Kate's Perspective | ||||||||||||
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Saturday, February 28, 2004
 And then, less than 18 hours after my last post... we had a baby!
Lydia Baldwin Young This is Miss Lydia wearing a hat that makes her look like the Nintendo princess that Mario is forever rescuing. If you would like to see lots of additional photos, courtesy of her proud papa, visit http://www.pbase.com/tikaro/lydia_baldwin_young .
 Meanwhile, I must add just a few more photos here:
See you soon!
 Wednesday, February 18, 2004
 You are Snoopy! Which Peanuts Character are You? brought to you by Quizilla  Too good to be true! I was afraid I'd be Lucy or Schroeder, but somehow, I got to be Snoopy! In honor of Snoopy, here is a picture of my first Snoopy applique block. Don't worry that he looks a little sad-- this was just the simplest picture, for practice. I plan to include plenty of dancing Snoopy, Joe Cool Snoopy, Woodstock and Snoopy, and Spike for a festive play mat quilt.
Yesterday, I reorganized my quilt fabric. I think it will be much more inspiring and useful this way, because now I can see all the colors and quantities without having to dig through the layers. It also made me feel like a glutton, because I have a lot of fabric that I don't really like, or that I used already and still have lots leftover. I need someone to trade with, or a project that takes so-so things and makes them fabulous. In the meantime, I am cured of buying for a little while, and I am itching to start using what I have. Too bad time is so short!
Saturday, February 14, 2004
One of the things I practiced when visiting Lynn last week was free-motion quilting. Lynn began making and donating preemie quilts to the Georgetown University Hospital NICU last year after the birth of her granddaughter, Maya. (Maya weighed less than a pound and was only 11 inches long at birth, but thankfully, she is thriving and growing at 15 months old.) Lynn showed me how to use my darning foot to doodle all over the fabric, then she made me try. It's pretty intimidating-- kind of like playing Tetris until the blocks are falling too fast and the music is drilling into your brain. You just have to keep moving, even if the blocks start stacking up too high. Lynn kept reminding me that looks aren't the most important thing for this project-- "The preemies can't see! Keep going!" It was actually quite fun. So I decided to make a preemie quilt at home out of old scraps (this one is 18 x 20 inches, each patch is 2 inches square). I'm going to send it to Lynn for donation to the NICU as a thanks for her time. Unfortunately, I lost some of the finesse I thought I'd had, so the quilting is not very smooth or beautiful. But the preemies can't see!Friday, February 13, 2004
I wore the same clothes as on January 13-- can you see the difference?
I wisely determined I had better get some help in finishing some of my outstanding projects. My mom's friend Lynn, who used to live across the street when I was a toddler, has been a professional quilter for about 20 years. She invited me several times to come to her house in New Jersery to spend a day quilting, and I finally took her up on it. I had two very fun and productive quilting days with her in the past ten days. Lynn quilted the topsy turvy hearts for me, and then I put on the binding. See how nicely it turned out? Thanks, Lynn!!
Lynn also got me started on a portable project-- I bought some coloring books with really large pictures of the Peanuts gang, and I've been trying to figure out the best way to turn the drawings into applique quilt patterns. Lynn showed me how to do it using freezer paper and sent me home with a tiny makeup bag containing all the pieces for the first block. Now I'm on block two, using really fun background fabrics that remind me of the Sunday comic strips. (This project is NOT for a particular deadline!)
And, finally, look at the nursery-- isn't it cute?? Sunday, February 08, 2004
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WORKS IN PROGRESS
QUILTS Big Girl Quilt Oriental Rug Christmas Scrappy Star Gridlock KNITS Cashmere Aran Afghan Lydia sweater |
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