Isn't this beautiful?? I'm totally obsessed with it. And while the heart is lovely, my favorite part is definitely the background. This is me hopping on the low-volume trend that's been running around Quilt Blogland for a few months now. "Low-volume" meaning fabrics that are mostly white or a light neutral.
I really, really love the particular look of scrappy low-volume patchwork.
When you combine the sweet patchwork heart with a fuzzy soft pink flannel backing, you have a quilt that couldn't be more perfect for a tiny new baby. This one is another stroller/carseat quilt: small and cozy. For sale in my shop! Sold! Thank you!
A few weeks ago Chris and I went to an open house on our street. It was a house that had recently been flipped, and we wanted to see what they'd done. The house originally had an identical floorplan to ours so we thought it'd be helpful to kickstart some ideas for our place. And boy, was it! They made some drastic changes—like removing a bedroom to enlarge the kitchen and add an en suite master bath—which we liked but won't be doing. I'd love an en suite bath and a bigger kitchen, but we need that bedroom! When I went down into the basement, though, I immediately thought, "we have to do this." It's so simple: their basement was carpeted and drywalled.
You see, our basement is a massive space. It's great. There is a bathroom and a guest bedroom down there, a laundry room, a workbench, and an enormous living-room-esque space. But it's kind of terrible. The flooring is vinyl over concrete, the walls are wood paneling, and it feels very cold and basement-y. We bought a big comfy sectional to go down there soon after we moved in, but we rarely use it because it's just not a great place to hang out. Last summer we painted the wood paneling white, which helped a ton, but it still feels like a basement. But standing in this other house, I realized we could do more to make our basement feel like part of the house.
Fate agreed, I suppose, because Home Depot was having a sale on carpet installation. We went from "we should do this someday" to "the carpet guys are coming on Thursday!" in about two weeks. Which was awesome. Even more awesome was Thursday afternoon when the carpet guys were gone. When I went downstairs for the first time, I couldn't believe how awesome it looked. Or how soft it felt. Or how much warmer it was.
(I have no before pictures, only carpeted afters!) We still plan to make a lot more changes. We'll be closing off the utility/laundry room by adding a door and walling over the extra doorway and cut-out, and we'll be drywalling the whole room eventually, along with a million more things. But this is such an awesome start. We've used this space more times in the last few weeks than in the whole time we've lived here.
Guys. These colors! I really love them. This quilt is based on the Orion quilt pattern. I enlarged the pattern and used only one block to make it a baby quilt. I really like traditional-style blocks, and I really like oversized blocks, so this is perfect.
I used a mix of some favorite fabrics on this. The big orange and blue florals from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy are almost too pretty to use, but I stocked up on them recently so I felt like it was safe to use a few bits. The hot pink prints are both from Art Gallery Fabrics. If you're a quilter you probably know how awesome AGF is; if not, well, it is really awesome. Their fabrics feel so good.
I quilted it in straight-ish parallel lines about 2-3 inches apart. They hold the quilt together and give it some lovely texture, don't take away from the design too much.
The binding is some beloved Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets, and the background is Kona Ash, another fave. I'm sensing a pattern in my fabric selections for this quilt...
I really enjoyed putting this one together. The block is so pretty and it is great for featuring special fabrics. There will be more of these in my future for sure!
A few weeks ago I went back to my office for the first time since Joey was born. I took a big box with me and packed up my desk, because I have decided to quit my job and stay home with my baby. The decision was so simple, and so hard. Of course I was going to stay home. I don't think I ever truly pictured myself as a working mother once in all the time I was preparing for motherhood. And yet, when it actually came time to decide for real, I was wracked with doubt and second-guessing. Could we get by without my salary? Was I handing over my feminist card to become a housewife? Would I be able to get a job if I wanted to go back to work in a few years?
To be clear, I don't think either working or staying at home is better or more right than the other. My incredible mother stayed at home to raise us 3 kids; Chris's incredible mother worked while raising her 7 children. I have friends that work and friends that stay at home. Every mama and each family is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. That might seem obvious, but I absolutely don't want to seem like I'm disparaging anyone's choice.
I finally wrestled down all the doubt and questions and decided that regardless of everything else, being at home would make me happiest. So that's what I did. And I love it. And I am so, so grateful that Chris was supportive and that we were able to make it happen. I know some people want to stay home but don't even have the choice, and I recognize that it is a luxury that Chris and I can do this. I try to remember every day that I am lucky to be here, and so blessed.
Yesterday I had a great opportunity to go hear two of the famous Gees Bend quilters speak. The Gees Bend quilters, if you're not familiar with them, are a group of women who live in an isolated community in Alabama. The community exists where a slave plantation once was, and the women are descendants of the slaves who worked that plantation. They make beautiful, free-form improvisational quilts in the same style that has been passed down for years and years. Wikipedia has a little bit more information, and this fascinating (very long) article from the LA Times has a lot more information. The article focuses on Mary Lee Bendolph, who is one of the two women I heard speak.
They had a handful of quilts on display, and I loved them. They're so different from what I do. I use quilt shop fabrics, mostly patterned fabric, neat and symmetrical and measured quilt blocks. These are mostly solids, mostly fabric salvaged from clothing, and they're wild, uneven, and asymmetrical. I was completely fascinated.
I'm really looking forward to trying to add a little Gees Bend influence into my quilts.
How great is that hot pink? Loretta Pettway Bennett spoke a little bit about the process of designing her quilts. She used to sketch them out with colored pencils to plan, but now she tends to let the fabrics she has on hand determine the colors, and she lays the pieces out on the floor to design as she goes. She explained that she had once tried to make a quilt using a pattern, but she hated it. She prefers her freeform style, where she doesn't have to measure or worry about precision; she can just express herself. "There are no mistakes in my quilting." I loved that.
Mary Lee sang for us and told us how the women sing as they quilt together, as a method of group prayer and bonding. It was beautiful.
Here's a video I found online of some of the women singing:
I almost flaked out at the last minute, not wanting to head downtown with Joey, but I'm really glad I decided to go in the end. Thanks to Patton Boggs for putting together this event!
I made this pretty little quilt because I ordered two yards of the green fabric for another fabric, and it turned out to be the wrong color, so I needed to put it to use somewhere else.
I decided to go with a simple square-in-square design, one I've enjoyed piecing before. I quilted it by outlining all the seams on either side. Simple and pretty!
It's a small quilt, designed to be used in a stroller or carseat. (I love this one I made for Joey!) I love all the fabrics in this one. The green one looks almost sparkly to me! It is from the Les Amis line. Is it just me or are the Les Amis fabrics nice and soft? Like, softer than usual. They almost feel like Art Gallery fabrics, which are known for their silky hand. Anyway, it makes this quilt feel nice.
Two nights ago, Chris ran out to the store and I was sitting on the living room floor watching Joey play on his activity mat. (Best thing ever, by the way.) For about a month now he's been able to roll onto his side and back, and he'll do that over and over for an hour, slowly working his way around in a circle. That's what he was doing, when suddenly I saw an extra head movement that made me think he might be about to go all the way onto his tummy. I grabbed my phone and began recording so I'd be sure to catch it when he did. I sat there for more than five minutes, recording essentially nothing.
Chris came home, so I stopped recording and went into the kitchen to talk to him. "Hey, look at that!" Chris says. I turn around and the little stinker had chosen that moment to roll over!
I tried for the rest of the night to get it on camera, but he's smarter than me, I guess. He only did it once more, and it was (again!) when my back was turned. Something tells me this is just the start of a lifetime of him outsmarting my camera.
This is definitely my favorite quilt I've made. I used Lizzy House's Constellations fabric, which is in the running for my favorite fabric line ever.
It's kind of funny how the quilt came to be: it was Chris's idea! I made two 9" wonky star blocks one day when I was just playing around.
Chris saw them and suggested I make giant versions into a reversible quilt. Which I loved, and did immediately.
It was a little tricky to figure out how to quilt this one. I couldn't do my usual outlining of seams because the seams aren't the same on the front and back and that would definitely look weird. I settled on lots of random straight lines across the quilt, and I love the way it looks.
And now for the exciting new thing: this quilt is for sale! I decided to start a shop and I'm super nervous and super excited about it. There are a few other quilts listed as well, and I'll be posting about all of them soon. So please, go take a look!
Chris went out of town last weekend and it was just me and Joey. I have to be honest: I was really nervous. I thought it would be the world's longest weekend and I would be half-crazy by the end of it, without Chris to share the parenting load with me. To my very pleasant surprise, we actually had a great time!
I think the biggest reason for this is that we had a car. We're a one-car family, so when Chris is at work, Joey and I are limited to places within walking distance, which is not too much. (Oh, how I miss living three feet from a Metro station!) It can start to make a girl go a little stir-crazy sometimes. But we went all over this weekend.
On Saturday, Joey and I went to his first baseball game! It was so fun. My hometown Braves were in town playing (stomping on) the Nationals and any time they're here, I try to go. Joey did so great and I was thrilled that I was able to enjoy the game without having to worry about him. Plus he looked adorable in his Braves onesie (a perfect gift from some thoughtful friends). A man sitting near us was there with his 18-year-old son. When he saw Joey's onesie, he pointed to his son and said, "This is what you'll have in 18 years!" I loved that.
It was a perfect baseball day, sunny and breezy. I'm so grateful for gorgeous spring weather! It was a relatively mild winter, so I expected spring to be early and warm, but actually we got off to a slow start, with lots of snowy, cloudy, and rainy days in March. I thought these 70 and sunny days would never get here, and now that they are I'm so happy. Molly and I celebrated by picnicking with our kids by the Potomac on Sunday. Joey is game for anything as long as he can sleep, and that's just what he did. We were at the park for 3 hours and he was asleep for two and a half! It was fine with me—I was able to stretch out on a quilt in the sun and relax while he napped. Perfect. Day.
We missed Chris a lot (FaceTime is awesome!), but I'm so glad Joey and I were able to have such a fun time together. My little buddy!
I'm Leah. I love making pretty things with fabric, paper, and sometimes, pixels and fonts. These days, though, it's mostly fabric. I also love tv on dvd and sometimes I talk about my cats too much. I live in Alexandria, VA, with my husband Chris and our son Joey, who was born on Christmas Eve last year. Chris is a musician in The US Army Band "Pershing's Own", and I make quilts and sell them in a little shop.
I'm Leah. I love making pretty things with fabric, paper, and sometimes, pixels and fonts. These days, though, it's mostly fabric. I also love tv on dvd and sometimes I talk about my cats too much. I live in Alexandria, VA, with my husband Chris and our son Joey, who was born on Christmas Eve last year. Chris is a musician in The US Army Band "Pershing's Own", and I make 
