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After a day filled with code that didn't work and deadlines that aren't budging and phones that just didn't stay quiet when I needed them to, I present this response to a question that was innocently asked but just irritated me:  "What does modern quilting mean to you?"

Soapbox ACTIVATE!

If you go by date, I am a modern quilter, because I am doing a craft that my great-grandmother did, but I do it after a day of working on databases and writing code.

I noticed that a group of people all seemed to classify themselves as "modern quilters" but a lot of their work looked similar to me. It took a little more digging before I found out who Denyse Schmidt was, and once I saw photos of her work, things made more sense to me. If the litmus test for "modern quilter" is "Are you a Denyse Schmidt fan?" then nope, I suppose I'm not.

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As promised, here's the mockup of the White Librarian quilt. It, too, is intended to be a pretty easy little quilt.  I'm including a shot of the original quilt for reference.  The pattern is called "Bricks and Stones," from redpepperquilts, and is available for sale on etsy. I bought the pattern even though I knew it was for a lap-sized quilt; some knowledge of multiplication tables and Adobe Illustrator would fix the rest of the problem.

I tried to stay pretty true to the pattern, because I really like it.

This, too, is a quilt I intend to keep. The fabrics were a gift to me from Jacob, and were all chosen with me in mind. It is intended as a companion to the Red Librarian quilt.

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(This entry is friends-locked.)

The 'red librarian' started out as a joke between Jacob and me. There's such a stereotype surrounding librarians: buttoned-up, prim, proper women. You know the type: butter wouldn't melt in their pursed mouths, nor would a sheet of paper wedge between their knees. But there's also the stereotype of the "lipstick librarian" -- the flamboyant, reactionary woman who rebels from that stereotype and creates her own look.

We've joked that I have three sides: the white librarian, the red librarian, and the red librarian masquerading as a white librarian. The first one is proper, the second one decadent, and the third one pretending to be proper so as to get away with her true nature.

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This quilt isn't kid-friendly, or work-safe, or any kind of two word sobriquet. It's also not tactful or tasteful. It's also not being given away, which is a first.

For months now, I've had an ongoing dialogue with a friend, who has referred to my public side and my private side as the "white librarian" and the "red librarian." I've been amassing fabrics through various sources that I have loved and couldn't imagine parting with; I now have enough to actually make a 'Red Librarian' quilt as well as a 'White Librarian' quilt. Rest assured that every fabric in this quilt has a story. You may not hear all of them, but they exist.

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This is the placeholder for Adam and Brenda's wedding quilt. It has a name, though I'm strangely hesitant to say it yet. This quilt is by far the most technically difficult quilt I've ever attempted, and I anticipate I'll work on some easier, snack-food quilts on the side during its construction to help keep me sane.

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So, want to feel like you've done a Mariner's Compass star block, and an obnoxiously complicated one at that, without actually going through the effort of doing so? Thanks to my handy-dandy digital camera, now you can! (Full flickr photoset is available here.)

So say you've started off by designing a star you think is complicated but nifty in Adobe Illustrator. You extend out lines so you know how to cut fabric for the negative space around the star, and then print out one quarter of the star, like this:

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Some people have a bucket list. I get the general idea but I find the approach depressing. I'd rather think of the process of life instead of focusing on its endpoint; as a result, I refer to my list as a Life List.

#5: Successfully complete a Mariner's Compass quilt.

I accomplished a few things on my life list in 2009, and as we well know, the only thing I like better than adding things to a list is crossing something off of a list, so I've been eyeballing #5 for a while. After Adam announced his engagement, I realized his wedding quilt was likely to be as good an opportunity as any. Here was a friend who took a great deal of pleasure in subtle things that were carefully made; even two seconds' worth of thought told me that something with right angles and straight seams just wasn't going to do.

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[domesticat.net] Where's your sash, Miss America?: http://ping.fm/L0JHl

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Definitely progress. It lacks horizontal sashing, and the final border, but this is very nearly a finished quilt top:

['Where's your sash, Miss America?']

I learned some things along the way. If I'm going to do this again, I need to be really careful about pieces bowing inward in the middle. I also need to make my last stripe fairly substantial, so that I don't trim most of it away when cutting it down to the finished size.

Offset squares are good. Uneven is good. Some of the squares weren't quite big enough, and I had two choices; add another round, which would then get trimmed down, or use extra background fabric and end up with deliberately mismatched square sizes. I opted for the latter. I liked the thought of it being a little homey and uneven.

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Sunday afternoon. I've done almost no sewing this week; I've been mentally drained out of proportion to my actual physical tiredness. Jeff and I took our first stab at geocaching yesterday with mixed results, but we intend to try again; today we caught a morning matinee of 'Sherlock Holmes' and then made a quick grocery run before heading home.

Jeff sleeps right now, having stayed up a good chunk of the night while the storms were rolling through. The cats, fed, are hunting for warm places to nap. A good Sunday, overall.

I am nearing the time of final assembly on Lost in Translation, which is now definitely Tim's quilt. I've decided to make a great, grand usage of the last of the fabric I've been using for the square centers; I'll post photos when I have them.

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[domesticat.net] Cut-and-paste jewelry: http://ping.fm/G8g9k

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Let me be clear. I have serious technolust for this Punctirus jewelry, but I don't believe it's available for sale yet. Originally seen at Art. Lebedev:

I can has shiny?

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I'm pretty sure there's a place in geek hell for people like me.  So @webchick posts something (private) about Drupal's form API and arrays, and my response?

$formAPI = array( array( array( array('value' => 'SUNSHINE!') ) ) ); // too nerdy?

Window seat, please.

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I'm finally getting around to reading Diesel Sweeties. The first panel of this cartoon begs to be an avatar for me.

/glares at Tenzing

/notes she's being ignored by the sleeping cat

[domesticat.net] Quilt planning: the two librarians: http://ping.fm/01CFk

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I'm starting to lay groundwork for a quilt that I'm making -- get this! -- for myself. I promised Jacob that I would use at least part of his fabric presents to me to actually create a quilt that I would keep for myself. It's taken on a life of its own, though: it's actually going to be my first two-sided quilt.

The catch is that it's about me. Both sides of me. In our friendship we've created shorthand terms for those sides:  the 'white librarian' and the 'red librarian.' The side that's publicly presentable, and the other side that's only seen by people I'm close to. The good side and the naughty side. I love the idea of having a quilt that was pretty and filled with all the things I love -- and then on the reverse, also pretty and filled with other things I love.

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Last night, I started reading Diesel Sweeties from the very beginning.

[domesticat.net] It's only funny if you work with Drupal.: http://ping.fm/RSZ1D

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Where Hitler finds out that Drupal 7 may release without panels. (Seen here.)

(Merlin, don't you feel loved now?)

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Three-day weekend to myself, with @jmcclure in Atlanta. Rest, quiet, and for lunch? Pho. :)