We went down to a cat shelter today, and I brought two of the small kitty quilts I'd made a few months ago in honor of Finnegan. (I posted these earlier, as backdrops to a photo of a very expressive Echo, but if you missed them then, you can view them here, now.)
I gave the quilts to the shelter manager, and she was quite enthusiastic about them. (In fact, she encouraged me to think about selling my quilts, and even started brainstorming about places to do so locally. How nice of her! :))
The positive reaction made me feel good (unlike the lukewarm reaction of the other shelter), so I think if I end up making more of these small quilts, I'll be donating them here.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
The mind at rest
I take great joy in wordplay and (sometimes terrible) puns, but always thought that was a waking phenomenon.
Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was out in the woods and stumbled upon four black bear cubs. They were all clustered together inside a hollow tree trunk, drowsily playful and very, very cute. My first impulse was to pet and snuggle them, but, having seen dozens of nature documentaries over the years, I had better sense than that. If there were cubs, there would be a mama bear not far behind.
And indeed it was so. A quick glance revealed mama bear on the horizon, heading my way, with clear intention in her gait. I yelped and took off as fast as I could go.
My friends, watching from a distance, didn't know what had happened at first. One moment I was peering curiously into a old tree trunk; the next, I was streaking across the field toward them at top speed. Then they saw the bear behind me and hightailed it on out of there after me.
In real life, a bear can run at a rate of approximately 30 m.p.h. Fortunately for us, this was apparently the world's slowest bear. We hurled ourselves through the doorway of a conveniently located wooden shack (love how these things appear just when you need them in a dream), slammed the door, and slumped to the floor, panting our sedentary lungs out.
Then I woke up... and thought how absolutely strange it was that I had dreamt of being chased by a bear. I hadn't been to the zoo. I hadn't even been in a toy store. My day had been entirely devoid of encounters with any kind of bear, real, fictional, or stuffed.
And then I realized my brain's inspiration: a conversation about mooning people and being mooned.
How does that fit?
I was streaking across a field with a "BEAR BEHIND."
O brain of silliness, I salute you!
Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was out in the woods and stumbled upon four black bear cubs. They were all clustered together inside a hollow tree trunk, drowsily playful and very, very cute. My first impulse was to pet and snuggle them, but, having seen dozens of nature documentaries over the years, I had better sense than that. If there were cubs, there would be a mama bear not far behind.
And indeed it was so. A quick glance revealed mama bear on the horizon, heading my way, with clear intention in her gait. I yelped and took off as fast as I could go.
My friends, watching from a distance, didn't know what had happened at first. One moment I was peering curiously into a old tree trunk; the next, I was streaking across the field toward them at top speed. Then they saw the bear behind me and hightailed it on out of there after me.
In real life, a bear can run at a rate of approximately 30 m.p.h. Fortunately for us, this was apparently the world's slowest bear. We hurled ourselves through the doorway of a conveniently located wooden shack (love how these things appear just when you need them in a dream), slammed the door, and slumped to the floor, panting our sedentary lungs out.
Then I woke up... and thought how absolutely strange it was that I had dreamt of being chased by a bear. I hadn't been to the zoo. I hadn't even been in a toy store. My day had been entirely devoid of encounters with any kind of bear, real, fictional, or stuffed.
And then I realized my brain's inspiration: a conversation about mooning people and being mooned.
How does that fit?
I was streaking across a field with a "BEAR BEHIND."
O brain of silliness, I salute you!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Iterations
I promised to share the evolution of a quilt here when it was done. I'm not sure that it's all the way yet, but the layout is close enough (pre-border) for you to at least get a sense of things.
I began with the idea that I wanted to build a quilt using a standard split nine patch block. Making fabric choices somewhat at random can give a nice effect, but I chose instead to put it together square by square. (Click on any of the small photos to see a photo that is large enough to see the individual fabrics.)
This was the first iteration. You can see that, with the exception of the center, this version sticks pretty strictly to the split nine patch block.
After I slept on this idea, I decided that the sharp contrast between lights and darks was too sharp. I also found the yellow "propeller" in the center to be a pretty heavy handed "X marks the spot" thing. So I made the corners consistently dark, broke up the propeller blades, started replacing some of the lightest lights (like the ice blue polkadot) with darker fabrics. Here it is in the middle of implementing those changes. Already I'd be hard pressed to find a single split nine patch in the bunch.
Here I finished implementing the changes. Another improvement: the center is no longer surrounded by chunky rectangles, but now contains a pinwheel. Ah, much better.
At this point, there were a few color issues that were still bothering me, like the isolation of the light green squares, and the need to tweak some of the light oranges. Here I've switched out the pale blue triangles adjacent to the green squares for green triangles. Still thinking about the orange options...
...to be continued
I began with the idea that I wanted to build a quilt using a standard split nine patch block. Making fabric choices somewhat at random can give a nice effect, but I chose instead to put it together square by square. (Click on any of the small photos to see a photo that is large enough to see the individual fabrics.)
This was the first iteration. You can see that, with the exception of the center, this version sticks pretty strictly to the split nine patch block.
After I slept on this idea, I decided that the sharp contrast between lights and darks was too sharp. I also found the yellow "propeller" in the center to be a pretty heavy handed "X marks the spot" thing. So I made the corners consistently dark, broke up the propeller blades, started replacing some of the lightest lights (like the ice blue polkadot) with darker fabrics. Here it is in the middle of implementing those changes. Already I'd be hard pressed to find a single split nine patch in the bunch.
Here I finished implementing the changes. Another improvement: the center is no longer surrounded by chunky rectangles, but now contains a pinwheel. Ah, much better.
At this point, there were a few color issues that were still bothering me, like the isolation of the light green squares, and the need to tweak some of the light oranges. Here I've switched out the pale blue triangles adjacent to the green squares for green triangles. Still thinking about the orange options...
...to be continued
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Blurry 'Belle
Little Eisa is very unassuming, and never gets possessive of my quilts. However, I left this one on the kitchen floor for a while, between the tying and the trimming, and she went to sit on it a half-dozen times.
I snuck off and grabbed the camera, and managed to snap a single, blurry photo before she became self-conscious and left. Maybe I'll try to entice her back for another session after the quilt is done. Til then, here is my blurry Dorabelle!
I snuck off and grabbed the camera, and managed to snap a single, blurry photo before she became self-conscious and left. Maybe I'll try to entice her back for another session after the quilt is done. Til then, here is my blurry Dorabelle!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Reading other people's blogs
Do you ever randomly look up and read about people online whom you used to know? Would you want to know if someone looked up and read about you?
A former classmate of mine wrote in to our alumni magazine with an update not long ago. He mentioned, among other tidbits, that he and his wife now have six kids.
I remembered having heard the names of the first three kids quite some years ago, and thought at the time that the parents had a certain naming flair. Being a good name geek, and always on the lookout for unusual naming choices, I was curious to know what they'd called the three younger kids, so I plugged their names into a search engine to see if I could find out.
It turns out that the family has a blog. It's well-written, engaging, funny, touching, and has lots of great photos of kids and sewing projects. They face some interesting challenges, and reading about those has made me think a lot too. I think I'll want to follow along with this blog in the future.
But I don't feel comfortable telling them I'm reading - somehow this feels like I'd be forcing myself on them or intruding into their lives. Is this wrongheaded? Since they have chosen to write about their lives online, they are clearly okay with having people read what they've written. They link to the blog from their ebay storefront - essentially, they are inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry to pop in whenever they like.
But are the rules different when it's a Tom, Dick, or Harry whom you know? Would you want to know if someone you knew (even someone with whom you hadn't spoken in 10 years) were reading your blog? Or would you rather remain happily ignorant?
A former classmate of mine wrote in to our alumni magazine with an update not long ago. He mentioned, among other tidbits, that he and his wife now have six kids.
I remembered having heard the names of the first three kids quite some years ago, and thought at the time that the parents had a certain naming flair. Being a good name geek, and always on the lookout for unusual naming choices, I was curious to know what they'd called the three younger kids, so I plugged their names into a search engine to see if I could find out.
It turns out that the family has a blog. It's well-written, engaging, funny, touching, and has lots of great photos of kids and sewing projects. They face some interesting challenges, and reading about those has made me think a lot too. I think I'll want to follow along with this blog in the future.
But I don't feel comfortable telling them I'm reading - somehow this feels like I'd be forcing myself on them or intruding into their lives. Is this wrongheaded? Since they have chosen to write about their lives online, they are clearly okay with having people read what they've written. They link to the blog from their ebay storefront - essentially, they are inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry to pop in whenever they like.
But are the rules different when it's a Tom, Dick, or Harry whom you know? Would you want to know if someone you knew (even someone with whom you hadn't spoken in 10 years) were reading your blog? Or would you rather remain happily ignorant?
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