NYC

We went up to New York a few weeks ago to adventure around what they now call "downtown Brooklyn" and for a day with the brilliant Heather Ross. 

The Brooklyn flea is pretty amazing dealers from all over the place have great vintage and antique finds, as well as hand crafted furniture, jewelry, ceramics, and clothing. I was surprised by how clean all of the antiques were, it makes sense considering that the people of New York do not have yards to scrub down their purchases. It was just a big contrast to Va where you can find some great things but often times they require a scrub down. 

Williamsburg, Brooklyn at dusk was a really beautiful view of Manhattan and a nice time to sit and enjoy the summer night. Many people seem to come sit and relax here after dinner... pretty quiet, you almost forget you are in NY. (Finally used the panoramic feature on my phone).

Sunday I participated in an all day Heather Ross workshop. It was nice to meet one of my favorite textiles designers and some other talented illustrators. We crafted most of the day, and after lunch took a little walk down to the Seaport museum, above. They have printing presses that date back to the 1700's and the building itself is one of the oldest in Manhattan. It was a really beautiful place, and I got to stock up on some papers, tags.

Heather and I. 

Neat seat cushion made out of the new Heather Ross fabric. 

Before we left on Monday we stopped over in SOHO because no trip to NYC is complete without a stop at Purl. I stocked up on my Liberty fabrics and such. We also went to the Flatiron district and ran into the Fish Eddy's store, what a great selection of pottery and glassware! It was not my usual trip to New York, where I hide in the art museums all day, however it was lovely to eat the food, see where the locals are hanging out and enjoy the time away with Sandra. 

losing the mind, such a great idea.

Last week I had a lot going on and I could not get myself to work on my current quilt project in the studio. So instead I lost my mind and started paper piecing 1/2" hexagons. To give you an idea to the size of these it is about the size of a nickle. I used all liberty fabric and make a patch of 12"by 20". I want to use this piece of fabric that I made to make a pillow for my bedroom. I want a really pretty pillow for a special spot in my bedroom and this seems like the perfect solution. I will say it was a little bit harder to work in this size but definetly not as bad as I thought it would be. I think working with a lawn fabric makes it easier because it bends and molds so smoothly. It was a great task that kept my hands busy and my mind clear. 

Still thinking about backs of things. 

Liberty is so amazing. 

on the cutting table

This is the project that is currently on my cutting table and working wall. I still have not decided on the final placement of the blocks, but I am liking the ombre effect... at least some days, these blocks have been moved a lot... I am using floral fabrics as the pin wheel and tiny prints, mostly civil war and primitive for the background. I am wanted to make something that references traditional quilts but with a modern twist, so far I think it is working well, I like the collage look of it... This whole thing is paper-pieced which I love for the precision! I have noticed that I go through fabric a lot faster, because it requires more with the paper piecing, but it is really worth it.

This is the line of fabric that I am the most excited about at the moment! It is Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander. I loved her first line architectures, and used it in so many different projects. This new one is beautiful in color and line, I am in love with the whole line, and can't wait to use it and am mix it with everything else! 

November

I feel as if life is moving so quickly lately, and I am standing still watching.. waiting... thinking... trying to grasp every moment. I hear and feel everything that is happening, but my subconcious seems so far away that it is almost like living in a dream-like state. I turned 30 this month on the 7th, anyone that knows me, knows that my birthday is my favorite holiday of the year. I had a wonderful time with  family and my closest friends. I am happy to be in this new decade. Happy to finally be at the "grown-up" table, considering that I have never really felt as if I belonged to the children's table. Turning 30, went along with some strange things happening in my body... the reason that I feel as if I am standing still watching... waiting... 

I have had a less that good year when it comes to my health, having been the kid that never missed school for being sick. ever. makes it hard to accept that things are not as they have always been. Before this year I can not remember the last time that I had a even a slight cold. At the moment I am waiting on further results, before they can pro-ceed to the next step to know what is going on. All that I really know is that when I went in with my fourth cold/flu this summer and they took my blood and things were off... my levels are not where they should be... and have continued to get worst. Some things have been ruled out but they are still doing more tests, and waiting for results... that is the hardest part of all this... the waiting. I can barely sit still on a normal day, this is making me want to crawl out of my skin. I do not often go into detail on my personal life on this blog, however, this experience has made me think so much about what I want, that I feel it is important to put here. It is so much a part of what my story is at this moment, and honestly it is definitely being reflected in my work. Hopefully soon I will know more, and I am hopeful that whatever the outcome that it is a fixable problem. Until then I sit and think and think and move my hands quickly to sew tiny pieces of fabric together, because that is what keeps my mind from going to deep, dark places. 

The hexagons in these photos are made from my scrap bin, a nice grouping of all of the work that I am doing. It is nice to have this project to work on, on the couch or wherever. One day soon I hope to make a large piece out of these small pieces, as a reminder that sometimes taking it all in, moving slower, and having stitches to keep my mind going is what will keep me moving, during all of the waiting... 

camping?

The quilt top, backing and binding are all complete for my camping "explosion". This is one of the silliest things I have made in a very long time, and I must say... I really had fun making it! I used a lot, A LOT, of different fabrics... maybe too many, but don't really care. It is what I wanted a bit kitch with some nostalgia, and all the things that are related to camping without the realistic aspect of what it actually is like. 

I finished the top the other day and I had to step back and look away for a minute because I was afraid I had gone off the deep end for a minute, with so much going on and no order... very unlike me... and then I was flipping through a magazine and saw the advertisement below for Target Threshold collection for fall... 

Notice the colors... similar to my quilt. and the patterns.... lots of them.... and then I realized I was just starting the fall trend with this thing. (sense the sarcasm) And I didn't care anymore if it was "too much" because sometimes "too much" can be just right. 

This one is getting sent off to the long arm quilter to be finished, hopefully with a "plaid" type look. Better photographs after it is finished!

thoughts

Loving the late summer blooms in the garden. Noticing that this time of the year is filled with pinks, purples, green of all shades, red, brown, and white. Taking advantage of picking my own flowers and the last bit of vegetables from the garden before fall really kicks in and there is little left. 

Thinking a lot about collections lately, what they mean, why collect at all, how some people are facisnated by one thing and no one else gets it. Making arrangements out of the small collections I have around the house, moving some things around, replacing some, purging others... always seem to be purging something around here, realizing that I have hung onto some things far too long. 

Thinking a lot about drawing, not realistic, refined drawing but that of a child. Uninhibited. Watching a child draw recently I was reminded of how they don't overthink where a color, line, shape, image is going, they just do. With that I want to explore drawing more, at least play in my sketchbook more.

Thinking about images in general. I have been looking and pin-ing on pintrest a lot lately. my pintrest looking at images of everything, from drawings, quilts, artwork, home decor, couture, inspiring people... it really is the visual library I always wanted... 

At that place in a project where I want to put it away and not look at it for a while, but knowing that if I do that I will not ever finish it... Taking a break to sketch and doodle in my sketchbook... Hoping that from that I will have the will-power needed to finish this task. Still enjoying the mixing of many fabrics at once. All the colors, shapes, patterns... 

downton strikes again...

This morning I caught up on my usual Sunday reading, and a preview for season 4 of Downton Abbey came up. I think I watched it at least five times, alas we must wait until January to watch it here in the states... Well one thing lead to another and after some googling I found out that Andover fabrics is coming out with a Downton fabric collection in November! I have always loved the fabrics on the show that are used for the clothing, and the colors throughout the set, and have always been inspired by it, since my addiction began. I was a bit surprised that Liberty of London did not come out with this, however I am somewhat excited that it will be a quilting weight of fabric. Some of the collection looks very Art Noveau, can't wait to get my hands on it, and make something, lots of somethings with it!!!

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. 

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!