Charity quilts

I love sewing. Like really love it. And there just aren't enough bodies or beds in our family to justify how many quilts I make. So a favorite way of mine to help the quilts find homes is to sell them and donate the money to good causes. Here are some I sold in the beginning of this year.

Advent collages

About 4 years ago, I was invited to have a solo art show at a gallery in North Hollywood.  The show was to be advent themed, and I made 10 collages for it. They were all made from junk mail and catalogs, then blown up really big onto canvases. I haven't pulled them out or looked at them for a while, but I thought now would be the perfect time to bring them back out. 

This one is called "Messenger"

Half Square Triangle baby quilts

When I first started quilting, I was terrified of anything having to do with triangles. They can be fussy and really show mistakes. These days, I've still made some major blunders with them, but I have really come to love what are called Half Square Triangles (HSTs by quilt nerds). They are super easy to make and really versatile in their possible outcomes.
I actually have a bunch of HST quilts to share, but these three baby quilts are some recent favorites that I've made. You can see how the layout changes everything and the fabrics really get to show off.
It seems like my world is really full of boys these days, only about 2 out of the last 10 or so baby quilts I've made have been in girl colors... That's okay, these color schemes are currently in the top 10 for me.

Pillow-palooa

Everyone knows pregnant ladies nest in different ways. Since I had no nursery to paint (Dax sleeps on our room) and no house to remodel, it made sense that I would sew. And especially towards the end of my pregnancy, the only thing that took my mind off of my discomfort was sewing...

I quilted commission quilts until I was too tired to make deadlines, I basted every top I could
Finish until I was too big to baste, then I pulled out all the bag patterns I've bought over the years to try out those (fun)... And I made pillows (I think about 14 in all) that I have as teacher gifts at the end of the school year. They were small, short term projects that required minimal effort of moving my big body around.

The pleated design became so much of a favorite that I made a bunch of them. I plan to write a pattern for how to make them.

So I had this baby

The most wonderful thing I made in the past year was this beautiful little boy. Meet Dax. He's 4 months old and a giant "fun size" ball of joy. He doesn't give me much time to sew or do other creative stuff, so I have to sneak in moments between crashing facedown on the couch at 8:30pm and waking up to take care of the family in the morning. But he is SO worth it.

Hi. It's me again.

So it's been somewhere around 18 months since I said goodbye to this blog. I never took it offline because my hubby encouraged me not to- because I might want to pick it up someday, but I really did think it was gone forever.
I've spent a lot of time on Instagram. And also incubating, too. Our family is now a family of five (a biological baby!) and I've been sewing and creating a lot too, though these past four months have been a little less artistically productive as I nurture a very chubby and joyful little person.
I've been asked by a number of people if I would ever start blogging again, and I have started listening to those ideas.
I'm not starting this up again with a goal in mind, just a place to record these thoughts and projects that is more permanent than Instagram. (Find me there at "libbydibby"). The blog had gotten really personal with my foster journey, grief and recovery, and I can't promise that I'll be going there this time around, but that's okay, too.
I've been quasi-blogging on my Quilting Facebook page, too - Liberty Worth Art & Quilts - if you find that interesting.

I'm not really sure where this new chapter will take the blog, but that's okay, I just enjoy recording this stuff.
See you around, if you're around...