Swoons 2 & 3

Here are pictures of my second and third Swoon blocks - taken in the evening light, which is why they look kind of funny. After making these I decided enough with the brown and green and bought more golden/orange fabrics. I'm hoping for a mostly yellow and gray color palette, but I'll toss in these green and brown ones to break things up a bit. I'm still using mostly Flea Market Fancy fabrics, but I can't resist adding in some other things as well.



I actually finished up a fourth Swoon last night but haven't had time to take pictures yet. We are having some bizarre rainy weather here now that it is June - my poor garden! I managed to germinate some okra seeds this year and was excited to watch them grow in our "hot dry weather," which is apparently all they need to do well. Who would have thought it would become cold and wet now that those little tropical plants are thriving in the back yard. Huh. Anyways, I'm plugging away at this quilt and very determined to actually finish it before the summer ends. Happy Tuesday!

do. Good Stitches January blossom quilt

Remember back in january when I posted a tutorial for the "blossom block?" Well, all the ladies in my sewing circle sent me their blocks and here is what they turned into - doesn't it look great! I'm still surprised by how wonderful all these different fabrics look together. This is just the quilt top - I still have to baste and quilt this monster (it is HUGE!) then add binding... I'm daydreaming of how to piece the back. Maybe a few floating blossoms? Anyways, I was so excited I had to share this picture before the quilt was finished.

Sampler: complete!

I finished my first hand-quilted project: the sampler I showed a snippet of the other week. This is really little, less than 12 inches square, but was the perfect size for practicing on. I think the end result is pretty charming - it looked really cute under my vase of Valentine's Day flowers. I used embroidery floss to do the quilting because I have a ton of it on hand in every color imaginable. I checked out some pearl cottons the other day and can see how working with those would make the quilting MUCH easier. "Popping the knot through the first layer of fabric" looks like an easier feat with the pearls. I created quite a few snags and weird pulls with all my knot popping disasters. And then I machine-bound it in a hurry, which resulted in a less-than-perfect binding, another thing that drives me nuts. But again, imperfection is good practice for me - it goes against my nature in what is probably a good way.



Now this imperfect charming little quilt is on its way to some dear friends - a house full of girls who I know have tea parties and pink bedrooms and all those things this quilt deserves but I cannot give. Hope you like it!

Sampler

I spent the entire afternoon shoveling dirt out of a huge planter box that has been infiltrated by gophers. The plan is to replace the 10-year-old wire mesh at the bottom of the box and hopefully get a few more productive years out of the bed. It was HARD, and boy am I proud of myself! But it doesn't make for a very pretty picture (neither the pile of dirt or ME), so I decided to share this with you instead.

I ended up with a ton of extra hexagons while working on my hexagon quilt. These ones just didn't fit in for one reason or another, so the other day I decided to sew them together into... something. Of course it would have made more sense to work on one of the many other unfinished projects I have laying around, but whatever. I'm always most excited about the new project that pops into my head. I'm thinking of this as a sampler of sorts. It was really good practice for me in terms of sewing hexagons together, and I am planning on hand quilting it, which is what I'd like to ultimately do on my real hexagon quilt. This little thing is a much less intimidating piece to learn on.



This was my first time ever basting with clothespins - this is the bag I received from my Grandma a few years ago. I usually use straight pins and routinely jam them into my fingers while machine quilting whatever I'm working on. It's just part of my process. Somehow, though, that didn't sound as trivial when paired with hand-quilting. I'd like that experience to be as relaxing and pain-free as possible, so I braved the clothespins. I've always avoided them because it annoys me to have to close them. Basting is my least favorite part of quilting and I'd rather bleed all over my quilt than close up a few clothespins - it seems to take too long. This was easy, though, because my tiny quilt is only about 12" square. I'm thinking it would look cute under a vase of flowers or something. Of course there is no wall space to speak of on which to hang it, and maybe it is too crazy and weird for that anyways. I'll probably just tuck it away until I have a real sewing space to put it.

Scrap Attack update and an experiment

Last night I finished the last of my scrap attack blocks. I made 36 5 1/2" squares and plan on joining them into nine 10 inch squares. I would have liked to make more, but I felt myself losing steam and I am running out of scraps that work for the color scheme I'm going with. I'm hoping the end result will be a nice sized throw, so I'll probably add size with the sashing. Here is my pile of scrappy squares - I just love the look of a pile of squares waiting to be turned into a quilt.

The other fun thing that happened was that I received a package of awesome teas from my cousin Jen of International Tea Moment. She receives tea samples from all over the place and was doing a destashing of her tea cupboard - it definitely pays to have a famous tea reviewer in the family! She asked me to take a picture of myself drinking some of the tea, and here it is:



Don't I look great? Yep, that's because I photoshopped off all my zits and digitally whitened my teeth, then brightened my complexion using the levels tool. I don't really look like that. Here's what I really look like:



I'm sure there is some sort of profound conclusion I could come to at this point, but I'll let you do that. I was just surprised by how EASY it was to make myself look like I had actually had a full night's sleep and didn't spend the entire morning chasing a three year old through IKEA. No wonder I always feel so bad when I look at those pretty magazine ladies - they have had the life airbrushed right off of them! Speaking of which, its back to real life for me, yellowed teeth and all (maybe I should stop drinking so much tea? haha.)

Monkey Wrench Quilt

I finally finished my first quilt! It is so funny to say that when I have completed dozens of quilts, but this is the very first one I ever started, and the only patchwork quilt I've ever made for myself. Being the first-ever, it certainly isn't my "style," nor is it in colors that I would choose today. It is a huge mish-mash of fabrics that were lying around 11 years ago when I took it into my head to make a quilt. If you looked at it up close you would be scandalized by how poorly the corners line up and by the obvious lack of planning that went into the whole thing. But in spite of its many imperfections, I absolutely love it.



I love how all the different fabrics remind me of various projects that I did with my mom and Grandma. There is the striped fabric that was left over from the pillow cases my Grandma made, the floral print from the dress my mom and I almost finished making together, the tiny duck print from fabric used to make me a jumper when I was a baby... even though nothing matches, it all reminds me of the history of crafting that those lovely women passed on to me. It reminds me of what a Little House on the Prairie quilt would have looked like - pieced together from precious tiny scraps of what they already had. I also love all the purple and pink in this quilt. Folded on the back of the couch, it is like a tiny oasis of femininity in the midst of all the wrestling and burping I am surrounded by.

Oh, and by the way, it is pretty hard to hide a 6-foot-3-inch guy behind a quilt on a windy day. Happily, my brother is a patient guy and stood in the freezing cold for a long time while I tried and tried to get the perfect shot. I never did, but these are good enough. And no matter how nostalgic you are about your quilt, it might not be enough to cheer up a 3 year old who has just been awoken from his nap and is unhappy about being outside in the cold. Oh well.

Speaking of unfinished projects...

...how's this for one? All this talk about my hexagon quilt made me remember how bad I am at finishing quilts. There is the twin sized one that I started for Moses, um, 5 years ago, which I tell myself I will finish around every Christmas. And there is this one, my first EVER quilt, the one that started it all. :) I remember that a quilting magazine caught my eye in the grocery store about 8 years ago because the front cover featured a quilt with bright pink sashing, which I had never seen on a quilt before. So I bought the magazine, and in my typical impulsive style, spent the next few days tracing and cutting out ALL the tiny little squares and triangles for 49 different blocks. (This was long before I had a rotary cutter.) I used mostly vintage fabrics that my Grandma had given my mom and me, and then went to the only fabric store I knew of and bought vintage-looking fabrics to fill it out. Somewhere along the line I lost steam, and I packed the quilt away with only 7 blocks left to piece! It was a really fun find, and I spent yesterday finishing the last few blocks between chores and playing with the kids.



This quilt is definitely not my style, since I started it long before I had even developed a style or knew what I liked in colors, fabrics, and designs. But I love it anyways. It reminds me of something someone would have made 100 years ago, pieced together from tiny scraps of fabric from old aprons, dresses, and curtains. No two blocks are exactly alike, and it will be one of these quilts I used to like as a little girl - one where you are always discovering a new fabric or color that you didn't see the last time you looked.

I'm hoping to make it to the fabric store to chose the finishing fabrics for this - not sure if I'll go with the original bright pink sashing, but we'll see what I can come up with. Another sewing project on the list, but this one is just for me and the hardest part is complete!

Afternoon on the Farm

Today was such a gorgeous day! Finally there was no fog, and we spent a long afternoon outside enjoying the blue sky and the green grass. The sunshine also allowed me to take pictures of this quilt that I finally finished. Green and blue, just like the farm. I had all these skinny little strips of fabric and started sewing them together without really planning. This quilt kind of made itself, in a way. Maybe that's why it took SO long to finish. :) It is available in my shop.

Triangles!

I've posted a new mini quilt in the shop made entirely from triangles. This was my very first time using triangles EVER because they are such a pain to cut out. However, now that I have my new little toy it was easy! I used only fabrics from my scrap drawer, too, which made it even more fun. If someone gave this to me I would have a hard time deciding whether to let my baby use it or hang it up for decoration. More triangle quilts to come...

Little Farm Quilt

Here is the quilt I've been working on for the last few weeks. I decided to experiment by quilting it heavily, something I've never done. I really like how it turned out - the close quilting seams give the quilt a slightly nubby texture that is quite nice. Titus LOVED it - he kept rubbing his little (clean) hands all over it and smiling at me. I will say that quilting it like this took MUCH longer than usual and was a bit tedious, so I'm not sure if I will be doing it again any time soon! It's available in my shop. (Oh, and the edges of the quilt are straight - it just hung funny and kept blowing in the wind, which makes it look all wavy-edged.)

Night time quilting

A little something I'm hoping to finish in the next few evenings. The last part of making the quilt is my favorite - hand sewing the binding. So soothing.

Happy Quilt Day

I love this quilt, partly because I used Momo's "Wonderland" fabrics in it, (and they are possibly my favorite fabrics EVER) and partly because of all the vintage fabrics I was able to integrate into it as well. Modern and vintage together just look so cool. This blanket is newly listed in the shop, thanks to a little break in the clouds today. I managed to throw on my boots and run through the mud, rig up a clothes line, pin up the quilt and snap a few shots before the boys woke up from their naps or the sun went back into hiding.

By Hand

I've been working on a really nice little something I'm hoping to finish this weekend. I'm to the hand-sewing part which is my favorite. I think some day I'd like to make an entire quilt by hand... in my next life, of course. This one was made mostly on the machine using a lot of my vintage fabrics.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

New Minis in the Shop:

I snatched a few shreds of real sunlight the other day to photograph a few mini quilts for the shop. They can be found here - this is the girly-est one of the bunch. :)

Something for us

I started making this quilt when I was pregnant with Titus and VERY sick. Not only was I throwing up every few hours, but I was taking an anti-nausea medication that did nothing except make me feel like my arms were going to fall off. (It's always a bad sign when the pharmacist says "huh - this used to be prescribed as an anti-psychotic," when she hands you a bottle of pills.) I was completely worthless, so Brett took Moses to his parents' cabin to leave me alone in my misery. I decided I was going to do something productive with my "freedom," so I pieced this together using a charm pack (I think that's what it's called...) I bought at the Twain Harte drug store. I spent the entire day piecing it, quilting it, making and attaching the binding... and then the mere sight of it would make me dry-heave, so I was forced to pack it away.

Well, the other day I found it amongst my fabric stash and realized that the leaned association had worn off enough for me to finish stitching the binding. Now Titus has his very own little quilt. I love having a baby quilt just for him - the other ones we have are technically Moses' (though he is very good at sharing them). Titus loves it - all the little patterns and the red and white backing are really eye-catching.

I tried to do a cutesy photo shoot of Titus and the quilt, but most of the pictures turned out like this:

so I gave up. That's why there are no kids in the pictures in my shop. :)

Lists

With my upcoming trip to Montana looming, I have been making lists like crazy. Lists of what to pack in what bag, lists of what to do before I leave, lists of questions I have about traveling with a baby cross-referenced with which friends to ask these questions, lists of what I need to buy... and all the lists are rattling around in my brain (usually writing them down helps, but this time it isn't) distracting me from everything else I need to do. Like keep two children alive, for instance. Hopefully we all survive tomorrow so Titus and I can get on the plane early Friday morning and put us all out of our misery.

PS - New little quilt in the shop.

Fall snuck up on me!

Last week I was lamenting the fact that I was still wearing shorts, and today I'm in a sweater! That happened fast. Oh well, the Indian Summer quilt is in the shop anyways. :) I was really tempted to keep this one to use as a wall hanging, but decided it would go better with a baby and lots of snuggling.

Shipped

Today the custom quilt I've been working on started its journey to Brooklyn, NY, where it will live in the crib of a very special little girl. I had so much fun working on this - all of the fabrics were gorgeous! I ordered extra of everything, so don't be surprised if you see many of the prints showing up in my shop some time soon.

Introducing the Deluxe Mini

The other day I wound up with three hours during the day TO MYSELF, and this is what I did with my time. I've been wanting to make an all cotton version of the security blankets I offer in my shop (no minkee backing, which I know can be irritating to some babies with very sensitive skin). So the deluxe mini baby quilt was born - it's a little bit bigger than the security blankets and is square shaped, rather than rectangular. And it was FUN to make - there will definitely be more coming to the shop. (Though I can't imagine the stars will align again any time soon allowing me such a huge block of free time!)

Finally!

This little quilt has been waiting to be posted in the shop for a LONG time. Today I managed to sneak a few minutes to photograph it and get it up on etsy. Pretty cute. We also somehow found a home for all the new toys that made it into our house over the last week. Between Moses' birthday and Christmas, the number of battery operated items we live with doubled. Pretty scary when you have 4 people living in an 800 square foot house! I hope you all had as lovely a Christmas as I did!