This photo is a month old. This project is still unfinished. Story of my life. It feels like the longer I’m away from a project the harder it is to pick it back up. But I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things next week. I’m starting to get that itch again …

I love the french press coffee, and I love that it takes up about a quarter of the counter space that my 12-cup percolating coffee maker took up. But I usually make two cups of coffee in the morning and sip on them over the course of a few hours, so my coffee tends to get cold waiting for me to drink it.

cozy

Not anymore. With a charm pack of lovely hand-dyed prints I picked up from Malka‘s booth at the 2010 Austin Quilt Show (Yes, I’ve been sitting on it for almost a year and a half. I suck.), a bit of faux linen (for the back and the ties) and some Insulbrite, I have a brand spankin’ new french press cozy to keep my coffee warm and brighten my morning.

sunset

I took this photo on the balcony of my apartment on Monday. I have a fantastic view of the sunset, so you’ll probably see your fair share of sunset shots from this vantage point. This is just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, and the clouds reflect the fading sunlight beautifully.

As I flip through this book, not only am I attacking the paper-piecing-puzzle of figuring out how to assemble the blocks, I’m also trying to identify the different color schemes. It’s like a test after reading Jeni’s posts. I’m hoping to use as many different color combinations as I can from the Robert Kaufmann Pure Organic collection. Another inspiration for the color schemes has been afghans like this. Lots of color and blocks of different color combinations, all against black.

15. draft threat

These blocks come together pretty quickly, because they’re only 6″ square. Also, I haven’t tried any of the really intricate ones yet.

71. the longest morning

On a difficulty scale of 1-5, with 1 being easy and 5 being hard, I’d probably rank these somewhere around a 2. There are definitely easier blocks in the book — and there are most definitely some more difficult ones.

35. mail delivery

I knew that if I knocked all the easy ones out first I would lose momentum, so I’m trying to mix it up. I made each of these three different afternoons before going to work.

front

The front and backs of each T-shirt line up. I spent a lot of time measuring and arranging and rearranging to get an interesting shape and distribution of value, working with what I was given and trying not to cut into any T-shirt design.

back

This project taught me to stay away from jersey. I don’t know if I’ll ever make something like this again. I’m actually rather nervous about what will happen when it gets washed.

I am quite excited to get started on new things, though.

I’d been planning on a new quilt using just solids, which I’ve been wanting to do since about a year ago, when I made this quilt for my brother.

I’d been wanting to do an all organic quilt for a while, too. I’ve noticed a lot of fabric designers who just do organics: Daisy Janie, Monaluna, Birch, Cloud9, just to name a few. Beautiful designs, but nothing grabbed me.

So when I decided to buy a bundle of solid fabrics, and I stumbled upon the Robert Kaufman Pure Organic bundle, I was sold.

Materials aside, the impetus to pursue the project itself came from reading Heather’s post about the Civil War Diary Quilt book. Heather wrote:

“I instantly fell in love with the stories of the women living during the Civil War and the quilt blocks they inspired. They tend to be more gritty, edgy, and more masculine looking in nature than the Farmer’s Wife blocks.”

I started reading more about the book, and I was taken by the block names: Alarming Conditions, Anxieties, Dark Gloom, Texas Rangers, News, Sad and Lonely Days, Grammar Class, Beginning of War, Misleading Dispatch, Degradation, Guerrilla Warfare, More Pigs.

Just for comparison’s sake, some of the blocks in the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt book: The Brightest and Happiest Place of All, Live a Successful Life, I Love the Farm, The Best of All Good Things, Clear-Eyed and Clear-Hearted, Marry a Good Farmer. The Civil War blocks definitely read more gritty and edgy.

So I’m joining Heather and, at this point, two dozen others on Flickr in making my own Civil War Diary quilt. I’m looking forward to reading the stories that go with the quilt blocks and glimpsing the lives of 10 women who lived 150 years ago.

wheel

Another big inspiration in this endeavor has been Jeni‘s fantastic series on color. I’m hoping to use each of the 35 examples she gives and go from there. There are 121 blocks, so I have lots of room to play.

If you’d like to join and make your own Civil War Diary quilt, check out the flickr group and Heather’s post about the quilt-along.

south austin

I took this picture earlier this month while out walking my neighborhood with a friend. It just screams “South Austin” to me. If you look at the Texas sticker hard, you can see a faded Longhorns logo.

pinspiration

Soon I hope to be back to tell you about a new project using only solids. But while I’m waiting on some supplies to arrive in the mail, all I have to show is some of the inspiration. And an octopus.

Yes, I am a pin addict. You, too? Let’s be friends.

I’m deep in planning mode for a new project using solids. But right now, it’s just a mess of scribbles and stacks of fabric. So Christmas present number two is the hat I made for my dad. I tried with all my might and spent hours working on this Crochet Seaman’s Hat, but it was taking forever. So I ended up with this super easy — and fast — one that looks super cozy. I also made some super basic fingerless wristwarmers, because I felt like the hat needed something to go with it.

I could live without the wristwarmers. They were better in imagination that execution. But the hat turned out well.

I’ll be back later this week with this finish and a new project.

Last Christmas, my little brother asked me to make something for his dog, Moose. Moose is a rescue dog, thought to be a Catahoula/Bloodhound mix. He’s a pretty big dog — about 2½ feet tall and 60 pounds — but he gets cold a lot. So for Christmas this year, I finally got around to Moose’s coat:

I used the pattern pieces from McCall’s M4686, but I didn’t really follow the pattern. I just used two layers of fleece for the main piece, and one layer for the strap under the belly. Because fleece doesn’t fray, I just cut the pieces out with pinking shears (a gift from my brother last Christmas), and sewed about a half-inch in from the edges, leaving them exposed.

The coat was a big hit. I expected the dog to try to take it off, but he actually likes wearing it. At one point, the coat was on the couch in the other room, and Moose must have nosed his way into it, because he wandered in with it sort-of draped across his back.