this is the life.

Well. I spend a lot of time in my favorite café, but I promise, it's productive. I take things I, um, might or might not have purchased this afternoon, and I turn them into projects!

Aside from the Sugar Pop, which is going toward the Lolly Fields quilt backing, the new fabrics are for a Garden Fence quilt. I've been stash-building toward something bright, splashy, and sashed in white. (Or Kona Snow. You know how much I love Kona Snow.) Then a couple of days ago I repinned this picture and it has been percolating since.

Source: flickr.com via Penny on Pinterest

Tonight, in the middle of sewing my bear claws (4 down, 77 to go) I began wildly pulling all my brights out of my stash. Fabric flew everywhere! Mr Poppleton was consulted. (And overruled. Sorry, honey.) I took a this and a that and a whatsie and a hoodle and came up with this!

Some Loulouthi, some Meadowsweet, some random Michael Miller, a Kaffe Fasset, and a random I found today while I was attempting to sign up for a quilting class. (I am GOING to do a class in the new year.)

So! I have six new episodes of Community, thanks to my gorgeous friend Kate, a tall glass of ice-cold water, and my schmick new rotary cutter. I'm going to cut this quilt top out tonight! WOO. This is the life.

Time to get my feet moving!

WIP Wednesday #5

It's that time again! WIP Wednesday! Yay!

I like WIP Wednesday very much. See, I'm one of those really awful Type As. The kind who turn up half an hour early to everything so they have to sit in their car until it's actually time to go in.* The kind who, in their last semester of uni, wrote their assessments in their diary as being due a week earlier than they actually were just so it would be all over with faster.** I love accountability and I love having goals! So WIP Wednesday and I are BFFs.

All right! Let's get down and dirty:

New Projects:

None! I have enough going on! But I WANT to make a scrap quilt...more on that soon...and I started cutting out some brown and pink HSTs at SCQuilters the other day...so we shall see. But nothing concrete.

Ongoing Projects:

Sophie Makes Tracks. I had a great night at Pinky's the other night with her enormous cutting mat (we were both using it at the same time...thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cutting mat, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cutting mat...) and I got ALL my fat quarters cut into five claw's worth. Then I started on the petal fabric. I'm still trying to get those finished. Then I get to make them, all 81 claws!

It's going to be SO AWESOME.

Completed Projects:

I finished the 241 Tote! Oh my goodness. It's so handy! It's a great size for kicking around and it fits my (husband's) iPad perfectly!

I lined it with Sherbert Pips and whenever I dig out my wallet to get a fantastic mocha (thanks Joel) I smile. Best.

I also finished the Lolly Fields quilt top. It looks so sweet! I can't wait to piece the back. I have just been distracted with other things!

And, finally, I finished ------. That's right. I can't tell you because it is a SECRET. But! I will show you the super sweet fabric I used!

Bock bock bock! Chooks!

No Progress:

I took my sisters' quilts in to be machine quilted and, uh, the lady has already closed her books for the year! Either I hand-quilt them (urgh, summertime, nooooo) or I wait until January. That's it. I'm waiting until January. (Sorry, girls!)

Also no progress has been made on my (Un)Happy Campers quilt top...

...or my Downtown Dots quilt top.

I have been distracted by Sophie Makes Tracks. (Soooo...shiiiny...)

And, last but not least, I succumbed to the lure of buying a decent rotary cutter. I've been suffering through cheap ones but last week I had just HAD it, so I got an Olfa. And then I got rid of my insanely rubbish thread snips and got new orange ones today.

I love these things because they WORK. Good tools, am I right?

And I went sewing machine shopping, but I haven't committed to anything just yet. (Well, my heart has, but my wallet has other ideas.) So there you go!

I have a huge weekend coming up and tomorrow is my planning day...I hope this humidity and heat don't last! I'm melting here...melting...ahhh...

Enjoy WIP Wednesday!

*Having a baby has leveled the playing field somewhat. I'm still usually early-to-on-time. It's sickening.
**I may have actually in real life done this...except in one class I was done FOUR weeks ahead of everyone else. My beach tan that year? Was awesome.

sunday night plan #6

Oh man. I've been feeling the urge lately. The moving urge. I come by it honestly: my mother, every few months, would systematically rearrange the furniture to make it feel fresh and new. I did the same in my bedroom and then in my first few apartments. I like moving house because it's a great opportunity to shed the unnecessary things and move forward with a fresher, simpler outlook. Or so the theory goes!

Anyway, I've been struggling with where my sewing desk is because it's in the part of the living room furthest from the windows. My fabric shelving was blocking any light I could get. So we swapped them around! Of course this happened at 10pm so we'll see how the new configuration goes tomorrow. At any rate, we're going to spring for an Expedit bookcase (this one, on its side) so even when Piper gets mobile, she can't pull it down on her head. Winning!

This week I am keeping the planning simple.

Sewing projects:

x Happy Camper quilt top
x Mom's quilt top
x Downtown dots quilt top
x Lolly Fields quilt back

Planning:

x Plan the HST quilt
x Sunniest Day quilt

Writing:

x Any. I'm doing terribly at NaNo this year! It's shameful. (But I'm back to writing every day!)

Well, I'm running scant on five hours' sleep--NOT the baby's fault, but a bout of insomnia! I'm yawning like crazy so I'm going to seize the moment and head to bed. Night all!

the dulcet tones of...

...Bon Iver carries me through my Saturday night. By the way, "Perth" is my favorite song on that album. Not my favorite song ever. My favorite song ever is "Love Song" by The Cure. And my second favorite song is "Dramamine" by Modest Mouse. But maybe "Perth" is third. I just love it so much.

I have been sewing. My disappearing 9-patch became a quaint little cot quilt, titled Lolly Fields. Piper, before she got too tired, helped me organize my squared-off blocks. What a love.

After a lot of sewing, I have a finished quilt top! It's a little wibbly. All my on-point quilt tops are wibbly. Quilters, any suggestions? I love this look but I'm frustrated with the stretchy factor. Argh. Anyway, it's cute!

I especially love the effect of the white against the bright colors...but the borders have to be my favorite. How can a skinny border/fat border combo ever go wrong? I think never!

And now that I've finished a quilt top, it's time to spend an embarrassing amount of time catching up on my writing. Let's not even talk about how far behind I am. Why is it that whenever I have a sewing deadline, all I want to do is write...and whenever I have a writing deadline, I am suddenly inspired to sew? I usually just go with it, but this month has been difficult!

Oh, before I go, there have been a few issues with subscriptions. The advice of my senior tech support officer (aka Mr Poppleton) was to ask everyone who has subscribed to delete their subscription and add it again. That should fix it, and if not, let me know in the comments!

Cheers and see you tomorrow for the week's plan!

Fabric Friday #7

...or should I say, FABULOUS Friday? Because today was GREAT. Today I signed up for a gym membership and as soon as Piper was safely ensconsed with Mr Poppleton at home, I dashed off for some quality treadmill time. Oh my gosh. Did I mention how much I missed running? I was going to take it slow, but my feet got bored, and so I ran for a kilometer! It was pretty tough and boy, my dark meat is burned but dang. I feel GOOD. It doesn't hurt that I got to spend some time alone, either! I feel renewed, in more ways than one.

As promised, I have been "No Buy Novembering" but I decided to amend it to "No-STASH November". I do have a lot of stash to work from, it's true, but there are times when you pick out four fabrics and still need a little something-something. This happened on Thursday when I decided to start my mother's quilt. I've been kicking around with the idea of roses for a while, considering buying a layer cake, hemming and hawing, when I finally just dug out my pink roses from, er, a couple of years ago. And I had enough. (I was worried I wouldn't have enough.) But the truth was, it wasn't strong enough on its own. It needed some help. So I picked up a strong maroon and a nice woodsy green, both of which are perfect. We're ready to roll now.

Then, THEN! I was happily sewing and slicing my Sugar Pop charm squares (using a Kona Snow charm pack as well, natch) when I realized that the quilt I was working on wouldn't respond well to white setting triangles. I needed yardage. Sugar Pop is an older range and even though I know of one place that has lots, this was at three-thirty on a Thursday and I knew I'd never make it to Alexandria on time. So I gambled and went to Cottage Quiltworks, and, WHEW! They had some yardage!

Now, tomorrow is Southern Cross Quilters and I'll be there with bells on – after I head up to Craft Depot to buy myself a rotary cutter. I'm tired of cheap, crappy tools. I'll go Olfa or Clover or I'll GO HOME. (Or to another shop to buy an Olfa or a Clover cutter probably.) But the dedication! The dedication is what counts! As you can see, I have a lot of squaring up of blocks to do, and as you can see from my quilt plan here, I've got four flying geese borders to make. Whoa.

And that's it for Fabric Friday! I'm looking forward to tomorrow: should be busy but rewarding. I love seeing other women's work and the love and care for the craft of quilting. And by the end of the day I hope to have my blocks squared and at least one quilt top done!

I'll leave you with this: the way the sun looked coming through the trees when I came home from the gym. Totally beautiful.

just quick!

Started two new quilts.

A cot quilt, set on point, made with a forgotten Sugar Pop charm square set from whenever. June maybe? Who knows. So sweet and cute!

Very unfinished though. Tomorrow: cutting out the setting triangles and sorting the borders and the backing. Should be fun!

Quilt #2: a quilt for my mother, which a) has roses and b) is more traditional. I chose a tulip block from the ever fabulous Quilters' Cache and pulled the rose fabric out of my stash. I ran up to Cottage Quiltworks for matching maroon and green fabric and dug some creamy homespun out of my rainbow of solids. Hooray for utilizing my exisiting fabric first! Anyway this is the block.

And now, word count for today: 3980. SHOCKING. Terrible. I'm spending tomorrow morning in the café writing with my headphones on. If I don't get to 7000 tomorrow I'm going to have to stay up late. I mean later. Or maybe take my sewing machine in to be serviced so I won't be tempted to sew when I should be WRITING.

Also, ALSO! Tomorrow, I plan on walking to the gym and signing myself up! I've got a three month old baby and I'm starting to feel really ready to shed some baby weight and get pretty for summer! I know I've left it a bit late, but hey, better late than never! Plus, one word: sundresses. There. Sold.

WIP Wednesday #4

Oh my. I can't believe it's WIP Wednesday already! But I have been busy sewing, which is AWESOME. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had Sel and Claire over to quilt on Monday, and it gave me the boost I needed to start a new project and finish an ongoing one, but I'll talk about that in a second!

Firstly, in NaNoWriMo news, I haven't written yet today, so I have no word count. Boo. I'll get right on my 2,000 per day goal as soon as I'm done blogging!

New Projects: Bear Tracks quilt, tentatively called "Sophie's Tracks". I am excited to get started on this. I can't decide if this is a quilt for anyone in particular. All I know is, I love this fabric and I'm stoked to combine Sophie with bear tracks!

Ongoing Projects: 241 Tote. I've really been dragging my feet on this, but I did manage to sew the pockets onto the side panels and get the inside complete. I'm annoyed that I haven't been able to finish it.

Completed Projects: Birds' Nests quilt! I half-machine and half-handquilted it and finished up the binding this morning. I was able to wash it, dry it, and give it to Ellen and Joel and baby Olive this afternoon! I love making pretty quilts for babies, especially one as sweet as Olive!

No Progress: Walk in the Woods quilt, and Ultraviolet quilt. Basically, I need to gather my courage and take them to be machine-quilted. So they sit, neglected, in a pile. Also no progress on the Happy Camper quilt, though I did buy some fabric for sashing!

I'm dying to get stuck into the Sophie quilt but I want to make sure my blocks are perfect, so I plan to cut them and sew them slowly! But I have lots more quilts hovering around in my head, just waiting to be drawn, cut out, and pieced! The best kind of inspiration.

I'll be back with a word count! Happy writing & sewing!

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Word count: 3252

My favorite sentence: "The prints were blood-red but sparkled richly; when I dropped my fingertips to the liquid, it was viscous and stuck to my hands, burning the skin."

Ugh. I feel tired. It's been a long day.

On the way into the writing event, there was a car accident near the Burwood shops. A motorcyclist had been knocked off his bike, which was in pieces. A red car with the bumper hanging off was parked in the lane in front of the crumpled motorcycle. A man in shorts was sitting on the curb, his head in his hands, and a crowd of people surrounded the motorcyclist. His helmet was cracked; I drove within three feet of him. There was no blood, and the police got there as I was driving by, but it colored my whole day. For that guy, that particular intersection will always be the place he was knocked off his bike. He was alive, and moving, and it could have been so much worse.

I was there for maybe 45 seconds total, but it was as if it happened in slow motion, and I was crying before I even knew it. Wherever you are, motorcycle guy, I hope you're okay. I'm thinking of you today.

On to happier topics. Last night I had some great quilting company: Sel and Claire came over to sit and sew! It was wonderful. Mr Poppleton took Piper for a good hour and a half and it really rejuvenated me to have adult time without the baby. (I love the baby, but I do see her all the time.)

I have been wanting to make a Bear Tracks quilt for a few weeks, but I was unsure what fabrics to use and how to use them. Claire and Sel helped me become brave enough to open my Sophie FQS and decide what to do! I am usually forcing poor Mr Poppleton to play "quilter's helper", holding up fabric and asking, "What do you think about this? Or is this one better?" (much to his, er, disinterest), so it was AWESOME to be able to ask other quilters! And my quilt was planned lickedy-split.

The small colorful prints will be the paw; the white with patterned blue petals will be the relief of the claw blocks; the red with white and green petals will be the skinny border, and the white with large floral prints on the far right will be the big outer border! Now i just have to sort out what colors go where.

I even had time to make up a block with the extra small prints we decided were too pale to use in the quilt.

See how the print is the paw and the petals are the relief? That's how the whole thing will go, only with blue petals as relief and all the different prints. I'm very excited to see it. It looks so good here!

Mr Poppleton "helped" me with the block. He is ever so obliging!

At 6pm it became "No-Buy November"*, so I had to run errands quickly after the writing event in order to get the fabric I need for my Sophie quilt. Today was the first day of the fantastic Craft Depot November sale (a sale I will be VERY SAD to miss) so Sel and I dashed up to Pennant Hills to check out the fabrics. I found some pretty basics for $7.95 a meter and got the rest of the Sophie yardage I needed for the quilt. I'm not buying any more fabric for November, and I'm even secretly hoping I can make it to the new year! I have a trip to the States coming up in February so I've got to save my pennies so I can fabric shop with my beautiful Sarah!

Today's haul.

Don't you just love that blue, pink, and brown? The brown and the pink match one of the fabrics I bought yesterday at Material Obsession...I've had my eye on this one for a while! (It's the fourth from the left, in case you were wondering.)

I've been eyeing that turquoise Lou Lou Thi for awhile and was happy to pick up the pink too.I'm on a real crosshatch kick as well; it's such a great modern blender. I've also been following Sel's lead and picking up Reece Scannell cottons whenever I'm at Material Obsession. They are just so vibrant and beautiful! This time I got light pink and light blue.

Tonight I managed to finish the Bear Tracks practice block.

I really like the way it looks, and it's satisfyingly LARGE (between 14 and 15 inches I think, I haven't really measured it). I just need to organize the colors and then away I'll go: snip snip and sew sew!

So, today was a big day. I wrote a thousand words while wrangling a squirming, squawking baby. I said a prayer for a stranger in a car accident. I planned and began executing a quilt with my favorite fabric range ever. I even got to take a little nap. I'm hoping tomorrow is calmer. I want to bang out another two or three thousand words in the café in the morning, then spend the afternoon sewing blocks and playing with Piper. Here's hoping it is nice and cruisy without any car accidents! Drive safe, world.

*As in 1 November, Pacific Standard Time. With the last-minute decision to make that Sophie quilt, I didn't have enough yardage for the border so I thought it would be a little bit okay to bend the rules! I'm done now, I swear.

it begins!

National Novel Writing Month (commonly referred to as "NaNoWriMo" has begun! I am going to be spending the next month talking about WRITING, as I have 50,000 words to finish in the space of thirty days! Add in a couple of quilts, a 3-month old child who has recently discovered whingeing, and a fondness for sleep and you have a recipe for an ACTUAL CHALLENGE. I'll keep you all posted on how I go, but I do apologize in advance if I miss WIP Wednesdays, Fabric Fridays, Sunday Planning nights, or posts on sewing in general. It's November! November is for WRITING.

You can find me here, you can learn about NaNoWriMo here, and you can donate here.

Word count for the day: 2195

Fabric Friday #6

No-Buy October, I'm glad you were a dismal, dismal failure. I spent 17 days yearning for pretty fabric, and now that I have broken (so hard), I appreciate my purchases so much more! This is good, because No-Buy November is juuuust around the corner.

(Don't look at me like that. I swear, no buying fabric! FOR REALZ.)

This week I picked up the last of the Christmas present fabric, some Kona solids, and a few stash-building basics...and some Japanese linen/cotton blends arrived in the post from Kelani!

I love the the riotous color!

I found some of the new Plume range at Hobbysew and promptly got half a meter for me and half a meter for a friend.

(I love the gilding.)

Kona Solids...how I love you! I can never go past a good-feeling solid and Kona feels the best. This week I picked up the last of a bolt of Kona Snow, which is my favorite white EVER. (It's on my Christmas list...Mr Poppleton has strict instructions!) I also picked up some Dusty Blue and Turquoise.

It looks like the sea and the sky, doesn't it?

Here are the last of my linen/cotton blends. I am already stoked to make Christmas presents for my friends and family!

Which one's your favorite? Mine is probably still the viewfinders, but that turquoise is making me exceedingly happy.

Here are some splashy colors for the week. I have been eyeing off the grey and pink, the dotty trees, and the bright vines for AGES and finally I broke down and got them. The yellow leapt out at me, too: a summer dress for Piper, perhaps? And the grey stripes just looked like a refreshing, cool addition to a pile of warm tones.

Mmm. Fabric.

While picking up more cross-hatch (it makes such a perfect blender while still looking fresh and contemporary), the very helpful woman at Craft Depot showed me the matching dot. OH MY GOODNESS.

Also, yes, I am addicted to blues.

Oh! A few last minute additions to my stash: a gorgeously bright directional/floral, some 1930s, and some more Sophie...ILU Sophie!

And, finally, the best thing I've seen all week...the look I get when Miss Piper wakes up from a nap. Check out that smile! Man I love this age. :)

Tomorrow is mine and Elle's Halloween Party so I'll be sure to post some pictures! Have a great weekend everyone!