Happy Christmas Eve!

packed for shipping

I've never had quite so much chaos and packaging things up in December and none of it Christmas related. I did have pangs when I saw the movers take away our 13 boxes. I hope they show up intact in Amsterdam. During the packing, I did manage a brief moment of decorating for the solstice with some glow sticks that we decided to play with, rather than toss.


decorating with glowsticks

Wishing everyone much love and happiness in the New Year!


glowing heart

Nearly Almost Done!

on to the binding!

Deadlines can be stressful, but they're also great motivators. I had to seriously dig in and get on with my quilt in order to finish the machine sewing portion before I had to pack up my sewing machine. But I've done it. This morning, I finished attaching my binding and did the scary fitting part (joining the ends of the binding and then sewing the last bit up, hoping it fits just right).

This quilt binding tutorial by Heather Bailey was really helpful. My Mom sent it to me in one of her many, patient emails answering all my questions about how to square up the quilt and do the binding. Since I'm a visual learner, the excellent diagrams accompanying the descriptions made it all clear for me. On my Mom's advice, I did 3/8" seams (rather than 1/4" ones) and so I cut out 3" wide strips for binding.

Now I've just got to hand-stitch the binding to the quilt back and my very first quilt will be done! I can't wait to use it ... on my bed. I have been admitting lately that it may not be used for picnics after all, despite that being the inspiration. I'm not sure I can bear to get it all dirty. Maybe my next quilt will be for picnicking...

farewell .qc.ca, hello .nl !

Schipol Airport

I've practically had to sit on my hands for the last couple months not to mention this, but now it's finally Official. We're moving to Amsterdam!!

We love Montreal, but this was an unmissable opportunity for an Adventure! We are boldly going forth to bicycle, eat cheese, and travel. This is one major reason I haven't been at all artistically productive of late. Most of my time has been taken up with organizing the move. It's incredible how much STUFF we crammed into our apartment in the 4 years we've lived in it. We've been vicious about getting rid of books (that was hard!), clothing, furniture, and household goods. We're actually both really grateful for this forced opportunity to examine all our things and de-clutter. Since it's so much work, I'm not sure we ever would have done such a thorough job without a move overseas to compel... ahem, I mean inspire ... us.

It's amazing what a deadline will do. The one bit of productivity, motivated by the fact that my sewing machine will soon be packed away, is that my quilt is nearing completion. I've finished the quilting and just have to square it up and do the binding. I say "just", but since this is my first quilt, I imagine it will take me some time. I will hopefully be onto the hand-finishing over Christmas and be able to take a finished quilt with me on the plane in January!

I probably won't be posting much until we're over there and settled, but then I'm sure I will have new adventures galore!