my man & i

Mark bugged me all day long about scanning and uploading his "modeling pictures" so...be careful what you wish for. :)


Sorry if topless pics are offensive to you, haha. I think he should be okay with it, considering there are pictures of him in his underwear on facebook.

I like to imagine this as some weird 60's shotgun wedding gone wrong.

vintage shoot preview

Doing a little editing right now!

I love film. Say no to photoshop actions. Nothing is more magical than the real thing.

new work

My first ever for-sale quilt is complete! I'm so proud of myself.








It's already listed over at the shop.

And yesterday I finally found some time to do a little vintage photo shoot...the film is getting developed today so I will start editing (and listing...hopefully) tomorrow!

In the meantime here's a little "behind the scenes" look at what will be included...

treasures old and new

This past week I discovered the dining table was a great place to cut out fabric. I also discovered that Mark really doesn't want my work taking over the dining room!

So, today I had a stroke of almost-genius and swiped our old dining table from off the back porch.


Voila, instant work space. It's not quite ideal, but I saved a little square footage by stuffing my fabric underneath. And, best of all, it was free!

As for that "new" treasure? Well, today I am happy to say...I found the holy grail of paint-by-numbers....


The Last Supper! How awesome is that? For all of $5.

[I would never use this blog as a platform to try to influence your beliefs (or any platform for that matter! my beliefs are more "apathetic" than anything), and I would hope for the same respect from my readers, but I just want to note that in our household, this painting is valued more for its kitsch and its humor than any intrinsic meaning...]

I think it's going above the archway between the living & dining rooms, if I can ever get Mark to help me hang anything.

castle peep progress

The winds, rain, and lighting (eek! it just hit...close!) were on my heels, so this was a quick snap. Top is finished, and I have big plans for the quilting and binding. I've never done what I'm planning before, so we'll see.

castle peeps

Finally getting around to cutting into my stack of happy...



Half-hexagons are for me...



3" squares are to sell (hopefully!).

could you use a sneak peek?

I have been working my fingers to the bone this week, hence my absence. And now I am quite proud to be able to show you some peeks at what I was working on!













Gorgeous, right? And how adorable are those tags that Elsie gocco'd? I'm in love.

The update will be soon, tentatively tonight...but either way, keep an eye on A Beautiful Mess for more.

Elsie and I had so much fun working together on these (she has the most amazing inspiration, designs, and vintage fabric of anyone I've met...I'm constantly honored to bring her ideas to life with my sewing)...I hope you love them too. :)

tuesday treasury: "wish"

flash flood

We had quite the rainstorm this afternoon. Mark handed me an umbrella and said, go on, it's fun (like I haven't played in the rain before?).



After this we went inside, put our bathing suits on, and rain through the cold, cold streets. It was hailing, even!

What was the last spontaneous thing you did?

le'me take your picture

Three of my friends needed a picture of their band for an upcoming event, fast, and asked me to play photographer. I may have wasted 3 years and thousands of dollars but let me say, I don't consider myself a pro by any means, especially not with digital, and especially not with band pictures. But for a friend...I can pretend.



Isn't this graffiti amazing? If you're going to take a cliche downtown alleyway band picture, it might as well look cool. So glad I remembered this place!


I think this one's my favorite.

There are a couple more on my flickr if you're interested. Oh! And...

White Atlantic is their name.

vintage transformed

Vintage clothes are awesome awesome, right? Duh. But sometimes they're not quite right for us, or for the times (or the season, I'm looking at you, double-knit polyester!).

Cute as a button Katie asked me to alter this almost-perfect vintage dress to suit her a little better...


(left is the seller's picture, right is my "after" pic)

I had never drafted a neckline, or a collar before, so it was exciting...or nerve-wracking, you know, whatevs. I also relaxed the puff of the sleeve a little bit. I think it turned out great, and I can't wait to see how it looks on her!

trend alert, hexies

Yup, you heard it here first, english paper-pieced hexagons are the new hot thing! Wait, what? You already knew? I'm the last person on the entire blogplanet to post about them? Damn.



I'm auditing background colors for my vintage feed sack hexi semi-flowers.

I want to do a two-tone monochromatic pieced background, with the florets appliqued randomly on top.



I think pink has already won my heart.

Also considering doing several different versions, I have a TON of scraps...and I don't want there to be too many florets in the design. But I am getting a little bored with making them, at least out of this fabric!

tuesday treasury: "tomorrow"

painting started

Fun funnnn, it's been years.

Taking a break from it for the night so I don't overwhelm myself, haha. <3

sunday stash #10

Wow-eee it's been a long time since I've done one of these. I promise to try to be more consistent.



Do entire quilt tops count as a stash? Yup I think so, I mean, I bought it this way. And it's made of fabrics. Fabrics that I love! For the most part...

Some of the whites are weirdly thin, some of the off-whites used are weirdly peachy, some of the solids are too shiny. But, I think once it's all quilted and washed and ready to be loved (finally), it will all come together. Poor thing.

I'm thinking a light blue solid backing (matching the color of the flowers) with white quilting. Not too traditional, but keeping it simple, right?

lots of projects

One way I've discovered to keep myself motivated & productive is to allow free-range.

Like, if I'm cleaning up my room and come across an old project I never got around to, I'll work on it. Or if I have some crazy new sewing idea, I'll do it (instead of writing it down or plain old forgetting about it). I might never finish anything this way, but for certain times it seems very applicable.

Here's what I've got going right now...


"Canvas", primed. Mark gave me this old peg board that he had prepped to be hung on the wall, for my sewing room. I want to do some kind of abstract painting on it before I hang it up, but I'm lost, as usual. I tried to find some inspiration online & came up with a bunch of nothing.

Oh and incidentally, does anyone know of a good source for peg board hooks? The ones at Lowe's were SO expensive and not even the size I wanted, and I can't find anything good and affordable online either.


A little mindless, pretty sewing that makes my heart flutter! (I do have a hopefully less-than-mindless plan for these, though.) In my newest Pyrex, a pattern/shape I hadn't seen in person yet, yay.


And a bit of quilty art. Yup, I decided to branch out and try something new. Still needs binding, label, and hanging hook, then I'll share the whole thing. :)

Oh my golly I think I got twenty mosquito bites while I was outside taking these. I love summer but eeek, no fun!

good mail day

The post man was very good to me today, not only did he not leave me any bills or junk mail, he left me these new toys...


Far Far Away II, mmmmmmm.
And something I've been craving ever since I took the mastery class for my machine...a ruffler foot!

So, I had to get everything out and play.


Just for fun, a little FFA2 zipper pouch with a yummy raw silk ruffle.
It's listed over at the shop!

Now I'm going to go back to cutting in to fabric that was way too expensive to just put on the shelf.

metal monstrosity

Had no idea when I started on this thing that it would end up so huge! Okay, so, it's three sets....so I should have been able to guess. But I've never had them all put together in one unit before.

Dear Martha,
Please give me the strength, inspiration, and knowledge to finish unpacking and decorating my household, have a successful yard sale next weekend, use the metal monstrosity to my best organizational advantage, and craft daily with excitement and curiosity.
Amen.

Oh, also. Last night I got a fortune cookie that said "Tomorrow will be very productive, don't oversleep!", and being a pretty big believer in fortunes, I got up at 8ish. Then I started feeling really sick and yuck, so I went back to bed at 9 and slept until noon, all the while having this terrible dream where I wasn't sure if I was asleep or awake, and could not for the life of me wake up. FAIL.

Anyway, I'm going to go fill up that stupid shelf thingie so I feel like I accomplished something today.
xoxo

thursday mini-quilt

Since I've been keeping up the Tuesday Treasury successfully for a few weeks, I thought I'd tried to add another weekly feature!

A month or so ago I found this book...



for $2.99 at Borders. Honestly, it's not very good! The piecing directions are frustrating and useless, and most of the fabric choices/combinations are either boring or visually offensive. Truthfully, I'm very difficult to please when it comes to quilting books. But, hey, there's a reason it was in the bargain section, you know?

Anyway, despite its shortcomings, it's a pretty good reference if you're looking for some blocks to make. Very straightforward and encyclopedic.

Since I don't really make quilts with "blocks" in the traditional sense, I decided to work my way through it, making single-block mini-quilts.





The machine "blanket stitch" was really fun to play with. Oh, and the binding? That would be single fold bias tape (folded in half, of course), making it a very scant 1/4" on each side! I really love the affect though, so I think I'll keep using it.



Next time I'll probably hand-stitch the loop area, which was a bit difficult to do on the machine.

Oh, and it's for sale over here.

I'll have a new one for you next Thursday!

Spoonflower contest: robots

Hopefully this will be a semi-regular feature around here.

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a fabric designer, and then when I got the opportunity, I thought "dohh, what do I design?". Yeah, there can only be so many bicycle, bird, polka dot, tromp o'lei lace fabrics in the world.

But, apparently, there is no limit on robot fabrics!


Build-A-Robot! Just cut on the dotted lines, line up as desired, and sew with a 1/4" seam. Voila! Custom robots.
The entire design was made by hand using cut construction paper and micron pens. Kinda silly, I know, but super fun (and time consuming) to make!


(this is an approximation of what the fabric would look like once printed, cut, and sewn together)

Spoonflower is an on-demand digital textile printing company. They hold bi-weekly contests for fabric designs centered around a theme, which the public then votes on. The winner receives a $100 Spoonflower credit.

You can go here to vote for my design (it's on page three, towards to bottom). And if you think mine isn't the best, which is totally okay (there are some really awesome robots in there!), you can vote for more than one design, just read the directions at the top of the page. I hope to be included in your votes. :)