Another Quilt In the Queue

After listening to me chatter on and on about quilts for the past 5 months, all of my subliminal messages to my coworker finally worked! He commissioned me to make a lap quilt for his mother for Mother's Day, and of course, I said yes. What a good son.

Within days, I found my coworker (who will remain anonymous to preserve his privacy as I am about to reveal somewhat embarrassing information here) cruising the Internet for fabrics and quilt pattern ideas. Usually you can find this guy reading about politics and moving to Canada, so you can imagine my surprise when he started showing me the styles he liked. It warmed my heart.

So, with a lot of conversation and sharing of ideas, we designed the perfect quilt for his mom. The back of the quilt is going to be this print from My Folklore. I will save the details for the quilt top for later, but all I am going to say is that it is going to be just lovely, and perfect for a mom.

** Update - the fabric has arrived. I am heading down to Purl tomorrow to pick out the fabric for the quilt top and some additional fabric for two more baby quilts. It's raining babies!

I Have My Eye On You

I read about this pattern last week and haven't stopped thinking about it since. I have so many little girls in my life right now that could use a little dress like this. And I am just the woman to make it for them.

Fabric Shopping With Charlotte

Charlotte had her first visit to the Big Apple this past weekend. Although her older brother is more into the outdoors, Charlotte is a city girl at heart. She smiled and laughed and broke hearts all over Manhattan. We cruised the Garment District and I picked these two pieces of loveliness. I cannot wait to get my hands on this material. I am picturing dresses for little girls, robes, skirts and using the scraps in an orange themed quilt. The possibilities are endless. Now if I could just do something about my day job getting in the way.

I Think I'm Turning Japanese, I Really Think So

On a blissful afternoon walk, I stopped into this wonderful Japanese book store a couple of blocks from my office. I have read about Japanese crafting and sewing books online and decided to see for myself if they are really that great.

Oh yes, Japanese sewing books are amazing. I came out of the store clutching this little book to my chest, my heart pounding with excitement. The book is gorgeous, it comes with SIX patterns and detailed picture instructions. I have read that if you know how to sew, you can follow along without needing a translator, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

So here are some pictures of my lovely new book. I will be sure to post updates of my attempts at sewing by picture alone.

One Step Closer To A Streak-Free Life

As I mentioned before, I live in a fishbowl with a lot of windows and to my husband's chagrin, I tend to do some good streaking between the bathroom and the bedroom when I am at home. Rather than make him run ahead of me all the time, closing the blinds as he goes to maintain a semblance of my privacy, I decided to make a bathrobe. I picked up some lovely Armani shirt material at Parson's West in the Garment District last week. It is a very light weight cotton, which will be perfect for the hot New York City summer that is just around the corner.

If all goes as planned, I will be in a new robe this weekend. I will be sure to give my neighbors a good finale!

Okay Jess, peek all you want!

I received a quilt order right around the time I committed to the fabric for Baby Brielle's quilt, so with a little tweaking and a lot of thought on the design, I actually made two quilts at the same time. The quilts are pretty much the same with the only real difference being the binding. On this first one, I used the pale yellow pinstripes with the dragonflies and butterflies for the binding but I have something else in mind for the second one.

I delivered this quilt to Lauren last week to be given at a baby shower this past weekend. I already received a report that the mother-to-be "LOVED" (with all capitals) the quilt. Hearing that response makes me so happy and just fuels the quilting fire inside of me. (Have I gone over to the dark side yet?)

It has been tough to hold on to these quilt pictures and not post them. My intention was to hold out until I finished the second quilt, but it is taking a bit longer than I anticipated and these pictures are burning a hole in my pocket. And after consulting with Jess this morning and hearing that she has been cruising the blog hoping for a sneak peek, I figured I would end the torture for the both of us.

So, here you go Jess! I hope you like it.