When we built our house a few years ago, we had the wiring done for a generator which we later had installed. It was an expensive, fancy model that was tied in directly to the propane tank and would come on and shut off automatically and power nearly 2/3 of the house (including the outlet underneath the sewing machine!). But, in the last six months while New Englanders have scrambled to find generators during Hurricane Irene and then the October snowstorm that had power out in Connecticut for at least a week, our electricity hasn’t gone out. Just a few weeks ago, however, we finally got the test run. We were home with friends one evening, just finishing up dinner (one of my DH’s wonderful paellas) when the lights flickered and went out and the plug-in emergency lights came on. Ten seconds later, as promised, the generator rumbled to life and the lights all came back on. Feeling a little guilty about the blaze of electricity that made our house a shining beacon in the dark night, my DH did trudge up the hill to check on the neighbors who are in their 80′s and invite them down if they needed anything. They were fine so we continued our visit with our friends. An hour or so later, the lights flickered again and we waited to see if the generator would indeed shut itself off. Ten seconds later, the rumbling stopped, the lights were on and we just had a few clocks to reset. I can’t tell you how excited I am to know that if we are not at home, the generator is going to work just as it should and we won’t have to worry about the heat going out and frozen pipes. Thank you, Seward & Sons Electrical Contractors.
This quilt is actually a fabric recreation of a pastel drawing I did in art class in the 8th grade a lifetime ago. My art was never that good (Art was, by far, my worst class.) and it was one of the few pieces I actually kept all these years.
This week’s journal quilt speaks to the value of keeping a sketch book. Nothing too remarkable happened in Week 33; we had a nice, quiet winter weekend at home in front of the fireplace. I started thinking about winter and then realized that I had a sketch in my book from a year or so ago of a winter quilt. So, I whipped out that sketch and made a mini version of the quilt for this week’s journal quilt:
Well, I waited so long to get this journal quilt posted that the voting changed. I made this quilt for the Iowa caucus. My DH suggested that I make a quilt reflecting the nickname the press has for Mitt Romney, i.e. “Mittens”, who originally won the caucus. Since then, it seems more detailed counts have come in and a new winner was announced. Still, it’s winter so mittens are completely appropriate, right?
Week 31 is the week that fell during Christmas. While we did have a lovely Christmas, spending Christmas Eve in Rhode Island with my sister-in-law and her family, and then having a fabulous dinner Christmas night at The Old Inn on the Green in the Berkshires, the week itself was really marked by our first baby scare. As it turned out, it was nothing more than a bunch of doctors with fancy toys at one of the country’s best hospitals being excessively cautious, but it freaked the heck out of us. We went in for an ultrasound and the doc reading it couldn’t quite see all of the heart because the baby was in a bad position so he said that he wanted to send us to a pediatric cardiologist for a fetal echo cardiogram and then asked if we were free to stay that afternoon if he could get us in. When he then immediately started talking about options for fetal surgeries, that’s when we started flipping out. We came back the next day for an hour and a half long nail biter of a test only to be told that everything looks fine. Thanks for the stress, docs! So, here’s my Christmas heart test quilt:
I had another great weekend in the studio, as well as a great visit to Northampton for an Artisans of Western Mass meeting. It was the first one that I have actually made it to and it was great to finally attend.
Here’s the journal quilt from week 30, which was just before Christmas when I was in a flurry of baking my “famous” rum cakes.
Still catching up on the journal quilts from December. Here’s the one from December 8th to 14th, which was prime holiday prep time of baking, shopping, wrapping, mailing, etc.
Week 28 of my journal quilting project was the first week in December when I had the Monterey Makers Studio Tour at my studio. I posted during the day that I was having a nice day in the studio, getting a lot of work done, but also meeting some of my neighbors. This year’s traffic was higher for me and the sales were greater too, which was nice. Hopefully, next year’s will be even more successful since it will be my only in-person sales event during the year. With the baby coming in late May, I won’t make it to any summer art and craft fairs and will be relying on online sales instead. Anyway, here’s the journal quilt from that week. Open the door and you’ll find a photo of my studio.
Another great weekend in the studio! Of course it helps that my contract fell through so that I didn’t need to do any work on Friday or today. I got a few journal quilts finished and started working on some of the applique blocks for my cowboy twins quilts. Here’s what’s up on the wall right now:
I am already developing some fodder for my kid to tell his or her therapist. Week 24′s journal quilt was a bit delayed because it was the week of our first ultrasound and I wanted to use the photos to trace for the quilt, but, bad mother that I am, I have already misplaced the photos. I searched for a while, but haven’t found them yet. Hopefully, they will turn up. If not, I still have the second ultrasound photos and I know where they are. So, the kid in this ultrasound quilt isn’t actually mine, but some random kid from Google.
This is one of my more favorite journal quilts. For Thanksgiving this year, my DH and I flew to Denver to spend the holiday with my sister and her family. Then, we drove to Durango (don’t ask how long a drive that was!) so that we could take her 3 year old on the Polar Express. This quilt is a photo of the front of the train after we pulled back into the station, embellished with a little thread painting and fusing.
