dqs9 (and promises, promises)

hmmm, so the last time i was here, it was over a month ago. i had a story to share about a magical meet-up of three families (the gauberts, the lamberts, and the sims), a little christmas-in-july sugarman handsewing project, and a promise to play catch up around here.



i have yet to finish any of those things, and then of course we've had a whole summertime go by and school start again. what's a girl to do?





well, this girl is just going to move on (and be incredibly grateful for mini-blogging on flickr!). i have the photos, we all have the memories, i'm not any closer to getting the last two years of this blog into book format, and that's okay with me. pretty much. the goal now is to get the first year printed up, i'll continue to fill in empty spaces for the second year, and i will try to not let this third year get too far behind (starting now!).



which brings me to dqs9 (doll quilt swap 9 on flickr...so wonderful!), and the quilt that i will be ready to post on tuesday morning (which also happens to be eme's first day of her 3rd and final year at her preschool). ahhhh, excitement abounds!



of course i can't say much of anything yet about who i made the doll quilt for as this is a secret swap, but i can tell you that i was very excited but nervous about this one. i can also say with a good bit of confidence that when this certain someone returns from her mailbox later on this week, she will be happily surprised. i mean, really, i literally gave the shirt from my back on this one. that could have been avoided if i only would have remembered where i put that white linen that i bought earlier this summer. it's all good, though, as i always like to use a bit of repurposed linen in my sewing.

i adore patty griffin's voice, and her lyrics are so very often beautiful and heartbreakingly sad all at once. we listen to "impossible dream" almost every day as we wait in car-rider line for lily. it is not surprising to me at all that words from these lines of "kite song" made their way onto a quilt..."little sister just remember as you wander through the blue, the little kite that you sent flying one sunday afternoon, made of something light as nothing made of joy that matters too, how the little dreams we dream are all we can really do."



as with just about everything else that i sew (or knit), this little quilt was mostly worked on in the presence of my children (aren't we all rather clever at the whole multi-tasking bit?). i love a handsewing project that i can set down at a moment's notice. 'momma, can i have...? momma i need...! momma, lily/eme/cate (fill in the appropriate verb)...!' sometimes, it gets set down, not to be picked up until very late in the evening, when the house is quiet.



i know you know what i mean. this is why i love handsewing so much, and i swear that i feel the more time i spend with fabric and needle + thread in hand (and the sounds of children...the good, the bad, and the occasionally ugly!), the more precious the project becomes. it borders on magical. really. it does.



i finished up much of the handstitching this weekend as we got our first taste of the fall that is to come.



the final bits were done earlier today, solitary, with only birdsong and then later, the avett brothers, to keep me company. it's not often that happens, and when it does, i appreciate wade even more (an overdue visit back home with family, especially cousins, was the adventure of the day)! pssst...quick sidenote here...if you have never heard of the avett brothers (i had not...thank you so very much for this post, alicia!), well, go on over to amazon, here, and download their album, "i and love and you" for only 5 bucks during the month of september. you'll thank me later. just beautiful. truly.

i even tried dropping the feeddogs on the bernina for a bit of freemotion sewing...i haven't had much success with this technique in the past.



it looks soooo much easier than it actually is. amber's dqs9 label inspired me, and i just had to give it a go. i'm happy that i did. this whole freemotion thing is totally *not* intuitive to me. it's like trying to draw (sew) by moving the paper (fabric) instead of the pencil (needle). this takes time and practice, and i usually don't have time, and when i do, i don't want to practice. so, chances of me mastering this are pretty slim. i do like it, though.



this time around, i have not one single clue as to who will be sending a doll quilt to me. in fact, i can't quite remember what i wrote in my original email to the swap mamas, so educated guesses are out. oh well, i will be happily surprised also, i am sure, and i hope that it gets here soon!!!

have you ever seen sweeter clothespins?? thanks to suesue, we have a whole flock of them...red, aqua, green, and orange! i think that this is exactly what she had in mind when she gave them to me. perfect!



one more day off with the kiddos, and then we hopefully will fall into our regularly scheduled programming around here. ahem, there are big things in the works, and an organized cathy is very much required (wink).