Hip To Piece Squares

published!

I've been published in the Spring 2012 issue of Stitch Magazine!

At the advice of some wonderfully sewy friends, I decided to submit my Patchwork Lunch Sack pattern to Interweave Press' Stitch Magazine last summer. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes of actually hearing anything back from them, but to my surprise, they accepted my pattern! Talk about being excited!

I've been eagerly awaiting the new issue, and I couldn't be any happier. It's a beautiful issue, with lots of really great projects. And I seriously think that my bag looks better than I could have ever made it look on my own--the styling is fantastic. I am truly on Cloud 9.

So, I definitely need to thank some wonderful friends for convincing me to take this step and do this. Andrea, Laura and Rebekah--thank you for believing in me!

new year, new quilt

It feels really good to finish a quilt! Despite sewing my fingers sore over the past year, it had been since last March since I worked on a quilt. That was too long.

I spent a week after Christmas hanging out in my sewing room, going through my fabrics, and knowing that I wanted to start a quilt, but I just couldn't put together in my mind what I wanted to make. I think I was overwhelmed.

Then, after one day back at work (and feeling so frustrated that I hadn't really done any sewing over my vacation) I knew what I wanted to make. The colors, the fabrics, the backing...I was so excited to get home and start.

It took me five days to make this quilt from start to finish. I've never finished a quilt so quickly before! And it turned out to be a perfect gift for my friend Allison. I'm ready to get started on another!

my new alter ego

Conversation tonight with Ben on our walk:

Me: "....I like it because it's patchwork-y."

Ben: "Do they work at State Farm?"

Me: "????"

Ben: "Pat Schwirkey. It just sounds like someone who probably sells insurance at State Farm.

Me: "YES! That's totally my new alter ego!"

So yeah. Here's something patchwork-y made by the very un-insurance selling Pat Schwirkey.

summer rolls on

It's hard for me to believe how quickly this summer has flown by. I still have much to do before I go back to work for the year. Recently, I've been working on a few projects related to the blog and my Etsy shop.

I guess the biggest project so far has been with my shop. Today is my 6th (!!) anniversary of my original Etsy shop. I suppose that in celebration of that, I finally made the decision to begin closing it. My new shop is pretty much exactly the same as the old, but I've changed my user name to "hiptopiecesquares." I'm hoping that helps people find me a little better. I'd love it if you'd be willing to stop by and give it a little love.

I should mention, though, that I'm having a moving sale. All of what's left in the old shop is 25% off, with the code Move11 at checkout. If you're interested.

Also, I've been working here! Take a look at my new main page! All of the links aren't working just yet, but they will be soon. I'm excited to finally have my own domain name too! Makes things feel a little more professional around here.

Finally, if you haven't and have a Facebook account, you can "like" Hip To Piece Squares there too! I'm trying very hard to keep that updated as well.

Enough of all that! I'll be back with a real post again soon.

and suddenly, I'm 10 years old again

Hey! You know what's cool again??

Okay, so I don't know if they're cool with EVERYBODY, but they're cool with me! I saw a post the other day on The Purl Bee, that featured old school macraméd friendship bracelets and I decided I had to make some immediately.

I can so clearly remember taking home the free, peel off instruction sheets on how to make the various bracelets from the Piece Goods Shop at the mall in about the 4th grade. I worked for hours on them, and would use my allowance to go back and buy more of the colorful floss to make more and more. I never really thought of it as doing a craft back then, but now I think about how these were part of my start in loving to make things for myself and other people.

Plus, they're super fun. And I make way good ones. AND, if you're my friend, I just might make you one!

mini madness

I'm starting to learn that good things really do come in small packages. Even small quilts are really, really good. In fact, it's as good or even almost more gratifying than a large quilt right now.

I've been wanting to do more quilting for a while now. The problem is, I never seem to finish what I start. I have more quilt projects than I'd like to discuss that are sitting in the unfinished pile that just sit and wait for me to have more time to commit to them. But when I have so much other sewing to work on (I have three upcoming, two day craft shows that kick off next weekend). I just can't justify working on my bigger projects. And I SO want to.

Instead of pulling out bigger projects, I'm starting small. I can still quilt, but I can finish a project in a day, or, even better, a few hours. I'm planning on taking them to my upcoming shows, but I haven't decided if I'm going to try selling them or not. I just think they'll look great hanging above my table.

Now, instead of people coming to my tent and then walking away and then thinking to theirselves, "oh, look at all the mediocre bags and pouches," they'll say "oh, look at all the mediocre bags and pouches AND QUILTS." And then they'll walk away without stopping.

Sigh.

'bout time!

If posting about a finished quilt three months after I finish it is somehow wrong...well, then I just don't want to be right.

So, then.

Back in March, my nephew Vaughn, turned one. Ben made him a beautiful, cherry wood toy box, and I wanted to make him a small quilt to go along with it. I had picked up this Riley Blake fabric earlier in the year, but at the time, I had no idea what to do with it. It was just too cute to pass up.

It's certainly nothing fancy. Strip quilts are about my least favorite kind of quilt--they seem like such a cop out, but I just really wanted to make something so that the fabric would really show. There's a couple of big prints in the bunch, and I wanted to make sure that Vaughn could really pick out the cars. So, strip quilt it was.

The one thing I was please about was my second real attempt at free motion quilting. It's still not perfect, by any means, but I think I did even better than on my Log Cabins In the Snow quilt. It felt more natural while I was sewing it, and I certainly wasn't as stressed out about making mistakes this time. It makes the whole process a lot more enjoyable.

more about those strips

If I thought the few weeks of creative block was bad this past month, I had no idea what was to come. I was down for the count for a whole week of a stomach virus, complete with an itchy rash that kept me in bed for too, too long.

But finally today I'm feeling lots better, and I am READY to get back to sewing.

I've got a lot on my mind right now...I need to finish projects for people, craft shows must be applied to in the next several days....there's loose ends to tie up everywhere. But after work today, I came home and worked again with those little fabric strips I was telling you about last time.

I don't know how it's possible, but those strips have pulled me out of my slump and I'm ready to make so much again. Tonight, I worked on a few pouches and journal covers and everything came together without stress. It's the kind of feeling where you're excited about the project of the moment, but you can't help but think about the details of the next three projects as well.

I wish I had more photos to show you, but I promise there will be much more in the days to come. I'm so ready to get back to work.

tiny strips

I've been unblocked!

Now, if only I hadn't have run out of white linen, this project would be going much smoother.

blocked, blocked, and still blocked

I am insanely fed up with being at a creative block.

Today, out of sheer frustration for not making progress on anything, I forced myself to start cutting pieces for....something. I don't even know what I'm making. I just felt that if I didn't do anything, that I'd feel even more behind and blocked. I'm not sure it really helped. I'm doubting choices in colors and sizes and I don't even know what I'd like for it to become.

Yesterday I spent the majority of my time in the sewing room looking at what I have, and not being able to make any decisions. Finally, I cut up some green, brown and white 3 inch, half square triangles and sewed them together to work on a bag idea I had some time ago. I wasn't happy with the colors together, and so now they're just sitting and waiting for me to decide what I should do with them. I don't know though.

I should be spending my time working on my half-finished lunch sacks, but after a series of pretty major mistakes in the process of making them, I'm frustrated with them. I'd like to finish them and get them off to their respective new homes, but I'm overwhelmed with finishing them.

I'm genuinely frustrated with my mindset these days. I want to work on projects and make strides in finishing things, but I'm having a lot of issues with self-doubt and second guessing. I'm having a lot of trouble shaking that feeling and just getting on with the making process.

(Finally, to wrap up my last post about my oops fabric--it has gone to a good home. A friend mentioned to me very quickly after the post went up that she'd have a perfect use for it, so I told her it was hers! A loving home was indeed found!)

the horror!

I ordered a few fabric basics this past weekend from fabric.com, as I often do. I've never been unhappy with an order from them and I always seem to be able to make it to the $35 that qualifies for free shipping. And based on this stack of fabrics, I'd be a pretty happy camper.

But then this was in the package as well:

Barf in my mouth! There's GLITTER all over it. (The photo does not do it justice. Actually, nothing does it justice.)

Here's the crazy thing though:

I personally have bought YARDS of that Amy Butler Lotus print. This, however, is not that print. I know this as a fact.

Before I slander fabric.com though, they were very accommodating when I called to tell them about the problem. They're sending out my new fabric to me and told me I didn't have to worry about sending back the extra cut.

Now, what the heck do I do with glittery, fairy fabric?!

try, try again

I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was in a funk on Sunday. The previous day I had some trouble with the lunch sacks that I've been working on, and it landed me in a grumpy, un-creative mood all day. I tried so hard to pull myself out of it, but things were just not meant to be. I needed a little break.

I finally managed to pull it together late in the day and I put this little fold over clutch together--not perfect, but a decent first try. I bought the pattern from Keyka Lou and although I think it's a well written pattern, I'm just not sold on the usefulness of it. Do people really carry clutches? I'm not sure if I could classify myself as a clutch-carrier. I thought they'd look really cute all patchworked-out, but I'm not sure if it's worth my time to make more. I'm just feeling lukewarm about it.

So although I'm not feeling so grumpy, I feel like my inspiration is still dwindling. I know the deadlines for spring shows are just around the corner and I'm trying to get a jump on having things made.

Is it the cold weather that's making me feel so sluggish? I'm wishing for spring warmth to sneak in and melt my frozen bones.

happiness is...

...home from work, Friday afternoon. A sunny sewing room. No other plans for the weekend other than to spend my time here.

Happiness is making things. Sometimes it makes me so happy that I can't even believe it.

Happy Friday, Friends.

snow day, part 2

Snow day, part 2 was all about the sewing. It. Was. Wonderful.

These are all the starts of new lunchboxes. I had started out just planning on working on one--the top picture--which is going to be for a friend's sister. I love the fabric (It's a Hoot by Moda) and was excited to get started on it. I got into a real rhythm, and by the end of the night, I had all of this work done. Nothing's finished, of course, but everything seems to be ready for the next step now.

Back to see the kids for one more day this week. As strange as it might seem, these last two days of being home made me pine for the summer. Having all day to sew makes me so very happy.

snow day, part 1

Hurray for a snow day!

We got a lot of snow and even more wind last night up through mid-day today. It's hard to tell how much we really got since it blew around so much, but I think it's a safe guess at around a foot. Not quite as much as the weather people were calling for, but it's certainly more than we've had all winter.

As much as I had wanted to do today on my day off, I ended up doing a lot of snoozing and movie watching to try to knock out my cold instead. Hudson and I did make it out to play in the snow together this afternoon and I was glad for that. I'll have another shot to make a day off worth it in the sewing room tomorrow--I've already received my phone call letting me know that school is called off for tomorrow too!