Pippa Patchwork

This past week has been a wonderful whirlwind of change. Not only have I been reacclimatizing from my trip across the globe, but I’ve started my new job as an assistant editor at Quilting Arts Magazine. Yes, I’m officially no longer a student, but a working woman. And I love it. In fact, I can hardly believe I’m getting paid to spend all days in a busy, joyful office that’s full of beautiful bits of fabric and art- where my job is to write, read and think about quilts all day… this has worked out rather nicely. My two latest nine-patches capture this transition:

The center square in the first patch zooms in on the good old of USA (using that globe fabric once again), and the plaid patches are actually from a cheap shirt that I bought on my way to scuba  diving in the Great Barrier Reef. I realized a little too late that I’d probably need a cover up (I was right, it gets cold in the oceans depths!) but I didn’t see myself wearing this ever again, so I thought I’d put it to good use! The second patch is a little less obvious, but when I sat down to think about which fabrics would represent this past week, all I could think was bold and joyous, to capture the excitement I feel about entering this next phase in life.

Obviously, working a nine-to-five job doesn’t leave me with quite as much time for my own patchworking. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since 1. It’s so inspiring to look at all the amazing work that comes to Quilting Arts and 2. I appreciate the time that I do have that much more. Plus, I haven’t exactly been unproductive lately. First of all, I finished my neutral domino scarf. Picking up 900+ stitches isn’t any less tedious the second time, but somehow I managed:

I think it’s safe to say that I officially have enough scarves (in fact, I could have said that a couple scarves ago)- I’m thinking those Australian yarns should probably go toward a hat.

I’ve also been working away, here and there, at my lovely tablecloth, which is even more fun now that my apartment move-in date is quickly approaching. I decided it didn’t need too much quilting since there’s no batting so I just did the border of every other blue square, and now I’m stitching up the seams.  This’ll be a good post-work activity for this week while I catch up with my mom and sister over a glass of wine.

I also finished the top of my essay quilt, and have ordered some solid colored flannels for the back:

However, yesterday was devoted to some non-fiber patchworking. As I’ve confessed many times, I’m a hopeless packrat, and I spend vacations hording business cards, brochures, and tickets of all sorts. So I decided to combine all these little ephemera with the best of my Australia and New Zealand photos to make a scrapbook:

Albums and scrapbooks are best done shortly after the vacation, before you forget where and when everything was. Sure, it’s a lot of work, and I know everyone’s rather fond of digital photos these days, but I’ve made scrapbooks before and I swear it’s worth it to have something concrete that enables you to recall such an amazing trip.

Finally, there’s been some bread baking. Last weekend I made a Buttermilk Rye from Bernard Claytons New Complete Book of Breads. The buttermilk gave it a bit of a sourdough taste but, like many rye breads, it was still quite dense.

 I was quite pleased (and I’m starting to think that all bread, when fresh out of the oven, tastes good) but I’m hoping to make something a little ‘fluffier.’ The plan for this afternoon is Anadama Bread, using a recipe that I found online at Relish (www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/20976/anadama-bread.html). It’s a classic New England bread made with cornmeal and molasses that I discovered at one of my favorite Harvard Square restaurants, The Harvest (www.harvestcambridge.com). I’ll let you know how it goes.