rainbows

Like lots of people, I love Anna Maria Horner's blog. And when I heard about her Rainbow Around the Block project, well, I had to put everything on hold and put together a block of my own.

Once I went to the Flickr site, I seemed to notice a shortage on the BIV part of the rainbow, so I decided to choose those colors from my stash. Then it was a matter of choosing a block pattern. I googled 12 inch quilt patterns and found this neat (and easy) block. It's called Next Door Neighbor, which I thought was appropriate given the final destination of these quilts.

So here's the process:

First, of course I cut out all my squares and then cut the triangles. Then I pieced the triangles into squares, like so:

Then I sewed the squares into strips, and the four strips into the final block:

I am pretty darn pleased with it, as it's actually the most complex piecing I've done so far.

I've had to pause on the cross quilt since I've reached a "invade the public living area" portion of production, and we're putting our house on the market. So I can't just have this massive quilt on the floor during showings. I'll just have to satisfy my quilt craving with Rainbow blocks until I can resume working on the cross.

anonymous affirmations

The above is my woodland sweater, in progress. I started this in about March or maybe even February. It is slow going, but worth every stitch. Sometimes I pause at the end of a row just to practice gently tugging open the ribbing and stroking the yarn. It is so deliciously soft, and the desire to slide it up my arms and wrap it around me keeps me going. I joke with my knitting friends that I plan to show it off every day and announce to perfect strangers that I made it. Sort of how I feel about my children. But in reality, I am not making it for anyone else to admire - I am making it for me. Also true about my little ones.

This one is for others to admire, as it's a gift for my mom. I thought ahead this year and began knitting this Christmas gift on Christmas Eve of last year. It's been almost complete for over two months, I just need to finish the neckline. It's a very basic straight stitch, but it's her favorite color, a buttery yellow. And there is a bit of interest here at the shoulder seams, a little bit of gathering, that is also around the V-neck.

And here, though the lighting is shoddy, is my Mount Everest. The cross quilt. You can see the orange chalk marks fussying up the squares, but it is coming together. I can't wait to lay this on my bed. I can't wait to sleep under it. I can't wait to start the next one. :) I try to do a quarter row every night. There are twenty quarter rows in all, and then the four quarters need to be joined. After that, I'll start shopping around for a binding fabric and (this is strangely critical for me) an ideal backing. I find that the backing of a quilt can make or break the piece. If the top is gorgeous but the backing is, well, not meant to be seen, I have no use for it.

And finally, my newest project. I'd love to claim that I thought of it myself, but I actually got the idea from a Parents magazine. The idea is little affirmations printed on strips of paper, that you hide or leave randomly for someone to serendipitously stumble upon. So far, I've dropped off about four. I like to think that perhaps giving one person a reason to smile can start a chain reaction. There is simply not enough positivity these days.

long drives

How I wish I lived in an area with mass transit.

Whenever possible, I have Daddy-B drive the family around on weekends. My favorite drives are out to visit my parents on the west side of the state. I sit there in the passenger seat, chatting up lil' b and making weird noises at marmallow in the back, while knitting or crocheting my way through some mindless-yet-pleasurable project. One year, I think it was 2007, I managed to make everyone in my extended family a beanie hat for Christmas due entirely to crochet-on-the-road.

I don't usually like to craft whilst at home with the tots. Not while they are both awake, any way. I can do some crafting while marmallow naps and lil' b colors, but not much. So I treasure the long drives that give me the ideal excuse to work on a project, because I can't possibly get down on the floor and play with them instead.

Which is why it kills me that we don't have mass transit out here. If I lived in DC, or New York, or Chicago, or even some place with a decent bus system, I could get so much done in the forty-five minutes it takes to get to work in the morning and the hour it takes to get home. I could craft, yes, or I could read, or catch up on sleep. In addition to the lovely fuel savings, environment savings, and lack of wear-and-tear on my T&C swagger wagon.

Of course, there are perks to autonomy. I like to know that I can get to daycare quickly, on my terms. I like the (possibly false) belief that I am in control of how fast I can get somewhere, or in some cases, how slowly. I think I've only come up with positives because I have to. It'll be a cold day indeed when the Auto Capital of the US has anything resembling the Metro.

One thing I can't do on-the-go is machine quilt though, Metro or no. So the goings on my cross quilt have been slow. It's looking good, though! I have finished one quarter of the top (it is worked in quarters) and laid out and half-stitched another quarter. It looks very nice and I'm eager to see how it finishes. My woodland sweater is also coming along... which is promising since it's DK weight on 4 mm needles. I've finished the back and both fronts, and just cast-on the sleeves last night. Daddy-B prefers the soft click of needles over the vuvuzela-like buzz of the sewing machine while watching the Tigers play, and since it was Father's Day, his preferences won out. The butter sweater is complete with the exception of two rounds on the neck, which I have been procrastinating on buying the circulars for.

And then there is my road piece, the filagro scarf. That one, of course, is rolling along very nicely.

she's seven months

Seven months seems to be the magic age for me with children.

For the first seven months, I am almost entirely devoted to restructuring my life, my priorities, and my interests. It was the same way when lil' b was born, and so it was when my marmallow came into the world. I guess I thought I'd need less time, having been through this before. Turns out, every child requires an adjustment period.

Now, of course, I want to bring my blog back up to speed, but how does one recapture all the moments of more than half a year? I will try to be more diligent in my updates now, and as time goes on, hopefully I will find loose threads from October '09 to June '10 to weave in.

I have continued to knits, crochet, and quilt, with even perhaps as much vigor as before. However, an interesting twist is my new passion for long term projects. I'm not as into instant gratification as I once was... perhaps something about devoting nine months to building a person, and the rewards reaped by such an intensive endeavor, has taught me the value of prolonged dedication. Of course, during the seven months that have passed, due to the rarity of sleep and the absence of focus, I have done my share of quick projects. I've added several baby quilts to my line-up and made at least four scarves. I will try to get the pictures up, but let's worry about getting this new post up first.

My new efforts are much more engrossing. I am working on a sweater, for myself, from the Rowan cotton pattern book Classic Nature. I'm no idiot, though: I'm using the luxuriously soft acrylic Plymouth Dreambaby DK... I do, after all, have two messy kids and I'm no slouch in the spill department myself. I wanted to select something that was both easily washable and infinitely comforting for either child when she or he needs a Mommy's Special Hug. Between knits and purls, I am also attempting a quilt for Daddy-B and my queen-size bed. It's based on a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilt called Cross. I keep calling it Lattice or Plaid, as that seems more accurate.

I'm working on these two major projects before and after work. That's right, God bless, I am back to work full-time, so my lil' b and marmallow are at daycare. I don't know if you recall exactly how long ago it was that I started staying home (over a year and a half) but this has been divine. I miss them just the right amount, and they hardly miss me at all. As it should be. I'm not an apron-strings kind of mama.

As lil' b has gotten bigger, he has become an active participant in my crafting. For the quilt, he helped me select fabrics and lay out the design. Part of the deal is, as long as he remains patient with me, I'll work with him to make a queen-sized quilt for his bed next.