Another and another

Has anyone ever known that you quilt or knit or make something and they decide (quite randomly, I might add) that they are going to purchase something from you. Yet, they have never seen your work and you think they may be expecting something very different than what you tend to make?

This is all cryptic, maybe, but my mother told me yesterday that my aunt wants to buy a baby quilt from me once she knows if the baby she is buying for is a boy or a girl. Now, this is great - it would be my first quilt sale. However, I don't have baby quilts lying around - I would have to make some. Also, my aesthetic is not to make "boy" or "girl" baby quilts. I tend to make bright color, unisex, baby quilts. Modern baby quilts. I use black and white and high contrast colors for baby quilts since that's what babies can see. So, I decided that I wanted to make a herringbone baby boy quilt (I'm calling it baby boy, but it could be for a girl). I cut 2" strips of several of my very special fabrics last night and I'm a little bothered by it because I thought, what if she is expecting something very different and doesn't want to give my version of a baby quilt away? What if she doesn't buy it? I suppose I need more direction, but what is a designer/artist/crafter to do? I didn't intend to make a baby quilt right now, much less two and I wasn't aware that I was making commissioned items currently. I could just go to Jo-Ann's and get some less-than-special fat quarters and make two less-than-special baby quilts. It's just so not who I am right now. I wanted to only make things that I want to make and if I wanted color direction, I would specify that on etsy. I also have no problem making something if someone buys the materials for the project. I've knitted many a Harry Potter scarf.

On a lighter note, I want to make an, I think it's called an arrow quilt? It has triangles and it's really awesome. I was trying to think of how they are made and I figured it out in my sleep last night. I really want to start on it today, but I've got my daughter all day (two days a week, she spends the afternoon with her Bubbe) today and I need to think of something for us to do. Plus, I really need to wear out the dog. The poor puppy has so much energy and needs an outlet so she doesn't drive us all nuts in the evenings. Maybe a trip to Wal-Mart is in order to get ...bleeeeeck... baby quilt fabric?

New project???

Have you ever started working on something and then decided that the technique or the sewing you were doing was not right? You know you're gonna have to rip it out anyway, so what did you do? Did you get the seam ripper out right then and get ripping? Did you step away from the sewing machine completely, or did you stop what you were doing and redirect your focus to another project?

This happened today:

 I wanted to try out a quilt as you go technique.
As I started, I realized that I didn't want to
qayg on these blocks. I didn't know what I was
thinking. I got as far as outlining the spinner
in the center of this one block and decided, "NO!
I'm going to do something else.
(Later tonight I will be ripping this quilting and being mad at myself for not thinking this plan through - ugh!)

And then, this happened:

I'm so much happier with these blocks made from
the scrappy strip sets that I scrapped from the first
incarnation of the sparky quilt that you see above.
When I started Sparky, I put together some strip
sets of colors that I thought went well together.
After I had my strip sets made, I looked at them together and was like, "no way! These look horrible together. I can't do that." There was only one strip set that looked good and that was the one above. The reason it worked so well was that it had a solid strip of green at the top to bring the other two patterns together. I went with that idea and got some really great blocks out of it. I will be making my first tutorial out of those blocks later in June. (I'm so excited!!!)

So, I now have another project that I'm working on. The list of UFOs increases daily. I thought I would get a break now that I'm not working outside my house, but these quilting days are turning into a full time job. I don't know how I did it before.

More tomorrow. The adventure continues!!!

Roly Poly. Blog Hop and more

Greetings!  I'm having a wonderful day today. I just purchased my first sewing pattern. The Roly Poly pinafore from imagine gnats. I'm really excited to make one five for Penelope. I know she will love wearing it, and it's so hot here, she shouldn't need to wear much else this summer. I'm thinking that and some shorts and she will be good to go. Plus, I can totally see this made in corduroy for the fall - how sweet will that be. I want to modify the pattern and make one for myself. We'll see if that happens.

I also signed up for the Stamp on it blog hop. I'm really excited about participating in this blog hop because the last one for April Showers was so much fun. I can't wait to start designing my stamp later.

New quilt

I got a little bit of sewing done this afternoon while Penn went to her Bubbe's house. I will need to leave to get in her in a few minutes. I think Miss Lulu enjoyed having me stay home with her today.

Lulu taking a break in the sunroom

I hope your evening is great.

Sew on!

Looky! Looky!

fat quarter yumminess from Stitch Stash Diva

Awesome swappy stuff

Look what came in the mail for me yesterday!!! I got my 25 fat quarters from StitchStashDiva, and I got four fat quarters and a pattern from my swap partner. How much fun is that?

I also got a sewing machine, a bunch of yarn and other crafting supplies from a friend that is downsizing her life to be a traveling nurse for a few years. She had a box with lots of beautiful sock yarn and said she would give it to me if I made her some socks - of course!! It is the least that I can do. So... I'm working on some socks:

SOCKS!

I love to knit socks and haven't been able to do it very often lately. Knitted socks are both a luxury to make and wear. I only knit socks for people that are really special to me. I think they are really a gift of love. I may need to alter my thinking and start hand-knitting socks for the masses - or at least to sell on etsy. But right now, I will stand by my original theory.

So far, staying at home is harder than I thought. I always think I'm going to have more time to do what I want to do - but even taking the time to write this post, I can hear Miss Penn and the dog and cat playing and squabbling, I need to get to the store and unload the diswasher. I know that I will get some peace when the girl takes a nap in a few hours. Ahhhh! What would I do without nap time - go insane, most likely.

Well... that's the news on the home front. I will post tomorrow with a layout and plan for my next quilt project.

Sat.Ur.Day!!!

I love Saturday. I love a day where I can (sort of) do whatever I want. I have some sewing planned for today, but I usually like to have no plan and just fly by the seat of my pants (pajamas?).

I can't wait to start on some paper-piecing and some FMQ-ing on my broken dishes quilt. I also would love to have time to go to Joanne's to pick up some more Kona solids for my solids bee.

I got some lovely gifts for my birthday. I think people were under the impression that my "greeness" extended to my thumbs, because I got a huge geranium plant from work and my father got me an Italian Heather plant. Oh, and my mother-in-law got me a tiny rose plant that can be planted in the garden as well. I guess I have to work in the garden a little today. I also got a DVD of vol 1 of Pinky and the Brain and a DVD of Jab Tak Hai Jaan - a new (newer) Bollywood movie staring my favorite actor, Shahrukh Khan. Here is a clip:

I love Bollywood movies. They are long, so you feel like you get your monies worth, they have singing and dancing, they have really dramatic, soap-opera-type-melodramatic acting, which I love and they have SRK!!!

I hope to be able to watch some of my new movie today.

Happy Birthday!

Finishes and more

So... for the second month in a row I have forgotten to link back to the lovely year of finishes. I also failed to finish Penn's broken dishes quilt in April.

 I did manage make some bee blocks - one that I'm really proud of, too:

a paper-pieced star.

I was so inspired by making this block that I just signed up for a paper-piecing bee. I can't wait to see how these blocks turn out. The only thing that I don't like so much about paper-piecing is that the technique seems to waste a lot of fabric - or you end up with a lot of small, oddly shaped scraps to use up. I will have to start making something with all my scraps - a project for another day.

In other news, my birthday is tomorrow and my last day of work will be May 10th. I'm really excited to get back to being a stay-at-home-mom. I think Penelope likes the idea, too. We will have a great summer filled with swimming and going to the zoo and the aquarium and the children's museum, etc... I can't wait.

This month, I plan to finish Penn's broken dishes quilt - I know I've said it before, but I'm really gonna do it this time. Linking up to the Year of Lovely Finishes.

batik broken dishes quilt

Cheers!