Playing blog hookey

We're keeping busy over here. So busy I haven't had time to blog. Today's agenda included an urban safari to the Central Park Zoo, where we witnessed the speeding penguins (Tsia kept trilling about airplanes flying, so I guess we know what they reminded her of), the antics of the sea lions, and the polar bear viewing his viewers. What a treat, with such a lovely day!


I've been occupied with writing instructions for the backpack pattern and making corrections to the pattern itself, since many of you are also patiently waiting for it to be available (and the class starts tomorrow). We goofed off a bit this weekend as well: discovered 30 Rock and Weeds, both of which proved to be great late-night amusement for all that hexagon piecing and a few other attempts at piecing which I'll show you soon.

But I'll try to improve my blog attendance, and I'm planning to show you a few sample bags I'll be selling on Etsy, if anyone is interested. Gotta test the patterns as I go, and there's no better way to do that than to actually sew the bags. And if you're sewing the bags anyway, you might as well make them in cute fabric combinations, right?

Mr./Ms. Polar Bear doesn't have an opinon on this matter.

Spring, at last!

A few of the things we've been doing:


Cross stitching and hand piecing. Again.


Enjoying the weather. And dragging large toys around in the park. (Don't ask.)


And testing a certain pattern, which should be for sale here soon!

A la piscine Atlantique

Update: I like Sushine's Creations' tutorial for template piecing even more than the first instructions I posted about below.

Ok, the templates and fabric scraps are on their way to Linda in New Jersey. Thank you to everyone who commented or emailed expressing and interest in them, and I'm sorry I can't send a package to each of you. If you want to try the technique yourself you can find instructions here and a very nifty hexagon generator here.

Beyond that, I don't have much to say today. It's been too dark for photos, so I'll leave you with this amusing tidbit:


The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim is one of my favorite events in New York. Participants swim all the way around Manhattan (28.5 miles!), yet the event gets very little press coverage and almost no viewers. I've watched the race and volunteered as a race official, and it's one of those awe-inspiring, chills-down-your-spine events. I admire the athletes as well as the organization itself, which teaches children to swim and helps to call attention to water quality around the island.


Anyway, the foundation's most recent newsletter included this amusing bit:

Google Maps

When you think of open water swimming, Google probably isn't something that comes to mind. But it turns out that the search company's ambitions for open water swimming may be even bigger than its goals for the web. Just check out these directions from Boston, MA, to Le Havre, France, as provided by Google maps:



For those of you who don't want to do the math, Google is assuming an average pace of 12:03/mile for nearly a month. By contrast, the fastest finisher of the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim averaged 13:45/mile, and swam for just six and a half hours. Maybe we need to rethink this whole "marathon" title...

(photos and quote from Manhattan Island Foundation)

And now I'm off to run errands. On dry land, thank you very much.

We need some Happy today

I was just kidding about the quilt. Sort of. Yesterday I started selecting fabrics for another doll-sized Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, so apparently I quickly got over the amount of work involved in making the first one. In fact, I pulled together some of the scraps and templates from the last one and will happily send them along to someone else who wants to give it a try. Let me know if you're interested and I'll pop them into the mail. Just don't call me whining when you discover how long it takes you; I already know. (And don't say I didn't warn you, either!)

Here is the inspiration for the next one. I just love it, and it's a great excuse to do a little cross stitching again. It's been years.

Here are a few other things I love right now:


Sew Stylish magazine, published by Taunton (the same people who publish my beloved Threads magazine). It's loaded with terrific articles for everyone from beginners to expert level sewers. This is their very first issue, and I'm still amazed at how much good information they included. I especially like the article about sewing handbags, which offers lots of great tips for working with leather. For example, they suggest that you cover leather with Glad Press'n Seal before you sew because it helps the presser foot to move smoothly over the leather, tears off easily afterwards, and doesn't leave a sticky residue. And check out their blog as well.

This copy of the amazing smocked Bottega Veneta dress. Here's where having a dress form comes in really handy; imagine pinning and fitting all those pleats on yourself (or a friend)!

The new issue of Blueprint magazine, featuring Joelle (co-owner of Purl and Purl Patchwork) and her apartment. I haven't seen it yet, but I'll be heading out to find a copy tonight once the kiddo is in bed. Can't wait! (Don't worry; Todd is home to watch Ms. Tsia while I'm out.)

Pandora. Type in a favorite song and hear other similar music. Then rate the music you hear and Pandora will customize your very own virtual radio station. But watch out: you can spend a lot of time playing with this site.

And speaking of playing, these games are adorable and fun. Blast it, Courtney and Dorie, it's not like I needed other ways to spend my time.

Ok, gotta go. Just remember:

"It's not rock and roll if your pants don't hurt."
-- Jimmy Webb, "Anything Pink Rocks," The New Yorker, March 26, 2007

An open letter to myself

Dear Liesl,

If, someday in the future (either near or distant) you ever get the (harebrained) idea that you would like to paper piece a quilt (in other words, sew that puppy entirely by hand), please pause for just a moment. Then you can start to tear the apartment apart for several days looking for the letter you vaguely recall writing yourself way back in 2007.

And when you finally remember that this letter does not, in fact, exist in hard copy but can easily be found on the blog, you can stop the fruitless search and pause again long enough to re-read it carefully.

You'll find yourself right here. So, welcome!

Let's think about paper piecing. Consider, first of all, this doll quilt, which you finished just the other day. It was completely handsewn using a method called Quilt Patis, which is a clever way to create the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern and is apparently faster than the usual paper piecing method. It is also a relatively entertaining way (at first) to sew all those little slips of fabric to the 1 1/2" hexagons (I created my own Patis using template plastic and leftover yogurt lids--hurrah for recycling!). Wasn't it enjoyable? You could just stitch away mindlessly while participating in coversations, watching television (remember that old invention?), or just killing time. Mindless. Stitching. Over and over again. After a while it became a bit tedious, didn't it?


Ok, so you mostly enjoyed your first foray into the world of hand piecing. Now let's think about the finished product. It's small. Really small. Just 8 1/2" x 11 1/2" small. And although it's size is diminutive, the work involved in producing said itsy-bitsy quilt, was much greater than it may appear. In fact, let's think back and remember that it took approximately nine days of obsessive cutting and stitching to complete the little piece. Very obsessive. As in, waiting for the kiddo to finish her breakfast, riding in your sister's car, waiting for the kiddo to finish her bath, hanging out in the evenings, waiting for the kiddo to let you change her diaper, dragging the project everywhere you went kind of obsessive. You get the picture. Little Patis at your elbow at every turn for nine straight days. Stitching every unclaimed moment, no matter how brief. Plus hours spent in the evenings, cutting and stitching.

Now, granted, a portion of that nine days was spent cutting out the templates. And then cutting more templates when the first batch(es) were all in use. And another portion of the time was spent patiently snipping and tucking the backing in order to achieve the sharp(ish) points at the ends without using a binding. And of course there was the hand quilting. But, hey, let's face it: most of the time was simply spent piecing and hand sewing.

So let's review. Finished size: less than a foot long and just over a half foot wide. Not nearly large enough for a table placemat. Not big enough to cover most of Tsia's dolls in their bed. (And dolls will not be touching this quilt, let's make that clear from the start. This one is for the wall only.) If we were to apply the work-versus-finished-size ratio to, say, a queen-sized quilt (just for the sake of discussion), how much time do we think it might take to finish that quilt? How many years of obsessive, unceasing hand stitching?

On the other hand, perhaps we shouldn't consider that possibility. The conclusions are overwhelming, bleak, and thoroughly depressing.

Stick with the machine, kid. And don't say I didn't warn you.

Now let's go find some chocolate instead.

Yours, etc.,
Liesl

Now if I could just harness some toddler power

Todd and I watched Al Gore's movie a few weeks ago, and when it was over I found myself thinking that we were doing fairly well in terms of not contributing much to emissions. After all, we don't own a car, we recycle much of our packaging and paper, and I make a point of using my knitted market bag and a backpack when Tsia and I buy our groceries instead of getting plastic bags from the store. However, I've since realized how much more we can be doing. For example, we need to replace our lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, and I'm looking into community supported agriculture programs in our area.


And what's up with those tacky paper napkins we've been using? I finally took the time to make a set of everyday cloth napkins to coordinate with my beloved sashiko placemats (my favorite souvenir from a trip to Tokyo). I followed Molly's instructions and used the walking foot on my new machine.

Here are a few other environmentally oriented, nifty things I'm liking:

The sun jar looks like an ordinary mason jar but actually contains a solar cell, batteries, and a warm-colored LED bulb to resemble sunlight. A sensor activates the bulb, and the battery recharges with just a few hours of sunlight.

A more environmental, low-cost laundry detergent.

And for the truly dedicated, your very own under-the-sink composting. I'm not ready for this and, quite frankly, may never be. After all, it really wouldn't be fair to the little worms (gulp!), since I have enough trouble remembering to feed the cat. And no green thumb to speak of, at that. With my history, I'd probably kill the poor things.

Catching up

We've had a lovely week with my parents, who visit the east coast frequently since three of their four grandchildren are located out here. My Princeton-based sister and her family came in for lunch en masse on Saturday, and on Monday we braved the fog and the spring-break crowds to visit Ellis Island. Tuesday included a stop at Economy Candy for a nostalgia-based sugar infusion (Dad was expecially excited about the Mallo Cups, Necco wavers, and the Clove and Black Jack chewing gum, all of which we're sending to Grandma in a Crazy Candy package), a dash into Purl, and then they were off to spend some time in New Jersey. Tsia and I will join the crew tomorrow for one more get-together before their departure on Sunday.

I'm going to continue my little unplanned blogging break until after Easter in order to spend time with the family and with my little canine-teething toddler. Poor thing. See you next week!