I Am Still Alive!!!

Hello everyone!

I am still alive. :) Isn't that great?

Haha, all joking aside, I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We moved into our house two weeks ago, and even though it is not a great situation yet, it can only get better. I am GRADUATING on Saturday, so the long nights of homework are coming to an end.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Now I am approaching big-girl-hood. I thought I would be nervous, and in some ways I am, but really I am ready. I've been in school for a long time now. I've been given room to mature and to learn, and now I feel like I am prepared to start my life. I'm ready to take things on head first, and to take risks and challenges. It is a great feeling.

On the quilting front, I have not been doing a lot, due to the move. However I am blessed to have a boss who will let me sew in the store, and so that has been a good release for me. I did have to order some of Tula Pink's new "Parisville" however. Have you seen this fabric? It's amazing!!! It's so beautiful!!! I am working on a new design, but it will need to be fine tuned before I cut into these precious textiles.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a sample of the "Parisville" line:

Anyway, hopefully you will hear a little more from me now that I will have some of my life back. I still don't have internet at home, but I am hoping that will change soon.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season,

Cristina

Return of the Weary

So I went to England. Now I'm home. I'm glad to be home. I am not going to elaborate further, I'm sorry.

I arrived home from London England, on July 10th. Since then I've been working a LOT (which has been excellent because my bank account has been hurting). Also I've been trying to find some time to sew when it isn't 100 degrees outside. I have been able to work on a few things, which has helped me clear out some of the fabric mess that is my dining room.

First of all I quilted a wall hanging before I left for England. This week I got it trimmed up, and ready to put the binding on.

Also I'm working on my own version of a "stacked" quilt. I think it looks like a stack of books, and I really like how it's turning out.

This weekend I'm going to sew at the store with my co-workers. It will be nice to get out of the heat and into some air conditioning!!! Hopefully I'll make some progress on my Kaffe Fasset Postcard quilt. Maybe not haha.

Sorry I don't have any pictures this week. I just realized they are all on my netbook, which is currently with my mother on loan.

Sorry for being so delinquent! Hopefully now that I'm home, and my life is closer to being on track, I will have more to share with you.

How has your summer been going so far?

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

So today is my last day in Kalamazoo for a while. It's a lovely day outside, the sun is shining, but there is a sweet cool breeze which is something the weather's been lacking the past week or so. Tonight I'll travel to Lansing, so that tomorrow I can meet up with my friend Katie, as we are flying together to London.

My study abroad will be AMAZING!!! I can't wait to feel a part of this great city! Nevertheless, I am going to miss home. I'm lucky enough to have a life that I love, and for the first time it's a little hard to leave. Oh well, I'll just sing some John Denver on the plane, and then once I'm there any sadness will fly out the window.

Anyway, I'm behind on posting my recent projects. Remember that picnic quilt I was telling you about? Well....dun dun dun.....here's the top!

I LOVE it. It's happy and fresh, and white (uh oh this could get messy if I actually use it for picnics :/). Anyway, it was perfect to use up some of my Amy Butler scraps that I didn't think I'd find a use for. They were all 2.5" strips, but most of them weren't much longer than 12". That's ok, because I used full strips of muslin, and just butted my short strips up against each other to use the whole muslin strip. It worked out great! Also, it gave me greater variety of fabrics. This is a great quick and easy pattern, and you can find it on the Moda bakeshop blog. They also call it the picnic quilt.

I also quilted a small amy butler wall hanging this week. It's my version of my banner quilt at the top of this page. I still don't have any pictures of it yet, but it'll give me something to post about while I'm overseas (besides everything British).

Another project in the works is a stacked quilt using Moda's 1974 line. I picked up a jelly roll on a whim of this line, and really had no idea how BEAUTIFUL it would be. I'm LOVING these blocks also because I don't have to match any seams! I'm loving the process without feeling constrained by piecing rules. It's fantastic. Again, I'll show pictures in the next few weeks, as I will not be quilting in England :(.

Anyway this has been a super long post. Next time you here from me I'll be globetrotting. Enjoy your summer and I will miss you all!

It's a top!!!! Finally!!!!

I finally finished my "Patches and Pinwheels" quilt. This quilt is far different from the quilts I normally make. One reason is the fact that it's made completely from leftover scrap fabric. The second is that there are a lot of darks in the quilt. I tend to make a lot of my quilts in more modern fabrics.

Here are some pictures of the quilt on my bed, and a close up of the blocks.

I also started another quilt this week. I decided to make my own Jelly Roll with leftover 2.5 inch Amy Butler strips. Then I decided to make the picnic quilt that was recently posted on the Moda Bakeshop blog. I'll post pictures when I get it done. It's a really quick quilt and I'm only 10 blocks away from having all the blocks done.

I also bought some batting for two wall hangings that I'm going to attempt to quilt on my home machine. I've quilted most of my quilts myself, but I don't enjoy doing big projects on my home machine. I figured these two are small enough that I should be able to handle them.

Well....other than that I'm just trying to get ready for my study abroad. I leave in less than two weeks, so it's getting really exciting. I'll try my best to give you an update before I leave, and I'll be sure to show some beautiful pictures of my trip!

I'm a lazy blogger....I'm sorry

K, so I know it's been 2 MONTHS!!! Sorry guys.

Anyway there are a few reasons for being so delinquent. First of all I still don't know where my camera is, and I feel bad posting with no pictures. Secondly I STILL don't have that patches and pinwheels top completely finished. I'm getting close though. Today I plan to finish the borders and then hopefully I can get it quilted in the near future.

Which brings me to my thought of the day. How do you feel about hiring someone else to quilt your tops? It bothers me a little bit. They always turn out beautiful, but then I never feel as if I made the quilt myself. I know that eventually I will buy my own long-arm machine, but as of yet I neither have the money or the space to do so. So that begs the question, should I put my current money towards a long arm machine, or towards having a top quilted? I don't know. What are your thoughts?

Anyway, I'll steal Dave's camera for a picture of the top when it's finished. Sorry for no pretties today.

Cristina

Sewing Day!

I had a very relaxing yet productive day today. This week is my spring break, and I didn't have to work today or tomorrow, so I decided to spend my time working on my scrap quilts. First thing when I woke up, I started working on my 16 patch scrappy blocks, and by 1pm I had them all done! Here are some pictures of the blocks.







After I got these blocks done I went and picked up some fabric from the UPS will call. Why at the will call you ask? Because I can't for the life of me get UPS to deliver things to my home at a time when I'll actually be there. It's a whole lot of fun. Anyway it was fabric that I had been waiting for for a while, so I was excited to get it. It's the water bouquet print in the color midnight, from Amy Butler's "Love" line.Then I got back and started working on the pinwheel blocks for the "patches and pinwheels" quilt I'm making. Hopefully I'll get them finished tomorrow, and then I'll be able to put the top together.

I still can't find my camera, but my boyfriend was kind enough to let me use his (thanks Davy!). So as promised, here are the pictures of my purchases from Tuesday. In the first picture are the remnants I picked up at JoAnn's, and in the second picture are the great prints I picked up at Sew Unique Threads.

Happy Quilting!

Bummer

Or maybe I should make that a double bummer.

The first bummer is that I got in a fender bender yesterday. My neighbor and I (her driveway is across from mine) backed out of said driveways at the exact same time. My car is fine though, the spare tire on the back took the impact, and there doesn't appear to be any damage. Hers on the other hand was not in as good of shape :/. Thankfully the cop said I was not at fault, and I didn't receive a ticket. I don't know if she did or not though. I hope not, that would be an extra crappy day. :(

Second bummer is I can't find my camera. This is sad because I was going to show you some of the new yummy fabric I bought yesterday. I decided that since it is spring break, I wanted a shopping day. :) My friend Deirdre and I drove to Battle Creek and stopped at two quilt shops. The first one was a MAJOR disappointment. We went to The Quiltery because it had nice reviews online, and it wasn't far from the other shop we wanted to go to. When we got there, we found out that she is going out of business, and there were about 10 bolts of fabric in the whole place. Needless to say, we weren't there long.

The next store we went to was great though. Sew Unique Threads is a great little specialty shop on the north east side of Battle Creek. She specializes in Amy Butler, and Kaffe Fasset prints (and other fabrics of this nature). We spent A LOT of time in this adorable store, and of course I had to bring some fabric home with me. Maybe if I find my camera I can upload a picture of my purchases tomorrow.

Right now I have many projects in process. I recently stumbled across Bonnie Hunter's website. If you haven't been there before you should definitely check it out. Her website is Quiltville.com. It is AWESOME for cleaning out scraps from your stash that you have no plan for. Anyway, I'm working on a couple of her "stash-buster" projects. I am also working on a large radiant star quilt with some of the fabrics from Amy Butler's "Love" line. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Well hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures of all that I'm working on. Maybe I'll just have to borrow my boyfriends camera for a while so that you have some pretties to look at. :)

Right now

Let's start at the beginning

So here goes nothing....

This is the fourth blog I've ever started. I've been a blogger on multiple blog sites since I was 15 years old. I never really took them seriously, they were really just a public journal for me, but this time is different.

I've been a fan of quilter's blogs for quite some time now. I've been quilting since I was 8 years old, and I've decided it's time to give my input into the world of quilting. Hopefully I can learn some things as well as teach others.

I've named this blog "My Favorite Things" because that are what quilts are to me. They are color, design, accomplishment, comfort, and warmth all wrapped up into a one of a kind creation. They inspire me to be the person I want to be. They teach me patience, and perseverence. They allow me to share my talents and abilities with others. They are an expression of myself.

I would really love to share projects that I'm working on and also some of my own designs. I would really like to begin a community of quilting where we can all share our ideas. Also, I would love to make this a place for younger quilters to expand their talents in fiber arts. There has been some small resurgence of sewers and crafters in younger generations, but stereotypically quilting is only for our mothers and grandmothers. We love them and their work, but if we don't keep this art alive it will cease to exist. Lets keep this timeless artform going shall we?!