I spy… leeks looking at me!

Do you spy the eye shape in the middle of these leek slices?

a treat for me: new crewel!

I might have a bit of an addiction going on here!

How could I resist this adorable, only a dollar, thrifted crewel? A tiny piece of vintage craft past? And of course the colors – purple and yellow – go so well with my sunroom as does the floral motif. Love it!

thoughts on a daughter quilt

Child number two will be moving up to a big girl bed this spring to make way for child number three arriving this summer. With a big girl bed comes a quilt! At least, in theory. I have no strong feelings about actually completing it before the bed switch or the baby but maybe before next winter?

I have been pondering this quilt for quite some time. I turn things over in my head a lot. And I generally don't start – or I stall on something I have begun – until I am confident in the direction I want to go. I think I have just about arrived at that turning point for this quilt project.

I am not going to follow a pattern. Instead, I am going to create bands of color like this:

Daughter number two used to say "blue orange" in response to what her favorite colors were. Now she's onto "pink and purple" like her big sister. The color choices are a compromise. I wanted to introduce teal to the room she'll be sharing with sister so that's the teal band across the top. I have the most dark blue fabric of any color but I will be adding purple into that area I think. And then there is the nice pink band to accommodate her new love of pink and to match the pink in sister's quilt.

The bands will be made up of various different fabrics and I think I have settled on them being made up of squares. I will probably stick to multiples of 2 so they will fit together nicely. So 2-inch squares, 4-inch squares, 8-inch squares and so on. Squares will be made up of smaller squares too. I think I need this "rule" to follow to satisfy my need for structure. I have been admiring scrappy quilts lately so I am really looking forward to putting together lots of different fabrics.

Also, I did a combination of ties and hand-quilting with child one's quilt (which was not only my first quilt project but practically my first sewing project!). For this one, I think I am going to do straight line quilting using my machine. Lines that match the direction of the bands. Here's one I've pinned that looks cool with imperfect lines for the quilting. I may also mix up the thread colors. Like using pink threads on the dark blue/purple area so it shows up. I've got some time before I have to make a final decision on that anyway!

A sweet winter surprise

I have a row of pots on my upstairs windowsill. The cold makes them sad and the plants are merely biding time until spring. No one seems to have the energy for much growing. I've got baby spider plants and baby basil stalks that I thought I would experimentally attempt to overwinter. And in that basil pot I also have a renegade morning glory. I decided to let her stay too although I have to gently untwine her tendrils from her neighboring basil on occasion.

My clemency has been rewarded in the form of a purple blossom brightening this grayest of seasons. A beautiful morning gift.

Notes on Pinterest and other progress

Proof the snow will melt! Photo from March of last year.

Hello, dear readers!

I am so very close to finishing my lovely hanging folder holder. I have documented the process very thoroughly (as in 42 photos and counting) and I am very excited about translating it into a nice, pinnable tutorial. It's going to be a beast of a detailed post to write though so you're just going to have to give me a minute. Still want to give props to the blog Cottage4C who got me started on this project.

And yes, you totally read that right, I said "pinnable" as in Pinterest. I finally started my own Pinterest page. I know, I know, it's about darn time. I spent a week pinning things off my own blog and sending them out into the wide wide world of boards. I am enjoying seeing the way things are getting picked up and pinned by other crafty ladies. And I will say, as with most thing techie, it wasn't hard but it did take a long time!

My next steps will be to pin items out of my giant "future projects" bookmark folder (in my defense, I started this baby before Pinterest even existed!) and all my saved blog posts in Feedly. Then I will feel like I am really organized!

I am kind of sick of the snow – such is life in the north in February – but at least it gives me a good excuse to hole up and sew.

February bunting!

Bright red to get us through the gloomiest of months, snowflakes (let's be realistic, yes?), hearts for Valentine's Day, and stripes. This is the before-mentioned birthday gift for my mama!