Stitching after Gardening? Not So Much

The weather here in Ireland has been incredible. It's pretty hard to stay indoors --even though I'd be perfectly fine crouched in my sewing corner.

And yet, there is a very large flower bed just out my window that has become a weed and grass haven. It's been sending SOSs to me all spring. So this week, for one hour an evening I've been breaking my back pulling weed and wrestling free the occasional plant uncovered.

I'm making good progress and hope to have the full bed cleared this week. Once I accomplish that goal, I'll share before and after photos. I'm smart like that--not gonna set myself up for a before shot without knowing the after is a reality!

Today I went crazy and made it halfway across the bed, which is at least 18 feet long in total. Now, I'm very motivated to get it finished. Even DH appreciated the progress, he managed dinner for all so I could keep gardening.

Now this evening I'm comfy on the couch ready to do some hand stitching. Wah! Wah! Oh, my aching hands. Is this old age? I've never had a green thumb, and though I admire the results, this dirty weeding biz is not my cup of tea.

Oh, I plow onward. (no pun intended)

Here I share some machine work I did earlier. Both my nieces are celebrating. One is graduating from high school and one is entering beauty school. These are my celebration post (quiltart) cards for them.



Can you guess which is for whom?

Bless You

Bless those who still believe in me. From my comments on my last post, I see there is life after blogger abductions.

Abductions sound alarming, almost criminal. Again, it's that life keeps getting in the way. I've complained before, I know. My thoughts go dark for a minute, but it doesn't take long to remember, oh, you don't have it that bad. Wimp.

Berrynice the AuPair has gone home for a visit so I've been winging it for the week. Hoping to high goodness I'm not graded or sanctioned for my abilities, or rather, inabilities in her absense. If you want to know how much someone makes a difference in your life, send them away for a week. Me? I knew in the first 24 hours.

Unfortunately, so did Cutiepie.

"Mom, Berrynice does this." "Berrynice does it this way." "But MOM, Berrynice does it like this."

BTW, this was a photo taken before Berrynice ran away left, so catastrophes like leapard print and hot pink does still happen.

I think she finally flipped her 5yo lid on the third morning when, yet again, I asked who wears their gym clothes that day and who does not.

"MOM! We get dressed EVERY single day for EVERY week; don'tcha know by now?"

I would have skyped Berrynice right there and then if I had a minute to spare. At this point I was negative 4 minutes.

And four minutes--well, that's enough to miss the school bus. Since the car is in repair and our family of four is left with a jeep for two, missing the school bus is not an option.

It is funny how in moments of disarray and panic, in a frantic powerstruggle a parent can easily set themselves up.

(DH--bless him too. I must say he makes a better second for Berrynice than I do.) He walks the girls to the bus. ('Cause you sure the heck know I ain't dressed yet.) Today, he had a near miss in saying, "Hurry up or you'll miss the bus. And we have no way of getting you to school!"

Yeah, he might as well have announced there's no school and you can have ice cream for breakfast! Trust me, those girls know when to put on the brakes for the ice cream man!

Luckily I thought quick enough to start crazy screaming over him about some nonsense of homework, shoes and whether Babydoll has knickers on. Thank gawd no one heard his threats.

And me, well at least my crazy-scream nonsense fooled them into thinking I had it all under control.

If only I knew who has gym on Thursdays.

We're Alive, Here's Proof

Snow Delayed Sewing

Over Christmas, my MIL and I conspired. She's a recent convert to quilting. I taught her to make a couple quilted pillow covers a while back, and well, this 70yo lady now sews like she's adding years to her life with every stitch. Bless her soul.

DH answered a phone call earlier today amid the snow blizzard that's keeping us in lockdown. I overheard the start...How's the girls? climbing the walls When's school open? not soon enough How much snow do you have? more than enough. When he hung up, he turned to fill me in.

"You know, the usual. My ma, checking on us all." Then he chuckled, "Actually," he said, "I think she's looking for a fix. She said she's done with her sewing. She's looking for more fabric. She said maybe, when the weather lifts you could bring her what she needs."

MIL had asked me to make some table runners for the other ladies in the family and so I did. They can be seen below. For her, I stripped some William Morris Workshop layer cakes and she's been busy sewing them together for a unique table runner of her own. She's sewing by hand, so it's quite a feat. I'm verry proud of her.

The bad news here is school's been closed. The good news is our au pair is due to arrive today from France. The airport was closed yesterday afternoon, so my fingers are crossed for her safe arrival.
We have so many errands and appointments delayed by the freezing weather, it will be a blizzard of it's own getting busy once we're able to leave this mountain. And, certainly, no one likes to keep a fabric junkie waiting!

This is Time in 2010

Happy New Year!!

Wow, it's here...Year 2010. Was it just a yesteryear's NYE ago when I was on-call for conglomerate VISA U.S.A.? As a team member of an 'event management center' in San Francisco, we were ready and armed for an anticipated massive disruption of the big gnarly Y2K (Year 2000)...that never came to be. The disruption, not the year.

I don't know what we expected for 2000, a few extra zeros, some misplaced millions, computer let downs, and potential hard drive crashes of the century. None of that happened. And yet, if you've read a newspaper in the last nine years, you'll know zeros have come and gone, millions have been misspent, celebrities let us down, and, well, what hard drive crash is not tragic?

Partying like it was 1999 (and it was) my biggest challenge was juggling three jobs as I began my last semester at San Francisco State University. I remember bartending--always the best, lucrative choice to avoiding the anticlimax of NYE-- at Blarney Stone in the Richmond, despite my on-call status for Y2K downtown. Shows how worried I was. Not very.

In the weeks and months leading to the tick tock of Y2K, I attended meetings upon meetings, participated in simulations and drills and composed carefully-worded event protocol for merchant and acquiring banks across the country. Do. Not. Worry. was our message.

Funny, I don't remember one ounce of worry on my part. Our company budgeted hundreds of thousands, created a whole taskforce in a dedicated risk management department solely to battling the doom slaying reputation of the toothless Y2K. And while I reflect on it so lightly, I know the SVPs in charge spent alot of time and worried brows contemplating what was to come.

In fact, my worries of 2009 dwarf those of 1999. They're not worries so much as they're stressors. 1999=single student employed in the City versus 2009=wife, mother, and business woman in non-native countryside.

Sure these transitions come with benefits, like the love of a husband and blessings of adorable children, and opportunities of another country, and alas, fruits of our labor. And yet, it wasn't like I awoke with an ephinany to do all these life-changing things. My life just rolled in this direction. Or so I think. I vaguely recall some decisions: I Do. Let's have a Baby. I can do it. Let's do it. Why not?

Thank goodness wisdom comes with age. Otherwise each of these decisions would have required event management each to their own. We manage and survive one worry only to find tomorrow brings more worries. And for this, I find my archnemisis Time is, at last, on my side. Were it not for time, we could not move forward.

I spend a lot of my time either blaming Time or thanking Time. During this winter holiday, Time was with me as I finished many sewing projects. In this post I share our family Christmas quilt--the trick to this project management is, do the piecing one Christmas and finish the quilting the next Christmas. It worked for me! I particularily love the quilting, I used varigated red/green thread and repeated Merry Christmas in the centre and Ho Ho on the borders. Fun.

Laughter, the Best Medicine

Just in case I painted a care-free loving single life in the city, come now laugh with me.

Once upon a time, I was twenty-something irresponsible and unconcerned with parking tickets acquired easily in San Francisco. (Note reality: the problem is more about paying the tickets, than it is about acquiring them.)

On this day while at work, my roommate called to alert me that my car sat with a tire clamp in front of our trendy Cow Hollow apartment. Bus-commuter by day I arrived home only to learn my car was just towed. The amount to free my car was somewhere above $700 (I'm astonished the actual amount is not emblazened in my head to this day as it was so insurmountable back then. Parking tickets averaged $12, but doubled and tripled every 20 days. You do the math.).

Taxi-passenger, now by panic, I returned to work to get a payroll advance, hop in a cab and rush to the court, pay the fine and onto the tow yard before the $60/hr storage charges kicked in. Finally, we arrived in the tow yard in China Basin, well away from the Courthouse and on the outskirts of the Financial District, only to find that I had left my keys, with my car key, on my desk at the office!

Cue the tears. Oh, I cried. My self-inflicted pain would have no end.

This was not quite 20 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember my bluebird-blue suit, my silk creme blouse and my opaque stockings with my favourite heels. I loved working and dressing downtown. I remember thinking a small thank you for waterproof mascara. (Ironically, with all my stressors of 2009, you won't find me wearing any of those items on a regular basis now.) Anyway, it all paled in comparison when the taxi driver felt my pain and sought to comfort me. He said,

"It's going to be ok. Think about it. Today, this is your biggest problem. In six months, trust me, you'll be onto a different problem. This shall pass."

I will never forget that comforting advice. It shall pass. And it always does.

Enjoy your time today.

Dash over to Dolly Dresses, Now!

You have to get over to Elizabeth Scott's Late Bloomer !! She has done an adorable quilt with tiny dolly dresses (fab fabrics from the greatest Holly Holderman!), and guess what? She's auctioning it off for the Irish Quilting Flood Quilts Relief Action!

Some people are just too kind. A complete daisy chain, I'd say. First there is Holly Holderman who kickstarted with her adorable dolly dresses panel and there there's Elizabeth who did amazing creating and embellishing (including her signature scallops!) and there's Darla Padilla of Wildflower Quilting who did the purtiest quilting and now there's name after name of kind people who are bidding. Bidding with dollars that will transfer to euros and will go to help an Irish family (ies) still in the cold following the floods.

Elizabeth has begun the bidding and will keep the auction open til Monday Dec 21st, so feel free to share in the Season of Sharing. Don't forget to oogle all over the tiny cute dresses!

Kissin' Quiltin'

I can be a bad mom. I can. Really, I can.

But like me, I have two daughters who can dish it back.

Ha, I'm kidding. Oh, they can, the little rascals. But that's not what this post is about.

My daughters are of the age, they dish mimic it back. Good, bad, or indifferent.

Like, "How many times do I have to tell you? I want a HAM sandwich!" Cell phone attached to my ear.

or, "You're not answering me. I asked you something, Mom? Be polite and answer me." My head down at computer.

and then, Cutiepie comes in the office, rubs her little body against my back and arms, and says "Everynight you say you have to do work. When are you done?"

If you're not moved to berate me just yet, hang onto your hankies. When I turn from my computer, I see Cutiepie is clutching the pink cherries fat quarter I bought her last week.
"You told me you would sew a quilt with me. When, Mom?"


sniff.

Before I've made quilts with Babydoll, but Cutiepie has generally had less attention span in the past. Tonight was different. She did the pressing, the layout, and the kissin'.
Kissin' quiltin', you might ask?

Well as does happen when you explain to a 5 yo how to put her 5" squares right sides together--face to face? good side to good side? It becomes crystal clear. "Ooooh, you mean so they are kissing?"

So, we spent the evening kissin' pink squares and tomorrow, maybe we'll hug'em into rows.


That's if I behave.