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My quilt square for the Virtual Quilting Bee destined for Mama Urchin's playroom.
Now I need to go buy a non-crap iron. Bye-bye Rowenta. Hello Black
& Decker. I took the internet's advice and spritzed it with water
(rather than using steam) and it added a boatload of tiny wrinkles.
This bed, recycled from a down pillow, was one of the first blog projects I did. It used to have a cute little apron with vintage kitty fabric and red trim, but I washed it once and the seam binding bled. Clio never once used it, until today. Maybe its a nice spot to look out at the fresh snow.
On Sunday I made my way to the brand new exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum called Quilting Genius II, the Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter. It was absolutely stunning- any locals should run straight there to see it before the end of April when the quilts will be packed away.
I took my trusty camera and with my babe in arms shot photos of all 30 of them, only to discover when I got home that my lens had accidentally been switched to manual. not. one. good. shot. But I promise, I will return and bring you all photos.
Ms. Hunter's work is reminiscent of the quilts of Gee's Bend, and she artfully pairs modern arrangements with softer details like feedsack florals. Add some hand quilting and you have richly layered pieces that seem to tell you a story. Seriously amazing. The photo above shows four of the quilts, but really doesn't do them justice. I'm hoping I can get you some more details. Can you see all of the feedsacks in the bottom right one?
I was feeling all quilty even before this, working on a small patchworky piece. This is nearly finished now so I will share more when I get a chance. Also getting ready to make my block for the Virtual Quilting Bee hosted by Mama Urchin. And then I'm dying to make Lucie a doll quilt for her first birthday in a month (!!). And the list goes on.
Today was Valentine's Day at Elliot's school, so I thought I'd show you what we ended up giving.
Elliot doesn't draw figuratively or write letters yet, so I needed a project that he could help with, as well as one that he had interest in. We made a potato stamp of a heart-- like last year-- and stamped it on the pages of the dictionary that keeps on giving. This was the end of Elliot's involvement, so after he went to bed, I cut them into little mitten shapes, scalloped the bottom, and addressed them. I also punched around the edges with a hole punch because I just couldn't stop myself. It will be fun next year when Elliot's attention span is a little longer to have him even more involved.
I had to brave the cold and snowy drive to school today because my husband had an early appointment. It was treacherous driving (saw many spin-outs), and I was never so happy to arrive. The children were all excitedly chattering about their Valentines. I spied some of their creations (they are required to bring handmade), and I can't wait to see what we receive. Hmmm, who's more excited here?? We have a lot of "mail delivery" in our house, so I'm sure they will all be dragged around for many months.
After drop-off Lucie and I headed over to the new grocery in Ann Arbor where there is a See's Candy, to pick up a few goodies for my Valentines as well as items for Valentine's dinner-- with the kids, of course. Prepared Pork Loin stuffed with dried fruit, fingerling potatoes, maybe a plum cake. Perhaps followed by hot chocolate with just my sweetie? What's on your menu?
Here are a few fun Valentine ideas, in case you haven't made yours yet. I have to admit that making Valentine's is just about my favorite childhood memory. My Mom always had me make my own, and I don't think anyone else in my school ever once made theirs, so I loved crafting just the right thing for each person, and being the only one without store bought. These days, I think more kids make theirs, and even if they don't, there are more choices within the ready-made category. I've even seen some cute down-loadable ones. And I find myself nostalgic of the vintage-y store bought ones that look like the ones from my youth too. You know, puppy dogs and kittens rather than Dora and Spiderman.
Anyway, both of these can be made with items on hand. The key is to wet the paper first, then draw on it with chalk, which creates creamy vivid colors. I tried it a whole lot of ways, with and without white paint, soak the chalk, wet the paper, etc.-- and my best results came from wetting the paper first, and not the chalk, then drawing on the paper with the chalk. I had the best results with thick Martha Stewart scrapbooking paper in solid colors, but plain old construction paper was almost as good.
For the lollies, I first drew circles all over dark cardstock with a compass, then swirled the chalk around, let it dry, cut it out, and sandwiched a sucker stick with two circles. You could put a message on the back, or on the little tie on the wrapper. These are pretty big (4"), I wanted them an exaggerated size.
The spool candy is easier, simply because the swirly part above is a little tricky. For this I marked rectangles on the paper big enough to wrap around an empty thread spool (have any of those?), then I drew lines diagonally on the (wet) rectangle. Finally, I cut out the rectangle, wrapped it around the spool (taping one end to the spool), then packaged in cellophane with ribbon. You could write a message on the backside of the paper, on the ties, who knows. These are prototypes, and I'm intentionally leaving it vague so that your creations are infused with your own ideas.
You could also wrap a rectangle of paper around toilet paper tubes and fill them with a gift or candy, unless that is too gross.
For the very industrious, these would even be cute in felt, as toys. As always, let me know if you get a chance to make them.
