5.31.10

Henry asked me to take a picture of him, and this is the pose he struck when I pointed the camera at him.

5.30.10

5.29.10

5.28.10

5.27.10

James, 14 hours old.

James Axel Aaberg

Born 5.27.10 at 1:31 AM
8 lbs 10 oz
21" long

5.26.10

5.25.10

I was introduced to the xylorimba today. What a beautiful (looking and sounding!) instrument. This one is vintage 1916, made in Chicago.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2010

Thanks so much to Amy for hosting this great festival of quilts! So much inspiration!

It took me a while to decide which of my quilts to enter in the festival, but I had to go with the Autobahn quilt. This certainly isn't my most technically complicated quilt, but I think it is the one I learned the most from making, so it has been very important in my growth as a quilter.



This is the second quilt I made for my oldest son, Otto. He was 3.5 years old, and had just figured out that he could request that I make him things. He asked me to make a quilt for him, and wanted to pick out the fabric himself. I took him to the shop and he picked out the three main prints (the big blocks on the front and the large panels on the back), which all featured cars. He also picked out most of the other prints, and was quite insistent on the one with the gears. Then I got to work designing. It was a challenge to use all these very different prints, but I love the way they came together in the end.



This is the largest quilt I've made so far (54" x 72") and it fits perfectly on his bunk bed. This is also the first time I'd attempted free-motion machine quilting, and while there are definitely some rough spots, I love the way it came out. All the work paid off when he opened it up at Hanukkah and exclaimed "oh, my quilt, it's PERFECT!" He loves it and sleeps with it every night, and drags it around the house during the day.



Don't forget to click on the button up at the top to visit the Blogger's Quilt Festival for tons of wonderful quilts and inspiration.

5.24.10

We have blueberries!

5.23.10

labels

I finally got around to making some quilt labels! After thinking about printing and hand drawing, I settled on embroidering them. It's a little more work, but these are a fun little stitching project.

5.22.10

5.21.10

5.20.10

Yeah, I'm getting a little tired of the flower pix too, but it's spring! They're everywhere!

5.19.10

Teeny tiny baby spiders! These guys were like .5 mm across. So tiny!

5.18.10

5.17.10

5.16.10

5.15.10

5.14.10

5.13.10

Gorgeous day out, so our playgroup headed for the park.

5.12.10

trashy!

Another sneak peek of the next set of embroidery patterns we're working on! This is going to be a set of 12 small motifs (each about 1.5" wide).

5.11.10

Mother's day pedicure toes (and yes, that's my belly in green making this shot kinda difficult).

5.10.10

One of the most spectacular rainbows I've ever seen. Cursed myself for only having my 50mm lens on me last night, I would have loved to have got a shot of the whole thing. It was amazing!

Grunions #0493-0495: the JENs

Custom Alphas for Jen. 5.5" tall, cotton fabric & wool felt.

5.9.10

Happy Mother's Day!

Time for round three of "when's the baby coming?"

I'll be full term and have the green light to have a baby starting on Tuesday, so it's time to see who has the psychic chops to predict this baby's birthdate and gender.

I set up the guessing game over at my old Livejournal (it is the easiest place for everyone to comment), so please head on over there to enter your guess for a chance to win a fun surprise!

You don't need a Livejournal account to play, just comment anonymously but leave your name (or some other identifying info) with your guess.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY.

5.8.10

Miniburgers, chocolate cupcake and mini strawberry/blueberry shortcake from my baby shower.

5.7.10

5.6.10

Three new vending machines about to be installed at The Bijou, MECCA and Kitsch, along with the very handsome proprietor of the Goblinko vending machine empire.

pizza time!

Just a little sneak peek of the next set of embroidery patterns we're working on! This is going to be a set of 12 small motifs (each about 1.5" wide).

5.5.10

5.4.10

5.3.10

Pip's redwork quilt

I finished Pip's redwork quilt last week and finally got a chance to take some (not great) pictures this weekend after washing it. The finished quilt is 47" square, which is a bit big for a baby quilt, but I figure it will be good for lying on top of at first and leaves room to grow.

This is my own design, a nine-patch of nine-patches, with each of the blocks using 8 red & white prints around a center panel of hand embroidery. The embroidered designs were drawn by Sean. They are a mushroom, hedgehog, hotdog, cardinal, Fokker Dr.1 triplane (the Red Baron's plane), dinosaur, ketchup, lobster and cherries. Closer shots of all the embroidered motifs can be seen here.



I did the quilting in straight lines making boxes within the blocks, and intersecting lines in the sashing (can you tell I was thinking a lot about squares while making this?). There is also one line of hand quilting outlining the triplane, and some straight lines radiating out from the center of that block. The binding is the same small polka dot you can see in the main blocks.



For the backing, I used a large piece of slightly heavier fabric that I cut off the bottom of our bedroom curtains. It's actually red and off-white, but I love the print and it works with the binding (and I'm hoping the sturdier fabric will help it last longer since I'm planning on using it as a park blanket).

I'm working on getting the pattern/instructions for the quilt written up, and will have it available for purchase (with or without the embroidery patterns) soon.

I'm also working on getting better pics, because these backyard jobbies are not cutting it. But I wanted to post something because I am very proud of this quilt!

5.2.10

Sean found this awesome giant robot at the flea market!

5.1.10

4.30.10