The small things...

Someone at my day job recently made fun of me for overusing the word fun. I recently switched offices and he asked me how it's going there. I responded by saying "fun!" Apparently fun is not a word he associates with wor and he decided to let everyone in the office know that I thought work was "fun." Horrible. I, of course, didn't let this phase me and will continue on, with what is my idea of fun, at work.

While, this incident has not changed my perspective it has heightened my awareness of what is and isn't enjoyable to people. For instance, I enjoy waking up at 4:40am so I can spend quality time walking my dog, slowly cut up fruit for my smoothie and stare at the wall while processing being alive. Staring at the wall gives me quality ideas I can mull over during the day and put into action when back in my quilting studio at the end of the day. Others like to sleep until 10 minutes before leaving for work and function just fine. Whatever floats your boat...

My whole point, which I am slowly getting to, is that little things make my day and I have observed a definite overuse of exclamation marks when responding to text messages, Facebook posts, and emails. I have learned to edit a little but it's really hard.

And so with this realization I am going to exclaim how thrilled I was to get a much awaited package of fabric from Sew Lux and open it to see a delightfully wrapped bundle with beautiful ribbon! Soo excited to be working on this new project!!!!

This just made a rather rough week melt away 

That spotty material is the rump of the really cute fawn appliqué that will be attached to this quilt. 

On top of it all when I saw the fabric fanned out behind the fawn I got a brilliant idea for the patchwork. I'm scrapping my previous idea and heading in a new direction... Detail coming later once I've worked out the pattern. Till then I hope you have a little fun in your life...

Get your own happy package at sewluxfabric.com

Fawn

This is an exciting new tool I got! It's a chalk that wipes off easily so I can mark where to cut the fabric! 

Here's the new quilt I'm working on. I drew the deer, cut it up in sections (notice the butcher-esque sectioning of the deer) and then left seam allowance when I cut up the fabric. I unfortunately forgot to mark spots throughout the pattern that should match up when I put the fabric together, so last night while working on the face I sewed a cheek to the forehead... I just laughed at myself and went to bed. On tonight's agenda I will be ripping the seam out of a cheeky forehead:)

My first quilt!

Finished product

Before the Longarm quilting

detail

Back... I just loved the fox fabric!

Here's my first quilt! I did everything from start to finish as well as designing the pattern. It was so much fun seeing something from start to finish....

Size is 35" x 50" perfect for a baby's first quilt!

First impressions

First posts seem important, as important as first impressions. One word too many or too pretentious and I've lost your interest and you're gone forever! But if you hang on for a few more words then I would like to discuss my first impression of quilting. My Mom tried for YEARS to get me to quilt with her and honestly I was too snobby to really take to it. I have a BFA and MFA in painting and drawing and to me quilting was too crafty for my attention (notice the word "was").  As she urged I played a bit, every time I went home to visit she thrust some beautiful fabric in my hands and I joyfully built a quilt, it was always fun, I enjoyed it thoroughly and returned home with big ideas to continue on my own. But then my paint and canvas called, I felt guilty not painting, which led me to abandon all thought of quilting within a day of returning home. Every time she mentioned my joining her in business, showed me a quilting magazine, or took me to a quilting show I thought it would be a great thing to do, in the future... but... for now I'm painting.

Quilting, in my mind, was for older women who sew stars in squares in a wallpapered room with lace valances in the countryside; I was way too urban and young for that. I also had trouble acknowledging that quilting can be art, in my world oil paint is luscious and sexy and can change the world and I never thought of fabric as holding the same potential.

That is, not until after a year of what I'm calling a painting sabbatical, the clouds opened up on an opportunity and I was sucked into the quilting world to the point where I now own my very own 12' Long Arm quilting machine, have filed for a business license to operate a business making quilts, patterns, and providing long arm services. I am, to say the least, soooo excited to be embarking on this journey. The ideas I've long suppressed are thrusting themselves out so fast I've started carrying a journal in my purse to jot them down! I've realized quilting does not mean stars in squares, it can be anything I want it to be, it's a two dimensional plane- just like canvas- and I'm ready to throw my thread to the wind and wholeheartedly redefine my preconceptions of quilting. I am after all young and urban and quilting...