On My Own

On Sunday, FB flew out to San Francisco to attend a friend's wedding and start his new job. I was bummed that I couldn't go to the wedding (Congrats, T & I!), but he texted me photos and updates so I could follow along.

Yesterday, he started his new job. He will be working out of the San Francisco office for the next two weeks, meeting new people, catching up with old friends, and getting up to speed with his new project. It's an exciting time for him.

I'm not too worried about being here alone. I am expecting Snapdragon to linger past her due date, so I'm not really nervous about going into labor before he gets back. If I do, I have plenty of family and friends around to support me.

As much as I dislike being alone, I am enjoying some things about this solitude. I am in 100% indulgence mode — I eat and sleep when I please, watch whatever trash tv I want, and have no regard for the needs and schedules of others. I have one or two minor work obligations, but mostly, I am watching movies, working on another quilt for Snapdragon, and dabbling in dissertation work at a leisurely pace. It's not so bad.

One thing I have to remind myself to do is talk to Snapdragon. Since I don't have FB to talk to, I go most of the day without saying much. All the baby books say that she can hear pretty well, and I want her to be familiar with my voice, so I've been making an effort to talk and sing to her/myself throughout the day.

The best thing about this 2-week trip is that it is refocusing my attention. Instead of counting down days until September 22, I am counting down days until FB gets back. Two weeks is a much more manageable time period to deal with than 6-8 weeks. When he returns, I will be almost 36 weeks, and really entering the final phase of this pregnancy.

A Quilt for Snapdragon

I started this quilt in the fall and finished it in January. I don't have a sewing machine, so it goes pretty slow. In retrospect, a white background is not such a great idea for a baby quilt — maybe I'll use it as a crib liner or something. Not that I care much if it gets dirty — it's all cotton (washable) and I can repair it if it gets damaged.

I am a novice quilter. Really, I just like to buy pretty fabric and it sometimes (rarely) makes its way into a project.

My least favorite part of quilting is the planning. I'm terrible at the math/measuring/cutting part and can never get the geometric shapes to line up the way they should. In short, I am not a precision quilter.

That's why the Cathedral Windows pattern is perfect for me. The quilt grows under your fingers and you can stop whenever you feel like it. It's also pretty forgiving of my inability to get blocks to line up exactly. Even though I use the same template to cut out all the pieces, they never seem to be exactly the same size. This pattern allows me to fudge it a bit. One final perk: I can use all the scraps I've been saving for years.

If you are interested in making your own Cathedral Window Quilt, follow this excellent tutorial via Hyena in Petticoats. It has good step-by-step pictures for all you visual learners out there.

You can choose your own colors — I made up this pattern and it worked pretty well. I'm a little disappointed that the orange and yellow sort of run together, but I like the blues, purples, and reds. Next time, I think I'll try single-color inserts — that way, you get an interesting visual effect where you can't tell if it's the inserts or the background that you're supposed to focus on.