You may have seen it on the sidebar already, but I wanted to post about Quilts, Baby!, a new baby quilts book from Lark, edited by Linda Kopp. I've contributed a pattern to this book, but before I get into those details, I want to say how much I like the other patterns in the book. Lark really did a great job in putting this together. They wanted us to focus on fresh quilt ideas that a beginner can handle, and I think the book really hits that nail on the head.

I am in very good craft blog company in the book. if you have a minute, check out the sites of these other great quilt makers:

• Aimee at www.dreamfollow.com
• Laura at www.lkdDesigns.etsy.com
• Julie at www.julieknoblock.com
• Carly at neststudio.typepad.com
• Laurraine at www.patchworkpottery.com
• Glynis at www.dandelionquilts.com
• Kajsa at syko.typepad.com/syko/
• Erin at houseonhillroad.com
• Victoria at thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com
• Jude at judestuecker.com/
• Marne at www.heylucy.net/
• Malka at stitchindye.blogspot.com/
• Christina at jamtartbaby.etsy.com (not up at the moment)

For my quilt I did a traditional bricks quilt (easiest one in the book!), and then turned the "bricks" into the idea of stairs, because playing on the stairs is really fun. Then I made little redwork kitties who galavant up and down the stairs—they march, they slide, they jump... The cartoon-ish kitty shapes are easy to adjust, if you want to customize one. Or, if you hate cats, you could change the ear shape and make a dog/mouse/bear/etc. It was a lot of fun to make.

If you've been around here long enough, you know that I'm fan on contests, particularly creative making-stuff contests. There's something about a set of rules and a deadline that gets my creative juices flowing. When I saw that Instructables was hosting a a mother's day sewing themed contest, I got all excited, especially when I saw that some of the prizes were dress forms. Mmmm...Dress forms. So I did something I haven't done in waaaaay too long—I conceived, started, and finished a project all in one day. Then it felt so good, I did it again. Mwah-ha-ha! I'm getting my zest for making back. It was really nice to make something that hadn't been sitting on my mental to do list for ages. Whipup really knew what they were talking about when they did the whiplash contests.

My actual instructables are a box pleat apron, and a cute fireflower Nintendo DS case. (Eva has a DS now. More on that later, I imagine.) In case you're not sure what an instructable is, I will tell you that it is basically a managed tutorial—step-by-step instructions on how to do something. If you're down with instructables and my projects, you can vote for me. Actually, instructables contests are interesting in that you can vote for as many entries as you like, so you could vote for me and 12 other people too. Other entries I like include Fastest Recycled T-shirt Tote Bag, Summer Visor (my mom loves visors!),and really you should probably check out the sleeping bag suit.

I've got a killer head cold, and yesterday evening I felt soooo yucky, and what I really wanted was teevee on the couch. But we don't have the teevee. Alas! Usually I don't care, but yesterday I wanted Talk Soup or reruns of Seinfeld or America's Next Top Model. Quality. Instead I dug out a DVD that my mom had given me for Christmas—9 to 5, you know with Dolly Parton? It was just about right. Late 70s working-lady and boss-guy fashions are so fun and painful. Elie and I had a discussion about this where he wanted to call them 70s fashions and I wanted to call them early 80s fashions, but the movie was made in 1980, so I really think he's right.

So here's the deal with why my mom got me this movie: When I was in High School, my mom was into New Country or maybe it was called Modern Country. My sisters and I thought this was hysterical. We lived in New Jersey. There was so much good fodder for mocking sing-alongs. (All My Exes Live in Texas, anyone?) Anyway, one of my mom's Dolly Parton mix tapes had the song 9 to 5 on it, which is actually a great song to get you going in the morning. (It is in my head while I'm in the shower on more mornings than I care to admit.) We would listen to it in the van on the way to school, and we'd crank it up really loud, and we'd drive by my boyfriend who was smoking with all the aloof smokers just outside school property, and we'd wave. It just cracked me up so much. It probably made me the biggest dork in the world, but we were so entertained.

Up there, that's my newest border. I went a little lighter.

Quilting again. Thanks goodness! I am still surprised (although at this point I probably shouldn't be) at how therapeutic quilting is for me. Ahhhh.

I've been behind on my one quilt blocks, and it's given me that nagging feeling of owing, even though I know that the whole one quilt project is rather relaxed and that no one is up-to-date. Really we're all just a bunch of sweet, talented, and very busy people working in what we can into a combined project. Anyway, I decided to do a one-for-you, two-for-me on the blocks to get me back into it, while still allowing me to be excited about some spring projects.

This particular blocks is Nanette's genius. Flour sacks and Japanese navy—how awesome is that? My quilt blocks are usually geometric or follow a pattern of some sort, so trying this freehand style was new (and fun) for me. No wonky seams though. I couldn't quite get it right in my head, and there was something funny about trying to get wonkyness and failing.

And, I'm back to making border on my medallion quilt. I am bound and determined to be not too far off when the quilt a-long ends in May.

For Chara, her one quilt block from December. She chose quite sunny fabrics, and I could do whatever I wanted to with them. I figured I'd go traditional, and when I started running out of fabric, I decided I'd go really traditional and just work with what I had. It's not symmetrical, but I think I like it that way.

I am very much looking forward to making up January and doing February. Hello red embroidery!

These are, of course, pencil rolls from Kathy Mack's pattern in Last Minute Quilted Gifts. They are also the Chistmas gifts that did not get done in time. But they were close, so close! I had all the rainbow sections cut and pieced with plenty of time to spare, but then I ended up trying to finish them on the night before we left town, (I know, that in itself is insanity) but I couldn't find my rotary cutter anywhere. I wasted 45 maddening minutes looking for it, then I had a breakdown and gave up. I still haven't found it and I had to buy a new one. I keep my rotary cutter in one place, and I really only use it in one or two places, seriously, where could it have gone?

Post X-mas, I came back to these with more sanity and the new cutter. They are lovely, and they were well-received. Kathy's pattern and the whole book are great.

Next year, I'm setting a deadline of one week before takeoff for any handmade projects. Better to keep this reasonable. This year I had tried to keep it "casual" and "laid back", but that really just led to last-minute nuttiness.

All right, I only have one more holiday-related post after this, and then I'll stop talking about it. It's over, man!

It's not November, is it?

This is headed out to Rashida. She and Chara had the November and December blocks, and I'm afraid that the one quilting got just a wee bit overwhelmed by the December holidays. Now, it's time to make up.

Rashida wanted houses, and living in a fairly rural place myself, I decided to make a barn. Actually, it might be a corn crib. The "barns" around here mostly have sharply peaked roofs and little cupola-looking things on top. And I'm not sure, that really might make them technically something other than barns, but I like them anyway.

I will post potholder instructions. It seems that burned fingers are an awfully common problem!

This one is for Beth, who wanted cheery, and sent the bird, the Venetian glass, and the pale yellow linen. I like it, and like Leah's stars, I could see myself doing a whole quilt's worth of these. I added a bit of Kaffe Fassett stripe, a strip from some PIY swap fabric from way back (wish I could remember whose!), and a whole lot of Mini Muu. I can't get enough Mini Muu/Tiny Town and the teensy tiny things!

In other news, Eva is doing some admirable Christmas crafting, and the sewing machine is jammed. I'm pretty sure she did not jam it, but it is jammed none the less. I'm going to take some oil and a lint brush to it while I watch wool 100%, which was recommended to my by the blogosphere.

I've blogged the progress of the quilt some, and here it is, actually done. I started it when Eva was only 9 months old, and I was very new to quilting. I just fell in love with the folksy, yet detailed red stitching. When I was a stay-at-home mom during Eva's first couple years I used to watch Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson—I really think she taught me how to quilt—and I know she did an episode on redwork and I remember seeing some way back in a Country Living too, but, these were both after I had already started the quilt, so I'm not sure exactly why I decided to do a redwork quilt. I just did.

Here it is in situ.

It's a double Irish chain pattern and I hand quilted it all, but first I did the embroideries—thirty-one of them to be exact. Many came from this book (as did the pattern), but I started to get bored with them and some of them were just too old-fashioned and weird, so I started doing animals from a Dover book, plus a few literary characters (Little Bear and Mother Bear, Frances), and some random other animals. It's mostly animals, plus a nameplate and a lily of the valley. Oh, there's also the square that lists all the cats we know. I call that square The Becats.

It's odd. The quilt is already so old, even though it's just been finished, that it already has history in it. The pug dog has "Rosie" embroidered under it after my stepsister's dog who was alive then, but has gone now. Half of the Cats We Know are also gone, and we know a lot of new ones. I held off doing the signature block for a long time before I finally embroidered my name on it. Then, Elie and I got married and now my name is a bit different. It all makes me smile a little and maybe cry a little.

I had thought that there would be a moment of elation when I finished it and that I would put it on Eva's bed with great pomp and pageantry. But no. When it was done I left it on the couch for a while, until we had an extra chilly night and I used it to cover Eva up in bed. It had been living along with us that whole time I was making it. It has so many bits in it—all the years of my baby's life, all our progress. I like it a lot, and in the end, I'm surprised to say it was about the process.

Another month, another one quilt. Gosh, I had fun this round. Leah (the hyena) wanted bright scrappy blocks based on somewhat traditional patterns. She sent out four color groups of scraps (red, orange, green, blue) and I was lucky enough to get red. I love quilting with red!

Most of these fabrics are from Leah, but there are a couple from my stash. The star pattern is both incredibly graphic and traditional, and I liked it more after I had completed the block. I could really see doing a whole quilt of these. Instructions at http://www.quilterscache.com/, but darned if I can remember which one. Not so useful with all those patterns, hmmm.

On a totally different note, Mo is auctioning off the most luxe doll bed for Nie Nie. Go see it. It's awesome. She's helping and being all too generous in the process.