Recently, I –at the last minute– participated in a quilt-swap that started on the QuiltArt list, then moved to a Yahoo group. The results of the swap were just posted and I can’t WAIT to get my quilt, and will blog about it when it arrives. But for now, you’ll have to just look at my contribution.

Circular Paradox was inspired by a passage in Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, a sci fi novel that has been around for a number of years, but was new to me. Even though I thought I wouldn’t be able to participate in the swap, the idea popped into my head for circles and the moon rabbit and planets on a dark blue background and I knew I could get it done in time for the deadline. I’m so happy with the result that I want to make at least one more “circular” quilt, maybe several….. The full shot is above, and I promise one of these days I’m going to get a better digital camera.

The detail shots below were done on my scanner (and hopefully got down-sized in the upload process for those of you on dial-up!), but really show the quilting much better. The background is a commercial print, the nautilus is Bali Fabrics batiks, and the rest are my hand-dyeds. I had a BALL playing with the variegated thread I’ve purchased from Superior Threads.

The Moon Rabbit is from a 2-piece wood puzzle I bought in Japan in 1996. Instead of seeing a man in the moon, the Japanese see a rabbit. Go look. Once you see the rabbit, you’ll wonder how anyone could see a man’s face, since the shapes look a lot more like a rabbit than a face. The rabbit is stitched in Superior’s “Silver” variegated, but it has gold and copper and cool colors in it. I love it because it is a mama and her baby bunny (at the time I only had one son); I’ve always loved rabbits (well, until the voracious hordes savaged my garden in Friday Harbor, but once the foxes moved into our neighborhood that wasn’t such an issue, and they were still cute!).

On Thanksgiving Day, we had our first snow. When I went out to “walk the dog” before going to bed (and if there is ANYthing in the universe stupider than walking in circles until an animal pees, I have no idea what it is…..%^&*!@#&*, especially at night in the dark in the cold…..), there was just a dusting, and the fallen leaves on the driveway were beautiful under their crust of snow. Alas, it has melted. I’m waiting for the first good storm, with little wind, when you get 3 inch ridges of snow perched on tiny twigs and branches and the air is sharper than crystal……

It appears I’m at least part Elvish…

Elvish

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
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OK…I promised quilted stuff, so here you are! First, I finally got Eli to decide how he wanted me to quilt the border of his turtle quilt, which we began this summer after our first kayak paddle on Lake Megunticook. Eli saw lots of turtles with his dad, so drew the picture, picked the fabrics, I fused the fusible web on the fabric, he cut out the pieces and placed them, I fused them, and did the quilting–with his selections of thread and quilting lines (with a few suggestions from me, but he’s a pretty particular client!). He wanted to do the free-motion, but I declined, though I may let him sit on my lap and do it with me the next time around….

Then, I made placemats…LOTS of placemats. For some odd reason, I began with the Christmas ones. This fabric has been in my stash for YEARS, and since I’m on a stash reduction plan, I decided it was time to make them. Then I ran out of the red thread I’m using to stitch snowflakes around the border, so they got put on hold until the next spool arrives from Superior Threads. So, I started in on what I thought were going to be “autumn” placemats, but I needed something that would work with the 1 1/2 yards I had of the print. Road trip! Off to Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro on Monday morning, with Eli to keep me company. I found a great fabric, but in the end, the placemats ended up looking more like Christmas than Thanksgiving. Oh well…I like them anyway!

The six placemats are on the table. Eli, at his end of the table, is waiting for the rest of us to get seated.

And here’s Joshua clowning for the camera at the other end of the table, with hubby Paul in the background carving turkey. Oh…and that war zone you see to the left of Joshua is an antique baker’s cupboard (purchased in the DINK days…dual income no kids), which now serves as my desk. The drawer on the left is a flour bin, and curves inward, so I can sit there at my computer which is what I’m doing right now.

Of course, while we were at the fabric store buying stuff for the placemats, Eli asked if he could get some mouse-y fabric for a pillowcase…he really liked Christine Fries-Uriel’s piece with two adorable mice that is on the November page of the 2005 Quilting Arts Calendar –it’s the one in the middle of the bottom row…the link is PDF, by the way, so may take a while to download. So, we bought 22 inches of musical mousies fabric, a third of a yard of red batik, and presto new pillow. He told me the next morning that he slept better because of his new pillowcase 8*))))). Yes, he IS the cutest thing on feet! (and I’m not prejudiced at all! LOL)

‘Nuf for now. I blew the diet totally today and made choc. chip cookies and ate the dough, so back to the straight and narrow for me! I was good on Thanksgiving though, so I’ll skip sweet breakfast tomorrow…maybe make the boys French Toast which I don’t much care for, and have oatmeal, which I actually really like—especially the old, old fashioned McCann’s Irish Oats, the ones that come in the tin and take 45 minutes to cook–add a sliced banana…yummm! Of course, brown sugar is heavenly, but right now we’re sticking to fruit or Equal!

No, not Santa Claus confused on his dates. About dinnertime last night, hubby and dog heard a noise of something falling down the woodstove chimney. Now, our house is 3 1/2 levels high (the basement window is up near the ceiling)…as tall as the oak trees, and the chimney starts above the roof. But, no further noises (luckily, we weren’t burning the stove last night).

Then, over the next couple of hours, the cats sat on top of the stove and stared at the bend in the pipe (it comes out the back of the stove) and on the hearth rug, twitching their tails. Hmm…..that’s usually proof there is something alive inside the house…usually with either four, six or eight legs, and usually unwelcome. Finally, I told hubby there must be something in there. He looked, but saw nothing. We decided to leave the door open…despite Yeti the canine horse (the 149 lb. dog) and three cats as a greeting committee. The critter’s options were that, starvation, or incineration. Hmmm…talk about the lesser of three evils.

At 10 pm, I went to take the dog for his evening pee, and when I came back in Paul shouted, stay out of the way, as he ran a round with a towel trying to trap the critter that had decided being out of the wood stove was better than being IN it. It ran around faster than lightning…about the size of a chipmunk. We decided to shut the animals into a room, then deal with the four-footed visitor. Before we got the last cat, it chased him to right near the back door (good), but the critter managed to go up a slick wood bench leg and get himself stuck at the bottom in a one inch by three in space that was about 15 inches deep! We tried to coax him out, and at one point thought the little thing had died of fright. NOT!

We left the back door open to try to chase him out if he wasn’t dead, and got a hammer and literally took off the top of the bench and pried apart the leg (a box of 1x4s surrounding a 2×4 support) . In the photo below, you can see the top off the bench–he was in the leg on the lower right of the photo…near the open door. When Paul coaxed him out with a long slat (those quilt hanging slats come in handy in the oddest of places!), the critter must have jumped about 6 feet, in the WRONG direction…. If you look REALLY closely, you can see this brown / gray critter splayed out in the corner of the bench/wall. Well, after 45 minutes of coaxing, tearing apart the bench, etc., we finally chased him out of the house to freedom.

Turns out it was Northern flying squirrel…tiny things about the size of a chipmunk, with a face kinda like a mouse. Here’s a link and another to see what they look like.

Can’t you just hear his mother saying “I TOLD you not to go out on a limb in a windstorm!”? LOL,,,,

So that was our excitement for the night! And I promise, it’ll be boring old placemats, but I really will post about quilting and sewing soon!