Is It Spring Yet??

I know, I know, it is still February- be it the end of February - but I am so tired of cold, ice and snow. Yesterday we got the latest round of snowy weather. Bad news was the roads were horrid. Good news was I got to close the shop just after 3pm. The ride home was white knuckle- with very poor visibility, but I got there and am more than happy that today is a day off for me.
The back yard doesn't look too bad from this angle, and if I was a younger, more adventurous person I'd be out there making snow-people. It is perfect white stuff for that. That wet, heavy, gloppy snow-person making snow. I'll pass and spend the day sewing and getting ahead on some shop sample ideas.
This is the little ditty I finished Monday night. All quilted and bound and happily taking up residence in the shop with the other springy fabrics. I will be holding a class to make this cutie come March. It is all done in raw-edge applique. Simple, primitive- child-like. I do love it.

Please excuse the less than stellar photos! I do think you get the idea, however! The pattern is called Playing Dress Up and is by one of my favorite designers: Renee Plains. Below are dresses one and three:

these are two and four:

and again, another less than stellar photo, but Hoffman has caught the charm square fever. But look at how they are packaged:

each plastic tube has 40 7" by 7" squares of Bali watercolor batiks! I couldn't resist and intend to make a version of a circle quilt I just love. Don't hold your breath waiting for photos, but I hope to get to it soon (like sometime in 2008!). I still have some reproduction blocks to finish first- they are long overdue! And then there is the group that is currently making blocks from The Civil War Diary Quilt and Civil War Love Letters. I am trying very hard to resist....but I've had the books for some time and have been itching to make some. Focus! I need to focus!!

I guess snowy, blustery days are good for something! Now back to playing with fabrics for a baby quilt. We don't have anything currently at the shop and Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs has a sweet free pattern on her site. I'm trying to adapt it! We did get one color of the adorable lamb fabric into the shop. We'll see where I end up with it. Maybe another photo to look forward to.

Too Old to Blog??

this bit of musing ( from another blogger) appeared on first Born's tumbler :

"Am I the only person who finds it really awkward when older people have personal blogs?I feel as if anyone over the age of 40 should have better, more real-world things to do. Like, throw dinner parties. Or, have kids. And … um … even … garden?I don’t know. I’m sure I’m being far too judgmental here, but the truth is, it makes me feel really odd to read their musings, especially if they’re particularly casual and/or ungrammatical and/or confused.It’s like, you’re 50. Shouldn’t you have shit figured out by now? I would NOT be amused if my Dad or Mom were online being like “I had to wonder, why ____ fill in blank with random perplexed thought here ____”Apparently, I am too old to blog. She’s probably right. Guess I stopped being interesting two years ago, when I turned 50. Y’all can stop following me now. [bows gray head and hobbles off towards bingo hall]"

To this, first born muses in reply...

" I think my “avid quilter,” “middle-aged blogger” mum will find this commentary quite amusing! "

Bravo, first born, bravo. Your middle-aged, blogging mum, who is well over the age of 50 and who has actually figured life out- or so it seems- concurs- amusing, totally amusing indeed!

I'm glad you seem to think so as well, since I have no intention of giving up all my mindless chatter in the foreseeable future. So be ready for more casual, ungrammatical (and badly spelled), confused blogging! There is, after all, a writer of sorts hidden inside that keeps trying to get out. So why not!

Now to return to our regularly scheduled programing:

I've been playing in the sewing room. Decided that since I didn't get around to cataloging and printing out more family recipes to add to new DIL's book, I'd do the next best thing and make an apron for her (last week was her birthday and middle child, the hubby, threw a surprise gathering of family and friends that turned out to be a real surprise to the body girl! ). I found some perfectly perfect fabric that I thought would be fun, and whipped up a little goody Saturday am to bring with the other goodies that night. It was a big hit!

Other than that- I have no photos of the latest projects. If I get the blocks up on the design wall, I will do just that. I was on a roll and sewed my fingers to the bone over the weekend. It was my gift to myself. If only my brain was working properly! After completing the 24" center block and one of four 12" blocks, I realized I totally misinterpreted the gray scale copy of the layout. I should not have made all the pieces that make up the star completely scrappy! Now this wouldn't have been such a big deal if I had used yardage, but since it is a fat quarter quilt, I had pre-cut all I had - there "just ain't no more"! Drats! So out came the trusty seam ripper and away we went to remedy the situation. I fear I'll lose some of my perfect points (but then I have often been accused of being "pointless" so what the heck!), but the top will be scrappy enough to hide some of these flaws! I'm loving what is coming off the sewing machine, so I'll live with it.
I've also decided to work on the Circuit Rider's Quilt - this year's offering in the Kansas City Star. It is simple applique- one of those hour or two blocks that will fill in some down time each month- that is IF there is downtime. I'll try hard to create some. Perhaps while watching some guilty pleasure TV- Top Chef begins again in a couple of weeks, and of course there is the height of guilty pleasure-- American Idol. There goes the phone bill. Youngest and I have lots to laugh about- oops,I mean comment on- usually during a commercial, and burn up the phone lines between New York and Kentucky.
So there we have it. Today's middle-aged random-ness. Now on to read some of my favorite blogs to see what other "middle-aged" ,"avid- quilting" Internet buddies are up to.

Movies

There hasn't been much sewing going on at 'ole homestead (as hinted at in my last post)these past few nights, but there has been movie watching. Thanks to Netflix I got to see Ratatouille Thursday evening.



First born had highly recommended it, and after the "use your brain to think", somewhat somber films of last month I thought (and rightly so) I needed some lighter fare. I am so in love with this little film!! Why, who couldn't fall in love with Remy, the little (rat) chef extraordinaire?? Delightful, simply delightful. If you haven't already seen it (and even if you have) it is a must. Pop up some popping corn, curl up and simply enjoy.

That experience was followed up last night by the latest film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.

I hate to admit it, but I've had a thing for Johnny Depp in these odd roles since Edward Scissorhands.
Youngest Child found that movie disturbing, but i happened to have loved it. Still do. Is it the nurturing mother in me that wants to save and protect such a sad creature?? I'm not sure. But I can admit that I found Willy Wonka a bit more distrubing to me that Edward would ever be. Now what is with that?? But I did like this version- not the lighthearted romp of the original in its bubble gum colors and sappy tunes. Last night's umpa lumpa's were almost nightmare invoking, and there was something behind Willy Wonka's eyes that hinted of total madness, but the movie worked and worked well. I loved Charley, and those grandparents! Strange old weathered folks tucked neatly into bed- all four of them- like bookends- that was a bit weird, but I really enjoyed this (to me) darker version of the film. Actually, I feel a need to own it. I could pull it out when I am in one of those moods...get a fix of strange Willy or poor, sad Edward....oh! or how about The Nightmare Before Christmas! That is another one that I feel compelled to watch now and again. Is it the Psych major in me, or is it just something just "this side" of normal?? Not for me to contemplate now...reality beckons. On the plan for tonight is Notes From a Scandal. Popcorn anyone??

Blogger Love??

I'm a blogger...well to be more exact, I'm a middle aged blogger. I blog about my quilts, I blog about a book or a movie . I blog about my family (probably much to my childern's chargrin). So when I picked up the Page Six magazine - a weekly supplement to one of the NY papers my husband buys daily- my interest was peeked by the front page come on. DANGER MOUSE-
The perils of falling in love with a blogger. Hummmm....Yes, there it was on page 28 -the City Life article- The Dangers of Blogger Love. Hummmmm....again my interest was peeked!
Needless to say, the article brought about an entire range of middle aged emotions...first the twenty five year old naivite was charming...such a sweet thing. Boy and girl work for same media blog. They flirt- not publically, but via IM . You can hide behind your computer and let things play out, even when you work desks away from the object of your desire! Flirting becomes dating- secretely of course, they work for the same employer after all. This is where the twenty five year old naivite turns into twenty five year old angst. Girl blogger starts telling others about their relationship- the boss, co-workers (shocking!). Now angst turns into horror...she is blogging about the game they call dating! Poor boy blogger now decides there were omens he wasn't "safe". He is furious that his Object of Desire isn't as private as h3 about all this youthful desire and game playing. Come now! What did you expect!! Boy gets cold feet and tells Object of Desire he isn't ready for a serious relationship.
But it gets better- poor boy goes on to lament (and I'll quote):
"the fact that we had made a career of throwing stones at glass houses and then constructed a love shack for ourselves was unsettling." Seems Object started a (not so) secret blog about their relationship and aired her heart and soul (whatever it was feeling at the moment) in true blogger fashion. Oh the horrors! By the time I read that they "broke up" via IM I was no longer stiffling my laughter. Love in the new millinium...still full of high points and even lower points. I remember angst...it just wasn't aired so delightfully for all the world to see! I have to admit I loved the ending sentence. Having to confront the now former Object of Desire with his disappointment with said Object's "zeal in airing her antipathy" towards him via her blog, poor young boy blogger is told quite simply...:You should have known better. After all, I'm a blogger!"

To all this I answer, thank god I'm now a middle aged blogger who just feels the need to (only)share thoughts about my fabric, family and very boring life! Wonder if I should actually go read the big debate (page 14- the week's really serious issues) about whether or not babies should be banned from bars! Yes!! You read that right...seems "hipster"parents in a section of Brooklyn were thrown into a tizzy last week when a bar/music venue decided to ban toddlers and strollers.
Gotta love this generation! My thought?? Let's just bring back Love Peace and Rock and Roll.....I am,after all, a child of the 60's! Maybe I'll skip this week's big issue and just go read the article on the granddaughter (a beautiful one at that) of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Now there is one beautiful young girl! She has her grandmother's beauty- that is for sure.
Then it is on to the usual boring existance for this middle-aged blogger- laundry, what to have for dinner, and will I get to play in the sewing room at all today??