New Toys: Part 2

Remember way back in April when my mom's friends hosted a shower for me and I showed you some of the wonderful gifts they gave me?  Well, I held back on showing you my favorite gift, because it deserves a post of its own.  It's one of the greatest gifts I've ever received, actually.  It even rivals the three-story fully furnished wood dollhouse my father built for me when I was five, custom made to fit my Barbies.  Yes, this gift is that wonderful.

Ready?

I have this thing for vintage days of the week embroidered dish towels.

My best friend Abby told her mom about this, who, it just so happens, is an expert at embroidery.

So as my wedding gift she made me these towels, which went along with my nautical themed wedding.

The pattern is from the 30s or 40s.

She kept going and made extras... nautical-themed, of course.

This one she designed off of the sailboat on our wedding invitation:

It features my (new) last initial and our wedding date, Aug 13.

And now, the piece de resistance!

Here's a closer look:

The nautical flags spell Andrew <3 Monica.  Awww.

Unbelievable, right??  No one in the history of weddings has ever received a more thoughtful, personal, and beautiful gift than this.  I'm a lucky girl.  Thanks, Diane!  I will cherish them all my life.

Country Roads

A couple weeks ago I told you about the class I took on counterintuitive quilting, taught by Patricia Belyea.  It was very outside the box and I had a lot of fun.  We're having a follow-up class at the end of this month and I wanted to have something to show for myself, so I decided to take the parts and pieces with me up to Guemes Island this past weekend to make some progress.

When I had brought the blocks home from the initial class and laid them out for Andrew that evening, he said it reminded him of the countryside and some of the blocks looked like roads, so I took that as my inspiration and titled my quilt Country Roads.  This, however, did not come without consequences; throughout the entire weekend I had the image of Andy and Dwight from The Office singing "Country Roads" in the break room running on a continuous loop in my head.

Saturday afternoon and evening the wind was blowing hard and the rain was so heavy I was a little nervous it was going to uproot our house and carry it away, Wizard of Oz style.  To combat the dreary weather Abby baked a couple loaves of challah, which we had with Diane's home made freezer jam, and we opened a bottle of wine.  The hurricane-like gales were also a great motivator to get some sewing done, since we couldn't really even go outside, much less walk on the beach.

Currently it's about 55 inches square.  I'm not done with the top quite yet, but it will be a relatively small quilt. Some changes I'd like to make will address the bottom left corner. I will have a cohesive border around it with a little more green on one corner to balance out where it got a little green-heavy in this piece.

Overall, I'm pretty happy about this quilt and I'm excited to see it taking shape.  Stay tuned for more on this in a few weeks!

Delivery for Moi!

Look what came in the mail today!  300 yards of nautical ribbon!  My heart is filled with joy over these stripes!

Ok, now what to do with it?

DBC Weekend

What a weekend!  It was DBC-tastic.  Kate, our San Francisco outfit, was in town Thurs night through Sunday evening for some quilty fun, but we didn't limit it to just sewing.  We spent all day Saturday up in the Skagit Valley with the Seattle moms enjoying the annual Tulip Festival.  I thought I'd take you on a little floral parade through the highlights...

...and of course a group photo of the DBC members.  Poor Kate and Abby were trying to stay as dry as possible. I, on the other hand, felt invincible in my rain jacket and boots.

What DBC reunion would be complete without a fabric store excursion.  We visited The Quilting Loft and Fabric Crush where we picked up some beauts.  Here's my loot:

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, so we spent the morning photographing our finished quilts to be uploaded onto our etsy shop.  We still have to edit down, but here's a sneak preview of our hard work:

That's Kate looking positively nautical on our dock.  She's such a great quilt model.  A couple of hours later we relaxed on that same dock with barbecued chicken and a few Mexican bottled beers.  The sunburn on my shoulders was totally worth it.

hatching a new project

 

I've decided to channel my creative energy into something I can profit from.  Today I completed the set-up for my very own etsy shop: home snugg.  I'm very excited.  I've been wanting to make pillows out of the vast amounts of home decor fabric I have, and I finally tested the waters this past weekend.  The logo was inspired by my project.  Hopefully this will grow.  My shop is currently empty, but hopefully I'll find some time over the weekend to create some inventory.  Yay!

a rant

 

image source

I freakin' hate rickrack, especially the large-scale stuff.  It makes otherwise cute quilts and crafts I see on blogs into frumpy disappointments.  Everyone, please stop with the rickrack.  That is all.