...for tomorrow we may be gone.

All week I've been trying to deal with the loss of one of my very few best friends. Evan and I spent the past 16 years as friends, dates, roommates, traveling companions, pen pals, coworkers, partners in crime, and everything in between. We've been through hell together and now he's gone, and I'm trying to figure out how  to understand that. 

G and I decided having a memorial for him at our house seems the right thing to do. He lived here whenever he was in Minneapolis and it was the center of our life together for years. If you knew Evan I'd like to invite you to please come over and tell stories and share food and togetherness. 

April 9th, 2pm onward.  2208 16th ave south, MPLS. Bring food or non-alcoholic drinks to share! Dogs welcome! Also if anybody has any Smiths tapes or records I suppose that would be appropriate. ❤️

Rest in peace, friend.

Ray of Sun mini

I've recently started an email relationship with an aunt of mine I had never gotten to know. She has filled in a lot of gaps of family history on my maternal side and is generally a funny and environmentally conscious human. A pretty good letter-writer too. One of the things she brings up a lot is the lack of sunshine where she chooses to live( it's a morain, and apparently, a meteorological fluke). They have a solar bank for electricity and chart peak sun throughout the year. Resulting in snippets of emails that say things like "14 days of sun in 4 MONTHS!". This dear aunt also suffers from S.A.D., so this is a dangerous combination. While I know it's wrong to try to 'cheer up' a depressed person, I thought I'd try to sew a spot of sunshine for her.

I have recently treated myself to the Hex-n-more ruler to work out a design for another quilt and I thought I'd  have a quick sample of it's powers. I don't usually go in for gadget rulers, preferring free things like cereal box templates, but this one is quite well designed and all my pieces were hella accurate. This was my first layout:

Not very sunny! The blue would have to go. Much better:

Without a pattern I figured construction would be best in wedges to avoid y-seams. It sewed up really quickly. 

I put some cats and sunflowers in the back and machine quilted it echoing a set of seams to bisect the larger key shapes.

And, ta-da, my first mini quilt or possibly table mat. Really it's up to Aunt B. I hope it brightens her day and home.