Inspiration: Guest Bedroom

I'm trying to buckle down and work on my book. You know the book, the one about the letters and houses etc... There won't be any patterns, just techniques, ideas and inspirations (such as this one, this one, and this one). Well here is another inspiration. I haven't actually made a quilt along these lines, but I'd like to when we get settled down next year.

I can envision a couple of different ways to do a quilt for the bed in the guestroom. First would be to make a bunch of blocks for the center and do words in the border or inner border such as:

• You are welcome in our home
• Sleep well, sweet dreams
• May all your journeys be safe
• This quilt is made with all my love - may it keep you warm and safe.

Or, a humorous approach:

• Guests of guests may not invite guests
• Guests are like fish - they stink after three days

There are, of course, many other options to include. Think of specific visitors who might use that room. What would you wish for them? Why are you happy to have them visit?
And then of course the name of the maker, the city (possibly the street address), the date... all those usual things that look so marvelous on quilts and really make them personal.
Another way to make this quilt would be with the words as the focal point, just like the bed quilt I made. (Well, the top I pieced.) I think the letters in that one came out to 3.75" finished - if I were doing it again I'd probably make them smaller. I do like small letters and I would have been able to fit in more words that way and still fit them into the area I wanted them in.
Anyway, the words could be a heartfelt welcome or it could be fun. I was thinking something like a pretend B & B (using your own name etc):

Welcome to the Case de Ricardo in lovely downtown Burbank. Your hosts are Ricky and Lucy. Breakfast is served between 8 and 10 am. First one up makes the coffee. No noise after 10pm. Enjoy your stay.

If I'd thought about it I could have made this quilt:

Welcome to Cairo, my friends. Make sure you visit all the sights of our fair city including the Pyramids of Giza, the colossal Sphinx, the river Nile, and the mummy of Ramses II. No vacation is complete unless you spend much money at the Khan al Khallili. Thank you for choosing The Lazy Gal Hotel.

I tried to write that using the patter that you hear in Cairo, like "my friends." If I were actually making it I would start doing letters for the most important words and that way if I ran out of room I could leave out the adjectives like "colossal" and not change the meaning.
I might just make something like this for Paris, where I expect we might actually get some visitors. Now just because you don't live some place exotic doesn't mean you couldn't have lots of fun with this. "See the dining room chair that Tonya fell out of and broke her collarbone." Make it personal and meaningful and that's what counts. Or just pretend that you live somewhere else and have fun with it.
Somebody please make one of these. I need quilt pictures for that imaginary book. (If you want to go that route, please don't use anyone else's copyrighted patterns or blocks.) If you want help brainstorming or fitting it together, or anything, just let me know. Or if you have some fun ideas but don't want to actually make the quilt, I'd still love to hear them.

dull dull dull

Sorry this blog has been so incredibly dull lately. I've been taking care of various stuff that has to be done before we go (which won't be until the end of November) which includes some clothes and shoe shopping. I still need to find a coat. One of these days I will actually do some sightseeing or something photo worthy.

I did make it to G Street Fabrics the other day and only bought thread. I would have bought batting but they only had poly or poly/cotton blends and the whole point of my buying batting was to switch to all cotton. So I didn't buy any fabric, can you believe it? Now I did buy something like 10 yards online, so it's not like I'm not buying any at all, but nothing at the store appealed to me. I'm completely off of novelty fabrics (although a great holiday print would suck me in) and strong multi-colors prints.

I soooo want my sewing machine etc. Not that I would necessarily be sewing, but I'd like to have the option.

Anyway, that's me. Dull girl. Ya'all take care.

Free Pieced Quilting Flickr Group

Force Majeure Farm's Kim has done a bunch of work to get a Flickr group established where we can post images of the Take the Leap Challenge quilts as well as any other quilt done using my tuturials such as letters, houses, etc. Go take a look at her post where she explains how it works. She's even willing to post pics for the technologically challenged. If you actually play with Flickr a bit, I think you will find it fairly easy to use.

I now have a Flickr badge over on my sidebar, so you can zip right into the group that way and check it out. There are probably still a couple of bugs to work out, but it's lots of fun. Come play.

Boy, have I now bought into doing all the cool flashing things on my blog. I used to swear about them because they were so slow to load up while I was on dial-up, but now I'm on high-speed so hahahahahahah. Flash, flash, pictures wheeeeee.

We're now hooked up with the high-speed internet on the laptop in our apartment. The other day I was using one of the computers in the apartment building's business center. Any resident can use those and someone who was smarter than I had fixed it so that several pages were in japanese. Glad I don't have to go through that again.

So thrilled to be back in the U.S. watching Simply Quilts, Clean House, and loads of decorating programs. I've been eating salads like a crazy woman and brushing my teeth with tap water. There are simple things that you take for granted, but once you can't do it.... aiyee.

Something else I'm enjoying? Leaving the apartment in my t-shirt and shorts to walk to the trash room, without having to worry that an Egyptian male will be out in the hallway staring at me. Woohoo.

My sweetie and I are both over the jetlag. Cats are finally themselves again, which is a relief. Pokey and Lily had been swatting at each other and hissing, so it's wonderful to see them sleeping cuddled up together. When they're sleeping. All the cats still seem to have their body clocks set to Cairo time and go wild at 2 in the morning racing around the apartment playing. Maybe they've always done that but the apartment was so much larger we didn't hear it.

Today I have to wait around for the two new recliners we ordered to be delivered. Woohoo. We'll get to use them for awhile before they get shipped off to Paris, where I really hope we have enough room to use them. We will MAKE them fit, gosh darn it. Then, if I have time, it's off on the metro to G Street Fabrics.

Life is good.

Back in the USA

Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it safely back to the U.S. We got Pokey's paperwork before we left and the whole trip went smoothly. I'm not using my own computer and while the high-speed service is great, all the websites are set up in Japanese. It's a good thing that I use blogger so much I just automatically know what all the buttons are for.

Luckier Than I Realize

I'm luckier than I realized to have such a cuddly sweet kitty. I didn't know how many cat owners have cats that won't even sit in their laps, let alone let get belly rubs.

I'm luckier than I realize sometimes to have such incredible friends and to have had the opportunity to live in Cairo, which has it's drawbacks but is certainly exotic and out-of-the-ordinary. Today the mushiness finally hit me. This is the last time I will walk on this street, the last time I will have the opportunity to buy one of these items... Gack, I need to just sit and quilt and not think about it.

The fly in our ointment: still no official paperwork to get Pokey into France. I know we don't need it yet, we won't be there for a couple of months, but I'd still like to have that certificate in my hot little hands before we leave.

Thanks to Force Majeure Farms Kim, I'm getting Flickrized. It turns out to be much easier than expected. I'll let you know when there is more news on that front.