Fabric folding & Googlegangers

Now that I'm retired (will I ever tire of saying that?), I'm expanding my quilting horizons. I joined the Miniature Booty Swap for the chance to design a quilt that suits someone else's style rather than my own. I want to like the quilt, but it has to be something the recipient will be happy to hang on her wall. I was pleased to learn that some of my swap partner's preferences are just like mine (she has such good taste!), but a couple things are quite different (what, is she crazy?!). I spent a few days searching for inspiration, and it finally came. As you can see, it doesn't look like much yet.
This is my first attempt at making a 5-petaled origami flower in fabric. I got the instructions from Rebecca Wat's book, A Fresh Twist on Fabric Folding. My next step is to stitch the petals down in the center and trim away the excess fabric in the back. That will leave just the petals, which hopefully will look like the ones in the book:
Beyond that, I'm not willing to reveal more about the project just yet. But I did see a recent post on my partner's blog that makes me think my idea might be on the right track!

I enjoy origami, so the fabric folding idea appealed to me. In 1993 we spent 6 months in Ann Arbor. My daughters were only 6 and 9 years old then, and since they didn't have any friends in town when we arrived, we tried hard to find activities they would enjoy. We joined an origami group at the Ann Arbor Public Library and the girls were really good at it, much better than I was. They made all sorts of cool things.
There were some delightful people in the origami group. Two of the regulars were Laura, who designed amazing origami paper using computer-generated designs, and her husband, a paper-folding expert who was many years her senior. They were affectionately known as Laura-gami and the Older Folder!

And as for Googlegangers ...
Today's New York Times has a fun article about the fascination we feel with people who share our names. Have you ever googled your name just to see who else turns up? If so, you're not alone -- lots of people are curious about their same-name mates, their Googlegangers. Against all rationality, I confess to sharing this sense of connection with my namesakes. It's silly but I do feel it. So this morning after reading the Times article, I googled my name. I've done it before so I expected I'd read a bit about the reporter one state over who shares my name, but this time the first person who popped up was an Italian to English translator (a native English speaker living in Italy) who is also a sommelier. Wow! I have studied Italian and visited Italy 3 times in the last few years, and I am rather into wine these days. Am I entering the Twilight Zone?

And as long as we're talking a walk on the weird side, it turns out that my husband and kids know one of the people mentioned in the NY Times article -- how's that for 6 Degrees of Separation, another concept I find fascinating!