To January, Love Me

My absence again has been haunting me. I had a long hard road to travel at the end of October and it continued through December, but I am happy to be past all that now. December brought about an insane opportunity as if to repay me in some respects for my battles won in the previous months.
I was offered the studio space I'd been coveting since March....and I did it! I got the space mid-December and celebrated a soft grand opening during Art Walk this past Thursday.
(Caution: Horribly dark and grainy pictures follow....think mysterious a.k.a. i have no camera again..)
 

I set up a "Design" wall and had visitors "Help me make a quilt" This was by far a great experience, though in after thought, it would have helped me a lot if I'd given them a bit more structure...See messy wall above. I must now turn that into a quilt. But first I have to get it off the design wall in one piece. Lordy.

Pheww. It's really been an intense couple of months.
And now with the new year beginning, I feel another wave of overwhelming options as to where to take life next. Some days I feel as if I have it all figured out. Some days I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm practicing the art of non-control and just rolling with it.
Last year was so intense, I actually don't even feel like going over it. I know I finished a lot of quilts, almost one a month. That I'm happy about.
I'm happy in general, don't get me wrong. I'm just still a bit exhausted.

My goals upcoming are to get the studio/classroom space up to par so that I can begin to offer classes. Which needs to happen faster than I'm thinking so that I can live comfortably and afford to purchase huge things that I am in need of....like a new camera and computer. Ugggg. And I also need to go back to clocking my personal work time. I feel so much better when I can look back over the week and see that I worked for myself at least double the time I do for others.

Winter vacation is over. I head back to work today. I have missed those little boogers. Oh stupid internal clock, stop pestering me. Like I have time for that. 'That' is on the 'Someday' shelf. I need to rock and roll this year. Great things to come. Awesomeness abound. I am truly grateful for my health and the health of my loved ones, grateful for all the opportunities I have been given. Grateful for my skills. And my brain, even though I feel like it's got ADHD sometimes, I love it dearly. Thank you brain. Thanks for teaching my heart to grow up.
It's good to say thank you, often.

Sunday Thoughts

I have thoughts today.
That's a good sign.
I was also very happy to see 2500 page views of this blog this morning.
I'm doing better, but there is always room for improvement.

Here's what I've been working on this weekend....skeleton dolls are back!

And now for a small uncommon rant, comments welcome:

*******
Today my mind is on the notion of going back to school (again), actually it's been on my mind for a few days now. Having a degree in art (cringe) would help some people (family) accept my career choice. It would also probably help launch my name/ideas better and provide a solid networking base. As much as I disagree with paying money to be "professional" (because that's what you are with a degree in hand) I'm seeing the necessity of it as I get older. Our society is too hung up on "having a degree". What to do? What to do?
Then there's the decisions of where to go to school? How do I get there? How much paperwork do I have to fill out? (worst part) How many loans will I have to take out? How my soul be owned for the next 4-6 years. Granted I did enjoy my small stent in art school but just thinking about all this is giving me a headache. The one line I'm being told from a family member that is completely pissing me off and making me want to run to the hills and never return,

"Go to school. Then you'll be able to make better money and then you'll have time for your art work."

That's pretty much the most depressing thing I've been told, and repeatedly I might add.

So on the other side of this equation, I've been pondering my little handmade business and  how pathetically I've let it slump into a nothing business. I was doing pretty good for a while. Monthly craft shows and commissioned pieces. I managed to finish a quilt a month while having the downtown studio. I still have people asking to see new stuff. But I let it fall to the wayside and quietly curled into a ball of thought. 

I needed a good break. I needed to think about what I want to do with my life. I needed to make better choices and learn harder lessons. I needed to grow up a bit more. All in all, I've had a nice little vacation from myself. But the aftermath of dropping the ball has been nagging in my mind. I have so many projects I'd like to accomplish. And here I've been glued to a chair staring into the internet like a crystal ball, admiring the talent of the world and doing nothing for myself.

Something had to change. More change.  I complain (to myself) that I lack the energy. But I've had the energy, just not mentally. I have no more excuses. That one line told to me repeatedly is like a battle cry calling me to war. I must defend what I love to do. And though it has never really mattered much to me, an income from what I love to do is important. I must be self sufficient. I need to get away from that one line and not look back. Time to re-list my goals. Time to do what makes me happy. I'm not afraid.

Sometimes, you just have to dive in.

Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop...my stop!

Yay! We're in sunny Southern California! It's my stop on the wonderful Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop! There has been so much awesome English Paper piecing that I spent days just being in awe. I really wanted to try a new E.P.P block, and had spent the first week or so gathering inspiration and pinning it here. It was really hard to choose anything.

I chose to use a picture I took during summer 2011, while in San Francisco. I really like the building color against the sky tone with the character on the building adding even more pop. I feel like the building color on the far left is a bit more greenish than blueish but I am still happy with the palette. The cropped portion of the image was just too shadowy and I didn't want any black in this project so out it went.

The next step was to draft the pieces for the pattern I finally settled on, inspiration from Flickr and also pinned to my board here.

I cut out all the pieces (25 total, not too bad) and laid them out. It's really important to be accurate in your cutting, it helps make everything fit right when you go to sew them all together.

Now for my favorite part...pulling the fabrics!

I apologize for the crappy photos here, the colors are almost true, but I had to use my phone since my regular camera was not at hand. I also put in a more green-blue to match the building than the palette suggestion of a steel blue. I was really happy with the choices I made.

It didn't take me long, in fact I did most of the pieces while watching a movie!

To speed things along, I like to pre-cut the fabric close to the size of the pieces as you can see above.

Then I just trim them down as I baste each piece. It is really important to leave more than enough extra fabric around each shape since I don't pin or tack my pieces in place before basting them. This allows for some sliding to happen but covers the corner folds each time with no worries.

And here it is, all the pieces ready to be whip stitched together. Since it is Sunday, I figured I'd enjoy the weather and sit outside to finish it up. Check back for the finished block, I think it might end up on the front of a new messenger bag!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Please check out the awesome blogger from yesterday, Catherine @ Knotted Cotton and tomorrow a post from Rachael @ Stitched In Color, with many more to follow!

This post is part of the Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  From 1st October - 30th November we are hopping all over the world EPP-ing in some fantastic locations.  Check out the full list here and be sure to check out the other participants.

On 30th November it's over to you to link up for a chance to win these fabulous prizes! Sponsored by Paperpieces.com, FabricwormPink Castle Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil.

Full details for competition entry can be found here.

Goodnight September

A moon full of productivity and creativity. I'm glad September is over. I enjoy it, my birth month and school starting, but I am wishing for cooler weather to hit abruptly. I want to be cozy.
The season is being rather unruly in it's changing. As am I. But change is inevitable. No matter how much you resist.

Here's a sneak peek picture of what I spent my weekend doing. I'm not sharing it all yet because it's going to be a new tutorial! Yes, I said that. I know it's been a while.

I have some exciting news I can share though. I've signed up as a full fledged participant of the Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Laura of Quokka Quilts and Katy of The Littlest Thistle.
You can hop along with us and an amazing list of other bloggers, it's easy.

• All you need an awesome landscape photo as a starting point of inspiration.
• Then go to a color palette generator like this one Play Craft's Palette Builder or various others on the internet and create a unique palette based off the landscape photo of your choice. (Beware, this can be addictive! )
• Armed with this new color palette, pull coordinating fabrics from your stash.
• Now pick an awesome English Paper Pieced block and stitch it up using your chosen fabrics.
• Write a post or post on Flickr with a link back to their main page on either blog.
• Link up Party on November 30th! There are amazing sponsors and prizes! Whoot!

Simple and so fun! I love a challenge and I really love the ease and mobility of doing English Paper Piecing. There's many simply tutorials on this technique that even a beginner could jump in this fun, so do it!

Here are two color palettes I generated as experiments.

A self portrait from the beginning of last fall. (I really love this palette..so much that it will most definitely become a quilt.)

Here's a nice shot I took during this year's Coachella festival.















Here are some links to more inspiration!

The Traveling PicStitch Pinterest Board
English Paper Piecing Inspiration 

I'll be sharing more information and insights on this project through out the blog hop. And it starts tomorrow at I'm A Ginger Monkey! See you there!

A new tutorial will be forthcoming this week!

Peaceful Weekend

I'm really happy I was able to relax and get to work on some things this weekend. I set up a little sewing corner in the boyfriends downtown studio. I was quite enthralled in cutting up fabric and working on doll pattern tests.

I tried my hand at adding gussets to the doll pattern I had drafted years ago. It was tiny tiny work. And as much as I dislike using pins ( i stab myself too much!), this was the only way to do it. Slowest sewing I've done on the machine in such a long time.

I realized after an hour of tiny piecing that I probably should enlarge the pattern a bit and give myself a break. Duh! What's with me and teeny tiny project attempts. Especially later in the evening. Am I trying to drive myself batty or what? Needless to say, I did take a break from the doll project after successfully putting in a head gusset. And I jumped right into cutting more 5in squares because apparently I have half-square triangle patterns on the brain. 

I am really into rearranging them on my design wall. I like the fact that when I throw a bunch up there, I can move them around and around and have a different look each time I step back. Which is not helping me make any decisions mind you. But it's fun and quick! I admit, I do have some friends and relatives having babies in the near future, so technically I am doing something productive. I've been toying with the idea of making a Beginners Quilt Class as well, and these HST quilts are simple enough that I might make this the class project. Here's the latest one that I still have on the design wall.

Though I've already rearranged it twice, I'm still liking this first take. I think it may end up looking like this. The boyfriend says it looked "too sophisticated" to be a baby blanket and that it reminded him of old man socks. I agreed with the sock reference, but perhaps someone out there has a "sophisticated baby". Hahaha. It made me laugh. I love his input. I've got green and orange squares cut up now for today's HST quilt project! I'm on a roll!

Also! I'm very excited to have come across another quilt-a-long with an AMAZING project! The Perv-Along, (love the name) hosted by Charlotte at Displacement Activity.

The quilt is going to be amazing!!! It reminds me of a cosmic burst. And of course, I'm kinda hooked on the solid fabric quilts. So here's what I pulled for this perv-a-long.

I feel a bit odd not having "brand name" fabrics with cool color names like "papaya" or "moss". I generally find most my fabrics at swap meets, thrift stores and yard sales. Very rarely do I buy new fabrics. I love all the new prints and collections and I'm sure I have a nice smattering of them in my stash. But I've a complete novice at being able to name the designers and such. When I do buy solids, they are just a store brand name and nothing that exciting. Oh well. I'll get there someday. Kona's solids look delicious!

And I leave you with a cute picture of the boyfriends new pup. She has yet to have a name that fits her, the previous owner called her "Pan Head" apparently after Harley engines, which just seems silly to me. But she loves her new owner like his shadow. 

 How was your weekend? Hope you make something awesome!

Mid Week Progress : More Time Needed

It's midweek and I am still yearning to have more sewing time. Either I can't get up early enough or I'm so exhausted after work (which is extremely part-time) that I just melt behind the computer screen for hours reading blogs and researching ideas.
Not saying that's a completely bad thing, but when I do that more often than not, it's becoming a problem.I've done really well with limiting my time on Pinterest however!
The quilt top above is almost finished. I've been staring at it for a few days trying to decide if I want to add another border of that darker blue dot (hanging at left side of quilt). I'm leaning toward the yes decision and fingers crossed I get it put on today.

I spend a lot of time away from my home studio due to the fact that it's in my mothers house, but it tends to harbor all the doodads I have grown comfortable having at arms reach when I'm sewing. And my downtown studio has become a nonproductive environment aka someones bedroom. Ha. I feel a bit like a drifter that can't find a comfortable spot to work in.  I am capable of making my sewing projects travel worthy, it just wears me out sometimes dragging things back and forth. But I know this too shall pass.

Here is the other project I'm still struggling with. My desire to be able to design paper-pieced blocks. I searched for days on the internet looking for tutorials. I found lots of great resources about turning traditional quilt blocks into paper pieced blocks. And some very simple lessons on paper piecing in general. But nothing really explained why there are lines here or there. So I'm working on it. And making some progress.

Of course I had to give myself some overly difficult task to learn on...I drew up a Ninja. I'm almost ready to attempt to piece this beauty...but I realized I could make it a bit easier on myself and enlarge the damn thing a bit. The photo above is from revision #2. I have since redrawn my lines two more times.
When I do master this however, I am going to share a nice tutorial with everyone in celebration!

Happy Mid-Week....I'm linking up with
Freshly Pieced and Quilt Story! Enjoy!

Pinterest Obsessive

As if I needed another internet distraction on top of the endless reading of quilting blogs, I too have become a Pinterest addict. I suppose there are far worse things to be addicted to, but this is seriously not helping me get anything done.

And now one of my favorite sites for quilt projects (and more!), Moda Bake Shop, is hosting a little giveaway called 'Love it, Pin it, Win it'.

This website is one of the most inspiring, with such beautiful photographs and really well planned "step-by-step" instructions. Anytime I browse the quilt projects I feel like I could easily walk into the studio and start one immediately. Biggest problem, which one?!?!?! There are always so many amazing projects! And! They have TONS of different tutorials for quilts, bags, accessories, clothing, home items and holiday crafts to mention a few.
How could I resist, really.

It's simple. Just visit the Moda Bake Shop site. Pin your favorite 'Recipes', be sure your pin is linked to the recipe itself and not the home page and include these three tags (#modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin).

So easy. I created a board just for my favorites. Now I have no excuse! I must make these!
http://pinterest.com/mandamillar/modabakeshop-recipe-loves/

The quilt projects I've pinned are all favorites that I'd like to make. I'm not sure I could have picked just one, so I'm glad we can pin as many as we want!
Of course, there are awesome prizes to be had, the winners being chosen randomly from tagged photos.
So come join the fun and add to your "To-Make" list some really amazing projects!

Okay. Really, I must stop. I keep pinning! I have a baby quilt to finish up! Someone pry me from my computer chair.......