Fabulous Fabric Friday

There's nothing like coming home tired from work and finding a couple of packages of fabric on the front porch!  

I was instantly energized!

I knew the larger package would contain these lovely fabrics by David Butler (Curious Nature)

but I just couldn't imagine what Cindy (Live a Colorful Life) would be sending me!

A beautiful yard of Sis Boom fabric

 because she knows I love Jennifer Paganelli (and cool colors).  

Cindy -- Thank you so, so much!  I am touched that you would think of me, and I think you know that this fabric has found a good home.  It will be admired and petted until the day I cut into it for the perfect project.  I think I have one in mind already!

Last night I had the fun of shopping at Fabric Depot with Monica and Heather.  

One is crazy and the other is crazier.  I'll let you decide which is which.  

I decided to add some solids to my Swoon-along blocks.

And I couldn't stop myself from starting a collection of reds and whites for a Christmas quilt.

Heather teased me about buying too much fabric (what with Curious Nature on it's way to my house at that point), but it seemed to me like a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, so I just ignored her.

 Don't expect to see this quilt started any time soon.   I'm going to do Christmas in July at a sewing retreat this summer with friends and I'm just getting an early start.  

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Q & A

Q:  Are you swooning?

Why yes I am.

I decided to join Katy's Swoon-along, but have had a slow start.  

I changed my mind about colors/fabrics, but finally chose these.

I could hardly wait to start my block so I could use my beautiful new smart iron.

It's amazing!

Perhaps it was my haste, or perhaps it was the still poor lighting in my work-in-progress sewing studio, but I made an unusual (for me) cutting error.

I cut out background squares in Kona White (on the right) instead of Snow (on the left) and had to start all over.   On the bright side, I now have white background squares for the red and white Christmas quilt I keep thinking about.

 Sammy didn't lose a wink of sleep over my problem.

 Q: How is the progress on your sewing studio?

I can't stress enough that this will be an all year project. 

Recent activity includes folding fabrics to reorganize.

 But Sammy kept walking through the piles.

 Most of my fabrics are now temporarily stuffed into drawers since my neck and back got tired from all the folding.  

Q:  How is your recovery from surgery going? 

Today was my first day neck brace free.  It's about a week early, but this morning I just couldn't face putting it on any more.  The cervical fusions will still be growing/fusing till November 2012 and my spinal cord may not be completely "back to normal" until May 2013.  

So basically I still have pain and other symptoms in my neck and left arm and leg; however, less than before surgery, AND

I am getting better every day.  

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!  They are much appreciated!!

 In other news, I'm taking a wonderful class with a special friend, 

and -- oh yeah -- I finished that first Swoon block (24" square).

Of course, some people have already finished their entire quilt tops.

I may not be fast,

but I'm slow :D.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

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