This Week

We are operational again folks. 

So much has happened this week! The block above is actually part of a finished quilt now, inspired by the Sparkle Quilt-Along. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures and show you soon. I was so happy to find the perfect block to finally show off some of my hoarded Echino. 

I had lots of good mail built up after getting back from vacation. That definitely helped soothe the post-vacay blues. These adorable vintage dresses came from Stacy. She swapped for a box full of children's clothing patterns for the 50's and 60's. I know she will put them to good use, and Elsie will look pretty dang cute in these- thanks Stacy!

The top package is my winnings from Tara's jacket sew-along, and the bottom is some swapped fabric from Nicke. Both such very generous packages!

I couldn't resist putting Nicke's Kona Coal to use right away on some star blocks. Have you noticed that everyone seems to have gone star crazy lately? There are so many great star tutorials out there to try. I'm hoping that this eventually becomes a quilt with a plethora of stars on a dark nighttime-y background. On the left is Sheila's Quattro Stagioni star and on the right is Jeni's HST sawtooth star.




Since I'm kind of just dumping everything worth blogging about into this post, I'll tell you two more good bits of news-

First, that I'm the new vice president of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild! Granted, the election was uncontested :) But I'm so excited to serve this year with president Andie, as well as the rest of the board- Sarah S, Sarah H, and Danielle. I've been a member since the fall, and the guild has meant so much to me creatively. It's kind of like my inspirational internet peeps come to life. I love it!

Second, on Friday I taught my first class at Sewn Studio! I was pretty happy with how everything went, and my students seemed to be as well. It was the first of a two-part sewing with knits class making this raglan tee pattern. I always have this totally unreasonable anxiety when it comes to those types of situations that I will suddenly forget everything I know about whatever topic I'm talking about... or that I don't really know what I'm talking about to begin with. Of course, neither of those things happened. And people said they actually learned a lot. That's pretty exciting to hear as a newbie teacher.




Just wanna say thanks for reading. Sometimes I'm such a flakey blogger that it annoys me. Other times, I'm flakey and I don't care one bit because I'm cuddling babies or having living room dance parties or making so many things that I can't find time to write about them. Either way, some of you come around quite often and your comments make me real happy. So thanks!

On the Interwebs (with swaps, bees, and sew-alongs)

I had so much fun looking through the blog Advanced Style. I don't consider myself a very stylish person now, but maybe I'll learn by the time I'm 70-something...
"I don't want to look younger. I want to look great at any age."

 I don't really do much holiday decorating, even Christmas is pretty minimal around here, but I love this idea and really want to do it for Halloween. Heck, maybe I'll just do it for the premiere of The Walking Dead. Zombies!!






My iphone case busted so I bought a new one this week. Nick found this fantastic site full of independent artists' designs. We fought over who would get Steve Zissou, but in the end I got the faceted pattern. I really like the seahorse too though.

I joined a swap. Never done one before. I also joined a quilting bee. I may have gone a little quilting crazy... And it turns out the quilting community on Flickr is, um, flourishing. It's like I've joined a cult or something :)

The swap is called For the Love of Solids, so you know that's right up my alley. Here's my inspiration mosaic. Basically, your partner looks at this and a questionnaire you fill out so they can figure out what you like and what to make you.

The bee is do. Good Stitches. I'm really excited to get started on our august quilt. We are making blocks in the style of this quilt, but with gray backgrounds. I can't wait to get started and to see what we all put together. Interwebs community art project for good.







And in case you missed it, I am starting a Sew-Along through the Oliver & S Small Things to Sew! Find out more here and leave a comment if you think you might like to join in. I'll be back next week with  more details.


Have a happy hot weekend everyone. We are lying low from this suffocating midwest heat, and hopefully doing a lot of sewing.


OH! And my first quilt is all finished. I'm in love. Pictures Monday.

Funny Valentine

Do you ever make something that comes out so goofy looking it kind of becomes cute again? That's how I feel about this hippo-like valentine stuffie I made for H.

It's big enough to hug and has belting arms with velcro so it can hug you back. Well, that's mostly so I could hang it in various spots around the house today for Hendrix to find. The eyes are vintage buttons from my grandmother's collection, and you can't see in the picture too well, but the legs have Wizard of Oz characters on them, you know, because hippos love that movie. 

There's a pocket on the back for little Valentine's Day treasures for him to find each time. This morning when he woke up, the Vday Fairy Godhippo had brought a new little Cheetah. He's big into cheetahs lately. 

Maybe the Fairy Godhippo will visit every year? Who knows. I am so not into Vday, but I can definitely get into making it fun for the kids. I'm sure I will also have more fun with it when they are in school and we get to craft Valentines for the classmates. My mom thought it was a little crazy that I got Hendrix gifts and nothing for my actual Valentine. He's a server in a fancy schmancy restaurant, so Vday means one thing- busiest night of the year. He'll be making that money tonight and I'll probably be sewing up Baby Girl's crib bedding. We are romantic like that.

Most of the fabric I used was from a scrap exchange I did with Tara of SewTara. (By the way, I still don't think she has got my package yet and we sent them on the same day. She lives in Canada, so the Canadian postal service wins. So they have that and Justin Bibber going for them.) She sent me all these cute scraps, plus a lovely little pincushion she made. It was really fun to do a scrap exchange because everything I got is pretty different from the fabric I normally buy. I always love the Japanese prints and cutesy animal fabrics I see on the internet, but I just don't spend my money on them. Now I have some of my own. I'll have to figure out some more scrappy projects to use these up on.



Happy VDay!

Craft-Swappin

I made a couple of bags this week for good friends. I didn't want to charge these lovely ladies, and since they are both makers of things as well, I suggested we barter. How very Oregon Trail of us.

For Olivia, I made this bag (which I'm totally spoiling for her since she hasn't received it yet)

And I'm going to get this adorable print from her shop:

And for my newlywed friend Jessica, I made this bag

For which I've already received a large jar of her honey:

That's right, she keeps bees in her backyard, and harvests (is that the right word?) their yummy TN honey herself. How cool is that? It's delicious. (Although I'm not supposed to eat it right now, I sometimes have to sneak some.)

So this makes me think about the whole swapping thing. There are lots of us bloggers/etsy-ers who make things, and would also like the things that others make. Does anyone know of any sites set up for organizing swaps? It would be nice if you could put a handmade item out there, and also let people know what kind of thing you are looking to swap for, whether it be art, supplies, edibles, or other specific handmade items. Once you have a taker, you could organize the rest on your own terms. I'm sure there is something like that out there. If not, maybe we could just make our own? Suggestions? Thoughts?