Sister's Choice Quilts

The Most Beautiful Fabric Ever.

Rouenerries by French General  for Moda is the most beautiful fabric ever.  I haven't been this excited about a fabric collection in years.  And I get very excited about new collections from my favorite designers on a regular basis.  This collection is just so ...different.  Those are the faded reds and pinks above.  Here are the greens and lights.

And this is my favorite piece in the entire collection.  I think.

You won't be able to buy this fabric until October.  Do not be afraid of the name.  Roo-en-er-reese.

I happen to have a couple of jelly rolls that were sent to me as a secret stunt sewing mission for a well known quilt pattern designer.  Usually when I make a quilt with a particular fabric collection I am pretty much done with it when the quilt is completed.  I have no desire to use the group in a second project, I just want to move on to the next new fabric group that is out on the market.

Not so with this fabric collection.  No sirree-Bob.  I could make several quilts, table toppers, bags, and anything else you can think up with this fabric.  I LOVE it.  Love it.  I want to redecorate my house with it, wear it, eat it.  Well, maybe not eat it.  But I sure am hooked.

French General is a company that has been around for awhile.  The aesthetic of the company is the brain child of a lovely woman named Kaari Meng.  Please go check out the website and especially play some of the videos. Kaari is an inveterate collector, and is so interesting you won't believe it.   Her company is known for its "boho rural style" with a strong French influence as to style.  My impression is that she got her start with jewelry design.  The company sells books, paper, jewelry, and most notably to me, textiles.  The Rouenneries fabric collection was inspired by the cotton fabrics made in Rouen, France during the 18th century.

They even have a blog! The Warp and the Weft.  Please go check it out.  I know you will be as drawn in as I was.  Don't you just love a new discovery?

Here Now

 

Do you ever get so caught up in the busy-ness of your life that you realize that you aren't really paying attention to that life?  One of the woman I work with at one of my jobs has a license plate that reads HERENOW.  Get it?  Here and Now.  She is a meditation/yoga enthusiast who takes that phrase to heart.  I have to remind myself what a good mantra it is.

I ask myself, "What's the rush?  Why hurry on just to get to the next Thing?"  It is true that my life has been fairly hectic this summer.  It is also true that I have grumbled a good deal about not having the time to sew on my quilting projects, read as much as I like, and especially, not seeing as much of my family.  I race from my morning job to my afternoon job, my thoughts focused on whether or not I will be able to find a good parking place.  Today I ask myself, "What's the point?  If I park farther away, I can enjoy the stroll on the way".  It is so easy to change the way you think about things if you make an effort.

It has been my habit to rush home after my afternoon job to face dinner preparation for my family.  I have felt over burdened and somewhat resentful.  After all, I worked all day long, and now I have to make dinner. Grumble.  Harumph.  Yesterday, I changed my attitude a bit.  I got home and enlisted both husband and son to help my with the dinner preparation.  We sipped our After Work drinks (wine for me, beer for them) and chatted companionably while we marinated, chopped and sauteed together.  Dinner was great and I found myself comfortably unwound from my busy day. 

Instead of fretting about the next moment, I made myself be present in the moment that I was having right then.  And making the most of it.  At this time, there isn't much I can do to change the fact that I have to work quite a bit.  What I can change is being Here Now and opening myself to the possibilities in the moment.

I have a friend, Susan, who is facing a major challenge right now.  While I think of her constantly, there is little I can do to besides send her my positive thoughts and prayers.  "In times of great struggle, when there is nothing else to rely on and nowhere else to go, it is the return to the moment that is the act of faith.  From that point, openess to possibility, strength, patience, and courage can arise.  Moment by moment we can find our way through."  S. Salzberg

New Stunt Sewing Project and Honey Buns

I have been invited to do another stunt sewing project for my favorite Quilting Rock Star!  This QRS has many qualities to recommend her, but one that I appreciate most is her tendency to send a bribe a little incentive gift prior to sending the project instructions.  This time she sent me four Harmony Honey Buns as my little gift!  I have never done a single project using honey buns, if you can believe it.  I have embraced Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls with great enthusiasm, and have used them in a number of projects to date.  However, Honey Buns (a more recent offering from Moda) have slipped under my radar so far.

What shall I do with this bounty?  Any suggestions of adorable patterns I might use?

And what is the stunt sewing project, you ask?  Well, I can't tell you.  Because I am sworn to secrecy for one thing, and because I have not yet received my instructions for another!

I can show you the fabric I will be working with though.  Hold on to your hats, and don't hate me-----

Yes.  Yes it really is.  Rouenneries by French General for Moda.  Not available anywhere yet (except from Quilting Rock Stars and other Quilting Personalities close enough to Moda for pre-release cuts).  And I have some in my house.  I am keeping it on the dining room table for now, so I can see it each time I pass by the table (approximately 57 times a day).

As I say, I do not know what I will be asked to do with this most gorgeous fabric.  I have two jelly rolls, a Dessert Roll (10 5" strips of the solids in the line), and the light colored fabric in the foreground of the photo. 

I am beside myself with excitement over this assignment, whatever it may be!

OP Quilt Quilted

I just got my OP (Orange Project) Quilt Challenge quilt back from the quilter's, and I really really love it.  Sophie does too, as you can see from the photo.  She is claiming it as her own, which she does with most things new to our home.  It is as if she feels she needs to endorse anything novel, so we all realize that she has given it her approval and it is therefore safe.  She is such a protective little thing.

She did the weirdest thing this week.  I was chopping garlic and ginger with one of those Zyliss chopping things that fits over the food you are chopping and minces everything super small.  I love it for chopping things like ginger and garlic because it gets the job done in no time flat without a big mess.

 

The thing is, when you use this thing, you have to press the plunger down rapidly, and with some force.  The plunger has blades at the bottom, which does the chopping job.  It makes quite a pounding noise, which could prove to be alarming to any smaller creatures in the house, such as over-protective dogs.  Sophie had warned me in the past, that my use of this object was deeply disturbing to her.  She will growl when I take the device out of the cupboard and then bark and bark when I begin the chopping.  It is sort of amusing actually.

Or so I thought.  This week, when I got the thing out of the cupboard, she was suspiciously silent.  "Look", I said to my husband and son.  "She should start barking any second.  It is so funny to see her".  No response from Sophie.  Hmmm, I thought, guess she is over it.  However, when I commenced my loud chopping/pounding she sprang at me quite unexpectedly and bit me on the butt.

Not hard, but hard enough to startle the dickens out of me and make me stop the pounding. A good nip to get my attention.  Ah Sophie, thank you for once again directing my behavior in the right direction.  Ouch.  My husband and son collapsed on the floor in hysterics of course, and will laugh til they have tears in their eyes if you remind them of the incident.  It is so fun to have Mom look like a fool.

Back to the subject of the Orange Project quilt that Pat Sloan sponsored back in February.  Here is a better picture.  Actually, none of my pictures are coming out very clearly today.  Must be the light.  The fabric collection is Sonnet by April Cornell for Moda.

Here is a close up of the quilting, courtesy of Debbie Thornton at Prairiequeens.  Nice, huh?

The colors of this quilt are so putting me in the mood for fall.  Like my sister Andrea, I tend to rush the seasons, tiring of the one I am in towards the end and wanting to get on with the one coming up.  With any luck, I will get the binding attached and sewn on this weekend.  I am anxious to use this quilt on one of the brown leather chairs in the family room.

Whoop-dee-doo!  I have half a day off today, the ENTIRE day off tomorrow, and half a day off on Sunday!  Sara and Ryan are coming down with Remy and I expect to be in a state of bliss to be able to have the whole family together under my roof.

Have a great weekend Friends.

Around the House in Late August

Time to get out the end of summer, transition into fall decorations people.

I just bought this cool plate at Williams Sonoma and have it displayed on my "Bird Cage".  I bought the Bird Cage about 20 years ago and paid for it all by myself.  It was such an extravagance at the time, mainly because it is a piece of furniture that has no function what so ever.  It is purely decorative, and takes up a heck of a lot of space.  I love to decorate, and this thing-a-ma-bob is just the ticket for seasonal displays.

This is End of Summer, with the new Tuscan plate and the Italian rustic bowl full of small apples.  It makes me happy to switch things around, and this piece of furniture lends itself to that perfectly.  The bottom section, under the bowl of apples is a wine rack.  The upper part, which is out of the picture, is kind of a cupola thing, with a brass doohickey on the top.

At Christmas, I have my Murano glass tree collection displayed on it.  At Easter, the bunny collection comes out.  I have a lot of fun with it, despite its inherent uselessness.  In my present house, there is a deep niche between the fireplace in the family room and a built in desk, where the Bird Cage fits perfectly.  I was going to tuck in this arrangement of Teddy Bear Sunflowers, but I opted to put them on the bookcase across the room instead.  Gosh, decorating is fun.

New Dress Code

These are my favorite summer shoes.  They are espadrilles made by Andre Assous, and have conformed themselves to my unique feet.  If I took them off, you can see the little depressions my toes have made in the bed of the shoes.  I love these little shoes.  They have adorable rope soles with just enough of a heel lift to look stylish, but still feel heavenly.  I can stand on my feet for 10 hours and my feet do not complain because they are snuggled gently within the pillowy wonderfulness of these shoes. 

I have always had Problem Feet.  About 15 years ago I had surgery to correct six hammer toes, which had made my life miserable since I was about 12 years old.  I had big gnarly knuckles on my very long toes, which rubbed on all my shoes and caused blisters, callouses and all sorts of other painful and unsightly foot issues.  My feet were quite unattractive and caused me a lot of discomfort.  The process of correcting the hammer toes involved taking the middle joint out of those poor six toes and fusing them together into straight little sausages.  Now those toes have a slightly pudgy and out of whack looking shape, but no more problems with the aforementioned afflictions.  I will never have beautiful feet, but what an improvement.  Six of my toes now have a faint scar, and do not bend anymore, but oh my goodness, what a blessing not to have pain in my toes from the misshapen mess my toes used to be.

Now I can wear cute shoes without incident.  I am even happy enough with my feet to show my toes, which in the past, I never would have done.  I can wear just about any style of shoe, and you all know how much I love my shoes. 

Working at retail means I have to be on my feet for extended periods of time.  Plus, since I am in Fashion Retail, I have to look Cute.  No clogs or clodhoppers for me.  These little black espadrilles have been my best friend this summer.  Until this weekend.

Talbots is changing its sales associate dress code.  We all gotta dress up more, doncha know?   As of September 1, no more sandals, no more open toed shoes.  No more cute comfortable espadrilles.  Oh no.

I don't actually have to wear heels, but I do need to wear attractive, stylish, closed toe shoes.  Ack.  My toes want to be Free.

Sophie update:  She is fine.  A little darker than usual, but fine.  We ended up not taking her to the groomer to have her fur shaved off.  The last bath seemed to have done the trick and she is not leaving oily tracks anymore.  A bit of oil must have gotten into one of her eyes, which was irritated for a day or so, but that has resoved itself too.  Did you read Susan's post today?  What is it about these fierce little dogs named Sophie?

Oil Spill At Our House

istockphoto

Ok.  I don't know what is going on cosmically, but things around here are totally out of whack.

My son likes to change his own motor oil.  Great.  It is an economy.  He saves a bundle not going to Jiffy Lube.  So what does he do with the dirty motor oil he drains from his truck?  Oh, he leaves it on our side yard of course.  We have been asking him for a l.o.n.g. time to get rid of it.  He meant to do it any time now.  But he didn't.

This afternoon Sophie discovered some prairie dogs nesting in our wood pile.  She dismantled the wood pile and managed to kill yet another prairie dog.  Ah, but there was one more in there.  She completely knocked down the wood pile, and tipped over some of the dirty oil containers while she was at it, trying to catch that one last critter.

When my husband got home, there was Sophie, all proud about the dead prairie dog, but also covered with dirty motor oil.

This is no joke people.  Animals can die from licking the oil off of their fur or feathers.  Plus, with all that black oil on her, there is no way she could ever come into our house again.  So, my husband started bathing her at 5:00.  When I got home at 7:00, he had just taken her out of her third bath in dishwashing liquid.  She was still oily.

We filled the bathtub AGAIN and DH got in with Sophie, who I must say, was being a great sport about three hours of baths.  We scrubbed her and scrubbed her, and then at 8:00 when I started to use my dryer to blow dry her fur, she was still oily.

She is dry now (but still black and oily), and in her crate, and tomorrow she is going to the dog groomer, where I have no clue what they will do with her.  Shave her bare?  How else to get rid of the oil? 

It is a mess I tell you.  The perfect capper to a pretty sub-standard week.  I have really been trying to be positive, but I may have reached my limit.

Next day update:

Sophie is pretty tired today from all the fussing over her yesterday afternoon.  One of her eyes is all bloodshot--she must have gotten oil in it.  Lucky for us she loves water, so all the baths we had to give her were tolerated very well.  We seem to have gotten most of the oil off of her, but her fur is darker on her paws, back legs, and on her face.  You can see from the picture that she is not her usual color.  Her back  end is supposed to be the same red color as her head.   She is curled up in her favorite spot for her morning nap--on my unmade bed.

Try It, You'll Like It

Isn't this stash of 1930's fabrics wonderful?  Just think of all the gorgeous things you could make with it.  What?  You never use 30's fabrics?  You have got to be kidding.

I hear a lot of people say "Oh, I never use 30's fabrics" or "No, batiks just aren't my thing" or "I could never machine quilt anything" .  At the clothing shop where I have one of my part time jobs, I hear women say idiotic things like "Oh, I just don't look good in blue" or "I NEVER wear skirts" or "Orange just washes me out". (For crying out loud, *everyone* can wear blue).

I would like to challenge everyone who makes blanket, no exceptions, I-will-die-on-this-hill statements to hold on just a minute.  Consider trying that very thing that you say isn't your thing, the color you won't wear, the fabric you pass by.  Try just a bit of it.  If you are leary of wearing orange--try some orange flip flops.  Orange is a great color.  Just wear a bit of it and have it away from your face.  You won't look like a traffic cone, I promise.   If you never wear skirts, just try one on.  Try a long peasanty one, try "skorts", try a knee length skirt  on with heels or cute sandals and a tee shirt.  Try a jeans skirt.  Skirts are the perfect thing to wear in the summer.  Skirts are dressier than shorts, but just as comfortable and more flattering on most of us.  Just try it.  Take baby steps.  

Didn't mean to digress here and start talking about clothes.

The same challenge applies to those fabrics or colors you never sew with.  Never use 30's fabric?  Need to make a baby quilt?  Think how sweet those green and yellow fabrics in the picture above would look in a baby quilt.  Adorable.  You aren't redecorating your house in 30's fabrics, you are making a baby quilt for goodness sake.  And you will be giving it away.  Don't deprive yourself of working with these lovely fabrics.

For years I avoided batiks.  "Nope, not my thing".  Then I got a job in an office with a lot of very laid back, environmentally aware, back to nature type people.  I had battered file cabinets in my office that needed some covering up.  You know what?  Batiks were the perfect fabrics to go with my new work environment.  I whipped up some table toppers (file cabinet toppers to be exact) and wall hangings, and my office is a perfect representation of the zen body products the company produces.  For half my day I am surrounded by batiks and you know what?  It works in that setting.

Think you can't machine quilt?  Just try machine quilting a tiny project--that baby quilt you just made with 1930's fabrics for instance (lol), or that table topper you made for Halloween.  

For the rest of the week, whenever you hear yourself say "I never....." or "......... just isn't my thing", I challenge you to take a plunge and try it anyway.

Bye Bye Muffin Top

Congratulations to Jocelyn of Happy Cottage Quilter!  Jocelyn won the Spanx Hide and Sleek Cami that I am giving away.  Email me your address and size Jocelyn, and the cami will be yours!  I just had to post this before and after picture I found on the internet.  Spanx really do work to smooth out all your lumps and bumps.  It is a miracle. And if muffin top or back fat isn't your problem, they make slimmers for the lower half of your body as well.  Celebrities love them--Beyonce and J-Lo wear the slimming shorts under their clothes to control their booties.

If you didn't win, you should still check out the Spanx website.  They have underpinnings for every imaginable figure flaw.  Also, the names of their products are so darn clever.  Slim Cognito and  Bra-lelujah are my favorites.  They even make the perfect pair of black pants that they call Bod-A-Bing pants.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Prairie Paisley DAL (Done At Last)

Technically this quilt top is DONE.  However, I do plan to add a floral border at some point.  I have the fabric, and could do it any time.  However, I am going to put this quilt away for now.  I don't know why it felt like such an albatross to me, but it did.  Maybe because it is the sort of thing that normally I could whip out in no time.  Presently, time is something I seem to be short on, so the quilt sat unfinished for many many long weeks.  It whined, and that is such an unattractive quality in a quilt.

I am not a huge red white and blue fan, but this combination of light and dark blues with a touch of red is rather pleasing, I have to say.  Can't you just see this quilt draped over the back of a white wicker love seat on the front porch of some adorable little bungalow?  Next to a pot of red geraniums?

What's next?  Hmmm.  I think I will get back to work on Sweet Escape, (a Miss Rosie's Quilt Company pattern).  I am using a wonderfully whimsical fabric group called Neptune by Tula Pink for Moda.  Think inky indigo blue, coral, and aqua.  Such a different color palette.   After that, I am leaning towards Birdseye (anther Miss Rosie pattern) using a fabulous collection of rust and brown and sagey green Civil War fabrics I have picked up here and there.

Don't forget my Spanx giveaway on Friday!  You still have time to comment on last Friday's post "My Old Eyes".