Art party in the neighborhood

Today I hosted a painting party for 40 little artists. They all live in our new neighborhood and their ages ranged from 1-14.
They were asked to paint images of things that inspire them from our neighborhood and the canvases they made are going to be part of the block party silent auction in a few weeks.
It was hot, but so much fun to do this for them. I absolutely love reminding kids that they truly are artists.

Sew a square a day

Ramona asked if I'd play a game with her which is basically making one small quilt square a day. I've hash tagged it on Instagram as #sewasquareaday to keep track of it.
Ramona's squares are one of three different sizes. Mine are all going to be 4.5" -since I have a cute 4.5" square ruler that hasn't gotten much use yet.
Here are my first three. None of them are particularly "my style" - but that's because I'm making them with scraps of things that are on the cutting table at the moment.
Overall goal for my layout will likely be a checkerboard. (for ease, Ramoma has another plan) I'll keep you posted. Does anyone want to join us???

Artist - Ryan Graeff

With all the furniture shopping we had going on these past few months, Jay and I spent some good times together at Helms Bakery (an old industrial bakery, turned into a collection of great furniture stores). One of the stores we visited had these great paintings that haunted me for months. They were layered, silk screened, urban views of landmark (and non-landmark) parts of LA. They artist's sense of color was great and every painting was better than the last. There's a collaged feel to the works and they're very modern.
When it was finally time to start talking about what art to put up, I realized I didn't only want my art in the house... I wanted one of Ryan Graeff's paintings.
So I hunted him down online! And it just so happened that the weekend we wanted to buy something was the weekend that he was collecting all his pieces back and preparing for an art show. So everything was at his studio. Jay and I went and really enjoyed meeting Ryan in person. We thought a lot about which painting to get, but in the end settled on one of the 110 freeway... Very urban, very LA, very red. :) (it's the bottom pic here)
We were so excited to bring it home. And when we did, we realized the painting is too small to go over our fireplace. ...so now it's in the family room... And we've warned Ryan we are coming back again some other day...

Crockett's quilt

It's hard to post all the projects I am working on when most of them these days are gifts. Which makes it so that I can rarely post about them, since I think for the most part, the people I am making them for read my blog.

I had to keep the work-in-progress pics of this to a minimum for exactly that reason, but now the quilt is gifted - and I can post.

I made this quilt for a very special baby nicknamed "Crockett" - he's the adorable 3rd kiddo of a great friend of mine and I began work on this - made the top - at the old house last spring while she was pregnant and I was just beginning the move and remodel. Then all summer, when my studio was still in boxes, I'd pull out this (along with a few other TBA projects and hand quilted the whole thing). Ramona and her family came over to my house a few days ago and I was so happy to give her this quilt, after months of stitching it together. The sweetest part to me was that she actually preceeded my giving it to her with the question if I'd be Crockett's god-mother. YES! and HERE'S WHAT I MADE FOR HIM!


It was just one of those "meant to be" things. I love Ramona. I love her family. I've haven't really been a godmother before, but I can't wait to be one. And all the love and hope I put into this quilt as I sewed it feels even more purposeful now.

I have a new studio mate

We've brought a new friend in. This is Pepper and we collected her this am from a family that was "fostering" her. She's an outdoor cat, but needs a few weeks to set her kitty GPS, so she's sharing my studio with me until she's ready. She's not full grown, but she is super friendly and even in the first few hours, she's already coming out when we call her.
Mimi is in heaven.

Just more pics from San Diego and Coronado

Trip to San Diego

Jay whisked me away this weekend to San Diego for a final summer fling before school starts. The kids were with his parents and we got to enjoy an Amtrak ride from LA to SD and stayed at a sheeshee hotel in downtown.
We ate a restaurant the first night that was so good we returned there again the second night.
We also rented bikes and took the ferry to Coronado Island (a second post of those pics coming).
We are kind of sold on train travel after this...

Liberty Worth shared an Instagram photo with you

Hi there,

Liberty Worth just shared an Instagram photo with you:

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"Just sitting on the back porch, sewing..."

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Bee-hind in my bee squares - catching up with Nicole

Miss April in my bee (Nicole) was neglected for months as I packed and moved. I'm glad we are a close knit bunch, all fully aware of each others' lives... No one has yet expressed any anger at my bee-ing months bee-hind. (ok, no more puns)
Tonight, however, was the first day of being able to use my studio. Our open house was yesterday and here was my chance.... I spent the night playing with Nicole's great palette of shot cottons and striped linens to deliver her a huge Gee's Bend inspired blocks.
Nicole and I started quilting together about 4 years ago - so I think she especially will appreciate how far I've come. :) and for her part, I know the quilts of Gee's Bend are what inspired her to start quilting, so her quilt is going to be phenomenal.
As she requested, all of the scraps went back to her, but those tiniest "unusable" ones are the ones I always try to play with at the end... I added this funny crooked strip to some Essex Linen and made a little project bag to go with.
...a great first night, indeed!...
(this bodes well)

Amy's baby quilt

I had such a great time making this quilt for Amy's baby girl.... I made the top a few months ago before I had to pack the sewing machines up for the move... Which meant I had to hand quilt it finding random moments during the move. (as if I minded!)
It was so fun to give this to Amy. She and her husband are world travelers and she and I giggled as we realized that most of the places on the fabric were places that we had been together over our 15 years of being friends.
I love that her baby in all her world travels will get to have this little token of love to begin her life!