Starting new, carrying on

Apparently it is official; I'm giving up on my ugly-duckling, not-quite-making-this-work-the-way-I'd-hoped blog (uwacn1) and thanks to Kahne I'm starting again here. Other than trying to get this up and running the way I'd like, my plan for today is to bind the mini-quilt here and add it to the stock-pile of gifts to give next December. My intentions are always sterling, in terms of giving handmade gifts, but come the fall I'm never able to carve out time to craft so I'm putting all my energy in to gift making now. Even if I falter once the snow melts, I'll have more made for Christmas 2007 than ever before.

This little quilt isn't necessarily a good glimpse of my style; I found the vintage photograph and printed it out on "Color Plus Fabrics" -- sheets of treated fabric on paper backing that go right into your printer. Not wanting to over-do holiday colors on every piece, I went with a lighter, vintage-y palette on this and no doubt because it was the week of Valentine's, I added the felt heart to give it some more seasonal stretch. The finished piece is roughly 8.5" x 11". The others I've done so far scream 'Christmas!' more clearly -- a great source for vintage images for crafting is The Vintage Workshop.

Later on: Taking a moment out of a day that turned out nothing like I expected it to (after spending all morning getting ready to host my own birthday celebration tomorrow, to which my brother Chris and his family (wife Pam, son Alex, 20) were to come -- cooking my best beef stew, a flourless chocolate cake, considering mashed potatoes and planning for homemade parmesan bread, cleaning the house -- I got the call that they all have the flu and so that put a stop to the cleaning, in any case). I also haven't done any quilting or crafting at all, and instead spent time eating the salt and vinegar potato chips and dip that I picked out for tomorrow, and drinking Becks' version of a non-alcoholic beer (purchased for my brother) and watching cooking and travel shows on tv (TV during the DAY TIME -- usually against my religion). Dean and Ken are outside for some late afternoon sledding in our yard, and I'll take a moment to post this squished little fox that I made for Dean; a Valentine's gift, scanned in since I'm not yet the proud owner of a digital camera....