A Little Etiquette PSA

Megan over at The Bitchy Stitcher recently wrote a post that resonated with me. She described the frantic process of trying desperately to finish a gift quilt in time, getting to the final stage of needing to bind it, and wrapping the almost-finished quilt in time to take it to the recipient's party, only to watch as the mom of the child helped the child unwrap it by pulling out the folded quilt and put it right back in. I'm lucky in that I've never had a recipient of one of my quilts display such a non-reaction or reject a quilt so quickly and obviously. However, I have given quilts to people who have not bothered to acknowledge receiving it (when mailed) or send a thank you note. And this, though I realize I'm preaching to the choir here, sucks.

In contrast, I want to highlight my friend, the mother of the child in the above picture, who is the opposite, the most gracious of gift receivers (it doesn't hurt that she also quilts). The day she received the above quilt which was about 5 days after giving birth, she texted me a thank you. Now, I hate texts, but I make exceptions to my texting-hatred for friends who just gave birth; it seems only fair. Moreover, a few weeks later I received a lovely thank you note in the mail. I love receiving thank you notes and think everyone should send them.

But while amazing to get, it's not the well-written, thoughtful, and descriptive thank you note I lust after. No, when I mail a quilt, I mostly want to know that you received it. When I give you a quilt in person, the (gushing...hey they tend to be that way) thank you is sufficient. As a general rule, though, 95% of my friends are gracious thank-you note writers. I don't think this is generational, as these friends are my age and managed to acquire such etiquette knowledge while the other 5% are also my age and seem to have failed at reading Dear Abby or Miss Manners or just listening to their parent tell them to write a thank you note to Great Aunt Edith. As one friend has said, "obviously you prioritize the handmade gifts" and, as friends of mine who have managed to eek out a thank you note within, say, 6 weeks of giving birth have noted, "it's still possible to write one thank you note a day." And I'm not really that picky. A simple email or a phone call works.

I'm confident that most, if not all, of you reading here are fully cognizant of and execute well the art of thank you notes/emails/calls. I write this more in sympathy with the Bitchy Stitcher and as a googleable public service announcement for all who need to convince children, spouses, or whomever to write a thank you note. If you have a derelict someone who needs to comprehend this, feel free to send them my way.

On a more entertaining note, I'm thinking about making my (college-aged) students (in a class nowhere near the art/design world) figure out how to read a pattern, cut fabric, and sew something small. It's totally related to what we're reading and talking about. They just might think I'm nuts, however.

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Dog Days

I spent last weekend with the blur above. Fast is definitely Gracie's preferred speed, unless she's curled up in "her" chair or sprawled on top of you.

Even though this picture is still blurry, I like the way it conveys motion. As I was taking it, I remembered learning about action photography in high school (something that continued in college as I was a photographer for sports information -- the best season was fall, because most of the sports played on fields in the valley surrounded by brilliantly colored leaves on the trees rising into the mountains).

Some dogs "get" that in order to fetch things, they have to relinquish the item. Gracie doesn't really understand this concept, as she likes to hold on to the frisbee (or ball or bone or stick) unless forced to give it up. The relationship between running after a recently-thrown object and yielding said object is foreign to her. Even when she got tired and rested, she wanted to hold onto the frisbee (a Kong frisbee, by the by, which seems quite sturdy for those of you with dogs).

Sometimes I called her the pirate or the panda, for the black spots around her eyes. The long tongue prefers to be out of her mouth as she exemplifies what a friend would call "a licky dog."

I'm off to the dentist shortly, and hope it's as routine as a routine cleaning should be. I'm hoping to (finally) post my whirligigs-without-a-template tutorial this weekend. And maybe push forward on a few more quilting projects.

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Summer to Fall

The signs of fall -- namely leaves changing and crisp, chilly mornings -- have arrived. There are still lavender flowers in the front yard (I have no idea what kind they are). And when the sun is out, it can still look summery.

What you may get a small glimpse of in the bottom of the picture is a bee. These flowers attract buzzing bees like no others.

They didn't seem to mind me getting close to take pictures but I don't love having a stash o' bees in the front yard. If they would start stinging the squirrels and getting those pests away from the roof -- where they like to run relay races in the morning -- I would like the bees more.

But there's no question that autumn has arrived, a little after the fall equinox.

Which is great because fall is my favorite season. It's only Wednesday but the week has already been jam-packed, what with Yom Kippur on Sunday night/Monday and then scurrying to get back into the work groove. I'm still struggling to get down a good daily and weekly rhythm, but I'm hoping that being home this weekend will help. And maybe I'll get to sew a little more -- I have a long list of projects I want to move forward with, but classes and teaching is pinching the time available right now.

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Vegetarian Winter Boots

To the best of my knowledge, it is not yet winter anywhere. As I love fall (or autumn, if you prefer), I'm quite happy with this state of affairs. Actually, it's been more summery than fall-y near me of late, though tonight's temperature suggests inching toward fall. A few leaves are starting to change color and I've seen apple cider in the grocery store. Nevertheless, while the calendar claims fall has arrived, I'm not completely convinced.

And while the inevitable snow is, I hope, many months away, I've spent years looking for warm, stylish (somewhat?), and vegetarian winter boots. It's very challenging to find boots without leather or suede. I have a pair of winter hiking boots, all rubbery and thermo-something-lined. They are excellent for walking in snow, preferably on hiking trails covered with snow. But they are heavy and clunky and just not pleasant for day-to-day trekking about. A friend of mine recently pointed me toward Bogs Boots, which, after a little investigation, do appear to be vegetarian.

At least the Classic High version seems to be. They apparently keep one's feet toasty through -40 degree weather, which I hope I don't encounter this winter. They look kind of fun (and certainly not drab). And it's possible to get them for at least $10 cheaper on non-Bogs websites. So here's the real question: are they comfortable? Do any of you have experience with Bogs footwear? Are they worth the investment? Inevitably, given the lack of available options, I'll probably order them and find out, but before I do, I'd love to hear if any of you have tried these boots before. Love them? Hate them? Feel they're fine but nothing more? Tell me!

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Business Cards! Logo?

As a general rule, I check email way too often and regularly keep up with the blogs I follow via Google Reader. Except when life gets crazy, which captures the last 10 days very well, between schoolwork, teaching, going away for a conference, going away for Rosh Hashanah, and all the little things that needed to (or still need to) happen. Like grocery shopping. That needs to happen really soon or else it's rice and rice alone for dinner.

In any event, my delinquence meant that I didn't realize I had won this giveaway from Sew In Stitches. I won 500 business cards -- and I get to upload the design. Which begs the question: what design? More importantly, what logo? I've been meaning to make myself some type of two hippos logo for a while -- and then get a stamp, some labels, some business cards -- but didn't. Now I have a deadline (2 weeks) and need a logo, snap snap.

I'm a terrible illustrator, so I need to figure out a cool logo that doesn't depend on my control of a pen. I welcome all thoughts, suggestions, and advice. If you've seen some cool hippos, like to play around with some line drawings, or otherwise want to point me in the direction of some modern, clean-lined business cards, comment away.

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Filigree Quilting

I made this challah cover as a companion to the chuppah I just finished. The center square was left over from the chuppah and, with the exception of the white fabric, all the other strips and coins also came from the chuppah-making process. I'm enjoying the challenge of taking fabric bought, cut, and used in one project and finding ways to reappropriate it. Here, I deliberately sought to echo the chuppah design without just shrinking it and redoing it. That wouldn't be too fun!

I used the ends of the strips from the front on the back and created three columns, each moving from lighter to darker fabrics. In Hebrew, shabbat is spelled with three letters, so one could say the columns abstractly represent those letters...or not. It's a thought that crossed my mind but I think it's up to the viewer to decide if that works.

I've been using challah covers to practice free motion quilting, and this was no exception. I was going for a delicate chain look, so some loops and meandering rather than a strict stippling motion. Like always, there are imperfections, but overall I felt more confident and comfortable than ever before. Perhaps because I finally figured out the best tension (between 4 and 5) on my machine to keep the stitches tight on the front and back. No loops anywhere this time!

I'm glad I opted for small sections of white in between each round of color on the front. I think it draws out the color and I'll have to remember this for future blocks. Also, the blue swirl fabric above (a Michael Miller wave print) is one of my favorites. The dragonfly print (below) is one of the first fabrics I ever bought, while the tiny scrap of Amy Butler is one of my more recent purchases.

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Shana Tova!

Shana Tova!

A happy, healthy, and sweet new year to all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) this weekend. In a couple of minutes, I'm off to the airport to head home to my family for the holiday. I know my mom and some of our guests have been cooking. When I get home, I'll make my vegetarian soup and kneidels (matzah balls) for everyone.

It's been a busy week, sandwiched between 2 weekends away, so not much crafting has occurred. I worked for a few hours last night on a small gift for a friend I'm seeing this weekend, but didn't quite finish. Ah well. My carry-on bag contains the chuppah for Beth & Harley, and I'm excited to give it to them while I'm home.

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There in Spirit

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Bike the Barns this past weekend. I very much appreciate that it did not conflict with Rosh Hashanah (coming up this weekend), but a conference pulled me out to the Rocky Mountain west. And that was really fun: I saw a ton of friends, looked at big, beautiful mountains, and even presented a paper.

Back to BTB 2009, my good friend and champ BTB rider Jenny, sent me her photos from the event. Lo and behold, we are both on the MACSAC partner shares poster (hint: we're on bikes). So while I was nowhere near Madison, not on a bike, nor eating delicious CSA food this weekend, I was in fact there.

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A Quickie...Challah Cover

Some days (nights) I just need a quick, finishable project to start and complete. Last night was one of those nights. I wanted to make something but couldn't get into the Miracle Foundation quilts. I just wanted the satisfaction of designing, making, and ending a project.


I almost succeeded.

I have a list of people for whom I need (or, would like) to make challah covers. I like giving challah covers as gifts because they're something my Jewish friends use and they offer me a chance to experiment with design, colors, and quilting. Here I opted to make a couple square-inside-square blocks that I first saw in Denyse Schmidt's book, Quilts. She uses solids but I thought these 2 prints worked well together. I initially intended to place them side-by-side, but ultimately decided that off-center worked better.

I pieced the back from the scraps from the front and some additional strips. Had I not pieced the back, I might have finished the whole thing. Then again, I could say that had I not free-motion quilted (challah covers = small = good practice), I might have finished. In any event, I got through quilting but need to pack and get to bed as I'm off to Colorado for the weekend.

But back to the challah cover, I'm still working on my free-motion quilting, especially stippling. There are definitely some imperfections in this challah cover, but I'm pretty confident that they will not harm the look or disrupt the use of it, so I'm ok with that. It's part of what makes it handmade and a step in my works-in-progress. I'm starting to learn the best ways to hold and move the quilt under the darning foot, and I think (hope) this information will help me improve and, eventually, feel comfortable stippling and otherwise free-motioning larger projects.

If my flight goes according to plan, I'll be in the Mile High City when this posts. Have a wonderful weekend!

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All Bound Up

I spent the morning binding the chuppah for Beth and Harley (it really needs a more catchy and descriptive name...I'm still waiting for the epiphany or the revelation in the form of a comment by one of you!).

I wasn't sure what fabric to use for the binding -- to be honest, I didn't have enough yardage of many of the dark fabrics (the binding required a touch over a half-yard) so I only had 2 dark options from which to choose. Which raised the question of whether one of the medium or light variations would work, or whether a multi-fabric binding would be better. I decided that a medium or light binding might distract too much. While it might pull the eye toward the light center, I thought it might frame the chuppah too well, and stop the eye from meandering across the chuppah which is more interesting to me. I've used multi-fabric bindings before, but I thought it would be too busy here. There's so much going on in the center that I want viewers to see that I decided the quilt needs a single fabric binding. So I was back to 2 choices, and I'm really glad I opted for the green dots. It fits well in the medium/dark range and pulls the whole design together.

I'm going to wait until after the wedding to post any more full pictures so you're stuck with several views of the binding for now. I had fun playing with my camera and the little sunlight peeking through the clouds this morning.

The blurred effect.

Were it not for one of my hairs poking out from the middle of this picture, I think it would be my favorite. As you can see from the little bits of white showing through, I backed the chuppah with white flannel. I like using flannel for chuppah backs because it allows the stained-glass effect to work its magic, it's not too heavy to be supported by poles, and it allows the couple to use the chuppah as a warm quilt after the wedding.

Sun-dappled and showing a little snippet of the light center.

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