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fabric and geekery

The Value Village had its half price sale this week, and my very kind Mom dropped by my house during the middle of her very busy day and fed my kids lunch so I could whip out to the store and check out the sales. I knew I had 15 minutes to get there, and 15 minutes to get back, so that left me with a scant half hour to ransack the place, minus standing-in-line time. So this could be no leisurely wander through the store, leaving no stone unturned, and no shelf unexamined. Oh no, I was a woman on a mission. And that mission was (hopefully) to get Star Wars sheets. I am getting dangerously low, and I need to make more bibs and stuff, so with the possibility of half-priced vintage sci-fi bed linnens hanging tangibly in the air, I headed into the store with great hope. 

Now, it was noon. On half-price day, so I tried not to get my expectations too high as many, many had trod those aisles before me. An early bird I was not. I'd planned my path like this: Household Linnens, Men's Shirts, Toys (not that we need any, but just in case) Baby clothes (ditto) and then a quick look over the housewares for pyrex/mugs/awesomeness and a micro scan of the Jewelry. Oh, and formal dresses, because you never know. 

Toys, Jewelry, and Formal Wear were all a bust, which is fine. Got a few useful but non-photo-worthy items in housewares, (baskets, jars, little glasses for little hands) but as usual, Household Linens and Men's Wear was where I did most of my damage.  Three nice shirts. Love a good plaid, and that peachy coloured one is just the nicest heavy/soft brushed cotton ever. Gonna be so good in a quilt. And there in the middle is a Liberty for Target shirt.  I love Liberty, and its so funny because I actually bought this shirt new from Target when their Liberty line came out. But I got an XS and have plans to alter/wear it, and one day cut it up for quilting. But now I have two, and let me tell you, this one was way cheaper than the other. 

Then I found these nice sheets. I love how well they look together. Could be nice as a summer dress with one for trim. 

Couple of nice heavy weight cotton pillowcases, both stripey and orange. 

And another one of those lovely Irish Linnen tea towels. With a very groovy Saint Fiacre on it. 

I can see why this one never got used. It is really awesome. 

I might just hang it on the wall in my kitchen. It'd work with the nice orange-y wood '70's vibe that's already going on there. 

But all this was nothing compared to what you'll see next. Wait for it....

Oh My Gosh TRANSFORMERS! (it's not quite Star Wars, but really, almost the next best thing. Aside from Doctor Who. I'd kill to get my hands on some Doctor Who sheets). I have such fond Transformer memories from my childhood, most of them via my brother of course, who the actual Transformers in our house belonged to, but I can remember playing with them with him, and his excitement at saving up his money to buy Optimus Prime. 

Though my fond memories did fail me when it came to most of their names. The Little Dude was very 'insestred' in this, naturally. And quized me mercilessly about "what dat guy called? Dat Racecar guy? What his NAME!" etc. At which point I had to tell him I didn't know, and he told me that it was ok, "but we'll hafta look it on the computer." Yes, yes we will. (if you are reading this Uncle Lemur Boy, leave the names in the comments wouldya? It'll save me some time, and I know you can recite them all like it was yesterday)

Aw Yeah, 1987. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. I'm going to show L.D. this picture tomorrow and it is going to blow. his. mind. 
Sadly, there is a fair amount of paint splatter on this old sheet. Honestly. These people must have been Barbarians to use their Transformer sheets as a drop cloth. Sheesh. I shake my head at their ignorance. But still, there is a lot that is useable, and bibs and blankies will be made, I promise you.

And speaking of adorable little geeks, here's what I found L.D. and his Daddy bonding over at bedtime the other day. Apparently three and eleven/twelfths is just the right age to bust out the Star Wars (Where Science Meets Imagination) and start indoctrinating them. 

I cannot tell you how much L.D. enjoyed paging through this book with his Daddy. They just went through pointing at pictures and Hubs telling him about what was there to be seen (space ships, explosions, robots, the harsh climates of inhospitable planets and their theoretical indigenous creatures...) you know, the basics.

It was a lovely moment. But of course, the real fun started the moment the book was closed and the lights turned off. And then, little mister chatterbox started going a mile a minute about all the wonders he'd just seen, and had a hundred questions and suggestions for potential story lines. "And then, and then there could be a HUNDRED Darth Vaders and they could all go for a ride in a big, big truck together and then when they all got out they could get in a space ship and go somewhere and then....."

Twenty minutes of non-stop chatter later, this was looking less and less like a good idea. But finally, he agreed to keep enjoying his thoughts, but not out loud, just in his head, and off he went to have pleasant dreams about a galaxy far, far away....

fabric love

I bought some fabric the other day. Wait, that's not all that groundbreaking. I buy quite a bit of fabric. But the difference here is that I actually bought new fabric. Fabric that came off a bolt, ie: not a set of vintage sheets. You see, I belong to the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, and we meet once a month at The Workroom in Toronto (if you live in TO, and have not yet checked out this sewing mecca, you must). Anyhow, it is one of the few places where I am exposed to really, really awesome new (non second-hand) fabric. And invariably, I am tempted into buying some. I usually try to be sensible, and just get a few fat quarters, but I still had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so I got a bit more than I usually would. Take a look: This one had me from 'hello' as they say. Isn't that awesome? It makes me want to dig up all my lovely vintage mugs and teapots and sugar bowls just to have one mind blowing photo shoot with all of them. I just might have to try that. (fabric by Michael Miller, pattern name: put a lid on it)

This one was also to cute to resist. I love the colours. Though I think I photographed this upside down. (got a fat quarter with no selvedge edge, so sorry, can't tell you who made it) 

And I love this kind of sweet, simple, vaguely Japanmation-y kind of little floral. So sweet. (also fat quarter, so no info)

Then there's the simple, graphic, optical illusion type of fabric that I just have to have. Like this. Ah, zig-zags. I never get tired of zig-zags. (Free Spirit for Westminster, Boho House, pattern chevron)

And there's something so great and 60's Op Art about this one. (Hyperreal Garden by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics) It just makes your eyes swim, doesn't it? I have no idea what I'll use it for. I so seldom use my 'new'/store bought fabric. One of these days I'm just going to have to bust out a quilt made entirely from these delicious little treats. It just seems so decadent though, I don't know when I'll ever get around to it. I'll probably just wash it all, fold it up and put it in the box labeled "new fabric". Silly me. 

Oh, and speaking of washing, I'm totally going to have to now, because this afternoon, as I was in the office uploading these photos I heard a clunk and a sploosh from the living room, and the Baby had managed to get his hands on my mug of cold tea, pulling it off the edge of the credenza and onto the chair next to it where - you guessed it - the pile of new fabric was sitting. Thank goodness the tea was cold (for obvious reasons). Thank goodness it was herbal (didn't stain the fabric). But now I've got some more laundry to do. 

Oh, and I also got some scrap. The work room has a scrap box, where people can discard the little bits they don't want to take home after finishing a project. I had a dig through it to look for tiny pieces for that ticker tape quilt I plan to make some day. You know, with all that extra free time I have. Even though I was told it was really 'picked over' I still found some awesome bits. Though there was this one tiny, tiny wisp of a floral in grey and orange and yellow that I'm going to have to go back there and see if they have a whole bolt of it, because it was awesome. 

Right, I'm off to do a little late night sewing. 

personalized memory game tutorial

I've wanted to share a tutorial with you here at the blog a number of times. I like making things and I like helping other people make things, so it seems like a great idea. But by the time I get around to blogging (after 9:30 in the evening usually) I'm so tired that I just want to ramble and tell a story instead of taking the time to put together a cohesive set of instructions. Also, making things comes very naturally to me, and often, as I sit down to write out a how-to, it all seems so obvious to me that I think it hardly even needs explaining. Or there are already good tutorials out there for a similar thing etc, etc. And I find lots of reasons NOT to do it. 

Anyhow, today I finally have what I think is a good project, some free day time hours, and a set of good pictures. And so I bring you a tutorial for a simple, personalized memory game. 

But first, more exposition. I got the idea to make this because a) memory was one of my favourite childhood games and b) as I was working on a colour based patchwork pattern last month, I realized just how subjective and faulty colour memory is. Have you ever gone to the fabric store, or paint store or clothing store looking for something in just the right shade of blue to match something else? You say to yourself "simple enough, I just need something in that bright sort of shade of cobalt blue." And you find just the right thing only to bring it home and find that it is not the right colour at all. It's much more purple than blue, and you are just amazed at how wrong you got it. Anyhow, I thought wouldn't it be interesting to make a memory game that was mostly just solid coulours? Wouldn't that be fun? And challenging?

But also, I realized that for most people, not obsessed with minimalism and exact colour recognition, it'd be kind of boring. So I decided to add another of my favouite twists, personalization with family photographs.  Since I decided to do this project over the Christmas holidays, I had the help of one of my lovely nieces in getting it done. She is the hand model for most of these shots. 

Ok, getting started, here's what you're going to need:

cutting mat

xacto knife

ruler

clear measuring square (they sell these in quilting shops)

glue stick

bone folder

a sheet of acid free matt board, white on one side, colour of your choice in the other

a corner rounding punch (I used the Marvy Luchida brand Corners Craft Punch, available at Michael's craft store)

a 2 1/8 square die cutter/craft punch (I used the Recollections brand one, also from Michael's)

and here's the fun part, you are going to need a whole lot of paint chips. Look for ones that are big enough to fit two of your square shapes into (we found the Martha Stewart paint chips worked really nicely, and plus she has gorgeous colours). So go to your local hardware store and pick out a bunch of nice colours. And best of all, they're free! (though do use your judgement when picking them out, and don't go over board and take too many/piss the hardware store people off. If its a mom and pop shop it'd be nice to ask first)

Also, you will need photos for the personalized family ones. We printed them out onto matte photo paper from our computer. I think matte would work best, but you could try glossy too, or have them printed at a store; let me know how that works out. What we did for fun, was we didn't use two of the exact same pictures, as you normally would with a memory game, but just chose two different pictures of the same person. This makes it a bit more fun and challenging. 

So first of all, use your square craft punch and punch out two squares from each paint chip. (We found that the craft punch did a nice job... until it quit working.) The gigantic craft punches are a bit problematic, and Hubs tells me its because the plastic housing they put the metal punch part in is not strong enough to hold it precisely in place. So we punched out about 40 or 50 squares and then it totally crapped out on us. (Luckily we had enough to work with and had kept the bill and were able to return the craft punch the next day. Which is good because those things are not cheap)

Then, using your healable cutting matt and your x-acto knife, cut your acid free matt board into squares that are 1/8 of an inch larger than your coloured squares. In this case my matt board square were 2 and 1/4. Its best to first cut it into strips, and then cut the strips into squares. You'll want a good ruler for this, and be sure to measure carefully.  Also at this point it'd be good to think about how many memory tiles you'd like to end up with. Its nicest if they can end up making a square when you lay them all out, so try 25 or 36 or 49 or 64 or something like that. Then, using your corner rounding punch, cut the corners off of your coloured paint chip squares, so they look like the green square in the picture below. 

Now comes the fun part.  Glue your paint chip squares onto your matt board squares. Apply a thin even coat of glue stick. Make sure there aren't any big lumps. 

Centre the paint chip square onto the white side of the matt board.

Using the rounded edge of the bone folder, smooth the paint chip square down, especially on the edges. (Though if you don't have a bone folder, you can just use your fingers, or even the bottom of a smooth glass) When you've got them stuck together, I like to place them under a heavy book to dry for a bit, just to keep them nice and flat. You can put a whole bunch under a book at a time. 

Look! How nice is that? 

Now make a whole bunch. Have fun with the colours. 

Next, make the personalized photo squares. Take your family pictures. Remember that you need two pictures of each family member, but that you don't have to make the pictures of each person the same. Unless you are making this game for a very young child, in which case it'd be a good idea to use identical images. 

Also note, that at this point in the process, my square die punch had stopped working, so I had to cut these by hand. You could cut all of the squares (picture and paint chip) by hand, if you like, or can't get a punch. Decide how you're going to crop your image. In this case I used one of the windows left by the square punch in the paint chip to decide where I was going to cut it. 

Using your clear measuring grid tool, and your x-acto knife, line it up and cut out the image. 

Here's your cut out image.

Using your corner rounding punch, cut off the corners. 

  Et voila! 

Now do a bunch of pairs. 

And again, you're ready to glue your photo squares onto matt board squares using the same method as you did for the paint chip squares.  And now the best part; mix up your squares and lay them out face down in a grid on the table, and you're ready to play memory. 

Bring on the fun. 

For myself, I made myself a super difficult, monochromatic version, made up entirely of grey squares. Its actually a really hard game, but I think is good exercise for my eyes and my brain. But really, the possibilities are endless with this idea. Think how nice it would look done with fancy patterned paper, like origami paper. It'd also be really cool if you used photocopies of vintage photos of images from old National Geographic Magazines. So go, make, have fun, and I'd love to see what you come up with, so if you blog this or post pictures in flickr feel free to post the link in the comments for all to see. 

Merry Christmas to me!

I did a little last minute, pre-Christmas thrift shopping that I have to show you, because I got a couple of really nice things. The V.V. was having a 50% off day for card members (yes, I have a Value Village Super Saver club card. Don't judge) but I told myself that I was only going to buy things that were awesome, not just fun, or cool. Things that I'd actually use, or were really special. Also, I was not even allowing myself to go into the book section. And I did three major edits of my cart, including leaving a few items behind at the cash, so I managed to reign myself in. I have to keep telling myself, we're going to have to move again someday, and put all this stuff into boxes and carry it downstairs and up stairs and put it all into a truck and then unpack it all, and it had better be worth it, right?

So, here are a few things that are worth it.

Adorable little girls vintage dress. Tags still on. Awesome. 

Probably from the 70's, so not that old, but still, it will look nice on my wall with all the other vintage little girls dresses. You know, when I get around to putting them up on the wall of my studio some day. 

A couple of men's shirts for cutting up and sewing with. The Baby needs a couple more droolers. Also, you should have seen how many shirts I had in my cart, but I narrowed it down to just these two because they are really iconic plaids, the epitome of men's plaid shirt-y-ness. In fact, I tried to talk Hubs into wearing them, but the black one was the wrong size and he was having none of the red one. "maybe as a costume" he says to me. Meh.

This is another little vintage kids item, though not as old as the dress probably. I just love the simple stripes, and the slimness of the cut. I have a similar little t-shirt that a friend got for me at a thrift shop when I was expecting the Little Dude. He wore it all the time, and the Baby wears it now, (he's wearing it in this post) and its one of my favourite clothing items for him. I just really like the fit on these slightly older things. They have to be from the 70's though, because kids clothes from the 80's (especially toddler and baby clothes) are really horrid and boxy in their fit, which I don't like the look of at all. I haven't tried this on L.D. yet, but when I do I'll be sure to take a picture and post it. 

But the best score of the day is what I'm calling my Christmas present to myself. Feast your eyes on this.  LOOK at that; a good sized quilt for our bed, at last! I've got such big plans for a quilt that, one day, I will make myself for our bed. But you know how it is, I've got several sketches, lots of swatches, and no foreseeable chunk of time in the near future when I will actually get around to making it. It'll probably be something I finally get around to for our twentieth anniversary or some such thing. But in the mean time, we really, really needed a proper quilt for our bed (we used to have a sweet little twin quilt laid sideways across the bed that did not fit it at all, but we were making do with just the same) and so, the universe sent me a quilt for Christmas.

I have to tell you, I almost left it behind on the rack because at first glance, all folded up, I wasn't that impressed. The colours were not unusual or inspiring and it did not look particularly vintage. But upon reflection, I decided to unfold it and look at the full item, and the simplicity of the traditional pattern, done up in simple solids it makes such a great visual impact that I decided it was coming home with me. 

What really got me of course is that it is hand stitched. A hand-quilted quilt (do you have any idea how time consuming that is?) and its on the rack at the V.V. for $12.99! Which made me sad for the person who made it, but then again, happy for me, because it was half price day, so I got a hand made quilt for $6.49. Ridiculous!

Although, I have to say that its not the most well made quilt I've ever seen. The binding is really weird and wonky, with no batting in it and seems to have been added as an afterthought, just kind of haphazardly whip-stitched in place. Very strange. But on the other hand, this means that since its not someone's masterpiece, I can just use it, and not be too precious about it; not worrying if the baby spits up all over it or if it gets worn a bit. Also, it withstood washing and drying very well (my Mom kindly took it home and washed it in her large capacity washer and dryer, so it did not get a wrung about as it would in my tiny little apartment sized washing machine. Thanks Mom!) Though I really should not be too critical of this quilt. The patchwork is an eight pointed star pattern made of diamonds, which is something I have yet to attempt. Working with diamonds is much harder than squares or triangles, as the sides of the diamonds, since cut on the bias, tend to stretch making piecing very difficult. Also, it was set on the diagonal in a Union Square set pattern, with an unpieced block alternating which is what gives it such a great negative/positive flow.

And look what else the unknown maker of this quilt did. There is no signature or date, but there is this one tiny little bit of embroidery. Which is find is very interesting in an otherwise very plain quilt. I imagine that this was her signature, which is really a very lovely idea. Perhaps there are other butterfly embellished quilts floating around out there, being rescued from thrift stores by other handwork loving sentimentalists.

And no matter what I put on top of the bed, look who takes every opportunity he can to crawl under it. Its so funny, whenever I put him down on the ground in the bedroom, he heads straight under the bed. And it is filthy under there; herds of dust rhinos gathering between the boxes of summer clothes and winter blankets. He always comes out looking like a baby swiffer. But he is always so pleased to be under there playing peek-a-boo that I don't have the heart to haul him out too soon. Plus, he pretty much does the dusting for me, so I can't complain. 

stampin'

We decided to do a last minute, hour before dinner time, totally messy Christmas craft as a family today. It had all the makings a disater (it was 5:00 when we started. I had no dinner plans. It involved paint. The baby was kind of fussy) but we just dove in anyways. Sometimes you've just got to seize the moment, you know what I mean. And I wanted to wrap some presents tonight, and I wanted to make home made wrapping paper with the Little Dude and Hubs happened to be around, so we just carpe-d the diem and hit it.  Hubs assembled materials while I rustled up paint shirts and paints. (My husband is so crazy visual, that he can make a pile of raw potatoes and cutting tools look like a magazine spread)

Then he got right down to carving stamps while I looked for paper and stuff.

It turned out we had everything we needed on hand (that's what happens when you are art supply pack rats), including long rolls of brown paper. It was quite funny though, the Little Dude loves to stamp usually, but today, all he wanted to do was paint with a paint brush. I think it was because his regular stamp collection consists of mainly cars, trucks and tractors. But Hubs was carving out stars and holly and snow flakes - not a tractor in sight. So L.D. was all like, "meh, I think I'll paint some diggers."

We decided to show the way, and after he saw me do a little stamping, he decided he'd try it out.

Inking up...

...and stamping down. Boom, boom, he did it twice and that was it, and he went back to painting. Like I said, no tractors.

The slightly cranky baby meanwhile, transformed into a cheerfully burbling baby as soon as he was freed from the captivity of his play pen and allowed to roam around free-range. He's a full fledged up on his knees crawler nowadays. 

But I must say, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the stamping. 

Also, it helped that Hubs carved me such a nice stamp. He tried out a couple of other things before he got to this snowflake (holly, star, snowman) but this one was for sure the most successful.  Its such a simple idea: Cut up a potato, make a stamp, put some paint on a yoghurt tub lid, get a big roll o' paper and boom, boom, boom. So satisfying to see a nice pattern take shape. 

What was also really nice was the parallel crafting that the Little Dude and I and Hubs had going on. Often when one crafts with kids the temptation is to hover and direct, but I'm told that its a much happier experience for them in the long run if you just let them do their own thing. And of course, the best way to encourage any behavior is to model it. Him seeing his parents enjoying being creative together is better than us trying to get him to go along with any project. And he had plenty of fun with unfettered access to the big scissors, and all that paper and paint. (though I did have to cut him off after 10 paintbrushes. That kid loves a fresh paint brush, and requests one every time he gets a new colour of paint, or even just more of a colour he's already got going. He'd use every brush in the house at every sitting if he had his way)

One of the things I really like about hand printing is the mistakes and variability of it. I love how the density of the paint changes from stamp to stamp, and the rhythm of the motifs when you don't lay it out too perfectly. The splotches and blotches give it character. 

I also love watching Hubs and Kees 'co-paint' as The Little Dude splotches and swooshes with his brush, and Hubs goes along adding wheels to things, and arms and legs to others, and turning it all into a story about a Christmas parade as he goes. L.D. just ate it all up!

And when it was all over, we'd had an hour of messy fun, had two strips of wrapping paper and two beautiful Little Dude murals to show for it, and we ate freezer pizza and raw veggies and dip for dinner. Totally worth it. 

Also, can you believe how high that baby can reach!

movies & makers...

...was really fun!  Here's my booth:
This show is held in an old movie theater (still a working theatre, just more of an arthouse theatre than a regular big old 25 screen multiplex). And its in such a great neighborhood - The Beaches area of Toronto. I had to park down a side street, and as I walked up to the theatre I had total neighborhood/house envy. I miss cities. 

There were a lot of great vendors, and the shoppers were a really good crowd. Very pleasant/happy shoppers, which is nice. I'm used to selling stuff to people in a mall during the holiday season, and there can be some pretty unhappy shoppers, so this was such a nice change from that vibe.  See, look at those happy vendors! This was one of my favourite booths. Jen Bulthuis runs Fidoodle, which sells fun and creative toys for kids. I bought a set of her magnet/puzzle blocks in this pattern:
They come in city, country and suburb patterns, but I thought suburb was really most appropriate to us. Plus also, I love the little camper that goes behind the station wagon. And I know the Little Dude will too. She also makes these sweet dolls. They are flip dolls, so they can turn inside out. You can buy them here on etsy.

These puppets by banjo puppets were a total hit. So fun and funny. He also does amazing custom work, where you can have a puppet made that looks like you. Sort of puppet portraiture. Like this Grandma and Grandpa set that blew my mind. Aren't they the sweetest little puppet couple EVER? I wish you could see the picture of the real people next to the puppets. They were amazing. You can buy banjo puppets on etsy to. (What can' you buy on etsy?) And I know I've blogged about things by SLO before, but it bears repeating, because her stuff is really lovely. She's doing a lot of recycled wool sweater mitts these days, which are really nice, but her little wool critters really blew me away. I totally am kicking myself for not having bought one. The whales were so nice. (hard to see, but there's a blue one in the basket up there)

As with the last craft show I did, I was very ably assisted by the lovely Farihah, who is again modeling one of my scarf bibs in this picture. She took most of the photos in this post too. Actually, I should clarify; she took all the good photos in this post. I took the poorly lit blurry one. ahem. As I said, it was a fun show and I had a good time, but dude, I was tired by the end of the day. The littles are not sleeping so well these days, and by about 4:00 in the afternoon I hit the wall so hard. Farihah's presence there totally saved my bacon.

And speaking of bacon, here's what we had for lunch. SUSHI! so good. Did you know you can get a deep fried california roll? I know this is probably not news, but I'd never had one before, and Wow. Also, the kamikaze roll was a-may-zing. Just thinking about it makes me want some right now. 

poor baby

Sorry that I did not have the energy and/or time to post last night. We're back on the cold train here. Or should I say, under the wheels of the cold bus. This time its the poor baby. I don't think he's had a 'real' cold yet. He had a little congestion awhile back, but this is a full on can't-breathe-when-you-lay-down cold. Which of course, means that he only sleeps for about 30-40 minutes at a stretch. SO BRUTAL. Last night I put him to bed at seven and then he was up on and off until 12:30. One of those really, really difficult parenting nights. Though I feel very blessed that the Little Dude had a great night and did not wake up at all, even though the Baby was wailing in the room next to him and up and down the hallway for large portions of it. Thank goodness for white noise machines. Anyhow, the Baby finally went down past midnight, and Hubs and I colapsed into bed. And then the Baby only woke up once between then and 6:20 am. So that could have been worse. And of course, my mom is AN ANGEL, who called me the next morning and asked if she'd like me to take the Little Dude for the morning. Um, is a frog's ass watertight? That'd be a yes. That way I could get some stuff done while the Baby was napping. Like cleaning up my computer so that I could actually download some photos. Argh. My computer is so full. And yes, I know you can just do some computer magic, like buy new ram or memory or whatever, but really, that doesn't solve the problem of there being, like, three years worth of photos on my computer. And ya'll, I take A LOT of photos. You may have noticed. Anyhow, did some clean up and posted new stuff on Etsy. Check it out.  Posted one of the Test Pattern Totes. Thanks to Hubs for taking the awesome pictures for me.

Of course, the Baby did not know about my plans to get some work done, and he mostly had plans for being congested and tired and sad, so it took me about a half and hour to get him down for his nap. 

A short digression on parenting: I have ideals for how I parent. This is not always the best thing. I have a plan that I like to follow. I have a way that I'd like for things to go. And I have rules for how I'm going to do things. (All the other parents who are reading this are smirking right now. To make a plan is folly, I know that, but still I try) And I'm not saying that my rules are The Right Way To Do Things with capital letters and all, but they are the way that I want to do things. Lets be clear. You should do things your way, and that way is whatever works best for you. Right? And my way is just my choice, and no reflection on your choices. There is waaaaaaay too much judgement in parenting as it is. I don't want to add to it. 

That being said, there are a couple of things that I do, when I parent that make sense for our family. Our kids take regular naps, at regular times. We follow a schedule that has some leeway and room for extenuating circumstances, but generally speaking nap time and bed time follow a predictable routine. It works for us. And our baby sleeps in a crib. I am pro- co-sleeping, but have found that it does not work for us. We stay up much later than our kids, and also, they don't ever seem to want to sleep in our beds. Any time they've come into bed with us, they seem to think its time for a party and no one sleeps. So we don't co-sleep, even though I think its a fine idea. Also, I always put my kids to bed awake. Meaning, I don't rock them to sleep and then put them in bed and then leave the room. The theory is that they need to learn to put themselves to sleep, so I help to create the conditions for sleep (comfort, calmness, quiet, dark, etc) and then leave them to put themselves to sleep. Also, I think it'd be jarring to go to sleep in mom's arms but then wake up in another room entirely. That'd freak the baby out. Better that they know where they are falling asleep. But before you think I'm some sort of regimented hard-ass "let 'em cry it out" 50's style mom, let me tell you that I don't believe in leaving a baby to cry by himself. I'll sit in the baby's room with my hand on his back, and sing or shush for as long as it takes for him to be calm. But I don't run in and pick him up because he's crying, or nurse him either. Nursing isn't always the answer, and I don't want to become the human pacifier. (That being said, I'm a long term nurser, and breast fed the Little Dude until he weaned himself at 18 months. I'm very pro-breast feeding. I just don't like to use it as a catch all solution any time my baby cries)

Anyhow, all that is to say that today, all bets were off. The poor baby. He was SO unhappy and SO tired, and so unable to put himself to sleep. So I figured that I'd hold him until he was asleep. Well, that didn't work. He'd fall asleep soon enough, but as soon as I laid him down he was awake and crying the saddest cry in the world. (That baby really has the most heartbreaking cry I've ever heard. It totally sounds as though someone just told him that his dog died. Its the kind of cry you feel in your solar plexus, I'm telling you) I tried it three times, holding him for longer and longer intervals. Finally, my back (and my sanity) could not take it any longer. So I figured I'd feed him to sleep. Not what I usually do, but surely that'd work. And yes, he fell asleep, but again, as soon as I set him down he was wailing. So at last, after a half an hour and no sleep I made a last ditch effort. I got into the crib with him, lay down next to him, and breast fed him. He fell asleep and then I had to very, very carefully and quietly get back out of the crib. Not so easily done. But I managed it. They should totally train ninjas by giving them light-sleeping infants to care for. You get some mad ninja skills as a parent. I'm telling you no one can close a door as quietly as a mom. 

So all that is to say that I'm tired. And have broken all my my (admittedly self-imposed) rules (that don't have to apply to you, because you can parent however you want. There's no 'right way') and just want a little time to myself that does not involve doing dishes. 

But that Baby is still so darned cute. Even when he's sick. He was so lovely today when he was awake. Still just a happy little guy. Hubs was doing the cutest thing with him.  What's that in the bag?

Seriously, how could that NOT make you smile.

He was loving this so much. Lots of laughing, and big toothy grins. (When those teeth were not busy chewing of course)

The Little Dude also thought this was HYSTERICAL. And of course wanted to help. 

Though that 'helping' was just a thinly veiled excuse for getting the Baby out of the bag so that he could get himself in, and do some swinging too. 

That's my baby, poor little guy had runny nose and he was still up for being swung around in a bag. 

lil quilt

I made this little guy awhile ago, and just never got around to posting about it. 

Every now and then I like to get off the treadmill of my 'gotta get it done' making, and do a little something just because I feel like it. No 'big idea', no deadline, just reach for the first thing that grabs my interest and let me hands do whatever they like.

In this instance I took a bit of one of my favourite fabrics (an old Ikea sheet, not vintage really, probably just from 5-8 years ago) and cut out a small rectangle. Then I layered it up with some batting and backed it with lovely grey linnen and then I just hand-quilted the hell out of it. I just followed the stripe that was already printed on the fabric, in a matching colour of embroidery thread. 

And this is what I ended up with on the back.  So simple, and yet so satisfying. This project was really just about enjoying the process and the material.

I really can't decide which side I like better. I was going to put a couple of hanging loops on the back, but I couldn't really decide which the back was.

The texture of this thing is just ridiculously nice. Its lovely just to run your fingertips over. 

I like objects that fall into this sort of funny in between place as for a definitions or uses. Its not really a use item. Its too small for a place mat, to big for a coaster, not long enough for a table runner. So since it has not useful purpose, it can't fall under the rubric of 'craft', so it must be art. But then again, I didn't really conceive of it as 'art' when I made it, and it doesn't have any greater concept or meaning, other than being nice to look at and good to the touch. So I have a hard time calling it art either. I hate that whole definition argument anyways, and have kind of been avoiding it since I left Art School. I don't like how 'art' is a term of privilege and 'craft' is almost a minimizing put down. As a friend of mine used to say "I refuse to function within that dichotomy." However, that's easier said than done, since the whole world acknowledges and functions within it, and ascribes monetary rewards accordingly.

Anyhow, its too late and I'm too tired for much more debate and pontification over the state of the Art/Craft divide. What I meant to say was: Isn't this pretty?

And I sure did enjoy making it. 

another problem...

More thrift shop fixations. This time, its men's shirts. This isn't really anything new. I've been buying the odd men's shirt here and there for years now. I love a really nice graphic plaid, or something with unusual colours. I also like a nice, classic like this one.
Mmmm, so crisp and clean and traditional and graphic all at the same time.

I've really been stocking up on them lately to make drooler style bibs for my holiday craft shows, but also, some nice quilt plans are starting to percolate.

There are a couple of books out about making quilts out of men's shirts I think, and recently I was looking at the Kaffe Fassett shirting stripe fabrics, but as with a lot of designer fabrics, though I love them, they are currently a bit beyond my budget. However, a nice second hand men's shirt from the thrift, especially on half price day, is just about right, price-wise.

I usually focus on the plaids and stripes, but occasionally a more whimsical print will jump out at me.      I picked this one up at a Bibles For Missions thrift shop I visited the other day. (and btw the BFMs are quite the best of the thrift shops out there if you ask me, both for unexpected treasure and for good prices. They don't gouge like the V.V's are starting to) I love the simple 'plus' design. I can imagine so many good uses for it. 

And this one; look closely...

Such nice little dolphins!

patchwork bags

Just wanted to show you one of the bags that I made as a result of this fun idea.

A fun blend of vintage fabrics with a bit of vintage needlepoint in there too.

Here's a close up of the patchwork.

And here it is laying flat, and with no stuff in it so you can get an idea of the shape. Its a very large bag. I was worried as I was making it that there was a bit too much goin' on, if you know what I mean, but I think its kind of fun in a maximalist kind of way. Though I think with the next one I make I'm going to highlight the needlepoint more. Also, I did a bit of hand stitching along that curved edge, you can see it on the pink lining in this photo. I'm glad I went with hand stitching instead of machine stitching. It just worked better, and looks cute too. 

And here's the test pattern bag that I finished today. Same concept as the test pattern pillow, but more portable.

Its a simple shape, mostly square, with boxed corners. I didn't want to take away from the test pattern stripey goodness with a whole lot of shaping or gathers. I was going to do some close-ups, but I had a little helper...

...who was not so helpful. But so cute and happy that I tolerated his disruptions, so long as he tolerated my repeated removal of him from the photo set-up. We work well together that way. 

By the way, I'll be selling both of these bags, and hopefully more at the SpeakEasy Holiday Sale at the Gladstone Hotel on Dec. 1st, from 7 pm - 11 pm and the Movies and Makers Art and Craft Show at the Fox Theater in the Beaches, Toronto on Dec 17th from 11 am-5:30 pm. If you are in Toronto, or nearby, I'd love to see you there.