so good it seems, that I'd rather be cleaning, sorting, playing, sewing, cooking or just enjoying my home and my family than playing catch-up in blogland. you know I haven't even signed into facebook in weeks? Some times real life is just too much fun..
Amy invited us to play along and tell about our daily schedules.. here's what a typical weekday looks like around here:
7:30 George wakes up. He has probably started to stir about an hour earlier, but I pacify him with a boob and we all get more sleep. We know he's really awake when he starts poking our faces or trying to dive head first over us to get out of the bed. Lately I've started putting him down on the floor and trying to get a few more minutes of rest. He likes to play with the sock bin in my closet, but he also gets into things he shouldn't too, like C's glasses, or this morning when I found him crawling underneath our bed..
7:45 Sneak away while George is playing to brush my teeth. I can't do anything in the am until my teeth are brushed.
7:50 Pick up the munchkin and head to the kitchen to make coffee for Costas. He gets tempted to stay home and play with George so I try to give him a push out the door- on good days I make coffee and lunch. On bad days I make him hold George and make his own coffee.
8:30 Breakfast for the 3 of us. Usually cereal for the adults, yogurt with fruit and/or oatmeal for the kid. C and I use this time to chat and catch up on the day's plans. I really like that we have breakfast together.
9:00 George and I head out to Stroller Strides or a playdate. Today we went to a music class at Orly's Treehouse. After class we have snacks (read: coffee) with other moms & babies.
12:00 Naptime. I try to plan to be on my way home from somewhere around noon so he can fall asleep in the car. Once we get home I make a pot of coffee, check my email, and try to get some school work done. I used to sew during naptime, but now it's coming down to crunch time in the semester-- I've got an exam on Thursday so i shouldn't even be blogging now.. I have quilt projects all lined up for winter break though.
1:30 Lunch for George, when he's done we play for a while. If I was lucky, I threw in laundry before breakfast so there'll be a load to fold together in the afternoon. He's getting really good at laundry. While he plays I can usually sneak off and check my email. I may get 10 minutes before he's banging on the office door. We catch up with family and friends with phonecalls in the afternoon, and in general just hang out around the house. Twice a week though the babysitter comes for 2 hours so I can get some more focused studying done. Thank god for that!
At the Silver City show and also at Portsmouth Fabric Co. I was drawn to the scrap piles, as always. Is it bad that I collect other people's scraps? What if I was contemplating posting an ad to buy scraps off of other quilters? Yeah, that's taking it a bit too far i suppose.
For the huge sum of $18.80, I came home with enough scrap fabric to keep me busy for quite a while.
When we got home from the trip (two weeks ago already?) I didn't have the chance right away to start sewing stuff-- first i sorted the new scraps into 3 piles for the laundry. then i contemplated the quilt in my last post for a couple of days. I did a load of scrap laundry & sorted it. thought about new quilts some more, sorted through the existing scrap-stash, and finally, started sewing..
I have wanted to make a spiderweb quilt for about a year or so, I guess. I've had the background fabric set aside for one since last winter. I'm using 2 of Costas' Ralph Lauren button down shirts. Using Bonnie's Method with 8.5 x 11" paper foundations it's actually pretty easy and a hell of a lot of fun. The only trouble so far has been removing the paper-- on the first few triangles I guess I used too much gluestick..
Today I:
+read an article for class on the rate at which immigrants learn English
"What's in my stash?" I asked... This morning I pulled out these two:
The first is a sweet plum blossom floral from Moda. When I took the photo, I realised it would make really nice curtains in the sewing room, but sadly I have only 2 yards. I bought it at Fabric Place in Randolph, sometime in 2007?
The second is an Alexander Henry print (?) with small asian houses. I only had a yard and used most of it in my t-shirt quilt. I wish I would have found it earlier to throw some into the front of the anti-depression quilt, I guess I'll just stick some on the back. I have no idea when I got this fabric or where I bought it. It was already established stash by the time I pulled it out for the t-shirt quilt in '07.
So what's in your stash? Head on over to Tamara's and play along.
The unpacking in the sewing room continues. The more time I spend in there, the more I realize that I have a lot of "stuff." Fun stuff, useful stuff, stuff full of memories. Not only do I never need to buy fabric again, but I really don't need to buy anything fun ever again either. Today's post will highlight my collection of incense. Most is Japanese and my addiction started in high school when Ryoko sent me the two boxes of "Meditate" incense in cedar and musk in the summer of 1994.
Again, the photo with notes is over here at flickr. After discovering Japanese incense, the stinky american versions found in hippy-type stores always seemed a little gross to me. On my first trip to Epcot Center when I was 15, I found "aloes wood" in the blue box, and that was what I burned throughout the rest of high school. The big box in the photo was a present from a guy that had a huge crush on me, for my 16th birthday. He showered me with presents that year, totally upstaging my boyfriend at the time, but still didn't win me over. I sometimes wonder what happened to that guy, I bet in 3 clicks I could find him on facebook...
The Nag Champa I didn't discover until college, when Lexi turned me on to it and then its scent became synonomous with our relationship, Jeff Buckley, and certain other extra curriculars of the time. Now I keep the smaller box, wrapped in plastic, in my sewingbox. The sewing box came from Walmart (?) and always smelled a little plastic-y. The Nag Champa really helps.
Each one of these packages has memories, I've tried to jot them down quick on flickr. If I spent time explaining and revisiting each one here I'd never finish unpacking..
Oh, and look what else I found-- 4 more lip balms. After taking the pics, I also came across 2 more in a box labeled "Japan Keepsakes." (Now that was a fun box of memories..)
I went upstairs to the guestroom closet where we have stuff from our old linen closet stored in a still semi-unpacked state. I was looking for a new toothbrush (I always stock up on toothbrushes when they're on clearance). 
I found one, and then I came upon some lip gloss, and some more lip gloss, and then Carmex, lip balm, lip naturals, Savex, Blistex, and the list goes on. the photo with notes is over here on flickr.
I quickly scoured the house for the ones I'm currently using to add to the pile before the photo shoot, and this is how many I had lying around, minus the one kept in the stroller and one in the medicine cabinet. I didn't empty purses and coat pockets, but I'm sure I've got a few more in there too. An addict? Maybe. A collector and connoisseur? Definitely.
We've passed the 6 week mark and with our houseguests packed up and gone, I've started coming out of the "fog" and am starting to feel like myself again.
I've started reading my bloglines which have been on hold since mid October.. Kathie's post reminded me of what my life really used to be like... for a brief moment my mind drifted to my sewing room and to thoughts of making things (the room's still half unpacked, half painted, and now closed off to save $ on heat), but then I looked down at the sleepy bundle in my lap and remebered it will probably be a few months still before I can get in there and actually do anything.
For now I should be grateful for the things I can do:
-type with one hand.
-sleep/eat/check email while breastfeeding.
-spend every minute with this kid that gets cuter by the day...
Makiba came over today to finish her duvet cover (that we started in June?!), and it was a big, big project. Solid orange, 8'x8'. I don't usually work with things that size so trying to figure out the math and the measuring, not to mention hauling it back and forth between the sewing room and my bedroom (we didn't have anywhere else to lay it out..) was a big job. Once it was done, Makiba started flipping through some magazines i brought back from Japan. I love this because she reads aloud all the stuff that I just glanced over. She really wanted a bento-box bag but didn't like any of the patterns we found. A pretty striped pillow caught her eye though, and when I suggested we make a bag like it, she was a little confused/nervous. But making small things is my style. ;)
I let her root through some fabric (my entire stash kind of overwhelmed her) as I eyeballed, cut and stitched the bag lining from her left over orange fabric. We cut strips of the ones she liked and I had her sew them together. I did all the thinking and she did all the sewing. When we got to the part where you pull the bag through the lining, I told her about how I learned to do that from the wife of a Yakuza. True story-- when I was living in Hokkaido, I wandered into a shop selling handmade goods in Sapporo and asked the shop keeper where I could learn to make stuff like what she was selling. She invited me to sit and sew with her, and we ended up sewing together that whole weekend. I think it was after I showed her my tattoo that she mentioned her husband was a gangster... but anyway.
The bento bag came out really cute. I totally wanted to make one for myself too, but by the time she was done we were both hungry and I still had the whole house to clean. We ate leftover yuvarlakia and she watched as I cleaned the kitchen. You know you have a good friend when you invite them over even when you haven't showered and you can do stuff like wash pots and pans while they're there.
I did sew together 1/4 of the cross blocks this morning and I'm fairly confident I can have the top done by the weekend. Don't worry, all progress (and distractions) will be posted here.
(See Amy-chan, I told you I was spoiled)
A package arrived in the mail about 10 days ago and I was stunned to see the antique kimono silk (above) folded neatly inside. On a delicate piece of seasonally appropriate stationary (momeji, of course) was a letter about a new boy and a lucky find at a flea market. She always knows what to send to put me in the best mood.
Then on Wednesday my two bosses came back from a recruiting trip to Tokyo. Before they left I had hinted to Chris that they would be passing through the Kichijoji station with the 7 floor Yuzawaya (which Marisa mentioned here ), but I didn't think he'd remember the name or the cute knitting ram symbol on the signs, let alone actually go there and buy fabric for me. But as I mentioned before, Mr. O, a Tokyo native, knows quite well my passion for handicrafts, so when I dropped him the hint, I knew he would know exactly what I was talking about.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. O.
Chris came back with 2 meters of this fabulous green and cream print:
And Mr. O brought me a meter of this:
(the colors are perfect, aren't they?)
And small cuts of these:
What will I do with it all? The antique kimono silk will make a nice table runner, but the others will take some time to tell me what they want to be. For now I'll just pet them nicely and appreciate how lucky I am to work for people who know me so well.
I have truly enjoying having M and S stay with us this weekend. Having them here has brought back a lot of memories, I woke up this morning next to C with the feeling that we weren't alone in the house, and outside of the bedroom M and S were sleeping or doing whatever, exactly like it used to be when I would stay over at their place in Worcester when I was still in college. And I thought about C and how things were when our relationship was new and fresh.. things that hadn't crossed my mind in a long time.. it was nice.
Today we drove up to check out the beantown jazz festival. It was nice but very crowded. Met up with 2 friends and went for coffee and had a big long discussion about democracy and greek politics/history. then the 4 of us went to dinner on Newbury St. and had another long discussion about innovation, technological adoption, and data collection. Of all the dinners I've sat through with economists, this was one of the most enjoyable. I do like these guys-- wish they lived closer.
When we got home I left them to watch TV and I came upstairs to play with fabric.. I am still working on layouts for the mile-a-minutes (pics soon, i promise) and I'm having fun working with nine-patch variations. Choosing to only use fabrics from my stash is pretty hard though.. I want to give these as gifts, but all of my fabric is stuff I like, and I'm not sure how the recipients will feel about it... I'll keep trying.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! In my mixed up multi-cultural life, today is my unofficial Greek name day. In Greece, everyone is named after saints, and their "name days" (the saint's day) is celebrated with people coming over to the house, everyone you know calling you, you calling all of your friends with the same name.. from what I've seen, your name day is more important than your birthday.
Now, there isn't a St. Jessica, but my middle name is Patricia (my mom gave me her name), and St. Patrick, as we know, is the patron saint of Ireland, and St. Patrick's day is celebrated wherever there are Irish people, all over the world. So I count March 17th as my name day.
So far it has been a nice St. Patrick's day, I'm listening to Celtic music in my bedroom, having pulled the laptop out of the sewing room just for a change of scenery. I did a nice long photo shoot in here (discovered a great new set up with just the right light) of the back issues of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin and Quilts Japan that Jan from Be*Mused sent me last month.
Here's the whole collection she sent. Aren't I the luckiest quilter? Thanks Jan~
I'm planning a detailed review of each issue, something to talk about when I don't have pictures that show the progress I'm making on my own quilting. Last night I quilted for 3 hours straight on the Winding Ways in my last post (just imagine me sitting under the quilt in that pic), and it's a challenge not to pick it up again right away today, but I want my fingers to rest and I don't think I've got enough DVDs or videos to get me through the weekend if all I do is quilt.
I'm debating running out to do some errands, but I don't have anything that really needs to get done, so I'm sure I'd just end up shopping. Maybe I should iron fabric instead.
I have this wonderful book (ISBN0-89689-186-0). 
but I must admit, I had no idea how wonderful it was until we sat down to use it tonight.
Mariko brought 3 kits, pre-printed pieces of cotton with 4 colors of thread. She offered me one, but I was in the mood for something different. I brought her up to the sewing room and started pulling things out. The Sashiko Sourcebook, the smaller book of Sashiko patterns in Japanese, the sewing kit I made in Atlanta, 50+ balls of pearl cotton… She said at some point, “you have everything” and I think she’s right. I do.
Anyway, after flipping through The Sourcebook, she decided to make some coasters, and I went with the slightly more ambitious project of a “sampler.” I didn’t stop to read much, just followed the pictures and the patterns. I was in a rush to get started, so was she. So we did, then we sat and sewed in comfortable crafty silence, for over 4 hours. 
I learned that Sashiko is a lot harder than it looks. It’s fun and I love it. I could easily see myself doing a lot more with it, but it’s a skill. Drawing out a pattern chart, getting the spacing right, counting stitches. I’m glad I’m making a little sampler, there’s just so much to learn.
Rico and I had fun though and she said that I could persuade her to do it again. Her coasters came out really cute, especially the plum blossom one. 
I’m about half way through with the second block in my sampler and I think I’m too tired to do any more tonight. I grabbed a bunch of really good pics of the other placemats done by Rico’s mom’s friend, pop on over to my flickr stream if you want to check them out.
I haven't done any sewing since the middle of the week, but with all the laundry I was doing yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to throw in the background fabric for my fans. I originally thought I'd go with a crisp white-on-white, but once I put it next to the white/red floral border fabric and laid the fans out, it just wasn't right.. the background of the floral isn't as white as I thought it was. Thankfully I had this muslin-ish cream in my stash, and with the addition of a deep pink inner border, I think I found a good solution. Still ultra happy that I won't need to buy anything for this quilt. It's surprisingly simple how easy it is to use what you have once you set your mind to it.
As I've mentioned before, one of the perks of working at a Japanese school is having co-workers that go back to Japan all the time. It is tradition that you bring back souvieners for your office and co-workers. Of course, when Mariko told me she had omiyage for me, I never expected her to pull out 8 handmade sashiko placemats.
She told me I could choose two. The selection process must have taken an good 20 minutes as I carefully admired each one. The designs were perfect, the stitches even and soothing. In the end I choose the navy blue pattern for Costas, and the pink and purple sakura blossoms for me. I make Mariko promise to give me photos of the others though. She laughed and totally understood.
While most of my co-workers go back to Japan during the 3 set school vacations, some times they will leave at unexpected times during the school year, such as Mariko did, to take care of personal business or family emergencies. I was happy she came back with good news, her mother's health condition has improved. In the past year, other co-workers were not so lucky. The school is a very carrying and supportive place though. It has to be, with so many of the people so far from home. That's one of the reasons I love it there. Because when I asked last week if I could take 2 weeks off in the middle of the semester (next June) to fly to Greece for personal reasons, they understood, they approved the leave. Of course I told them we are going for a friend's wedding, which is true. Another friend is also having a baptism that week, a happy coincidence. The underlying reason for going though, is to spend time with Costas' father who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 2 weeks ago, the day before his 61st birthday.
Thank you for everyone that sent words of support after my post last week. We were still in such shock that I didn't know what to say. The shock is fading a little, but this isn't an issue that will go away or get better. I still have a lot of hesitation to write about it here, I feel a strong need to keep the family's privacy. Please don't think it strange if I don't mention it again and go back to cheerfully rambling about sewing and guild meetings. In difficult times we all cling to something. As I wrote to Kelli last week, I am craving a lot more structure and order in my quilt ideas. When you can't control anything else in life, you want to keep order wherever you can, right?
As for how C and I are doing.. he needs me now, which is something I'm not always used to. We had an argument about how much time I was spending in the sewing room. Of course, as anyone who has had this argument knows, it's not about quilting. We are spending time with friends more often, reaching out for comfort and good times. He's going to Athens in 2 weeks, til then it's really just one day at a time.
Thanks for reading and caring. Comments on the family bit aren't necessary, comments on the sashiko are encouraged, as always. The placemats were made by Mariko's mother's friend, I didn't ask her name. Rico says they came from kits, I'll have to hunt some out next month...
And the next project has taken ahold of me. I've been cutting out fan blades for the last week, still somehow obsessed with this pattern that tends to drive me crazy. It's very satisfying to cut into fabrics that you've cherished for ages though. A lot of good memories in here. I'll point out some of the special ones with notes over at flickr.
Trying to keep a light and cheerful mood even though we got some heavy bad news this week. Countless phonecalls back and forth to Greece, more plane tickets purchased, and diving head first into another phase of life with my husband. I'm clinging to quilting to keep me balanced and at peace. Sorry, I really don't think it's the right time to go into more detail here. Close friends are welcome to email me though.
Wow, I don't know what to say after such a full weekend. I need to let my thoughts settle a bit I guess, but I've got the time now and some fresh pictures, so I wanted to post anyway.
When I got to the Berkley Lions Hall at 10 yesterday, it was already more than full, and people were tracing away. The 3rd step of the project (first two were to piece blocks and put on border at home) was to trace a skewed square over each seam intersection. That took me more than an hour. Next, cut out (with scissors) along your drawn lines. You are left with little spacer squares of all of your fabrics, and the pattern says to make a border out of them, but I haven't decided if that's the route I'll take yet. After that, rotate each block a quarter turn.
Voila! stars appear! Before cutting, we put the tops on flannel backed vinyl table cloths, that way they would stay put as we rearranged them. After cutting, I took a break for lunch (the ladies were totally impressed with my fasolakia and the cranberry bliss bars), then spent the rest of the afternoon piecing.
I got all the rows pieced, but had to pack up before I could put them all together. Amanda's play started at 8 and I wanted time to bum around campus before then, so I left Berkley at 4pm. I really really love my quilt group. The ladies are so much fun. I know I should cut back on extra spending, but classes are too good to pass up. They are such wonderful social events, don't you think?
The last 24 hours at Smith were very satisfying for my soul. I've gotten to the point where a visit to campus really makes me feel re-affirmed as a woman. Amanda is a phenomenal woman to talk with, and I'm happy to see she's enjoying Smith as much as I did. Sometimes it's such a shock to learn that we have such similar outlooks on things, but we came about them in completely different ways. It's nice to feel close to another woman in my family.
Costas just got home from the grocery store and he's making dinner tonight. Lucky me. This weekend has been wonderful all around.
Issues I own.
Quilts Japan:
9/2002, #_____, Sampler Quilts
5/2004, # 98, Floral Wreaths
9/2004, # 100, Message Quilts
11/2004, #101, Houses
5/2006, #110, Hawaiian Quilts
7/2006, #111, Birthday Quilts
9/2006, #112, Quilts Japan 20th Anniversary
11/2006, #113, Small items for Christmas
Patchwork Quilt Tsushin:
2/2001, #100, Threads for the 21st Century
10/2002, #110, Victorian Style
4/2004, #119, Sakura Quilts
8/2004, #121, Cut-out applique
8/2005, #127, Summer Workshop
6/2006, #132, Cafe au lait & Milk tea
Surprized I don't have more, especially surprized that i've got no Quilts Japan issues from 2005. I know I visited Kinokuniya in NYC that summer... if I find one I misplaced, I guess I'll just add it later.
(*Edit* I was quite perplexed at the missing 2005 issues, so I went back and read my old journal entries from the time. A-ha! in an entry dated 6/20/05 I wrote, "while i was galavanting around town i stopped for several hours in Kinokunia, and after talking myself out of buying several quilting magazines, i finally settled on two ESL books. " So there we have it. A chance to endulge in Quilts Japan wasted, and instead I purchased the two books that helped me create my ESL program. Not a bad trade off when I look back on it. If it weren't for this amazing job, I couldn't afford to buy more Quilts Japan...)
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