vintage inspiration

We were in the Berkshires last weekend, and the house where we stayed has the most awesome little quilt hanging on the bedroom wall. Actually, I don't know if it's a mini quilt per se. It looks like it may just be a piece of a larger quilt that someone salvaged and framed. It's hand-quilted, and it looks like the diamonds may have been paper-pieced. Suffice it to say, if this was much larger, it must have entailed a ton of work. I love the design and am now daydreaming about making a quilt like this in modern fabrics.

zomg! bunneh!

'Nuff said.

what happens when I stay up late

How do you deal with a terrible case of insomnia? If you're me, you put that time to use by sewing sort of wonky log cabin squares to complete your KbeeC quilt. They're wonky(ish) blocks, so it doesn't matter that I'm all bleary-eyed and can't see straight. They're supposed to be weird and wonky! They're easy as pie, and I can churn them out super-fast and fuss-free. Once the kid is in bed - and thank crunchy he's a sound sleeper who gets in about a solid 6-8 hours at night - I stay up and sew for a couple of hours. That is if I'm not reading, drawing (I started that again), catching up on the internet, or, ahem, shopping for fabric online (but shhhhhh - let's not speak of that).

So back to the blocks.... You might recall that a few months ago, I signed up for a block swap/virtual quilting bee with some friends. For my month, I decided I wanted a bunch of wonky log cabin blocks a la Denyse Schmidt's Drunk Love in a Log Cabin. My bee buddies did an awesome job with their blocks. I had 28 wonderful blocks in the end. My original plan was to bang out a couple more to make it 30 and have the quilt be 5 x 6 blocks (approximately 60 x 72 inches). When my mother was visiting, I showed her the blocks, and she suggested I make it a little wider by adding another column. I figured I might as well. I had enough fabric to do so. Also, in this case a bigger quilt makes for a better quilt; the more blocks I have, the more delightful the mishmash of wonktastic squares. I can't wait to piece this all together! But first, I have to finish a few things for other people, including more bee blocks, a couple of baby quilts, and some toys for my own kiddo.... Seriously, how have I not made this kid a softie yet?

the joy of bouncy balls & other haikus

So many fun bees going on these days! Recently, I joined One Scrappy Bee on flickr, and the first person I was to sew for was the immensely talented and prolific Chawne. She, being awesome as she is, chose a type of block that was fun, inventive, challenging, and inspiring - the word block! And shit-howdy did I enjoy sewing these word blocks! They were pretty easy to construct, only requiring a little bit of foresight. And there was a ton of freedom in choosing whatever words you wanted, as long as they weren't from recent popular culture. Lucky for me, too, that Chawne likes cheeky terms because I am all over that. It satisfies the poo-joke loving 5 year-old in me. I hope she likes the blocks I made as much as I liked making them. I only wish that I had given my "bounce" block a bit more bounce by not arranging the letters in such a static straight line. I'd love to play around more with letters some day. It would be exciting to experiment with thick and thin pieces and to play with negative space. There's a world of possibilities with this type of block. Speaking of possibilities, I leave you with this haiku I was inspired to write using the words I chose for the blocks:

when balls bounce with joy
they put a smile on your face
a psychic sacking

Wanna try your hand at a haiku? Feel free to leave one (or two - for balance, symmetry, and whatnot) in the comments!

summertime rolls

Summer has been wonderful so far. Be back very soon, maybe this week. I've got a bunch of projects to share. In the meanwhile, hope you're having a great one.