Making an effort to honour the past

Michael and I decided that we wanted to put up some photos of our 12 years together at our wedding reception (because that's a long time, and we owe it to our various hair cuts), and I think we found a solution. Without ruining anything for folks attending, I think you can get an idea of how we plan to hang them in the photo, above.

Like everything else that we've planned for the big day, we chose this method because it was easiest. Other than picking the photos and getting some digital photos developed, it's basically done. Oh yeah, we have to make sure that they're arranged in the right order, because it's a time-line of sorts. I'm surprised at how hard this has been to do. Did I mention now long we've been together? That's a lot of photos.

Now that I see the photos hanging, I'm tempted to do something similar with wedding photos in our apartment, once the dust has settled from the big event. Michael thinks that something like this photo wall would be nice.

Making A Good Start

This weekend I joined Marc's mom and went to my third Sewing and Quilt Show. It seemed a little mellower than in years past (in years past it has felt a little frantic). I felt that this year I actually had a perspective about it all, which was fun. Since last year, I have either finished or made good progress on 4 quilts. I have some idea of what I'm able to handle, ambition-wise, and my purchases reflected that I think. I resisted a few things, for example, whose novelty might have swayed me before. I am wise to your seduction, triangles and cute pins!
I have about 12 hours left of hand quilting on my mom's quilt, but I can't resist starting on this one. About 90% of the fabric I bought this weekend was pink with flowers. I thought that was funny.

Making an embroidered gift with due process

This is my artistic process for embroidery (I don't recommend it):

I remember that I like emboridering things. I decide to make someone a gift with a simple design on it. I start embroidering a tea towel or something else that I have on hand. I get carried away with all sorts of intricate possibilities. I get overwhelmed. I delay. I realize I only gave myself a half hour to finish the project before giving it away. I finish the project while Michael waits for me at the door. I spray the project with water so the lines from the embroidery hoop might go away before I hand it over. I hope the fabric dries in time. I don't wrap the gift so it might dry in time. I get bummed out that I didn't make something more intricate. I think about that one wonky detail (damn you, blue heart). I give the embroidery project away. I realize that even though it's simple and wonky, it's still cute. Usually I forget to take a photo at this point, but this time around the recipient had some fun props that I couldn't resist (Happy Birthday Zoe!).

Making (quilts for) babies

Got to shake up the blog post titles a little right? I'm sure that babies are things worth making too, but let's just stick to quilts for now, OK Mom?

My friend's sister (also my friend!) is having a baby this summer. It's very exciting. Recently I got to feel her belly, which, in combination with the ramping up of NCAA college basketball for March Madness this year, has really kicked me into high gear, quilt-wise! Just like last year! I'm like Pavlov's Quilting Dog, if you will.

I'm especially happy with the binding on this one. I wasn't totally sure that it was going to come together until I started sewing the binding on this afternoon. As Marc said when he saw it, it really ties the room together.