Nesting and Domestication

Even though throughout my life I have never really exemplified the art of being feminine I have loved the domestic arts, minus cleaning. All of the traditional gender roles; baking, cooking, sewing, decorating, etc... have always held a special place in my heart.  Since moving home to stay with my dad while my husband is deployed I have fallen back into that domestic spirit.

Since the New Year has began, I have working on a quilt for my sister. She bought the fabric months ago but with our wedding, A's deployment, finals, moving home, then Christmas I didn't have time to start it. I worked on it for basically a week straight to start and finish the topper for the quilt.  As an addition for my amazing gift from my Dad of Adobe Photoshop 9, he made me a quilters rack. I have not started quilting yet because I had to find the right backing for the quilt. I finally decided to use a solid fabric instead of having a seam down the back, so I bought a cheap, king sized flat sheet and will use that. This is a picture of a section of her quilt; uneven rows, haphazardly designed, but made with love. This is the third quilt that I have made based on this pattern, the square and borders and I have finally realized that I do not like it. I am not good at cutting evenly or I pull too much and stretch the rows. So I will now find a new pattern to use in future blankets.

I have also started working on a baby quilt. I'm not sure if this will be a quilt that I keep or gift, after all most of my friends are either pregnant or have children already. I am so jealous, I cannot wait for A and I to start our family. And don't worry, I've heard it all before. "Wait, you don't have to rush into anything." "Be married for a while before you have kids." "There is no hurry, babies change your life." I know that technically we have only been married since October, but we've been together for almost 3 years, we fell into our roles early in our relationship. We have our routines established, our standard fights and solutions, our expectations and wants. Children are the next ingredient to our family. I have always been on the emotional fast track to wanting a family, but together we are finally at that point where it is rational as well as emotional.

My baby quilt that I'm making is Dr Seuss inspired. Notable, and some less notable creatures: Cindy Lou Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the beautiful Truffula Trees from The Lorax Saves the Trees, Thing One and Thing Two as well as the hat from The Cat in the Hat, Horton from Horton Hears a Who, and fish from One Fish Two Fish.  Depending how long this takes me to embroidery this quilt, I may add a few more creatures. Although this is technically a gender neutral quilt, I do think that it will suite a little girl better than a boy because of the colors.

With Cindy Lou Who, I had decided that I wasn't going to fill her in anymore than just her stunning eyes, but looking at her now, I think I may color in either her dress or ornament. And with the trees, the trunks are complete. If you read the story, they are not soldidly colored, although I did reverse the detail. They are solild yellow with scratchy black, but I think that would be too dark for a baby quilt. But I may color in one of the tree tops, probably the center one.

I am in the process of filling in Thing One's hair and let me tell you, this is a very slow process. I have used a few yards of thread so far and as you can see, I am barely making a dent in his beautiful blue hair. I think that with Thing Two I will fill in his body rather than his hair, just for a little bit of demension.

In addition to the sewing that I have been doing, I am now taking a ceramics class and a painting class at Tarrant County College. I am so excited for these classes to really begin. I cannot wait to find out what we will be required to create.