Saturday’s Goal: accomplished!

I’m happy to say I made my goal! I finished quilting and binding my batik resist sample on Saturday, and nearly wrote my whole article, too. I was called away for very worthwhile reasons (honest!), and so I finished up the article this morning. Of course, my sample is not “Art” with a capital “A”, and it’s not something I would ever enter into a show, but I learned so much in the process and I hope my article will be helpful to others, too, once it comes out, of course. Now everything is photographed, packaged, labeled, and ready to drop off at UPS. I know I need deadlines, or I’d never get anything done, and it always feels great when a goal is reached. That sweet feeling of satisfaction! I love it. Now, on to the next project!

I was thinking of ways to make DD#2’s pregnancy easier. After some time on Google (one of my best friends), I stumbled across the idea of what I would call a “belly blanket.” It is a small, very soft, circular blanket that is intended to gently sooth a pregnant tummy while the skin is continually being stretched, and to help mamma relax during delivery. Our whole family is pretty much addicted to textures, so I knew DD#2 would love it. The sample I had seen online was made of polyester satin and cotton flannel, but I wanted to customize it to suit her personality. I showed DD#2 the idea and then handed her a piece of silk satin so she could see how it felt against her skin. Pure joy! I could hardly get the fabric away from her after that. I’m going to find some of my silk dyes and hand paint the silk fabric to make it even more special.

So all we needed was some backing fabric. Today we went to the fabric store and petted all of the fabrics to see what was softest. She ended up choosing some grass green, Minky Cuddle Dimple Dot fabric. It’s very soft and has the extra added bonus of being bumpy. (I told you she liked textures.) I plan on spending some time this week, working on the belly blanket and will probably writing a brief tutorial.