Shutting Down

It is time to close down this blog.

I don't do enough exciting new work to update enough to keep it interesting.  Plus, the interesting stuff that I do do (ie. the crazy ideas that just might work) end up buried in a pile of posts.

I am moving over to a good old-fashioned website.  If you want to know what I'm up to these days, check out my new 3dQuilt website.  You'll be able to check out some patterns, and my newest projects and ideas.

Good luck.  I will still follow some other people's blogs, and now you know that I comment because I have a real opinion, not because I am playing the "support blogging" game!

~Kirsten

Finished the baby quilt!

Things are still moving much slower than they used to, but I finally finished it!

I also made matching baby quilts for Verity's cousins, Max and Khilan.  I don't have pictures of those ones handy, though.  The back (or what Verity would let me photography of it):

As a reminder: my in-laws found the brown solid when they were clearing out Verity's great-grandmother's cabin.  The batik is from a shopping trip while my parents and siblings in-law were visiting.  The orange solid was dyed by Kevin, because I was too pregnant to use dyes at the time.

I quilted each block separately and then combined them later.  Each quilt has different patterns in each block, although I did end up repeating my favourites.  Most of them are free hand, although you can probably tell where I used a walking foot.

It was fun and a good learning experience, but I am pleased to be done!

Kirsten

An Update

Yes, I am still alive.  Yes, I did have the baby, who is now 6 months old and the smartest, strongest, most beautiful baby alive, etc. etc. etc.

Having an infant turned out to be more challenging than I thought it would be, but we survived.  Now she's much more independent and capable of incredible feats such as sleeping in her own room for 10 hours in a row.  This means I can get back to quilting, rather than spending every spare minute creating more diapers or cloths for her!

To catch up on some quilts that I made before she was born:

This is a little one that I made for my boss' son, who was born 4 weeks after Verity.  I got a serger just before she was born, so all of the seams are out and then flattened.  It was fun, and really, really quick!

I also managed to finish my shattered dishes quilt:

It isn't laying very flat here, but it generally does.  It's up on our wall now - I'm glad I got it done before I had Ver, because I suspect I would never have gotten back to it.

I finished the baby quilts for Verity's two new cousins, but the pictures are still back in Canada.  I just need to finish the binding on Verity's, then I'll post a picture.

Finally, over the last couple of weekends I have worked on a sleeping bag for Verity.  It's pretty big at the moment (I made the 1-year pattern, as I have noticed she keeps growing!).  I quilted a tree onto the back, but the thread blended a bit too much so I traced the lines with a gold pen.  On the front, I just made some quick quilting with stars in circles, doodles and swirls.

She is already sleeping in it!

- Kirsten

Still Alive!

Ok, it's been a while.  I am happy to say that I am still alive, and currently waiting for my overdue baby to arrive.

When it came down to a choice between:

- working

- gestating

- writing / blogging / spending time on the internet researching quilting
- quilting & sewing

I had to eliminate one.  The blogging went.  And now working seems to have eliminated itself, so maybe I can actually update!

Most of the sewing I have done has been much more boring than previously - various contraptions to keep babies warm and their poo in appropriate places.  I have done some quilting, though:

Back in about Jan 2009, I had a baby shower for a friend.  We each painted a 6" block (the top right and bottom left are fillers).  I promised to put it together into a quilt before the baby's first birthday - in other words, I barely got it done in time!  

Another quick project over the Christmas break:

I made this one because I wanted to see if I could quilt the circles.  It is just a quick jelly roll quilt.  It was my first time playing with batiques - they are really nice to work with!

We ended up giving this one to a co-worker of Kevin's that has a 1-year-old.  She gave us tons and tons of stuff (car seat, bath, etc.) so it seemed like the least I could do.

There have been other quilts, which I will add later.

Kirsten

Baby Blanket Re-visit

The number of babies (new and upcoming) in our family keeps increasing, which means I might have to spread the baby blankets out a bit - rather than 2 4x4 blankets, I will have to make another 4 blocks and make 3 3x4 blankets (but it is important that all cousins have the same sort of blanket, right?)

I have been working on it.  It is a lot of fun to be able to try random, crazy stuff without worrying about the overall impression.  Plus, I can repeat patterns I really like!

I now have:

For this one, I thought I would see how tight a spiral I can make with a walking foot.  Turns out not very.  I decided to fill the space with some spirals.  Kevin thinks it looks unfinished - I may come back to it and put something in the corners.

I just wanted to see if I could do something really easy to fill the space.  I really don't like it - I didn't even bother finishing it when I ran out of bobbin string!  At least I tried...

Pointsettas from Leah Day / 365 Free Days of Free Motion Quilting.  A bit season-specific, but I really liked working on this one.

Another one by Leah Day.  Ok, but I don't like my "beads".

Stomach lining by Leah Day.  Sorry that the chalk is so bright - I could barely see it on the quilt itself!

Some fun...  I'm considering using this one on my Shattered Dishes quilt.  I've done it before, and I really enjoy doing it.

Peacock feathers by Ferret.  I really should learn how to do feathers... but I'm still intimidated.  Apparently this is how she started.

From Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques by Sue Nickels - thank-you for the recommendation, Sylvia!  I think I need to work on making really fine squiggles - this is about as small as I can go. 

Another one from Sue Nickels.  This one is really fun and easy.

An old pattern that I have used before (like 5 years ago, when I first tried free motion quilting!).  Now that I know some other patterns, I don't like this one as much!

I am now half-way there.  Like I said, I can start repeating patterns, which is nice - at least for the patterns that I enjoyed!  I still want to master paisley, as well, so there may be some more variations on that one coming.

Kirsten

Trying to get ready for Christmas...

I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas thing this year.  It could be the nice weather.  It could be that there are more interesting things going on in my life.  It could be that I just really, really don't want to face the yearly trudge to the Toys"R"Us website to get angry about how condescending toys for little girls are.

We got out the tree.  Our cool fiberoptics have burned out.

We tried shopping.  It required a 2-hour nap to recover, and we didn't manage to buy any gifts.

Finally, I decided to make Nanaimo bars: a very, very Canadian Christmas tradition.  And one of my few skills (making them, I mean). 

Since every year someone ends up calling me asking for my recipe, here it is:

Base

1/2 cu. butter or margarine

1/4 cu. white sugar

5 Tbs. cocoa

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cu. graham cracker crumbs (I use crushed digestive biscuits in Britain)

1 cu. coconut

1/2 cu. walnuts (I usually skip this)

Combine everything up to and including the egg.  Put it in the microwave and cook (stirring frequently) until it has the consistency of custard.  Then mix in the other ingredients, and press into a 9x9" pan.

Frosting

Make vanilla frosting/icing as you usually do, but add 2 Tbs. of custard powder.  Spread over the base.

Topping

1/8 cu. butter / margarine

1 cu. chocolate

Melt the chocolate and butter.  Spread over the frosting.  Let solidify partially, and then cut into 1" squares.

Keep in mind the better the extremes between the bitterness of the chocolate layers and the sweetness of the frosting layer, the better they seem to go over!

To add a bit of a quilting flavour, when I made these for the Cambridge Quilter's Summer dinner, an elderly lady took the last one and wandered around the rooms asking, "Who made this?".  I admitted to it with trepidation, but she sat down next to me and demanded the recipe.  They really are that good!

Kirsten

The first scan

I don't want this to become a baby blog (come on, this has happened at least 6 billion times before - so what?), but we had our first scan today.

A. I really am pregnant!  Not faking it!

B. It's a thumb sucker.  Apparently Kevin and I accidentally doubled up on those genes.

C. It did the same indignant turn over and try to ignore me thing that Kevin does in the middle of the night.  Definitely his child!