things that don't go together, things that do

Nail polish + applique=

not good.

Especially because I forgot my topcoat. Or maybe this new brand is not good. The color is a dark purple. But it looks black, right? I'm probably too old and granny-ish to be wearing dark purple (could be confused with black) nail polish. But I think it's kinda fun.

Snow days + applique=

Very good! Look how much I've gotten done! (More than half of the smallest row.) Chris asked last night, "Is that your last row?!" (NO) Well maybe it would be if I hadn't devoted most of my snow days to sleep. Or if I were faster. But I'm pretty sure I can feel the speed gaining!

And well, I did bring dinner to my neighbors, the Birds. And I probably wouldn't have been up to it if it weren't for all the glorious sleep I've gotten.

sleep+good deed doing abilities= most excellent

P.S. I love that I live in a place that can be completely shut down by 5 inches of snow. It's like a spontaneous gift from nature!

sewing a landscape

As promised, here is what I'm working on for my bed! Chris asked for bedding for Christmas (I know, I'm so lucky!) and I used that as an excuse to make a new quilt for our bed. Of course.

I love that this quilt is called Hills 'n' Hollers. The hills are all applique. I am definitely no expert. I sewed on these two hills last night. I'm pretty sure it took me an hour or more. Hopefully by the end I will become a super speedy applique expert. Otherwise, this could take a while.

wish me luck!

Out with it already

My poor, sad little blog. It kind of matches poor, sad little me. I was just asked to talk to the girls at church about how I use my blog as a journal. Super casual just for a few minutes. Still, how embarrassing. I haven't blogged in like, a decade, in blog years (what do ya think...too many commas?). Truth be told...I have three blog posts in draft mode. I keep wanting to share the sad news about how my fabric line got the ax about a week before my Grammy died (yeah, months ago). But I somehow never found the words. So there it is. bleah.

And we have been wrestling with some kinda tough decisions around here. But I think we are finally decided and clearing the air like that really makes way for life to start happening again. Tonight I'm working on this in blues and greens. I'll take a few pics of the very beginning stages tomorrow.

It feels good to be blogging again.

RIP Magnolia Westwood

Finally finished!

I finally finished chickie's quilt. Just in time for her birthday.

Truth be told, the night before her party I stayed up till 5 am trying to finish the binding. I was watching Anne of Green Gables (love!) and I think I must have been half asleep because I only got one long side done. And I was a bit grouchy for a few days. No more all nighters for me. Which means I'm going to have to make this Friday movie morning instead of movie night since I'm going to see New Moon at midnight Thurs with some crazy girlfriends of mine!

As you can she she was very excited about it (the quilt--she's not quite old enough for vampires and werewolves). Actually she really was. I don't know how many 7 yr olds would be excited for a quilt. I think she gets that it's important in our family.

Saturday is a special day

Seriously, I love Saturday.  Wearing PJs all day and cleaning. Awesome.  Listening to how-to books on i pod while mopping.  Fabulo-so!  Cutting out piles and piles of fabric for purses and color wheel quilt while watching chic flicks.  The best!  Making my own folders for said pieces of fabric...well, that's just ridiculous because I had real folders less than three feet away.  But, what do you do?  Poor Chris, he's STILL working on that house... Uh, oh. I guess it's technically not saturday anymore.  The only thing missing from today was m&ms.  But, it's probably for the best.

The Summer of Falling Stars

I'm feeling completely inspired by these two quilts.  The zig zag quilt is from the purl bee blog the second can be found here.  I love the amount of negative space involved in both of these quilts. I love the simplicity of shape and color.  I love the idea of taking a classic quilt pattern and modernizing the way Denyse Schmidt did with the double wedding ring.

  

I named the summer that I made my first quilt.  It was the summer of falling stars.  That's the only season I've ever named. So, as you can imagine it was pretty amazing.  I was living with my Grammy and she coached me through the quilt. Taught me how to pick out fabric, cut and piece it all.  She even inspected my work and made me do something over if I messed up.  Which is really saying something because Grammy is a real 'make

 it work' kind of woman.  She is A LOT like my mom.  Funny, because she's my dad's mom.  After I got the whole thing pieced she taught me how to put it up on the frame and away we quilted.  But we weren't alone.  Several of her friends from the local Senior Center came by to help.  It was a summer of complete old lady heaven.  I know I just turned 30, but even at 19 I was an old lady at heart.  (Don't even get Chris started on that subject.)  This is my Grammy in her living room with my quilt.  Grammy lives in the cutest house. It used to be a church, but now it's white with a pink door with a bit of flowery stained glass and pink shutters.  Seriously, how heavenly does that sound!  She doesn't have any grass, but she does have a bottle tree and a big sand pit for the grand kids. 

 Ahh, just thinking about the warm summer breeze coming through my window at night makes me miss Utah summers and marshmallow camping!  FYI-Marshmallow camping is when you go to the mountains and set up tents for naps and make a fire and food and take a hike and then pack it all up and go home to sleep in your own bed! My kind of camping!

But, I digress, I seriously can't talk about quilting without mentioning Grammy.  But my second quilt, yes sadly in ten years I'm still working on number 2, it is all one white fabric but I'm quilting quirky little stars on it.  It got packed up after house number one and hasn't really made it's way out of storage until now.  

Not much of a point to this post. Just quilting on the brain.

Today, I'm thankful for inspiration abounding all around me, pretty bowls, Sense and Sensibility, these lovely quilts, new dishes, the list goes on and on.