The Secret Exchange

A few years ago I met a professional quilter online who over time has become a good friend. She proposed we do a craft exchange this year, and I got brave enough to accept. We decided to do medium size projects, and I thought I'd make her a recycled linen nap size quilt. That's what I was working on for the month of February and part of March.

The pattern is called Wave Runner by Cozy Designs, and was fairly simple to put together. I stayed with a three-color design using these remnants for the top so I could make the waves in the colors of sand, sea and snow. I used a variety of embroidery threads to quilt the piece, from #3 cotton perle to some of that ball thread I picked up in a bag from Goodwill. The poem that I wrote and embroidered on the quilt is all about my friend (and in a way, me back when I was writing PBW.)

Everything I used to make the quilt was what I had on hand, recycled or leftover from other projects. Even the tag I put on the quilt is a piece of white fabric from Fabscrap. It's not perfect, of course, but I'm quite proud of how it turned out. I'm also not going to post a pic of the finished quilt because what I wrote on it is very personal.

For her project my friend made me this beautiful beach bag. It's not only perfectly made, but in my favorite colors with a lovely bird so much like those we see when we walk by the lakes.

My friend is a little psychic, too. I think it's safe to say that whatever happens to me, I do refuse to sink.

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Holiday Prep

For Thanksgiving this year we've invited some guests from Oliver's mom's side of the family, so I have to start prepping now to get the house in shape for the big day. The first major thing is having the carpets cleaned, which we've scheduled for next week. This weekend I'll be cleaning out four rooms to get them ready for that. I started with my front dining room, which I use as my sewing room. It was kind of a mess already, so it felt good to get everything cleared out. We'll be having ten people at dinner plus two babies, so this will give me a chance to figure out how to arrange two tables in this space. I think this will be my last time hosting a big Thanksgiving gathering. Mike has started his family with a lovely girl who has a huge, close-knit family of her own, while Katherine will likely be off at grad school out of state for the next several years. I'm also not getting any younger. My guy and I will always celebrate Thanksgiving, but ...

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Fell Off the Wagon

I did cut up that plastic dollar tote to make into something stronger, but got caught up with work and set it aside. Then last night some hand-dyed silk and pretty threads called my name, and, well . . . Felt SO good to do some handwork, except my neck began hurting about an hour into it. I tried changing the way I sit and work, but it's pretty obvious that the doc is right.

Valerean

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