Peace and Quiet

There are very few things on this earth that I enjoy more than making the first cut into a brand new pattern. And of course nothing can match that crisp clean slice of a fresh rotary blade. I get goose bumps just thinking about it! No, I'm not kidding... I'm just really that weird!   

I also love it when my apartment/sewing studio is not only clean but EMPTY! And I really enjoy it when my chores are all done and I have no where to be... because it happens so rarely. And lucky me on Monday I actually was able to enjoy ALL of these things! What a wonderfully lazy afternoon.

 Here's a nice little shot of my place. See there on the left is my living room, bedroom, office and study. And that there on the right why thats my handy dandy collapsable sewing studio! 

SIDE NOTE: Hanging the Happy New Year Banner is the only way to keep Cadence from having a complete emotional breakdown while watching me take down the Christmas decorations. She has to be reminded that it's ok Christmas is over because there are actually OTHER holidays!!! 

That girl loves her some Santa! 

So anyways here is a little teaser of what I have coming up for my Hampton 2012 entry. If you haven't noticed already I have a bit of a thing for quilts featuring women wearing confused expressions LOL.

She got a nice little set of toes...

Some serious locks...

 And the booty... don't forget about that booty! 

She still needs some fine tuning and I'm on the fence about the background. But all in all this ones coming along with ease.

Resolutions

Happy Day After Christmas Everybody!!! I hope today finds everyone fat and happy and significantly less stressed!

I was so incredibly sick last week that I am just happy to be able to get out of bed today. I'm hoping those last few Christmas gifts I sewed up on friday and saturday are not tainted with whatever awful illness I contracted. LOL. While it was nice to actually be home before the holiday for once I was also confronted with a very unpleasent surprise. The corporation that I work my ass off for not only did not give any kind of gift or bonus to it's employees but they informed me on friday I would NOT be receiving any holiday pay! WHY??? Because I was SICK! Can you believe that?!? I was so angry it made me hot in the face and I will tell you now the whole experience really lit a fire under me! I'm tired of working for someone else. I'm tired of not being able to create and inspire the way I want to. The way I was meant to!

So I have decided this new year is THE YEAR! The year to get this little business of mine in order. The year to finally put my piles of patterns into a professional portfolio. The year to finally take that portfolio to a publisher! I have the body of work, the skills and the right connections to get this done. To start a serious business plan and to start living my life the way God intended... as a full time quilter, designer and instructor. It's will take some time, I know, but aside from skill I also have a lot of patience and persistence. And as Ledra would say "THANK GOD you were born a woman! Becuase that means you can do ANYTHING!" ... and with that said I'm off to start my entry for the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival!

And who knows... maybe in 20 years I will own my own successfull corporation. A corporation where everyone gets a bonus, everyone gets a gift and noone gets shafted out of their holiday pay!

You Should Be Writing!!!

For the last five weeks every time I have sat down to relax there has been a little voice in my head telling me " You should be writing. You should be writing. You should be writing." I know I SHOULD be writing but the fact is I'm just plain tired! Luckily not tired in a bad way. It's just been a busy few months. Not to mention my printer died, My iPhone 3G is officially crapping out on me and on top of that Cadence spilled chocolate milk all over my mac book =(. I lost the function of several keys for several weeks. I attempted to blog with out the use of my w, r, a and ! keys, thinking maybe I could just copy and past them in. Oh how foolish I was... lets just say the level of frustration was IMMEASURABLE!!! I was considering an expensive repair until it finally occurred to me last week to buy a usb keyboard and whaaa laaa $20 bucks later we are back in business. Wish I could say the same for the new printer and the iPhone4 LOL. So while I have been very busy outside of sewing, I did still manage to get quite a few things done...

One of the best things thats happened is that I finally started teaching my art quilting classes at Quilt and Sewing Center. I've done two rounds so far and its been wonderful. My students have been great and all of their pieces turned out beautifully! Here are a few highlights... Diane, Babara and of course, teachers pet, 13 year old Jorame!          

 I've also been enjoying a lot of time with Mr. Delicious (still in the picture, surprise, surprise). He has taken me a on quite a few adventures. From concerts to camping and then some. One of the best trips we went on was to Charlottesville VA. While window shopping on the downtown mall we found a little shop with a back corner full of quilts! Mr. Delicious is the grandson of a quilter so he fully supports my fabric addiction. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got but still worth sharing.

We also had a wonderful dinner at Mikes...

Went to an amazing Trey show at the Pavillion...

and CAMPING of course! 

My biggest project of the month was this lock and key quilt. It was an older piece I had made back in 2009. I was never really happy with the way it came out. SO when Mr. Delicious needed a special gift for his parents anniversary this quilt was a perfect fit. I took it completely apart, restitched much of the design. I customized it with their names and wedding date. Gave it a new border, new backing, new binding and finally re-quilted it.

The final results of this reworked quilt made me very...

Nothing beats Isacord "Applesauce" the best gold thread of all time in my opinion!

Soon after I finished the quilt, Mr. Delicious (or as we call him Rick) brought home a little gift for Cadence...

She named him Ricky of course! Ricky has become a big part of our little family and one boring saturday he inspired me to create this...

And then these...

The Batik Beta were a big hit. Cadence has already claimed the pink one as her playmate! And I have decided to use them as the pattern in my next round of Art Quilting classes.  

This one's my favorite... I call him hippy fish.

My final and most challenging project of the month started with this...

Rick is a huge Grateful Dead fan and I wanted to make him something really special for his 39th b-day. You know before he becomes an old man and all. LOL.When he mentioned one day the he didn't have a Christmas stocking I knew exactly what to make. A Steal Your Face stocking! I had only three days to make it so one night while he was passed out beside me I opened up the sewing table and got right to work! Good thing he's a heavy sleeper!

Stitching the design was pretty challenging at first but once I got into the groove and got some good music on it actually came along very quickly.

I used Pellon Fusible Fleece for the lining. It sticks well with just the iron and it has just the right amount of fluff without being to bulky for a stocking.

I screwed up the lining a little but had run out of time to fix it. So I took it back a few days later and worked out the ripples =) 

The final product came out looking even better than I had hoped. Using all batiks was the perfect choice.

Needless to say HE LOVED IT! And I'm officially the best girlfriend ever! 

(Which I of course already knew ;)

So anyways that bring us finally up to date. I don't have a lot more sewing planned for 2011. Just looking forward to relaxing with my girl and my man and his boy... making some cookies... drinking some cocoa and all the other good things that come with this time of year.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

Another one bites the dust...

Good Bye real life Mr. Delicious... hello new quilt inspirations! The tortured artist is officially back in action!

Slacker...

It's true... I'm a slacker this past month completely got away from me! Between working, teaching, tying up loose ends of an old relationship and enjoying the fresh start of a new one, I have had little time to sew. OH and there was the earthquake, the hurricane and the flooding we experienced here in good old VA. The standing water on my apt floor really didn't help things much. Did I mention my car broke down too? Anyways it seems the worst is past us, fall has settled in and I'm ready to get back to writing.

Hopefully you noticed that I received a sweet new GO! baby fabric cutter from the wonderful people at Accuquilt. I have been patiently waiting for my third die set to arrive, but on Sat. my patience ran out. I couldn't wait any longer this baby was calling my name and I decided it was time for a test run!

Ironically when I came into work I almost stumbled over this sweet little GO! case we have for sale. Just came in last week. Its so cute want this for my carry-on LOL lime green is my favorite! 

I decided to cut out some of these cute little birds just to get a feel for the GO! baby. Since I have never used anything like this before I wasn't really sure what to expect. My first impression when taking it out of the box was the weight! It make look innocent but this baby packs a punch! I really like how the sides fold up and down making it perfect to pack up and take along... and the perfect size to store away in my teeny tiny apartment =)

For my fabric I had the perfect choice in mind! The wonderful people at Basic Grey Fabrics  sent me this rad little fat pack! The line is called "Curio" and the prints are so beautiful it took me a full week to build up the nerve just to untie the bow! 

I mean just look at these! Have you ever seen anything more wonderful than a big old pile of coordinating fat quarters.... it's like heaven. All the ladies in the quilt shop were drooling. 

I chose these three nice simple prints for my first round of birdies! I just love this line of fabric each and every piece looks so delicate. The way a little birdie should be!

I cut each fabric down to 6in wide so the would run through the GO! baby nice and easy.

The process was super simple... just layer the fabric onto top of the die and place the cutting mat on top. Then run your whole little sandwich through the GO! baby while turning the handle. 

The GO! baby dies went through nice and smooth. I was very impressed. The process couldn't have been easier. When you're done all you have to do is peel away the extra fabric and WHAAA-LAAAA beautiful little birdies all cut and ready to go... or should I say GO!

I only used three layers of fabric which gave me nine little birds but according to the box the GO! baby can cut up to twice that at once. I was very please with all these pretty little things...

... and their little wings!

The girls in the quilt shop got a kick out of it too. But no one was more pleased than Cadence who immediately claimed ownership of my entire flock. She spent most of the night arranging and re-aranging them, flying them around the room and stashing them in places the mommy will never find! Sigh... 

CADENCE WAS HERE! THE END!

Romance...

It's what I want... in my quilts and in my life... I want sunsets and sunrises. I want my hand held. I want sitting on old stairwells and walks down old alley ways... I want to be kissed in the rain! That is all.

Let the fun begin!

Nothing beats coming home from a long cranky day at work to find a big surprise on your door step!!!

Cracking open this big old box put a smile on my face REAL QUICK! 

And Cadence's too! She can't seem to understand that this big bright beautiful box is NOT a toy for her (its a toy for ME! ha!) 

The people at AccuQuilt have been fantastic. After seeing my blog listed in Quilters Home they sent this wonderful package out to me to give it a GO! I had my choice of three die cut designs. It was a hard decision, there is a lot to choose from on the GO Baby website. AccuQuilt.com 

I finally ended up choosing these cute little birds, a set of stems and leaves and the fall medley mix, which unfortunately was on back order and didn't make it into the box =( They also sent me this nice little cutting mat. 

I'm really excited to try this baby out! Apparently it can cut up to six layers of fabric which means lots and lots of little birds! Cadence is gonna love it and I cant wait! NOW the most exciting thing about this AccuQuilt GO Baby is you, YES YOU can win one too! Thanks to the wonderful people at AccuQuilt I will be having my first ever GIVEAWAY! So make sure to check back soon!  I've got a great little project worked up with these dies in mind and once my fall medley arrives I'll be getting straight to work.

 Lets see what this little GO baby can do!!!!