Girl Seeking Suit Valet

Ever since I saw this picture on decordots, I've been searching for a nice suit valet for my husband. Preferably one exactly like that! My dad has one, but it's wood / metal and massive. He offered to give it to the hubs but I kind of like this sleek minimalist one. And I didn't want to have to carry it home from Singapore!

I've found one sort of similar but it's in the UK. It's not similar enough for me to think about shipping it here though. And I've found other ones that are quite nice, but I can't bring myself to pull the trigger and purchase them. Why does the Internet try to ruin my life by showing me pretty things??? :/

(Also, I want to whitewash our floors and the hubs wants to wring my neck. HEEHEE!)

It's Oh So Quiet

Anyone who knows me probably knows I like colourful quilts. But sometimes, working on something completely different is in order. A client who'd bought a quilt from me mentioned she'd like another quilt for her living room, and since I've got a bit of time on my hands (or I'm just barking mad), I said I'd do it. I kind of miss doing custom work, but not so much that I'm going to take on customs like I used to. Anyway, this request was rather interesting, even though it didn't sound like much at first.

A cream quilt.

Say whaaaaaat?! My first reaction is "zzzzzzzzz" because I rarely ever work with neutrals. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike neutral quilts. Quite the contrary. I think they're beautiful in their simplicity and there can be so much contrast in neutrals.

But I work with them so rarely that out of the 20 fabrics I'm using for this quilt, I only got two from stash. But then I decided that the quilt's what you make it. So I accepted the challenge and after pondering for days, I decided I'd like to see the fabrics I'd chosen in courthouse steps.

I don't know why, but there's something about courthouse step blocks that make me stupid happy. It's supremely easy to sew (I mean, after you get the centre figured out, it's pretty much mindless sewing) but soooooo satisfying. So very satisfying. 

This is what I've got so far and I think I'm quite happy with it! I picked a lot of creams but for contrast, I picked a few darker and lighter prints. The centre squares are a greyish brown by Denyse's Meadowlark collection that I'd removed from the stack when I used it.

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out but I like where it's going already. Hopefully the client will like it too!! :)


Speaking of courthouse steps, anyone who's bought Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe and is going to attempt my Lanterns in the City pattern, listen up! The fabric requirements were printed wrongly. It should read "1/2 yard each of 18 assorted solids", not 13. I only realised this mistake when I flicked through my own pattern to look at how much fabric I'd need and wondered why 13 sounded like WAY too few fabrics. UGH. I'm so sorry for not picking that up in the proofs... something went wrong somewhere along the way. So take a pen to the page and amend it for me. Thanks! And sorry! Seriously, I'm mortified. Edit: I just checked with Martingale and there is NO error. Oopsies. They'd lumped together the other five fabrics in with the extra you'd need for the large city block. So panic was for nothing. Sorry. I'm going to bury my head in the sand now. Thanks. Sigh.

Life According To Instagram

Here's what's going on in my neck of the woods...

Lots of sewing and binding and then more sewing and more binding. I think I sew just to bind. Oh how I love binding. I could become a professional binder if there were such a thing. Did I just start a new business? I think I've had too much coffee...

- Pretty flowers :)

- My sister's friend's baby with the quilt I made. You may recognise it as Vertigo from Modern Baby! And also, HOW CUTE IS SHE?! Want to bite!

- Binding... so much stripey binding... Yum :) The hubs looked in the cookie jar thinking I'd baked him cookies... he was dismayed to find binding. Hah.

- Iced coffee. Which has been necessary this past week. First it was freezing cold, then it got boiling hot. New England weather. Yay. 

FOOD. My favourite. 

- My go-to salad of chicken sausage on sweet butter lettuce, zucchini and avocados. 

- We tried a sandwich place that had good reviews. Food was fantastic, service... not so much. 

- Bowl of cherries. Yes, please. 

- And just for fun, we had German pancakes for lunch over the weekend. (I always wondered if mine is more deflated because I use fat free milk. Anyone?)

And as always, there's cats. Izzy found a new box and made it her new BFF. Matilda is auditioning for the Broadway version of The Princess and the Pea. And also staring into space.

Scrappy Log Cabin Baby Quilt

I'm cranking out quilts again! I'm like a robot! Hence the picture of the robot!

No, not really... I was playing with the robot after I was finished taking pictures of the quilt... It's rough being me. Like a child, pretending to be an adult. And not pretending well either.

I finished this cute scrappy log cabin quilt yesterday and I was so excited to finish it because I just love the colours. And the scrappiness. It's just all very good. I used a lot of Denyse Schmidt prints from Joann (and believe me, I have A LOT -- this did not make a dent) plus lots of other dot and floral prints that I had lying around. Meaning I was lazy to put them away so I used them. What? And you're perfect? Pffft.

Such fun colours, seriously. It's amazing how the many lines Denyse has put out for Fabric Traditions sort of all go together. Love it!

I used a solid pale green for the backing because I thought it needed to be calmer to offset the crazy on the front. Crazy good, that is. I quilted it in a grid with white Aurifil (what else???) and bound it in a black and white stripe.

Cute cute cute!

The quilt is currently listed in the shop SOLD.

Shop Update - Tango Mango Baby Quilts

Edit: THE QUILTS ARE NOW SOLD OUT!

I'll be updating my shop at 6pm EST tonight with these two Tango Mango baby quilts. One has an aqua backing, and the other has an ash / grey backing. Other than that, they're identical.

There'll be more to come... baby sizes and probably lap sizes too. Stay tuned! 

In the meantime, 6pm! EST! Tonight! :)