In an Instagram

It's time for another installment of In an Instagram! This week is all about Halloween and stitchery! Check out all the other wonderful Instagram pics over at Life Rearranged.

Clockwise from top left

Hubby dressed as B. F. Skinner for his department Halloween party (he teaches psychology).

My Halloween Bunting O' Greetings is up in the living room and will be changed out to Thanksgiving soon.

Stacks of Java Jackets all stitched up for a little Handmade Goods fair this weekend. 

My newest little shabby chic style Java Jacket just for me!

In an Instagram

Once again, after a too lengthy absence, it's time for another installment of In an Instagram! This time it's all about fall (which is far too short here in my neck of the woods if you ask me). Check out all the other wonderful Instagram pics over at Life Rearranged.

Clockwise from top left

The fall decorating projects have begun with a woven ribbon table runner for the dining room that will be layered with all sorts of other decorations!

We took in the St. Scholastica Homecoming Football game where they continued their undefeated season after only four years of their program.

My autumn Bunting O' Greetings is up in the living room and will be changed out to Halloween in just a few days.

A little drive through Jay Cooke State Park to take in the fall colors before they're all gone (which they very nearly are.

Thank you Serena!

I was so shocked, excited and surprised to see my face on the wonderful Serena's blog over at The Farm Chicks! She wrote about shining a light on others a couple of weeks back and asked her followers to write to her if they'd like to be considered. So I sent off a little something about my dream of being a licensed fabric designer and didn't know if anything would come of it but there I was today. I love Serena's work and was so thrilled to get to hear her speak at last year's Creative Connection Event. She is such a sweet and talented woman and I thank her so much for shining her light on me! Check out her blog and my fabric designs over at Spoonflower.

In an Instagram...

It's time for another look at life through the lens of my iPhone camera and our little everyday adventures. 

Top Row: Happy Birthday Bunting Banner for my hubby's birthday | Glensheen Mansion exterior
Large Pic: Full moon over Lake Superior
Far Right (top to bottom): Glensheen Gardens | Lake Superior view from Glensheen | Homemade Quiche

My very best friend in the world - my hubby - celebrated his birthday. We had a low key day going to see a movie and me making him a yummy dinner with chocolate creme brulee for dessert. We've been trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather here while it lasts so we took a stroll through the grounds and gardens of Glensheen for their annual Art Fair. We've been enjoying the fruits of my little herb garden in dishes like spinach and ricotta quiche. Going out for a walk as the sun is beginning to set and enjoying the cooler temps by the lake is another favorite and is made even better when we reward ourselves with DQ along the shore by the light of the silvery moon.

Check out the wonderful people sharing their phone pics over at Life Rearranged.

in an Instagram

Lots of pics in the pipeline as we're getting in lots of friend time. Both friends traveling to see us and us on the road to visit old friends. Also getting to meet friends who've only existed out in cyberspace until now. Here's a peek into some of the fun and food we've been having with the promise of more food and fun in the coming days!

Row 1: Almond Chocolate Croissant at Croissant du Jour, tall ship in the Port of Duluth, Beaded Serving Utensil Case made by me using some of my fabric designs
Row 2: tall ship masts, Abby with her eclair at Croissant du Jour, US Flag on the tall ship
Row 3: Beaded Serving Utensil Case made by me using some of my fabric designs, tall ship in the Port of Duluth, fresh and beautiful eggs from Mary Alice's chickens

I Spy My Studio

I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage at The Creative Connection Event last year. I'm pretty sure she was actually the very first person I met and was so lovely and friendly and gracious as I was a bit scared and intimidated being at the event all by myself. This year she's hosting the 3rd annual Where Bloggers Create event and I am so excited to participate! So here goes a little sneaky peek into my creative space.

The first thing you see as you enter my space is my name spelled out using my Bunting O' Greetings fabric. I jazzed 'em up with a little bit of bling, too! It's not a large space as my husband and I live in an old rowhouse, but I love the space and I have made the best use of the space that I could to suit all of my varied artistic pursuits and interests.

One of the most used elements of my studio is my sewing machine. I love my Bernina!!! I've been a sewer since I was about 10 and took up quilting when I was in grad school (which is a very strange time to take up a new hobby as you are so busy, but I did). A couple years ago, I discovered Spoonflower and finally started to turn all the the ideas and imaginings I've had for my own fabric designs into reality. Now there are piles of swatches of my over 100 designs in my space of which you can see a couple here. The color charts I spent many hours putting together are the first things I refer to when I'm designing my fabrics. You'll also notice some more of my Bunting O' Greetings and the Spoonflower swatches that come along with every order. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with them all!

I can't get enough ribbon and you'll find some nearly anywhere you turn you'll see some. There's the racks of ribbons on the display I created out of the old frame rescued from a vintage shop. There are my handmade ribbons - dyed strips of wide selvage from my fabric orders and then lettered in calligraphy (something else I've been doing since I was 10 years old). Piled in mason jars are my easter egg dyed seam binding ribbons wrapped around vintage wooden spools. And even more ribbon is draped over the wooden rack on the wall under my mini folded hexi and button quilt.

Some of the pieces that hold my plethora of supplies are also fashioned by me. I'd had these two plain wooden trunks that needed a bit of sprucing up so I padded and covered the lids with pieces of an old and tattered quilt that had seen its better days and then painted the harlequin pattern and inspirational words on the bases. Now they hold bunches of my fabrics. My beads and other teeny tiny ephemera are stored in the drawers I created out of foam core and then embellished to sit inside an old CD organizer that was no longer used for CDs. The little flower piece is my CalEndure project created for my boss at Artella as she prepares to publish a book.

There are lots of other little things I love to use and just gaze upon as I'm creating my art of all kinds. My soul journals from my wonderful and amazing Soul Restoration experience are always on my big table so I can go back and remind myself of the lessons learned and those I'm still learning. All sorts of vintage ephemera can be found here such as these paper bobbins filled with pink and yellow thread that I got for a steal at a local antique store. The jar filled with red buttons is another local antique shop find. The beautiful boxes from gifts received and cute little polka dotted egg cups hold more supplies and just make me happy to look at.

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my creative corner of the world up by Lake Superior. Now I'm off to enjoy summer while it lasts around here!

Cutout Cuties Contest

Life has been a bit crazy around here of late for reasons which I am not able to divulge just yet, but very soon! Aside from the craziness about things I can't talk about, there are other things that have added to the busyness that I can talk about and am so excited for! 

Once the biggest and most exciting contest to hit Spoonflower was announced, I set to work designing. If you are not a member of the Spooniverse, a very exciting chance to have your designs licensed by Michael Miller Fabrics was announced - this little contest is called Project Selvage and is an amazing opportunity for an undiscovered fabric designer. I'm really hoping it's me!!! (as are a bunch of my other uber-taleneted Spoonflower buddies)

It is an amazing option to have your work seen especially as someone who doesn't live in a big city where one of these fabric manufacturers is located or you don't live right next door to the Houston Quilt Market (neither of which applies to me). I've dreamt of having my designs on display in my meticulously decorated booth at Market just down the aisle from my hero, Amy Butler. I haven't quite made it to the point of creating a scale model of what my booth would look like, bit I think I'm close!

Anyhoo..... back to the contest. The theme for the designs is Baby Boy and the entries are starting to flood in! The deadline for entries is March 24 and you begin by entering one initial design. For about the next week, the wonderful people from Spoonflower and Michael Miller will be perusing all the submitted designs and narrowing the field down to 75 and then the voting opens up to the general public. The top 10 vote-getters then put together 5 more designs to complement their initial entry and then the voting continues again until the winner is chosen and becomes a Michael Miller designer! Once that happens, the winner creates a Baby Girl collection to coordinate with their boy collection and then it's off to quilt market!

So once this little contest was announced about two weeks ago I became one with my computer for a solid week as I set to creating my designs because, as you see, I designed both my entire boy and girl collections, plus a few more pieces! I had visions for the kind of line that could grow with the baby by taking out the most baby-like fabrics and supplementing them with the complementary designs. I also wanted to create something that was more clever than cutesy and I hope my little rows of paper cutout boys do just that as that is the fabric I've entered into the contest.

Now I'm onto baby quilt designs that will use the fabrics I've designed. Last night I was sketching baby mobile designs that can become little stuffed cutout dolls once the baby is past the mobile stage. I've got other plans and ideas that just haven't made it onto paper quite yet, but they will! In the midst of my sketching, I keep stalking my Spoonflower account to see if my samples of my designs have been printed and shipped yet and once they have, I'll be planting myself right next to the mailbox waiting for their arrival!

Of course I'm really hoping I win as I love Michael Miller designs and have oodles of yards of their fabrics in my overflowing stash! But I'm just excited hoping that I make it into the semi-final round of 75. I think most importantly for me this contest is keeping me on track with my fabric design goals which are ultimately to become a licensed fabric designer! I have a big notebook with the little steps leading to the big goal. Now that I've finished one big collection, I'm revisiting some of my other fabric design collections at Spoonflower and trying to fill them out with a few more pieces to expand my portfolio of designs to take to present to the big fabric houses that fit my style. I'm also just really thrilled that I actually have the energy to do this now that I have that surgery out of the way. I have so much more energy than I've had in years!!!!

Sew4Home feature #2!

I had intended to post about the fabulous purse I picked up while in NOLA a few days ago, however our wonderful North Shore weather and string of gray days is not giving me good light to take pictures of the beauty to really do it justice. So, on to other happy news! The wonderful women over at Sew4Home have been kind enough to feature me on their wonderful blog once again. You can pop over their today and grab my pattern for the Dual Duty coasters I've created.

The coasters I stitched up for them use linen and  my Family Forever fabric at Spoonflower. I tatted all around the edges to add even more vintage feel to them. I'm thinking of stitching up some more in the next couple of days using my Bottoms Up fabric to make up some quick hostess gifts for all the fetes this season!

In other fun news, check out the Where Women Create for another day of giveaways in their 12 Days of Holiday Traditions event!

Food & Fabric Sales

So, in totally unrelated topics...

Here is what I baked for the Thanksgiving festivities at our wonderful neighbors across the alley! We have the most amazing neighbors across the way. Each Thanksgiving they host a brunch for lots of the folks in our neighborhood. They serve eggs benedict and hash browns and the rest of bring all sorts of other goodies. This year I chose to bake up some Peppery Cheddar Challah Bread. For the more intimate Thanksgiving dinner, I bake up some sort of dessert to share and this year's selection was a Chocolate Walnut Tart with homemade whipped cream - so yummy and I was so happy to have leftovers of this one to last through the weekend! My hips - probably not so happy!

Now, on to fabric! Spoonflower has been offering all sorts of specials lately, just in time for the holidays! Hopefully, you patronized them as part of Small Business Saturday but even if you haven't, small businesses should be patronized every day! Their latest offering is a sale on fat quarters, buy one, get one free! It's advertised as a buy one, get one free tea towel, but as the tea towel designs are sized to fit on a fat quarter, FQs also qualify. This is your chance to get all sorts of fabrics you've had your eye on! The sale runs through Friday so head over to Spoonflower and support small business!

Naughty or Nice?!

I realize it's not quite Thanksgiving yet so we shouldn't be bringing up Christmas just yet but if you are like me and make lots of Christmas presents and such, you have to start really early! Even if you don't make gifts, you still have to plan ahead if you need to order gifts or supplies.

You also have to plan ahead for Spoonflower contests as they need time to print and ship in time for Christmas decorating! The current contest just opened for voting yesterday and it's Holiday Stocking time! They're are some really unique, interesting and imaginative designs - over 60 of them actually. Go and check them out and if you're inclined to vote for mine, which you can see above, go ahead! My design is an amusing little play on the naughty and nice list - you could choose a side for whichever suits you and your loved ones on any given day!

You should also really check out Spoonflower in the next few days as they are having their first ever free shipping event - just in time for Christmas! Beginning on Monday, November 22 at 8 am EST and ending on Tuesday, November 23 at 8 am EST you can get your domestic or international order shipped for free!!!! This only applies to standard shipping, not rush shipping but they're reporting that their current turnaround time is about 7 days so you should really take advantage of this great deal while you can!!!!

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

So this weekend's dinners did not include chicken but rather homemade pizza and a really unhealthy dinner  from my younger days of visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house during lent. Fried potatoes and macaroni and cheese - not good for you but every once in a while I get the craving as do my brother and sister. My mom and her brothers and sister can't stand it and will never eat it again in their lifetimes!

The pic above was dessert this weekend - pumpkin chocolate tiramisu! So yummy! I wish I had a better picture but as we're plunged into darkness at about 4 in the afternoon now, getting good lighting is a lot more challenging.

This weekend was also the end of the contest to win some of my fabric from Spoonflower! I have to say thank you once again to the wonderful Sew4Home for their lovely feature. I continue to be astounded at the numbers of you who were kind enough to click over to my blog and especially to those of you who were so kind to leave comments. It's been so heart warming to see everything that you're all thankful for this year! So without further ado, the winner:

It was so fun to find that the winner is another very talented Spoonflower designer, Vo! I'll be in touch to get you started in claiming your prize!

Special delivery in waiting

Just look at the pretty stack of java jackets just waiting to go to their new home! Once payment arrives, they'll be on their way! I just love playing with fabrics and embellishments and trying all sorts of color combos when I'm stitching them up.

To get them ready for shipping I grabbed some of those cute red buttons I discovered at the antique store, punched some circles out of discarded cardboard coffee cuffs and secured them together with red and white bakers twine and wrapped 'em up. The final tough was sliding my business card in the back.

Now, once you've got your morning coffee or tea in hand, head over to Sew4Home. They've put together a pillow project featuring my Family Forever fabrics.

You've still got time to get entered in the contest to win a yard of my fabric from Spoonflower. Just click on to my post from earlier this week and leave your comment answering the question in the post before noon Central time on Sunday, November 14. The prize will be awarded on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Look, it's me!!!! (& a giveaway!!!!)

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a person who likes to have attention drawn to me and am a bit too humble and self-deprecating for my own good. So today we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled program and shining a light on me!!!! If you check out Sew4Home today you'll see a great big profile on me!

I was lucky enough to meet the marvelous sisters who run Sew4Home when I was attending The Creative Connection Event back in September. We first started chatting during class on our first day and kept in touch throughout the event and once we got back to our respective homes. I absolutely adore their site and the fantastic, totally doable projects and how they inspire and empower others to create projects to dress up their homes.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Spoonflower is helping me out with a little giveaway! YAY!!!! If you'd like to have a chance at winning one-yard of one of my designs at Spoonflower, just leave a comment following this post in response to the following question in the spirit of Thanksgiving:

"What are you most thankful for this year?"

Just leave your comment no later than noon Central Time on Sunday, November 14. I'll draw one winner from all the entries and announce the winner on Monday, November 15. Once the winner is announced, I'll have the specifics of how to choose your fabric and place your order with Spoonflower. In the meantime, you can start browsing my fabrics at Spoonflower and deciding which you'll choose if you're the winner!

Exciting giveaway coming soon!

I have very exciting news coming up and to celebrate the occasion there will be an exciting giveaway coming soon! The pictogram above should give a clue. I can't wait and really wish I could win it!

So excited!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly stand the excitement!!!!! I am not very patiently waiting to hit the road for The Creative Connection event in Minneapolis!!!!! The actual event begins next Thursday but there is a Handmade Market preview on Wednesday evening. I'll be heading down on Wednesday morning on board the Rocket Rider to get checked in at my hotel and get all checked in at the conference. I can't wait to pick up my goodie bag and start meeting face-to-face all the wonderful people that I've only "met" online so far!!! I keep looking over my class choices and panel selections and all the special events like the Pajama Party and the Cupcake Farewell (though I shouldn't be excited for the farewell when it hasn't even begun yet!) and getting more giddy! I've already started packing for the event - I thought I was the only person doing that when it's still about a week away, but then I got an email from one of my new friends that I'll be swapping with at the event and she was packing, too! Now I don't feel like such a dork but I really don't care about feeling so dorkily (is that a word? I just made it one!) excited for the conference!

How can I not be excited about getting to hear and meet so many of my arts and crafts and women entrepreneurial sheroes! Amy Butler, Mary Jane Butters, Ree Drummond, and Kaari Meng are but a few of the incredible women that will share their amazing stories and wisdom with us. The pile of books that I have to be signed by them nearly necessitates it's very own suitcase for the trip! As wonderful and thrilling as it is to meet all of them, I can't wait to be among all the other attendees and form new friendships with all the other creative and artistic souls out there!

I have to be at least a bit patient as I haven't finished all of my items for swapping with others at the event. The main job for this weekend (in addition to making sure there are enough frozen meals for my husband so he doesn't just go out and get McDonald's salads and Subway to eat) is to finish a cigar box traveling art kit (which I'll share when it's all finished).

One project I did finish up early this week is a set of my Dual Duty Coasters. I stitched them up using my most recent fabric designs at Spoonflower called Family Forever (that's a baby pic of my mom you see in the close-up photo) and vintage linen. Once they were all stitched up, I wanted to make them even more vintage-y feeling so I tatted a little edge around each of them. It was a nice little task to keep me busy on the car trip to Iowa last weekend. Once they were all finished, I knew I didn't want to just hand these coasters over to Nan (my new online buddy and I hope face-to-face friend very soon). I discovered that these coasters fit perfectly inside those little rounds Laughing Cow Cheese boxes. I grabbed the box that I knew I had been keeping for some special reason and added vintage scrapbook paper, a coffee filter ruffle, sage raffia and little coffee cuff corrugated flowers. I topped with more corrugated cardboard and an orange juice can lid embellishment with my Family Forever design and mini Scrabble tiles. I can't wait to meet Nan in person and share this little gift and I'm so excited to see what she's created for me!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

... but sometimes the combination of the two is profoundly more beautiful and meaningful. Letters and words have been my obsession for so long which I mostly attribute to beginning my practice of the art of calligraphy at age 10. I've collected notebooks full of quotations and meaningful verse that inspires me. Those words find their way into my calligraphic creations and other design work.

I am also a collector of many things vintage and one of my favorite vintage collectibles are photos. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful collection of old photos of my ancestors which I love to pull out and also often find their way into my designs. I've also been compiling other written memorabilia from my family - grandma's recipes, poems that my great grandfather authored, letters and cards crafted by my mom and grandma. I have plans and sketches to combine these items on projects in the future; there are just not enough hours in the day for all the plans in my head.

In the meantime, I have combined some of these family photos with words of different languages meaning family in fabric form. You saw the preview of one color combination in my last post. Above you'll see a second color combo, which is my favorite! A lovely blogger named Gay took note of this design, which you can find at Spoonflower, in her most recent posting at www.idreamedisaw.com. It is a beautiful site and very inspirational and I feel so blessed and honored that she chose to highlight one of my designs among other stunning works that combine words and images!

Spoonflower Sharing

I was so excited to get back home from our visit back to North Dakota to find that my recent order from Spoonflower had arrived! A bunch of proofs of my latest designs which feature family. The designs include vintage photos of my ancestors in four colorways; I've always loved looking at these pics over the years and now I can't wait to use these designs in my sewing, quilting and art quilting projects. The first project I'll be using them in are some coasters for a swap at The Creative Connection Event in a few short weeks!

It was also very exciting to check out the Spoonflower blog today and find that they are doing a giveaway again in a few short days and hours. I was lucky enough to discover Spoonflower a year ago when they were doing a swatch giveaway so I got my first couple of designs together and shortly after, my very own fabric designs arrived at my doorstep. I was completely hooked!!!

Spoonflower is doing another swatch giveaway to celebrate the move to their new facilities. You can give a small donation in lieu of the cost of a swatch or just get your free swatch. You'll need to set up a Spoonflower account if you want a swatch of your own design or you can get a free swatch of an existing Spoonflower designer (like me!). I've now got over 100 designs - hard to believe that in the space of a year!!!! I get no money for swatch orders, just so you know. The giveaway is for 24 hours only, between noon Eastern time on Thursday, August 26 until noon the following day.

Paper Collage Fabric Design

Each week, my very favorite site in all the world, Spoonflower hosts a different design challenge. I don't enter every week as I don't have time to create for all of them and some themes just don't interest me. However, a few weeks back, they introduced an upcoming theme which captured my fancy and I set to work. I began the preparations for this particular challenge over 3 weeks ago as I wanted to have lots of time to to plan and create.

The challenge issued was for a paper collage design with a bare minimum of digital manipulation used in the design process. I set to work creating completely original collage papers and watercolor papers that were then filled with my calligraphy. You can see the original papers and additional materials of corrugated cardboard and paint chips below.

I cut and combined flower petals and leaves from these papers with corrugated cardboard and old paint chips. Then they were laid out on one my collage sheets and scanned. I performed a little digital magic to make the pattern repeat seamlessly and the fruits of 3 weeks of my labor are below.

The voting for this very creative contest opened up on Thursday and it's been fantastically fun to see the creativity of others. Some clipped from magazines, some stamped designs and then formed a design - there are just all sorts of designs out there and it's just remarkable to view them all. If you're so inclined, you should head over to Spoonflower and participate in the voting!

I've been in more laps than a napkin...

So that's not me, merely a quote from Mae West! It only suits my post for today as I finally finished a set of napkins using my Set the Table fabrics. I combined my fabric as the border with some white linen on the front and gray linen on the back. Once they were all stitched up, I added some hand stitching in green floss to accent the green flatware in the border fabric. I love how they turned out and can't wait to have a dinner party to use them - how geeky am I!? I'm planning to stitch up some more and offer them for sale in my Etsy shop as soon as I can order some more of my fabric!

Anniversaries and Aprons!

Today is the fourth anniversary of the day that I got to marry this wonderful man - my best friend, biggest fan, the only one who's always in my corner, my cheerleader, the one who is there for me when I'm lower than low, the one who makes me laugh when he dances,and the one person that I know I can count on. I am so happy to be your wife and I love you honey!!!

Today is also the opening of another Spoonflower contest. The challenge for this week was to design an apron that fits completely on one yard of fabric. I took the challenge and and put this pattern together using my Set the Table fabrics and stitched up my sample to work all the kinks out! If you want to participate in the voting, click here, and feel free to vote for my entry! It has a fabulous prize that I would love to win!