save handmade toys!!

we need help!! i signed the petition for this and wrote to my congressman about 2 weeks ago. visit their website to sign the petition and get more information about writing to preserve handmade toys and more - it affects blankets, quilts, hair bows for girls, and just about everything we fiber artists and crafters can create for those under age 12.

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small parts, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their molds to include batch labels. For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing, to the tune of up to $4,000 per toy, will likely drive them out of business. And the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007. Toy makers won't be the only ones impacted by the CPSIA, the thousands of US businesses who offer clothing, jewelry and other gifts for children --in essence-- the entire children's industry will be as well.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.Thriving small businesses are crucial to the financial health of our nation. Let's amend the CPSIA so that all businesses large and small are able to comply and survive!

past quilts i've done

i promised i'd upload some of the quilts i've done and here they are....


this first one to your left is one i did for some friends and their wedding. the blocks were about 6-8 inches (it's been a few years...) and in the middle of each star i quilted a celtic knot. on the outer border, i quilted their wedding date into the design. part of the most amazing thing with this quilt is when i gave it to the bride during the rehearsal dinner, i didn't expect her to open it right there. she started crying and then you heard most of the women in her family start screeching about it. an aunt came over to me and thanked me profusely for making it. turns out that a's grandmother always made each of the family members a wedding quilt, but the grandmother died before one could be made for a. my gift was unexpected and a wonderful surprise that brought a tradition to the bride despite missing her grandmother.

next....

this is the second quilt i did for my sister. she couldn't decide which block she liked best and chose for me to do a sampler. the picture doesn't do it justice - it's so bright and colorful. the main portion is a stipple quilting with each of the three borders having a woven/braid design in them.

i love this quilt. it's got more color than i expected my sister to pick out. she chose all the main fabrics and i picked the borders to match. she's usually a brown person.

and...

this is one of three quilts i've done this year and finished. this belongs to my nephew and it's special because there are a few fabrics that are included in the above quilt for my sister (the dark orange and what appears white in the photo) and the dark green leafy fabric was in the first quilt i made for her.

no. i don't have a picture of it finished...i forgot to take one. i did that a few times this year.




this log cabin quilt is enormous. it is the second quilt i produced for my mom (after the first ones for christmas that she and my sister received, she started buying me books and flagging all the quilts i'm to make her) and it's the largest i probably will ever do.

it's for a queen bed, but as you can see in the picture (right side towards the bottom) it goes all the way to the floor. she has a tall bed and gets in using a stool. there would be extra room if it were on a king bed. i think the short side was 120" but at least it used 10" blocks.

have i mentioned that i handquilt only? it took me three years to make this one - off and on for a while and then last summer i decided it was time to finish it and get it out. she got it around thanksgiving time last year and it suits her amish furniture perfectly. while i was shocked that she picked browns and dark greens for her quilt when she had talked about oranges, rusts and teals (my sister picked... same time frame), it works with the bed better than anything else.

and the second from this year:


this very brown batik quilt was done for my best friend and his bride. the very day that i thought to myself while perusing fabric during lunch "at least c. is getting married in a year and i have lots of time to collect fabric and do an amazing quilt" he calls to tell me they upped the wedding plans....for in 6 weeks...

so i bought my first jelly roll - boo picked out the colors because my best friend is his godfather. boo also picked out the "pandora's box" pattern from this book . my addition was the blue batik. it was just too brown without it. that and i quilted it with blue thread and bound it with the same blue batik. i wish i had taken pictures of it quilted...other than my sister's bright bed quilt, this had the most elaborate quilting to date.

because it was a wedding quilt, i quilted the border with his last name on the one short end and then a quote: " 'i love you' is the inscription on pandora's box" - i can't remember who said that now.

i'd show you the other quilt or other projects i'm working on right now, but they're gifts and i can't take the chance of those people seeing this before they get them.

some of my work

Paph "Napa Valley"

copyright 2006

ok...it's about time i post a picture of something that i do. once again...at work and i don't have pictures here and when i get home, i forget to do it. two nights ago, i was going to do a post about my first adventure in iron-on labels for my quilts that you color yourself and transfer to muslim. i learned what not to do. maybe i'll get to it tonight.

above is one of my botanical illustrations. i work primarily in graphite on rag paper and we love each other. the one above has been in several shows across the country and is currently being shown at a small place where i live for another 2 1/2 weeks. you can see more of my drawings and some of my jewelry/metalsmithing on my website, but no quilt pictures. i also do prints - linocuts and the such. i love those, despite the fact i don't do them often enough.

i'll try to remember to post pictures of past quilts and projects tonight. i can't post pictures of what i'm working on right now because they're all gifts and by the slim chance that any of the family and friends read this, i don't want their presents given away to them before they receive them. i have too many going and not enough time now. sigh...

12 days of christmas...

it's the twelve days of christmas giveaway event at Design Mom right now. great stuff btw! the flash bulb necklace is absolutely adorable and i'm going to try for that one. and the cufflinks...

but sigh... design mom is so bogged down with people trying to comment right now that it's hard to leave one. i guess i'll have to keep trying!

in the meantime, i'll get back to my bowl of chowder and my book and just wait. and get back to work. :( after i get home, it's finishing the christmas decorations and *hopefully* i'll get to work on some of those christmas presents i have started. one of which has to be completed by tomorrow since we're doing an early christmas/hanukkah gathering tomorrow. eek!

snow in houston!!

teaching boo to catch snowflakes

it snowed yesterday and during the night in the greater houston area - including my side of town by the water. it's lovely and gorgeous. we woke up boo to play in it some. snow just doesn't happen here... last time was christmas 2004 and the beach got more snow than the northern side of town and it stuck for 4 days. this will melt off in a few hours now that the sun is up and the temps rising.

debris left from hurricane ike - covered in snow

i've decided to start blogging again. much thanks to sew mama sew and their fantastic give-away day last week. i had been searching for craft and quilting blogs for ideas and inspirations with a little luck, but they gave me a huge and wonderful list of blogs to visit. eventually, i'll start posting pictures and details of all the work i'm doing for you guys out there (if anyone actually reads any of this). of course, i have to learn all the cool tricks to blogger - over time. i'm at work right now and don't have photos either!

i am working on too many projects at the moment and almost all with huge time contraints, i.e. christmas. having a 6-yr old in the house doesn't help because i can't work on his stuff or similar items when he's awake or home. i'll get it done. i'm starting to plan out next year already with some good ideas from several of you out there. just need to start earlier... and not have hurricanes and broken sewing machines and friends with short engagements get in the way.

happy blogging and i'm going to enjoy looking out my office window at the remains of my snow.