last night...

we had the most amazing quilt guild meeting! we were lucky enough to have anna maria horner come and visit!






she is so cute and fun! what i really love about her is that she's an all-around crafty lady, not just a quilter. she's releasing an embroidery book this year, has worked in fashion design and is a trained fine artist. she's taken the skills she's learned since she was very young and made a nice little niche in the world for herself, which is all any of us hope we can do.

i'm still really overwhelmed by the night and it's given me a lot to think about. so i'll let the pictures do the speaking for me from here on! enjoy!

busy bee

i have been sewing non-stop the last couple of days! i started working on a commission for a cute little girl. it's been fun skyping with her mom, but it's so weird to work with a long-distance client! it's been a learning experience. lots of emails and pictures back and forth.




i feel like we're on the same page and it's so fun to work with someone who's so excited about the process!

i have also been working on my farmer's wife quilts with fervor! my friends and i had decided to shoot for 4 blocks a month, but i'm already done with six! who knew i would love making 1-inch half square triangles so much?




if this week is any indication of how the rest of the year will pan out, i can't wait to see what's in store!

hello, 2012!

well, i made a few resolutions this year. one is to keep up with this blog a little more! it's been pretty hard to fit computer time into my new schedule of hanging out with my dog and watching every bbc miniseries... i mean, sewing all day! that's what i'm doing!




i have been trying to get caught up on all my outstanding bee blocks. these are for the 4x5 modern quilt bee on flickr. these have been lots of fun to make!




and this is a farmer's wife block, my first! it's from the fantastic book, the farmer's wife sampler quilt. the patterns seemed so over the top and out of my comfort zone, but this one actually came together quite easily! granted, it's one of the most simple. but i'm glad i didn't get too intimidated for too long. only bought the book about six months ago... heh. it took a little while to get up the courage to get started.

well, here's to 2012 being a great year! i have lots of fun stuff in the works to share with you guys. i can't wait!

pink!

lately i have been working a little bit out of my comfort zone for some very special people. a couple that i know is currently fostering to adopt an adorable little girl. it's such a wonderful and selfless thing, and i really wanted to send them a quilt for their cute girl.




it's SO PINK. she loves the color, so of course that's what i had to use. i actually had a bit of it in my stash, but it took me a while to build up enough scraps and colors to make it the pinkest quilt, possible. i hope i accomplished that!

together

here is one of the first of many collaborative projects that i have been working on as of late. this one is for my friend lindsey's birthday. she had mentioned to me in passing that she would really like throw pillows for her new couch. i agonized and quizzed everyone i knew about whether to surprise her with pillows that i made, or to let her know on her birthday that i would be making her pillows. i opted for the later, and i'm so glad i did.

i really wanted to make sure that she ended up with something she would really love, and use! she came over after work one day and we went through all my fabric. i think my stash was pretty overwhelming to her. sometimes too many choices are not very helpful! we narrowed it down to the fabrics and colors that she liked and she left the rest pretty much up to me.

i had her look through some books to get an idea for what sort of pattern she'd like. she really liked the planetarium quilt in elizabeth hartman's a practical guide to patchwork, so i went with that one for the first pillow. then i tried to make another one that was less busy, but still complimentary.

when i first made the hourglass blocks (a day after she picked the fabirc!) i was not too happy with how they turned out. then this week the guilt of not getting it to her set in and i pushed ahead with the rest of the project. i think in the end it really came together nicely and i hope she likes them!