Design director designs a quilt

Momma has been making so many quilt tops. I'm exploding with ideas. But worth stopping all of that creative energy is the chance to include a certain little someone. She saw me sketching out my ideas in my journal and promptly went and got her crayons and a pen to design her own quilt. I was so flattered... So of course I was going to stop everything I was doing to make her sketch come to life. Here it is.

The only thing I bought for it was the satin binding - which looks horrible up close... But she loves it, it is her design, and we made it happen.

Glasses

Mimi got glasses today. Of course, she picked the hot pink ones that most closely resemble momma's glasses. She is thrilled to see clearly "everything looks bigger!" and Z asked for a pair, which we got at the 99cent store and promptly popped the lenses from.... So now we are a fully spectacled family... And a cute one at that (at least the youngest two are!)

CHA - Craft and Hobby Show

I've been meaning to tell you about last Friday since it was last Friday, and I'm all distracted with being productive. I just wanted to share the fun and wild day I had.

I'm sure you've gathered that I am a big fan of Amy and her Mod Podge Rocks blog. She's so fun and chock full of inspiration each day. Well, she's also super nice and we've been emailing back and forth the past few months. So when I learned she was going to be here in LA for the Craft and Hobby Supershow, I decided to take a little drive down to Anaheim to meet her in person.

That was fun. Glad I went. It was fun to meet her in person and see lot

s of crafty big-wigs... and I also got to pick up some awesome books, a few charm packs of fabric and see some cool demonstrations on neato machine (those were my favorite parts -the machines that were more the raw types of tasks... get the gears going, you know?) Lots of people were trying out new crafts, though the only one that really enticed me was the needle felting... (oh yes!) ... which I have wanted to try for a while now.

Amy and I met up and had a fun time talking - while we were chatting, Lisa, from "Me and My Peeps" (by Plaid) who draws those stick figures of families you see on the back of everyone's cars drew a super cute pic of my kids from a pic I gave her - and then did one of Amy and me that I'll have to post later.

I also picked up this adorable tee from the craftster.com booth. SEW love it!

The day was awful rainy and it cleared up just in time for me to see a FAB rainbow as I left the show and headed off to my favorite Anaheim haunt (no, not Disneyland, though that is up there on the list) - M&L fabrics. I walked in and took a deep breath of happy before shopping to my heart's content. Wow. I love this store. It's full of designer fabrics and vintage fabrics at the most amazing prices (lots of great stuff even at $1.98 a yard!)... and the sheer breadth of the place is intoxicating. Oh, I love that place. That's why I loved that the double rainbow was just sitting there in the parking lot for me. I totally struck gold.... =) (yes, that gold is the gold square in the new green quilt and the yellow and grey one)

Don't hate me because I am obsessive - another quilt top

a pic of last night's yellow and grey top - out in the sunlight. aiming for better pics soon...

I figure I am entitled to obsess over things every once in a while. If there is one thing to know about my dear husband - it's that he is a PATIENT man. He doesn't worry when I take over the house with my latest obsession - whatever it may be - beading & scrapbooking in years past, painting, collage, decoupage, sewing clothes, quilting, drawing, writing & illustrating a book, making stationery... there are too many hobbies to count. Somehow, J finds the grace to rejoice over each creation with me - however small they are - and he will even allow me to discuss my multitudes of plans with each project.

Our house for the past 5 years has been overcome with fabric. And all this time, I was hoping to get up the nerve to try quilting... stockpiling quilting cotton... and this week I feel like the volcano erupted. I keep sewing the quilt tops, because I am afraid I will lose my motivation and begin to forget my ideas. So for now (while J is working 2 jobs and very busy - out filming THIS tonight), I'm quilting like it might be my life.

At least this is a little more productive than reading Twilight again. Though I am not against that, either.

Tonight's quilt top has a lot of inspiration. In it there are pieces of the fabrics I used for the Design Director and myself and our matching top/dress at Mother's Day last year. There are pieces of one of AJ's blankies. There's some fabric from a shirt J used to wear to work. And there are some vintage fabrics, pieces from a charm pack and even more that I have no idea where they came from. (Have I mentioned that I have a great fabric collection?)

This quilt should be interesting to see where/how it ends up. The yellow square in it just had to be there. Mimi's love for yellow ends up popping up in funny places - I never loved yellow until the design director did... and I now gravitate to it. So that's a little shout out to her inspiration, I guess. (she, by the way, is noticing Momma's frenzy and has been sketching out her own quilt designs that we will work on together). I'm not really a "white" lover... and have literally no white in our house other than tile in the kitchen and bathroom... so it's funny that I've been collecting these white and green fabrics for years. I'll keep you posted on the progress of this. (obviously. can't I keep any secrets?)

No. I can't. That's why I have to tell you about all I love.

Tonight I was loving Craftsanity. I always love Jennifer's podcasts. She's a great interviewer, and gets awesome guests on her show... but tonight was fun to listen to because I sponsored her show! (yay!) I felt like I have received so much inspiration from her over the past few years, that I needed to give back. Well worth it. Tonight's podcast didn't make me cry, like some of them do - but it was really fun to listen to and I enjoyed it a lot. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

another use for scraps

You all know me and scraps.... i simply can't part with them.

The ones that are too small to sew usually get ModPodged to candles and birdhouses and anything else that sits still too long... but what to do with those selvages? or the tiniest strips of the edges that are left over after serging or making a precise cut for quilting?

BOWS! for gift wrap.

I grabbed little handfuls today, wrapped another strand around to make it secure - and CUTE!

Okay, NOW I'm starting to get it... Quilting, that is...

After attending a meeting of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild last night, something clicked for me. I realized that I've been working on traditional quilts... Trying to identify with something that is totally not me. And so as I talked about it with my carpool partner and fellow MOMS club quilter, Lauren, then came home and discussed it with J... It was bugging me... "why does this seem so hard to fit?" and then this morning, I realized that I've been doing modern quilting for years... I used these techniques when I was a textile designer of modular carpet tiles, and then I used the techniques when I quilted my couches... Duh.
And then this afternoon's rainstorm afforded me the chance to go to town. I cut fabric for three different quilts and by 11.30pm tonight, one entire quilt top is finished. I feel like a light bulb went off in my head! (yay!)
So... Here is tonight's work. It's a "disappearing 9 patch" pattern with both vintage and new fabrics in yellows and greys. Hooray!

rambling about quilting and photography and more

I guess, now that I have finished quilting my second quilt... do I get to call myself a quilter?

Wow. I had no idea this was going to be so fun. Seriously... fun! I mean, everyone in my family is so NOT surprised that I love this. After all, I used to design textiles that were designed on a square format and laying out patchworks was the most fun part of the job!

go figure.

I really love picking out the fabrics and colors, too. Since I've been obsessing on red and brown lately - wearing that combo nearly every day, this was really so fun for me to work on. I actually only bought 1 of the fabrics in the quilt. (Thanks, Tori, for most of the others!) I buy a ton of fabric around here... spent all my Christmas money on new fabric to love... but I also am given a lot by people who know how much I love it, and I am doing my best now to use that and give what I don't use! I've also just learned about Margaret's Hope Chest - from one of my favorite podcasts Craftsanity. (here is the link to that episode) I highly recommend the podcast for a constant source of creative inspiration and encouragement.... Jennifer, who does the interviewing is really a likable person to spend time with in the car.

back to quilting... Here are the pics of my two finished quilts. I've asked J to maybe partner with me a little bit and take some decent photos of the work I'm doing. Might make the blog a little prettier. I can shoot photos, but for him it's a hobby and for me, it's tiresome. (I'm also in talks with a local photographer about getting some new Libby Dibby photography done to update the site... more on that later)

Another cowl

It's coo-oooold in our house. Los Angeles houses were not built for any variation in weather... We have a tiny wall heater in our dining room that pretends it can heat the whole house. (it can't) I'm drinking lots of tea, baking, and doing laundry to get more heat... I wear fleece and hats and scarves just doing my stuff around here. But scarves get in the way. And I always need something to do when I finally do sit down and watch tv... I don't watch much, but since we
and a lot of our friends make their living via TV, we have to watch some... ( watch "Life Unexpected" a new show on CW... My friend Reggie is in it. - oh and while you are at it... Watch "Fringe" and "So You Think You Can Dance" too)
---yikes! Tangeant alert!----
Anyhow. I've been using up my scrap yarns to make cowls. This one has 5 different yarns in it. It's ridiculous, but cozy... And this way I don't end up with soup, soap and stitches all over my scarf. Next knitting project is a buttoning scarf/cowl.

Quick! Make that shirt bigger!

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you know that Ze Artiste is a HUGE fan of HS Musical. He signs his name as "Troy" on his preschool homework and frequenty insists on us calling him such. He's memorized the "Getcha Head in the Game" dance (see it here) from start to finish ... Even before we knew he did. He's probably seen HSM 1 & 2 about 10 times each. Honestly, most cartoons are too scary for my kids, so as long movies go... We don't have much we choose from.

Anyhow, my pal Christy, gave Z this (on the left) t-shirt when he turned 3. It was nearly too small then, but he squeezed into it and wore it almost daily until I snuck it away during one laundry round. Today's quickie project for Z, though, was salvaging some favorite old shirts and moving just the logos to some bigger tees. Here you can see the shirt mid transfer.
I also did the same with an odd bulldog tank top that he kept trying to wear in this winter weather. (I put a pic at the bottom of this post.)
To do the whole deal took about 10 minutes for each shirt. When J saw how easy and fun it was, he said, "maybe you could do that with some of my old tees" (I can't believe there's something I could actually CRAFT for him!) I'll keep you posted on how that goes...
Steps?:
1- cut out old design
2- use beacons 3-in-1 (best glue ever) in tiny doses to tack the design on the new shirt correcty.
3- you CAN zigzag stitch it, but for guys shirts a straight stitch looks a little better. Plus, it's fast. No need to hem... T-shirt jersey rolls slightly and looks cool as is.
All done!

Attempting to cook meatloaf

It's so cold and wet. We need the kind of food that sticks today, so I'm making meatloaf (not pictured, because we all know meatloaf is hideous) and cornbread (which IS beautiful)...
But this is a new meatloaf recipe and I am scared it won't turn out well. If you have a good meatloaf recipe, will you post it in the comments section here?

I have a vegan one that I will post that is fabulous.