Merry Christmas

Our Christmas morning was awesome. Santa must have had us on his 'nice' list this year.

I knit the above socks from some yarn I made on my spindles, before my spinning wheel came into the picture. If you want to get into spinning, a spindle is an easy and fun first step.

Handspun yarn has a certain look to it that makes it more textural. I really prefer it over commercially created yarn.

My biggest surprise gift was a new Baltimore Album quilt pattern collection: Lady of Victory.

There is an apple wreath block in here that I really just must make. It's amazing.

We're expecting guests for dinner, and the turkey is in the oven. Not sure it gets better than this.

Well, ok, we could be expecting my parents and my sister's family for dinner (which we aren't), but that is the only thing that would make it better.

Merry Christmas to all of you out there. May the rest of your holiday season be filled with health and peace.

Visiting Santa

We went and visited Santa last night.

The boys whispered in his ear all the toys they have been dreaming of getting into their clutches.

When he first saw us, he called to each of us by our names!

It was very impressive.

When I looked closely in his eyes, I felt like I knew him from another life somewhere. Like I might have worked with him at some point in my career. It was a comforting feeling, as if he was an old friend.

Anyhow, I'm a believer, so we gave him his cookies and dropped off our letters to him.

I'm still wrapping gifts here...am I the only procrastinator?

To those of you who are still getting ready....you're not alone!

The Christmas Calm

I can almost (but really not quite yet) feel the calm of Christmas coming.

It will be awesome to spend a few days away from the daily grind and with the family. Kids are so adorable right now, and in love with the idea that Santa is coming.

I am SO looking forward to putting a new-to-me antique quilt top into the quilt hoop. Once I'm actually on vacation I think that is the first item on my to do list.

Well, after all the gifts are wrapped.

Today my 5 year old asked me, "Mommy, what is your favorite thing of all?"

I told him it is our family, of course. And he agreed that family is also his #1 most favorite thing.

He then asked me what my 2nd most favorite thing is.

I answered that it is our friends and he agreed again that his 2nd most favorite thing is our friends.

He keep going though to my amazement and asked me what my 3rd favorite thing was.

I said that it is our planet Earth and he agreed that it is his 3rd favorite thing.

He then asked me, "Mommy, do you want to know my 4th favorite thing?"

I replied that I was very interested, and he answered with one word:

LEGOLAND!

Okok, message received...we'll find a way to get back there again.

Is your stocking hung yet?

Well, our house is finally decorated and stockings are hung.

Ok, truthfully we hung them and the 2 yr old tried to yank them down, so we promptly un-hung them.

That's how it is in our house this year. Breakable ornaments on the top half of the tree only please.

We have most of the shopping done I think with a few final hold outs that we have yet to find the perfect item for, but I would say it's trending in the right direction.

For me, this holiday is going to be about pampering ourselves which translates to not material goodies or toys but...

More Sleep!

Yes, our holiday goal is to get 8 hrs of sleep a night. Who knows if we can pull it off over our break, but I think we would all be so much better off for it.

I have a couple of handmade projects I'm cooking up for the break too. Think anybody would notice if I pretended to cook the turkey and ordered a pre-cooked one instead so I would have more time for quilting?

Shhh don't tell!

What I'm loving lately:

1) Tanis' awesome star ornaments from Tanis Fiber Arts

2) Wool Felt mistletoe from Ohdeedoh, and not to mention her link to the minimalistic Muppet poster - I kinda need one of these...embarassing but true. I should really stop here, but have you also seen the Modern Gingerbread Houses - too much!

3) This lace fence as mentioned on Famille Summerville (I used to hate these kinds of fences, and now I want one - it looks like knitted lace to me!)


4) The sing-a-long iPad app that lets you sing Glee Karaoke songs - wow, do I really sound that bad?

Japanese Taupe Quilts, Baltimore Albums, and Applique ideas

I decided to make a little quilted example piece for my hand quilting class, the above is the progress so far. Not sure if I will finish it before class or in class, but it is looking very pretty far.

I recently had a bit of an 'early Christmas shopping for self' moment on Amazon (sigh, I am addicted to books) but I must share with you what I have learned:

1) Japanese taupe Quilts by Susan Briscoe:

This book is really amazing. If you like Chuck Nohara's work, or have been interested in her small block quilts, this book is very similar and will not disappoint you. It includes 125 block patterns (nice) and they are all really beautiful. My only regret with this book is that it doesn't include a paper fold out pattern in the back with full size templates for all the blocks. Still, a very nice addition to your library and a 'must have' for those of us who work in Japanese taupe fabrics.

ISBN: 978-1-56836-378-3


2) Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts by Elly Sienkiewicz:

From somebody who is trying to get a copy of everything Elly has ever published, you know I had to have this book. Her album blocks are just incredible, not that I have to remind you of that. I did not get to see the Baltimore album quilts when they were in Houston (did you?) but having this book is a treat, and it includes patterns for some of the blocks used in those quilts. If you love applique, you need this book. Block patterns are very small as compared to her usual blocks. If you wanted to have a larger quilt, you could probably enlarge them and complete them pretty quickly.

ISBN: 978-1-57120-848-4

3) The Ultimate Applique Guidebook by Annie Smith:

If you listen to Annie's podcast, you will know how enthusiastic she is about quilting, and how much she has to share with all of us. This book is really beautiful and instead of giving us block pattern after block pattern she encourages you to design your own blocks. There are tons of shapes in here that help you to go forth and make your own applique blocks. I LOVE this book (and not just because I'm such an Annie fan either). Here talented husband illustrated it for her, that is so sweet.

ISBN: 978-1-60705-005-6

Getting ready for class

Next Sunday is I'm teaching Hand Quilting as well as Hand Applique at A Verb For Keeping Warm in the East Bay.

Thinking a little about the class and putting some notes in order so I don't forget to pass on any important nuggets or tidbits of info to the students.

It's a cold weekend anyhow, so a good one to catch up and spend time with friends and family.

If you're looking for some beautiful images, you could check out Alex's blog - Moonstitches.

She takes one photo a day during the month of December that features a number. It is a bit of a tour of Japan so if you're into Japanese culture, it might be of interest to you. Her photos are as amazing as ever.

My husband is putting the "Lawn Christmas Tree" up right now.

It's a tradition every year for all the residents in my neighborhood to put a small 'Charlie Brown' tiny tree out on their lawn and decorate it. 100% of the homes do it, and trees go up first Saturday in December. It makes the neighborhood look really joyful.

Do you have any holiday traditions that your corner of the world does?

Top 10 holiday gifts for quilters and knitters - Happy Cyber Monday

Need a gift idea for your favorite quilter or knitter?

Looking for the top 10 gifts of the year?

How about picking up 10 copies of the Quilt Otaku 2011 wall calendar?!

Back again by popular demand. There is a preview of all the pages if you click the button below (click on the title, then click 'Preview').


Happy Holiday Season!

Giving Thanks - in my Catherine Wheel Scarf!

That's me above, in all of my Catherine Wheel scarf wearing glory.

If you have the urge to make one of these, please do, you'll love the relaxing process of these little crochet wheels.

If you're hungry for more images, I have new flickr sets:

Catherine Wheel scarf #1 - crazy colors, using Zauberball yarn

Catherine Wheel scarf #2 - sunset colors, using Joyland Melody yarn.

and by special request for Kathie - a flickr set from the Los Altos museum with some of the quilts there.


Here's what I'm thankful for this year:

• My family, and their health - we have been so blessed, we are all our own strange beasts but we manage to work through our little challenges very well.
  
  
• My darling husband - I'm serious when I say he went to FOUR yarn stores for me while he was on business in Norway. If this doesn't tell you how dedicated he is, I don't know what will!
  
  
• My sons - for being as young as they are, they do try very hard not to kill each other when left to their own devices. Overall, they are amazing little people well on their way to gentlemanhood.
  
  
• My new friends - last year I lost two people who were very dear to me, and this year I am gaining two new baby friends. One unfortunately doesn't replace the other, but they do find ways to help fill in the holes.
  
  
• My passions - this has been a big year for me: learning to spin and dye protein fibers naturally, learning to knit lace (or trying to!) and keeping up with my quilting and blogging. All of it brings a lot of joy to my daily grind.
  
  
• You - without the community of bloggers & online forums, I would feel like I'm the only person on earth who has more fabric than they can actually fit into their house. But, I not alone here...right?...anyone?? Truthfully, I do gain so much inspiration from you all - a huge thank you to those of you who take the time to share it with us who follow you.
  
  
  Hope you have as much to be as thankful as I do, I'm thrilled to have such a long list.

Los Altos History Museum: Holiday Bells and Whistles

Sometimes when it rains we visit the Los Altos History Museum because they have a really cool train layout that my sons love to operate.

Recently, we stopped by there, and got a nice surprise. Not only do they have a huge installation of Lionel toy trains that is super cool and appealing to little boys, but for me there were some beautiful quilts!

They are from all over the U.S. and although there are not more than about 10 or so of them, they are mostly antique quilts in Christmas red/green colors.

A nice unexpected treat. They will be up through the start of next year so check them out if you're in the area.

Oh, and have lunch at Esther's German Bakery first - that is worth the trip itself, and very close by.

Hand Quilting and Hand Applique Classes

It's been busy around here with my husband traveling lately but the boys are really behaving well for me.

Getting more laundry done and less quilting these days, but I do have some exciting news to share.

My favorite yarn and fiber shop A Verb for Keeping Warm has moved to a new location in Oakland, California and started to carry quilting supplies.

I'm lucky enough to be teaching some hand quilting and hand applique classes there in mid-December.

I am really looking forward to it. If you live in the area and want to brush up on your skills, feel free to join us. I think we are going to have a great time.

I'm covering hand work only which is perhaps a lost art, but not lost on me...it really is my passion.

Yeah!

Field Report From Oslo: Shopping for yarn in Norway

My darling husband is traveling for business and along the way (as a special treat for me) he agreed to do a guest blog post about craft shops he ran into.

Instead of spending time taking photos of the city, he visited several shops I wish I could have visited too.

Enjoy his post below - Thanks Honey for doing this, it is so kind of you.
- Marisa

Jamie's guest blog post:

This is the Quilt Otaku field agent reporting from Oslo, Norway.

Knitting is a popular pastime here, so I have been dispatched to see how easy it is to visit the local shops. It turns out it isn’t hard at all as long as you know the right word to search for.

If you happen to be at the CC Vest shopping center in Lysaker just three train stops west of Oslo Central Station, be sure to check out the Ariadne Garn shop. It is nestled snugly underneath the escalator on the bottom floor, and while it is the smallest shop that I visited it is full of colorful yarn and needles.

Just north of the Vigeland Sculpture Park and Oslo City Museum is the Tjorven Garn shop. They have a large selection of yarn of various kinds, from sport marino to eskimo. They also have a small selection of new and used books for sale hidden on the back side of their cutting table.

I hoped to visit Sofies Garn to the north of the Royal Palace, but when I went by they were closed and had a note posted that probably explained why... in Norwegian of course!

The largest shop by far was the Huslfliden which filled much of the bottom floor of the GlasMagasinet shopping center. They had the most floor space though their yarn collection was perhaps on par with Tjorven. They did have a spinning wheel on display, and while they were the only shop I visited with wool it was entirely Australian imports. Their book and pattern selection was the best, so if that is your goal then perhaps Husliden should be your first stop.

One final note: it seems custom in Norway to provide pattern magazines free of charge, but only along with the purchase of 2 or more balls of yarn. If you are traveling and hope to bring some patterns home, be sure to leave some space for yarn too.

Stay tuned for a field report from London in a few days.

Applique Baby Quilt: the big reveal

My dear friend Sharon is expecting a baby girl any day now, so the friends in our weekly knit nite club decided to make her a baby quilt.

Ok, well it wasn't quite like that.

I sorta tricked them into learning how to quilt and talked them into making it.

It was a really fun group project where we had some experienced quilters and some folks that were totally new to it and missing their crochet hooks often during the process.

In the end, all the blocks came out so nice and it looks like a unified whole quilt, which is amazing with so many hands working on it.

I wanted to show you pictures of this since I've been playing around with it for so long now, but it was a surprise gift so we all had to keep photos off our blogs.

More stories about the quilt on the next post. I have a bunch of photos of it. Hopefully I can get them up on a flickr set for you. The group worked really hard on it and it turned out just beautiful.

Now all we need is the baby.

Happy Halloween: Crochet Pumpkin

Our Halloween was really fun.

Kids enjoyed it even though I was too busy putting finishing touches on a baby quilt to even think about making costume this year.

My friend Dorothee was generous enough to teach me how to crochet a little pumpkin decoration so I made one and had a great time using some of my recently made handspun yarn.

The fiber was from my favorite Berkeley shop, A Verb for Keeping Warm, and was dyed by Pigeonroof Studios in colorway "Experimental Views". Who knew it would make such a cute pumpkin.

I threw on a fake green wig and ran around in a batman shirt. Did you get out and dress up this year?

Purl Soho in Orange County, and finally meeting MariRob

So much to catch up on!

When I was in Orange County several weeks ago, I stopped in at the Purl Soho warehouse since I was lucky enough to be there on a week day. (M-F only! Bummer.)

There were lots of friendly folks there to help you with fabric and yarn (danger, this place is so much fun!) but I didn't realize I would meet a fellow blogger.

It turned out that working there on that day was Mari of Marirob blog. Her blog is just beautiful - stunning photos, awesome crafts, and she's a guest blogger for Purl Soho's blog The Purl Bee from time to time as well.

She has the most beautiful baby girl that I think I've ever seen. This baby immediately captured my heart. I had a hard time tearing myself away from looking at how adorable she is in order to buy some fabric, but with Liberty of London fabrics at 40% off...I eventually got down to the business of shopping.

If you are ever in Orange County, California on a week day this place is a must stop. My favorite store in So. Cal.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2010

Yesterday I did a fly-by of the amazing quilt show that happens every year, very close to where I live. I am so lucky to not have to travel to see it.

It's an international show with quilts from all over the globe, and booths of goodies from every corner of the USA.

I'll have much more to say when I have some spare time, but for now I am itching to share photos of the quilts that I love with you.

There were plenty more beautiful quilts that I didn't photograph just due to lack of time. This is really an amazing show though. Check it out in person if you ever have the time.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2010: Slide show Flickr Set from Quilt Otaku

Enjoy and consider yourself warned, there are almost 300 photos.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Our school district was out of school this week, so we took a road trip down to Southern California.

It was awesome.

We visited Legoland (which I HIGHLY recommend if you have kids under 10 yrs old). The above photo was taken there in the model version of Las Vegas, made totally out of Legos. Rides were really nice for little kids and lines were very very short, so good for those with short attention spans.

Our sons went to Disneyland, and I got away for the evening with my sweet husband.

Disneyland is usually known as the happiest place on Earth, but for me...the happiest place on Earth is actually the Purl Soho warehouse located in Tustin.

More on my visit there later, as I got some amazing new fabric and met (in person!) a pretty incredible blogger.

For now, time to rest a bit.

p.s. Anybody out there going to Pacific International Quilt Festival this weekend?

7 Years and Not a Single Itch

They say that after 7 years in a relationship, you start to get that '7 year itch' to do something else, see a new person, or even in some cases people end their marriage.

For us, it has now been 7 years, and there have been no itches or even thought of an itch.

It hardly seems like it has been that long, and if I live to be married to my husband for another 50 years it still won't be long enough for my taste.

He already has everything that he could possible need, so this year I decided to make him a little relaxation pillow out of wool.

Wool is the traditional gift for the 7th wedding anniversary, so I thought it was quite fitting.

Our 5 yr old helped me stuff it with cotton and I put some lime essential oil on there to refresh him when he smells it.

It looks very 'home made' but he loves it (and me) anyhow.

We had the extreme pleasure of having dinner w/ our boys and one of the girls who was a bridesmaid in the wedding. I wish that all of them were close enough to have dinner with us.

Thanks to my husband for not only taking such good care of me but for proof reading basically each and every of my blog posts (what a trooper!!!). xoxo

Quilt Hoop - which one is best?

We still have hot weather here, so strawberry picking is a worthwhile activity. We plucked a couple buckets of them after the apple picking was done last weekend.

When it comes to hand quilting, I've found that size really does matter.

I have an embarrassing number of quilt hoops but for the most part I use my 18" floor hoop that I got from Hinterberg on a usual basis.

I also have their 22" hoop, but I find that it is a bit on the big side for me and I have trouble reaching the other side.

How big's your quilt hoop? Got a favorite one? Maybe I need just one more?

Day Trips

Last weekend was packed with multiple day trips all in only 2 days.

We visited Berkeley to pick up my new matchless spinning wheel at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Kristine, the shop owner, was so lovely to go over all the bells and whistles on the wheel. I'm already spinning up a storm.

As much as going to 'quilt stores' (my sons call all stores that only I want to visit 'quilt stores') we needed a boy-friendly adventure too. That came in the form of a visit to the USS Pampanito.

This is a real military submarine that you can tour, walk through, and imagine that you got to sail on. It was pretty neat. I found out that if you're a 5 yr old boy or a 36 yr old man...the same 'cool' appeal applies.

We also visited the Heath store in the San Francisco Ferry Building. They have very minimalistic plates and other ceramics for the kitchen. Very nice stuff...their shop in the Ferry Building was a little small and I found myself slightly sorry that I didn't go to their factory in Sausalito. Next time.

Oh yeah, and we went apple and strawberry picking in Watsonville. It was so hot! We did grab some fruit and run though. Can you say strawberry applesauce?

One more link - check out my sister's baby's 2 yr old signature quilt block . It's really cute to see all the signatures on it. Her calligraphy is beautiful.

Spindle love

Just a quick post tonight, it's already getting late.

I finally went to Yarn Dogs yarn/fiber shop in Los Gatos, California last weekend. I picked up some fiber that is superfine merino (maybe 150's merino?) that was hand dyed by Carin Engen of thetinthimble.com.

So pretty. This colorway is called Stone. I am not sure what to do with only 2 oz of it, but maybe I'll make a nose cozy.

Could this be the swan song for my little spindle? I will always love it...but I will also confess that I'm soon to get a new plaything for spinning.