Found it!

Just a quick note to let you know I cleaned off my desk, and yes - there is still a desk under all that clutter. Good to know.

Also a recommendation that you check out my friend Sharon's newly completed shawl - WOW-Beautiful. She's an actual knitter, I have learned so much from her.

In case you are planning on going to Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California...it takes place in October and the class schedule just came out yesterday. I'm thinking I'll sign up for the Hawaiian quilting class. It's very short, and I have wanted to make a Hawaiian quilt for a long time.

I also wanted to volunteer to assist Deb Roberts in quilt appraisal this year, but she already has several folks wanting to assist her so unclear if I will end up doing that or not. Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed I guess. Still trying to further my education in quilt appraisals.

Shirtings make me tick

I could write a sonnet about shirting fabrics.

I collect them, I use them in my quilts, and I am always hesitant to use one of them up 100% just in case I need a small piece for a charm quilt or something.

Probably that's a crazy idea, but I only ever use 90% of any of my shirtings leaving at least a 6 inch wide piece left in my collection. Maybe my niece will make a quilt out of them someday long after I'm gone.

My signature quilt is coming along. Of all the star blocks I need to complete the quilt I am exactly 74.8% done with those, but hey - who's counting?!

For some cool photos of a baby quilt - check out on Mariruru blog by Mai. She hand quilted it and it's pretty darn adorable.

Temptation is making me think about creating a toddler quilt for my little one since he's getting too long/tall for a baby quilt and could really use something a bit larger.

(insert wrist slap here)

Stay focused! Finish the signature quilt!!! Sigh...........ok.

ps, it looks like Kathie loves shirtings too.

2001 Nouveaux Modeles de Patchwork by Chuck Nohara

The Sarah Johnson quilt requires 172 'star' blocks such as the above and I just made just over 100 of them so far.

That puts me at the 60% mark. Time to turn on the gas pretty soon and bust the rest of these out.

I didn't to much quilting this weekend since we were on the go and had basically a kid birthday party on each of the weekend days.

My mom was visiting us last week and she gave me her recent copy of Quilt Mania Magazine. This is such a cool magazine - Originally published in French, translated to English but with a clear focus on Japanese style quilting.

There was an ad for this book: 2001 Nouveaux Modeles de Patchwork by Chuck Nohara in the issue I was reading. You can even look through it for a few pages if you check out the link.

This is a reprint of Chuck Nohara's book that she published ages ago that includes her new twist on 2001 traditional quilt blocks.

Looks like Quilt Mania sells the book and ships anywhere, so I have the feeling my copy might just arrive this week. My husband ordered it for me when he realized how excited I was about it. Really, I almost fainted when I learned it was reprinted.

Getting Out of Jail

This weekend was a holiday weekend in the U.S. but I'm not sure it was as relaxing as we were planning it to be.

Our little one decided to perform what shall hence forth be known as "The Great Escape" from his crib. The older one never figured out how to get out of his crib on his own. This baby is so clever.

This prompted us to convert his crib to a toddler bed, so he can come and go as he pleases now which presents it's own new fun and games in our house.

I did get some quilting done of my wedding signature quilt. Just cutting out all the pieces takes a little while, but working with all the pretty fabrics sure is fun. I have finished blocks to share with you as well next time.

Janet from Quilts A Lot blog gets my award for cutest blog post that I found this weekend. Her crochet flowers are adorable. I want to make some.

I also had a near-life-altering experience after reading a quilting magazine my mom gave me. I know - it's a cliff hanger....until next time!

J.U.I.C.E. and Thoughts on Finishing

The younger boy has a little cold again so we are doing what we can to get fluids into him. He was drinking a sippy cup and my husband asked what was in it. In order to not get the older one all excited about the potential for him to drink juice instead of milk at dinner I spelled it out, "J.U.I.C.E." instead of saying the word.

The older kid yelled out, "Hey! I can spell! You just spelled 'juice'!"

Ugh, perhaps we will need a new secret language. Our days of getting away with private conversation just ended. Gee that was soon.

I managed to finish a shawl (ravelry link) made from handspun yarn. It is very satisfying to have a project completed. I'm on the verge of thinking I'll try to finish my signature quilt in time for a quilt show in October. That would be a big push, but I'm so eager to have more finished projects.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and if you are on ravelry and want to find little old me, my username is 'Quiltotaku'.

Why is there not a version of ravelry for quilters? That would be the bee's knees.

I'm alive....and other good news (like the Happy Mother's Day Poop)

Not sure I have ever been away from my blog for this long before.

Over the last two weeks I pick up the most forceful flu bug I can remember running into. It gave me a really hard time, but I'm on top of it now with a lot of help from my doctor.

Creatively I've been sort of in a sleep state since that energy is the first to go when I don't have my health. I did a bit of spinning before I got sick so you can check that out above on my drop spindle.

The good news is that the rest of the family has already had this thing and weather is starting to warm up a bit, so it's looking more and more like perhaps Spring is going to finally be here.

I have been lusting after this book called Basket from Cloth, by Yoko Saito. Una shows off her copy here as well as some awesome quilting she has been up to.

I've also been loving the colors Jan is working with over at Be Mused.

Oh and finally, even though I was super sick on Mother's Day I still got the best present in the world. Our 20 month old decided on his own that he wanted to poop in the potty like our older kid - and he actually did it! Not that the days of diapers are quite over yet, but I can see a glimmer of hope now.

Spring has sprung....and what I learned from sleep talkers

There is always a weekend in spring in which our family plants the garden.

We have the obligatory heirloom tomato plants and this year we are expanding to also add some pepper plants. Not just any pepper plants - no, we are planting Padron Peppers. 90% of them are mild, but watch out for the last 10%. It's an exciting game of Russian Roulette when you eat them.

Hm, I wonder how that will go over with the kids...

Anyhow, the other night I was tucking in our baby (still a baby! not 2 yet!!) and he was saying actual words in is sleep. This is the first time I have heard him say English words while he was dreaming. Before this, he was just talking in baby talk.

So adorable to see how his brain develops, and makes me feel honored to teach him about language and communication.

I think he was dreaming of toys from what I can gather.

I've also been spending my weekends learning how to dye fiber for making yarn. It's been really fun and interesting but I have 1 more class in the series before it's over. We'll see if I can successfully make anything out of it.

Handspun yarn

I've been playing around with spinning yarn lately, and I ended up tripping over some 150's Merino fiber in a light purple color.

Have you ever felt 150's merino wool? It's softer than cashmere. I bought the fiber at A Verb For Keeping Warm and I'm going to take a dying class over there this weekend.

The shawl pattern is Haruni (check it out on ravelry here) and is my first attempt at lace. I wouldn't say it was easy for me, but the result is very pretty so I'm glad I tried it.

My friend Sharon started this project and I couldn't resist also trying it. Check out her version over at Knits are for Kids.

Not sure if there is any quilting on deck for this weekend, it will be a busy one. I'll do what I can to squeeze some in.

For those of you afraid of trying new things, I found this really cute poster with a quote about failing by Samuel Beckett:

Ever Tried
Ever Failed
No Matter
Try Again
Fail Again
Fail Better

Here's to failing better next time around! (I think that applies to my efforts to learn to knit.)

Liberty of London fabric for quilting

I'm as greedy as the next person when it comes to Liberty of London fabric and my collection that I'm building to make a quilt someday. I do share them with my mom though so we have a matching collection of our Liberty.

I would not say no to a fat quarter of each and every print Liberty of London has ever made in their entire long existence as a company. Their florals literally bowl me over. True Up blog recently did a nice post on how and where to get these fabrics.

Perhaps I have finally decided what to do with these fabrics, but then again, making a quilt with them would involve cutting them up.

If you were to make a quilt with Liberty of London fabrics, what pattern would you use?

Oh and for a visual treat, check out my beautiful sister's Catherine Wheel scarf - it's amazing! I am thinking of starting another one, really fun pattern to make.

More on the fiber/spinning convention next post - lots to say on that one.

Sarah Johnson Quilt - progress....and Conference of Northern California Handweavers

Literally piece by piece I'm working on the Sarah Johnson quilt (AKA wedding signature quilt) as much as time allows.

Other parts of life have been busy so it's a little slower going than maybe I would like, but moving in the forward direction is always good even if baby steps.

This weekend I'm heading off to my first yarn spinning convention. Who knew there were such things? I'm really excited since I've been spending time here and there with my drop spindle.

Conference of Northern California Handweavers is taking place in the Santa Clara convention center very close to my house.

My friend from spinning class is coming with me, so I'm really looking forward to checking out all the cool spinning wheels and fibers.

Don't worry, I'll take some photos for you.

Knitting 101 for Quilters: How to frog your project

My friend Sharon is making the most amazing knitted lace shawl.

I thought, gee, I'll make one too.

So I started it, and promptly got myself in HUGE trouble. Extra stitches galore. At the end of each row I would just knit all the 'extras' (is that an official knitting term?) together into one giant knitted tumor.

After continuing along in this manner for about 40 rows, I had a really interesting (read: Funky!) looking project.

So, I frogged it, and went back to my wedding signature quilt blocks.

Who knew that knitting would inspire me to quilt?! Ha! That's a good one.

I did re-start it though. Check out a finished version at Asplundid Knits.

Pulling out all the stops

Where we live here in California, it gets quite warm in the late spring and summer. It isn't a far drive to Lake Tahoe though for some good clean fun in the snow.

I pulled out every last hat, glove, scarf, and other random knitted item that I made my family over the last couple of years and dressed them up in it all.

"It ITCHES, Mommy!" was the refrain of the weekend. They were overall pretty good about it though and in the end, wearing a silly beanie that your mom made you is still better than a cold head.

Maybe I'll knit some lighter weight something up for this summer. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about the summer deadline to enter quilts into PIQF and wondering if I could finish something in time.

And if you're looking for some cool photos from Yoko Saito's recent class in Norway, check out Emily's blog Ravenhill and Una's blog Samsy for some beautiful photos of the purse class they took from her. Sigh...wishing I was there with you both!

Gifts from afar - Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2010 and Yoko Saito

The other day, I went to my mailbox to pick up a package sent to me by Foong Ming.

She is a quilter, a reader of my blog, and happened to also be going to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival last January.

Inside of the package were two books that she got there for me.

The first one is a catalog of all the winning quilts at the Tokyo quilt show. This publication is amazing and beautiful. Each of the quilts is a work of art and the photos are just stunning. I have always wanted to attend this show, and now I feel like I have been there. So very cool.

The second book is by Yoko Saito, called "Daily Quilt" - ISBN978-4-529-04780-7.

I was looking through this book, drooling all over the amazing taupe quilted item patterns. If you don't have this book it really is worth adding to your library.

While I was reading, thinking how sweet Foong Ming was to send these to me, I saw the first page of the book.

She had it SIGNED and ADDRESSED TO ME!!! by none other than the famous YOKO SAITO!!!

At this point I almost fainted, ran and showed it to my husband, and I'm now calling this book my favorite book in my entire collection.

Thanks again Foong Ming. You rock! Sending a virtual hug your way...all the way from California to Singapore.

The wearing of the green

Did the food scientists who developed Mac n Cheese think of it as a St. Patrick's day food?

Well, perhaps not, but with a generous amount of green food coloring, any dish can become an Irish feast.

I wore my green shirt today, and celebrated St. Patrick's day by spending an evening with a couple of my best girlfriends for knit nite.

They are creating some awesome things, and I'm still learning how to use my drop spindle and trying to make yarn.

In my next post, I'll be telling you this amazing story of what I got in the mail yesterday. It includes not only taupe fabric, but also Yoko Saito (in a very special way), and the Tokyo Internation Quilt Festival, as well as friendship from Singapore.

I know, it's hard to wait, but it's too late to tell that story tonight and I want to do it right.

For now, kiss an Irish friend, and raise a glass - Slainte.

Great....that's just great.

I'm still plugging away on my signature quilt. It's been slow going since the baby has been sick on and off again.

I ended up missing my monthly quilt group over it (horrors!) but a worthy cause to comfort a sick little soul. He's finally better so we're all thrilled to get back to a more normal routine.

Last night our 4 yr old was acting up, so I told him he was going to bed without storybook time as punishment. Usually when I punish him he cries, or ask me to forgive him. Last night he looked right back at me and said, "Great...that's just great, Mommy" and stomped off to his bed.

My husband and I looked at each other in awe, wondering if teenagehood has set in 10 years too early. Yikes. Are they supposed to do that at 4?!

This weekend I'm off to take a spinning wheel class at The Verb, so looking forward to that and cannot wait to see my spinning girlfriend Marianne again.

In photographic news - I ran across the photography of Brigitte Carnochan. She has some nude work but I find that her Handpainted Flowers and Still Life Gallery is a very unique take on macro photos and quite beautiful.

Using a drop spindle with kids

Answer to my brain teaser is that I made bracelets!

After teaching my son's class how to use a drop spindle, I gave them each little bracelets made out of the hand spun yarn with a wool felt bead.

My son helped each of the kids pick out the color felt bead they wanted and I tied them on. They loved it and it was a nice take home item for them to show to their parents and explain how they learned about wool, felt, and how to make yarn. We used dental floss threaders to get the beads on to the yarn. Pretty simple.

Meanwhile, my cold is getting better which is the good news.

Maybe the bad news is that our baby is an overachiever and has already starting acting like a two year old. Tantrums galore.

I'm the star entertainment of each restaurant we visit - holding and attempting in vain to comfort my little fireball - while wondering why I ever decided to leave the house in the first place. Oh the beauty and the heartache of being two.

If you're looking for the next greatest blog since sliced bread, head over to visit my sister's fresh new blog. It's devoted to scrapbooking. I'm sure she'd love a little hello from you.

Brain Teaser: What is this cool kid project?

In the last week I have been:

- Snowed on (which would not be a big deal to a lot of people, but since I live in a pretty warm climate it was pretty cool to see it)

- Taught to make 'HookEm' horns

- Spoiled while trying to shake off a nasty head cold by not only my incredible husband but also by my beloved sister

- Kissed by all my favorite kids on the planet

- Amazed that at 17 months old anybody could be smart enough to count to the number 9

Hope your life is going at least this well. Even with a cold getting me down, I still feel like the luckiest girl just by being around my loving family.

The above project I made to share with my son's class of 4 yr old kids.

What could it be? Is it a science project? Abstract art? Got any ideas? Usually some of you get my brain teasers spot on.

Meanwhile, have an awesome weekend. I'm thinking a healthy thought for you, me, and the rest of the folks who could use one.

Olympic-a-holic: a 12 step program is in order

Perhaps I should be stopped from watching the Olympics, but gosh they are pretty cool. Speed skating is by far my favorite.

In the 'going for the gold theme' that I started in my last post, above are some of the wedding signature blocks that I created with 1850's reproduction 'Chrome' colored fabric.

This project is slow, but I'm still plugging along at it. I think this new yellow is giving the overall quilt a much needed sparkle.

I recently discovered Peanut Free Planet who sells chocolate chips that are nut free so we are back to being able to making choc chip cookies.

Have you seen the trip around the world variation quilt over at Decaf, please? So stunning. I love working with solids and I love Amish style quilts. This is a quilt that falls into both of those buckets, so enjoy the photos. What a work of art.

Going for the Gold

While the winter Olympics has me glued to the couch like a serious couch potato, all that flashy gold made me think of this gold sweater that I made over Christmas for the baby.

It's the Child's Placket Neck Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

I learned a lot knitting it, and had a really great time. I used Manos de Uruguay yarn and it only took 2 balls of it. Now the 4 yr old wants a sweater too. Do I have to make one? He's HUGE in comparison. Is fair only fair?

Oh, and I signed up to take a spinning class using a real spinning wheel next month at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Marianne, if you are reading this I think you should keep me company.

Now on to the 'gold' quilt blocks. I'm breaking out my 1850's 'Chrome' fabric to add to the signature quilt. Chrome is one of those antique colors that just isn't popular for use in today's color pallet.

Maybe it's too over the top? I have a bunch of blocks done. I'll photograph them for you.

Any gold creeping into your quilts these days?

Wedding Signature Quilt - just in time for Valentine's Day

Thanks for the comments on the Catherine Wheel Scarf.

In case one measly photo wasn't enough of it for your personal taste, perhaps you want to look at 56 more of them in my newly created flickr set...or maybe a slide show of scarf photos is in order?

I'm also working hard (again!) on my wedding signature quilt. All those signature blocks collected 6 years ago at our wedding are still waiting to become a quilt.

Each of them is so tiny that it takes me ages to make only a small set of 10 or so, but each night I'm making small amounts of progress and enjoying the process as well.

Things to fall in love with:

This Sunshine Day Baby Afgan by Posie Gets Cozy, OMG beautiful.

The Archipod: posted by design milk blog. Could I move my sewing room into the back yard? Unclear if this thing would hold my fabric collection. Oh and not to mention the yarn. Oh yeah and the fiber. Eek.

This new collection on the way from Liberty of London, as posted at True Up blog. Like I need more Liberty.

Last but not least, this awesome post about Orange County, California. Although I have spent a lot of time there, not sure I have hit everything on their recommended list. Some new ideas here. Cool.