Focusing on Me

I have hardly had any time for sewing lately and even less time for blogging, which makes me sad. I didn't even have time to blog about the amazing time I had at the LAMQG Retreat, which happened over two weeks ago. Ugh. Life has just been incredibly overwhelming this Fall. And I miss blogging. But I'm making some changes to hopefully free up a little bit of time to focus more on sewing for *me*, when I have the time to sew. 

When I was on the retreat (which was so absolutely amazing and fulfilled my soul) I started working on a project that has been trapped inside my little head for about a year and a half now. I just resolved to focus on me and my art and finally start to let it out. 

I think I need to be a little selfish for a while. Not completely selfish, but I just need to allow myself to be a little more focused on my own art. Especially since things at work always seem to be consistently dramatic and stressful and that won't change unless I choose a new career path, so a little bit of internal focus at home is okay. So, I'm sorry I haven't been around as much as I would like to be, but I do appreciate you all hanging in there with me. The juices are flowing so I just need to start channeling them.

Happy Little Pouch Hop

Good Morning everyone! First of all I just wanted to thank Elaine and Emily for inviting me to participate in the Happy Little Pouch Blog Hop. Don't you just love a little bag? I'm not really a purse person in my everyday life, but I adore little pouches and bags of all sizes, especially for storage and travel purposes. And I travel a lot. Recently I decided to test out one of Ayumi's patterns for her little fabric basket and I was instantly addicted. These baskets make a great addition to any swap gift you might be cooking up.

Her pattern is super easy to follow and the basket comes together very quickly. There are also a bunch of modifications you can make to personalize it and make it your own. I made another one of these for a friend (and I forgot to take pictures, ugh!) using Echino. I didn't want to cut up the print so I just cut two 9.5" x 3.5" strips instead of making the patchwork square strips.

 

  

Another way to easily personalize these baskets is by using a decorative stitch instead of an edge stitch around the top of the basket like I did here. 

Just make sure you're lining is lying flat when you edge stitch our you could get a pucker like I did. (Boo!)

Although Ayumi's pattern is for small baskets (perfect to hold a few fat quarters or your collection of buttons) it's easy to modify her pattern to make larger baskets. And these come together so quickly and easily that I think I'll be whipping out many, many more of them in the near future.

Want to see more Happy Little Pouches? Check out the rest of the Blog Hop Participants:

Monday 11/26: Emily from Mommy's Naptime and Elaine from Dashasel Sews

Tuesday, 11/27: Courtney from Mon Petit Lyons and Lucy from Charm About You

Wednesday, 11/28: Hollie from Undercover Crafter and Katie from Katie's Korner

Thursday, 11/29: Lindsay from Lindsay Sews and Michelle from I Like Orange

Friday, 11/30: Sara from Sew Sweetness, Cindy from Adventures of the Singing Quilter, and Jennifer from Ellison Lane Quilts

Monday, 12/3: Holly from Bijou Lovely and Heidi from Fabric Mutt

Tuedsay, 12/4: Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Bets and Emily from Mle BB

Wednesday, 12/5: Shruti from 13 Woodhouse Road and Liz from Dandelion Daydreams

Thursday, 12/6: Beth from Plum and June and Kaelin from The Plaid Scottie
Friday, 12/7: Emily from Mommy's Naptime and Elaine from Dashasel Sews

Thank you for stopping by! And please join us in the fun and share your pouchy makes in our Flickr group. The Flickr group is also where you can upload your pouchy makes, and at the end of each week we will have some great prizes to award!

Prizes have generously been donated by:

do. Good Stitches October Blocks

I am getting so excited. I can't wait for Thursday. This weekend is the annual LAMQG Retreat. I should have spent the time I had to sew this weekend prepping for the retreat, instead I caught up on the last of my tardy bee blocks. As of now, I am all caught up. I only have November blocks in the queue. Yippee!

Robyn asked the Hope Circle to make two 12.5" unfinished Patchwork Wheel Blocks using this tutorial. She also selected an autumn palate for us to use. I struggled with this palate, I have to say. It's not that I didn't have autumnal fabrics in my stash, I do, granted not a lot, but I'm just not as comfortable with this palate, I suppose. 

I think I need to get more comfortable with it, though, because my husband loved these blocks and colors. He never usually comments on the blocks I make for bees but these struck him. I think I need need to work with these colors more often. 

I actually made 4 blocks since we had a member drop out of the circle and I didn't want Robyn to have to pick up the slack. Remember, if you want to do some good too. You can always sign up to join in a do. Good Stitches Circle. And Rachel is also hosting a celebration of do. Good Stitches and anyone can join in by stitching up a quilt for charity. 

Celebrate Good Stitches

I've been hosting the Hope Circle for do. Good Stitches for over two years now. And while I have fallen behind on quilts in the past, I never fell behind on blocks until September when my work trip screwed everything up. So I was frantic to catch up on blocks for Suzy last week. She asked for Herringbone blocks using Holly's tutorial, but she wanted us to send the halves separate, so four half blocks instead of two 12.5" finished blocks. 

Things were going along just fine until I realized that I didn't read the tutorial all the way through before starting and I got ahead of myself and realized that I made all four halves going in the same direction. Ugh. Well, as it turns out, we unfortunately lost a Stitcher. I thought she had made her blocks for Suzy and I was just going to pick up her blocks for October while I tried to (successfully, I might add) woo Natalie back into the bee. (Doing the Happy Dance!) Then I discovered that she was unable to complete September as well so my unfortunate mistake turned into a happy accident. I made four more halves in the opposite direction and sent all four blocks off to Suzy. 

I simply adore the color scheme she requested we use for this quilt. Suzy wanted us to work in blues and grays with one red or orange strip in each half. It doesn't hurt that these are favorite colors of mine and I am currently obsessed with the herringbone pattern. You'll be seeing more of this pattern and, coincidentally, color scheme again very soon. I am already swooning over this quilt. 

 

And if you haven't heard yet, Rachel is planning a fabulous end of the year celebration for do. Good Stitches, But you don't have to be a member of the bee to participate in the fun! Just complete one quilt for a charity of your choosing and you can be entered to win some fabulous prizes. Hop on over to her blog for more details and to join in the fun!

Modern Quilt Guild Showcase

Did you see the report back from the International Quilt Market that the Modern Quilt Guild did yesterday on their Modern Quilt Showcase? If you did you might have seen a few quilts that look familiar, including this one...

Eek! Even though I couldn't be there to see it in person, I had amazing friends like Alissa and Caitlin who were there and snapped pictures for me. They sent them to me over the weekend and it finally felt real. Of course, I look at it and see all the imperfections but it doesn't diminish my excitement one bit. I encourage everyone who wasn't able to see the exhibit in person at Quilt Market to hop on over to the Modern Quilt Guild site and take a virtual tour of the exhibit. There are so many amazing quilts featured. And this show is traveling, so there are still opportunities to see many of the quilts in the exhibit up close and personal coming up. Congratulations to everyone in the show!