Playing with layout: Autumn quilt

Inspired by a maple leaf quilt, with rows upon rows of large maple leaves, I started piecing the blocks. Growing bored with the simple repetition, I started appliqued leaves and embroidered words. I imagined something like this, with wind-blown leaves tossed across the quilt top.

But I didn't know where my eye should go. There was no direction. Maybe the original structure isn't such a bad idea?


Some combination of both? Oh dear, this version would take forever.


Balancing movement and structure, chaos and order. Still a work in progress.

Life these days

I realized why I've felt a disconnect between my life and the things I typically share on my blog. I'm just not in a very project-y, "life is good, let me show you the pictures" kind of place right now. Yes, I have been crafting and sewing and shopping and cooking and homemaking and visiting inspiring places, but underneath is grief and some upheaval of purpose that seems to keep me from posting about those things.

Last year, when I started making more conscious efforts to focus on what matters most in my life, it felt connected to my preparations for motherhood. I chose to slow down, be home more, focus on family. I said no to projects and simplified the projects I did do. It often ran against my grain, but I felt it was important, part of a higher purpose. I hoped, assumed even, that this time of change would seamlessly blend into pregnancy and motherhood, but it did not. Now, in the midst of that heartache, I sense the need to continue these difficult changes anyway.

So, I'm doing it. I'm working on my daily living. I'm thinking about my marriage, my home, my spirituality, my creativity, my health, my future and trying to care for those things. I'm starting to think that consistency matters far more than I've ever cared to acknowledge and (begrudgingly, at times) trying to learn how to be consistent.

Bleh, it sure feels boring at times. I don't want to blog about boring! You certainly don't need to see the daily stack of clean dishes on my counter (though having the stack be clean on a regular basis is definitely new around here). And I don't want to blog incessantly about heartache, although there are days when I feel chin deep in it. But I do want to blog about life and what my life is. So for now, that it occasionally means sharing some slogging and working through change. Bare* with me, I know the changes will also bring beauty I promise to share too!

*This is why I need an editor. (J.B., you've got the job!) This was not intended to be an invitation to go skinny dipping. Although skinny dipping with all of you lovely bloggers would probably bring a bit of beauty to the world, it would simply be one more thing I wouldn't photograph. This isn't one of those sites.

Foundations of a good marriage

Husband-o: (Eying the last bite of sandwich in one hand and his last chip in the other...serious internal debate occurring.) Which one should be the last bite?

Me: The sandwich. (Pointing to the still 1/2 full bag of chips on the table.) If that's just not satisfying, there are still more chips to munch.

H.: (Smiling.) Brilliant.

Me: Aren't you glad you married me?

H.: You enrich my life every day.

Yes, indeed.

Iraqi Bundles of Love

Anyone else putting one of these together for IBOL?

(Click here to check out the project)

Here's my growing pile...some large folds of cotton, some decorator weight, some yarn, some smaller folds for color (do only quilters love fat quarter sized bits and pieces?), some thread....

Don't you want to help???

Raid your stash this weekend and get a bundle in the mail by the 8th. You can't go wrong sending fabric to someone who wants to sew, for heavens sake. Right?