Quilts and More (and me)

Just a quick mention . . . the winter issue of one of my favorite magazines, the fantastically hip Quilts and More, is out:

And that's my fuzzy scarf project, right there on the cover.

Modeled by an adorable young girl who, frankly, reminds me of me when I was her age. Really, I used to be irresistibly adorable like that. No, really.

The editors also created an alternate color option for the scarf, which you can find here. PLUS, complete instructions for making the scarf are online here--just click on the "Materials" link to get started.

My favorite part of all? This copy, featured on the pattern page at the allpeoplequilt.com website:

"A cuddly, warm scarf that keeps the chill out and cranks up the fashion factor!"

Hee-hee. Really? Cool.

ALERT: Jackspeak

The family sits down together for a simple dinner--grilled cheese and tomato soup--on a chilly fall evening.

Jack: "Mom, your tomato soup is so tasty."

Me: "Oh, thanks sweetie. I'm glad you like it."

"Yep. It's so tasty I can't even believe it!"

"Wow, thanks."

"Yep. You put the smack down on the soup. It's great. I love it. You put the smack down on the whole dinner."

"Even the grilled cheese?"

"Yep. The whole thing."

Baby Quilt "Friday!": Sad Days, Hippie Days

Back for another edition of Baby Quilt "Friday!" On a Monday. Or whatever day it is when I actually finish this post. (Oooh, the suspense is killing me.)

Anyhoo, here's another quilt from The Little Box of Baby Quilts, called "Sad Days, Hippie Days."

  
From The Little Box of Baby Quilts, copyright 2007 Jenny Wilding Cardon/That Patchwork Place. Machine quilted by Cheryl Brown. 

Although I had babies in mind when I designed this quilt, it was my husband who inspired it. He doesn't have hippie hair (anymore) or drive a hippie car (anymore--he's owned two Volkswagen buses). He has a hippie spirit. You know, a peace-and-love and let's-everyone-just-get-along vibe. A let's-be-happy-in-this-moment vibe.

These are incredibly rare and precious qualities to find in a human being. You will not find them in me. I have no hippie in my genes. (I do have hippie jeans, however. I am certain I will be able to fit into them again soon. Yes, very soon, I keep telling myself.)

Anyhoo, back to my husband inspiring the idea for this design. One afternoon when Jack was just a baby, I was watching him and wondering who he was going to become. What qualities would he get from me, and what qualities would he get from his dad? An amazingly accomplished self-critic, I couldn't think of any qualities of mine that I would want Jack to have, save for spelling. I'm pretty good at spelling. Except for that flub-up in the fourth grade, when I spelled bicycle wrong during the classroom spelling bee. (Bycicle. CRAP!)

My thoughts turned to my husband's hippie-like qualities. Instead of thinking about which qualities of his I would want Jack to have, I found that I had to turn my mind all around and decide which qualities of his I would NOT want Jack to have. Because my husband has that many good qualities. Which makes all of us in this family very lucky. Not that he doesn't have his flaws. For instance, he is very messy. But I think that may be a hippie thing as well.

So although this quilt was made with little ones in mind, it is in fact a secret ode to my guy. One day, honey. One day you'll get back to looking on the outside like the hippie you already are on the inside. When you don't need to play straight-laced on the job. When our schedules are ruled not by two little boys, but by the whims of the hippie winds. We'll trade in the tent trailer for another beat-up bus. You can grow out your hair. You can pierce your ears again.

Maybe I'll even figure out a way to let out my hippie jeans.

You can see more quilts from the "little box" here, watch a video about it here, and read more about each quilt here.

If you're a quilter who's into family game night, meet me back here next "Friday" for a baby quilt and a game quilt rolled into one. Oh, and a little footnote about the beginning of this post. It's still Monday. But it's not the same Monday when I started this post. It's the NEXT Monday. Sigh.

Every day is Halloween 'round here . . .

. . . meaning every day is a day for dress up. As evidenced here and here, and over there, and right here. Yep, Jack's a dresser-upper. And if you've been following along, you know that superheroes have been what his dress-up is all about. But Jack shocked me this year when I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween. Batman? Superman? The Green Goblin?

Nope. This year he wanted to be a sheriff. And so he was.

Ready to walk out the door for trick or treating. (Yep, that's already a smudge of chocolate on his chin.)

Now, mind you, this wasn't any old sheriff. After many, many questions about the purposes, personalities, and whereabouts of bandits throughout the month of October ("Mom, are there bandits living in Kaysville?"), Jack decided to be a BANDIT sheriff.

The bandit and the sheriff. The good guy and the bad guy, melded together as one. The lawmaker and the lawbreaker, one and the same. Two of Jack's favorite fantasy worlds colliding, one swallowing the other and vice versa.

Strange, I thought. At first. But with so, so many costumes to choose from--with so, so many roles he might play--why wouldn't he choose to be the best AND the baddest? He found a way to include the full spectrum of his imagination and play. Just couldn't choose between hero and villian.

Don't we all feel that way sometimes?

So I give you Jack the bandit AND Jack the sheriff. And no sheriff or bandit would be complete without a sidekick. So I give you Charlie the cow:

Earlier in the week, at another costumed event.

Charlie's been saying "ma, ma, ma" a lot these days. I thought that sounded a bit like "moo," so the cow costume was chosen. During trick or treating, however, Charlie sang "ba, ba, ba" around the neighborhood. Sounded much more like a sheep than a cow. Sorry, little Charlie. We'll choose your costume together next year, huh?

Happy belated Halloween, everyone!

Baby Quilt "Friday!": Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt

Welcome back to Baby Quilt "Friday!," where we take a closer look each "week" at quilts from my "book," The Little Box of Baby Quilts. This quilt is called "Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt." Looking back, I sure do wish I had named it something a little more snappy.

From The Little Box of Baby Quilts, copyright 2007 Jenny Wilding Cardon/That Patchwork Place. Machine quilted by Cheryl Brown.

The title of the quilt says exactly what it is, at least--it's a wall quilt with pockets. Pockets for those tiny baby sundries that always seem to disappear, like nail clippers, diaper cream, cotton swabs, and the like. Hang this quilt above the diaper-changing table and fill it up with those little must-haves. (Just make sure you put the must-haves back in the pockets when you're done with them. Those must-haves so quickly turn into must-finds.)

Designing this quilt turned out to be far more difficult than I intended. Fun idea, I thought--pockets to keep baby stuff all in one place. Okay. But I wanted to make the pockets more interesting. Hmm, how could I get creative with the pockets? Oh, I know, I know! I'll make them look like little cloth diapers!

I bought diaper pins with little ducks on the pin heads. I bought a whole mess of terrycloth to mimic the look of cloth diapers. And then I started folding and folding, stitching and stitching. I lost myself--for hours--in a self-imposed fabric-origami challenge. But it just wasn't working. That night, I went to bed quite discouraged. Why couldn't I make my diapers-as-pockets idea work?

When I awoke the next morning, I went back to my kitchen table to survey the previous day's disaster. As soon as I touched the terrycloth, the problem was instantly revealed to me.

"OH," I said out loud.

And then I spoke out loud some more.

"I GET it now. It's not working because the whole idea is DISGUSTING. Who stores their stuff in a DIAPER, for hooey's sake? Geez, Jenny. You're a real dork."

Yes. Me and my fresh ideas. Creating pockets resembling something that would usually hold poo-poo and pee-pee. Fresh, indeed.

Flushed that idea right down the--well, you know. Now they're just normal 'ol pockets. But I did stick with the terrycloth. I like how the fabric puffs out from the blocks and provides a little more stability than a quilting-cotton pocket would.

And where did this quilt end up? Right after the "little box" was published I was interviewed for a weekend feature in our local newspaper, here. Soon after I received an email from a woman who was looking for donations. She was coordinating a silent auction for a baby who had a very rare disease, a disease that took almost every baby before their first birthday. So I gave her this quilt, along with a signed copy of the "little box." I've lost touch with her since then, but I'm glad this quilt found a home in that kind of way. And in a way that helped a baby and her family. Fitting. And I'm thrilled I didn't have to give them the "Poo-Poo Pee-Pee Diaper Quilt." Just the "Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt."

You can view more quilts from the "little box" here, watch a video about it here, and read more about each quilt here.

Next week is all about a quilt I designed for babies and the hippies who love them. Like my husband. Strong and straight-laced on the outside. Ooey-gooey hippie on the inside. Hope to see you back here next "Friday!"

(Oh, and I almost forgot . . . took this picture to show that a little more of that whole mess of terrycloth did get used up this Halloween:)

Little ghosts filled with a candy surprise, for Jack's Halloween party at preschool...

Don'tcha love it when you use up something from your stash that you never, never thought you would touch again? Me too.