And speaking of bees...

It was just too darn hot tonight to think about quilting the baby quilt which would make finish number 5 for the Spring to Finish Challenge. I am coming to grips with the thought that it just might have to wait until some freakish cool weather this summer, or the fall. Ah well. Them's the breaks.

But bees. Right? I have the good fortune of being a part of a really talented group of ladies in my first bee, The Beehive. (I direct your attention to the button in the sidebar -->). And last November was my month to have them work their magic on my fabric. I'd sent out some unbleached muslin, some navy solid, and a bunch of aqua blues with a wee bit of green thrown in here and there. I asked for improv blocks with a fresh, beachy feel, inspired by mosaics. And these blocks could be 5", 10" or 15" per side, finished size.

And so tonight, instead of sitting at the machine, I played at the design wall with this stack of blocks.

And it became this:




Please don't mind the light at the left. It's about 9pm here, and I can't trust that the cats won't pull this down overnight. Pictures were a must.




I've actually already moved a couple of blocks. But this was to give me an idea of what gaps I'll need to fill. I have a stack of scraps left over, and will make a few smaller blocks, as well as use them to shim in here and there. Altogether, I am in awe. Nice job, ladies!

This will, at some point in the future, become a light spring quilt for my side of the bed--I run cooler than the furnace/aka the madman.

Catching up on bee blocks!

I've spent the past couple of weekends (short ones, as I've worked part of nearly every weekend for over a month--this makes life rather interesting) working to catch up on my bees. My free time lately seems to have dwindled to nil, and I feel bad that I've become one of those people, who is late by weeks for bee due dates. Ach! (Though apparently this happens to most of us at one time or another, so I should just relax. Right? Right.)

So, here's my catching up post.

For The Beehive, May is Julie's month, and she'd asked for log cabin-y blocks with plenty of white space and no wonk. She sent out gorgeous Kaffe prints, stripes and shot cottons to each of us, and here's what she got from me...

This is the only full-size block I made, coming in at 13" unfinished. I tried to limit the color palette of each block so that it would sing rather than clash. I'm rather fond of this one. :)



As I was worried about running out of the white solid, I followed Julie's suggestion to make a couple of "junior' blocks, which she could then use white to sash out to the full 13" once she got them back. I love this print, the green shot cotton really plays well with it.


And perhaps my favorite of the three. I wish I knew what this pumpkin-y orange was, I'd buy it in bulk. I'm not normally an orange girl, but this was just amazing. Thanks, Julie!



And for Ellen's month of the Coast to Coast Block Party bee...

She sent us some white solid along with charms and layer cake pieces to make "inside out" blocks in a style and size of our choice.

I made a little 8" Arkansas Star block, loving the secondary pattern of a little 4 patch in the middle.

And then, worrying that it wouldn't be quite what Ellen wanted--really, she gave us a lot of free reign, but she's swearing she loves them both, so I'm relieved!--I made a second block with a bit of wonk, squares in squares.

Lots of fun, loved the fabrics she sent, and had a great time with them! Thanks Ellen!


And lastly, I finally got past my quilter's block (heh) and made my block for Tracy--from April! I'd had just the hardest time wrapping my head around this one. Tracy, from my CtC Block Party Bee, had asked for blocks based on this artwork. My result, after much angst, was this:


Just a little dude, relaxing in some sunshine. Hope Tracy likes it ok. :)

The state of my scraps, and a giveaway

There comes a time in every quilter's life where, well, the scraps just seem to have taken over. I'm thinking that it's time to consider the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention." Because if I don't manage to invent a solution, my scraps are going to take over my sewing room.

What do I mean?




I just spent an hour and a half sorting through a ginormous heap of scraps and selvages, bagging scraps according to color (I've had to start a second bag of green scraps--uh oh!). I've made about 20 8" string blocks out of my blue scraps, and the bag is somehow still full. My aquas and white/cream bags are also reaching critical mass.

Now, I loves me some string blocks. And I could potentially do a good-sized throw of nothing but greens, or do a bed-sized using strings from all of these.

But.

I'm thinking maybe something different? The blues can continue to get funneled into the blue string blocks until I have enough to turn into a real quilt. I've gotten all sorts of ideas on flickr, but I'm wondering if anyone has any additional suggestions? I've got things ranged from 5" wide strips to little 1" squares. Leave me a comment telling me about your favorite uses for your scraps? Any scrap quilts out there you just love? Please share! I'd love to see them! I'll leave comments open until midnight on Thursday, 5/27, and then on Friday morning, I'll pick a winner.

What am I giving away? Silly question! I'm giving away some of those scraps! Among them, Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt, Heather Ross, and Joel Dewberry--and LOTS more!

Can't wait to see your suggestions!

Edit: Please, please, please--I'm going to need a way to contact the winner, and a number of you lovelies don't have an email in your profile for me to contact you. Please either edit your profile or leave a contact email in your comment--I'd hate for anyone to miss out!

Baby quilt, done!

I took a few pictures of the baby quilt I finished this past week before it went on to the baby's mama. :) 7 weeks til there's a little girl to go with it!



The sun was not cooperating this week--anytime I wanted to take a photo, it hid behind the clouds until I put the camera away!



It's a simple strippy quilt, a variety of 2.5" width pink strips at varying heights. I used a few leftover jelly roll strips, but mostly cut into stash for it. The dark brown is Kona Espresso, of course. I have a love affair with it, true, but the nursery colors are also to be pink and brown, so it was perfect. It has a thin border of Espresso around all 4 edges, and the binding is the same color. The back, not shown, (d'oh!) is the pink stripe with dark brown flowers from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line. It was perfect!

The final quilt was about 38" wide and 48" long. Perfect for snuggling a little girl!

This also makes finish #4 for Jacquie's Spring to Finish challenge. With one week left, I'm going to try and finish one more project!

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

This is my first year participating in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival, and boy, am I excited!!




This is Something Blue, which was finished just after Christmas, 2009.

(Why yes, that is my messy office. Thanks for noticing! :P )

A dear friend of mine's daughter was getting married to her high school sweetheart on January 2, 2010. I've known the family for about 5 years, and when I found out that the couple was engaged, I started to think about a quilt. Because really, in my opinion, every bride should get a quilt for a wedding gift. And then when I found out they were going to move to NC from CT right after the wedding, I thought harder. The couple was young (just 20), moving in to live together for the first time. I knew that their favorite colors were blue and green, that he was not a guy who would tolerate a whole lot of floweriness in his home, and that she had quite a modern style.

Enter the stacked coin quilt.

This is one of my favorite quilts for a variety of reasons. I love the design, and can totally see myself making one like it in the future, this time to keep. I essentially looked at a bunch of photos of coin quilts, then sat down and drew it out on some scratch paper, gave measurements for the dimensions, and went to town. Honestly, I'm finding I'm mostly incapable of following a pattern to the letter, so most of the time, I just work off of what I like and move on from there.

The fabrics are some of my favorites: KJR by Denyse Schmidt, dots from Kaffe Fasset and Amy Butler, Lizzy House, Joel Dewberry, Jennifer Paganelli... I chose to sash the long strips with cream instead of white, and I loved the result.



For the quilting, I chose straight lines in the solid stripes, at varied widths. And for the stacked coins, I chose to do a diamond pattern, giving a sort of argyle feel. I LOVE the way it turned out--it was a snap decision that I have never regretted. It gave some added interest without making more work--it actually went quite quickly, and the whole thing was quilted in a weekend. (For me, that's mad fast!) It's also the largest quilt I've machine quilted on my little Janome--48" x 66" after washing and drying. Might not seem so big to some, but it was a good challenge for me! It also gave me an idea of my limitations--I don't think I'll be quilting anything bigger than a twin on my home machine!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Can't wait to visit you all and see your gorgeous quilts!

A day in the life

Yesterday, the baby books quilt, 398.2, went to live with its new mama, whose baby is due in a short 7 weeks. There was lots of ooohing and aaaahing, and she's delighted. There was also much librarian dorkery (dorkishness?) over the quilt having a call number. I have a few finished photos of the quilt (pre-wash), but of course, the camera is not where I am. Those will get posted tonight or tomorrow. Along with a few other things which have occupied my time the last week or so. Pretty soon, there will even be a photo of a baby on the quilt! *grin*

All that baby-showering wore me out yesterday, so I went home and took a nap. This is fairly routine--by Wednesday or Thursday, a nap is sooo required. About 7:30, the madman, who was understandably anxious as he had not yet been fed, woke me up. Apparently, I was smiling in my sleep and he asked me what I'd been dreaming about. I told him I'd been dreaming about fabric-shopping (I've been extremely well-behaved in the acquisition department lately, and my subconscious has caught on), and that it was woooonderful!

So tonight, at his suggestion, we're going out for Indian food (omg, yum!), a stop at JoAnn's (only because neither LQS is open past 6pm on a Friday, and honestly, sometimes you do find some amazing things at JoAnn's--just sayin'), and potentially to see Iron Man 2. That last one is iffy--we may be too tired to manage a 10pm showing!

Lastly, just before bed last night, I got a sweet email from Evelyn over at Use the Loot, saying that I won her SMS May Giveaway for, get this, 140 6" squares from a variety of vintage linens!! I've been wanting to work with vintage sheets for some time--go poke around on Flickr and you'll understand why. Such amazing possibilities! But I've never had ANY luck with my local thrift shops, so this is just such a great windfall. *glee!* Thanks, Evelyn!

So tell me. Did anyone else get lucky during the giveaway spree? And with Market coming in fast and hot, what are you interested in seeing? A certain designer or fabric line you have your eye on?

Personally, I'm drooling over all the little snippets I've seen from Bonnie and Camille's new line, Bliss. I'm just not sure how I'm going to manage to wait until late summer/early fall for it!!

Inspiried by r0ssie

I, The Mad Quilting Librarian, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.



Photos and good stuff to share soon!

Urban Home Goods Swap--Received!

I got the most awesome package from Leslie over on flickr, from the first round of the Urban Home Goods Swap. So, so, so amazing!!

First, this gorgeous handmade card. LOVE it--so very sweet! :)

Along with some cute rosette magnets...


And magnetic pads. These all went up on my fridge immediately! I love these pads, and the little blue one is sticky notes. The underneath part is pieced hexagons in a clear plastic shell. And the best part is that one this pad of stickies is gone, I can pop a new one on and keep going--very green and very awesome!

And the piece de resistance?




A table runner of linen and Hope Valley hexagons. This is perfect! So amazing--thank you!! It has now been put away to use when the dining room table does not look like a bomb hit it. :D

Weekend stitching...

Don't you hate it when you have grand plans for your weekend off, and then you feel icky for part or all of that time?? Bleh! I had intended to piece the entire top for my co-worker's baby quilt (shower is less than 3 weeks away now) yesterday, baste it last night, and then start quilting it today. No go. I got the cutting and layout done yesterday in between breaks to go and lie down with a monstrous migraine. By the time I quit last night, I had a bit pieced, but that was it. Ugh!

This morning I woke up to heat and humidity (July weather in the first few days of May is not really my idea of a good time--we don't have the fans out of storage, let alone the AC!). The headache is still there, but less, so I finished piecing the top...

The nursery colors are brown and pink. I'm a dork, and a librarian, so this one is titled "398.2". Why? Because that's the Dewey decimal # for fairy tales, of course! (See, I told you I was a dork!)

It's a riff off of the bookshelves quilts I've seen on flickr, and specifically inspired by Cherri House's recent Moda Bakeshop tutorial. I used a few leftover jelly roll strips I had lying around from other projects, but the rest of it was out of my stash. I'm planning on adding a thin border of the Kona Espresso solid all the way around, and binding it in the same color. The backing I've picked out is from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line, a multi-pink stripe with a chocolate colored flower print. However, as the Madman is due home in a couple of hours (and he is my basting helper/slave), I'd better get moving on the border if this is going to at least be basted today. Here's to praying for a few cool evenings over the next week or two to do the quilting! Nothing more uncomfortable, in my opinion, than hot weather and a lap-full of warm quilt. : P

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend!

ps--If you're keeping track (I am), once this is finished, this will be finish #4 for Jacquie's Spring to Finish Challenge, 2010. It's never to late to start!

Three!

Finish #3 of 9 for the Spring to Finish challenge. No pictures until it has arrived safely at its new home, but let me just say that for a mini, there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears involved!! Literally!

Spring to Finish: Finishes 1 & 2

This challenge really has been the kick in the butt I needed. I've nearly completed a third project, and that will put me at 1/3 through my list. Crazy!

I don't want to show everything, on the off-chance that my super-secret swap partner reads my blog. Said partner is a quilty/crafty idol, and I worked really hard, so I hope that s/he likes what I made!


I promise that once it has safely arrived at my partner's home, I'll share the full monty. :D

News bulletin:

Have you been over here lately?? Exciting news is to be had!!

Spring to Finish 2010, a to-do list

Jacquie, bless her, is doing it again--I missed her Spring to Finish challenge last year, but I am SET this year! Six weeks (til the end of May) to finish up projects that have been hanging around and need to be cleared off!

So, the list:

1 & 2) The Urban Home swap projects

3) My mini for the STUD April swap.

4) A baby quilt for my co-worker, who is due this summer. (Has been started and scrapped twice. Hoping to stick with my new idea.)

5) Baby boy quilt (currently a stack of blocks) for my coming-soon etsy shop. (!!)

6) Baby girl quilt (basted) for said shop.

7) Simple Abundance quilt (currently the top is half-done)

8) The Madman's Man Cave Quilt (a stack of blocks waiting to be assembled).

and

9) The Madman's Xmas Stars quilt (which I started handpiecing a few years ago, and am nearly ready to sash the blocks and get moving forward).

Think I can get them all done?? Check back here throughout the next six weeks and see how I'm doing!!

Back from the quilt show!

My husband (bless him) and I just got back from spending a rainy Sunday afternoon at the bi-annual quilt show put on by the CT Piecemaker's Guild. I have to say, firstly, that the man really does listen. He asked about fabrics, techniques, remembered local vendors that I had visited in their brick-and-mortar stores. And he looked good doing it--there was more than one woman at the show who looked at him with a mix of surprise and approval, and a little jealousy. He was certainly in the minority this afternoon!

I didn't take very many pictures, I'm sorry to say. There were several that I loved for their layouts, their colors, or their workmanship--mind, most of what I personally liked didn't win anything. That's the thing about art--it's so subjective. What I did notice? A LOT of batik, a number of art-quilts, a surprising number of scrap and string quilts, and nearly everything was super-traditional. I have been challenged by several people to enter the next show, two years from now. Being that my style really tends to be more modern, I'm not sure what the reaction would be. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, of course. AND two years is quite a long time. With a little luck, I'll actually have another finish, period, between now and then!

Now, on to the pics I DID take...


The madman and I both liked this one--we both dig Asian-inspired work. The small patchwork is all 1" finished squares of a multitude of Asian-themed fabrics. The red borders are printed in small black kanji. I can't imagine the tedium of piecing so many tiny blocks--I admire the work tremendously, though.

Speaking of amazing:


This was titled "Pieces of My Past", and the quilter had worked for over 2 years on it. All paper-pieced hexes, by hand, and also hand quilted. 3,185 hexes in all. She said she used fabrics from her mother's hankies, her father's boxers, and her grandmother's aprons. I found it awe-inspiring, and it makes my own stack of hexes (just shy of 50, 2 nights of watching movies with the madman) pale in comparison...


My own little stack of 2" hexagons. I'm happy to have a handwork project going--makes me happier to sit and watch movies, because I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Another quilt I admired was this one:


This is about 1/4 of a Dear Jane reproduction. It was mostly hand-done, and took the quilter a year and a half of work, finishing just before the show. The squares were so tiny, no more than 5" finished. My fingers hurt just looking at it!


I also was impressed with this one--the colors here are muddy, but in life, even in the sub-par lighting (the one I took with a flash washed it out terribly), this glowed with amber and gold. In the note, the quilter mentioned that it took her two years to find all of the colors to grade this properly.

Finally, a cute little Christmas quilt


It was done in kaleidoscope quarters, just 4 little fussy-cut squares from the outer border fabric. The effect was quite lovely.


Now, to continue the glut of pictures, on to the spoils! There were vendors all around the perimeter of the show-room, plus two smaller conference rooms full of vendor stalls. I saw three that I was familiar with, chatting with the woman who had sold me my Janome last summer and talking about the move of her store's location in the coming weeks--the new shop will be right across the street from my favorite Indian restaurant, and right down the road from our favorite sushi place. I foresee a number of date-nights taking place over that-a-way! Sorry, Mr. Madman! I also saw a shop that I thought had gone out, but in fact had moved closer to me, so in celebration, I bought two charm-packs of Cotton Blossoms, which I am amassing a small stash of.



A third vendor, which is normally nearly an hour's drive each way, had a delicious spread! Tons of jelly-rolls, FQ packs and patterns. I picked up a FQ pack of some gorgeous Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey:


I love the vintage-sheet look of some of the larger-scale prints, and can see this worked into a great spring quilt.

And finally, I couldn't pass this up:



A FQ pack of Amy Butler's Love. I initially wasn't all that interested in the line, but after working with it for Kat's month of the Beehive, I fell in love with the large-scale paisleys and retro-feel prints. For now, this will be pet and patted and eventually, it will become something. I do hope to someday finish something I've already got started... Honest!

Coming up is my 4-day weekend sew-a-thon, so I'm hoping to post a bunch of pictures of new things, like Kat and Tanya's finished blocks for the Beehive, another block of the Jelly Roll quilt-along, and more hexes!!

Happy Quilting Day!

I know, I've been MIA. My crafting time dwindled to none in the face of a number of work and family crises over the last month. I have managed to get a few things accomplished, though.

I made up a little string mini for February's STUD mini swap:



And decided that I loved string blocks so much that I tackled my overflowing blue scraps bag, and turned these:



into a growing stack of these:



No idea what I'm doing with it yet. Perhaps a twin-size quilt for the guest room bed, once we're done redoing the room. Right now, there's just a stack of them hanging around on my desk.

I'm also working on blocks for the Moose on the Porch jelly-roll quilt along.



I'm using a Soiree by Lila Tueller jelly roll I had hanging around, and originally I was going to use Kona Coal as the solid to go with it, but changed my mind--it was too stark against the bright springy colors in Soiree. So I switched to Kona Ash, and so far, I'm much happier.


This is block #2. I haven't finished block #1 yet. I don't know why either. I'm recutting the solid strips for it out of Ash, now that I've stared at it made up with Coal for a week and change.

Also, I've done my March blocks for my Coast to Coast Block Party bee, for Jennifer:



She asked for block in Hushabye, incorporating photos she had printed onto fabric. Such a neat idea!

Just wanted to give a quick update, and share some photos. I'll try to be better about blogging--I have a lot of fun things coming up in the coming weeks: more blocks for both of my bees, layout playing with my Beehive blocks from November, more blocks for the quilt-along, a 4-day weekend with nothing scheduled but sewing, a new swap, AND a quilt show to attend!! WHEW!

What a good idea!

Moose on the Porch Quilts is hosting a Jelly Roll sampler quilt-along, starting March 1st. I don't know about you, but I definitely have a few orphan rolls in my stash with no project plans associated. I went ahead and signed up, and can't wait to dig in!

I'm a blog slacker...

But I HAVE been busy! HONEST!

Don't believe me?

Well, a mid-week snow-day (it is currently blizzarding here in CT) helped my productivity. Though I must say that had I not had to be at the vet's at 8am to pick up the kitty (who had his teefs cleaned yesterday), I might have just spent the day in bed. So thanks, little Timmy. :)

The thing that has been taking the bulk of my time the last few weeks was putting together this:


Made with Bonnie & Camille's Simple Abundance line, which I LOVE beyond belief. Oh, and my design wall's finally up. Heh. This has gone through a couple of re-sortings and now is sewn together and waiting for me to figure out what I'm doing with the borders. Yeah. I'll keep you posted. The interesting part of this is that regardless of the amount of pink and flowers in this, the madman has fallen in love with it and is dubbing it "his" quilt. Yeah right, pal. Get in line. This is the first quilt I have ever made with the intention of keeping it for ME. Dammit...


Ok, have put together a couple more of the free-form blocks that are my slow WIP:




I do apologize that the photos all have wonky lighting in this post. I typically wind up with either a gray day (like today) when I'm off, or I'm taking photos at night after work. Oh well. In any case, I'm liking these blocks and hope to get 12 more together for a baby quilt top. Someday.

I did take the opportunity today to catch up with my February bee blocks. For Bec in my Beehive group, a pinwheel and some little bitty 9-patches...

BTW, that stripey fabric is actually orange. It's just photographing oddly brownish today. Weird. /sigh


Also, a couple of free-form log cabin blocks for Ebony in my Coast to Coast Block Party bee.


I'm really loving the color combo, which is totally not my speed. I'm debating a quilt with this combo in my own future, though I would have to find an appropriate recipient, I think. It would not be one I think I'd keep and use.

I was really glad for the day off today. Have I maybe mentioned that? Work has been brutally stressful, and life keeps hitting weird bumps--last week, I had a 3-day allergic reaction to ...something. No idea what. Took until the end of the 2nd day of prednisone to get it to calm down--hives are not fun. The madman cut his hand at work on Saturday, badly enough that they sent him home for the day. And work. Well. It's budget season under a new administration in the town I work for. And it just is not pretty. So it was rather nice to have a day to sit home, watch the snow fall out my sewing-room window, and play with fabric.

It's the little things that make the rest bearable.

A partner in crime...

There's been quite a bit of talk around the blogosphere in the last week or so about a rash of new Modern Quilt guilds popping up all over the country. Kansas City? Has two of my quilt idols in there--Jacquie G. of Tallgrass Prarie Studios and THE Tula Pink. Now, if only I lived within driving distance of Kansas City, my life would be complete.

However, I live in CT. And that really is not close at all. There is talk of another one starting up in New England, but we're talking more up Boston way, and that's still between two and three hours of driving each way. *sad face* I was just hoping for something a bit more...convenient. Though there has been a bit of muttering about an NYC group, and that's just an hour or so by train, so it stands a better chance.

Now, it's not that I haven't looked at guilds before--there are a few in my area. One is kind of like the quilting mafia. Lots of rules, and if you cross them, you'll be swimming with the fishes. Seriously. Plus, they meet on a weekday morning, and for us working stiffs, that just doesn't cut it. The other one is smaller, which is ok too, but they meet the one night of the week that I work late, so they're out, too.

So I'm a loner, which is ok, too. And it's why I love the bees on flickr and the blog community of quilters and crafters, because it's still sharing and discussion, just without so many schedules and restrictions.

Today, I dropped off the Something Blue coin quilt--the couple is coming back from their honeymoon late tonight. And in talking to my dear friend, the bride's mom, she mentioned that she really wanted to learn to quilt. She wants me to teach her! Haha! Well, first things first, we need to teach her to use a sewing machine... :D So we've set a tentative plan for once a month to spend an evening together sewing. I can't wait!!

Starts and finishes

Two posts from me in one day? What's the world coming to?! Can you tell I'm on vacation??

We finally got a sunny day here in CT, so I took a few pictures of the finished coin quilt...


(We'll pretend my office isn't really that messy, ok? As PW would say, don't be like me.)

I love this quilt for so many reasons. I rather wish I was keeping it, so I see something like this in my future... It's backed with some gorgeous turquoise and white fabric from Jennifer Paganelli (I had exactly 2 yards of it, so there's also a strip of royal blue and white Kaffe Fassett dots, also seen in the coins on the front.), and bound with Amy Butler dots in Slate. I made sure that this wasn't a very "girly" quilt, as the recipients are a Marine and his new wife--their favorite colors are blue and green, she's a very modern kind of girl, and they're moving down to NC in the next month or so, so I wanted all of that to be reflected in the quilt. The bride's mother is a dear friend, and I've known the family for about 5 years now--how time flies...


I really love how the quilting turned out. I did randomly spaced straight lines along the off-white sashing strips, and then an argyle-type diamond along the coin strips. Have I mentioned that I love the Amy Butler dots? I'm delighted beyond belief that they're being re-released later this winter.



Gratuitous binding shot. Oh yeah...


I'm also getting to start on something new in the new year... I may have mentioned I have several friends who are all expecting between now and July, so I'm getting a jump on some baby quilts.



I love the brown and blue combos with the off-white sashing. These are both destined for a little boy quilt. I have stacks of fabric hanging around at the moment, waiting to become quilts. Do you do that? Go through and put together stacks, just to see what they look like together?



All of my Heather Ross fishes and seahorses hanging out together with a couple of solids, and some dots I can see using for the binding. Would make a cute little quilt, no? Oh, the possibilities...

2009 reflections, 2010 resolutions...

I've been thinking a bit about how much I've changed over the last year, in terms of quilting. I've stumbled upon the modern quilting movement, the quilt/craft blog community, some incredibly creative and inspiring quilters who make me want to push the envelope and try new things. I've learned to embrace brighter colors than I ever would have dared to work with before. I've learned that while I look terrible in yellow and orange, I love working with them! I've tried wonky and improv piecing--and fallen in love with the freedom they've brought to my approach to the creative process. I've discovered the generosity of my fellow craftspeople. I've accepted that the best-laid plans sometimes go awry, and that's ok--finishing a half-dozen blocks of a proposed 30 doesn't mean I've failed to finish a project, just that I've wound up with a kickass baby quilt instead. :) I'm teaching myself to quilt on my domestic sewing machine, and becoming more comfortable with every project.

I figure that since I've grown so much, I should set some goals so that I can continue to challenge myself in this new year.

1) Try and finish at least half of the projects I start, within the same calendar year. Note: I said try.

2) Learn to machine quilt in something other than straight lines. I love it, it's relatively straightforward (see wut i did thar?), but I should try out some stippling or other free-motion quilting. It's a goal to push outside of my comfort zone.

3) Try not to overextend myself so much, and set realistic goals and priorities. I'm member to two bees, and I participate in mini swaps (they take place each month, but I opt in when I think I have time). My goal is to make these my priorities, and work other projects in around them. Deadlines are good, too many deadlines and it stops being fun. This is supposed to be fun, right?

4) Work on keeping my space organized. Keep sewing table neat(er), stash reasonably tidy and organized. I work better when I can find things, so that's the goal there.

5) Document better. Bad light, poor skill, whatever. I tend not to take pictures of the process, and am slow to post the results of my endeavors. I really want to get better about this.

6) Finally, have fun. Experiment, try new things, and always learn.