my pink life, mi vida rosada

So....I keep making progress on getting the frog quilt ready to go to the long-arm-quilter, and I keep coming back to this question, "Is it worth it?" Is it worth it to pay two cents per square inch to quilt this giant (queen sized) quilt?  This giant quilt that I wouldn't have picked out in the store to buy?  This giant quilt that doesn't go with the decor in any of our bedrooms?  This giant quilt that is so ruffly around the middle and the edges that I'm not sure it can even be quilted nicely, even by a professional on a long-arm machine?  It is worth it to spend all this time adding (ruffly, unfortunately) borders?  It is worth it to put together a backing?  Is it worth it to have the pillow sham sizes quilted to match the rest of the quilt top?  I am inching closer and closer to calling this project "finished" -- but I still don't have an answer.  I finished up (what I am capable of finishing) the backing, have pressed the pillow sham tops...

I'm back from a fantastic trip to Bangladesh, where I witnessed the everyday life my friend has been living for the past year and a half.  I had the pleasure of celebrating Bengali new year with my friend and her family.  I visited the kids' school, went to church with my friend, met her coworkers, ate at the cafes and restaurants she likes to eat at, and so on....it was truly a vacation for me, being away from the responsibilities of taking care of my own family, and an adventure, since I do not speak Bangla. Since my return, the things I have been getting done have mostly been mundane, and less craft-project oriented, although I intend to get back to the crafting/sewing/completing in earnest tomorrow. But I have been getting the terribly boring-but-necessary tasks taken care of, slowly slowly slowly, over the past couple of days: 1. sorting through the Easter debris/treasure and re-locating it to a more functional location, i.e. putting the candy where we keep all oth...

I'm getting ready to travel, and it is exciting! I'm headed to Bangladesh, to visit one of my best friends, and I'm leaving behind sweet hubby and all three munchkins. I'm totally unprepared, and it will all be fine. I spent a fair amount of time this past week working on a quilt top that I started probably 15 years ago -- I no longer own the book I got the pattern and directions out of; I stopped it at an awkward size but think I had originally intended to make it a full/queen size.... So I bought some coordinating fabric and added some borders.  The final dimensions are about 93"x100" and I'm convinced that there is no way I can wrestle it through my sewing machine with batting and backing and have anything close to a decent looking final result, so I'm very strongly considering sending it out for long arm quilting.  The trouble is, I don't think I would buy this quilt if I saw it in a store....I liked it when I started it, but it is entirel...

The first of the two chairs is finished!!! It was a sort of long process, but it feels very rewarding to be sitting on the chair as I type this.  I'm going to take a few days off of being productive on making things/finishing things/working through the UFOs from many years ago in order to prepare for a trip to Bangladesh and summerizing my kids' wardrobes (it's hot here, y'all, and they keep insisting that they want to wear shorts already) and getting the Easter baskets ready....But I have identified a quilt top I put together many years ago and the backing fabric that I purchased way back when as my next non-chair big project.  I'm also planning to start on yellow chair number 2 when I return from my trip. So, here we are, a before and an after: Anyone who works in upholstery can probably immediately spot a few things that aren't exactly right in my re-making of the chair, but most of the people who visit my house are not upholstery experts and will...