Notes from the 'Chop

if i hadn’t spent an hour wrestling with my sewing machine tonight (convinced i had broken something having to do with the bobbin) (though it turned out i had mis-threaded my top spool of thread), i might be finished with my first quilt block now. but… since it’s 11pm and i am starting to feel the tiredness (and a need for a glass of wine), i decided to finish it up tomorrow. i made good progress though!

i am working on cosmo cricket’s “circa 1934″ pattern. it is a bit more advanced than i should have probably picked for my very first quilt, but it’s too late now!

i just need to trim my corner blocks (my first half-square triangles! so exciting!), then i think getting all of the pieces together will be easy.

i need to appliqué the “stick” that cuts across the block, but… this quilt has 42 blocks and i figure i’ll have time to figure out appliqué later. for now: just get the blocks sewn.

my crafting room is actually a pretty nice space to work in, considering i don’t have tables or decent storage yet. i had the radio streaming through my ipad and the kitties were trying to help… not a terrible way to spend an evening. (especially since my sewing machine isn’t broken!)

last weekend i finished cutting all of the pieces to put together my first quilt with the circa 1934 pattern. they are all laid out and ready for sewing! one of these days…

until then, i’ve become a little obsessed with my itty bitty stash. i’ve been buying a lot of fat quarters from my local quilt shop and i’m not always sure what the pattern name or collection is. thanks to google, though, i’ve been able to find a lot of names and label everything i’ve used so far. this is probably not normal behavior, but it feels good to know where everything came from — especially if i ever want to try to track down more!

anyway, i am very glad that i did some quilting work on saturday, the final day of national quilting month, because on sunday i woke up to a very awesome tweet:

at first i was excited because i never win contests! but then it occurred to me that it was april 1^st and what if it was a joke. but of course it wasn’t! i’m so excited to go shopping (online) — but i have no idea what to buy!

many, many thanks to seamedup and the fat quarter shop!

i’m a sucker for crafting that doesn’t involve computers. so, prior to mary’s bridal shower, when my fellow cohosts and i were trying to think of a gift to give mary that could also be something she could keep and value, i volunteered to make a gift book.

we had to create our own books in one of the photography courses i took while i was working at the university of minnesota. it’s been a while so i felt a little rusty going in, but definitely excited.

luckily, i still have a tackle box full of crafting supplies for such an occasion! i used to need crafting supplies for several classes i took and would forget to bring certain items (surprise) so i ended up buying way more than i needed during those years. i have three of those cork-backed metal rulers.

but they seriously make cutting straight edges so much quicker and easier. i’ll never throw them away.

i’m lucky to have a resource like the minnesota center for book arts for supplies like book fasteners and pva glue. maybe other places sell these items but i also feel much more hip when shopping at the mcba.

after i got all of the pages cut out, including the pocket into which we placed mary’s theatre gift ticket…

i constructed a table card to make sure it would stand up properly. and success!

almost.

remember: confirm orientation twice, glue once. (i didn’t make this mistake again.)

table cards done! on to constructing the cover.

be patient when cutting book board. it will take several swipes with the knife!

this is the paper i chose for the covers. i thought it was funky and fun — attention-getting but not overwhelming. (for twin city residents who may be reading: the paper depot is a great resource with far too many awesome choices.)

i cut the ¼” gap in the cover so it can bend easily. not something that would’ve occurred to me, so it was a good thing someone told me in advance.

halfway glued and wrapped — looking good so far!

here is a close up of one of the covers finished. the first piece of paper gets wrapped around all edges of the bookboard, but the second piece of paper just has to fit around the “inside” of the uncovered side of the book, hiding the folds from the first piece of paper.

and then it was time for the industrial hole punch. i think i chose one size too big, but oh, well — as long as the holes aren’t too small that the book fasteners don’t fit or so big that the book fasteners fall out then it’s all good.

voilá! a musical book for mary is born!

from cutting to binding, i think the creation of this book took me about four hours in one evening. and can you believe i had so much fun doing it? of course you can.

i have a whole bunch of bookboard left, too. time to make more books!!

a few weeks ago, some of my friends and i hosted a bridal shower for mary, whose wedding is in june. we decided the theme should be musicals — just for fun.

i illustrated the table cards to explain how the food all tied in to the theme. at the end of the party, those table cards went into a book that also had additional illustrated pages of special quotes each of the hostesses chose (signed with personal well wishes for the happy couple). i chose hairspray — “without love, life is like the seasons with no summer. without love, life is rock ‘n’ roll without a drummer.”

nina’s house was filled with gorgeous tulips, too. it was such a fun, colorful day (just a few days after a big snowfall, too).

after everyone had a chance to enjoy some of the food, we launched into the first game. the objective was to try to pronounce a character’s name from a couple of mary’s favorite musicals — with a giant marshmallow stuffed into your mouth!

katie developed a “chipmunking” technique.

i had no idea how difficult it actually was until i tried it, but luckily i was too busy taking photos and only had to attempt it once.

then, to the next game…

i’m not sure where jane found this one but it was both hilarious and completely inappropriate. yes, there is video. no, i’m not posting it (i promised everyone [and myself] that i wouldn’t embarrass us all like that).

michelle’s coconut cake with coconut ice cream was ohmygodyum. i wish i had some right now.

and then it was time for gifts!

nina was the purveyor of gifts.

katie explains why its very important to have at least one nice, big serving tray. and she sure picked a lovely one for mary!

this was so cute – mother of the groom put together a whole picnic kit, complete with rainy day substitution!

custom apron for mary, who loves aprons.

and, finally, the hostesses presented the book that includes the table cards, our well wishes, and…

a ticket for her and her future husband to see the musical of their choice. (judging by her face, i think she was surprised and very pleased!)

i’m so excited for her wedding! it will be at her family’s farm in south dakota and guaranteed to be a super fun time.

today, during my lunch hour, i went to visit flowers.

i have my own flowers growing at home: i transplanted a bleeding heart and day lillies late last fall and feared the worst. but this week i have little green leaves growing!

so i suppose that means i ought to clean up these flower beds a little bit, ‘eh?

i also have tomato and pepper seeds sprouting in my kitchen — i planted them in newspaper pots about a week ago. i was thinking they would take another week to grow, but i guess spring is eager this year! i’m cool with that.

i have never started a garden from seed before, so i wonder if i will have too many sprouts growing. i made three containers of tomatoes and used about 6 seeds per container. i certainly don’t have room for 20+ tomato plants.

we have also been remodeling our bathroom this week, so i have been taking a lot of photos and not posting them here. i am a little distracted — last night i was scraping old tile adhesive off of the walls and priming some of the repair we’ve done. but i’m posting now because i really wanted to share the flowers i visited — i hope they brighten your day a little bit, like they brightened mine.

yay, spring!