Necessary Chocolate

A "during the break" throw

You know what you need after a tough deadline? A nice, easy, poofy project. I dreamed of making the lap duvet from purl soho, and all the necessary fabrics sat around for a couple of months, just waiting for me to stop writing, spread out the material, and cut things and pin things. 

So, one night, a few days after I handed in my report, I dragged myself off the couch, thinking, "you promised yourself you'd do this. TV is not more fun. Go do it." Just the kind of attitude to have for a nice, relaxing project.

It's just 42" x 60" and made out of Nano Iro double gauze, which is wonderfully soft. And expensive. This is not a cheap project. But this fabric seemed made for my family room.

And, despite the kneeling on the floor for two nights cutting and pinning, and the three days of deciding which color thread to use to tack it together (beige in the end), it was, in fact, relaxing.

 

*Of course, if I didn't take the break, I wouldn't need to work crazy hours for the next deadline. Ha.

Another summer, another set of deadlines

What can I say? Another summer with a crushing deadline. But there have been wonderful highlights. And now that there's a break between deadlines, I can take some time to record those highlights. 

But seriously. Summers are supposed to be leisurely, right? Endless? Days of wading in creeks, and playing in the garden, and canning, and country fairs, and exploring the woods nearby, and reading? I think that my idea of summers was forever warped by Elizabeth Enright's "The Four Story Mistake." Or her "Gone-Away Lake." Yep, I'll blame it on her.

So just this week, The Quilt was officially finished. Because my mom was kind enough to quilt two rows of stitching in the border - she has a better quilting sewing machine than I do, and she's nice, and she loves me. Yesterday, I washed it and took it out of the dryer, and it's perfect. 

Washing it crinkled up the sashing, and now the squares pop out just like I hoped. It's soft, too. So I'm happy.

So the ten-year-goal of redoing one of the bedrooms is one step closer. There's a daybed (you can see a glimpse of it behind the quilt) and a quilt. Now just to take out the carpet, restore the hardwood floor, get some storage, repair the damaged sheetrock on the ceiling (from an ice dam), put in some bookcases... Sigh. I really want this room to be a guest room/my studio. But maybe not enough to do all of the work? We'll see.

Oh, and I plan to replace the wallpaper. Even though it makes me laugh EVERY time I walk in there.