watermelon baby quilt

aryn's done it again. she created this beautiful quilt top - in watermelon colors - for our friend claire's newly arrived baby, celia. celia arrived early and healthy, six weeks early in fact, so the quilt wasn't quite ready for her upon arrival. but with a little pushing it was ready for her baby shower - which turned out to also be a celebration of her one month birthday.

i love aryn's choice of fabrics and combination of colors. so well done. she hired me to do the assembling, quilting and finishing parts of the quilt, which was fun for me. baby quilts are a great size to work with! i want to make only baby quilts from now on. so all you people who are waiting for your wedding presents from me... take note.

i wanted to do something subtle since the pattern of the fabrics is so vibrant on its own, so i did some stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and then chose one of the stripes of fabric in each square to do some stippling on - in corresponding pink or green thread. i think it came out really nicely - it's subtle on the front but allows some of the pieces to pop out, and the back is a fun maze of swirls and lines.

for the binding i split the difference between aryn's method and mine - she does a turn over of the backing fabric and machine stitching; i do a bias tape binding and finish it by hand. So i turned over the backing fabric as binding and finished it by hand. it's time consuming, but i like the hand stitched touch.

Finally, we made a little dedication on the back for celia, and aryn wrapped it up and hopped over to the baby shower. done and done.

if you like piecing quilt tops but hate the assembly and quilting parts, give me a shout - quilter for hire. cultivatingdomesticity(at)gmail(dot)com

also have to give a shout out to my mom for making this awesome thread-catching pouch that hangs off the side of the sewing table - by the grace of gravity and a sand bag - and handles all those pesky little threads you snip off during the course of quilting that always end up all over the carpet and jamming up your vacuum cleaner. and it's so pretty on the outside and soft and furry on the inside, thanks mom!

a year of domesticity: 2009 year in review

in reflecting back on the past year of crafts and cooking endeavors, i thought it might be nice to provide some photo highlights - the best of 2009 moments in cultivating domesticity...

in january:


we learned about how to prepare and cook in a hawaiian imu, even if it's been raining for weeks.

then we learned how to make your own cleaning products at home, with the popular tutorial on making laundry detergent for less than 2 cents per load.
also, my update on green cleaning products got the attention of Clorox - who commented on my post, defending their corporate honor.

in february:


i finished my first hawaiian quilting project - a lehua blossom quilted pillow for mom. the post includes some history of quilting and native resistance in hawai'i.

we celebrated valentines day with a loving menu and decorative crafts

in march:

we explored some ideas around how to refresh your wardrobe using tired winter sweaters

and provided some tips on how to clean, mend, and repair the things you love around the house.

in april:



i conquered my fear of fermentation and made my fist batch of sauerkraut 
 

and provided some of my ruminations on pesticides and michelle obama's garden


in may:


we celebrated strawberry season at our local csa farm

and we celebrated my mom's birthday with carrot cake for breakfast

in june:



i started raising pea sprouts

and decided i like dried apricots better than the fresh ones

in july:



i hired myself out to quilt aryn and adrionna's masterpiece

and took advantage of the basil abundance to make and freeze homemade pesto

in august:

i wrote up my thoughts on julia child as a home cooking revolutionary and the state of homecooking today: what does it mean that we collectively spend more time watching cooking contests on tv than actually cooking ourselves?

and knit a tri-colored baby hat for nasra

in september:



we had much to celebrate with apple pie and popsie's recovery



and then sele and my joint bacon birthday, and finally the engagement!

in october

we honored my little sister, aliana's ninth birthday with the pufferfish pouch

and we hoarded and canned heirloom tomatoes in preparation for the tomoato-less months

in november:



we were busy creating a crafting business plan and prepping for our first craft fair

and finally, in december

the cultivating domesticity brand was born

and i was holiday-obsessed with putting cranberries in everything

i hope you enjoyed the little review of domestic moments of 2009. i'd love to hear your favorite moments - if you tried any of these things, or have your eyes set on a recipe or tutorial you'd like to see in 2010 - leave me a comment! happy new year.