Long time, no see!

Ooh boy, it's been a while since I've written anything on here! There's a good reason for that, though. In the past year and a half-ish, I've switched jobs, bought a house, and adopted the world's sweetest dog! I've been sewing fairly regularly despite all of the huge life changes but just haven't gotten around to writing about it or posting pictures.

Tessie, my new sewing assistant and fabric coziness tester.

One of the best features of my house is that I have a dedicated sewing room! My basement is partially finished and it's the perfect size for all of the fabric and notions I've accumulated over the years. It's also nice to have my sewing machine permanently out and ready for use without hogging the dining room table. In the middle of a creative streak? Close the door and no one has to see my mess!

With having a new home, I've also been branching out into other crafty endeavors -- furniture refinishing, curtain making, table mosaic-ing, and so on. It's been a lot of fun to put my own stamp on the house, and I'll definitely write about that another time.

For now, here's a quick catch-up on two wedding quilts I made!

The first one I made was for my friend Ben, wayyyyy back in 2016. We've been good pals since high school and he married his sweet gal Sandi that summer. I didn't have the quilt finished in time for the wedding, but I sent it off well before the one-year mark that etiquette allows, so I think I'm OK. :)

The hardest part of this quilt was knowing which colors and fabrics to pick. Ben doesn't care about design unless it relates to cars or engineering, and I wasn't sure about Sandi's home decor preferences. So, I figured a black, gray, and white quilt with some traditional framed blocks and classic-looking prints would be appropriate for any decor. I think I bought most of the fabric from Craftsy's and Connecting Threads' in-house lines, but I also used some from my stash.

It's pretty big -- bigger than a lap quilt, but not quite a twin. I was happy to hear that they loved it, and it's currently in their guest room!

Next up, a quilt for one of my best friends, Lorianne, and her now-husband Dave. Lorianne and I met when we studied abroad in London during the summer of 2004. We hit it off right away, but it wasn't until a few years later when we figured out we worked just a few blocks away from each other in New York City that we became really close. We started meeting up regularly for lunch, seeing plays and concerts, and going to Red Sox games at Yankee Stadium. Eventually her friends became my friends, and vice versa!

I didn't keep my quilt-giving a secret this time around and got her to spill her wedding colors well in advance of the big day: navy, gray, and a hint of fuchsia. Lucky for me, the two most recent quilts I made were navy and gray, so I already had some awesome fabric on hand. (I always buy too much -- this time it turned out to be a good thing!) I rounded out the fabric selection with some blenders from V & Co. Also, knowing Dave might not be big on hot pink, I made sure to slip in the anchors just for him--he's a boat guy. 

Lorianne is a stylish, modern sort of lady so I decided on a more contemporary pattern of half-square triangles to form diagonal lines. I really like the effect and would definitely make a quilt like this again! I tried to let the colors do the talking instead of the prints, and I think that approach works well for this pattern. The quilting shadows the diagonal lines.

In a small miracle--especially since I was in the process of closing on my house--I managed to finish this one in time for the wedding!

Quilts get wrinkly after they are washed for the first time!

I still have a ways to go before I'm caught up on my recaps, but hey... progress! I'm off to wash one just-finished quilt before sending it to a brand new baby. Then, I plan to cut the fabric for the next one on the list -- a kid's quilt to be raffled at a charity dinner next month. (No pressure or anything!) A wild weekend!

So much embroidery!

In my enthusiasm for quilting over the past few years, embroidery started to fall by the wayside. I started to get back into it about a year ago to make gifts for weddings and new babies. While I'd love to make everyone quilts, I just don't have that kind of time (or money!), and I think embroideries are nice, personalized gifts that can be equally cherished as heirlooms -- that's my hope at least! Here are a few of those projects.

Emily & Allen's Wedding
Emily is one of my closest friends from college, and she married a great guy last October. Emily, our friend Lauren, and I have proclaimed ourselves "feisty Irish broads," a term that was once used to (lovingly) describe my sassy, smart, and ambitious grandmother. It seemed fitting to make Em and Allen a claddagh, which represents friendship, love, and loyalty -- words to live by! The claddagh itself is a mixture of a few designs I found online, and the banner below is from Sublime Stitching. There are small faux pearls between the words in the banner, and I mounted the embroidery in a shadow box I found at Joann, which ended up giving the finished project just the right amount of polish.

(Time for a secret: This was my second attempt at this embroidery. The first was amazing--you'll have to take my word for it--but the fabric was too thin for the weight of the stitches and ended up tearing when I ironed it. So frustrating! It could not be saved. But my second attempt ended up being finished just in time for their wedding!)

Flowers for Leia
Baby Leia was born last fall to my friends Jim and Sylvia, who just moved to the U.S. from England. (Jim is an old friend of my pal Alex, who studied with me at Lehigh, and I've gotten to know him during my various trips to the UK. I'm very excited to have them nearby!) I wanted to make Leia something bright, cheery, and a little bit girly. I found the bird and flower pattern online, but made a few variations, including adding Leia's name to it. Sylvia said it was Leia's first personalized gift! I really like the color palette for this one. Leia's a little sweetheart, and I'm looking forward to some snuggles from her soon!

Bears for Benjamin
When I moved up to New Hampshire at the age of 6, Melinda was tasked with showing me around the school. We've been friends ever since! I was excited to hear that Melinda and her husband Mike were expecting, and Benjamin arrived in early 2015. I loved these two little bears from September House's baby animals series, and I used some shades of aqua and teal to match Ben's room. I hope I get to meet the little guy one of these days!

                                       

Elephants for Evelyn
When I moved back to Pennsylvania at the age of 11, Kate became one of my dearest friends. We hadn't been in touch in a few years, so I was shocked to hear that she had a little girl this summer! I made this embroidery for Evelyn, using the elephants from the same Baby Animals series as the bears above. After I sent this, Kate contacted me about getting together, and I got to meet baby Evy last week! She is beautiful, and it was wonderful to see Kate as a mom. I'm heading down to DC to visit them in October. See -- embroidery can bring people together!

Foxes for Jonathan

Last, but not least, my old friend Shauna welcomed baby #2 a few weeks ago. I made an embroidery of a mama and baby owl for his big brother, Adam, so it was only fair that I made one for him! Shauna and Brian kept the baby's gender a surprise, but I knew their nursery was in orange and green with a woodland theme, so I thought these foxes would be a safe bet. (And adorable, to boot! I really got a lot of mileage out of that Baby Animals pattern set!) I love the little mushrooms on this one.

With that epic post, I'm very close to being caught up! I have just a couple more quilts to write about, and one I'm about to cut fabric for. I've been working on a cute embroidery for myself, as well as some Liberty of London applique projects.

Last week, I reorganized all of my fabric and moved it to a new storage unit. I was a little overwhelmed by how much fabric I've accumulated, so I've decided that at some point, I want to make some charity quilts. If anyone knows of any reliable organizations that accept quilt donations (especially kids' quilts), please let me know!

Small Embroidery Projects

Amid all of the quilting I've been doing  (Drea's quilt is finished and is currently in the wash!), I've managed to squeeze in a few embroidery projects. Embroidery is so much more relaxing and less involved than quilting that it offers a good break from the big projects. Here are a few things I finished.

I made this for my mom for Mother's Day. The pattern is from Polka & Bloom, and I embroidered it on white patterned fabric I got in a fat quarter sale at JoAnn. For the floss, I picked out bright colors I knew she would like, and I think it actually ended up matching the apron I embroidered for her for Christmas!

Close-ups:

My college friends Rachel & EJ welcomed their second child, Ethan, in July. Since their son Eddy is just a few years older, they already had all of the baby things they needed. So, we threw them a "Baby Sprinkle" a few weeks before Rachel's due date to help them restock on necessities. I wanted to make Ethan a little something special, though, so I embroidered this pattern from Aimee Ray on a bib I ordered from Sublime Stitching. It was a big hit at the "Baby Sprinkle!"

Another set of college friends were having a different kind of big event. My friends Michelle and Steve got hitched in August after dating for 13 years! I bought them something off their registry that also had meaning for Michelle & I, but of course I had to make them something, too. (Michelle is the culinary mind behind Taste As You Go and has brought me as her plus one for many a free meal, so I owe her!)

I knew I didn't want it to be too wedding specific, since I'm sure they received enough presents with their names and wedding date on them. So, I decided on love birds stitched in several shades of purple, their wedding color. I went back and forth between a few patterns, even purchasing a different one before I settled on this one, which I already owned but had never used. It's from one of Jenny Hart's books, and I was very happy with the way it turned out! The frame is from IKEA, and I like how the shadowbox style gives it some depth and doesn't smoosh the fabric. (Yes, smoosh is the technical term...) I was happy to hear that it has already found a place in their home!

Finally, another baby embroidery -- this time for the offspring of my childhood friend Shauna and her husband Brian. At the time of the shower, no one knew the sex of the baby, but they picked out an adorable forest animal pattern for the baby's room that featured owls! (My favorite!) So, I stitched up this pattern (also from Jenny Hart) in colors that would work for a boy or a girl, and added it to the gift bag. 

Baby Adam was born on August 20th, which also happens to be Shauna's birthday (best birthday present ever?), and I've been told the embroidery is hanging in Adam's room, playing with all of the other woodland creatures in there.

I have one other embroidery in progress for another awesome baby that has already been born, but apart from that, I'm all caught up on my embroidery adventures. I also have one non-quilting sewing project in progress that I plan on finishing up this weekend. And my brother will be pleased to know that I'll finally be starting on his LSU quilt this week. (He's been bugging me about it to no end. You'd never think a guy would be so excited about a quilt...) As to whether it gets finished before his birthday in a month... we'll have to see...