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!!!