a piem

Happy Pi Day! Very few things inspire poetry-writing in my analytically-minded brain. I admit to liking haikus, and I could abide the occasional homework assignment to write a hyper-structured poem like a sonnet. Rules, format, numbers... those are the parts of verse I like. So, I was pretty excited to learn today about the writing style called "Pilish," where the number of letters in each word corresponds to the digits of pi. (The first word has 3 letter, the second word has 1 letter, then 4 letters, and so on... forever.) Poems written in this style are called "piems." I love it! Here's my attempt, using the first 31 digits of pi, 3.141592653589793238462643383279.

See, a piem I wrote.
Exquisite in lovely verse.
How words combined represent numeric precision!
And to the engineer,
such poetry is seldom seen.
But pie outranks any pi sonnets, certainly.

Hope you enjoyed it. Now I'm off to enjoy a tasty slice of pie (featuring my homemade crust and Dan's signature bourbon apple pie filling)!

quilted pillow shams

Dan's been off at the movies the last two Saturdays for the Oscar Best Picture Showcase, which is why I have finished so many craft projects recently! Last weekend, I stitched these quilted pillow shams by following this tutorial from Purl Soho. The daybed has needed a fresh set of throw pillows for a while, and I love the simplicity of these quilted covers with the white ruched comforter.

Giant Bunny seems to be enjoying the new pillows with his new friend, a little rag doll we bought at the Al Sogno toy shop in Rome. (Kelsey, thank you for encouraging me to buy her... and for chipping in some Euros. She's so cute and will be well-loved here!)

I made two 26x26" covers quilted with white thread for the large feather pillow inserts which have been sitting naked and unloved on the daybed for about a year. The two standard sized shams are quilted with vertical lines of light blue thread that coordinates with the quatrefoil printed sheets. These pillows took about twice as long to sew as I expected, but I saved a bit of time using the single step bias binding method described in this tutorial by Wearing History.

I know, I know... white bedding in a nursery is going to be a mess. Fortunately, these covers are removable and washable! I used the envelope closure in the back as described in the tutorial but also added these little fabric ties. I stuffed each sham with two pillows for extra firmness, so the ties help keep the envelope gaps closed.

I wore myself out over the weekend! Friday evening, Dan went to a bourbon tasting with Nate and Brian, and Amanda cooked a delicious dinner for Karen (Brian's wife/designated driver) and me. Saturday, I sewed and cleaned and organized and could barely move by the end of the day. Then on Sunday, we went to brunch with our weekly trivia team (Nate, Amanda, Kierston, and Alan) as a mini farewell party for Kierston and Alan who are moving away in a few weeks. We will definitely miss seeing their adorable boys at trivia every week!

confetti curtains

I was having a really hard time picking out new curtains for our nursery. The wall color is a light blue-gray (Sherwin Williams Rainwashed), which is somewhat difficult to match correctly. Blue or gray fabric might blend in too much with the wall color. I considered pink curtains, but was worried about the room looking like cotton candy!

While shopping around for the perfect panels, my mind kept going back to this Remodelaholic tutorial for confetti painted curtains. They're inexpensive (using plain white curtains and acrylic paint) and I could pick the exact colors I wanted!

The project cost around $40 total. The IKEA Merete curtains were $30 and the paint supplies just under $10. I used regular acrylic craft paint for most colors, and the lighter blue dots are actually just leftover paint from the walls. I mixed my paint colors, added a few drops of water to thin them out a bit, and used the bottom of a Chobani yogurt cup to stamp out my circles before filling them in with a brush. The colors look really cute with the quilt I made.

To finish off the window, I added an IKEA Tupplur roller shade to block light and a set of Matilda sheer curtains for a bit of privacy during the day. I love the little embroidered pattern on the sheers. The room doesn't look like cotton candy now... it looks like Funfetti cupcakes!

I finished the curtains (washing, ironing, hemming, painting) in about 4 days. I probably could have finished sooner, but I'm definitely starting to feel some third trimester aches and pains. This is my last "crawling around on the floor" DIY project for a while!