The things I am currently working on and how they’re coming along…

1. Dissertation – well, this is the big one.  I really should channel all of my energy into this single task until it is done, but I think I would go insane.  It’s coming along…I don’t really like it still, but I want to finish, and my advisor is confident I can finish.  Desired finish date: January 2010, which means I graduate in May 2010.

2. Ballet – The activity that I do where I cannot possibly think about my dissertation.  I just started at a new studio, two or three times a week.  The teacher is good, she is really into actual dancing as opposed to drilling at the barre, which is good, because I am not so great at the dancing part, but bad because I look like an asshole.  The studio offers pointe for adults, so someday I can fulfill my dream.  It’s funny because I’ve always hated feet, especially my own, however, the women at the studio seem to love my feet.  They are not used to all of the attention.

3. Fiona’s quilt – Poor Fifi, who is 1.5 years old now, doesn’t have her quilt yet.  I started this before she was born, but everything went crazy around that time and the quilt got moved to AZ while I was still in Philly.  Now my sewing machine is acting up.  I will finish before her 2nd birthday.  It’s all pieced together and about 1/3 quilted.

4. Area rug – I started making an area rug for our “Arizona room”.  It will be grand when it is finished, if I ever finish it.  There are about 7000 “noodles” I need to weave into it.  So far, I have done about 1000.

5. French – I still watch French TV, mainly southpark, everynight while falling asleep, though I think I have reached a plateau of understanding, it’s not really getting better – or it’s getting better very very slowly.  We saw Inglorious Bastards this weekend, which had a lot of French in it, and I was thrilled that I could understand about half of it without the subtitles.  Also we have French speaking friends, where the Dad only speaks French to the children, and I can understand just about everything he says.  But my speaking is terrible and my husband gets mad when I speak at him in French, so now I am speaking to my cat, who doesn’t speak french but understands it.  She responds, naturally, in the Queen’s English.

If I can finish 1, I may regain my sanity and stop photoshopping myself into photos with Edward Cullen.  If I can finish 3 and 4, I’ll be thrilled.  I’ll never really finish 2 and 5 I guess.

Fiona’s baby quilt part 2

I have almost finished piecing the top.  There are four strips of fabric, and I’m not sure if I want to directly sew them together or have a solid color, which would most likely be charcoal, between them.

I like the quilt the more I look at it, but sometimes I still think the color scheme is a little wild.  The picture doesn’t represent the colors so well (even after digital enhancement).  They are turquoise, lime green, and okra, and of course black white and gray.

I haven’t decided on the backing yet.  It’s either going to be charcoal cotton material or maybe a fabric called minke.  It’s very soft, but I’m not sure about it.  It also has a very limited color selection.

I ripped out some of the plain white strips and replaced them with white stripes with some details…which was a pain in the ass, but worth it.  It gives it a little character.  (The first picture probably best represents actual colors)

I am also very proud of my seams.  They look so nice, I kind of want to put them on the outside of the quilt so everyone can see them.   My last quilt’s seams looked like a 5 year old made it…

Cute kitty  in motion

Invitations

 I was a little weary come October 15th when all of the gluing Derek and I had done started to come apart.  After spending hours fixing what had come apart, and sending them out on October 31st, I said “You know, I should have just paid $500 for the damn invitations rather than making them myself.”  And I meant it.

Scotch brand photo splits came to the rescue.  These things are awesome.  Precut, super sticky double sided stickers…and they’re cheap.  800 for $5.  I will never use glue stick again.  F glue stick!!!!

But it seems that the toiling has paid off.  People really seem to like the invitations…even people that didn’t know that I spent hours and hours and hours toiling.  They are even more crazy about the RSVP postcards, which the front has a picture of Derek and I throwing snowballs at each other in Black and White, but my scarf is tinted green(to match the wedding colors).  I am getting many RSVPs where the photo has been ripped off the front so they could keep it.  My future mother in law wants me to make her another one for her scrapbook, my grandmother refuses to RSVP (even though she is coming) so she can keep it.

It makes me happy that they are going over so well, but if I could do it all over again, would I just spend the extra money to have them made professionally?  Hell yes.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy designing them and making them, I really did.  It’s a matter of economics.  I approximately value my time at $30/hour.  The amount of money that I saved was about $400, which buys me about 13 hours of time.  And I spent waaayy more time than that making and fixing them.

Fiona’s baby quilt

My good friend Melanie is having a baby girl, Fiona.  She is also a bridesmaid, and will be a very pregnant one in January…

Melanie’s sister Laura had a baby girl, Mary, in August.  I made Mary a quilt, the first quilt I ever made.  About a week before Laura’s shower, I decided, I’m going to make a quilt.  I had just gotten a sewing machine from my grandmother two weeks earlier.  I ordered some really cute fabric, a “fat quarter assortment” where they take all of the hard work out of pick fabric.  They get the colors right, the dark vs light, the bold vs blend, etc.  It went very smoothly, and quickly.  I finished it in time for her shower.

Laura’s quilt (those are my dad’s feet and head sticking out from behind):

Now for Melanie’s quilt.  It’s a different story.  I couldn’t find a fat quarter assortment that I liked, so I decided to pick my own fabric.  I spent a month picking out damn fabric.  It’s kind of crazy fabric.  I hope she likes it.  Then I thought, I’m going to do something more difficult this time.  So tried some things out, and realized that there was no way I can cut out little pieces and sew them together all square.  I need results!!!!  So I’m doing a slightly more sophisticated version of Laura’s quilt.  I’m about 1/4 done, and her shower is on December 8th, so I should be able to finish.

start Melanie’s quilt:

I’m not 100% in love with it yet, but I may come around, and I hope that Fiona loves it.