Quilts and the eternal fabric stash

I will admit. I like to sew. Those who know me know this tidbit. I went to school for fashion design and graduated with a BFA. I sewed a lot in that time and I bought a lot of fabric. Well, the urge to sew and craft and use fabric has not changed, even though this past year I have been a full time mom and only a part time freelance designer. None of those jobs require me to work with textiles but I love them and I'm never stopping.

I'm presently quilting a lot. I used to love making clothes, drafting patterns, draping and re-working muslins. For a while I designed apparel, but it didn't involve any sewing or pattern-making as we had a sample room overseas that provided the samples. I then spent two years designing jewelry. Not much fabric around there. So when I was home I gorged myself on the love of fabric. I quilted a lot, mostly because I had fabric scraps and not enough to make apparel. Also, I had gained a lot of weight and had no interest in finding out what my measurements were to accurately make a garment.

So, quilting has stuck around as my 'sewing fun time'. I've made, hmn, four this past year, and that's actually very few. I'm starting on another that was inspired by Anna Maria Horner's Sixth time's the charm quilt but more on that later. 

I just went to one of my favorite blogs.........The purl bee and found this amazing and wonderful quilt using Liberty of London fabrics and prints.

I am in love.  It love the polka dots. Of course these polka dots are 'lovingly' appliqued. I did a polka dot quilt last year to benefit 'Operation Stinky Big Brother."

Let me show you:

This was the idea. 

This was the completion. The picture yellowed a bit.

  

Here's the completed quilt in open air on Lake Dunlap.

I have to say, I really like polka dots. Check out my dining room in college:

Yes, it's filthy, IT WAS COLLEGE. Yes, that is an old spool we stole out of a K-mart parking lot, painted blue and then covered in pennies. And yes, those are posters of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. God, it's like you never did anything WEIRD in college. Note the batting on the floor, and the polka dot covered chair in the right hand corner. There's even a finished quilt wrapped up like a burrito and sitting on my penny table. 

Here's a picture of me and my college roommate/best friend with polo shirts we 'fancified' for our study abroad trip to Malaysia. I guess I really liked polka dots. Damn. No, it's not a good picture, we had just gotten off a 4 hour plane ride from Hong Kong and then a 20 hour plane ride from LAX. I was tired. Also, this was a time in life where I rarely wore make-up. More's the pity.

So, what was I talking about. Oh yeah. Polka Dots. I sure do love them.

Mood Board Project

I've been taking a look at mood boards put together by other style and design bloggers. Well I tried my hand at it. I had done quite a lot of mood and trend boards for my last jobs. But the ones on the blogs were a bit different than what I had done.

You can take a look at my portfolio if you care to see my old work. There's new work there too.

Here's a look at some style or mood-boards some other bloggers had created. Here's one by Joy Cho of Oh Joy blog.

Go here for the link to Oh Joy, a wonderful blog I adore. I like the idea of putting together a little vignette of neato stuff that you like and inspires you. So I took a page out of Joy's book and tried my hand at it.

Well, for the past months or so I have been lusting after a trench coat and some lovely cherry red rubber rain boots. This is because I had to go out into the rain to watch my husband run the Tough Mudder. A race for 10 miles with 14 obstacles in the rain. It took place in the country on a dirt-bike track. So, rain boots and rain jacket were kind've necessities. I didn't end up buying anything new, I just borrowed from others. But recently I've seen so many things that would have been perfect for that rainy day in the mud watching my better half run a crazy race benefitting the Wounded Warrior Project. (I know I'm hardly trendy right now, I looked for this stuff and found I was years behind the fashionistas. Well I no longer have access to WGSN so I will pretend that I'm not so late.)

Here's what I've gotten to after two days of assembling things I would have liked if I wouldn't have minded getting cute stuff muddy and damp, at the Muddy Buddy a month ago.

Here are the items I found.

1. Old Navy Trench, 2. Old Navy Sailor T-shirt, 3. Sundance Integrity Necklace, 4.Anthropologie Jeans

5. Red Cats Eye Sunglasses, 6. Etsy Bicycle Tote Bag, 7. Target Red Rain Boots , 8. Isotoner Bubble Umbrella. 

Hope you like my stylish little lady modeling the goods.

Come back for more style, shopping and just stuff that will (hopefully) make you smile.

Ruth