Challenged

Sign up for the next Pillow Talk Swap ended a couple of weeks ago. Even though I swore I wouldn't, I did. Go figure. 

So, my partner info came a few days ago and I have been totally boggled over what to create for her home. Her requests seemed reasonable enough—blues and greens with an outdoorsy vibe. But really, she likes all colors and seems to like some of Malka Dubrawsky's work, too. So, befuddlement set in and I began to panic.

I dug through my stash searching for inspiration. I even checked out what she made and received in the last swap . . . because EVERYTHING that popped into my mind was so simple that I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing the mark.

I'm still not sure I'm quite hitting it . . . 

My initial fabric selections came down to Amy Butler's Nigella or a mix of blues and greens from past Amy Butler lines. They felt organic and natural in a way that many of the other blues and greens in my stash do not.

The overwhelming majority of swappers voted for option 1. So, I began working away on a design inspired by Amy Butler's Electronic Quilt Co. pattern for her Aspen Branch Tablerunner. 

My plan was to leave the raw edge exposed and clip it and then fray it to feel more like an aspen branch—or a palm tree frond as that's what it resembles to me. So, I'll probably try to fray the edges and see how it looks after that. I am, surprisingly, liking the fabric combination but not sure that the design is working for me. It seems to be getting a positive response from other swappers but I'm just not sure what to think. 

I was thinking about pebbling on the linen in the negative space. My partner also seems to like concentric quilting so that would be the other option—just lines of very perfect, evenly spaced stitching. 

To add a little interest, I would do a scrappy piped edge around the pillow and possibly do a button closure on the back. 

The alternate option is also a very, very simple design. But, I would use the tutorial from Sew Take a Hike for photo-to-fabric applique (like her umbrella below) to do something nature-y in the center of the pillow.

Those solid squares would be prints in varying shades of teal and green. I'd use Kona snow or bone for the white and the background on the outside and in the center would be linen. This kind of reminds me of a window . . . 

So, I am obviously feeling very conflicted. Neither idea shouts out to me as something perfect for my home . . . but I think they might be on track for my partner. I'm just not sure! 

Thoughts?

Amy Butler: "Once a gypsy . . . always a gypsy."

So, have you heard? Gypsy Caravan is being reprinted!

From Amy's Facebook Page:
"This is where it all began . . . I'll never forget the magic from this time . . . and it just keeps getting better & better. It's one of the best adventures of my life. Once a gypsy . . . always a gypsy."

"This collection is an edited, yummy selection of my favorite 24 pieces . . . the hand and feel of the fabric and the delicious spirited colors make me super happy!"

From Amy Butler's Facebook fan page

From Amy Butler's Facebook fan page

From Amy Butler's Facebook fan page

The most recent e-mail I read about this new release says that it is due out in April. I will be excited to see the fresh reprint! I have always loved the line and have been afraid to cut into my cherished stash ever since I overpaid for it on ebay. I just hope that the quality of the substrate will be as fine as the original printing.

Here's my little stash . . .

Add caption

I must say that all of these fresh reprints of old, loved prints have me excited and a little bit frustrated. I started sewing just as Flea Market Fancy, Gypsy Caravan, and Fresh Cut were dwindling on the quilt shop shelves. While I loved them then, I didn't know what I was doing and didn't buy nearly enough of any one line since I was just starting out with the sewing. Then, after I got a little more into it, I was one of those crazy ladies who paid an exorbitant amount for those lines on ebay and Etsy in order to just have enough to make some small items. Now, I'm kicking myself for paying out the nose for them because they are back and I still haven't cut into my cherished stash!

Anyone else having a love-hate relationship with the whole trend of issuing reprints?

Now . . . with that said, I will just add that if FreeSpirit decided to reprint Anna Maria Horner's Bohemian and Kokka decided to reprint Amy Butler's Forest . . . well, they'd hear no complaints from me!

New Realities . . .

I have had a blessed and fortunate life. It doesn't matter that I have chosen not to have a relationship with my father or that my huge extended family has recently fallen apart or that my grandfather, with whom I was extremely close, passed away tragically a few years ago. It doesn't matter that we haven't bought a house or had a baby or traveled to all of the places I've dreamed of going. It doesn't matter that I have to deal with diabetes and insulin pumps and poking my fingers a dozen times each and every day. None of this matters. Because I am here. And I am surrounded by love. And this is something I need to remind myself of each and every day from here on out . . .

 A wise, wonderful friend who, incidentally, has beaten cancer (twice), wrote to me recently that "any brush with cancer is scary." She spoke these words to me in the moments before I knew that the emotion I was feeling in the depths of my soul was fear. Like I said, a wise and wonderful friend.

About three and a half weeks ago, I went in for my scheduled surgery. After years of not getting pregnant and months of medication to shrink ovarian endometriomas (chocolate cysts) and a failed aspiration of those cysts, I was referred to a gynecologic oncologist to have an exploratory laparotomy to remove whatever mass had made itself at home inside of me. My hope and prayer was that the surgeon would be able to remove the benign mass (the pathology from the aspiration was benign), take a look around, and tell me everything was fine and to go about my life as planned. There were days leading up to surgery when I would turn to Chris and say things like "what if they don't find anything" or "what if it suddenly disappeared and they are doing this for nothing." After all we had already been through in 2011, it didn't seem unrealistic to think that they would go in and find something other than what they expected. I just didn't think that that something would include the words ovarian cancer.

I remember laying in the recovery room after surgery and hearing one of the residents hand me off to the recovery room nurse and explaining what they had done during surgery. The words "unilateral oophorectomy" still stand out in my mind. They had had to take one of my ovaries. I wondered why but was focused on trying to breathe and push the pain management button every 8 minutes and so I couldn't really ask. It wasn't until I was resting in my hospital room several hours later that I found out what had transpired during surgery.

After opening me up, my doctor was able to cleanly remove the large tumor that was filling my left ovary. From the looks of things, he felt that the tumor was benign and began the tedious work of reconstructing my ovary, as we'd discussed previously, so that my dreams of childbearing would still have the greatest chances of coming true. Of course, I also knew going in to surgery that it was very possible that there would be endometriosis and that I might wake up to find out that my problems extended beyond the ovaries. The surgeon, however, did not see any signs of endometriosis and was pleased to see that my problems seemed confined to that one ovary. While he worked on the reconstruction, the tumor was sent to pathology and, just as he was finishing up the reconstruction, he was called to look at the tumor under a microscope. It was at that point that the decision was made to remove the ovary. There were signs of malignancy in the tumor and the only way to be sure that they had gotten all of the malignant cells was to take that ovary.

In the days and visits from the doctor that followed during my hospital stay, I still didn't have a clear understanding of whether or not it was cancer. The doctor had initially said that chemo and radiation were not likely and that he felt they had successfully removed all of the malignant cells.

Two weeks later, I went back to the hospital to have my staples removed. During that visit, the physician assistant explained the final pathology report and confirmed that the tumor, in fact, was ovarian cancer. The ovary was also analyzed by pathology and was completely free of abnormalities so the cancer was completely contained in the tumor. The prognosis was good and the chances of me needing chemo, she said, were pretty low but that the doctor would make the final decision closer to my next meeting with him at the end of January.

In the past several days, my emotions have been all over the place. I know part of that can be blamed on the fact that my body is trying to heal and is also dealing with the loss of certain hormones caused by the ovary removal. But, regardless of hormones, I go from feeling extremely grateful and praising God for the blessing of the path he helped us navigate to get this taken care of while it was relatively minor to completely flipping to a place of utter confusion and, yes, fear. The next minute, I feel inspired and empowered to help other young women find this disease in the early stages.

It's difficult for me to understand why I am feeling compelled to spread this news beyond my immediate family and close circle of friends—my typical support system. Most likely, now that the tumor and ovary are gone, I have very little to worry about in terms of the spread of cancer. I'll have checkups with blood tests and imaging and a physical every six months for probably 10 years and know that they will watch me closely.

There is a saying that resonates quite deeply with me these days: Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. I think that until these past few weeks, I was never quite as aware as I should have been about how true that saying is. I am finding myself to be more full of compassion than ever before. However cliche it may be, I am also realizing that there is much truth in the idea that it is difficult to truly understand what someone is going through until you've walked in their shoes . . . or at least some similar shoes. I have been finding, throughout my recovery, that those who have been there for me in the way in which I've needed comfort have tended to be those who have been through a major illness or who have been close to someone who has before. Not to say that those who haven't been there themselves haven't been of great comfort to me as well . . . it's just that there's a different level of understanding. With someone who has been there, there is understanding even in the things left unspoken.

With one friend who is a 6-year survivor of ovarian cancer and another who has recently entered palliative care for it, I have certainly seen and heard how devastating, debilitating, and yes, deadly, this disease can be. Knowing that it can strike someone in her 20s, like me, and knowing what the disease can do if left undetected really makes me feel like I need to do something about it. I don't know quite what yet . . . but don't be surprised if you see me trying to figure it out here every once in a while.

So many of you have been so supportive of me during this time. Thank you for your words of encouragement and your emails and Flickr messages while I recover. I have been so touched by your concern even though you didn't really know what was going on. It never ceases to amaze me how loving this community can be!

So, blessings to you, my friends! I am personally praying that 2012 is full of happy adventures for us all!

Welcome. Please excuse my mess.

So, do you ever feel a little uneasy about having guests over to your place when your place isn't as clean or designed or perfect as you'd like it to be? For instance, tell me I'm not alone in the feeling I'm having right now knowing that my besties are coming to visit me this weekend and I am already freaking out that I won't be able to clean up my everyday messes enough before they get here and almost want to call and tell them not to come because I'm "achoo. So sick." Well, aside from feeling that way about my besties today, I'm also feeling that way this morning because I think there will be some unexpected visitors popping by this blog shortly. And, well . . . I wish I were just a little bit more ready! (Picture me reluctantly putting on my hostess cap now . . . )

WELCOME to all of you who are stopping by from Modern Day Quilts. I'm pleased to meet you and hope you'll find something you like in this humble little space I call my blog. If you're coming from Modern Day Quilts and have followed Heather's blog for very long, I am sure that you are expecting amazing things. I hope this quick, improvised quilt for my sister-in-law for Christmas suits your fancy today!

And, if you're not stopping by from Modern Day Quilts, you should hop over and check out their archive of quilts from the past year (oh, yeah . . . and subscribe, too!). Some really beautiful, amazing work is featured there on a daily basis. You'll probably become just as addicted as I am.

Oh, and happy first birthday, Modern Day Quilts! Keep up the fantastic work of featuring beautiful quilts that inspire us all!

Four Quilts for Christmas

I'm back. Sort of. I still have a long way to go until I am fully recovered from surgery, but I am getting antsy doing nothing. I figured downloading photos from my camera and hopping online would be a good way to start getting back in the swing of things. So, as promised, here's a quick post about all the quilts we gifted this Christmas.

For Chris' dad, we chose Joel Deweberry's Modern Meadow line. We wanted something that reflected his love of golf in both color and design. This blue/green/brown palette reminds us of perfect golfing weather and has just the right touch of preppy-ness about it. The quilt design somewhat reminds us of golf balls in holes. I know it's a stretch, but that's the story we're telling ourselves!

We chose this geometric backing fabric to keep it a bit more masculine and also because we liked how it mimicked the very geometric design of the top.

While I am not loving the decision to put the zig zag in the center on the back, I really do love how the DS Quilts Modern Texture print works as the binding with this backing. It's the perfect color and the perfect complement. I should note that the beautiful quilting on this one was done by the lovely Elvira Illig. She is such a joy to work with!

Somehow the one planned quilt for Chris' dad's Christmas gift evolved into a hefty stack of four quilts—one for each member of his immediate family.

The quilt for Chris' mom was a tough one to settle on in terms of both fabric selection and quilt design. I wanted something with lots of greens  so that it would go nicely as a throw in her living room. I sent pictures of several lines of fabric to one of Chris' sisters to help me choose. Daisy Chain seemed to be the clear winner which was great because I had an un-dented stash of the line in my closet.

I didn't know it until after I had already finished all of these quilts, but back when Cathy and Les (Chris' dad) were first married, they went antiquing for vintage quilts. It was kind of their thing. It's amazing that after knowing their family for 10+ years, I had never heard this before. I was so surprised and initially was baffled at how I didn't know this tidbit about my in-laws and was trying to figure out why I'd never seen their collection of quilts. But, then it dawned on me that they must have been destroyed when their home burned down in the mid-1990s. It is a tragic story and one that really changed the face of Chris' family—all of their family stories tend to begin with "before the fire" or "after the fire." My heart breaks every time I hear those words.

Next time we visit her in Des Moines, I'll have to take a photo of the quilt in Cathy's livingroom because I have been told that it looks awesome sitting on her rocking recliner which really makes me happy. I wasn't sure if she would love the quilt. But, now, after having heard the story about how they used to collect quilts, I am certain that this probably warmed her heart. And, even though we have that lovely mother-in-law/daughter-in-law tension that comes so naturally when a woman's son marries a strong woman, there is nothing that could make me happier than to know that she was touched by the gesture of me having made this quilt for her.

The back of this one feels a little psychedelic to me, but I love it just the same. It's one of my favorite Daisy Chain prints and I have oodles of it in my stash. This quilt was also quilted by Elvira on her longarm and, if I had taken the time to photograph this more than an hour before giving it to its recipient, you might have been able to see the beautiful quilting. It really made the quilt.

After finishing these two quilts up, I realized that it would be really special to be able to give quilts to each of Chris' sisters as well. By the time this dawned on me, it was a Saturday morning already late in November and I knew that the designs had to be simple and that I'd have to quilt them myself in order to get them back in time to give during our Christmas trip to Des Moines in mid-December. I remember shooting out of bed that morning and going straight to my sewing space where I began cutting into my new Daisy Mae stash without much planning. Before I knew it, I had strips of Daisy Mae and Kona Snow in piles all around me with a couple of vague ideas floating in my head as designs. It was a mess and when I looked down at what I'd cut, I was suddenly very nervous about what I'd started.

Thankfully, things turned out just fine.

Meredith, the older of Chris' two sister (she's the middle child), was an art student and has a very eclectic yet modern sense of style. In the interest of really trying to keep things simple, I started piecing a kind of random top of strips and eventually ended up with this . . .

Sometimes when I look at this one, it feels a little empty to me. But, when you see it in person, it just works. You can kind of see my straight-line-quilting on this one if you can get past all of the wrinkles.

I really love the scrappy binding on this quilt. It helps things feel a little more complete and it's something I will definitely be doing again in the future. And, that backing fabric from Daisy Mae is so forgiving when it comes to my quilting. It was a good choice!

The quilt for Lindsey and Cooper, Chris' baby sister and brother-in-law, was a little more tricky to figure out. I had cut all of those Daisy Mae and Kona Snow strips and was bound to doing something with them. I had a feeling that I wanted all of the fabrics butting up against each other but also wanted there to be some white space on the quilt in order to make it big enough in a short amount of time. I started sketching out an idea and quickly realized that it was very similar to something I'd seen before. While I didn't use Amy Butler's Mid Mod quilt pattern at all, the design is nearly identical.

I quilted this one with concentric squares using 2" masking tape to mark my pattern. I wish I had thought of using varying widths of masking tape to mark off quilting designs earlier in my quilting "career," but I am glad to now have this trick in my arsenal (especially since I have a new machine intended entirely for machine quilting . . . more on that to come another time).

I am pretty smitten with the scrappy binding on this one as well. There's something warm about scrappy binding, don't you think? And, again, the backing on this one was very forgiving to my quilting which makes me a happy camper.

I know I have said before that Chris and I really like to give unique or handmade gifts to our family and friends. We figure that if we are going to give, then the gifts should both come from the heart and delight the recipients in some unexpected way. While I was nervous about not having any other gifts to give this year, I think it all turned out ok. Everyone seemed to really love their quilts. And, even though they didn't have many packages to open, I hope they can sense the love (and, yes, expense) that went into each of these quilts.

The only real regret I have about these quilts is that I didn't have time to get them photographed before we left for Des Moines. I don't have good photos of all of this work which is a little heartbreaking to me!

Merry Christmas, Friends.

Gifted, originally uploaded by AleciaSharp.

It's been a crazy, amazing, and strange year. There have been moments of both joy and pain; moments full of faith and others full of fear. The coming days are sure to be full of mixed emotions as I go through the motions of preparing for a major surgery and then find myself in recovery for several weeks all whilst rejoicing in the celebration of the birth of Jesus and looking forward to a year full of promise. When I'm feeling up to it, I'll be back to share more about what's been happening around here—both medically and crafty. For now though, friends, I leave you with this photo of a beautiful, silent moment so full of joy, peace, and happiness over what I get to share in this space with you.

May your Christmas be filled with the spirit and your new year be blessed with joy, peace, and good health.

See you soon. :)

Prep Work (and a call for help)

So, friends, any suggestions for coming up with enough handwork projects to keep me busy for 3–6 weeks? While I'm still in the midst of finishing up quilts and other projects for Christmas, I am also planning for a major post-Christmas surgery that will put me out of commission for possibly a month or more. I need to begin prepping some light, portable, stitching projects that will keep me busy for at least the first 3 weeks. And I need to have everything gathered, cut, and in neat little packages for myself before Christmas.

I've been thinking about hexies but I haven't landed on a good collection to make them from or what I might turn them into once sewn together. Have you seen any hexie projects that you think I'd like?

Any other suggestions for hand piecing? I'm open to paper piecing . . . I've just never tried anything other than hexies.

I like embroidery, but, again, I'm blanking on coming up with an embroidery project. Hmm . . . maybe some embroidered hoop art for the walls?

I have skeins of Cascade 220 that were intended for little crocheted pouches but I'm not sure that this will be the time to try to master a craft I'm not very adept at. I think crocheting might take more concentration than I'll have during this time.

I also have this beautiful alpaca that I bought with the intent of making, basically, a headwarmer. But, I kind of think it's a shame to waste it on something I won't likely wear so I've just let it sit and stare me in the face for weeks. Suggestions?

I think the ultimate project for this time off would be hand quilting this beauty.

I've been wanting to get it done for ages and just haven't made the time to baste it myself so I sent it off to Elvira, my long-arm quilter, to baste for me. It's so big that I haven't really had the space to do it! I should also probably order some pearl cotton, right? Maybe one of those gorgeous Anna Maria Horner bundles. Yep, I'd better put that on my Christmas list.

So, thanks for letting me ramble. And, if you have suggestions for a hexie project or another hand-piecing or light project, I'd really love to hear it! Seriously.

Baby Talk

I've been dying to share the news . . . that I am finally going to be an aunt in June!

I've been dying to share the news . . . that I am finally going to be an aunt in June!

Yes, you just read that twice. Why? Because, Chris and I got to hear and celebrate this news two times back in October when both his baby sister, Lindsey, and my li'l sis, Martina, announced to us that they are due with their little nuggets only 8 days apart!

And so begins the planning and creating of all things cute and cuddly for these already much-loved little ones. I cannot wait to meet my little niece(s) and/or nephew(s)!

On Saturday, I went out to see my sister and surprised her with a little "congratulations!" gift. Martina's face was priceless as she tried to figure out what the tangled mess of fabric was. But, once she figured it out, I think she liked the handmade nursing cover (aka boobie blanket).

In order to avoid photos as terrible as they turned out last time I made one of these fun, functional gifts, I made Martina open her gift and then awkwardly model both her's (left) and the one I made for Lindsey (right).

This project reminded me just how difficult it is to choose fabrics for projects being made for other people. I'm sure my stash has plenty of things either of these cute, stylish ladies would love . . . but when it comes down to it, it's really tough to choose! That Amy Butler Daisy Chain print is one of my all-time favorites and it suits Martina's modern country vibe. The forks and spoons fabric is graphic and modern and adds the perfect touch of humor to Lindsey's. It was all I could do to resist putting a big embroidered label right on the front that said "I eat at mom's" on that one. I'm pretty smitten with the way the tiles print from the DS Quilts collections brings a youthful feel to both.

I am really looking forward to seeing these two amazing young women grow into amazing young moms. Both of these little kiddos are going to be so blessed by the women that God has chosen to be their mothers. And I, personally, already feel blessed to be a part of their teeny, tiny little lives.

Daisy Mae I?

I'm not the kind of girl who cuts into a fresh stash of fabric on a whim. Well, not typically anyway. Yesterday happened to be another story, though. I sat there and stared at my fresh stash of DS Quilts Daisy Mae and just decided to start cutting.

My stack went from this . . .

 To this mess . . .

 To this.

 Another similar top will be coming soon. Simple gifts for two special couples.

 More to come!

Dreaming in Voile

My mom and I are working on a collaborative quilt for someone special for Christmas. Mom purchased the fabric and I'm planning to put it together. We originally envisioned a simple quilt of strips like this . . .

which is the one Mary Claire made me for the Urban Home Goods Swap last year or the one that inspired it, but once we received all of the ordered fabric, we quickly realized we had too many prints to work with that design. So, I've been playing with swatches in InDesign again . . . trying to come up with some other possibilities. But, who knows—we may end up right back where we started with a simple strip quilt instead. Only time shall tell!

What do you think?