Month: April 2008

Friend’s Family Tree

Hot off the laptop….

Friend's Family Tree

Journaling reads:

For months, Jerry has been playing a silly game with the girls, using his hand as a puppet. They call his hand “Friend,” and Friend is frequently requested at all family gatherings. Not only that, Friend now has a complicated extended family.
Friend’s mother frequently makes appearances to tuck the girls in at bedtime, and sometimes Friend’s Father even comes. He’s pretty grouchy and only makes growling noises. Friend’s Aunt (his mother’s sister) came to visit once, but she’s kind of trashy and wears too much jewelry so Friend’s Mother doesn’t really like it when she visits the girls. Helen and Alice have even gotten in on the game; Helen’s hands are Friend’s siblings, and Alice’s hands take on many personalities, the most common being Friend’s Sister’s Baby. These characters come out in the car, in the bathtub, at dinner, in all situations.
When Tom and Lila visited in March, they got to experience the marvel that is Friend first-hand (!) at Grama and Papacake’s house. They even played a game of “Guess the Animal,” where Friend acts out various animals and the girls try to guess which one he is (Friend’s favorite is a giraffe — just straight up over Jerry’s head – this always gets shrieks of laughter).

Products used: TCS Freestyle Stitches, EHI SSTools Colored Vellum, CBA SSTools Inked Edges Neutral, SBA Fabricated Brush Set, SBA SSPaper Fmly Brnch Family Tree, ASO Ultimate Grunge Brushes, BHA Stylize Mesh Frame, COL Intertwined Paper Special Dots, all from ScrapGirls. Staple and Journaling Strip Masks by Katie Pertiet of Designer Digitals. Fonts are Viner Hand and Nueva.

Quilting on a Deadline

I was contacted last Tuesday by a friend on a business trip, asking if there was any way that I could make a small quilted piece to present to a retiring Army Colonel at her retirement party. Only twist: the retirement party is April 15, and this friend (who had the materials I’d need to complete the piece) would be out of town until midnight on Thursday. So there was no way I could get the stuff to even start it until Friday.

After talking to him about what he was looking for, and how much I’d be paid (“handsomely” was his word of choice), I decided to go for it. It happened to be a good time for me to do this, since I just finished “This Old Thing” last week and am on a productivity high at the moment.

He brought the stuff late Friday afternoon, and I had it put together by Saturday evening. I finished the quilting on it yesterday afternoon, and put the binding on last night. Today I’ve been hand-sewing the binding to the back and attaching the hanging sleeve, but it is DONE. He’ll pick it up tomorrow and I’ll have a handsome check in my wallet (that will be spent in 2 weeks in Paducah — heh). Woowoo!!

It’s very simple, but that suits the recipient and the purpose of it. I’m happy with how it turned out. I had to leave the flash off so you could see the quilting; it’s not so dull in person.

Completed Army Quilt

It’s about 38″ in diameter, and Tom and discussed the hexagon shape when he brought all of the elements over on Friday. I added the triangular wedges (foundation paper pieced those) to extend it to the final shape. I was going to square it out, but decided that the dodecagon shape was more like an Army insignia/patch than a square would have been. Plus, the extra quilting I would have had to do in the corners really would have detracted from the piece, I think.

All in all, I’m pleased. I think it looks very military, and hopefully showcases the patches the way Tom had hoped for. I just sent him the image; I hope he likes it when he comes to get it tomorrow.

Favorites

List of some of my favorite things, in Alphabetical Order:

A – Alice. She makes me crazy sometimes, but I love the stuffing out of this little kid.
B – Bacon. Damn this diet.
C – Chocolate. Dark chocolate in particular.
D – Disney World. 181 Days!!! (But please don’t tell my children yet)
E – Eating, apparently.
F – Fabric. Oh. My. Goodness. I lurve me some high-end quilting fabrics. Batiks in particular. Homina homina.
G – Garnet Hill chinos. They fit me properly. I just wish they’d make them in denim.
H – Helen. She’s the girly side of me, amplified. A lot. So I can channel all of my girly through her.
I – Ice cream. Yeesh, am I hungry?
J – Jerry. He’s my best friend in the world, and the first person I want to tell anything.
K – Knitting. It’s what I do when I’m waiting, or in meetings, or watching TV. It’s restful.
L – Late at night. it’s when I’m most creative.
M – Mom. She inspires me tremendously, because her ideas so frequently spark new solutions to my artistic dilemmas. We’d make a good team. And yet we haven’t ever made a collaborative quilt.
N – Nicknames for my children. I have tons of them, and new ones generate on a regular basis. They amuse me.
O – Ordering things online and then anticipating their arrival. I love those Brown trucks!
P – Paducah. The AQS show is there in April. I’m going in 2 weeks!!
Q – Quilting. It’s my therapy.
R – Reading magazines and books about my hobbies. Very stimulating.
S – Scrapbooking. Digital or Paper — I’m enjoying both about equally right now.
T – Tulips. My favorite flower. They’re blooming right now, and I have tulip envy. Might need to pre-order some bulbs for us to plant this fall.
U – Uninterrupted time to do whatever the hell I want.
V – Victoria’s Secret Secret Embrace bras. They make me look like I have something to support.
W – Wednesdays. Both girls are in school, Jerry’s at work, and I don’t tutor. I have the day to myself, and I try to use it to work on my scrapbooks or quilts.
X – Extra Cheesy Goldfish. These are the Flavor-Blasted ones. Love ’em. Can’t have ’em in the house.
Y – Yarn. The good stuff. No cheap crappy yarn for me, thanks.
Z – Zappos. Their customer service is amazing.