Mail order fun!

To mark the end of school and a tough week, I treated myself to a couple of sale (I am a sale sucker, I recognize this) charm packs from Crafsty featuring one of my (and lots of other people's, that's why it's been reissued) fabric lines: Denyse Schmidt's "Flea Market Fancy". The package's arrival just made my day (I love good mail...and parentheses):

Then, I opened it up and BONANZA:

These colors are totally inspiring me lately. I love the mellow grays and punchy yellows.  The bright pinks against the cool blues.  A "Flea Market Fancy" fabric was one of the first fabrics I fell in love with so much that I bought yardage instead of just a fat quarter.  I didn't even know who Denyse Schmidt was at the time. All week I have been thinking about what to do with these beauties...a baby quilt for a new baby boy in the family?  The primary blues, reds and yellows might just be perfect.  A blog give-away...

Since the time I first learned about these fabrics, I have educated myself a whole lot more.  NOW, I am cognizant of the fact that Denyse Schmidt is Modern Quilting's GODESS.  She is an amazing quilter, artist, designer and from the looks of her latest book, historian!

I was so excited when I opened the sort of boring-looking brown paper envelope my husband handed me on Christmas morning to discover that he was sending me to a quilt workshop with none other than Denyse---at her Bridgeport, CT studio!!  Oh yes, he is a GOOD man (unlike another husband who gave his wife the gift, but the wrong date---OH NO!!!!).

From start to finish, it was an amazing and inspiring day.  I will write another post all about that day, but for now...

Have you ever been to a great quilting workshop?  Tell me about it!

Handiwork

So, I got an iPhone today.

Yes.  I did.

I am very conflicted about this decision.  It is very cool.  But, I don't necessarily want to be "on" all the time.  I like being unreachable at times.  And I am afraid of how much time this will suck out of my life when I could be making real things.  Like, for instance, now...

That said, being on the computer tonight did lead me to this article in the NYTimes. "Kindergarten Shop Class" is a notion that Ted and I have batted around for years and I am so happy to see that other people are thinking the same thing! Rarely these days do I feel part of the zeitgeist. Mostly I feel like I was born 100 years too late. However, this article which talks about the importance of teaching children to work and create with their hands, rang so true for me. It is one of the main reasons we have decided to homeschool. 

Ted has been talking about running a kids class out of his woodshop in Beacon ever since he and Henry made birdhouses together one day last year. Clearly, now is the time. Must plan a class!

If you are interested reading more about the importance of working with our hands, check out Richard Sennett's book, The Craftsman.   And Doug Stowe's blog, Wisdom of Hands, is great too.