Mod Mood Workshop in OC

 I haven't posted in so long I feel like I am going through blog withdrawals... not really that I'm addicted to blogging. And during these past two quiet months, while moving, remodeling and dealing with many other crazy things - I've also gone off coffee (one of my top ten loves and definitely an addiction!) in the interest of seeking more balance to my days. I miss the coffee a lot, but I feel a lot better and wake up much happier too...
Anyhow - During the chaos, I was able recently to take one weekend off. I went down to Orange County to take a class with a few of my LAMQG gal pals and our guild sisters in the OCMQG. It was something that Yolanda had arranged a while back and though her health kept her from being a part of the class, we did get a visit from her and I was able to spend my evening Saturday night hanging out and talking projects with her.
Yolanda had really loved Sherri Lynn Wood's mod mood quilt and asked her if she'd come teach a 2 day class for her guild. I think it must have been about 7 or 8 months ago when we all arranged it, this has been much anticipated. I even got myself a hotel room and didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night for anyone.
Sherri is a really nice person. She opened each day with a centering (but not religious) guided meditation where we focused and calmed down. Artistically, I found this to be a great practice. I've done it to a small extent with some of my collage sessions before, but never with quilting. When we opened our eyes, we were to select colors from our piles based on how we felt.
Given all the chaos I've been dealing with these past few years, it was no wonder to me that I had this colorful, but quite subdued and controlled color pallette. I need order, not self-expressive chaos, these days.
Sheri showed us her process for making improv'd wedges and how she puts them together to make these grand (and small) sweeping curves - this, of course, appealed to me.
The second day was spent figuring out how to put our work together - using all sorts of techniques in our tool boxes to get these to look the way we wanted them to. It was really challenging - but fun.
It was good that SEWING PARTY - the store we were meeting in, has such amazing huge design walls in their classroom. (Everything is bigger in Orange County, I've learned)

Sherri, in the white shirt, talking to all of us about layout options.

LAMQG friend, and Sew Modern owner, Lauren showing me how much fun she was having.

What it looked like when Lauren, Liz and myself combined our work together,  it looks much better in this photo than it did in person.

my piece at the end of the weekend.

I still wasn't able to finish my piece, but I am happy with what I ended up with. It was a great experience that included a lot of laughing with friends.  I do intend to finish the piece when I get a chance to finally get my studio sorted out, unpacked and up and running. That's a few weeks away - because of all of the setup I still have to do ((((SIGH)))) - but I'll keep you posted.

oh - and while making this post, I found the following pics on the OCMQG blog and also Sherri's blog.... you can see me and my dear sweet friend, Latifah, getting our mod moods on...

Moving pics

Trying again to post these pics from the move...

Blogger's torturing me... A two week late post about moving....

(I tried posting this two weeks ago, but for some reason, my phone and blogger aren't on speaking terms these days. We are on week 4 without computer/wifi access - and therefore no fun blogposts... Right now it looks like I might not even be able to get the pics to attach, so we shall see).... Here's the post you were meant to read a few weeks ago.... I still haven't sewn since those first few days after Hawaii. I can't wait to finally get to, someday soon. Here's why you haven't heard from me in a while. We have moved. And not just a move, but a move into an "almost" complete (read: very dusty) remodel. Yes, that makes 2 kitchen remodels in one year. And yes, we are putting the exact same kitchen into this house! (you thought I could give up those red countertops so easily? I'm paying for that decision now as they've suddenly gone on back order and we have no counters at least until August)... Our new house is funky. Quirky. And adorable. It's also 2x as big as the beloved bungalow that we rented to some nice folks. It's likely the smallest house in the neighborhood... And that's just fine with me. It's a happy house. You can feel it when you walk in. It was built in 1950. A few years after that, a nice family bought it. They are the people who sold it to us. To me, that says, "HAPPY HOUSE" - you don't stay somewhere for 60 years, through multiple generations and multiple good markets if you hate it. The last son from the previous family is thrilled to see what we've done. I think he's excited to see another happy family move in after he had to rent it out the past few years. Our old house is the same way. We are only the third or fourth owners and it was built in 1926. It was hard to say goodbye to the bungalow. I loved that place. I started blogging because I was so excited to live there that I had to tell someone. But now we are in a new season. We know lots of neighbors in our new digs already, some have been friends for years. Today we walked to the farmers' market around the corner. Tomorrow the french doors go in on my new (and much bigger!) studio. I hope that means I get to start unpacking in there... Finally. I haven't sewn or made collages in weeks. Today I even put on a dress for the first time in weeks - its been all sweats and dust all the time lately. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. These past 3-4 years have given us more change than we ever wanted. We can't wait to settle into our new life. We've changed church, school, family size (from 2 kids to 3, to 2 again and again, then to 3 and even 4 and back to 2), we've grieved, remodeled, packed up, moved and now remodeled again. I can't wait to have a boring week!!!!! Until then, I'll keep ya posted... Sent from my iPhone

Liberty Worth shared an Instagram photo with you

Hi there,

Liberty Worth just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

"Farmers market this am. Right around the corner from the new house!"

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Liberty Worth shared an Instagram photo with you

Hi there,

Liberty Worth just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

""bye house, we love you" "
(taken at Home)

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Yolanda's healing quilt

When we heard Yolanda was sick, we decided the best thing a bee could do was to assemble a quilt for our hurting member. Yolanda had liked and requested a personalized copy of a computer art piece I'd made for myself recently, so we decided to include it as a focus piece. We got the collage printed on fabric at www.spoonflower.com and also tracked down Yolanda's favorite "Livingston seagull" fabric (the last two fat quarters on the Internet!).

Using the gray and white and turquoise colors from those pieces and some bright purple to make it really happy, we all made oversized mod mosaic blocks for her. Lori assembled the top and we were able to get our hands on Robert Kaufman's new line of lawn cotton to make a silky backing.

When the quilting proved to be really frustrating, Lori called for help. Ramona suggested we hand quilt it -old fashioned bee style- at our sewing event for the guild today.
So many beautiful friends joined in and the quilt was almost entirely finished in one day. It was a magical thing to be a part of and we sent Yolanda photos, even as we were working on it.
I promise to send finish pics when Lori finishes the binding and photographs it.
In the meantime, a huge thank you to the following AMAZING women who have all made this gift possible:
Lori, Alison, Rosanna, Kelly, Janice, Nicole, Melissa, Natalie, Katie, Blossom, Ramona, Rhonda, Jennifer, Maria, and Alissa.

I literally get tears in my eyes thinking about how beautifully wonderful this gift is going to be. I can't wait to see it in her arms.

Yolanda's quilts in the hands of friends

Here are some amazing quilts that have been helped along by loving friends to Yolanda. She is super encouraged when we send her pics of her WIPs, so it's really fun for us to all be cranking away to help her. None of these pics are mine... They were taken by the amazing women who worked on these quilts: Janice, Lori, Pam, and Alison.

Gavin's Quilt - Yolanda and the bee

I haven't been able to blog super much lately. Partly due to the fact that most of my house is in boxes or already at the new house... We are also remodeling the new house, so even though we are planning to be fully out of the old house in 2 weeks - almost the entire ground floor of the house doesn't even have walls yet. The whole thing is daunting.
Then there's the fact that I spent 7 glorious days in Hawaii with my family and I just haven't picked up the post-aloha speed again yet.
And then there's my friend, Yolanda. I've mentioned her before here on my blog- Yolanda is a Bee Happy member and one of the most generous people I know. Until recently, she was the pres of the Orange County Modern Quilt Guild. But recently she found out she has cancer. And that totally sucks.
Our very tight knit bee (we've been together for years now and probably send an average of 10 emails to each other every day) - has rallied. We've placed all other projects on the back burner to do a number of Very Important Projects for Yolanda. Since Y is feeling tired these days, we asked how we could help with some of her Works in Progress (WIP) and UnFinished Objects (UFOs, yeah I know). We felt like if she can know we are all working to be her extra hands and energy right now, she can keep her faith and energy focused on healing... And know how much we all care for her. People from all over the country and even the world have sent me emails asking how they can help. One amazing woman in Australia (Jeannette) even had me send a quilt for her to piece and quilt down there. I could just cry thinking of how amazing people can be. Some of the people have never even interacted with Yolanda, they just care.
I've been driving to south Orange County to spend time with her nearly every week. We play with fabric and figure out which projects are fun ones to have people help out with. Our time is always too short and I love seeing her amazing happy face light up while we play.

Last week we were working on her grandson's quilt. Our bee members (and other non-bee generous souls) sent in squares in three sizes per Y's directions...either 10", 5.5" or 2.5" - in reds, greys, and blues. (we still need more tiny ones, if you're feeling inspired...). Yolanda and I laid them out on her design wall - so cool with its frame and all... And she sat at her machine and sewed while I ran around alternative between handoffs, layouts and pressing. It was so fun. Isn't this quilt going to be fantastic?
Yolanda really has such a great eye for color and cool quilt concepts. It's been fun for me to pass off her many UFOs through the mail to other folks. Seeing her ideas has really inspired me. I'll post some pics of what amazing people are doing to help out.

moving

view full image

"Reality sets in. This would be about 1/2 of my fabric. Now that it's packed it finally feels like I'm moving."
(taken at Home)

Tropical bag

A few weeks ago, my friend Yolanda gave me a stack of precut scrap strips to play with... For years, she and I have exchanged goodie bags and boxes of scraps... I took the little stack to Hawaii with me and played around with needle and thread... And ended up with this hand-pieced, hand-quilted piece that I turned into a bag.... And of course, who should get the bag, but the generous lady herself?