The first ever modern Quiltcon is coming up next week here in Austin, and they are having a link party for those attending to get to know each other a little better! Those with blogs were asked to post five things our readers may not know about us, so here goes:

1) I have been in the animation industry for almost 20 years. I've worked on TV shows, commercials, movies, games, websites, you name it.

2) I have also done tattooing, wood carving, and stained glass.

3) I played the upright bass in a psychobilly band for 10 years. I also played the bagpipes (poorly) in a Scottish marching pipe and drum band.

4) I'm left-handed (but I play the bass right-handed).

5) I was vegetarian for 15 years and vegan for 6....but am now making up for lost time.

and bonus track fun fact:

6) I learned Japanese before I visited Japan in 2002 (but have since forgotten much of it).


hope to see you at Quiltcon!

update: DONE!

....well the top, at least. 14 months of literal blood, sweat and tears later, I finished my block-of-the-month quilt!
I think it was a bit above my skill level, but I powered through it anyway. I learned a few things along the way: paper piecing, set-in circles and curved piecing, Y-seams.

 I also learned I will never spend this long doing someone else's pattern again! It was frustrating to not work on my own designs for so long, but I'm glad I did this because I improved my sewing skills and I have an amazing, show-worthy piece at the end of it.

I think working in animation for so many years has given me some good training for this type of activity: attention to detail, tolerance for repetitive work, patience for long-term projects, the ability to do as many revisions as necessary to make work turn out right.

This behemoth finished out at 88" square with the pieced borders. I may add another small border to the outside so I can do a wider binding with piping. I still need to piece a back together too.

For the first time, I'm going to send something out to be professionally quilted. After investing this much time and money, I don't want to risk messing it up.....so eventually I will be shopping for a good longarmer. If there's someone you recommend, I'm taking suggestions!

Back when I started this project last January, I pictured myself finishing it a year later and being recovered from cancer, divorce and all the other horrible things happening in my life at the time. And while I have made some progress, unfortunately the quilt is farther along.....I guess you can't set deadlines for some things :(

above photo by Claire Jain