Gehring Road

lovely finds

A few weeks ago, I happened to run in to Joann Fabrics to pick up elastic for some teeny tiny pants (Anna Maria Horner's quick change trousers to be exact) in the making. Heading past the fabric I usually don't peek at (I don't always love the fabric at Joanns) I saw the most lovely collection of prints and was tempted to pick up a bit of each. I told myself I was there to buy elastic and a bit of backing fabric, but I did pick up that beautiful orange floral pattern. Certainly not fabric for a baby, especially one whose gender will be a surprise, but some of that lovely orange fell into my cart and the rest of the prints stayed in the back of my mind. Really small detailed prints, perfect for small patchwork projects and those times when one needs a near solid. The larger scaled prints, like my favorite orange one, perfect for garments and a staple dress or two. I was surprised to hear that the prints are from the talented Juliana Horner, daughter of another favorite designer around these parts. The prints are really lovely, and today I picked up a little bit of each. They must be a quilt, they look so beautiful together. And that orange print... still going to be a dress, just the minute I get around to it. Yay for lovely finds and new designs, can't wait to see what Juliana designs next... and bravo to Joanns for giving new life to their quilting section, these are simply lovely. Happy Friday everyone! 

today

Our high temperature today was system shocking 62 degrees... goodness! A sudden departure from heat and humidity had us pulling out blankets, socks and for Rob... a flannel. I called it a restful, movie watching kind of day. I planned a few more blocks, contemplated a bench for the porch which will get a new coat of paint this weekend and half heartedly worked on a distance learning course I am taking on Edgar Allan Poe..."The Murders in the Rue Morgue" kept me occupied yesterday. I scrolled through Flickr and realized it has been a while since I added to my Project 365... and by a while I mean a month! Yikes. Though I've taken photos each day, I've been a bit lax about posting them. Time to fix that. Flickr seems to be a bit off with time and dates however. Sounds like tomorrow's work. These lazy summer days are oh so perfect. Summer... I officially love you, especially when you feel like Fall. Happy Thursday everyone! 

pride and prejudice

I picked up the sweetest poster for my classroom today, I couldn't help myself. This is a reprint of a movie poster advertising the 1940s film version of Pride and Prejudice... in Poland. I love the Bennet sisters with their nets, seriously cute and clever. This version was purchased here, and goodness do they have some great sales. I can't wait to spy this on my wall during the year, I know it will make me smile... baby steps! Happy Wednesday everyone! 

on making x plus blocks

I've been having so much fun putting together the field study x plus blocks. The process is pretty simple and lends itself to chain piecing which is quite nice, many blocks can be constructed at once, once the fabrics have been chosen. The original tutorial for the x plus block was lovingly put together by Amy and can be found here. It is such a wonderful tutorial and I so appreciate her take on color as well. I love Amy's scrappy blocks as well as these and these... goodness those are lovely! I see more x plus blocks in the future, a scrappy version is a must do. Brenda posted measurements for a bigger version and the 12'' is what I am making. I'll make 36 blocks in total for this one.

I'm finding my Add a Quarter ruler super helpful for trimming the corners of the larger blocks. I'm also steaming my seams open, something I rarely do, but I've found things a bit easier this way. Watching these come together is such a treat and they are a joy to sew. I'm being torn away from the machine today to put a toe back in the proverbial school water... curriculum writing and a stop by my classroom to drop off a calendar and some supplies for the coming year. Yikes. Baby steps I say. Much to enjoy and experience until the new year begins. Until then, I'm rushing home. More blocks to make. Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope it is finding you doing what you love. 

love... again

I'm in love with sewing again, phew... After a stumble, I needed something to remind me of what I love most about this hobby of mine. And I am loving the process, the mess, the trimming, the piecing of x plus blocks today (totally inspired by this lovely quilt). I finished cutting fabrics today and just started playing around with some fabric combinations. Things matched, points pointed, seams look straight... phew. I have thirty six blocks to make, also (big sigh here) thirty six days left of summer vacation. Sounds like a fitting way to enjoy these last few weeks of these lovely days, no? I want to relish the process of the making of these blocks just as much as I'd love to relish these last (weep) summer days. Tomorrow's block sits next to my machine, ready for the making, ready to be put aside to finish some other projects and start other things anew. I love that about the creative process.

I'm also loving that sweet little lady Miss K who has been my constant companion during these days. She's happy to hang out in the sun listening to Pride and Prejudice (again) and the hum of my sewing machine (again!). I love being able to peek in on her during the day... oh summer, please linger! Happy Friday everyone, I hope it finds you staying cool and loving where life takes you these days. 

gifts

Gifts come in threes (or more!), it seems lately. Last week, a quilt that we fell in love with arrived the same day as our new camera. Blessed, I tell you. The quilt is an Anthropologie find. We happened to be walking around enjoying the weather when we popped into Anthropologie to explore. It is so lovely. The quilting is just fantastic. I love, so much, that Rob notices details like this. He pointed it out in the store and mentioned how incredible the quilting was... understanding, now, how much time that truly does take.

I snapped those photos of our quilt with our new camera. This gift was one that my parents and Rob collaborated on for my birthday. I am so, so spoiled. The learning with our new camera has been a bit steep. After a frustrating first day (Me: "I promise you it will not focus!" Rob: "That's what this wheel does..." Me: "Everything is blurry!" Rob: "Read the manual!") and a less frustrating week, we're still in the getting to know each other phase. It's a little rocky. It is also so very clear that I really must take a class to understand how to use the camera and also to take better photos. In the meantime I'm fascinated and so inspired by the work of others (Beth and Erin in particular) and am hopeful that I might learn a bit more with some online classes before our vacation. We're headed out to the Sierras in August, I can't wait to play with my new camera out there!

And our last little gift, the oh so sweet Kylie is just the most tender and protective little one. I'm loving my days at home with her and thinking about heading back to school, missing these moments in the day makes me a bit weepy to be honest! Begone weepiness... it's summer! We're loving these days and are choosing to be grateful for the moments we have. I'm sewing some wee little things tomorrow... surprise things for babies on the way for friends and family. There is much to be grateful for indeed. Happy Tuesday everyone! 

sewing this week

We've had a wonderfully full and lovely weekend. We had time spent with friends, escapes to the movies, many laughs, time to play with the camera (my goodness I have much to learn!), getting back into a routine that involves running, and loving our sweet girl. I thought I might share a few images from what has been keeping me occupied this week. I battled back from the horrible awful (thank you for your sweet words here and on Flickr, you all are incredibly good!) with some cutting of my Field Study bundle. I fall in love with that fabric every time I look at it... but the cutting has me eyeing certain special elements of the prints and falling in love all over again. This will be an x plus quilt. I love, love, love Hollie's version and am needing a sewing success right now. I know these blocks will have impact when they come together and I'm excited to be starting a new (and lovely) project. This week, the plan is to also work a bit on this and attempt some garment sewing. Wish me luck! Happy weekend everyone!  

the terrible awful foul unholy beast

I decided to procrastinate today: the finishing up of a class I should be working on, cleaning the loft that really needs some attention and generally ignoring the many things needing attention in our house. Instead, I picked up my Steam Punk templates and got to work. Mercy, mercy me. You should know that it was my intention to deny the foul unholy beginnings of my Steam Punk quilt... to quietly delete these photographs and pretend this disastrous block never happened, never mind happened through my own sewing. I planned on denying any knowledge of the existence of this block should it be fished out of some pile of un-sewn blocks in the future (or the garbage). But I really, really hate that. I dislike so much when writers or bloggers or people in general mask faults that in reality make us human. So here it is, in all its glory. My terrible awful. Fabric choices on this one... wrong. Cutting of fabric (my D piece is strangely longer than it should be) wrong. Those curves... ugh...and wrong. I'm stepping away from curves and Steam Punk for a bit my friends, but I know I'll be back. Right now, I'm just going to hang this horrible awful on my inspiration board, call it a day, look at it often, allow it to let me smile and eventually... try again. Until then, happy Monday, I hope you are finding lessons and humor in many imperfect things today! 

a bit more on geese

The rows are pieced for my ode to Semiology quilt leaving just the rows to be sewn together. I thought this would be a good time to give a few more specific details about this quilt, I'm so looking forward to this one being done! 

My Accuquilt (a Christmas gift) made the making of this quilt manageable. With 396 blocks needed, and a few extras planned for the back, I loved the piecing of this. Based on Rita's example, I purchased the two dyes to make this block, the 3'' half square triangles (which cuts at least four with each pass) and the 4 1/2'' triangle dye that cuts the center (two with each pass). The fabric cutting was so easy and I learned a great deal about the dye cutter in the process. I mostly cut strips that were 1/4'' on all sides larger than the dyes. I tried putting 4, 6, 8 strips in at once. Each time, all of the fabric cut evenly without any problems, but the cuts with four did best and have behaved the best throughout the piecing. When pieced, these blocks are 6.5 by 3.5, which is perfect for my project. They require quite a bit of pressing at each stage of the process. I'm learning a few tricks with this as well. Make sure to set the seam with a blast of steam before pressing the fabric away from the seam allowance. This makes a really neat and well behaved block. Here they are in formation...

I used fabrics from all of my favorites in this: The light green is Lizzy House Outfoxed Jewels in Light Green, the dark green is Lotus Wallflower by Amy Butler and a third green in the fourth and last rows is Riley Blake Songbird Dots in Green. The reds are Anna Maria Horner's Field Study Fine Feather in Pomegranate and the plaid is Denyse Schmidt Simple Plaid in Red from Chicopee. In the "yellow row" the orange fabric (which looks red in this shot) is Architextures Crosshatch in Tangerine, one of my favorite fabrics ever. The floral center which is sprinkled in other places is a Sevenberry print I had just enough of. The solids are Kona Ash (I just can't get enough) for the geese, Kona Coal, Wedgewood and I'm blanking on the yellow. It's a buttercream color and a strong contender for binding on this... I should find that color! 

More "geese" posts here: 

In Formation

Many Geese 

Geese Progression

Today, So Far

 

I'll finish this top next week, this weekend is for cleaning and arranging the loft, it's a disaster. I'm baffled when it comes to quilting this one... any ideas? I might send it out to be quilted, it's a bit big for my machine, but I might just try some stitch in the ditch quilting and call it a day. I can't wait for this to be loved and used in our house. Happy Weekend everyone! 

today... so far.

I spent the most delicious morning (and into the afternoon) working on my flying geese quilt. And it was made even more sweet with some oh so chocolate cupcakes that Rob made for a family visit yesterday. Having that cocolate frosting around my quilt in the making was precarious, but happily all geese made it out unscathed. I'm enjoying how this is coming together. It was my initial thought to iron all of the geese (which takes hours of steaming) prior to putting them together in rows. I opted for the steam as you go method and this is allowing me to piece some then steam the next row's geese in the process. Much more satisfying to mix up the sewing and steaming. Three rows of twelve (or thirteen, I'm undecided) down... the process is a bit slow but I'm settling in and enjoying it as it goes. The weather is cooperating and we've had a string of rainy and humid days... perfect for piecing, planning and orgainizing in the loft. And despite this really crap weather, I'm officially in love with summer. Happy Monday everyone!