Around the World Blog Hop

Melody Miller quilt top I'm going to start hand quilting next with sashiko stitches

Belated though I may be, I wanted to respond to my friend's gracious invitation to participate in the "Around the World" blog hop. To echo her sentiments, it's not normally my kind of thing, but I thought the nature of the questions posed were interesting and worth thinking about and sharing. Since I am so late to the party, I'm going to forgo tagging anyone but am sending a thank you to Natalie from Green Leaf Goods for thinking of me!

Reality Check: the sewing table in my workroom...want to play How Many Projects Can you Spot?!

1. What quilting/sewing thing am I working on?

The short answer is that I have one last Quilts for Boston top to finish and two quilts to sandwich and baste, my DS Quilts picnic top and my Melody Miller top. I also have a laptop case I'm trying to design for myself and two baby gift projects I want to finish, an Amish Puzzle Ball and a matching game.

In trying to better answer this question though, I had a look around my sewing room and took full stock of what was going on. I currently have eight quilts in some state of progress and five other sewing projects including several items for my shop, and some home decor sewing. For a long time, I felt almost guilty for admitting to people that had so many WIPs, as if it were some kind of reflection on my ability to finish things (or not). A recent series of articles from Sew Mama Sew on Slow Sewing helped me to reframe the issue and I've gotten comfortable recognizing that I choose and enjoy working in this way. Like so many, I have a busy and chaotic work schedule so when I get home, I like to have a bevy of projects at the ready depending on how much time and focus I have. One night, it might make more sense to be downstairs with other family members working on hand stitching. Another night, I have to be working in my office and it's easier to take a break every now and then to run a few seams on the machine as a treat to myself. At other times, I'm on the go and need something portable. Either which way, my prep work has been completed and I can jump right in on whatever I'm in the mood for! 

I love adding hand stitched and embroidered details to my sewing and quilting projects

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I think I fall pretty well into the modern quilting movement in terms of my fabric choices, love of asymmetric designs that put a twist on traditional blocks, and embrace of whitespace. This speaks to my background in graphic design and I love conceiving of a quilt with those ideas in mind.

I differ most in my work techniques, having been taught by my Granny who is a very traditional quilter. I tend not to use patterns and though I love and use my machine for a lot of things (and do not want to knock those that use it solely at all!), I personally find a lot more meaning and peace of mind in hand quilting so try to incorporate that whenever I can. I am terrible at free-motion quilting so I avoid it as well as the QAYG method and heavy laundering because my work in textile conservation has helped me to realize that these are not stable, long-term methods.

I also try to limit my stash buying habits to make my work process more green-friendly, using up all the scraps  I can (I love frankenbatting and stuffing plush items with too-small-to use fabric scraps) and avoiding some of the commercialism of quilting where I can. My sewing is slow, each project taking long enough to flow in and out of periods of my life so as to reflect different stories in its making and never keeps up with fabric line releases, try though I might at times.

This is a quilt top I have in progress using Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile.
I've been hand piecing it for a while now and have no intention of hurrying up! My idea with this was that it was so enjoyable and meditative to stitch into the buttery voile, that I would hand piece and quilt the whole thing as it pleased me. The top is almost 2/3rds done and completely inspired by my love of this fabric.

3. How does my writing/creating process work?

Inspriation comes in various forms for me. Most often, the roots of a quilt design lie in the nature of the specific purpose, person, or season I am making it for. Occassionally they are formed by my vision of a fabric line that really speaks to me (Denyse Schmidt's Chicopea and Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks are examples). Frequently, I am inspired by the work of fellow quilters and love collecting and comparing stellar quilts in my Flickr favorites and on Pinterest. These examples really help me to condense what I aspects I love most and inform my own altered or mish-mashed designs.

I tend to draw these ideas out on scrap paper so that I can calculate just how much fabric I'll need. As a grad student, I don't have a lot of extra cash for fabric so, though the improv approach is very appealing to me, I tend to plot things out in advance to make the most economic use of my stash. Alternatively, I might start by pulling certain fabrics whose colors or patterns work well together. This part of the process reminds me a lot of blending oil paints as an art student in college. It's really a gut call when it comes to color for me and is the part of my creative process that I love and prolong the most.



I hope you've enjoyed this insight into my work and hope that it's got you thinking about your own habits and style. I'll be back soon with some more progress and finished pieces soon!

Trying Something New

Excuse the late afternoon light and the mess...clearly an indication of intense work!

I recently rearranged my entire studio in an effort to make the space a bit more fluid and useful. The added bonus is that I now have a design wall! Well, if you consider an old piece of batting hung with thumb tacks a design wall...

It's been somewhat of a revelation to have a place to lay out ongoing work in a way that it is clearly visible and yet not taking up more surface space. A place where I can consider as much or as little of any particular challenge at once. As you can see in the photo...I'm a bit of a piler and tend to have several different projects going at once so the immediate nature of it does help me focus and contend with different arrangements and possibilities for each item. I still see myself as planning a lot of quilts out with paper and pencil (especially before cutting into particularly precious stacks of fabric), but I felt it was high time to add this tool to my arsenal and em enjoying experimenting with it.

The blocks in progress are for a Valentine's quilt I've got in the works. I know, just in time for...June? I had the best of intentions and at least started thinking about it back in February—though I'm not a big fan of the holiday it occurred to me that having a lap quilt to display on the back of the couch according to season/holiday would be an excellent excuse for more fabric shopping and quilts. Also, I found 3 yards of Anna Maria Horner velveteen for a cold weather quilt backing on major clearance so clearly the universe was trying to tell me something, duh! I didn't want to do anything too literal but have embraced a whole lot more pink than usual and contrasted it with greys. Each block features a very loose theme of fabric featuring things I love (photography, sewing, hiking, cats, etc.) and either start with or extend out towards saturation of pink or grey. I'm not sure each one I've done is completely successful as it requires a whole breadth of fabrics I don't keep on hand, but am finding it an enjoyable challenge to find the right gradation of shades and how to work in low volume prints to my satisfaction. This is one of my favorite blocks so far:

note the scrap of little red scissors I hoarded for years and finally cut into—can anyone tell me the name/designer of it?

This summer brings with it a bit more free time for me to sew and I'm looking forward to sharing a few of the quilts I've finished these past few months here soon. Until then!

A Unvarnished Glimpse

some recent chuppah sewing as the daylight fades

Just a little peek into the studio today. It occurred to me the other day that we tend to see a lot of photos of people's studios and the work that comes out of them, but it's rare to actually see the person themselves at work in there, unglossed and unposed. Since that's what's actually happening there all the time though and what leads to all the pretty things we share with each other, why not show the reality of it off for a brief moment?! Of course it's natural that we all want to see and talk about those finished objects the most, but I think that a window into a person's creative environment "in action" can be really illuminating since it is that unique process that makes everyone's handmade items so special, no matter how everyday it may seem.

Far from the immaculately styled photos we see of people's craft rooms, I'm afraid mine does get messy. Uhm, don't spread this around, but I'm kind of A Piler.

I can't stand having my hair hang down in my face when I work so that goes up straight away and the music gets turned on from my laptop which sits behind me. Sometimes it's an audio book as I find I don't get to read quite as much when my free time is filled with holding a needle and floss.

When I embroider, I sit on the couch in my studio or downstairs in the air conditioning and the netflix q is my best friend when I have several pairs of embroidered converse to work though. Name almost any obscure period costume drama, kid's cartoon, or historic documentary, and I've probably seen it at this point.

This may be weird, I'm not actually sure, but I don't like having shoes or slippers on when I use the presser foot to my sewing machine so those suckas get kicked off as soon as I sit down to it. I'm not sure what it is, but it feels like they are in my way!

If you were to take a photo like this of yourself, what would it capture? How do you work and create? What tools or things in your environment are essential to your process? Are you like me and tend to unconsciously fit a bajillion pins in your mouth as you go only to realize you can't talk when someone pops their head in the door? I'd love to hear and if you want, go ahead and leave a link to a photo of you at work in the comments section!

Taking Shape

(The blanket was crocheted by my great aunt, the pillows and bunting are both by moi,
the couch is Ikea, the vintage work basket is from Ginger's Girl, and the photo was a gift from my mentor
—an original from the Getty Museum archives of the Parthenon marbles, which I wrote my senior thesis on in college)

You've seen the better half of my home studio here but I never revealed the rest because it was always filled with boxes of supplies and odds and ends that wouldn't quite fit into our attic storage area. Just last weekend though, we got a new couch for our living room (which I think I'm going to re-upholster so stay tuned for that bit of madness...), cleaned in places I didn't know existed as we moved things around, and hauled this little Ikea sofa to my upstairs workroom. I had gotten it when I was working in DC and had a studio apartment in Alexandria, VA so perhaps it is fitting to have it up here now—I'm certainly happy to finally have a place to sit and do embroidery without hurting my back or having to haul my supplies to and from the living room!

I've been waiting so long to be able to bring this couch up here so I could make a pillow out of some of my AMH square dance/pastry line fabric to go with it:

VERY easy to make:
a large panel of the square dance fabric fits a 12x12 pillow (or 14x14 if you've got enough seam allowance) 

and then I just made an envelope closure for the back in coordinating pastry line fabric.

I've thought about embellishing some areas of the flowers with embroidery but like it just as it is for the time being. I think having a bit of my favorite fabric on display like this will be a nice bit of inspiration and I do like being able to decorate this room with anything that suits my fancy, in any colors I please since I do not have to go through the process of whether it is way too girly or not. Eventually I'd like to repaint (the blue was there when we moved in), but I'm pretty happy with how it's coming together for now.

Speaking of things coming together, I've made some good progress towards the show as well this week including 20 draft stoppers and 26 yo-yos! The weekend will find me holed up in the studio still so I can churn out a couple pairs of embroidered converse and some embroidery pattern work...I've definitely got my work cut out for me!

A little bit of spring in your step...

We lacked in the area of real blooms but these pretty carved tulips were quite festive with our easter feast.
They were a gift from our UK friends and i just wish i knew who made them, very cute!

Spring is finally in full swing here. The buds on the branches are bursting, birds are chirping outside my studio window, and the grass is about 75% green thanks to a few rainstorms and warm days so we're finally able to throw open all the windows in the house. While I do love me some cozy winter days, I've gotta say there's nothing quite like banishing all that stale air and feeling free to put some serious thought into what I want to plant and where I want to hike.

In that spirit, I am now about halfway done with a deep clean of my studio (picture me sitting getting distracted by every material and slip of paper and unknown amounts of time drift by as I think, "O I remember that, maybe I will add this and this and that and that to my project q! O wait, you mean this doesn't actually qualify as cleaning? You mean that this is the part where my mom would poke her head in and use my full name to ask how much I've gotten done so far? well, crap..."). So far there are three less boxes of crapola though, three more to go, a lot more space, newly organized supplies and projects, and a few less stacks of papers.

Once the place is in tip-top shape, I'm looking forward to taking a stab at going through my backlog of personal projects. Quilt tops will be turned into quilts, pillow covers will finally be able to be stuffed, and scrap fabric will be evaluated for up-cyling, among other things on the list. I don't want to jinx it, but it's almost as if I've got my very own working studio here...wink wink.

Have you delved into any spring cleaning yet? Or embraced the weather instead and enjoyed something out-of-doors? I want to hear what's motivating you as we turn this corner in the year!

P.S. There is a great conversation going on here and here. So much of it hits upon issues which have been tumbling around in my head for months now that weren't sure how to work themselves onto the blog....soon, I hope!

welcome in!

both workspaces and the chair are from IKEA

it's only taken me forever and a half, but i finally have photos of my studio (in a decent state, ahem) to share with you! i've been a cleaning up a storm the last few days in preparation for my sister and her boyfriend coming into town for thanksgiving. this is their first time visiting us here so i knew i wanted to have everything cleaned up for a little tour. and this way you have plenty of eye candy to enjoy as i step away from the blog for a few days to enjoy thanksgiving and their visit.



if we stay in this apartment any longer, i would really like to paint and i am also working out how i might move things around to accomodate a lightbox set-up...we'll see. i know i'm a very lucky girl to have a room like this of my very own so i've got to work with it and not whine about wanting more space!



my inspiration board...ha, what can i say? my interests and inspirations are all over the board....mmm literally and figuratively. i didn't intend to make such an old man joke right there, these things just happen every now and then you know?

well, i better run. today i am making the cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, rye bread, chocolate hazelnut ice cream, deviled eggs, and marshallows all from scratch to make tomorrow's feast prep a bit easier. by the time my husband gets home from work and our guests pull in the drive-way tonight, i am so going to be ready to collapse! the happy kind of collapsing though where you are surrounded by loved ones and the knowledge that soon you'll be feasting and having a very lovelyquietcozytime, enjoying doing not much of anything, and reflecting on all that we are grateful for.

i hope you have the same and will see you back here in a few!

inspiration board

one of my recent weekend projects was this polka dot bulletin board for my studio. i am a chronic collector and pile maker so i can never have enough places to keep important scraps of paper and beautiful little things i want to display for inspiration.

the tutorial (link shared below) called for pre-cut cork board but i was trying to save some money and cut my own using a bowl from the kitchen for the template piece. i'd still like to paint in this room so the other thing i did a bit differently was to just hang them up with sewing pins so as not to leave big holes in the wall. my dad would be proud, haha.


overall, it was fairly easy and painless to make, i think it took me just a couple hours altogether. you can find the tutorial for these over here on craftzine.com.

The Big Move

There are a few new items in the shop, but for the most part I have been working behind the scenes to prep new items for the holiday seasons that are just around the corner now—get ready for sachets specially scented for christmas, compress' with some cute new kokka fabrics, and a new take on my café aprons! I've also been teaching myself to knit in the round, yikes! I have loved working with yarn and fibers ever since my godfather built me a loom many years ago; I took weaving courses for a few years but when I began high school I'm afraid I couldn't keep up with it in addition to sports, orchestra, and my studies. Knitting has been a fun way to work with so many beautiful yarns again though in a much more portable way and I do hope that I can someday share my handiwork on etsy.

In the meantime...we've found a new home at last! The last couple weeks have been so busy making plans for our big move that it feels as though my head might spin right off. Boston has always been in the back of our minds as a possibility but the comparatively good job market for John's work (as compared to DC) as well as a dream apartment settled the matter for us quite comfortably and so Boston it is!

my current (soon to be former!!) "studio" which really just consists of a small bookshelf
and equally small table for my sewing machine which sit in the corner of our bedroom.
(Apologies for the slight blurriness here)

Whenever we have been down and out, moody in our cavernous little basement apartment, and just positively itching for some kind of new opportunity after John's lay-off, we've sat and described to each other the kind of place we would like to make our new home in. A kitchen that is not just a hallway in disguise, an extra room for me to set up a real work space/studio in, windows everywhere (we have only one right now in the very front room of our english basement apt., ugh!), stairs to force the cats to exercise (ha!), and all of this nestled into some quaint little town with trees and paths and water for recreation. So as you might imagine, we were dumbstruck to find all of this just 20 minutes outside Boston!!! A doable commute, a peaceful place to come home to away from the city's dirt and noise....insert huge sigh of relief here.

So for the next week or so I'll have somewhat spotty access to internet. I am leaving the shop open though so that you may browse and purchase at your leisure! Simply allow an extra 1–2 weeks for your package to arrive for any purchases made during this time (October 19th–26th). And of course I will respond to any queries you may have via etsy convo as soon as I am able.

Hope to meet you back here soon—and coming to you from Boston!!