Lemony Webbles

work in progress

Here's a sneak peek of Georgia's quilt while it's still on the machine:

She picked out all those colors and I figured out a design that I could live with, optimizing the color fun and minimizing the overwhelmingness of all the bright patterns. We're both happy with the result. Now For the quilting. We're figuring out a design to stitch in the middle with all the fun things in the patterns. It will be white on white for subtlety, done by hand, and have lots of hearts, butterflies, flowers, fairies, etc. This is the part that's new for me (I've never hand quilted anything big before), so it takes me a lot of staring at that white rectangle, waiting for courage and inspiration.

happy lemony birthday

Lemony Webbles is four years old this month. It's been a great service and blessing to me. Thanks to Husayn for introducing me to the idea of a weblog and to Billy for making it happen again and again. And thanks to everyone that reads it! Would anyone be willing to give Lemony Webbles a birthday present? At this time of year, I really need to draw beautiful things to myself since it's so cold and not flower-ful. (Teresa sat dejectedly down yesterday and said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "It's useless. I can't have a tea party because the zinnias are brown and sleeping." I completely understand the sentiment. However, I can't stand to see a dejected two year old so I'll be bringing some flowers home from the grocery store for her tea party ASAP.) So here's what I want. Please write back in the comments and answer this question:

What's the most beautiful thing you've seen or otherwise experienced in the last two months? And if it's something I can see, please include a link.

You're all tagged.

And I'll start: The most beautiful thing I've seen lately is the glass ceiling installation by Dale Chihuly at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. The colors in his art glass are so edible and luminous and they have this round couch-y thing for you to lie back on under it that slowly rotates so you can take in the whole thing a little at a time. Amazing concept and the perfect cure for winter if you can't make it to Hawaii. A link, a link, can I find a link... here's a picture of it, but I don't think it does it justice http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/fireworks_ofglass/ceiling.htm
For better pictures of Chihuly's work, including more ceilings, he's got his own site, simply: www.chihuly.com

soooouuup

Hating winter but trying not to "dwell on the unpleasant things of life". So I won't. What I really want to say is anything that makes me forget/appreciate winter. Quilting remains good for that but lately it was too cold even to do that since it's in the basement which can be chilly. Also, Georgia's quilt is getting to the big n' bulky stage so it takes more energy to do less. Color is good- T and M and I made fruit faces today- we got every color of the rainbow represented if you count blueberries as blue, indigo, and violet. I think that's fair considering the multicolored mess they make. I think I've put up pictures of fruit faces before, but here's a reminder from last time we did it:

I also pulled out my Joy of Cooking yesterday looking for a recipe for split pea soup and found all these great soup recipes that I wanted to try..right now! Mulligatawny, minestrone, barley and potato...yum! Time to pull out the hearty winter soups! I miss soup so much in the summer, and now I totally have the weather for it. So I made a big pot of minestrone along with the split pea. That's more like it.

maya and the baby shower

Maya at the House of Worship

Maya and I had our own day together Saturday up in the Chicago area and we had a wonderful time going to the House of Worship and to one of Liza's baby showers. It was a surprise shower and we really surprised her. Whee! It was so great to see old friends and to discover more about Maya and bond with her. She's a great traveler: curious, flexible, and friendly.

Here's the little bitty quilt I made for Liam, modeled by Teresa. It's a silky, made to match the chocolate brown thing going on with Liza's baby stuff.

I'm especially fond of the back because the quilting looks interesting. I tried to put pine trees in the middle where those little rows of plants are but it looked just awful so I took the whole thing out and started over. I think this is cuter. It also taught me that I can't have any delusions about my quilting skills. I am where I am and free hand pine trees is not where I am.

I heart quilting.

Oh, and more shower pictures!

Promised group photo:

Olivia's getting BIG! She's walking and talking and when she's sad he cries, "Baby Olivia!". So sweet yet so heart-rending.

Here are a couple of Liza. The second one is just a crop of the group picture.

Liza holding up Katie's advice to not sweat the small stuff

winter work

Georgia knitting (taken by Billy)

Georgia and I have been getting crafty on her winter break. We got busy on a quilt we've planned for her and she picked up knitting after only being shown once. She knits tight, just like I did when I was learning. Should I have given her bigger needles? How do you teach someone to knit loosely? Anyways, she really likes it and seems to be a natural at these kinds of handicrafts. She says, "It's really fun and it's a useful thing to know so I can make scarves when I grow up. Then I can save money because I won't have to buy them." That's my girl. Always keeping an eye on the bottom line.