September Birthdays

I know far too many people born in September, which lead to a couple of weeks of mad sewing. I'm not sure how it happened, but I swear, the birthdays crept up on me! 

This month I made a Feliz Cumpleanos banner (not picture -- I didn't have time to take a photo before I mailed it off), two Happy Birthday banners, a set of mustaches, and one last gift that has not quite made it out of the door, so I won't spill the secret.

Zissou, also a September birthday, is never camera shy. I kept fighting with him to move so that I could snap a couple of photos, but he wouldn't have it. Instead fighting him, I let him have his way, and I ended up with this adorable photo. 

Here's an up close photo of the Happy Birthday banner. I made two of these, much smaller than my original banners, and with a new font, which I'm liking more than the bolded American Typewriter I normally use. 

The letters are a little more work, but I really like how they turned out. I'm hoping to head out to the fabric store sometime this weekend to pick up some materials for my Christmas banner.


And, as a special gift for my friend and coworker, I made this set of mustaches! The hardest part making these was deciding what kind of mustache I wanted to make. I'm not exactly happy with who they look (there's a little messiness where the douwel was hot glued in), but I started cutting and crafting without a plan. Now I know for the next time. Does anyone want a set of these?

I have one last gift that I made for my sister, who's birthday is next week, but I'll post that after the 29th. 


Happy Birthday, everyone!

Labor Day Fun: prepping for new projects

It's fitting that on Labor Day I finally have the time and energy to begin prepping for some new projects. Check out the fabrics I bought this morning!

So with an idea in mind, and remembering the wonderful colors and shapes that I was inspired by on my visit to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and the beautiful beaches, I headed over to my favorite brick and mortar fabric store, Stonemountain and Daughter. The fabrics above are all for a new quilt I'll be working on. Unfortunately, this will be another long project that will take me weeks, if not months to complete. What a bummer, but a great lesson in patience. I'll try and post updates on my progress to keep me motivated; it'll give me a sense of accountability!

I've also begun prepping my materials for Christmas gifts (yes, already)! Did you read that lovely sisters of mine? I'm already getting started on your Christmas gifts! I'll be spending a lot of my evenings working with my hands, needles and thread. I can't express how much I'm looking forward to being creatively active again. And since I don't wan to spoil the Christmas surprise,  I'll refrain from posting images.

And for now, I'm off to finish cooking my mom's famous Mexican rice. 

Birthday gifts

Wow. I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last updated! There have been so many evenings that I've wanted to write, but just didn't have the energy to put together a new entry, or to even work on a project. I recently started a new job, and have spent the last month adjusting to a new schedule and attempting to manage my energy. I'm only now gaining the upper hand!

On a positive project note, I did finish up a birthday gift for my mother-in-law. Remember the Patchwork Star I made in June? Well, I spent a good two weeks sewing the star onto a piece of muslin. When it was finally finished, Joel stretched it on a piece of matt board, and framed it. It took much longer than I initially planned, but I made my deadline, and my Mum received her gift on time. And, she loved it!

I'm finding myself drawn more and more to quilting! Maybe it's because it's one of the few projects I can work on while plopped on the couch and watching TV?

Well, I have a quilt planned out (more about that soon), and can't wait to go fabric shopping this weekend. I promise I won't neglect this blog as much.

Decorating

Joel and I have done a good job at decorating our living room and kitchen in the 10 months that we've lived in our apartment, but our bedroom has been severely neglected. Well, that has finally changed! We took advantage of our weekend and finished up some projects, like matting some prints and framing others.

Even though our kitchen is set up nicely, we still felt like something was missing, and Joel suggested putting up a chalkboard in our kitchen to jot down notes, lists, etc. And instead of buying one, we decided to make one! We picked up a piece of MDF that was way too long and had them cut it down into two pieces: one for the kitchen like we originally planned, and the second for the bedroom since we had the left over piece.

Once we got home, we prepped our work station (a picnic table in the backyard), and started by applying two coats of primer, and called it a day. The next morning we applied a coat of the chalkboard paint, which has a drying time of 30 minutes between coats. Throughout the day we periodically applied coats of paint to the board until the sun went down and the pieces were mostly dry. And the next morning once the pieces were fully dry, Joel attached some screws and the chalkboards ready to hang. And this is what we now have up in our room:

The yellow print of the owl was a gift from my sister, which we matted and re-framed. The embroidered bird is the one I made a couple of months ago and finally got around to mounting on some mat board and framed, and of course the new chalkboard! Joel added the bunch of lavender as a surprise, which I absolutely love because it reminds me of the hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon that had bunches of lavender placed throughout the hotel.

On the other wall in the room we put up the quilted honeycomb that I blogged about here. The room feels complete, and definitely more homey now. I'll try and post photos of the rest of the house soon!

finished Quilted Library of Babel

Two straight weeks of sewing, 1 1/2 yards of fabric, and 62 hexagons later...

I originally planned to do some Sashiko embroidery, but instead sewed a few bees to complete the honeycomb/beehive look. Once I was finished, I stitched it onto a piece of canvas, and Joel stretched it onto some stretcher bars for me.

And now this 16" x 40" piece of quilted art is hanging in our bedroom. I'm so happy with how it turned out! It feels great to have finished the project, but I already have another one lined up! My hands just can't sit still for too long.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Inspiration

I wanted to share some of the inspiration for the Quilted Library of Babel project I've been working on. For this project I've drawn on a short story, a favorite movie and my favorite color palette.

Library of Babel/La Biblioteca de Babel

The name itself references Jorge Luis Borges' short story, The Library of Babel (Biblioteca de Babel), in which he describes the library as a universe that consists of an enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each of which contains the bare necessities for human survival—and four walls of bookshelves. It's one of my favorite stories, and I've been fascinated by it for years.

Set in the 1940's, Espiritu de la colmena is a film by Spanish director Victor Erice. It's eerie, quiet and just beautiful to watch. I first saw this film for a Spanish film class in graduate school, and instantly fell in love with it. One theme, that is carried out throughout the entire movie, is that of the beehive. The image of the honeycomb is seen various times in the movie -- it's very hard to miss! Not only is this movie visually stunning, but it's an amazing critique of post-Spanish civil war society and the effects of dictatorship and war on a society, and it's individuals.

Papered Pom set from BHLDN

A couple of years ago when my husband and I were planning our wedding, we drew a lot of inspiration from our love of books, and the stylish items and decor at Anthropologie stores. Above is a papered pom set from Anthropologie's wedding line, BHLDN, that is pretty spot on to the color scheme I chose for my project. It's also very similar to the colors at our wedding -- very soft and warm tones. If only BHLDN existed when I got married. Side note: We actually had tissue paper flowers/poms, that were made with the help of my awesome coworkers, decorating the backdrop for our ceremony.

Isn't this brooch beautiful? Couldn't pass posting this little guy.

Honeybee Brooch from BHLDN

Well, there you have it! What things bring inspiration to your projects?

Quilted Library of Babel

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on for the last week and a half:

from this:

to this:

and finally, this:

Just a few more touches before I can reveal the whole project. Stay tuned!