how did this happen.

For her birthday, Sandra asked me to go camping, that was the only thing on the list. Camping is not something I really want to do, I have never wanted to do! I did agree to it though for a weekend in the fall, which seems to be soon approaching. I figured while I am agreeing to going camping, then I might as well make a blanket to bring and to mark the event. I am not one for theme type of quilts or "cute" themes, but I must admit that a lot of the camping related imagery is fun, and I enjoy it. So there, I found one positive thing about camping. 

I am paper piecing most of the blocks for this quilt, which is good practice for a more complicated paper piecing, which sometimes still feels like math for me. It does not always make sense. I did get a bit frustrated with some of the blocks so far, to the point that I refused to take out a mistake that I did not notice until the end. Even though it bothers me every time I look at it... I will most likely fix it one of these days. 

So there is a camper, vintage and fun. I had to add a camper. 

The tent. I wish real tents looked this cool. (Notice the trees in the background are off, yep that was me giving up.)

The fire, because there will be marsh mellows! 

And of course a canoe. ( notice the oars, yep gave up there too..) 

I am actually looking forward to going to the mountains with Sandra and some Friends in the fall on the adventure. I am going to make a couple more paper-pieced blocks and the rest will be more random. Again I am using a large assortments of fabric for this project, and was partly inspired to make it because of all the camping related fabric out there at the moment. I might leave a clean patch on the backing for everyone to sign with fabric markers, to remember "that time I agreed to go camping". 

complete.

The small paper-pieced quilt that I have been working on is now complete. It is so satisfying to finish a quilt, no matter how large or small it is a very rewarding feeling. This is a small quilt about 36 inches by 36 inches. I made this little one, as a gift for a baby shower. The parents went on Safari for their honeymoon, and I know that they love animals, so it seemed fitting. Even though I know the gender of the baby, I am not fond of pink and blue being the only solutions for baby gifts... or pastels for that matter. I used mostly neutral grey, black, white and then threw in the flamingo, elephant and safari prints.
It was a fun little project to work on that moved quickly, and I loved the quilting process on this one, which usually seems like a bit of a chore to me. I also love the way the overage of patterns works with the quilt. They are excessive I probably could have pared them down, but at the moment, I am really enjoying working with many patterns and prints at once.

For the quilting I used a grey thread and outlined each of the "books", then I sewed a 1/4'' around each of the joining corners. I love the way it turned out and the drape of the finished piece is great it folds so nicely. I think I will quilt more things like this in the future with the solid lines running up and down, creating a grid. In the past I think that sometimes I swore off quilting process because I was trying to make it too complicated, this just seemed to work. 

book worms

 I have been productive in the studio the past weeks, the garden looks pretty good considering the summer weather has taken its toll on it, and the days are getting shorter again. In August I always notice  the change of summer and fall peaking through, even though it is still hot, the nights are longer, and the trees are already spitting their leaves. I love this time of year, I love late summer and fall. I am taking it in each day, trying to work a little in the studio and get some time outside too. Here are a couple of books that I have been reading lately... When I am not sewing or playing in the dirt. 

I have been reading a lot of books the past couple of months,  which is nice. For a while I seem to have been floating around looking for a great book and finally last fall I found this series, which I have written about before, that is a well written collection. They are the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, and I have read seven of them so far. There is one more I just started and in late August the next one comes out. She writes beautifully describing things in such a way that you feel as if you are in the tiny village in Canada. It is always nice to find books that are written so well that you feel as if you have been transported to where ever they take place. I really recommend them, they are classic type mysteries but the is so much more to them than the average mystery.

After being stuck in the airport for two days I ran out of things to read and bought this. The Art Forager

by B.A. Shapiro, I finished it quickly, it is definitely a nice fast read. The book  is based on the Gardener museum art theft that occurred in 1991. It pulls from real life and makes a work of fiction. I love Degas artwork so reading about him was neat. Since one of my favorite movies is The Thomas Crown Affair this was a perfect summer read, it encased some of the elements that I enjoy about art thieves and the art world. 

the finish line

It has been another busy couple of weeks, between work, going out of town and life.... Somewhere in the middle of it all I did manage to finish my "cross-quilt". This project was inspired by the traditional look of the first aid kits and of course the red cross symbol. I love the look of the simple shape and thought it would a great composition with some of my favorite collections of fabric. The design is my own the piecing is my own too. This is the first quilt that I have ever sent out to be top-stitched by Kelly Woods of i-quilt . I have always been torn on sending something out to be quilted but I must admit that I love the final outcome, and I was still able to choose the quilt pattern and thread color. I feel as if I still had all of the say in the design work and just a little time saver with the quilting... It is a nice feeling, considering that is never my favorite part of making, and long arm machines have give a really nice finished look. 

I enjoy this fuzzy picture, my camera got all fuzzy from the cold house to the HOT HOT HOT outside. 

In focus. I used 26 different fabrics all together and 5 different designers. 

The back. I am pleased with this backside. 

Nice drape. 

Paper Piecing

I recently purchased this book by Ayumi Takahashi, and despite the somewhat cheesy title, love the projects and the book itself. It is a second volume of the Zakka Style book that has become one of my favorites and this one is right up there as far as well written, and beautiful projects. The main reason that I purchased this book was the very descriptive paper piecing instructions. It has been years since I have paper-pieced anything and recently I have really wanted to because of the precision and accuracy of it. I needed a re-fresher and this had the best instructions and a lot of paper templates to copy. Definitely a good buy.

I had to practice, just like riding a bike it does come back to you, but you must make a few to get into the groove again. The more blocks I made the faster I got. The first day I made one block in two hours, it kept messing up and remembering which side of the fabric to face each way became complicated. Then the second day I made 7 blocks in 3 hours so I have definitely gotten back into the process of making a paper-pieced block. 

I either have friends getting married, or friends having babies, every couple of years it happens again like a cycle. (One day this will pass, as we get older, but I enjoy it at the moment). Since there are more babies on the way, and I love making a baby-quilt I practiced my paper-piecing on the book project inside of the Patchwork book. The fabrics above are what I am using (the parents of this baby love Safari animals.)

It took a few trials, some seam ripper action, and lots of patience... 

By the end of the day yesterday I had blocks that were successfully looking like books! I need to remember my notes on color theory though, because its funny how the shape of the book shows so well against some of the fabrics and got lost with others. Good practice, and a fun project in the works.

I took my cross-quilt to be quilted on a long arm machine, I should get it back today... I am nervous, I have never sent anything out, and even debated on if it was cheating for a while. I was re-assured by many traditional quilters that it is ok to send a quilt out to be topstitched. It is easier than working with the bulk on my small machines. Hope it comes back and I love it, then I can send others out. Which will save me time and frustration! 

hexagon

My scrap bin was starting to look like an overflowing mess! So I have decided to use my scraps and turn them into "hexagon" fabric. I have been creating combinations and making pieces out of the hexagons that can either be combined later to make a blanket or turned into other small projects. I love the quiet that comes with putting these together and the thinking that comes from hand-stitching. It is a good way to use time in-between projects.

june moments.

It has been a productive month, but I have once again become negligent with this blog... apologies! Here are a few things I am currently loving. 

Mr. Handsome above, my little studio mate- Achilles, got a lovely new bow tie. I love how it looks and want to copy the idea and make some. This one came from Target and is awesome it straps onto any collar. 

The July issue of Country Living is one of the prettiest covers I have seen in a long time, and of course the bed frame is from Anthropologie. (One of my favorite places).

Seed packets have the loveliest drawings of flowers and specimens on them. I love all the different kinds out there, but this brand about has some of the most beautiful images.

My fabric stash was getting a little bit out of control and I had to shift and purge some things in the studio to make room for the ever-growing mountain of fabric. The best part is that I not only found space for everything but also got to get rid of some things in the process, which always feels like a battle, with my crafting-hoarding tendencies.