3 things

Happy Friday!

Here are a few quick things that are on my mind.

1. I wish I were back on the beach in Hawaii! (instead I'm preparing for a massive garage sale tomorrow)


2. I wish I was cutting into this stack of fabric. (instead, see above)


3. I'm very proud of myself for not buying any fabric for the past 2 months! It sure helps when you are too busy painting, moving, unpacking, vacationing and preparing for a massive garage sale. There have been a lot of tempting sales lately too. I have my eye on several new collections though.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Whew! I thought I had missed this spring's Blogger's Quilt Festival but I'm so glad I didn't! I love how the links are separated by category this year!

I wanted to share this incredibly special quilt, Native. This quilt really represents my growth as a quilter over the past 5 years or so.

I started this quilt with a Denyse Schmidt Chicopee fat quarter bundle and Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed quilt pattern. After making a few feathers though, I realized I just didn't have the patience to make so many of them.
Then, inspiration struck in the most unexpected way. Our family spent a night at the nearby Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor water park/hotel resort) and the carpets were filled with fantastic designs!

So I made a bunch of different components separately, the triangles, the arrow and the geometric chevrons.

I laid them out and then just filled in the other areas with inprov pieced sections. It was pretty challenging and a lot like putting a puzzle together.

I could not be happier with this quilt and in fact it is draped on the back of my couch right now!

I would have loved to do some fancy quilting on it but ended up with the good ole meander. It ended up measuring 45" by 64", the perfect throw size!

Now I'm off to browse all the other amazing quilts in the festival!

Aloha!

Hi there! Boy have I missed blogging here!...and sewing and Flickr and reading blogs. Today I finally had to just "mark all read" in my blog reader to start fresh.

We are getting to the home stretch in unpacking thankfully! Here are a few sneak peeks of our new home.
Every time I think I'm getting down to the last few boxes more seem to appear!


This is the small third bedroom that will be the office/sewing room. I have all my fabric and sewing things unpacked but there are still a bunch of boxes with office stuff that are in my way. I wish they would magically  disappear so I can get to sewing!

*can I just say how disoriented I am with the new Flickr right now? Ugh!*

Oh and my hubby and I went to Hawaii for a week to celebrate our 10th anniversary early! We had enough AA miles but had to use them in May (our anniversary is actually in June) but hey, it was fine with me!

It was absolute paradise! We stayed on the northern coast of the big island which I highly recommend!

We also drove up Mauna Kea, the mountain where all the observatories are. At 13,800 feet it's not the tallest mountain ever but it sure feels like it when you're starting up it from sea level! It felt like we were on top of the world.


The waters were crystal clear for snorkling, the beach we stayed on was amazing, the sand was so soft and we had a wonderful time! What more could you ask for?

It was just what we needed to relax and unwind. Back to reality [and unpacking] now. :)

another Optimism quilt

Well hello! I'm so excited to say that we have been in our new home for a week! The week before we moved in I spent painting every room of the house except for the bathrooms. Unfortunately, I hated my choice for the kitchen and living rooms so while unpacking this week I've also been repainting. Needless to say I am still up to my ears in boxes! So hopefully that explains the loooong absence! I hate being away from sewing/blogging/reading blogs/flickr for so long and I'm afraid it will be a bit longer before we're totally settled in.

This evening was so nice out and as I was unpacking the office/sewing room I found this quilt that I finished up the week before closing on the house.
I needed something simple and mindless so I turned to my own pattern, Optimism. I don't normally gravitate to these super earthy colors but the fabrics all came together, just like that. :)

There's a little bit of everything in this quilt, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Anna Maria Horner, Lotta Jansdotter and Essex Yarn-dyed Linen.


Those Joel Dewberry trees make a great backing!

I can't wait to get back to my sewing machine and catch up on my blog reading. I feel so out of the loop!
Have a great week everyone!