Spain

My quilt is 'famous' in Spain.  Look!

Olivia's Sweater

My knitting projects are anchors to my memories.  There are some projects that take me right back to a specific time and place.  Some of them bring back emotions and feelings.  This is one of those sweaters.  It's odd, but it brings back feelings of love and hope and healing.

We were waiting for a baby to be born.  We were going to call her Maya.  We had met with the birth mom a couple of times and seemed to hit it off.  We had a few baby essentials ready to go in our one-bedroom apartment, the biggest being a cleaned up crib that had already cradled the three boys of our friends.  We hadn't committed to buying too many things - still not believing that we could finally be parents after such a long and frustrating journey.

About a week before Maya's due date, we received the unthinkable news that the birth mom had backed out.  Of course, we were devastated.  That coming weekend (I think it was the very weekend that Maya was due), my work colleagues would all be off chaperoning the French trip to Quebec.  They found out about our adoption disaster and in a matter of days, maybe hours, quickly arranged for hubs and I to go on the trip with them.  They booked us a room at the amazing hotel where everyone got to stay and they arranged for a sub to cover my classes.

I can never go anywhere without a knitting project, so I ran to the knit shop and quickly purchased this bright green yarn.  Although green is my favorite color, the choice in brightness was a bit out of character.  I remember knitting on the 8-hour bus ride to and from Quebec.  I don't remember if I chatted with hubs or students or colleagues.  I don't remember what I thought about.  I just remember knitting on that bus ride.  It was just what I needed - to get away and to get lost in my knitting.

I held onto that sweater for years, not because I couldn't part with it but because I was waiting to find the perfect recipient for it.  When I've come across the sweater over the years, it has brought a smile to my face.  It brings back feelings of love and hope and healing.  For nine years, almost to the month, it has been known as Maya's sweater - even though I knew Maya was never going to wear it.

And now I want it go on record that this is Olivia's sweater.  Olivia was adopted by Shannon and Ryan less than a year ago.  Shannon is one of those people who comes into your life for a brief moment, but stays in your heart for a lifetime.  I was delighted to hear that she and Ryan had finally become a family of three.  And I was so happy to send that special sweater off to someone special.  

Anna's Quilt

Pinwheel quilts are fun to make.  I just sent this one to Anna, my niece who's almost two years old now.  For some mysterious reason I already had all of these feminine girly pastel fabrics in my stash.  I really have an aversion to pastel colors, especially pink.  But, I'm pretty much in love with this quilt, especially when I imagine Anna dragging it around the house with her.  I hope that when it's all tattered with love, I can take it back and convert it into a stuffed animal or something.  That goes for all of the other baby quilts that I've sent out recently.

I took a 'Hail Mary' shot outside on my deck.  My toes are in all the shots and I decided to leave them.  So why is it that beat up chippy furniture looks cool and trendy, but beat up chippy decks just look old and beat up?

Ever since I made this quilt, I have felt compelled to name and label every quilt.  I should've made the pinwheel the darker color and the border the light green color.  I actually considered taking the label off and redoing it, after having sewn it onto the quilt.  But I didn't.  I'm kind of glad that my perfectionist tendencies are lessening as the years go by.  It's a relief actually. 

Floral Applique

It seems like I've had this book forever.  I've had it so long that there's now a new and improved version available, although I prefer the cover of my older version.  I'm in love with everything about the quilt on the cover - the color choices, the curvy design, the use of many reds for the background, and the folk art style.

So, why haven't I made it yet, you ask?  And on a related note, hubby keeps wondering why I'm making all these cool blocks and sending them away.

I've known for a long time that I'm much more productive when there are deadlines.  When I make something for myself there are no deadlines, which results in lots of UFO's.  Being a part of the Long Distance Quilting Bee (LDQB) has given me deadlines.

So, one of the gals from the LDQB requested a block with flowers.  I seized the opportunity and finally made a block from this quilt.  It was difficult to part with when it was done, but I'm now inspired to make the quilt for myself.

I modified it a bit because I didn't want to hand applique all those little berries, leaves seemed a lot easier.  I'm happy to say that I stuck with my goal to use fabrics I already owned.  The flowers and leaves were made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics, leftovers from a quilt that I made for me - that I actually finished long ago!  It probably would've been better to use a different stem color but I ran out of greenish Kaffe fabrics.  Anyway, I love how it turned out and am excited to get started on mine!

Nighty Night

This young lady was dying to learn how to sew.  She came over one afternoon and we made a pillowcase.  I let her pick fabrics from my stash, which aren't the most teen friendly fabrics.  She's an amazing anime artist but I've got absolutely no anime fabric.  It does exist though, but I think she should design her own and submit it to Spoonflower.  Anyway, she also likes music and was able to find some sheet music.  Ha!

Making a pillowcase is a great beginner project.  She learned how to used a rotary cutter, how to pin, how to sew a straight line, how to stop before the pins and not sew over them, and how to keep a steady speed.  She did a great job for her first time ever.  She's a natural!  I was really happy that she didn't slice an artery or sew through a finger.  Phew!

There are lots of beautiful blog tutorials and free pillowcase patterns out there, but for me, this one was the most informational.

Sew, to all my nieces out there who want to learn to sew.  I'm thinking about teaching you online.  What do you think?  Is that something you're interested in?  I know that GG already knows how to make a pillowcase and has moved on to more advanced things, but what about the rest of you?