knitpurldrop: Bike Shop Bridezilla

Oops- I dropped off the blogosphere again.

Here's a super abridged version of life since my last post.

We (I) are (am) wedding planning. We have booked our venue, our date, our caterer, our photographer and our bartender. We are having a very Broad Ripple wedding at the art center near our house and using local services and as many of our friends' small businesses as we can. Our wedding color is lavender and it's a garden wedding and not overly formal. I have an idea of the style of dress I like and the Maid of Honor and I have picked out a fabric for bridesmaid dresses. We both have pretty big families so a small wedding isn't happening, but we do want something as intimate/small/inexpensive as possible. We have already managed to anger several relatives with lack of engagement pictures and the invite list (you aren't inviting my second cousin?!) but are putting off the real planning until....

We finish fixing up Tall/Dark & Handsome's new bike shop, get him moved in, disappear for 4 days for a trade show with Good For Ewe and then come back and have the bike shop's grand re-opening event while moving the Good For Ewe warehouse. We are already swamped and stressed and are holding off on any more wedding planning until that's all over and we are home and put back together. We've got the big stuff booked, the rest doesn't seem that urgent, especially since we are getting married next June.

So that's that.

I've been taking a ceramics class at the Indianapolis Art Center. It was a 7 week course that actually ended a couple days ago but I have an open studio pass that's good for another week and a half which I plan to use as much as possible as I finish up a few more pieces and get them glazed and fired. I haven't seen any of my finished, glazed pieces yet, but here's a picture of some stoneware I glazed and set back for the kiln two days ago...

Ceramics was definitely not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I absolutely love hand-thrown bowls and mugs and vases and I have entirely too many pieces around my house that I've collected at art fairs and shops from my travels. It turns out that just because you have an appreciation for such pieces does not mean you will have a knack for throwing. That being said I love my silly little misshapen and poorly balanced bowls and mugs I've thrown over the past 7 weeks and I'm very excited to see them once they're all fired and finished. I'll round up all my finished goodies and show them all off once I have them all back- it will be a few more weeks before they are all back from the kiln.

I finished a quilt top that I cut out on Christmas Eve during a quiet and very long shift at work. The pattern is from a Kaffee Fassett book called Quilts in Sweden. The original shown in the book looked like this:

I liked the idea and the structure, but felt like it was too busy and the colors didn't match a darn thing in my house. Plus I didn't want to spend that much money on Rowan fabrics for a quilt for my guest room. Instead I used a stash of batiks I've been collecting for a while. I really loved it until I did the final teal/lime border. I'm not as sure about it now. I dropped it off last week at the quilter's house and I''ll be adding a binding when it comes home here in a few weeks.

I also made another baby boy quilt for a baby shower coming up this weekend. I have also been collecting off bits of Dr. Seuss fabrics every time I see them and finally had enough for a baby quilt. That's a lie. I have enough for 8 baby quilts, but that's not the point. I have been on a baby boy crafting spree for a couple months and am finally seeing the light at the end of a very blue tunnel. I put together this Dr. Seuss quilt for a good friend's second baby in 4 months (it's a long story) and then have 1 more boy quilt to do. I'm hoping to just make quilt tops until I run out of Dr. Seuss fabric and have them stashed for future showers.

The fabrics used in this quilt are from Oh the Places You'll Go! and The Cat in the Hat with borders from Green Eggs and Ham. It's perfectly silly and bright, and it really didn't take all that long. Since the Dr. Seuss fabrics aren't exactly the cheapest, I backed and bound it in royal blue with polka dots from the clearance rack ($3.50/yard- woot woot!)

As you can see from the picture, something is missing. Madeline had an accident last February and ended up with nerve damage and subsequently a dead arm. She had been really rough with it and knocked it on everything and it was constantly alternating between bleeding or scabbing over. We finally decided to amputate her dead arm at the shoulder. She was very cranky for a few days and didn't poop for a week and a half, but she's back to her normal self now and moving around really well. She does have a bald patch but it doesn't seem to bother her much. She is still perfectly able to do all that she loves, like nap on baby quilts, nap on couches, nap on beds, nap under beds,flop down in the middle of your quilting project and whatever knitwear is blocking, help in the garden, and chatter at the birds from the back of the couch.

As far as knitting goes I have two projects: never ending samples for Good For Ewe (actually have part of a mitten left and I should be good to go) and a lace shawl for my wedding. Unfortunately, I really don't have that many pictures of any of those things, so more later.