Twin Quilts

I wasn't the only one of my LAMQG friends to have a baby last year. There was a bit of a baby epidemic in the Guild, but a few of my friends who were planning new additions to their families breathed a huge sigh of relief when I announced I was having twins. They thought that I took the bullet for the guild. So imagine her surprise when, Alissa, one of my best friends in the LAMQG had an ultrasound revealing identical twins. What are the chances? Two sets of spontaneous identical twins, in the same guild born pretty much exactly six months apart to extremely close friends!

Alissa has been working on this amazing twin sized, EPP Hexie quilt for her older daughter. It's still a WIP but it's intended for her daughter's "Big Girl" bed. She's been working on it a long while and it's amazing, but she, admittedly doesn't have the desire to replicate the process twice more for the twins. We knew that she would be getting a lot of baby quilts at her shower, so Liberty, Latifah and I banded together to make her two matching (but not identical) twin sized quilts for the twins. 

One morning, when my boys were still wee ones, we took a trip down to Anaheim to visit M and L Fabrics. I had not been introduced to this Fabric Wonderland until I was pregnant (thank you Liberty!) and it was then that we started a tradition we continued to honor on this shopping trip. Both Liberty and I spent a few years living in Chicago, and there is a Portillos in Anaheim, so we start out our shopping trip with lunch at this Chicago institution so we can muster up enough energy for our M and L excursion.

This particular trip was dedicated to buying fabrics for both of Alissa's quilts, including backing and binding. We decided on a bright, cheery color scheme focusing on hot pink and orange. We also raided our home stashes and then divided up the fabric three ways, between herself, Latifah and myself. The quilt Liberty finished was a wonky house quilt. We fussy cut "eye spy" doorways. Mine was a wonky log cabin quilt with fussy cut eye spy centers. The three of us shared fabrics and made blocks, Latifah made the labels and Liberty and I quilted and bound our respective quilts.

Liberty had her quilt finished in time for Alissa's baby shower. Since my boys were still very small at the time, and mu sewing time was limited I only had the top done, but we were able to present them to her. After the shower, I put the quilt to the side for a while. My basting space, aka dining room, was now the boys play room and I just had limited sewing time. I figured she didn't need the quilt right away. But finally, I was able to get it sandwiched, quilted, bound and home to my future daughter-in-laws. (Ha ha!)

I intended to stipple this quilt on my machine at home, but it's so heavy, my quilting table is small and I am out of practice so I ended up ripping out my first attempt and decided to straight-line quilt it instead.

If you know me, you know that I'm not partial to the color pink, but I do like hot pink. I actually ended up falling in love with this quilt. It's so bright and cheerful. I love the hot pink and orange combo. I think I might have to work with these colors again sometime soon.

I Miss Blogging

I miss blogging. It's been ages since I read any of the blogs I follow. My RSS Feed in my inbox is well over 3000 posts. And I miss writing my blog. I've been in a blog hibernation through my pregnancy and my boys' first year. But I have been sewing. And I've been sewing more and more lately. While I was pregnant I made stuff for the nursery, until I was too big and tired to sit in front of my machine. And then I started focusing on my Marathon Quilt, because hand piecing was easier. And up until I delivered I continued to attend LAMQG Meetings and serve as the Secretary for the board, so although I didn't have much to show, I was still around quilting. 

After the boys were born, things slowed down, of course. I March I stepped down my position as Secretary of the LAMQG. And I continued work on my Marathon Quilt, albeit slow, but I had two newborns so it's normal. Yet, for quilt a while now, I have been sewing. The boys usually take a good nap in the afternoon, so several times a week I find myself with a little time to escape into my studio and sew. I have been sewing. And I have finishes. I just haven't been blogging. And I miss it! I miss writing and I miss reading about other's journeys. I miss connecting with other creative people through blog posts and comments. I miss the creative inspiration.

I spend a lot of time posting on Instagram. But I have been missing my blog for a while now and I think, especially with QuiltCon coming up, it's really been making me homesick for my blog. I'll start by playing some catch up, and slowly, I hope to get back to visiting this space a lot more. And, when in doubt, you can always find me on Instagram. And at QuiltCon. Yep, I'm going (sans kids!!), are you? Let me know so we can connect!

Peek-A-Boo!

These little monsters are starting to let me up for air. I can hardly believe that they're almost a year old. Only three and a half weeks until their First Birthday. I haven't really written or read anything blog related in that time. They've been keeping my busy. But I have been starting to get into the sewing groove again. 



I was able to sneak away for a portion of the LAMQG annual retreat. It felt so good to hang out with my friends and have some unadulterated sewing time. I focused the entire retreat on a massive Flying Geese project that I recently started. My goal was to get it finished in time to submit it to QuiltCon, but I really want to make this one huge and by the end of retreat I still had about 900 geese to complete so I switched gears and finished an improv quilt that had been lingering in my head and got it turned in before the deadline. 

I've also been focused on getting caught up on old projects, primarily finishing up some charity quilts for the Hope Circle of do. Good Stitches. I had these quilts hostage in a variety of stages ranging to simple clean up needed, like hiding tails, to quilted but unbound, to just a pile of blocks. But I've made a push recently to get them finished so I can ship them all together to Threading Hope in the New Year and make room for new projects. 

My New Years Resolution will definitely be to sew more, and to blog more. But my little monsters come first. And I don't mind that at all. 

No apologies. No excuses. No promises.

It's been a while since I've had the time or energy to blog. And I know that isn't going to change any time soon. But I do miss it around here. So when I can, I'll pop on by. There are two really great reasons that I haven't been around lately. I'd like to introduce you to them: Vaughn (in the necktie) and Dashiel (in the bow tie) joined the world on January 2, 2014. 

I did some sewing, primarily for the babies' room, before they were born, but I didn't have stamina for much else. I got really big, really quick and between the extra weight and my huge belly I really didn't feel much like sewing. I barely had enough energy to even do any hand sewing. I promise I'll start showing some of the few things I did accomplish while I was cooking these kids soon. But for now, I'm trying to sleep when I can and lear how to juggle two little ones at the same time. No apologies. No excuses. No promises.