12.4.12

Hadn't posted pictures of these lovelies yet, so today seemed a good a day as any. That and the weather today is practically the same as the day I took these photos in October. What's the deal with that? Where's my winter in Texas?

11.29.12

It's pretty grey here today. Usually that would bother me because I'm definitely a light-sensitive person. By that I mean I could never live in a place where the sun shone rarely or for a few brief hours for months at a time. The light in Texas is perfect for me. It's intense and sharp and almost ever-present.
Today though, it doesn't seem to be bothering me. Maybe because it's also cold outside so the grey sky feels like the right accompaniment to the temperature. It feels like soup weather and that, like days without sunshine, is pretty rare here, definitely worth savoring.

11.27.12

Sometimes when I'm really thirsty I'll grab a drink of water and, because I like making silly statements, say, " I'm sure glad somebody thought to invent water." The same goes for walking into an air conditioned room on a hot day. I just feel compelled to declare, " I'm so happy someone thought to invent air conditioning."
Well, today, I'm thrilled somebody invented stitching.

Recent Images

All done with my new line for Moda, Simple Marks Summer. Look for it in your LQS in April.

A Week of Extreme Finishing

Raise your hand if you've read Gretchen Rubin's book The Happiness Project. Well, if you haven't, then I strongly recommend you do and, if yo have then you are familiar with The Week of Extreme Nice. Not that this is a spoiler, but the Week of Extreme Nice is a gift that the author gives to her husband, a week of no nagging, complaining, etc. In the book it's done without him knowing, both during and after. Lots of stuff to cogitate about there, but I'm just riffing on the title and declaring this a Week of Extreme Finishing.
First off, it won't be a full week as I'm leaving for Quilt Market in Houston on Friday and, secondly, my week is not exactly a secret. Not if you just read this post. But, it is a week of finishing, so I get some credit for a bit of accuracy.
Finished item #1:
Oops, we bit of disclaimer needed.
I'm about to post a picture of a finished quilt. The picture isn't of the quilt in it's finished state, but, take my word for it, the quilt is done, finito, complete. It's been a bit cloudy here the past couple days and every time I've had a moment to take a picture, the light hasn't been conducive to photography. What I am showing is the finished top. I hope to post a picture of the finished quilt along with tomorrow's image for The Week of Extreme Finishing.

This is another in my Super Size series. It's basically this design just with the template pieces blown up really big.
The fabrics are all part of my newest collection for Moda, Simple Marks Summer, and the quilt will be on display at the Moda booth during market.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, an image of the finished quilt and another finished item.

So close I can almost taste it

That's how close I am to releasing a new pattern. In fact, this morning I went to a local park and took some "romance" shots.

The design was inspired by a paint chip garland, yes, a paint chip garland, I saw on Pinterest. I tried linking to the original page, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore, so this is the best I can do.
The pattern will include information on making this generously sized lap quilt as well as scaling the templates down to make a pillow-top-appropriate version.
I'll save pictures of that for another post. This is a teaser after all.

Craftsy Project

Before I get into the meat of today's topic, I have to apologize for my own silliness. I mentioned at the beginning of yesterday's post that I hadn't let you all in on the fall version of Simple Marks. Well, if I'd just scrolled down the page a couple of posts I would have seen that, in fact, I did back when I participated in the Moda Blog Hop. So, never mind, I won't be posting preview shots of Simple Marks Fall. Been there, done that.
What I haven't posted about is the bonus project I created for my online class at Craftsy.com. My class, Fabric Patterning with Wax Resist, walks you through all the steps that I use in my home studio (read: my garage) to create my hand dyed and patterned fabrics. When I was preparing the lessons for the class, I thought it would be fun to include a simple project to showcase the various techniques taught.

And this project is definitely simple. It's really just 10 1/2" x 10 1/2" squares of fabrics that have been dyed and discharged using some of the methods discussed. I intentionally limited the color palette to hopefully unify the differently patterned fabrics. I then machine quilted it to highlight the images in the fabrics and bound it in orange. I wanted the binding to accent but not blend into the fabrics featured in the top. The nine-patch sampler measures about 30" x 30" and could be a functional baby quilt or a wall hanging. Either way, it's a great way to show off all your newly acquired dyeing expertise.