delight in life

september goals, revisited

So close. Sooooo close. To recap:

1. Bedroom curtains
2. Organize kitchen cabinets
3. Take apartment pictures
4. Keep it together

I got so close to getting this all done. I didn't fall apart while Chris was gone, even more impressive when you consider that I work from home now, so if Chris isn't home, I really have to put some effort into making contact with other humans. Which I mostly did. And I also did not have cereal for dinner one single time. Amazing.

I took photos of the apartment and made our kitchen so much better. And when West Elm had a drapery sale a few weeks ago, I bought curtains! And then I went to Target and bought hardware! But I couldn't put them up because Chris was still gone and hanging curtains on a 96" window didn't sound like something you really want to do alone. And he just got home Sunday and we've been busy and tired so it just didn't happen. One tiny little task and I would have completed all my goals, not to mention we'd have pretty curtains up right now. Oh well. Next month!

favorite quilt books

Since this is apparently a full-time quilting blog now*, I thought I'd share my favorite quilt books. Well, really, my only quilt books. 

The first one I bought was Denyse Schmidt Quilts. When I got it I was initially disappointed because there are actually only 10 quilts in it, and the other 20 items are "patchwork projects." I may eventually get to making a few of those, but they weren't what I was looking for at the time. The quilts that are in the book are beautiful. My pink geese quilt was from this book, as well as the quilt I'm working on for Chris right now. However, I don't think it's the best book, instructionally-speaking. I could not figure out mitered corners at all from reading this book. And Denyse Schmidt's quilt-style is improvisational, meaning she pieces the blocks without too much planning or measuring. But instead of explaining or teaching that method of quilting, she provides complicated templates and pattern pieces to replicate the quilt in the book exactly. And speaking from experience, using those templates is very labor-intensive.

Modern Log Cabin Quilting was my most recent purchase. It provides a great set of instructions for log cabin qulting, but as you might guess from the title, updates this traditional style with a lot of bright colors and pretty fabrics. Mostly I bought it for the quilt on the cover, which I made a version of for Olivia.

Block Party and The Practical Guide to Patchwork are my favorites, for sure. They both have beautiful pictures and are full of amazing quilt designs, and they go into detail on other aspects of quilting, such as fabric and color selection. Block Party is particularly interesting because each of the quilts were created by a "virtual quilting bee." Each month, one person would specify the block style and fabrics or colors, and every woman would create a few blocks in that style and send them in. The quilt is then assembled using all the blocks. I love that idea and I think it's super cool to see each woman's interpretations of the assignment each month.

The Practical Guide to Patchwork made me understand how to create mitered corners, so I will love it forever.

(*just kidding. sort of.)

officially a crazy person.

This is a very low-quality photo of a quilt block I made last night. It is about 25" square and it is the first block of what will be a large quilt just for me. (From this pattern.) I have eight more to go, each in a different pair of fabrics.

This means I officially have three quilts in progress (and am a crazy person). One completed quilt top, waiting for a back and some stitching, that I'm making for 100 Quilts for Kids. One block for my quilt. And about ten blocks for a quilt I'm making Chris.

I love doing this.

hi, fall.

My favorite season. After 6 years in Texas, where fall is just a less-hot version of summer, I am so eager to experience fall in Virginia. Everyone keeps telling me it's wonderful, that October is the best time of year here. My main goal is for Chris and me to visit a pumpkin patch and a corn maze. Have you ever been in a corn maze? I have, once, when I was in high school. I loved it. I remember being surprised at how quickly we were completely disoriented. It was so dark, and nearly silent but for the eerie sound of the wind rustling the corn stalks. Except for the occasional group that stumbled across our paths, equally lost, we were alone. It was much spookier and even more fun than I expected. I can't wait to do it again.

I'm also looking forward to lots of walks with warm drinks and light scarves and pretty leaves scattered across the sidewalk. Though I may have real life confused with Central Park in every romantic comedy ever. But for sure, there will be sweaters and soups and pumpkin. And quilt-making. Yes. I'm so excited.

(photo from ...Central Park, last fall)

this one's a little boring.

One of my resolutions was to take on the Tupperware cabinet, so I finally did that last weekend. It was certainly not the most exciting project I've ever done, but I'm really happy with the results. I was focused on two cabinets, a top and a bottom, and then I was on a roll and did the pantry too.

This is the bottom cabinet, before: (but not totally before; I actually had neatened it up a bit before I started)

And the top cabinet, before:

First I went through all the tupperware and threw out pieces with a missing lid, or lids that didn't close, or that we just don't use. That left me a much more manageable pile. Then I took a little trip to The Container Store and stocked up on their cheapest cabinet organizing supplies. The bottom cabinet, after:

And the top, after. I was able to bring in a lot of things that were stored elsewhere into this cabinet where it all makes a lot more sense.

All the white plastic isn't the most attractive thing, but it's much better than the before. So glad to have that done!

fall wreath

I loved making this pretty wreath of paper mums! It was a perfect way to spend a few quiet evenings while watching tv.

I used a kit from Paper Source. The only benefit to that is everything is precut. If you have more patience than me, you could easily do it without the kit. Each large flower is made of a stack of 4 large and 4 small daisy cut-outs, and I used a bone folder to curl the petals in. The small flowers are just a stack of 4 small cut-outs.

The colors are so pretty, especially the shimmery brown. Perfect for fall.

apartment tour

A few particular friends, mothers and sisters have been waiting for this post for months now. I just needed a particularly quiet and homebodyish weekend to make it happen! So, voila: pictures of our apartment!

First, the kitchen. To the right is the front door.

I really love our pot rack. We got sick of digging around in random cabinets, and we didn't really have the space in the cabinets anyway, so we picked up this $15 shelf at Ikea. I love how much more accessible all of our pots are now!

And this is looking out of the kitchen into my office/craft area:

I've been working from home since we moved, so I spend a lot of time in this little area.

That huge, amazing desk was a lucky, lucky find at The Container Store. We went in looking for shelving and found this $1000+ desk/shelf combo that they were apparently desperate to get rid of. There was a sale price listed, but we offered even less, and they agreed! I think we paid $325 for it. We kept my old desk and put it on the left. I made the legs as tall as they'd go, and while it looks a little awkward, it makes a perfect fabric cutting table.

 The office and living room are one big space. Stand in the office and turn around, ta-daaa, our living room! The paint color is Heavy Goose from Martha Stewart Living. We tried 5 different swatches and this one was the clear winner. I love how much it warms up this big space while still being pretty subtle.

The door next to the brown bookshelf is the bathroom, and the door in the corner is the bedroom. 

The furniture in this room is such a hodge-podge! Brown bookshelf, grey-brown coffee table, blue end table, light wood + white chairs, dark brown couch... what a mess! Making it all cohesive will surely be a slow process, but it'll get there someday. We did buy a new, beautiful couch earlier this month! But it's not here yet. (ps: the Rose Tyler Forever banner is a silly little thing I made while watching Doctor Who the other night - she's a character on the show. Probably not a permanent fixture, once Chris gets back in town!)
 
Heading into the bedroom...

There's really not much to see in here. It's a pretty small room. There's a tiny, awful closet just outside the right edge of the photo. The window is huge and wide, and I love that. 

The art in here is pretty random.

And, two final views of the main area.



 

brush script

I've been spending my evenings playing with paint and words, in Kal's workshop. I love it.

lately

Lately I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who. So good.

Lately I've been practicing brush control and loving SCRIPTschool.

Lately I am getting better and better at Bar Method.

Lately I am reading a lot about food and nutrition and I feel a little like I'm back in high school biology.

Lately I love-love-love the cooler weather. It's the first time I've felt fall in September!

Lately I'm still sewing a lot. 2 quilts in progress, 1 about to be, and one clothes sewing project in the works.

 

olivia's quilt

Sweet Olivia was born long before I entered my quilting mania, so I'd never made her a quilt. And I couldn't have her little brother getting one when she didn't, could I? So quilt #6 was for her, and designed to loosely coordinate with her brother's.

I tried a lot of new things on this one and it kind of ended up kicking my butt! It was my first try at a log cabin quilt (using a pattern from Modern Log Cabin Quilting). Here's what I learned: seam allowances matter. A lot. There are so many seams everywhere that every little fraction of an inch adds up and you end up with a row that's 2 inches shorter than you thought it would be. The total quilt size was something around 52x52.


I made my own binding for the first time, too. Normally I use pre-packaged stuff from the fabric store, but I really wanted this to be made of the same fabrics already in the quilt. But my most favorite new thing I tried was quilting with colored perle cotton instead of my standard white thread. The orange crosses are outlined in orange thread and the yellow crosses with yellow, of course. The thickness of the thread made it kind of slow going, but it was worth it in the end.



Tied up with pretty satin ribbon, ready to be shipped!