i love you guys. no, really.

i know everyone hates it when bloggers start out post saying "i'm sorry, i haven't blogged", but i'm kind of going to do it anyway. really, i just posted the other day, so it hasn't been that long, and i don't need to apologize, but all week i've been WANTING to blog, so it's bugging me. i enjoy blogging, and now that i'm trying really hard to respond to your comments in a decent time frame (that's a whole other blog post!), i'm really enjoying interacting with folks as well. i keep thinking of things that i want to tell you all about!


unfortunately, it's that crunch time of the month for me, with one guild meeting tonight, and another really special meeting next week that i'm prepping for, and i find myself so overwhelmed that i can't find the time. that random post about cupcakes earlier this week? that was supposed to be one of three posts about baking, culminating with an amazing recipe... i know i'll post the other two soon, but i had actually intended for them to go up three days in a row. i should have known better, right?


it's just that i get SOOOO EXCITED about fabric and sewing and quilting, and blogging lets me share it with people who are excited too, because as much as my loved ones smile and nod, and respect and appreciate my creative endeavours (which is amazing, i've had times when people in my life didn't, and trust me, this is much preferred!), i know that they aren't really invested in my theories about why modern quilt guilds are so awesome or the amazing deal i got on a charm pack that doesn't even seem to be out yet, or the awesome faux cathedral technique that i used the other day. i love them for trying, but really, it's you guys who GET IT, you know?


i was trying to explain modern quilting to someone the other night, and how amazing VMQG and subsequently, FVMQG have been for me, how they came into my life at the perfect time, and i've met the most incredible people through it. he was trying to understand, and i think he did, to a certain extent, but i'm sure there was also a bit of "wtf is amy talking about?", because i was being very enthusiastic, no doubt assisted by the tiger lily martinis i was drinking (i don't usually drink... and if you think i'm enthusiastic sober, um, honey...)


and then i went to the fabric store today, and was just going to run in for zippers (because i still haven't gotten around to moving stuff to get to the zippers i already have) and a bit of lining fabric, but of course, i got distracted and the cute little queer** at the fabric store harassed me about my need to make myself a new bag (i KNOW! it's ridiculous!) and tried to convince me that i should use the yummy patty young fabric that i finished the bolt of to make myself a dress. me, a dress? maybe!


what this all boils down to, is that these interactions have all reminded me that i love you guys! i know that sometimes i get discouraged, or frustrated, and starting ranting about gender diversity and "boy fabrics" or about cliques and popularity contests, or race privilege within modern quilting and the blogging world, but above it all, i really do love you guys.



and because i love you, and i know posts with no pictures are no fun, here are some hearts and love.
(whenever i say "no fun", i have an immediate flashback to michelle tanner on full house singing "no fun, no fun, sitting in the corner.." is that just me?)

you've probably seen my recent hearts - the anatomical heart mini quilt, the whale love mini quilt, or the heart bee blocks, so these are all oldies that you probably missed.



from october of 2010


from february 2009


from may 2010


from may 2009


from february 2009


from december 2008


from february 2009



and my absolute favourite valentine of all time -

made february 2008



sending everyone lots of love!!!




**(who apparently reads my blog, so hopefully she's okay with me calling her that? it's what i call her in my head! and she is little! um, S, feel free to e-mail and tell me not to call you that...also, i shouldn't be making assumptions about your pronoun prefences, so please call me out on that too, if i'm using the wrong ones!)

i heart anatomical hearts and i heart me!

one of these days i'll start working on larger scale projects again, but not today. i've been having so much fun with mini quilts the past few months!


i just finished this one today - which was good, cause today is the (extended) deadline!



a while back, Jenna from SewHappyGeek posted about a challenge that she was hosting. the idea was that participants make a mini-quilt based literally or figuratively on a single playing card. i immediately thought that was an awesome idea, and tucked it away in the back of my mind to stew over.


(i know a lot of you reading my blog now are sewing and quilty friends, but i used to do quite a bit of mixed media art work, and i always loved the imagery of playing cards, and the awesome backs of vintage ones. i was way too lazy to dig out my own stash, so i spent some time one night searching flickr. i found so many gorgeous cards!)


in the meantime, i was sewing up the hearts for Cynthia's bee blocks. remember those? i wanted to do a sample of the anatomical heart applique before i cut into Cynthia's fabric, so i cut it out in these red prints first. i ironed on the freezer paper and turned the edges down, then basted it into place on the background. and then it sat there.



i didn't start on it until long after i finished Cynthia's, and i've been working on the hand applique whenever i had a few minutes in waiting rooms, etc, but omg, hand applique takes forever! and honestly, my stitches weren't even as teensy on my own heart, since i knew it was going on a wallhanging, not a quilt that would be used and laundered. i also switched my technique, as you can see quite obviously from the back! part way through the applique, i decided that the teensy stitches were putting too much strain on the fold of the applique, and i really think making longer stitches helped. after i'd finished the hand work, i pieced together a 1/2" border using the same prints as those in the heart.



i was so indecisive about this mini quilt, about how i wanted to do the letters, how i wanted to do the little hearts. i definitely wasn't going to do raw edge applique, after all the time i spent on the freezer paper applique! but i couldn't decide. i was going to piece the letters, and then i decided to paperpiece them, so i spent a whole bunch of time drafting up a paperpiecing pattern for the letters and the small hearts. and then i changed my mind AGAIN, and made little improv hearts and machine stitched the letters. in between there, i also considered hand embroidering the letters and the hearts, but i knew i wouldn't have time. machine stitching it is!



i went through the fonts on my computer and chose my two favourites that seemed to match the hearts as well. i printed them out in a few different sizes, then traced them onto tear away stabilizer. i sewed along the outlines of the letters and removed the stabilizer. then i put more stabilizer underneath the pieces, and filled in the centres of the letters. i did manage to get most of the stabilizer out of the stitches, but i didn't want to take the chance of leaving visible stabilizer on the front.



i spray basted the quilt front to cotton batting, but because i only had unbleached batting, i put a layer of white cotton in between so that it wouldn't show through. i echo quilted around the heart - i assume i'll eventually get bored with echo quilting, but it won't be any time soon! i love how it looks so much.



i also quilted around the outer border, but then i changed my mind and ripped it all out. so indecisive! i'm so glad that i did rip it out though, i like it much better like this. you can still see the stitch lines, despite my excessive steaming, but i'm going to wash the quilt so that it will shrink up a bit, and the stitch lines will come out then.



i added triangles in the corners for hanging, and bound it in the same fabric that i backed it in, a darker red cotton. i won't show you the back, my binding is terrible! i was rushing, and i was totally struggling with it. i don't know what i did wrong, it's totally uneven. it's fine from the front, but it definitely won't hold up to scrutiny! the quilt ended up being 10.5" x 12", barely squeaking past the 10" x 10" minimum.


so why Ace of Hearts?

hearts was pretty obvious to me, because i love heart imagery, whether it's anatomical hearts, flying hearts, sacred hearts, whatever. i thought about the Ace of Spades, because they're so often the most gorgeous card in the deck, but i wanted to stick with hearts.

i thought about the Two of Hearts, which is used fairly often in a romantic context, but i'm more interested in talking about less-traditional forms of love. in addition to that, i'd already drafted the pattern for this heart for the bee block, and using two of them would have made this quilt much bigger than i wanted it to be.

the Ace of Hearts appealed to me because i truly that think that focusing and working on self-love* is the most radical thing that a person can do. your relationship with yourself is the longest relationship you will ever have, and we live in a culture that continually tells us that we are not good enough. we're not worthy, we're flawed, we don't deserve to have a good life, to be happy, to be loved. we're not smart enough or too smart, not pretty enough or too pretty, too sensitive, or insensitive, we don't have the right kind of body, love, style, job. particularly for people who have been socialized as female, we have been under a barrage of messages from advertising and society since we were so young, and as much as we KNOW that the messages aren't true, they're sneaky, and they stick in our subconscious.

loving yourself can be a lifelong struggle, but it's so important. if you don't love yourself, it's way too easy to let yourself be treated badly. it sounds cheezy, i know, but if you don't feel like you're worth good things, good things don't happen to you. or if they do, you're too busy focusing on the bad things to appreciate them!

so that's why i chose the Ace of Hearts. i'll get off my soapbox now.


plus, the Ace of Hearts card has the letter A on it, and A is for Amy!




if you like my quilt, i'd be ever so happy if you wanted to vote for me! voting for the Most Popular quilt has started, and will be open until Friday 1 June at 10am GMT.

however, the other 13 entries are super freaking awesome, so i totally understand if you vote for one of them instead! ;) i can't even decide on my favourite, they're too amazing!




(can you believe that out of 14 entries, 3 were made by people named amy?)


(*did you snicker when you read that? perv. that's not what i was talking about, but the former sex educator in me feels the need to point out that taking care of your own needs is important too! if you don't know what gets you hot, how can you expect your partner to know?)


also, i'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Bee Love!

hi guys!

can you believe that it's been two weeks since i last posted? where did they go? i could've sworn it was only a few days ago!

however, i HAVE been accused of having "no concept of time" on multiple occasions. and i gotta tell ya, i'm starting to think it might be true (shh, don't tell!). considering the TWO parking tickets that i've gotten recently were both for misjudging how long i'd spend in a store buying crafty stuff....

seriously, who puts parking meters outside the craft store? that is simultaneously a bastardly thing to do and a brilliant fundraising scheme. unfortunately (for them), it's also a big deterrent for me. michaels is overpriced enough even without paying $2 per 20 minutes! $6 an hour! and it's not even downtown!

wait, where was i? i got distracted. this is just proving the point further, isn't it?


last week! so last week was partially about my inability to accurately judge how long things will take, but my propensity for procrastination definitely played a role as well. i got it into my head that i would get a ton of things done for the VMQG meeting, and that resulted in me having a whole bunch of things in progress, and basically nothing accomplished. i'm still planning on finishing the examples though, so watch for those.

(propensity for procrastination? that should totally be my new motto. truthful AND alliterative!)


in other news, i have bee blocks to show you!

these ones aren't from the Unscripted Bee that you've seen me talk about, but from a whole new bee. very exciting!!! a few months ago the amazing Cynthia asked me to be part of a bee that she was organizing. how could i resist, really? the new bee is called the Fab Bee, and it's full of incredibly talented folks. we're mostly all locals, either members of the FVMQG or the VMQG, but we have two members further away as well.



Cynthia's vision was an "awesome bee full of original styles of modern blocks- no patterns (other than your own) allowed." it's okay to be influenced by another quilter's work or ideas, but we must put our own original spin on it. the idea is super creative!

and to get the party started, Cynthia was our first queen bee! her theme was hearts, hearts and more hearts!

(i couldn't resist the link! that was 10 years ago dude! how did that happen? earlier point proven again!)

the finished quilt is for her hubby Norm, and he directed the fabric choices, and will lay out the finished quilt. we were asked to make scrappy hearts of any kind, with piecing methods, design, size, etc left up to us. the fabrics were all greys, greens and blacks with a bit of white, and we all received several "special" pieces of fabric - fabric designed by Cynthia herself!

i actually uploaded "hint" photos to show before Cynthia actually got the blocks, but... i didn't get around to blogging them. though they are good close ups! so how about i post them too? you can just pretend to be surprised as you scroll down, kay?

 

 


do you see how the fabric isn't white? grr!! i love Best Press, it's like magic, but the non-staining claims are not true!

 


and now for the actual blocks!



because i adore them, i was determined to make an anatomical heart! the heart is made up of 7 grey and black prints, and Cynthia's Doodle Hearts fabric. it's freezer paper appliqued, with lots and lots of very very tiny stitches holding it on to the background. i know that the finished quilt is going to be used and loved, so i was really conscious of securing it well! i forget how large i cut the grey background, but the heart itself is 5" tall and about 3.5" wide.


this one has a paperpieced background that i drafted out on copy paper, so it's 8.5"x8.5" square. the centre heart was freezer paper applique, using Cynthia's Doodle Words fabric. i hadn't intended for it to look like a union jack, but apparently it does anyway!


this is a HUGE block. holy crap! i was determined to use up all of the fabric scraps, so i just kept making hearts! after i ran out of the grey from Cynthia i added black and white from my stash for the backgrounds. i used several different techniques for the hearts, based on the size of each of the fabric scraps. the block includes both of Cynthia's Doodle fabrics, and even a little bit of her Paris Peonies. i wish i could tell you how large this is - i KNOW i wrote down the sizes of the blocks, but darned if i can find that slip of paper now! i'm thinking that Cynthia should use this one on the back, though i also told her to feel free to cut it up!


these were so much fun to do, and everyone in the bee has done fabulous work. this is going to be an INCREDIBLE quilt! i can't wait to see all of the blocks together!




(if you're wondering, hey amy, what's the dealio with that giveaway, i don't blame you at all! i haven't heard back from the winner! i'm going to try to contact her one more time, and then i'll redraw if necessary, cause i let it slide a little last week. don't fear, i'll post the winner soon!)

Friend Love is True Love

with everything that's happened over the past 3 days, i think we can all use some heartwarming happy thoughts. i've been meaning to post this for a while, but now i'm glad i waited - it's the perfect time.


i've talked about my friend j before. to say that she's amazing is a complete understatement. she's one of the most incredible people i know. she's thoughtful, kind, inspiring, nonjudgmental, knowledgeable, supportive, strong and gentle. and, on top of that, she's an incredible fibre artist. (i posted her wedding invitations, but i think that's all... i really need to post the amazing mini quilt she made me a few years ago)

one of the many wonderful things about j is that she occasionally sends me the most incredible packages. you all know how much i adore mail love, but j's packages go so far beyond just mail love! she's someone who takes such delight in the small details of everything, so every single aspect of her packages is meaningful and heartfelt, and that makes them absolute treasures.

just before valentine's day, i received a package from her, and she completely outdid herself.

i opened the envelope in the car, but made myself wait until i was home to actually open the package, knowing that j's packages often include small details that might be lost otherwise.




but the package was exciting! lookit the pretty ribbon!

and then i came home and opened it and it was even more exciting!


a bundle of valentine themed embroidery floss and the most wonderful needlebook


with a beautiful hand embroidered and beaded typewriter - the keys are beads!


when you open it up, the first page has a lovely heart milagro, a beaded border, and hand sewing needles.


the centre pages have pins and pockets


there's a little cupcake in the centre of a beaded heart outline, and matching red and yellow pins.


the pocket page held a little tissue package wrapped up with pink waxed linen thread and another little piece of cupcake ribbon (which always reminds me of j, i know how she loves waxed linen thread!)


the tissue package held more heart milagros, a small brass heart, and a lady of guadalupe charm


inside the back cover, there's another little heart pocket


with a little book folded up inside


the book used two kinds of paper, one that's very lacy


and one that can be written on, with a valentine's day message


on the back of the little book, she wrote all of the materials she used


and on the back of the needlebook itself, she embroidered my name

isn't that most amazing package ever?

love list, love themed!

a list of things i'm loving right now, mostly love themed:


Hexies. i LOVE hexies!

Heather Ross munki munki hexies (source)


omg, you should look at the other photos in this photostream... 2304 hexies!! (source)


these are like i spy hexies! (source)


pretty little box of hexies (source)


and on the hexagon vein, i LOVE the Hexagon Park quilt on Moda Bakeshop, designed by Lynne of Lily's Quilts, with large scale hexies and Sherbet Pips fabric. it's so freaking cute! and she's doing a giveaway!


i also love the craftyminx's heart grannies, for her granny a day project


and Pillow Month over at Sew Mama Sew, complete with contests, tutorials, and daily inspiration! The gathered heart pillow is hella cute, though white would be a bad idea in my house!


this awesome folded paper heart, perfect for love notes!


and the free bunny stuffie pattern from All Sorts. omg, the cuteness!



and these papercut hearts, complete with tips to make your own


and Urban Thread's latest anatomical heart design - ooh, i love the frame!



and this awesome double heart shaped potholder from Craft Snob



this super cute ruffled apron from Sew4Home - i'm really loving the Hoopla line, if you hadn't noticed from recent posts!


and Sonja from Artisania's latest paperpiecing pattern, the cutest little fox ever!




a bit late for valentine's Day, but i'm all for celebrating love everyday of the year anyway!