scrap me silly.

oh my, where does the time go? the looooong pauses between posts are unintentional, but it seems that they are here to stay. luckily for all of us, keri is determined that this is not the year our blogs will die, so here we are. so happy together.

this little fella sucks up all of my time.

the days are all running together, so it seems like just yesterday that mrs. nipper knapp and i decided that we should make quilts for ourselves. just for fun. just because we are awesome. just because. yup, that is it. we have no other reason. but considering that my scrap box is now three boxes, yes three, it seemed like a good idea. of course i do not undertake projects like this without a plan, so i started pondering what pattern i would use. i wandered through internet land. lots of scrap quilts. and then i jumped onto pinterest. whoa nelly, loads of scrappy quilts. and now i am completely overwhelmed. while i have dithered back and forth between patterns, the missus n.p. has been sewing and sewing and sewing. and trying her hardest to get me motivated to jump in while the quilting is warm.

the problem, of course, is that i have about as much time for sewing as i do for everything else. ummm, none. oh and my sewing machine lives in the bedroom. where big-E sleeps. but, i dragged my machine into the living room and mrs. n.p. gave me another kick in the pants and now i am seriously determined to start before the end of this week. so i picked a pattern. i think. oh my god, there are sooo many. and they are so lovely. and i want to make them all. but i think i have made my decision. final answer? yes. i think. 

granny squares from blue elephant stitches.

i am ridiculously enamored of quilts that have bits of color in a sea of white. this pattern definitely fits that bill. but then i started thinking that it is not going to relieve me of my humongous stack of scraps. plus, i am still struggling to settle on just one pattern. sooooo... i am going to make a double-sided quilt. i mean, why not? it is a quilt for me. so i can do whatever i want. might as well make it so complicated that i can work on it until big-E is twenty-three. wheeeeeeeee!!

string quilt by leesa. oooh la la.

the back (or is it the front) will be a string quilt, which is sort of a patternless pattern. delectable. so with no further ado, here goes nothing. uhh, i mean, here goes the quilting.

THE quilt finito.

a rather startling event happened this weekend....i finished the quilt. not one step, or two, but the whole durn thing. that is right kids. the quilt is done. finished. fertig. finito. just as i was starting to think that i would never ever complete this monumental task, i bumped into a whole lot of motivation and voila. success. this must be nesting, because lots of other things have also happened in the last seventy two hours, but that is a story for another day. for now, the quilt in all of its glory.

we are still awaiting the fabric from the mister's family in lesotho. yes, it has been a loooong time. six and a half weeks. ugh. luckily the quilt's design allowed me to finish, while leaving a space for the missing pieces (those pieces are included in all of the quilt "counts").

forty six contributors sent  fabric from five continents: north america, europe, australia, asia, and africa; five countries: united states, germany, australia, united arab emirates, and lesotho; and twelve states: arizona, california, colorado, florida, georgia, idaho, illinois, new mexico, new york, rhode island, tennessee, and virginia.

since many of pringle's well-wishers sent more than one cloth, we had sixty-four fabrics to work with. as much as possible, i tried to include a large and a small circle of each contribution, which resulted in a grand total of NINETY NINE circles. 

in keeping with the spirit of the circles, i added loops to my favorite meandering quilting pattern (the white lines looping all over the fabric is the quilting). i cannot tell a lie...i love the way it looks.

we are still in awe of the number of people that sent fabric for the quilt. family from around the world. friends from childhood, college, peace corps, and work. some folks we have never even met in-person, others we have only met once or twice. but no matter how new or old the friendship, it has been amazing to discover how loved our little nugget is, even before her/his arrival.

to everyone who sent fabric, this quilt's for you, from you, because of you!!! THANK YOU!!!

cover up.

when i bought my sewing machine, i vowed to make a cover for it. how hard could it be, right? no problem, except i would have to put aside my three million other projects to tackle that one. such an easy project, yet it always got relegated to the back burner. five years later i finally reached the moment when it was time to make the cover. i pondered my stash of fabric...not wanting to use my "good" fabric for such a mundane project, yet still hoping for something adorable to stare at when the machine is not in use. enter mrs. nipper knapp of my mom's a nerd.

some of you are probably wondering who on earth is this mrs. nipper knapp lady that keeps cropping up in my posts. well, i met her two years ago at the wedding of one of my best friends. she was the photographer, but also the wife of the groom's cousin. i had heard that she was crafty and when i met her i thought she was perfectly lovely, but we were at a wedding, not a quilting bee, and she was busy photographing all the festivities. we did not have a chance to dive into our shared interests. after the wedding we became facebook friends and it was quickly evident that our aesthetics are closely aligned. and she makes stuff. all kinds of stuff. and she has a project list that rivals my own. but most precious to me, she too is spellbound by fabric, nifty sewing projects, and quilts. at first i was afraid she would think i was stalking her, because i was enamored of all the projects she spotlighted on her blog. but then i gave up any pretenses and just gushed my excitement for everything. since then i have happily helped her with some of the technicalities of sewing and quilting and she has provided ridiculous amounts of inspiration. she has a superb knack for discovering hidden gems and has singlehandedly doubled the list of things i want to make. so of course, when it was time to design my sewing machine cover, it was one of her finds that led me to the dark side...turning a project from super simple to ridiculously complicated. and i would not have it any other way. thanks mrs. nipper knapp.

a close-up view of the sewing machine cover.

the find is a tutorial on comfortstitching for an applique of a girl on a tree swing. i decided to take the "easy" route and skip the girl and the tree, but i used the featured applique technique. i created a colorful strip with  all my scraps of fabric and used it as the centerpiece of my sewing machine cover. the whole project took six hours, which even i will admit is ridiculous for an appliance cover, but the results are super snazzy. i share a bedroom with my sewing corner, so this is one of the first things i will see every morning. not a bad way to start the day.

the two sides of the sewing machine cover atop its precious cargo.

the grand finale.

hoot! hoot!

for most of the world, christmas is long gone. but we are in our own little world in miami. i promised the darling ms. pumpky that i would have a gift for her, but it had to wait until after the overwhelming pre-christmas days. we agreed to exchange gifts shortly after the new year, but well, i am a giant stinker and was not ready until yesterday. see, i had this brilliant plan to make her a lovely bag for school. sadly, the "perfect" bag that i made was lovely, but totally not perfect for her. time for a new plan, but i was completely stumped. and then i remembered the last time i visited her home and froze on her couch, because she has lost her throw blanket. not sure how you lose a throw blanket, but she did. and i was cold. so i thought to myself, the lass needs a couch blanket!!! and i had the perfect idea, because not too long ago i was trying to convince mrs. nipper knapp that she could indeed quilt a quilt and it did not have to be scary (she has since made and quilted a perfectly lovely quilt...bravo!). as an example i showed her this positively genius quilt by katie did. of course, ever since i found this design i have wanted to make one and now was the perfect chance. so i wasted nary a minute and headed promptly to joanns to procure the materials.

now this quilt was intended as a one-day project. but, well, i am six months pregnant and there is only so much i can do in one day. plus, although i have done little bits here and there, this was my first true experience with applique. i could not resist adding some cute-as-a-button owls. but, ummm...fusible interfacing? what's that? oh right, you need it to applique and apparently if you do not follow the directions rather precisely, things do not work out so lovely. anyhow, long story short, this turned into a four day quilt, but i am pleased as punch with the results, so the time spent was well worth it. oh and ms. pumpky was quite simply delighted.

my first experience with fusible interfacing. it took a few hours, but i finally had the two little owls ready to be appliqued.

the finished quilt. ready just in time for christmas in february. yahoo!

i am completely enamored of this binding fabric.

the back. pretty purple is pumpky's preference.

naturally.

i never run out of things that i need to sew. the current list includes two quilts, a gym bag, some yet to be determined christmas gifts, and all sorts of goodies for my nephew. oh and i have an etsy shop that has not been getting its deserved attention. right. naturally that means it is time to wander the internet to find a gazillion other projects to add to the list. there are so many amazing blogs and so little time.

so with "nothing" to do today, i decided it was imperative that my nephew have the most perfect handmade advent calendar in the world. right. he is 11 months, so i am sure he would agree this is a necessity. i used this adorable design as inspiration (a little pocket for each day...too cute!!) and spent the last two days "whipping" it together. clearly, i am shamelessly bucking for the auntie of the year award. 

the cutest advent calendar in the world.

i figure if i want that coveted title, i better end this year with a bang. last week i was thinking chickens. but i just discovered these owl pillows, which i think are the bees knees.

well i guess that would be the owls knees. me thinks that perhaps for christmas the nephew is getting some owls instead of a chicken. thoughts? or perhaps you have a better idea...do tell!!! meanwhile, i am off to go work on one of the quilts.

the quilting saga.

i am not exactly sure what originally caused my quilt obsession, but some time in my childhood i came up with the notion that i wanted to make a quilt and that idea never left me. i started many a quilt during the years, but at some point in the process i always stopped. it was not until i joined the peace corps that i actually managed to piece together enough little bits of fabric to get past the inevitable hump that tries to block you from finishing a quilt. i have always been fascinated by crazy quilts. "crazy" meaning that instead of a structured repeating design, every square is a mish-mash of fabric. sounds simple. no problem. i thought "crazy" was just the design. oh no. crazy is how you feel when you are putting one of these together. every single little piece of fabric is stitched onto a backing fabric and then every edge of these itty-bitty pieces is embroidered, so it will not unravel. and that is just making the squares. right.

anyhow, my stint in the peace corps exposed me to lots of gorgeous fabric. i sewed and sewed and resewed. and i saved every single scrap, no matter how small. being enamored with quilts, i of course was once again planning a quilt. i started the quilt in 2004, sewing by hand in my little hut. then in 2005 i moved to a "modern" house with electricity for a few months and used an electric sewing machine. wahoo! after relentless periods of sewing like mad, i returned from africa with one hundred pieced together squares. although these still needed a LOT of work, somehow that hurdle of creating 100 squares was enough motivation to get me through the entire quilting process. and it was a HUGE process. holy bananas.  after i moved back to the states, i settled in seattle, where i diligently embroidered edges with a hand-me-down sewing machine. the sewing machine did not fit in my little car when i moved across the country, so i bought a new machine in 2006 and continued the mammoth task of embroidering edges. 2007 was the year of cutting all the squares to size and piecing them together. finally in 2008 i put together all the layers, quilted them together, and finished off the quilt. 4 homes, 3 sewing machines, 2 continents, 1 quilt. the finished product is large enough to comfortably cover a queen-size mattress. 

 the african crazy quilt.

so, having cut my quilting teeth on such a massive project, i have since found smaller quilts to be a "simple" process. okay fine, they are not exactly simple, but they are sure a whole bunch easier than monster-sized bedspreads. plus i now know what i am doing, which helps.

wowsa, wowsa, wedding quilts.

after the peace corps quilt, i came up with the brilliant plan to create a quilt for each of my best friends' wedding gifts. three quilts. fantastic. and then they all got married within 12 months of each other. gasp. let us just say that i did a whole bunch of quilting in a short amount of time. naturally when my brother informed me that he was going to be a daddy, my brain went into instant hyper-drive planning the perfect baby quilt.

the baby quilt bonanza.

and then i opened an etsy shop and realized that maybe, just maybe, i could convince people to BUY my quilts. this added a whole new dimension to my quilting, because i discovered that perhaps i could feed my quilting habit without sending the mister and i into financial ruin. fancy. i have not actually yet sold one to someone outside of my family, but i am hopeful. the only thing i did not calculate was how much this quilting obsession would take over my life. let us just say that i am putting together fabric combinations in my sleep. two years ago i had never before finished a quilt and now i have completed seven and have more in production. egads!!!

a little nutty.

just in case you were not entirely convinced that i have lost my marbles... i created a "store." personally i think it is charming. the mister snagged this display case before his store threw it in the dumpster. it has been sitting  idle for four months waiting for creative inspiration. it came sans shelves, but i got crafty with cardboard. maybe one day i will even paint the cardboard. now this store will likely only ever see one customer (yes pumpky, that's you!), but did that stop me from creating a sign? nope. like i said...etsy and i are tight. just like two peas in a pod
.

happy april fool's day!!

i heart etsy.

sewing has taken over my life. actually more to the point, etsy has taken over my life. with some prompting from the delightfully bossy k.h. and lots and lots and lots of support from everyone i know, i opened a shop on etsy. sound simple? well then, you are not me. me does not do simple. ever. i take on one itty bitty little project and i find a way to stretch it into an all consuming life-sucking machine.

it began on saturday. i decided to start putting together my little project. first i had to setup my etsy store. definitely more involved that just giving them my name. they want descriptions about me and my store and they want to know my policies about everything from shipping to nose-picking (okay not really, but it felt like it). i mean geez. i just wanna sell a bag. i finally get all of the nitty gritty figured out and then, because i am me i had to create a brand for myself. i used a heart to create my logo. yes logo. i know i know. everyone else who does these things just writes the name of their store and moves on. not me. i need a logo. and a font. and thank you cards. and package design. if i am gonna do this, i am gonna do it right. do you see how this becomes a time sucker??

once i had the online part figured out and designed all of the pieces of my brand i had to create some products to fill my store. not knowing what my adoring fans would like to see i just started sewing. and sewing. and sewing. i have forgotten to eat, cook, and sleep. i havent even been to the grocery store. in fact this morning i woke up and discovered that breakfast was a no-go. we had no food. i have no idea what the mister consumed before heading off to work, but lucky for me he is amazingly accepting of these periods of time when i completely neglect our pantry. otherwise things would be getting ugly.

clearly i am losing my mind. but etsy and i were meant to be together. i have been sewing or playing on etsy or talking about etsy or thinking about sewing nonstop since saturday morning.  i look at my etsy page every 27 seconds. and i created an etsy tab on my facebook profile. and i created a fan page for my etsy store. and i created an etsy widget for my blog. it's like we are soul mates. i feel the same as i did when i was in middle school and wrote my name and a boy's name in a heart and then giggled about it with my friends. pickel+etsy=love.

visit my shop. please. it will make me happy. and you know what? it might just make you happy too!

leratodesigns.etsy.com