Progress and Beautiful Compromise

Marimekko + AMH feathers + Sneaky cat photobomb

As of the end of this month, we'll have been living in our current apartment for four years. As of just this year, we finally agreed on a decorating scheme for our living room! O hey, let's hear it for progress! We've been trying out some different ideas, but nothing seemed to feel quite right or unite our styles. My taste is very cozy/cabin/carefully curated wunderkammer and his is more modern/minimum/quirky graphic designer so it has been difficult to merge them but important to us to have a room or two that reflected a mutual compromise.

Then we came across that black and white Marimekko fabric in the photo above (the pattern is called Kantaleen Kutsu, based on a Finnish folktale)...FINALLY, something we both loved that united elements from both our styles! It's almost as if we've been figuring out this marriage/compromise bit or something  ;) Once we found that, the whole living room started coming together. The idea of pulling inspiration from a mid-century modern look with touches of bright/cozy/modern woodland was very appealing as we wanted something sleek but comforting to come home to at the end of the day. I didn't want to overdo it on the woodland theme, go too literal, or have etsy owls all over the place. It's not finished and needs a bit more of the "sleek" element, but it's getting there.

That electric fireplace is the best. thing. ever.

The feather block pattern by Anna Maria Horner got me thinking though...I love that they are a bright contrast point to the Marimekko but not overly girly or cute done up in this linen and Denyse Schmidt Chicopee fabric. AND the colors of Chicopee coordinate so well with Anna Maria Horner's Summer Totem print in the grapefruit colorway that I have on the chair on the right (a quirky rocker we found on the cape one summer...it's not yet reupholstered, but someday...). I am learning to embrace mixing up different fabric designers these days. It really does make for more depth in a project but requires me to let go of some of my OCD tendancies. Anyways, I get my bright spots, he gets sparsely placed black and dark wooden masculine furniture. BLAMMO, we all win. It's a start!

Someday, I will recover that puke green couch in a wearable charcoal grey canvas. That or just replace it altogether, I'm not yet sure. J is voting on recovering it because moving it in here almost cost us our relationship, haha. Anyways, when we do get around to those final touches (replacing the rug, upholstery, etc.) I will post a real room tour. In the meantime, I'm just going to focus on what IS done. See, bliss!

Pillow Bonanza

dresden plate + liberty of london tana lawn = o la la!

Those who follow me on facebook or flickr got a little sneak peak at the makings of this pillow before the festival, but here is the final product in all it's glory! I am quite happy and relieved to be able to have a tangible version of my vision (isn't that always the most satisfying thing?!) and am itching to keep one of them for myself...still considering that. Either which way, the first is live and in the shop now though, just waiting for someone to snag it up and give it a proper home.

Why so relieved though? Well, turns out that dresden plate is a DOOZY! As I found out the night before my last day of prep before the show, there are a few snazzy methods (including english paper piecing, needle-turn applique, and raw edge machine applique with fusible webbing just to name a few) that make the whole process a lot easier but found myself with none of the tools necessary and I must confess this is the first sewing project that has made me swear and cry this much. C'est la vie, it happens sometimes right? I finally decided to trim my rounded petals to be triangles and as 2 o'clock in the morning rolled around,  I called it a night so I could get up early and take another stab at appliqueing the inner circle in the morning. It's not perfect, but I will remember that I am capable of conquering any scary new sewing project every time I see that slightly crooked top stitch. In my mind, that is exactly what makes handmade so very special and unique: an automated machine just can't allow for such a story and the items made with them don't carry that kind of history.

"The popular name for this quilt, Dresden Plate, reflects the romance of the Victorian Era with it's love of elaborate decoration on household items and décor. Dresden, Germany was a center of 19th century romanticism movement in art, one that included the fine decoration of porcelain. The plates were embellished with elaborate design using flowers, fruits and foliage. The beautiful plates would surely have been admired by women of the early 20th century." —www.patternsfromhistory.com

As I worked on this, I fell harder for the Liberty tana lawn. The prints are the perfect blend of old and new, of nostalgic and fresh. They feel like a very British version of the brightly colored scraps of feedsack that women of the 1920's and 30's in America would have been using when they popularized this quilt block. I ended up using another chunk of it to do a couple patchwork pillows, one of which sold at the show and the other pictured below. All of these are now up in the shop as well:

Clockwise, left to right: Yo-yo Rosette Pillow on White Linen,
AMH Square Dance Pillow (with pastry line on the back!), Yo-yo Rosette Pillow on White Linen,
Liberty of London Patchwork Pillow, AMH Little Folks Patchwork Pillow

So many shiny new things, I can barely handle all the excitement! Now that I am back to focusing on my etsy shop, I can work at a slightly more leisurely pace and I do have a few new things up my sleeve that I'm planning to release this June/July. The feel of summer is beginning to take hold and is influencing my thoughts about new embroidery patterns and sachets, but no sneak peeks just yet. I'm off to get some of these thoughts on paper and will share here as soon as they are presentable...

My Blogger's Pillow Party Entry

Umm...I only noticed how much dust was on the arm of the rocking chair as I edited this photo

...had to laugh at my mad housekeeping skillz!

If you've stopped by my blog before, you may have already seen this pillow from my etsy shop recently but I'm sharing it once again (apologies for the repeat!) so that I can have a chance to participate in the Blogger's Pillow Party hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color. There's a pretty fab prize this month which I can't resist, I finally have a real live pillow to post (ahem...as opposed to the ones that are just ideas in my head and fabric on the shelf), and I've been enjoying all the other entries so much, especially those by Maureen—I figured, why the heck not now that there's just one day left to enter?! Yup, that's me...always on top of things!

This pillow was inspired by my love of crazy colors and wanting to find a way to use up some of my treasured scraps of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks fabric line. I find that they, or any really colorful or vibrantly patterned fabric, really take pride of place when they are contrasted by neutrals and simplicity soooo after a few sketches, I decided to try my hand at a very simple yo-yo rosette pillow with just a few framed in the center by an unbleached linen. The yo-yos are all done by hand of course and the body of the pillow is machine sewn with an envelope closure.

Fingers crossed! In the meantime, you and I can do a bit of blog hopping to see all the other entries and their bloggy creators here (just scroll down to see photos of entries for each month and click to find out more about each one).

Grandma Meets Design

(the two in the background are store bought ages ago and the bear is a handmade heirloom from my husband's childhood)

The first two pillows for my shop are finally here! Can i just say that i am pleased as punch with these? I know, way to toot my own horn there, geez louise. But the idea/design/fabrics/technique have been running around in my head for a while and there is always something a bit magical about having one of your creations take shape and looking all snazzy in its own little Etsy listing, no matter how many times you finish a seam and click that button.

I decided to make up two of the same design with yo-yo rosettes in slightly different fabrics from my AMH scraps—each one sewn, pieced, and attached by hand. What i love most about them is the bright against the sparse, the way they combine a more traditional homespun aesthetic with an overall clean and modern design. I really wanted to take what I loved about quilting and blend it with a contemporary bohemian á la anthropologie look. I might just have to put one aside for my own decor/napping needs...

yo-yo rosettes in two colorways of anna maria horner little folks voile

Each one fits a 14x14 inch pillow form and has an envelope closure with my very own professionally printed labels that I'm pretty geeked about (from mommiemadeit on etsy...i just can't show much with my website on it since i use flickr as a photo platform but you can see them, and specifics on the pillows, here and here).

I want to continue this line with a few more designs featuring other old-school quilt blocks such as the dresden plate, grandmother's flower garden, pinwheels, or perhaps some miniature patchwork. Now if only I could get my hands on a few of those Liberty of London Color Wheel bundles! Did I almost not post that link because I'm afraid they'll sell out again before I can strike it rich? Um, maybe...gosh this fabric addiction might be getting serious!