dogs, balloons, and stuff

i love japanese fabric. i especially love this linen fabric i just got. two of calvin's favorite things right now are dogs and balloons. so i HAD to get his fabric.

then i saw this one. cars and safari animals. ohhh. again had to get it.

i whipped these two bibs out last night and calvin already loves them. he is carrying around the one with the balloons and dogs everywhere.

i am thinking about making a little lunch/library bag out of the rest. i haven't quite decided yet though.

i have a huge week ahead. last week of my master's program...ever. i am very much looking forward to being done. also we have family visiting for a couple of weeks. i hope to get to some strawberry picking. all of the jam making around the blogisphere lately has got me itching to try making some. calvin just had toast with blackberry jam this morning for the first time and he loved it. the jam all over this face was precious.

gifts for maddy

i finished a quilt for maddy over the weekend. it is smallish quilt (30x30) in spring colors. it was nice to dig into my pink fabric stash. boys have abounded amongst my friends lately. maddy was a nice and needed addition.

i also made her this little (well not so little, actually HUGE) pink bib as well. and i couldn't resist buying this turquoise dress for the girl. i met her today and she is absolutely adorable and snugly and she exudes that wonderful new baby smell.

here is a picture of calvin sitting on maddy's quilt and i was trying to sew it. he wanted my full attention at the time. he is becoming more and more spirited everyday.

crossing things off the list

my to-do list is a bit shorter this week. i finished joey's quilt and got it in the mail.

here are some sneak peek pictures. i am loving the free hand machine quilting lately.

school is out and i have two weeks of my master's degree left. i can see the finish line. i am looking forward to summer days filled with play and water and sand and good friends. (and absolutely no research articles or ethnographer's books)

happy solstice!

almost done...

i am currently trying to negotiate a few things simultaneously. things that are almost finished, but not quite. the first of which is elementary school. we have a week and a half left and i have many little details to sort out before i can end the year and end my time at my current school...and then of course get a new job. i turned down one this week. it didn't feel right. i hope i made the right decision. it makes me nervous to turn down a job when i don't have another one, and i have to work. i have an interview on monday. wish me luck.

second, my master's degree. the class i am taking is my last of two classes. yipee! i only have 8 more sessions of one class left, and a week long seminar and then i am done with the whole degree. i am trying to cherish the last month because i know that the collegial conversations that we engage in during class are rare out there in the working world. i will have to try and change that without having teachers run away when they see me walk into the lunchroom.

third, i am almost done with a quilt that has been a long time coming. luckily the little one it is for is very patient. i was hoping to be done before madelyn was born, but she came on tuesday. i hope to meet her next weekend.

the brown rice and veggies i am cooking are also almost done...

clean desk

this is my old desk. my used-to-be, very messy creative space. it was not very conducive to creativity as you can imagine. my master's degree has really taken a toll on my cleanliness (much to my husbands chagrin plus i was not the tidiest of people to begin with...). as i look at these photos i feel like one of the people on the british show how clean is your house. i watch and i wonder how people can let their house get so out of control messy. well now i know. firsthand.

here is my desk now:

beautiful, huh? i have already sewn a few things and kept it clean. i tried to label everything so that every 'thing' has a place. (i was very inspired by the office of my friends kelly + jen).

i feel so lucky to have a sewing space that can be a permanent space (in our old apartments i always took over the dining room table and had to pack up everything after a project was complete or when we wanted to eat dinner, ugh) so i am determined to keep it tidy. maybe i will try to post a monthly picture here so that i am accountable to you for keeping it straighted up. maybe that is too much commitment. i do believe that creativity leads to a messy desk, but also creating needs space, clean organized space. okay, i will keep it clean. at least for today.

and the winner is...

sorry this took so long...

the winner of the 'make it yourself'' book is...dadadadadadada...(that's a drum roll)... jessica. congratulations jess! i am looking forward to seeing the macrame bag that you make!

make it yourself and a give-away

i first saw this set of books here and i was instantly smitten. i found the entire set on ebay for $4.99. these books are dated, but filled with how-to's for everything that involves fabric, yarn, embroidery, beads, rug making, and other assorted crafts.

i am in the middle of deciding what to make first. with 20 volumes i have been doing a lot of perusing and page flipping.

this is volume 2 and it can be yours. post a comment to this post between now and friday may 16th and i will randomly pick a winner.

it includes directions for making this "gay bedcover" (i am in love with that cradle bed!) and house slippers you can knit for the man of the house. awesome. happy commenting!

on a different note, i got a postcard today from a friend that sends lots of postcards. it was hilarious and made me laugh just when i needed a laugh. i love postcards. there is something about them that email could never replace. i love that they only have a bit of space to write so one has to carefully think about which details to include and which to leave out. don't get me wrong... i love technology, but there is something special about a postcard.