… pretty things

so many pretty things in life, so little time!



i finally (finally) tackled the retro flowers block for the february do. good stitches love circle quilt. did i mention that i'm the one who picked this block? and i hadn't even tried making it yet? ha! good thing for me it came together without too many problems. a couple of my seams are off by a tiny bit, but i'm not too bothered by that. and the best news? i am no longer intimidated by curves, thanks to this incredibly well-written pattern. here's something else nice about this: christina from the sometimes crafter donated her lovely pattern for us to use this month. not only is she an amazing designer, but she a sweetheart, too!



the blocks have started coming in from my circle members, and they are looking fabulous. i asked for flowers in bright, saturated warm colors: fuchsias, oranges, reds, yellows, oh my! here they are co-mingling with my collection of arkansas traveler blocks.

i was initially making mixed color blocks for the arkansas travelers, but i decided i liked them better when they were just aqua or just yellow/orange/gold. i may use the multi-colored ones for the back. or see how they might come into play on the front. i still have quite a few left to sew, though. slowly but surely, right?



i've also received some lovely fabric in the mail lately, most notably this stack of screenprinted fabric depicting the visual english alphabet designed by the ever-fabulous lauren. is this seriously not the most awesome fabric ever?



but it gets better! she also sent along this ingrid fabric as a bonus for me (pardon the terrible instagram photo). if i wasn't already smitten with lauren i'm totally in love with her now.

and, of course, the loveliest of them all, my sweet snowdrop.



fabric: rashida coleman-hale washi tape in beige (from the washi collection)



fabric: ikea by lotta kuhlhorn

she's a real champ at sitting up lately. i swear she said "mama" the other day. i'm sure it wasn't directed at me, and yet it totally melted my heart. totally.

… a tidy pantry

i know, i know, this is so unglamorous, but i just have to share. as you can see, my pantry needed a serious makeover. and by makeover, i really just mean that it needed to be cleaned the eff out.



looking at these photos, i actually can't believe how terrible it was before. i am truly ashamed. meaning i am filled with actual shame that i let it get this bad. that pile of bags alone is giving me palpitations. and what you can't see in these pictures is the layer of dust and grime that covered the floor. i couldn't even look at what i unearthed underneath those cartons of almond milk and stacks of napkins. [shudder]

so armed with some elbow grease and a bunch of extra storage jars that i picked up at ikea, i went to town on this sucker and ruthlessly chucked expired icky food, consolidated items, moved much of the bulk foods to jars and scrubbed scrubbed scrubbed. i even took all of those aprons down and threw them all in the wash (i have a terrible habit of not washing my aprons very frequently).



and, let me tell you, i am tickled with the result. so much so that whenever i walk by the pantry now i open it up and just stare at it. and grab a few celebratory chocolate chips from the chocolate chip jar*.



i can't decide what my favorite part is. it's between all the pleasingly filled jars and the baking shelf. i do love all my baking supplies to be organized with much-used ingredients close at hand.



there are still a few items still in bags, but they are mostly just backups to the bulk items that we eat frequently and are already in jars, and a few oddball items that i can't bring to give their own storage containers yet. but i've already become better about using what's in the pantry, which, take my word for it, is much easier to do when you can actually see that you have on hand.

this is all part of a bigger scheme of mine to work on household projects with some regularity. there are so many things i've neglected or just not gotten around to, so i'm trying to commit to doing at least one big project every week. and i will reward myself with chocolate chips and self pats on the back. yay, me!

*it is my humble opinion that everyone needs a chocolate chip jar.

… going forward

i am not a fan of backtracking. i so dislike making mistakes and i get frustrated when i have to undo work. i mean, seriously frustrated.

so here's the good news: i was able to make it to a seattle modern quilt guild meeting recently and it was actually thrilling (thrilling, i tell you!) to catch up with friends and spend several uninterrupted hours sewing. the bad news: the iron that i packed with my sewing supplies somehow leaked onto one of my arkansas traveler blocks and stained the fabric from the ink on the paper. blargh. i am already not a fan of ripping out seams, but let me tell you, ripping out paper-pieced seams is a real nightmare. i did finally get it together enough to fix this little setback, which was almost easier than it should have been and now i'm right back on track. whew!



and, i can't believe it, but i have now finished nine of these blocks and have many sets of diamonds at the ready for more paper piecing. yay!



i also can't believe that it was only a couple of short weeks ago that we had all that snow in seattle. in true seattle february fashion, today it was over 60 degrees and it honestly felt like spring. even a die-hard, rain-loving northwesterner like me was pretty happy to be outside enjoying the bright fresh blueness of it all. and last weekend we took a little family stroll around the arboretum to see their lovely collection of witch hazel. i adore witch hazel both for its lovely scent and for its amazing winter color.



i know, right?!



ingrid seems unimpressed, though.

and speaking of ingrid, here's an onslaught of weekly photos. she's killing me with sweetness lately. current interests: grabbing her toes, rolling across the room, babbling and cooing nonstop, splashing in the bath, and chewing on her thumb. i adore this little lady, i really do.



fabric: alexander henry kenyan tea leaf in red



fabric: julia rothman candy trees in black (from the miscellany collection)



fabric: alexander henry fiesta firecracker in natural (from the folklorico collection)



fabric: alice kennedy wavy optical stripe in punch (from the orange crush collection)

… more snow

still snowing



still sewing



still drinking cocoa (this time with a side of chocolate chip cookies)

it's a good day for being still

(p.s. can you tell i'm on instagram? i'm @arajaneo, if you want to be friends!)

… a snow day

we rarely get snow in seattle, so it was so exciting to have several rounds of gorgeous whiteness descend on the city in the last few days.









on sunday, at the first snowfall, we ventured out with some friends for a walk with hot cider in hand. and took lots of ingrid's-first-snow pictures.



this morning, after several days of on-again-off-again snow, we woke to a serious blanket of white. i love it. and, even though everyone makes fun of us when it comes to snow, i love living in this city, where at the first sign of snow we all stay home from work, turn into giddy little children and venture outside to make snowmen, go sledding, and throw snowballs.

now excuse me while i sip some hot cocoa and admire this lovely landscape before it all melts away.

… stashing locally

i really have to work to keep on top of my stashing habit. i mean, i need at least a yard of fabric for every week for the first year of my little one's life to maintain this photography project. and let me tell you, that's not easy!



last week i stopped in at my lqs, the quilting loft, to see what's new (to me). i found two large-scale floral prints and the smaller red floral print from the peacock lane collection. these are the kinds of prints i look for when i think about what would look good behind the little snowdrop. prints that are bigger, dramatic, and high contrast. unfortunately, these are not always the same kinds of prints that i am usually drawn to for quilting.



when i sew i tend to like small-scale designs, and lately i find i'm really into single-color, linear graphic designs. like that red grid print by kyla may for the smirk collection, or that green i heart squiggle print by rashida coleman hale. and always, always polka dots. i ordered this stack from drygoods design online, an absolutely lovely site run by the equally lovely keli, who i recently met via the seattle modern quilt guild. not only does she stock a terrific selection of gorgeous fabrics, but if you live in seattle she will hand-deliver the order to your house. i can't think of anything nicer than that. and even if you don't live in seattle your order is packaged up so sweetly (mine was tied with baker's twine and topped with a pixie stick!), she seems to offer great deals on shipping, and there are currently lots of great fabrics on sale.

(i should also point out that no one pays me to say anything nice. in fact, the thought is making me laugh to myself. it's probably pretty clear that i do not have sponsors or underwriters. all my fabrics are purchased by me alone and all my nice words are thought up by me. so when i say i like something, you can trust me that i honestly do mean it.)

so yay for adding to my stash and yay for quality local businesses!

now on with the sewing.

… making progress

i had enough time this week to make another arkansas traveler. this one is all aqua. i am still in love with this block. good thing because i have 18 more to make.



and good thing i bought a new, gigantic cutting mat (super cheap with a coupon at joann--i've come to realize that if you're paying full price at joann, you're doing it wrong). i'd been getting by with an 18x24 mat for the past few years, which was fine for smaller projects, but cutting larger projects was a total pain in the butt. now i don't have to sidle around to the awkward side of my desk when i need to handle larger cuts of fabric and cram the hangover into my scrap baskets.

ah, sweet freedom!

and seriously, this new mat is terrific since i apparently had forgotten how much cutting is involved with making a whole quilt top. it's been that long since i've made one on my own, and i feel like i've spent hours and hours and hours just cutting. yikes!



and here are my two blocks together. i am so excited about the white space that is forming stars. i am seeing some beautiful quilting going on in there… beautiful quilting i'm not sure i can do myself. oh well. we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.