Typewriters!!!

...and other things of beauty:

Recovering from spinal surgery is slower than I thought, which means my quilting projects have slowed down, too.  But I can still dream -- so I'm sketching and adding to my stash and getting a little handwork done.  

I'm thinking about cutting up the cute tote bag and using that typewriter in a quilt!

What do you think?

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

FINALLY!!!

Last fall my sewing circle, The Sweet Hot Yams, was faced with two of us needing surgery.  (Of course, a third Yam decided to go in for emergency surgery -- but that's another story. )
So they put their creative minds together and planned to make two top secret quilts to provide love and comfort to their injured friends.
I was the first lucky quilt recipient,
but I was sworn to secrecy until another Yam got her quilt early this morning.
So, drumroll please -- here she is in all her glory.
I've been waiting for two looooooooooooooooooong months to be able to show her off:

Isn't it just beautiful!?!  I love this quilt so much!

Much love and many thanks to
The Sweet Hot Yams:
Elizabeth, Gabrien, Heather, Irene, Jen, Kristin, Mo, Monica, Sally, Shelley, Traci, and Violet.

Which Yam received a quilt this morning?
That's not my story to tell ;D

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Like a cool summer breeze

Last winter I invested in some of Jennifer Paganelli's Queen Street fabrics at Sew, Mama, Sew and lovingly added them to my Sis Boom stash.  

I placed them all together right by the door of the office 

(which was my makeshift sewing studio at the time).

 I LOVE cool colors, so every time I walked by I eyed the blues and greens and purples.  Sigh.

But I had a wedding to work on.

Then the wedding came and went and summer rolled around.  

August was my month for the Twice Around the Block Virtual Quilting Bee on Flickr,
and I suddenly knew just which fabrics I wanted to use.  

 I chose primarily from the Queen Street line + a few other Sis Boom fabrics and others in my stash,
then threw in a few coordinating solids which were mostly leftovers from other projects.

 The TATB VQB has been a pretty relaxed group.
The blocks get done - eventually - which has been perfect for me and my very busy 2011. 

And so -- the blocks began to trickle in.

I just can't get enough of these gorgeous prints

and beautiful colors.

This lovely block on the top of the stack was made by Terri Harlan (Sew Fantastic).

And suddenly, summer doesn't seem that far off.

Thank you, Jennifer, for beautiful fabrics and quilty inspiration, 

and for featuring me on your blog earlier today!  

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Endings and new beginnings

 I spent the last day of 2011 and the first day of 2012 spending time with family and working on bee blocks in my spare moments:

 For Faith (Fresh Lemons)

 For Sarah (Freckles and Fairytales)

For Lisa (Vintage Modern Quilts)

The blocks above were for the 2011 Twice around the Block Virtual Quilting Bee.

I also got started on a new Bee (Yamtastic Quilting Bee) and finished two blocks for Traci (Hip Fabric)

I just  the adore the pintuck fabric!

One of my goals for 2012 is to slowly but surely get Molly's old bedroom converted into my sewing studio.  There are still a lot of boxes piled up in there, but I've somehow managed to carve a little sewing space for myself and hope to put up a design wall soon:

I will probably be posting about this all year.

Today I put away all of the Christmas decorations.  

I've been off work since I left for Haiti on December 16, but tomorrow it's back to reality.  

Until then, here's another little look back at Christmas. 

Two gorgeous Secret Santa gifts to me from Mo Bedell (Lime Gardenias)

Thank you so much, Mo!  You're the best!  The pillow happily resides on a rocking chair in my family room.  I've already used the bag to carry hand sewing and a bottle of wine to the last sewing circle!

And I can't resist ending with this:

 Molly and Peter's first Christmas tree.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan