{*~Spring Inspiration~*}

 

Thanks so much everyone for your great comments on my last post! I was blown away! I wish I could reply to each one but unfortunately I'm still playing catch up and I'm behind on projects. But please know that I read, thought about & appreciated all of them. You guys are all AWESOME.

Right now I'm working on a few neat projects for some of my favorite designers for Quilt Market and a few book projects. I'm hoping to get everything done & wrapped up by Friday. It's all fun stuff, cross stitches, mini quilts & throw pillows. Plus a bread basket...but that's for a friend, not QM ;)

In the meantime, I'm day dreaming about a new quilt for our bed. Normally I love all things precise and neutral but lately I want something super CHEERFUL and CRISP and FUN and LIBERATED for our room. I missed the boat a few years back when everyone was making white + tons of color quilts. It's totally in my mind now!

I am really inspired by Penny, she is SO clever with her piecing. Last night I couldn't sleep & was scouring flickr, gathering inspiration and pinning it when I remembered her awesome Asterisk Block! And then I saw Dorrie is making some! Light bulbs were flashing. So I bought Penny's pattern, I think I'm going to make some big & small asterisks, plus some liberated churn dash & stars! That sounds crazy fun right? I'm hoping I can buy some new cute sheets for our bed on sale too.

Speaking of sheets, yesterday I got a new Garnet Hill catalog.

And they had some GREAT quilt inspiration!

These were my two favorites:

(whirlwind quilt)

I feel like this quilt reminds me so much of something Nova or Yahaira would create! Except they'd make it radder! I love the chunky hand quilting. Also, that bed frame is BEAUTIFUL!

(Nantucket Awning Quilt)

I LOVE this one! It's so graphic and preppy and RAD! I grew up in MA and every summer I daydream of fried clams, my grandfather's boat shoes, l.l.bean boat & totes, afternoons at Nahant and humid nights. In reality my summers in CA are 115 degrees, IPA, flip flops from April-October, sunglasses from 6 am til 9 pm, Target tank tops & fish tacos!

REGARDLESS! Back to this quilt! I love it! Those scallop-y-fans! Those colors! <3!

• We planted a garden this weekend. And are building another raised bed this weekend!
• I'm going to try backing some quilts with sheets. The lobster one especially!
• Cauliflower Pizza Crust?! I'm there!
• Instagram is pretty fun!
• Chop & I are in LOVE with Adventure Time, it is so kawaii!!!
• I bought this kit yesterday. It's going to be my summer project that I'll take with me camping & when I'm sitting outside at night with Chop. Now of course I want to sew a new Hoop Travel Bag. Why is it that whenever I start a new project, I automatically want a new bag to carry it around in? Do you do that too?

Have a great Tuesday!

{~*Reality Check*~}

I'm not quite sure how to turn this into a cohesive post but just go with it ok?

I think it's important to keep my blog upbeat because that's how I am in real life, but it's also important to keep it real and sometimes real life can suck.

I got an unexpected reality check last Wednesday. Does anyone ever really expect the scary things life throws at us out of the blue? In this case it was that Chop has a lump & might be sick.

We found out that it wasn't cancer but the days leading up to that phone call have been incredibly crappy and eye opening. I knew in my gut that all would be ok regardless of what happened. I have faith in modern medicine, I have faith in my husband being a strong guy, I have faith that we'd make it through whatever cards had been dealt to us. I love that guy more than anything in the world & it's just a matter of holding on to that love with both hands. And maybe a beer at night to calm down. ;)

Since last Wednesday I've done nothing business/work related. And fallen painfully behind. I think you all understand. I can't focus knowing things are up in the air. I'm not a machine with no feelings. Some people can work through upheaval, I can't.

I spent a lot of time talking to Chop, going on adventures, being his other half, baking & teaching him how to cook. Making lists. Thinking a lot about the future. Debating which projects I genuinely loved & wanted to continue with. Which projects weren't worth it anymore. Organized my finances. I did some reading. And it was the reality check we both needed.

We want to spend more time together & stop working insane hours. Why on earth am I scheduling every.single.second.of my life? Two reasons: I genuinely love to work and I severely undercharge on projects so I'm constantly scrambling to pay my bills. I see all the flaws, rarely charge above $8-10 for custom sewing, give discounts because I feel bad asking people to pay me what I'm worth. A lot of this has been floating around in my mind after a really enlightening skype with Lizzy.

Painter's don't charge $20 for a painting. So why do people charge $100 for queen & king sized quilts? I know some people are fast, but seeing very beautiful & intricate quilts that cheap hurts my stomach. I can't change why people price their hard work cheaply, but I can change my own attitude about it. And start enforcing it more. Minimum wage isn't cutting it when I've been sewing for almost 5 years.

I also have zero patience for the online quilting drama that has been happening lately. I've received a few bitchy comments that I deleted, because my blog isn't a place for nastiness. And people can take their nasty attitudes elsewhere. I highly doubt any of these people would have the balls to come up to people in real life & say the things they do while they hide behind their computers with evil grins & steepled fingers.

We all sew. We are all on different paths with our sewing. We all have different spending budgets. We all have different definitions of what a quilt is. We have different time restraints. We all like different fabric. And at the end of the day, we all SEW. And designers aren't trying to just design for one overly critical person online. So let's stop being condescending & bitchy to each other because all it does is discourage people from posting, designing and new sew-ers from wanting to take up the craft. What if the one person who inspires you decides to stop posting because of negativity? That's a loss for them and you. And countless others who lurk on the internet & are shy. And I know that if a bunch of my online friends stopped posting the stuff they were creating I'd be totally bummed. There is too much serious blah going on in the world, quilting & sewing shouldn't be one of them.

Instead of being the internet quilt police, why don't we spend time with the people in our lives we love, dance to our favorite song (currently Country Girl) in our underwear, sew whatever we want with fabric we love because it's fun, bake because chocolate is delicious, encourage each other during rough patches, paint our nails with the most sparkly glitter we can find because who can deny the amazingness of glitter, leave comments on flickr on things we love, buy cute new shoes because shoes fit no matter what size you are and read trashy romance novels in the sun because it's a great escape?!

That sounds much better than being an evil jerk any day.

{*~Rainy Monday~*}

If last week could be summed up in one word it would be "exhausting". Not in a bad way, just a lot of stuff!

The highlight was Saturday! We went to the Red Bluff Round Up! I've never been to a rodeo before and it was SO much fun. I made a little pouch that screamed "SUNNY COUNTRY DAY!!!" to hold my phone & i.d (and beer money ;)) I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, seriously, SO fun. Completely fascinating. The girls doing barrel racing totally stole my heart. I was in awe. I got to see the Budweiser Clydesdales who are the most magnificent creatures ever. And I saw some giant buffaloes and watched mule races (did you know I'm obsessed with mules & donkey's?)  I realize I want a horse so bad it isn't even funny. A small little farm for Chop & I with a barn for quilting. Lots of space for a garden, a cat, a dog (Chop wants a lab!) & a horse. And a burro.

If you told 20 year old Amanda that she'd be at a rodeo having the time of her life, she'd scoff and then go to Nordstrom. 28 year old Amanda is a completely different person. I want a completely different lifestyle than what I started out life wanting. I wish I had found a simpler way of life then, I'd have saved myself a lot of heartache (and debt! who needs expensive stuff when your just going to work at home?!). I love a lot of things that don't have a price tag..riding my bike, sitting outside reading, painting, cooking & baking, going for drives with Chop...I guess that's all part of growing up?

I've been practicing on my long arm lately, I had three quilt tops that were old that I finished up, I can always tell which tops are old because it was back when I didn't believe in using pins...haha. I'm getting more comfortable with it but practice is always fun. I quilted the above quilt using aurifil and it was so pretty to watch it quilt (it's variegated white to aqua!).

I just put pork a l'orange in the crock pot. I LOVE making this. I slice half an onion thinly and put it on the bottom of the crock pot. Then I add the chops and I drizzle homemade bbq sauce on top with some larrupin, cinnamon and honey. And then I add a bit of orange juice, about half way up the chops...cover and cook on low until everyone comes home. So good! Sometimes I add brown sugar but I got a new honey I wanted to try this time. :)

I have so many things to share and work on this week but I want to show you my friend Jackie's awesome book she made, Goodnight Worcester! I think she might be one of my oldest friends & we reconnected on facebook. So great!!! Imagine making a book for your kids so they can be inspired by the place you call home? Brilliant!

Have a great Monday pals!