better they seem to go over!

To add a bit of a quilting flavour, when I made these for the Cambridge Quilter's Summer dinner, an elderly lady took the last one and wandered around the rooms asking, "Who made this?".  I admitted to it with trepidation, but she sat down next to me and demanded the recipe.  They really are that good!

Kirsten

The first scan

I don't want this to become a baby blog (come on, this has happened at least 6 billion times before - so what?), but we had our first scan today.

A. I really am pregnant!  Not faking it!

B. It's a thumb sucker.  Apparently Kevin and I accidentally doubled up on those genes.

C. It did the same indignant turn over and try to ignore me thing that Kevin does in the middle of the night.  Definitely his child!

Some decisions.

I went with quilting last week.  I think I made the right choice (especially since it started to rain as soon as I made it!).  I am now done piecing my Shattered Dishes quilt:

I had to resort to the machine for the last bit of it, since my wrists were too sore to do anything by hand!

My next choice is how to do the border.  I think it needs some sort of border, because otherwise it's a pretty busy quilt.  I think I want to maintain something a bit 3D, especially since I am totally out of the neutral fabric!  In that case, should the border come "outward" (or at least it looks like that to me...):

Which leaves plenty of other options (inward, outward, blue or orange, etc.)

The next choice will be how to quilt it.  I have been trying to decide whether to quilt based on the original block (as I imagined it):

And then, of course, do something more fun in each of the blocks...

However, I think it could be fun to go "on point" and break the quilt up into 2 different blocks:

This could allow for some fun in terms of treating the blocks differently - ie. something really tight in the "cross" blocks, and something much looser in the broken dishes blocks:

 

Any thoughts?

Second Trimester Rocks!

I have now gone through the magical transition from first to second trimester.  Sweet, sweet bliss - I can think again!  I can eat again! (in fact, I am now constantly hungry!)  And, best of all, I can sew again!

For my friends who want to keep track of my measurements:

waist: 30"

hips: 40"

(both down 3% from my pre-pregnancy size - definitely no evidence of a bump yet!)

As for weight, it is hard to tell because I was switching scales and unit systems while I travelled, but at the lowest I lost 14 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I am now at -12 lbs (I have never been so proud of gaining 2 lbs in my life!)  The whole experience has made me realize that despite all the pressure for women to be thin, that extra fat is there for a very, very important reason - you may need to go 6 weeks without being able to eat some day!

More importantly, sewing!

While travelling, I managed to visit a couple of quilting stores in various cities.  I am pretty embarrassed to say I can remember which stores in which cities (it is all such a blur...)  But I did manage to pick up some exciting new supplies:

- glow-in-the-dark thread.  I think this will be so much fun!

- a "Clearly Perfect Angles" mat for my sewing machine.  I haven't tested it yet, but I think it will be useful.

- some "Soak" to try cleaning some of my blankets and quilts that are too large for my laundry machine.  The website says it is for wools, but at the Birmingham Quilt Show they had a stand where they were recommending it for quilts.  I may not test it until spring when the weather is nice enough to dry everything outside, though.

- some new marking tools and threads.
- Machine Quilting by Sue Nickels, as recommended by Sylvia.  I have tried a bunch of the patterns from it in my quilt-as-you-go project.

- Design Essentials by Lorraine Torrence.  A really good book - it has me re-thinking some of my designs.  I probably need to re-read it, though, since I read it on one of the days when the nausea and vomiting was at its worst...

Wow.  I hope Kevin doesn't notice quite how much I bought, especially considering I wasn't even quilting at the time.  At least I have promised that I will make him a baby sling.  And maybe some cute towels with bunny ears.

As for actual sewing, I have made some progress on the spheres quilt (remember the one that I was preparing specifically for all this travel?  Ha!  I have made it about 3% of the way!).  I almost have Shattered Dishes totally pieced, but I am out of shape - if I hand sew for 2 hours or so, my wrist gets sore!  I used to be able to hand sew for 8-9 hours straight! 

I have quilted another 6 panels for my quilt-as-you-go project (the real story is that I am going to make Khilen, Kevin's new nephew, and our baby semi-matching quilts).  Again, I could not work on that one to save my life while in my first trimester....

You may be noticing a lack of pictures.  In my travels, I seem to have lost our card reader.  I am sure we will track it down...

And now, the real dilemma - I have not cleaned or gardened in 2 months.  A responsible person would get out the bleach and Comet.  However, I have so much sewing I want to do!

Kirsten

I'm back... ?

Ok, so it's been a while.  I have plenty of excuses lined up:

A ton more travel.  About 12,000 miles:

Cambridge - Heathrow - Chicago (I think - it's getting blurry...) - Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh - Charlotte - Cincinnati

Cincinnati - Chicago - Edmonton (yay! vacation time!)

Edmonton - Kootenay Bay (yay! at the cabin where I didn't even have internet access!)

Kootenay Bay - Edmonton (a couple more days with family)

Edmonton - Heathrow - Cambridge

and I finally got home last Thursday.

The other excuse is - I'm pregnant.  I've been too tired to think.  I've been too nauseous to eat.  I've been barely able to function as it is - something as complicated as surfing the web has been impossible!

At least I presume I'm pregnant.  I should be in week 12.  However, the NHS has lost my paperwork, so they won't do a scan.  I am unimpressed.

So.  There it is.  Maybe I'll get my energy back at some point and be able to get back to sewing / posting (or at least cleaning, which I haven't really done in the last 2 months...)