New ink - Tattoo #2

 I was finally able recently to go get my birthday present.  J has told me that I'm allowed to have 3 tattoos total and here's number 2. Not sure where I would want another, so that thought is tabled for a while. I'd been thinking about this one for over a year - I'm serious about what artwork is going to stick with me for the rest of my life... I've got to say I probably logged in over 30 hours of looking and researching possibilities for a foot tattoo that I liked, but never really found any that I loved.

Good thing we know "johnny 2/3" from Yer Cheatin' Heart in Hermosa Beach. He's an aquaintance of my sister and brother in law and has done a lot of tattoos on people I know, so I felt  good going to him the first time when I got my word bracelet.  The thing is, he's an artist first - he told me he used to travel to cathedrals all over the world to sketch inspiration for some of the t-shirt companies he worked for in his previous career.  I love working with artists of all types and it's amazing how fast he is at understanding what I was describing (both times).  We first have an art consultation meeting a few weeks before the big day and both times I left the art consult feeling like I knew he knew what I wanted.

So here it is. I took this the day of the tattoo. And yes... it hurt WAY worse than the wrist one, which I would qualify as "annoying" pain, but not anything to write about. The actual tattooing wasn't what really got me - it was later in the day! Wow. Didn't expect that.
I'm really happy with the art. And I like how it's placed, too. He's got the branch being very organic, the bright and fine flowers and a tiny bit of grace added in with the swirls. Just what I was looking for.
Happy 35th Birthday, me! (just 6 months later)

Neighborly fabric

Wow. I have GREAT neighbors. One of my neighbors a few houses north just had a baby. I brought over dinner and a little swaddle blankie (40"x40" flannel served on the edges... Best swaddle ever).
They came over to say thank you a few weeks later and saw me wearing G in a sling. "oh, you make slings? I've been looking for a white eyelet sling for so long..." she said. What? I've had a white eyelet sling in my inventory for YEARS that wasn't selling. I tossed it her way, so happy to have a happy home for it finally.
Well last weekend, my neighbor came over again with these fabrics she bought for me downtown! Talk about knowing the way to my heart.

So when I was looking for a nice orange fabric to bind my neighborhood quilt... Well, there was only one option. The spirit of having this Joel Dewberry fabric as part of my quilt is so great that I would have likely used it even if it didn't match! A gift from a neighbor to finish the quilt about my neighborhood? Perfect.

Now. See the gorgeous eyelet next to it? It's so smooth and modern and really luxe feeling. What do I make with it? A shirt maybe? Maybe a dress for Mimi? Line it with another color and use it in it's own beauty for a pillow or quilt back? Hmmmm.
(I'm taking suggestions)

Paper Piecing - my way (WIP)

I bring this project along with me everywhere I go. Which is why I get asked to describe it so often and I've given many impromptu tutorials on how people can make these themselves - so here's a little glimpse into how my paper piecing quilt is coming along.

I started with a square notepad. A castoff pad of post-it notes also works. This is the same process used for hexagon quilting, but I don't love the look of small hexagons - I've always been a square gal myself - so I adapted the process to squares. I cut scraps of fabric to be about 1/2" square larger than the paper. So the squares are 2.5" square and the fabric pieces are a little bigger than 3" square. (It's easier to err on the side of them being too big.)
Each fabric square gets basted directly TO a piece of paper with big stitches in a bright color which will be removed later. The point is that you're getting a really perfectly shaped square by folding the fabric to fit exactly and then you can sew without pressing. I made a collection of about 100+ of these before I started anything.

Then I had to figure out my layout. I didn't want this to be traditional in any way other than the process, so my design took a long time to figure out. In the end, I opted for some sporatic lines that are separated by sections of white. And not just white, but many whites, creams and off-whites.

The way that I am achieving this look was the only way that I could figure out how to do long stretches.... since I couldn't really imagine bringing along huge long pieces of paper to be the negative space, I am making the white strips out of many small brick shapes. I opted - for visual interest's sake - to make them not square. No particular reason.

The pieces are attached by putting them right sides together and doing a little hand looping stitch through the very top of both pieces. Sometimes I get the paper in there, but I try not to for the most part. Either way, it doesn't really matter.

 Here you can see the back of my quilt. I leave the paper pieces in until they are surrounded on all 4 sides by their neighbors. After that, I can pull the basting thread out and see a little better what it's going to look like.
Right now the quilt is about 50"x30" - I hope to make it 50x60" in the end so that it can be useful and not just decorative.

I've spent so much time working on this in the car, in meetings, and even camping that there are about 100 memories I have attached to it already.  The strongest ones are the ones that involve me waiting outside the office at DCFS for the baby while he has visitations. That's always an anxiety filled time for me, so this quilt has already brought me so much comfort, even before being snuggle worthy.

And of course - it is going to have to be made entirely by hand. I am really excited about that!
I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

Bee Happy Neighborhood Quilt - WIP

Just the binding is left!
I'm finished quilting this King sized Bee Happy treasure. I'm certainly winning NO awards for my stippling on this (sigh). I'm afraid my guild members may kick me out if they see how bad the free motion work is on this, but I have to be honest. I love the idea that I did it myself and I am a firm believer in the proverb "Do not despise the day of small beginnings".
How else will I learn without trying?
So it's not perfectly quilted, but this is going to be a treasure for our family, either way. And I'm not afraid of saying I am still a free motion quilting novice.
I won't always be one!
The binding and label (my kids call them "nabels") are all that's left... I promise I'll post pics when it's done. Like the backing fabric with the hand-drawn houses? It's from Ikea.

Store window inspiration for a quilt

When I saw these windows at Anthropologie in Santa Monica a few months ago, I nearly squealed... Were they inspired by a quilt?
Will they inspire me to quilt? (yes)

We've now had Baby 10 months. We got him when he was 3 weeks old. And because it's so fraught with grief and pain, I haven't been able to sew for him like I did for AJ and Ace. My heart is just too broken to go there. I describe it like this, "I lose him every day."

I've made him a little playmat quilt to send along with him. But I've also wanted to make a quilt that helps me process this pain. Especially if he may be leaving us soon. And as I was picking out some fabrics, I started going through my books looking for pattern inspiration.  Then as I was rocking him to sleep, peeking through old photos on my phone, I saw these pics. What great inspiration.  Now I know at least where I want to start.

Project Modern Challenge - Modern Quilt Guild

The Modern Quilt Guild isn't just in LA. It's ALL OVER. And the Modern Quilt Guild sponsors some cool challenges and contests... one of which my pal Alison recently won!
(Her quilt was entered into the challenge that was called "ORGANIC" and it's an amazing quilt. Read about it here.


The next challenge is one that I am really hoping to get my act together to enter.  It's called "FIND YOUR VOICE" and we are encouraged to use that terminology as inspiration for our own quilt. Find yours and enter too! You have until September 30th. Plenty of time, right?
(I sure hope so!)

Lucky winner

I've never been the type to win anything in giveaways or drawings, but in the past year - and only related to fabric or sewing.... I've won something like 3 or 4 times. (which is a lot for a girl who doesn't consider herself "lucky" - Blessed- YES! But "Lucky"- not very often.)
Well I won again! And not even something I entered... Which is funny. Remember how I posted about "generation Q magazine"??? I commented on their 1st or 2nd day, just piping in about some square or something and they picked me to win a set of books. I love sewing books!
And one of them is even written by another LAMQG member, Jake Finch.
So awesome. Thanks, generation Q!

Oh and this brings my sewing book collection to about 4,654,759. My goal is to try and do at least one project (how sad is that) from each book. Many of them are staples for me with creative inspiration. (I mostly follow images, not patterns) but some get great use. I think I may do book reports on those soon.

In other news: baby is still with us. He was supposed to leave last Friday, but the process has gotten elongated. (which is good so he can at least get to know the people he's moving in with over a few weeks instead of leaving us cold turkey) So he's here in my arms as I write this and though we had a goodbye party for him last Sunday, we are not sure when that day will be.
Thanks for thinking of us. Being a foster family is definitely one of the greatest challenges our family has faced, but it is drawing us together and growing us immensely.

Memories of Friendship Quilt

It's finished! And it's not called "The Beast" - but it is called "Memories of Friendship"
I wrote the following note to accompany it as it travels to a friend who is making a presentation on modern quilting and using it (among many others) as a prop.

Memories of Friendship
I made this quilt in stages.
This quilt started as one square with some old fabric and some new friends. We had gathered together to learn how to quilt. The old fabric was part of my eclectic and bizarre stash that I have after years of sewing clothes and collecting vintage fabrics from various elderly friends and family members. Each piece has a memory attached of who gave it to me, where I got it or the mystery of not knowing its history.
I often have a "game" I play where I love to hide what I consider "ugly" fabrics into my work. The idea that this discarded and unwanted fabric could be part of something beautiful means a lot to me on many levels. (I  live in a very old house, with lots of vintage patchwork  quilts, artwork on the walls, a creative family, a rescued dog and a foster baby we're trying to adopt. I love seeing beauty in the unexpected) I almost never quilt with a line of fabric, I like the unexpected, and the sense that no one could possibly make this same quilt.
 My new friends and I made wonky squares. I loved my first one and I used up many precious scraps to get the 5 complementary squares. 6 was all I could get. At one point they were even sewn together as a potential table runner.
Then they were ripped apart and stacked for months.

I got the idea to take them into my favorite new quilt shop (Sew Modern), and to pick the brains of the creative and fun friends who work there for ideas. Could we come up with a way to highlight these old fabrics with such a complex color scheme in a way that was fresh?
I'd come in with the idea of two stacks of squares and an off center spread of fabric between. They helped present some awesome and eclectic combos for fabrics, and suggested the wobbly placement.
I went home and pieced the rest by sight. If it needed orange over there, I'd cut and add it in... It was all done in the moment, responding to the overall feeling.
I quilted it with straight line quilting, something I've had little experience with before, but really enjoyed.
As I was basting and quilting this, it occurred to me how many precious friends and memories were represented by this quilt. Each fabric sliver reminds me of someone beautiful that I know. And to me that's what this quilt is all about. My  new friends, my old friends. My silver friends and my gold friends.

 (here's the back of the quilt)

My own quilt labels

Wanna see my quilt label?
Here it is! I've already made 25 quilts that this isn't on, but the next 25 will have this (or something really similar) on the back of them.
The little white box on it is for me to handwrite who it's for and the occasion.
I may also have a less feminine version for quilts that I specifically make for men or boys. Still working that out.
Whatcha think?

Printing my own Quilt Labels - Product Review

I've been wanting to make some fancier labels for my quilts for a while now.
Though I have heard that I could technically run fabric through my printer if it were ironed to freezer paper (anyone tried that?) - I simply haven't gotten around to it.

A few weeks ago, I made labels for my bee buddies to put on their bee quilts. I didn't want to spend the time waiting to get them back from Spoonflower (where I ordered them last year), so I dug out some printable fabric that I have had on hand for a few years and never used. Point to note: such fabric YELLOWS if you don't use it.
I started with the Printed Treasures paper, which I didn't love because it became SO yellow (it IS old, but still). Then I used June Tailor's line, which was considerably less yellowed.  But still my pattern bled a little bit when I rinsed and heat set it.

After all was said and done, I'd use the June Tailor paper again in a bind, but I am going to order my own labels at Spoonflower.  The quality is considerably better.