11/20/13

A commission

Rob has asked me to make a quilt for a couple that will be in Austin at Christmas.  I handed him a book and said I can make anything in there between now and Christmas.  The book was Twosey-Foursey Quilts by Cathy Wierzbicki; my new favorite book for picking Linus patterns.  They’re all easy and they’re all made from either 2 1/2” strips or 4 1/2” strips.  While I don’t remember him actually saying he had picked one, this is the page he left the book open on. 

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I take that as a hint.

This is an easy quilt to make, but it depends a lot on the fabrics chosen.  And, it takes strips in both widths.  I could raid my scrap users strips and look for fabrics I had both widths in…or I could go fishing in stash.  But, fishing in stash means picking a focus fabric first.  Raiding the scraps means picking a focus fabric to tie it all together, at the end.

I’m sure I’ll end up doing a combination of them both.  And, I’ll likely pick a focus fabric early, and then change it at the end.  That’s a good compromise of processes, right?  It sure reflects who I am.

And, how about that tape marking?

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It isn’t perfect.  I think with practice, I could do better at positioning the tape.  But, for the ease of it, compared to actually marking all those lines on a busy fabric, it cannot be beat!

I feel like I don’t talk about the kid when she’s doing all right.  I try to.  But, there’s really only so many ways to say that my teenager has gotten so normal it’s not even scary to be a parent anymore.  We’re all used to the same routine.  Do these few things and all goes well.  Don’t do any one of them, and life goes to crap.  Her life that is.  Rob and I just sail along, looking at one another and smiling while she rails about how unfair it is that she has to do dishes on a day when she also had homework.  Yeah, yeah, and I walked to school in snow hip deep, uphill both ways.  That worked until she realized I grew up in Louisiana.

You learn what not to listen to.

If I only listen to the stuff I want to hear, then life is really, really cool right now.  If I ignore the stuff I don’t want to hear, life is really, really cool right now. 

Combine that with the fact that Rob and I are doing the right proportions of fussing and fighting and kissing and hugging and I guess I’m just a little bit afraid to talk about how happy I am for fear I’ll put some kind of a jinx on it. 

So, keep it to yourselves.  And, remember.  It’s early.  We’re just half way between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  A lot could happen before the big holidays even begin.

And, keep your fingers crossed.  That girl might make something of herself after all. 

Lane

2 comments:

Kath said...

I did have to smile Lane, you sound just like my husband when he used to say to our teen "I walked to school in snow hip deep, uphill both ways" and the boy and I would roll our eyes and reply, yeh, yeh, carrying your younger brother...and NO shoes...
That was a fond memory and the boy turned out good.
xx

lw said...

The lattice quilting looks awesome. And I like the pattern that Rob "left open."

It does feel a little bit like acknowledging good things can jinx them. But I think that Sydney will turn out to be a lot like you and Rob-- and indeed make something of herself.