Ahoy! Celebrating Coulson!

My dear nephew, Coulson, turns 4 soon and I could not pass up an oppurtunity to celebrate his love for Piracy!!!! This was a riot to create and I finished it a little differently. I used fleece on the back without batting and it was very drapey mimicking a throw moreso than a quilt. Hoping it will be a fun little celebration of his 4 years of fun. Sean thinks it will do nicely as cape also......

A window to a woman's sOul....CELEBRATING Home by Toni Morrison

It was fun to see Victoria giddy and holding her new book soon to be release. I eagerly await its arrival and thank her for the concept of "Made Fabric".....hence my letter O below. Played with my yellow scrap bag the other eve as the boys carved pumpkins. Scraps are fun!

"As she healed, the women changed tactics and stopped their nurse berating. Now they brought their embroidery and crocheting, and finally they used Ethel Fordham's house as their quilting center. Ignoring those who preferred new, soft blankets, they practiced what they had been taught by their mothers during the period that rich people called the Depression and they called life....You couldn't learn age, but adulthood was there for all....Somewhere inside you is that free person I'm talking about. Locate her and let her do some good in the world." Toni Morrison's HOME

L is for.....Love, lollipops and LISTERINE. And LeeAnn the Nifty quilter! This is the back of a small LOVE card I am sending to a dear friend. Oh how fun letters are and seem to be my current trend. May you have LOTS of LOVE LOITERING in your LIFE!

And the yellow card.....from the soccer game last night where I finished binding this piece. I like to think of it as a sign of Sunshine.......caution.....HEY! Slow this bus down......what would you you use it for today? Off to my favorite mailing store..... LOVE, Em PS: Aunt JoAnn, If you read this post, know that we send love and I am smiling big hearing your chuckle as you read this!

Quilting can become a game of Scrabble.......

Christmas is coming and a whole lot of JOY is bubbling up in the sewing room. Gotta love a good selvage and Unruly Lettering!!!....

And fall is upon us in the NW....So beautiful to have seasons once more and what a gift this fall season has been. I am seeing Raindrops Falling on my Head this morning as it sprinkles..... Love, Em

Tula Pink......IS FAB!!!!!

I am so excited to have figured out my pattern design for this Tula Pink line of fabric. It has been a process for sure! This end product is a compilation of a Ricky Tims' Haunted Tree design from his mag last fall, a greeting card for Halloween and a quilt highlighted in the recent Quiltmania Mag of a Magical Forest beauty from the Australian quilt show. I am excited to purchase a back tomorrow morning and then let Roxy embellish. Oh how excited I am that the holidays are here!!!!!!!! Happy October, friends. Em

Where does the time FLY?

I have never had so much fun at a mail drop than at my FedEx. The gentleman is so upbeat when I arrive with my quilts to be mailed and reminds me of how much I love seeking out a Mom and Pops establishment. Do you have a fav mail carrier or mail person? Hope you have fun with my September doings pictured below.

A little ditty that I whipped up Sunday morning to CELEBRATE Heather and Larry's outdoor wedding. Two wonderful people I worked with at 2N Entrada and oh how I miss them. Isn't it fun to have a design or quilt idea that is a comfortable GO TO when you want to create but also want immediate gratification?

Enjoyed binding on the dock of Lake Washington yesterday morning. A bagel picnic and pleasant conversation with passerbys. One man commented, "How Intricate" while another commented on my Facebook, "How Cute!" Interesting how different people interpret and respond.

These houses belong to a very special Prayer quilt I am creating for a young woman who is going on an LDS Mission in Novemeber. I have gotten a lot more done but will post in the next while. Her favorite song is a Child's Prayer. A reverent project and it is interesting my state of being while I am working on it. As though it is a meditation.

Having so much fun CELEBRATING a nature wedding, new baby, a requested British flag and so much family time. Loving my new schedule that has me off many days at a time. I am 2 days into it but could not be more grateful! This past weekend we played on the Chuckanut Drive and oh how breathtaking!!!! Would you not agree when you see the pic below?

Off to play with the postal man and sending you love and a hug. Em

CELEBRATING the 2nd Trimester........

I hope that you enjoy this funky post of my current process of how I am creating a quilt for niece who is newly pregnant. I have the pics posted from most current step to origin. I title this the 2nd Trimester because there is still a lot of work with this piece. I have fallen in love with making quilts of the woman silhouette and see a future of quilts in this trend. May have found a niche for myself.

My pregnancy with Noah changed my life and I fell in love with the maternity phase of my 20's. I have longed for those 9 moths so often since his birth........While creating this quilt I have experienced emotions both in my heart and viscerally that I have never felt during other quilts. Shaping the breast gave me goosebumps and as I saw the fetus in my camera I was brought to near tears. I wondered how God felt while he was creating man and woman.......What a journey this quilt has become.

Happy TOOsday, Em

The SELVAGE sums it up! What SPARKS the human heart and soul?

My current work in progress. Nearly quilted for a baby boy that is soon to arrive! I had so much fun playing in my scraps to make these stars. I love the selvage and hope that the babe comes out with a little spice!

My niece is expecting a baby and I am having fun with this photo I saw in a baby book. I have never created a quilt celebrating the mother....always the baby. This time I am going to create a quilt with this lithograph as the inspiration. I bought the fabrics and cannot wait to begin the project. I hope that it will turn out.......Tonya's Wordplay will accompnay the pic of course :).

CELEBRATING the spectrum of life and the SPARK that lights in our souls!

She became the crows that she gathered in the trees....

The boundaries between them and her became blurred.......

Sign of a good time and LOVE!

It was fun this evening to play with an idea for quilting my Modern LOVE quilt that is a Tula Pink Pattern. I traced my hand forming the sign language symbol for I LOVE YOU then let Roxy do her thing. My practice piece is a love note flying to Utah to thank Green Fairy for her inspiration and friendship. I miss my lunch dates with her!

It is a SIGN of a good time when a grandmother and my son are picking berries in the park while I play with Porsche and I hear their plans to make homemade pie crust and fill with yumminess! Sean is gone for work and so pie a la mode was dinner....YUMMY! What memories my mom creates with her stays with us and I feel so blessed and grateful that Noah will have such a repertoire to glean from when he one days passes on the stories to his own friends and children......

Signing off for now friends, Happy TOOSDAY! Em

fallen in LOVE with Seattle....Come enjoy some yummy city and quilty color

A colleague of mine in St. George told me once with a shaking of his head and a smile, "Em, when you and your family do something, you are all in....." Yes, We are and why I have never tried a cigarette or cocaine......I joke at quilt shops that my quilting addiction is more expensive than heroin but much more pro-social...and how often the fellow shoppers and cashiers will laugh and nod in agreement. And so my love affair with Seattle has followed suit!

We moved to Seattle because I was choosing to leave a career behind that demanded my attention 24/7 and because I longed to be a mom I had never been to my child, available. And how quickly my career here in Seattle began to take its hold on my heart and life. Excitingly, today I met with my supervisor and the chief nurse and have decreased my hours and will have clumps of time off. YEP!!!!! I had to make a stand so that I could attend Rebels and play with my family.

Hope you enjoy my current works in progress and my pics of Seattle from the past couple of days. A city of color, life and my heart is here! Enjoy and thank you for visiting my blog.

LOVE, A Few of My Favorite Things quilt with ideas for borders and framing triangles and the peace of the Japanese Garden where I read near a small waterfall and Noah's graduation dinner last night from his advanced French cooking class at Blue Ribbon Culinary School. What is a current LOVE of your life?

LOVE the comments you leave me, they are love on my hip when they come through and I thank you!

Em

Inspired by a delicate paper snipping Medallion......

I stopped by Barnes and Noble yesterday morning looking for inspiration in Art Quilt Books. Procrastinating quilting my Flight of the Female Silhouette until I could decide on the fmq pattern for the outside border. While there I fell in love with the above paper cutting project. It spoke to my heart and my mind began to fire with different ideas for creating a quilt. I could not drive home quick enough to begin.....And below is the starter of a quilt that is a CELEBRATION of memories and loves of mine. Still can envision us cruising to Southern Utah at what seemed 35 mph in a turtletop VW bus a few years back.....Love for the desert and mountains and of course some text!

Leafy top was not doing it for me.......and then this piece from the stash came to me as I was waking up. Do you like? Will be a great project cutting all of these little leaves out tonight while watching tv with Noah.

Excited to add the dark borders around each piece and then choose a background. Deep chocolate and cream most likely....makes me think of chocolate cookies now. The joys of posting at 4:00 AM because I so badly want to sew but know I need to get some sleep. Oh this fun and consuming hobby!

How are you adding color to your black and white today?
Em

A is for...........

Aaron. I sent this photo to my mom and she responded, "A is for our sweet Aaron, just like a Washington apple." Yep, he is a yummy one!

Do you have a favorite place to bind or find yourself giggling and remarking, "I cannot believe I am sewing here right now....?" That was me on the public bus going to a Sounders game a couple of weeks ago and today.....Binding on the dock of the bay.....Lake Union was my happy spot. A chair was solo on a launch pad and seemed to beg for me to sit and enjoy. On the seat it was painted, IOU. I told the chair, "NO, I owe u!" The funny things that people paint in funny places!

L O V E!!!! Just too fun!

I still can envision the early morning a couple of years ago when I first found Unruly Quilter's blog and her LOVE blocks were posted.....I was hooked then and still CELEBRATE her and her inspiration often in my quilts. Tonya is asking for blocks for a quilt to CELEBRATE Pokey and so it was apropos this morning that I create the below blocks as I was doing my own grieving for Harley Dog. Connections of the heart.....

And from start to finish....LOVE is a wonderFULL building block. Below is a window of my process for Erica's wedding quilt that heads to Utah today...Hard to part with this one I must admit.

LOVE! Em