confessional #2

There must be something in the water... Holly, Sooze and I all fell off the wagon this week and bought craft stuff. Like them, I could blame something (or someone... Ellen, I'm looking in your general direction), and I can make the argument that I was going to have to buy these fabrics eventually anyway, since I have next to no pink fabric in my stash and Habetrot has recently informed me that all of her pink baby knitting was well-guessed. What I would rather do though, is consider these initial two weeks of the Use Me Up Challenge to be like those of a new diet. They say that when you try to loose weight, your body freaks out a little and in fact you might gain a pound or two before you start to loose any.

Or maybe I'm just not cut out for this? We'll see.

So yeah, I bought an entire quilt top's worth of fabric on Friday. I popped it all in the wash on Friday night, ironed it on Saturday morning, and then something amazing happened: I sat down, desgined the quilt, cut the pieces and had the whole thing pieced before lunch. Now get this: the baby isn't due until this summer! I really don't know how that happened....





Other projects I worked on this week:

* organizing my craft room: I love the new set-up, and I feel so.... organized!

* the Liesel scarf and the aforementioned dishcloth for Heather and Stephen (deemed an "incredibly fancy dishcloth" by the ladies at my knitting group):



...and as I headed out of the back yard, I snapped an obligatory spring-is-coming crocus photo -- they were all over, right after Thursday's snow melted.

isabella quilt: finished

Baby Isabella's quilt is finished and ready to be shipped off! One thing though: Isabella has an older brother (about five, I think) with whom I rather bonded with when we visted the family last christmas. I would like to make something for the brother too, but I don't know what. The only think I can really come up with is pajamas (and that's mostly because I have a children's pajama pattern handy). Any ideas?





My final exam has been issued: redesign a space on campus (the small-ish park-like area between Allen Library and Sieg Hall, if you happen to be familiar with the UW campus) as a Peace Memorial. The "problem" with this one is that the space is not nearly as uninspired as the space of the midterm project -- it's actually quite nice already, and when I went there yesterday morning (after hauling my bike down from the garage rafters, dusting it off and pumping up the tires), I was rather taken with the space as is. So, what does peace look like to you?


And here's a card I made for my friend Frank, who had a touch of knee surgery last week.... an embroidered knee joint.

I have a question for you

What does bewilderment look like?

My midterm assignment is to make a shoebox diorama (yes, you read that correctly) that represents a rectangular garden with the theme of bewilderment. As a person walks into this space, they should feel bewildered. I am asking for your opinion because I have found that it's surprisingly hard to pin down what bewilderment is, or what it looks like, especially among different individuals. What makes you feel bewildered? What sorts of external forces or environments might make you feel bewildered?

[edited to add]

* Don't worry about how to express it in a garden, per se -- that's my job. I just want to know what you think of when you're bewildered.

* The project is due on 5MAY

* I am supposed to use a minimal amount of statuary (or any hardscape elements) if any. The professor wants us to use plants first and foremost. (Although I do like that upsidedown plant idea... thanks Mom!)