In progress & getting it done!

Hello!!!
I've been busy in the studio!
And it feels sooooo good to be working on long over due projects (My FAL Quarter 1 list!!!)
Allow me to share!

First off.....my notebook open to the page for my Globetrotter BOM. I'm almost done piecing the center block, can't wait to share it! The colors I chose come together so well, I'm impressed with myself!

Second up in progress, my studio sign from my FAL Q1 list. I did some quilting in the background, outlined letters more and drew the grid for the rest of the background stitching. Can't decide if I want to stitch the rest by hand or not....hmmmmm.

And another off my FAL Q1 list....the "Night Garden" wall hanging. I added more "garden" to it last night while I watched Netflix, and I think I'm done with the piecing!! Which leaves the next step of quilting it up. The detail stitching will make it pop for sure!

Alright, that's all for now. Be back soon to share some FINISHES!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced! WIP Wednesdays!

Friendship Everlasting

I really can't believe that it's already October, but I'm glad. My birthday was over a month ago and I am barely putting away the pile of fabrics I purchased on the birthday trip.
I hadn't been sewing much, so the studio was slightly neglected.

I scored some nice Robert Kaufman prints on sale at my favorite fabric mecca, M & L Fabrics in Anaheim, the cows, chairs, and citrus prints. I'm still not so in the groove of paying attention to what is what when I buy fabric. I have designer prints all over in my stash and I only become aware of them when I pull them for projects. A lot of them are older designers and collections from when my grandma was building her stash, but as I become more and more obsessed with the idea of designing fabric and incorporate my love of blog surfing, I've found that I am becoming more familiar with fabric designers and collection names as well as companies. It's exciting to start memorizing the details. 

Of course I purchased all that fabric (15 yards approx.) I had not a single project in mind but rather colors that I'm lower on in my stash. (There's an addiction for ya!) Orange. It's still a mysterious one for me. I enjoy it. It's uplifting and positive, but I can't manage to find prints I like. Not to mention that I don't really use it often. So, I have something orange brewing in my mind, October is helping.

What also helped was the special visit from my BFF for the last 23 years! She drove down from the Bay area for a weekend of sewing and girl talk. When she arrive with her machine in tote, I was blown away to discover she'd never made any patchwork blocks/traditional quilts before. (Art quilts, yes!) So we set to making friendship wall hangings. 

I've had flying geese on the brain so we started with those. I tested out a method I'd found on the Connecting Threads website. The tutorial was excellent, easy to follow and makes four units at once!

We made dozens, then decided that we needed a central block. I knew of an easy one, Saw Toothed Star. She and I each made a center block, and traded. We had tons of fun mixing the Flying Geese we made into a nice boarder. Not too bad for our first time (I hadn't made Flying Geese before either).

We picked out a special egg print on black originally from my grandmas stash for the backing and decided we'd each quilt them up this week. It was an exceptional weekend! She is such a dear friend, I'm so happy she was able to sneak back down to our hometown for a sewing retreat!

It definitely helped me harness my sewing mojo again. I spent the following two days after she left cutting and sewing 64 more Flying Geese units to make a plaid version that I've been gawking over.

And after getting my friendship quilt (that we lovingly named the 'A''A' Quilt for our initials and the amount of beer consumed that weekend) basted, I decided that I'd hand quilt it, since I need some practice with that as well. 

Here we are with our projects!

Dreaming of Autumn

This is where I sew. Looking out onto the balcony. The sunsets. I miss cool weather. It hasn't been too bad this summer, but hot enough not to be able to work in the studio once the sun crosses to my side of the building. It gets muggy. Sticky. Thick hot air and no air conditioner. But I've been trying to put some time in after the sun sets.

On my table above, low-volume blocks being assembled from a never ending bag of strips I cut last summer. Yes, last summer. I will have that quilt done before Christmas though!

Before we moved out of our temporary apartment, I made this quilt top.

I added a new pieces to the eyebrows and the eyes to make it pop (see below). Now I think this beauty needs to be quilted up. I do have a show with Collaboration X coming. I'm going to try really hard to finish it in the next week.

Time to jump back into the purging of years of hoarded art supplies and random crap. So I leave you with a lovely photo of my main "Stash" recently relocated to it's appropriate spot in the 'Haus of Stitch' studio.

Happy Friday!

Summer Again

I'm here. Hiding. Fighting with procrastination and dramatic change. Thinking. Creating. Trying my hardest to go forward.

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.