Thursday, September 30, 2010

things i love on thursday

maybe it's time for things i love on thursday? or any day. or not at all, i dunno... so i haven't stopped spending many moments in my life thinking about the living room. i am still working on, mainly because i don't have the money to do everything at once. bah. hopefully i will be showing two new quilts by the end of the week, as well as my new wall art for the living room.

for that, my inspiration came from a catalog i saw recently. i love these...


they are recycled canvas. they have some great wall hangings as well, which is what i am going to do. i love the idea of reusing old fabrics for new. they could have a whole history behind them that you know nothing about. kinda cool. i am using new fabric though, in cotton duck. i did some tea dying, and i think i may have to do a bit more...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

it's happening...

yesterday on my lunch break i kinda went shopping. eck. i know. bad. bad. i didn't think i would actually buy anything, so what's the harm, right? i went to anthropologie, mecca for all who like mismatch boho afro indo mofo, well, you know. clothing wise, nada. they tend to be a bit too ruffly for me, but textiles, watch out! luckily, i am becoming madame seamstress, (ha!) so i stop myself from buying many of the quilty things, hell, i can make that, i says to myself. but then i saw these...


and they were $3.95 a piece! i grabbed the six they had. they are a thin linen style cotton with a cute little trim. of course, they don't go with anything else i have at the moment, but i loved them. call it inspiration for anna maria horner's innocent crush. nice.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

colorful sunday

well, not colorful outside. it's rather dreary, though i'm not complaining. it hasn't actually rained much lately, and since we just had a freakish heat wave of, like, 90 plus, today is 70 and rainy. eh, take what you can get. but it's still a colorful day, because i started a new quilt! remember those strips...they are slowly becoming squares...


i am in love with this palette...it started with a love, as i am sure many have, of gingham. i mean, come on, who doesn't love its perfectly square shades, going on forever in perfect harmony? yeah. so... gingham lead to stripes, which was leading to quite the red quilt, but then i saw this wonderful little bird pattern, v. v. country fun, which made it easy to add the blue/green damask style, and the wonderfully simple black and white pattern, and what you get is this....

great, right? i am in love with it right now, as i am in love with every palette that i do at the time. i haven't even thought about the back yet, which i always like to have fun with, so it's gonna be a great early fall quilt! yeah!

Friday, September 24, 2010

a fresh start...

so last night after i bought my new machine online at mr. vac at mrs. sew, which are super awesome by the way, (i will get back to that)... i decided to start cutting for a new quilt!


a while back i was at joanns with momski. if you have ever been there, you know there is a wall of cotton fabrics, a sea patterns and colors. you may also know that there is some, well, let's say, some are more economical prints. so as i was weeding down the row, i started to pull, and low, i created a quilt as i went! i was told it had a 50's country kitchen vibe, so what better than to make a log cabin quilt! i am using one of kaffe's patterns as a starting point, from his super awe inspiring book, quilts in the sun...


it's a great inspiriational book, i hope to make a book like this one day, maybe, i think, who knows. at any rate, i did a bunch of cutting, because, i told you i would tell you why good old mr. vac and mrs. sew rule, cause my machine already came!!! i ordered it yesterday afternoon, and bam! in my home the next night. (thank you, new jersey!)

i have already sewn two squares, so we are off and running. i also was able to finish the back cloth for my english garden quilt, ready to baste, quilt, and finish the fool!

i feel so efficient, and whisper quiet. (janome, so far, you rule!)





Thursday, September 23, 2010

the future is now!

i just bought a new machine! yeah! happy! yeah!, did i mention i'm happy!!! last night i had my first class at Spool, and as they were all picking their fabrics, cutting, and sewing perfect little strips, i was dying inside. ok, well, not dying exactly, but v.v. fluttery about getting a new machine. so today, on my day off, i have sat at this computer doing the final debating about what to get...and as shocked as i am, it's not a singer, but a janome...


it's the DC2010, and it's kinda greeny/blue. nice eh? you know that the color was the final deal breaker, but from what i read, janome is the man, man. i just keep reading more and more reviews where people are unhappy with their singers. i had a singer, my mom has singers, i teach (hehe, i teach...) on singers, but i am gonna cry if i have to deal with the same problems i dealt with all year in the dying phase of my singer refurbish. this new janome sounds like a work horse, a work horse with 50 sweet stitches!

so we will see. it's only coming from jersey, so hopefully i will be sewing early in the week! now i just need to do a bunch of cutting, gotta be prepared! yeah!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

dead, dead, deadski

my sewing machine has died. just now. in the middle of sewing the back piece of a quilt, the side wheel ricocheted and bent, and i don't know what, a piece came off, it was slightly traumatic...

 let's look at a sad yellowy picture of it while i stare into space. bah.

Monday, September 13, 2010

cut twice, measure once.

cut twice, measure once, right? that has to be right. oh wait, that is absolutely totally wrong! like me! bah! as you may know, one of my many projects in the basket right now is my ruffle quilt... i finally got a chance to grab some more of the fabric for the actual pleats, which, of course, i underestimated... surprise.

so i take it home...wash it up...start to cut 3" strips...WAIT! 3" strips, you fool! it's supposed to be 4" strips, which i friggin' wrote on the sheet for the quilt pattern, which i didn't follow, cause i'm an idiot. awesome.

so now i have to trot down to spool, get some more, wash that, press that, and cut 4" strips with that. seriously, this thing is never going to be done! nevermind the fact that it will revolutionize baby quilts as we know it. you'll see....

for now, look at this pretty picture of a lovely kitchen i realize it's actually a miniature, that my mom built! tah!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

gauche flowers

holy guacamole, i haven't posted on this thing in over a week. that is bad. it's not like i don't have anything to say. i always have things to say, i just haven't said them, it, whatever. i haven't done a lot of sewing this week to be honest. i am in limbo right now, one where like four projects are going on at one time, and i don't have the things i need to finish any of them. that has been somewhat alleviated though, as i stopped by spool today to grab some supplies. i am also v.v. excited, for next week i will be making my sample for the class i'm teaching, little green tree fabric, i am sooooo coming for you! i also grabbed some of the tufted tweet in blue and green from them. oh man oh man, i needed it! i want to cover my life in it!


it's by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman. It makes me so happy.

you know what else makes me happy? i usually grab flowers from this little street vendor after work once a week. walking by, she had these crazy orchids, which i had to have...

when i brought them back to work, i was basically told they were a bit gauche, as they are colored flowers, or whatever, something about food dye... i, for one, do not care. gauche me up! i know nothing about flowers, nothing! only that they are sometimes pretty, and sometimes awesome! these flowers...awesome.

so now i have fabrics drying all over the house from their pre-wash. gotta get sewing. big time. promise, something new will be finished in the next day or two. promise!