updates

Yesterday I took my bird boxes quilt to Patty to have it quilted... i finished just in time too. Sunday night i was speeding along to get the last two rows on when my bottom bobbin started jamming. I was like, "no, this can't be happening! I'm so close!" After 20 minutes of fiddling with it I came downstairs, broke down and just started crying. I know that I've been a little more anxious lately with all the stuff of the move, finding a new doctor/hospital, packing the house, ect. but the thought that I would have the baby without finishing this quilt was just too much to handle. Costas was very sweet and comforting and offered to take me to the machine repair shop on Monday morning. He calmed me down and I tried to accept the changes to my plans.
Monday morning I called a bunch of repair shops to see who could help. Discouraged when I got answering machines and the best shop said they were on a 2 week lag, I went back upstairs to fiddle with it again. after about 20 more minutes which involved breaking out the screw driver and removing the metal plate over the bobbin area, i had a break through. Oh thank God!
I ran down & told C the good news, then ran back up to finish sewing.

The top came out pretty cool, huh? It looks awesome on our bed and I hope it will add the color we need to the new bedroom with very neutral walls & carpet. Patty should return it to me by mid next week & then i'll bind it and.. breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Now that it's out of my hands though, i'm faced with the reality of packing packing packing. The baby only lets me do a little before I need to rest, but that's ok. Isn't he getting cute now?

31 week sonogram.

Baby quilts

I read a great post over at Meet Me At Mikes yesterday (by way of whip up) about starting a blog and what a blog should have.. it got me thinking. I’m not writing here much these days for a bunch of reasons, but the biggest excuse is poor internet connection. For a while I wasn’t feeling crafty or creative, and I wasn’t making anything, so I felt I didn’t have anything “good” to post about, but the Mikes post reminded me that it’s my blog, and my thoughts are important.
Makiba keeps telling me i should be writing pregnancy notes in a journal because I’ll want to remember all the little stuff later. I think about it, but writing there hasn’t happened yet either. Maybe after a semester writing papers and exams for grad school I feel all written out.
Doesn’t hurt to just jot down what’s been going on though.. During finals last month I chose, washed, cut & ironed fabric for the baby quilt. I decided to go with the pattern "Plain Spoken" from Ringle & Kerr’s Modern Quilt Workshop. My stash is totally lacking in solids though, so I just used all the neutral (gender neutral, I mean) fabrics I had set aside for the baby. I don’t know, somehow I just felt I should exclude all the floral prints.
Anyway, with sewing a few blocks/strips here and there, it went together in no time. At first I felt a little self-conscious because after reading the color choice notes for "Zipper", I realized I didn’t have enough medium tones in there. I just go straight from light to dark in a lot of places. My confidence was jarred again when Costas said he didn’t like it, that he was thinking of something more “babyish” with pastels and teddy bears (teddy bears?!?!?). So I went back to the drawing board (or, over to flickr to browse my favorites). These were some of the contenders.

But I finally settled on this one by Carolyn (fabric she sent me made it into the first quilt, btw. Thanks again Carolyn~). Simple, babyish, I headed out to Ann’s Fabric & Sewing Machine center in Canton that same day after work. It was a bit strange to walk into a quilt store with the intention of buying fabric after I have so diligently been using only stash since November (well, mostly). And not just “buying fabric” by rummaging through the scrap bin and picking through remnants like I usually do; I went in to buy yardage. I wandered around, pulled bolts off the shelves, stacked them up, took a few steps back, changed my mind, rearranged…The shop staff was very helpful, but I was looking for something specific that I couldn’t quite communicate to her. In the end I settled on 9 prints, mostly from Kumiko Sudo’s Shiki line for In the Beginning, and took a quarter yard each. I made it out of there for about $20.
It was so nice to have new fabric. Like, new as in spring colors with 2008 printed on the selvage. After it was washed and ironed, I just laid it out on the futon and looked at it for a few days.
I think it was this past weekend that I started cutting, and I pieced most of it this past Wednesday. It’s nice. Soft and sweet, totally looks like a baby. In between the ironing and cutting though, I went back and finished piecing & basting the first quilt, and once it was together and I started quilting, I liked it much more. So now I’m working on two baby quilts, for this kid who should make an appearance in 19 and a half weeks or so. I’m happy, and it gives me something to do when I wake up at 3 in the morning with pregnancy heartburn.
By the way, we found out Wednesday, it’s a boy.

Housewife in training, Part 2= Ironing

I have decided that Wednesday will be Ironing day. Somehow by relegating this most-undesirable task to one day a week makes it seem a little more manageable. See, Costas is a big man. His shirts are often XL and most are Polo Ralph Lauren button downs. He looks great in them; maybe I'll appreciate that more now that I'm the one ironing.
I did 5 today. I couldn't stand to do anymore. Maybe Friday will become Ironing Day too.
Do you iron? I mean, I assume most people reading my blog are crafters of one sort or another, but aside from fabric projects, do you do the ironing for the family? Do you like it? And how much do you iron? Everything from bedsheets to underwear? I feel most reassured when I get feedback from real people. Thanks.
In other news, the weather is absolutely fabulous today so I took advantage of it by stitching a little outside with a glass of lemonade. Ended up with a little sunburn, but that's ok.
I also thumbed through "What to Expect when you're Expecting," the food parts mostly. Their guidelines seem impossible to live up to. My nausea is mostly gone, but I still don't have much of an appetite. I'm doing really good drinking milk & water, but when it comes to food I'm ready to throw my hands in the air. It's 2:30 p.m. and I still need to consume 7-8 whole grains, 3 protein servings, and all but one of my fruits & veggie servings. Costas wants pasta for dinner because he's fasting, but I think I'll need a side of chicken, shrimp, molasses, and half a grapefruit in order to be able to sleep without worrying. Once again, advice greatly appreciated~

Finally, it's my turn~

Yes, I've developed an aversion to quilting.
There's also an aversion to vegetables, the scent of beef cooking,
onions, garlic, and fried food.
and an aversion to my husband after he has eaten any of the above items.

But there are also cravings, like red jello with raspberries and
applesauce.
pickled plums in onigiri, Dakos, kiwis, limeade, Chef Boyardee
ravioli, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.

You guessed it,
Finally I'm pregnant.



Due mid October, I think I'll put the ticker in my sidebar so you can
follow along for the ride.

The quilting aversion may not be due entirely to the pregnancy
though, we also got other monumental news around the same time..
Costas was offered a better job for the next school year, so we're
moving..

to Long Island.

So not only do I get to deal with fatigue, morning sickness, my full
time job and grad school, but I have to pack and clean the house on
top of everything. Packing up my clothes was pretty easy-- nothing
is going to fit me again til the fall anyway. Being unable to quilt
made it easier to pack my fabric too. Costas is being a real champ
though, not only is he being an ultra sweet & pampering expectant
father, but I'm not allowed to lift anything, so he's carrying all
the boxes to storage as well.

See, a million things I told you. all at once. I'll get through it
somehow. Once I quit my job it will be easier to take life one
stitch at a time. Right now I'd like to stitch myself some better-
fitting maternity clothes though.. (just kidding)