Four Corners Runner

I love Robert Kaufman's Fruit Basket Pears. Don't you? I've used some of what I have for a couple things here and there, but I always thought it'd be cute for something on the table, so I made a runner!

The blocks were all improv because I didn't want it all matchy-match. And when I had all four blocks done, and I thought why not make the pears face one direction each so every side of the table gets some pear action.

I'd actually pieced this and basted it over a week ago, but I couldn't figure out how to quilt it. So I just left it on the shelf and only picked it up the other night. Pebble quilting. I should try it. It would possibly be cute.

I kind of think it's pretty cute.

Yup, most definitely cute.

You can see the pebble quilting better on the reverse of the runner.

It ended up measuring 49.5" by 14", and is currently available in the shop :)

Paper Piecing Is Pretty Fun

For my Tethered Threads 2 quilting bee, this month's block was paper pieced. I cannot tell you how much fun I had doing these blocks! I joined bees mainly because I wanted to learn new things from new friends. I'd never have tried paper piecing (well not for a while yet) of my own volition, so I'm glad I had someone to make me do it.

I have to admit it was a little daunting at first because I start to panic a little when I do anything new. Plus I'm working with someone else's fabrics so that just adds to the trauma. And the whole sewing through paper thing is like huh?

But it all came together quite easily although I did have to rip a seam out. Or maybe three. But who's counting, really. I do have a commissioned quilt that I might just use this method for a few of the blocks. I'm totally hooked.

Flannel Stroller Quilts

I made four little stroller quilts out of flannel for the shop.

They're so damn cute I can't stand it. I think the car print is my favourite... anytime I see any car / truck / bike print, I fall in love with it.

This was the first time I worked with flannel and I'm now tempted to make myself a lap quilt out of flannel because it's soooo cuddly. But I really don't have enough couch for all the lap quilts I'd like to make so I'd better not.

Paper Heart Love

Last week the hubs and I finally got round to watching Paper Heart.

(We're that annoying couple that doesn't ever go to movies or watch things on HBO / Showtime but waits for the DVDs instead.)

I loved this movie. It's a documentary-style story where they talk to real people about their thoughts on love and relationships, and in the midst of all this, a romance blossoms between the two lead characters, Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera, who play themselves.

It's so cute and quirky, and the entire time I watched it, I just wanted to smoosh Charlyne Yi for being so freaking adorable. My husband wants me to wear black-rimmed glasses now. I'm going to say no to that one. Only because I don't need glasses but check back when I do, thanks.

I Still Celebrate In My Heart

My grandfather would've been 89 today. He left us in 2001 very unexpectedly, and I still miss him. I miss his cheeky grin, his infectious laugh, and how he loved us all.

I was in Australia when he passed and I never got to say goodbye. I know it's not my fault, but I wish I could've told him one last time how much he meant to me and that I loved him dearly. And I wish he got to meet my husband. He would've loved him.

(Oh geez here come the waterworks...)

Anyway, the one thing he really loved and that will always remind me of him is the durian. He had even had a tree out in the backyard. You see those spikes? We were always reminded never to walk under the tree when he had us weed his garden or we'd get brained. I remember when his tree started bearing fruit, he was sooooo excited.

Non-Asians think durian is the worst stink in the world. Most Asians think that of cheese. I think that's funny. (I like cheese but I draw the line at Limburger. Which the husband likes. Weirdo.)

Picture from here.

Etsy Finds

I should be sewing but instead I'm browsing Etsy. Super productive. Way to go, me.

Love stacking rings.

A necklace that's totally me :)

Pretty pretty! I love rings with a nice, chunky stone. Which is why my Mum always said she pitied the man who'd propose to me. Poor hubs.

Still Quilting

I just noticed the lack of quilty content on the blog lately. Apologies... I've been busy hand quilting my friend's quilt, and there's not a whole lot to say about that, unfortunately.

I'm almost done quilting the outlines of each piece, after which I'm going to do overlapping rectangles and squares in different thread colours. I hope she likes it. If she doesn't, that's too damn bad :)

Happy Australia Day!!!

I wish I was back in Australia... I miss watching fireworks over the Swan River from my place or my sister's balcony. Don't miss the bazillion people converging on the banks of the river (which was essentially my backyard) though.

Who am I kidding? I miss it all. And no matter where I am, I still call Australia home :)

Happy Australia Day! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Layers Of Layers

Getting dressed in the winter can be preeeeetty boring for me. It becomes more functional than fun, and I hate that. Plus I feel like I'm wearing every article of clothing I own. Why so cold, Connecticut? WHY?

These ladies are talking to me. Black, check. Boots, check. Layers upon layers, check.

Pictures courtesy of Stylesightings.

Happy Pie Day!

Yup, it's finally here... I know you've been counting the days.

Today's National Pie Day!!!

Yes, I'm goofy enough to mark something like this in my calendar and make a note to make a damn pie. I fear for my future babies too.

So I made a chocolate peanut butter pie.

I'm not a fan of chocolate + peanut butter. I just don't get the sweet and salty thing. I didn't grow up in this country, okay? Don't look at me like that!

But my husband is in love with this pie. If I ever made this pie and didn't offer him the damn spatula to 'clean' afterwards, we'd go straight to divorce court. You laugh, but I'm serious. Sort of. Okay not really, but my point is he really likes this pie.

And we're going to visit with his cousin this evening. His cousin's equally obsessed with this pie. To watch the two of them eat this pie is nothing short of spectacular. Plus it shuts them up for a while.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a few Oreos left over from making the crust that I need to make friends with.

The Deep End

I think most of you know my husband's an attorney. Yes, his soul's still intact. Promise.

A few weeks ago he announced that he would like to get into a legal drama on TV. I remembered seeing something about a new legal drama premiering on ABC called The Deep End, so I recorded it for him. It aired last night, and he sat down to watch it...

I was in my studio basting a quilt, so all I heard was the occasional shouting.

"What! NO WAY! They'd never give a first year a case on his own!"

"How the hell are they in court already?!"

"There is no way he'd get face time with the judge like that! And the other side's not even there!"

"A deposition isn't that quick!"

"This is ridiculous!"

It seems like the reviews agree with him.

Poor hubs now has to go find another TV drama to get into.

Book Jackets + Bookmarks = Yes Please

Book jackets and bookmarks in one make for extremely cute books! The little bunny ears poking out of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is making me a little weak. Want!

(via A Cup of Jo)

Improv Patchwork

One of my best friends recently commissioned a queen-sized quilt for her bed. Initially she'd wanted a pink and grey quilt -- her sister had suggested she get something more girlie since her room was very blue.

From the beginning, I did think that wasn't quite right. I've known her for a long time, and over that course of time, we'd been roommates, gig and movie buddies, and great friends. We share a love of music that makes your ears bleed. She's mosh pit and skulls. She's RAWK.

We started looking at fabric online so I could get an idea of what fabrics she wanted me to use. And it was glaringly obvious that pink and grey wasn't going to work. After some feeble hesitation, we settled on black, red and white instead. Ahhhh... better :)

This is what I came up with; an improv patchwork. I stuck a few patches of skulls over the quilt top, and I'll add more to the binding in scraps.

While I was piecing this, I kept thinking to myself, "If I were to make her a quilt of my own choosing, this is absolutely what I'd make".

I showed it to her and she likes it. Phew.

Fashion Inspiration

I just love her laid back style... a big shirt, a loose tee... so lovely :)

Also, her hair makes me want to stab myself. A little over a year ago, I had a massive brain fart and chopped off my long locks to sport a short a-line bob. It was fun for a few months, then reality hit -- My hair grows really fast and I'd have to get my hair trimmed constantly. I've had long hair all my life so having to have it cut more than once in four months is unacceptable.

I've been growing my hair out and it's now just past the bottom of my shoulder blades. It's grown pretty quickly but I'm impatient and I keep wanting to dunk my head in some Rogaine. Hmm... perhaps not.

Picture from Garance Dore.

Dear Rosie Quilt

I love this quilt. Love love love it.

I finally got round to using my Sweet honey bun, and together with all the white, I think it looks so pretty. The blocks are all squares with strips on either side, but with the way each block's placed, they don't look like squares at all :)

I named this quilt Dear Rosie for my grandmother, Rosie. I've been thinking about her a little bit more since she's had a some health issues and I miss her dearly. And I thought seeing as I'd used Sweet, it'd be fitting since she's about the sweetest person ever. Except when she demands I give her great-grand babies asap. Then she's not so sweet :)

I used a red pindot for the binding since there was a little bit of red in the prints, and I just loved the patches of red and white dots.

I used a red rosebud print for the back and at first I wasn't sure it'd look nice, but now I'm really loving the combo.

It ended up measuring 39.5" by 50" and is currently available in the shop SOLD!

The Hardest Button To Button

How cute are these?! I totally forgot about these buttons my husband got me while we were in Northampton. (When we got out of the car he says to me matter of factly, "I would like to get you something today", and this is what I chose lol)

They're from Essentials, a store that tests my resolve every single time I enter. And yet I cannot help but go in everytime I'm in Northampton. I'm a sucker for cute, what can I say?

Current Obsession: Giving Up The Gun

I'm utterly in love with the new Vampire Weekend album, Contra. And my current favourite song off it is Giving Up The Gun. Enjoy! :)

Northampton: The Traumatised Husband Edition

We went to Northampton again today and I made my husband try on stupid hats.

Look at the misery on that face. If I weren't laughing so hard I'd feel bad.

For the first time ever, I managed to take pictures of our food instead of breathing it in like we always do. Fish tacos for me, chicken enchilada for the hubs.

Two seconds later.

Blueberry bagel with cream cheese. So yum.

I spied a quilt pattern on the seat cover of the bagel shop hehe

And burp cloths at Essentials (one of the cutest shops ever) made out of Katie Jump Rope!

The piece de resistance... Almond tarts from Bakery Normand. The. Best. Almond. Tart. EVER.

Pretty In Pink

I call this one Pretty In Pink. Because it's pink, and I'm itching to watch that movie again please.

It's made of 16 patch blocks that I think are super cute. I actually was going to name this 16 Candles (I totally have 80s movies on the brain) but the hubs thought it was a little confusing cos there aren't any candles... *face palm*

I put a thin white border around each 16 patch block so they'd pop against the pink dot. I was initially going to sash in white but I figured the blocks would get lost in all that white.

Since the front was slightly busy, I used a solid dark brown for the binding.

There's a white with pink dot on the front, so I went the opposite for the back.

It measures 40" by 50" and is currently available in the shop SOLD! :)

Random Quilty Things

Before I say anything else, I need to announce that I am a Doofus. Capital D style.

Since I started free-motion quilting, I'd been putting off getting quilting gloves because... well who knows why. My thought process sometimes confuses even me. Maybe I thought maybe it would feel odd. Maybe I thought I'd sew the gloves to the quilt (I have not... yet).

So yesterday, I decided to get the gloves.

Oh. My. Goodness. Ridiculously good. And they're red! So cute. I've set aside time later today to kick myself.

While I was at Joann's getting the gloves, I decided to peek at the novelty bundles. Lizzy Dish! They had Lizzy Dish! Eh??? What in the world's going on?!

Decor Inspiration

I've been looking at pictures of interiors because I'm trying ideas on how best to add some colour to our home. We're those boring people who are continually guilty of going with 'safe' colours (well, aside from my studio).

How cute is that quilt?! Simple patchwork is always the best, I say.

By the way, I'm not the sort to put pillows on my bed. I love the look of it, but having to relocate 50 million pillows before diving into bed each and every night would drive me barking mad.

I need to take up crochet...

If I have a boy, I'm hunting down that wall paper to slap on his wall.

I love reading nooks. The perfect place to curl up with a book or your laptop... and perfect for my husband to bash his head on the low ceiling cos you just know he will.

If you had this in your house growing up, you would've been the coolest kid ever. It shall be my aim in life to get a spiral staircase slide (say that fast 10 times!) installed in my house before I die. I'm only thinking of my future kids... pinkie swear.

Pictures from here.

Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt

The scrappy log cabin quilt's done!

Like the hubs says, "it's so crazy it works". Thanks... I think?

I can't tell you how fun this quilt was to make! I was inspired by Rebekah's block for Bee Beautiful. I made two blocks for her, and realised two wasn't enough, so I started this. I went to my stash, cut one or two strips from a bunch of them, and hoped like hell it all made sense.

I used a Kona cotton for the binding in blue... then added a scrap of black and white dot fabric. Just because.

And since the front's so busy, I thought that two shades of grey on the back would be best. I used Kona Ash and Coal.

It ended up measuring approx 40" by 51" and is now available in the shop SOLD! :)