Thursday, January 27, 2011

snow day

last night my darling wasn't feeling so well. so as he did not sleep through the night, i did not sleep through the night. neither did the snow. i was woken up to a phone call from work telling me to not bother coming in as we got 15 inches over night...


doesn't the backyard look beautiful? ahhhh, urban living. alfie doesn't seem to mind, he keeps asking to go out back and investigate...


you just can't stop that beagle nose...

or those beagle paw prints throughout the house! bah. well, it's snowy, whatcha gonna do... oh wait, i know, quilt!


ever have those fabrics that you need to use, like, right now? yeah... so why not make some great wonky diamonds. i call them wonky as they aren't exactly diamonds, are they? similar. i tried a new piecing technique to make 2 triangle squares. instead of cutting out mountains of triangles, then sewing them together, (like i did, may i say, with the oh! oh! geometrico quilt), you cut out strips, sew 'em together, then use a square to cut them out. did it make oh so perfect triangle/squares? yes'um. was it a huge waster of fabric? yes'um.


this quilt is 36x36 and i used almost 3 yards to make it. massive waste. now i have all these dinky weird cuts of triangles. still, i am happy with the end results. on final evaluation, i would still recommend the technique for a beginner. it can help one with truing, cutting, edging, all that good stuff. maybe i will do a tutorial. hmmm... lemme think a bit.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

handmade olympics

so after reading dear sweet anna maria's posts, (man i was a couple days behind, can you believe it?!?), i saw that rikrak studio is having it's annual handmade olympics. there are eight events, and i have nominated myself, (ego-what?), for event number eight: our favorite blog with a handmaking focus. i mean, i have a blog, i make handmade, i am a favorite, well, at least my mom's favorite quilting/design/crazy persons blog. (i've won already, i know, i know), so why not give it a whirl... (oh, and anna maria horner is the judge for this event, which, i mean, man oh man, it's like having marc jacobs judge your best outfit: you hope for the best, but you say, who cares, he noticed me! same kinda thing...

right, so, what was i saying? oh yeah, olympics, event 8, me, lack of confidence, nah. i mean yeah, i mean, oh whatever! but you know, just in case someone in the universe was thinking, "so what have you done anyway, kayhart? who are you?" here are some samples du art...


ok, well, thanks!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

london loves

ahhh, london, the city that never sleeps. wait, that's not right. but this is...


the inspiration for this quilt was from a book at spool called city quilts. it's full of modern quilts, done in solids. it talks about color palettes, block design, all that good stuff, so when i was in the solids section of the fabric store, and i had a small epiphany, i can make a solid modern quilt too! (ok, maybe not an epiphany then, but close!)


it is a bit of a side step for me, lover of more is more when it comes to patterns and colors. this is five colors: navy, turquoise, kelly green, gray and white. (mom said no white, but she didn't have my vision, see now mom...)


it's comprised of brick rows and alternating mini rows. i am a big fan of easy cutting, and this was just that with all the mini blocks maintaining the same width with varying lengths. to tie it all together i used a striped kaffe as the binding, incorporating all the shades within.

the next one is going to be in reds, yellows, and oranges. better get to it. oh, and this quilt will have a pattern, and it shall be named the london quilt. (love you cath!)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

it's aaah-rt

hey, check out my new painting...


isn't it neato? i didn't actually do it, but i bought it, which is like, you know, totally close. all i know about it is that it was done by someone named mRock in '66. i think. who knows, who cares, it's a deer! yeah! the colors are super vibrant and it's great. (sigh.)

i got it on my last trip to maine, at the arundel antique market, which is a bunch of neat stuff, and a bunch of junk. my painting had a horrible frame that i just ripped off and left at ma mom's. i need to go to ac moore and have it framed. it is going to go above our bed, between 2 great yellow wall sconces i got on etsy. (i really should get this stuff sorted out...)

funny how our living room is modern chic, well, i'm trying for modern chic, and our bedroom is an homage to all things patchwork, bright, and busy. isn't it nice having options in life...

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

boy oh boy

have i been a slacker or what? actually....no. still, i haven't posted in forever, which is terrible. it's not for lack of posting, but rather for lack of light. the deep dark dungeon that is our home lends nothing to photography. so much so that i actually think i am going to buy a professional light to help out. blech. but a girls gotta do...

so... announcing....drake!


i have decided to name my first pattern the drake quilt. here he is with all his boyish charms...


now why drake you say? well, i've been thinkin... (oh no!) i have been doing variations on this log cabin style quilt for a while now...bohemian style, nice and sunny, and i thought, you know, i gotta name this fella before it's too late. and i must say, man, naming things can be hard. just ask the parents of aloysius macgilicutty greenbaum. it's tough. i wanted to stick with a theme, and just in case one didn't know, i love all things elizabethan. (pssst, you know, the golden age of england, tudor history, bah! go rent the movie with cate blanchett.) anyhoo, this quilt is a lot of round and round, so why not drake, like sir francis, circumnavigator and all around traveler. sounds good to me.


trust me, it all makes sense. and if it doesn't, eh, it's still a great pattern. i should have the hard copy done soon! etsy, i'm comin for you.

so pardon me, i have some quilting to do, the london quilt. (see, get it now?) it's an homage to city structure, modern style, and cathy. ciao!

Friday, January 7, 2011

friday alright

got a lot done today, yet... i feel like there is so much more to do. i didn't sew for like, 2 weeks practically. christmas, new year, filthy house, time away from man and dog. i didn't feel like i could fit in it. then on tuesday i had my first class of the year, new group of beginning quilting, and bam! i'm back!


i would actually be finishing my third version of the baby quilt right now, but i am a tad short on the binding, but no worries, i will grab it first thing in the morning and by tomorrow evening this baby will be done. baby, get it? baby. ha.

i also managed to scour the house, do a bit of painting, wall type, not the fun canvas type, and i cooked dinner, watched martha, and laundered. the other night i also managed to get a curtain done...


i say curtain, single, because when i was at spool the other day and i was asked, "how much muslin do you need?" i wasn't thinking correctly and said one yard, not one and half. doh. so i have one curtain with my one yard. again, that will be done by the end of the weekend. no foolin....


i am totally digging the way they came out though. very basic lined curtain with 4 inch patchwork in anna, of course, and a few other lovely additions, but i am in love with the way the light still comes through. our bedroom is the only room in the house that is actually bright, and i didn't want to take away from it. on the bottom tier of the windowpane i have that frost paper up because i don't want to cover the whole thing in darkness. (just wanna keep the creepy people behind us from seeing in, always smoking on his back porch he is, eck.)

so now i have privacy and pretty sunshine! woo! so, now it's kinda late, and i need to tidy up the kitchen before bed... class in the morning. so much to do!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

best of something

so it's that time when everyone is making best of lists, recapping their year, and making resolutions. bah. i mean, don't get me wrong, i've been trying. (and when i mean trying, i mean sitting down here and thinking, huh, i haven't blogged in a while, i should write something.) but hey, that's ok, a famous writer once said it's better to write something than nothing, i think. so here it goes...

what am i grateful for, (wait, is that thanksgiving?) or what am i proud of in the last year? this is when i become cynical sally... cause, i dunno. it's like back in school, when you would have to write an essay about something in your life, you know, what you want to be when you grow up, or how you changed over the summer, and i came up with an expose on what does it really mean to be a grownup, or what was change exactly? i always thought i was being so clever, then i would get a B-. so one can see why i have trouble thinking this one through.

what i do know, however, is that...

i took a sewing class to meet new people and try something i once enjoyed, and rediscovered passion through fabric and design, and now i get to be a teacher... (so cool!)


i also made the first true friend of adulthood in said class. you can't go wrong there...

i bought a shiny new seafoam green bicycle that opened my eyes to traveling this city again, a place i had learned to hate. now, not so much...


i started a blog, knowing for a fact that no one is really reading it, and not caring... too much...

i pet my puppy dog everyday, knowing he is the handsome-est pup in the universe, and that he is someone who makes me truly happy...


i held on to my guy for another year, not knowing sometimes why he hasn't run, and sometimes hoping i know exactly why he stays...

i am sure there is so much more, but before i get all weepy, i guess i'll say what i do really think... it's not bad to remind yourself that it's not so much what you did, but what you are doing that counts.

oh, and anna maria horner totally commented on my blog!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!