My new iron is so hot....

It's so big. and so beautiful. I don' name most of my appliances, but this one gives me reason to.... 1800 watts...  i just love it.

----------------------------------------------------------

Here is a little barkcloth pincushion I made for our PMQG swap.

The little "strawberry" is filled with crushed walnut shells to help sharpen your needles.

Traditionally I think you should use emery dust, but I keep forgetting to buy the damn emery...
Emery is your friend!

And this is the pincushion I received in the swap. it's simply AMAZING. I just love it. and if anyone remembers who made this- please tell me!!!

This measures 2.75" square! Shot cotton, simply elegant.

And at quilt guild Jessica brought in a bunch of gorgeous quilts...  all of which you can see in her new book, "Modern Mix"

Quilting is so much like painting.....  You can stare at quilt books and magazines (and quilt blogs!) all you like, but is nothing compared to seeing them in real life. I am so happy to get these special opportunities.

sewing in the rain

Irene hit pretty hard- so I tried to sew as much as i could before the lights went out. They were saying on the news we could be without power for 7-10 days..

My neighbors tree sadly bit the dust.

We were very lucky to not have any damage and the power stayed on.

That Farmers Wife (She's pretty crafty!!!)

I just started my first Farmer's Wife. I randomly picked Block 17 because i thought it looked easy... and of course, i liked the name. [Cats and Mice]

Right out of the gate and I already messed up...

Well i don't have too much time to go into it, but it was CHALLENGING to say the least. Definitely got my attention.

I learned a LOT. I thought it though be a great quilt to do in vintage scraps. I think that might be a terrible idea.

I had good intentions

I am going to re-think this whole thing. I think if I am going to put all this time, I should really just buy some coordinating  quilt weight fabrics, so the whole think won't look like complete VOMIT like my first block.

The farmer's puke

fail

Nothing is lost- this is my test block... I can allow myself that.

Here are some pretty pictures to try and end on a good note.

good times

Summer is my favorite season, and i swear i get so SO depressed as soon as Aug 1st hits. I actually get sad on the 4th of July, then depressed in August, and it's all down hill from there. I think they call that Seasonal Depression...

The folks at the cat shelter just asked me to design a poster for the next fundraiser. They need to raise money to help pay for very expensive eye drops for the cats when they get infections. So the shelter just sent me over 20 pictures with of cats with bleeding eyes!!  Fantastic!

In sewing news, I was very behind in a wedding quilt i was commissioned for back in April, for a May 28th wedding.  I thought I could finished it in time, and then I was a few weeks behind, and then June 6th I started a new job, so I only had weekends to work on it.

I felt soooooo bad, but the couple, Heather and Aaron were SO understanding, and happy for me to start my job, they were cool about it.

This was a UNIQUE project for me, it was the Bride's idea to have a wedding quilt made that reflected both her and her husbands' personalities. They wanted this to to be passed down to their children and grand children. So they gave me a list of about 10-15 different things the quilt should include. (Cats, cherries, jewelry, trees, Hello Kitty, music, Disney, Jean Harlow, state birds, cupcakes and polka dots!!) She even included some clothing from her Great Aunt, so it was all very meaningful to them. :-)

My favorite part was adding a large applique "N" for their last name. (and all the Hello Kitty stuff of course!)

The happy couple and he back of the quilt.

Thank you again Heather and Arron! Especially for all your understanding and support. Congrats on your wedding and you guys rock! XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

excitment!

i still can't believe my block was picked...   wow! (Thank you Jay! and thank you to PMQG!)
There's a lot going on- So i will update my blog SOON!   this weekend!  i promise.

http://generationqmagazine.com/2011/08/the-big-reveal-philadelphia-mqg-shares-habitat-challenge-winners/

Good times with PMQG and "The Jay"!

how great are these colors?

Photos courtesy of Andrew (http://www.momotaromakes.com/)

Work and school have put a damper on all my quilting and blogging, so i am little behind!

I wanted to post about an awesome night with my quit guild. Our group was so fortunate to have Mr. Jay McCarroll  come and speak to us about his new wonderful and very MODERN line of quilting fabric! (Thank you to Julie and Candi who made this all happen!)  it was so amazing to hear him talk to us about his process and all that is involved in making a new line of quilt fabric.
 Our Guild had a great turn out, and everyone was just so excited.

Photo courtesy of Julie Herman (http://www.jaybirdquilts.com)

If you have not seen his fabric yet- go check it out here.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!!!!

one crazy summer

i haven't been sewing nearly was much I would like to, but only because I just recently got a new job! I have been looking for 6 months now, and i finally found something. The commute is very far, so it seriously cuts into my personal time. I'm sad that i don't have as much time to sew now, but I'll just have to organize myself better to squeeze more time in at night and on weekends.

Currently I am finishing up a custom quilt commission. I have all the rows done, and i am dying to take some pictures, but part of the deal was that she wanted to be surprised.

She bought about half the fabric and told me to buy the rest, so i guess she kinda knows what half of it will look like!

 It's a very personal quilt and it reflects her and her husband's personalities mixed together.
They both have different tastes, but both love hand-made quilts - so that was the easy part!

During their consultation, they gave me about 10 different themes they wanted incorporated into the quilt. It's been such a challenge - but definitely the kind i like!

I won't be able to sew much this week, on top of working full time, I am also taking a night class 2x's a week from 6-10pm in addition to volunteering monday nights at the PetSmart..

 Since i was unemployed, I started to volunteer just once a night at the PetSmart, helping out with the orphan cats.  It was great when i had no job- but now with work and school- i hope i can keep it going.

And of course it didn't take long for me to bring one home!
He's really tiny- and really old.

he's as big as my shoe- (i'm a size 8)

I'd say he's about 100 years old.