happy new year!

this photo isn't from NYE, but, close enough.  (it was from pete's work Xmas party back on dec. 10th.)

i have been around, but busy.  i also got an iPad and that derailed my blogging big time...went into deep media digestion mode and created virtually nothing in a virtual sense.  pinterest and Flickr efforts excepted.

it was a crazy year, full of a tremendous amount of change.  good change (moving, poppy growing up and getting potty trained (!), and starting at a new preschool), and bad change (health problems, peter's dad passing away, etc.).

but overall, the year ended on a good note, i would say.

-poppy's new school is great.  very urban and forward-thinking, as well as kind of hip.  her head teacher has pink hair!  they even make a point to serve them healthy organic food and emphasize environmentalism, which is a nice touch.  she's going 5 mornings a week and seems to love it.  yay!

-poppy's school is about a mile away.  i usually walk back home after dropping her off, and walk back over to pick her up.  lately i've been taking the stroller with me to pick her up so i can walk us home too, so I get about a 3 mile walk in each school day.  hooray for exercise!  i need it, as it's been a non stop sweets and candy fest around here since Halloween...(maybe you can relate???)

-while poppy is at school, i usually head home to sew.  i've been getting into quilting, big time.  i made my parents a large quilt for Xmas, and also finished one baby quilt (for my newest niece marabel, born mid-dec), as well as a full size red and white zig zag quilt, which now resides on our bed.  i've also finished multitudinous quilt tops in the past little while and have more ideas and quilts in the queue.

-on a quilt related note, i joined the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild in dec and met a fabulous group of ladies there...including one famous quilter, jacquie, who lives in my building.  she and i have even gotten together a couple times since at her place to chat and sew.  she's amazing.  so happy to make a friend here, especially one as nice as jacquie, and especially one who sews/quilts!

-i signed up for a fabric silk screening class, it starts next week, and runs for ten weeks.  so excited!

i'm off to do some sewing RIGHT NOW.  a perfect way to start the new year.  while i sew i plan to ponder my goals for 2012.  still formulating plans.  *smile*

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what have you been up to?  i've missed you.  :)

love made you + other patchy goodness, in progress

love made you


several years ago (probably about 5 years now) i made the word "love" using soft letter pillows. sometime back, probably about 2.5 to 3 years ago (when poppy was but a wee little thing), i added the words "made you", thinking it would, in toto, make a neat wallhanging somewhere, someday, in our home. perhaps over a bed, or maybe even in the kiddo's space. i like the idea of those words together, because really, for most of us, it's kinda true. idealistically anyway. :) finally got around to snapping a photo this past week. (wow i'm slow.) maybe in about 5 years i'll actually get around to hanging them up. ha ha ha.

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quilty idea in progress


working on some other small baby-quilt/wall-hanging sized patchy/quilty stuff. will reveal at a later date.

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taking an all day free-motion quilting course at a local fabric store on friday...i'm pretty excited.

this and that

zig zag quilt planning
ikea dress
boxes


i started playing around with instagram on my iPhone yesterday...popped off a couple pictures around the house.
on top: thinking about making a zig-zag quilt. made a simple sketch on graph paper on monday, so i could get an idea of how much fabric/how many blocks i'll need to make one in queen size. i made of a few copies of said drawing so i could plan out colors. i don't think i'll be doing the colors shown; i was just having a little fun with a glass of wine and colored pencils while watching tosh.0. :P
middle: a jumper dress i made over the winter from ikea yardage. it's the same 70s vintage pattern i used to make this green jumper and this orange jumper...
at the bottom: acrylic boxes, from the container store. i like how they look stacked and arranged; they remind me of buildings in a city. poppy LOVES playing with them; taking off the tops, putting stuff inside, stacking them, etc., etc.
as with hipstamatic...i can see this app being pretty addictive. :)