Happy Halloween!

For Halloween the museum I work at is having a family event for which I created a mini quilt and embroidery that will be raffled off. 









The embroidery is 'Pumpkin Girl', a Badbird pattern by Andrea Zuill.  The colors in the picture are a bit off though.  Her dress/socks/bow are actually plum and her skin is much brighter. 



I really enjoyed making these but am super nervous whoever gets them won't like them.  My fingers are crossed though!

Covet

I have made quite a few purchases on Etsy...everything from supplies like fabric and buttons to artwork, jewelry, and custom crafted items.  It is by far one of my favorite places to buy handmade!  So I want to share some great finds and hopefully you will see something you like!



Hand Embroidered Orion Constellation by Miniature Rhino

Inspiring Monday

This weekend I had to choose just 5 favorites from Flicker for my Modern Swappers partner - to help them get inside the quirky-ness that is my head!  So here it is!

My Fave Five!

Hopefully it inspires you as much as it does me!

Fabric Love

*Raises Hand* Hello my name is Bryanna, and I am a fabric addict. *Insert sheepish smile here*

This week is barely over and I have already gotten a whole stack of fabric.



What I was most excited to get this week has to be Heather Ross's Macaroni Love Story!! I only got 2 prints, but I love them both intensely! (Thank god my swap partner in Modern Swappers 2 mentioned loving this line! Otherwise I wouldn't have had an excuse to indulge!)



Also check out the selvages! Awesome, no??



I will say that back when Spoonflower had their free fabric swatch day and I got mine I wasn't too impressed. The colors were kinda bland and the fabric scratchy. The Heather Ross fabrics aren't bland in color, and look exactly like I expected them too. They are still on the scratchy side though. I guess being spoiled by the quality of Kaufman, Moda, etc though might make me a bit harsh though.

Lets see I added to my addiction to Bliss with some fat quarters and yardage...



I also got some Meadow sweet, Owl Town, and Frolic.



I also discovered this line by Robert Kaufman called Mix Masters Dots and Dots. I only got 6 of the colors my LQS had but I want so many more! I think this will make excellent blenders, but I am also thinking a whole quilt of just these would be fantastic!



Of course I had to indulge my love of selvages and go ahead and cut them off. Check out this little owl on the Tina Given's fabric though! How adorable is that?!



Point is I am so cut off for a while from buying more fabric (excepting those yards of Kona Cotton I have coming in the mail for my Innocent Crush quilt...)  AHEM, as I was saying I am so cut off from buying more fabric for a while! LOL!

Inspiring Monday

Time for another round of inspiration to get me through the upcomoing week!

This time I am focusing on embroidery because I spent a lot of time in the last couple of days practically stalking my Scrappy {Hoops} Swap partner to determine their embroidery loves in the hope of deciding  what to create for them. Along the way I found a lot of pieces that I really loved!

















Really who could resist an embroidery of Edward Gorey artwork! Hope this inspires some of you to embroider something awesome this week!

Sew much progress!

This week has resulted in so much progress on my WIP's...and maybe the start of few new projects!

1. I am making some major headway on my project for my Modern Swappers 2 partner! Quilting done now just for a lot of binding!  I also have some wonderful things coming in the mail for me and my partner too that I am crazy excited for! ;) 
2. I got charms cut from my Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric for a simple charm square quilt for a friend.
3. I got my embroidery patterns transferred onto fabric for part of a friend's 30th birthday present.  
4. Came up with an idea and have started sketching the pattern and picking fabrics for my Scrappy {Hoops} Swap partner!
5. Got my little personalized gift for my Little Bit of Fabric/Little Bit of Chocolate Swap Partner done!  And now I everything pulled together!  Just gotta get it sent out this week! 
6. Got 2 more of my blocks for the Tokyo Subway Map Quilt Along pulled together, just gotta get them sewed together now.

All in all, a huge amount for me!  Especially considering how crazy work has been lately.  I also went to the meeting for Houston Modern Quilt Guild yesterday and got a bunch of hexies made while there.  Also swapped out Round Rows so I have a new row to work on this month as well as chose my partner for the Secret Santa Ornament Swap we are going for the holidays. 

Yes I may have gone a bit overboard joining all these swaps, but I am loving participating.  It is proving to be challenge creating what I hope others will particularly like while also trying to techniques and ideas.

Here's hoping next week is just as productive!

Inspiring Monday

Monday's are usually such drab days.  I mean honestly, who really likes Mondays? Not me.  Especially since I do most of my crafting on the weekends, so Monday means I am at least 5 whole days from getting to devote real time to creating.  Until then I have to live on inspiration.  And everyone knows Flickr is the number 1 resource for that.  So every Monday I want to share some of the things that I have found to be inspiring to me.  Here goes nothing!

This week I am loving quilts made entirely from solids.  Every season so many new lines of fabrics come out with totally squee worthy motifs and patterns, but we can't forget about the basics.  Personally I am a fan of Kona cottons - the feel, the selection, and the price are perfect to me.  There is a whole group on Flick dedicated to solid quilts.  These are some examples of solids only quilts that are stunning! (Click the photo to be taken to the original Flickr page.)






























I hope that was able to bring a bit of brightness and cheer to an otherwise blah Monday!

Round and Round We Go v. 1

Yesterday I got to spend the day reorganizing my overflowing mountain of craft and sewing supplies, and working on this great piece. We are doing a Round Row or Robin in the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and I got to work on Jennifer's which I was super excited about from the moment I saw her photo of it on Flickr.

So here is my addition to it! Jennifer's original row is on the right and my addition is on the left.  I can't wait to see this top once it has made its way through all the other members. I think it will turn out super pretty. Hope you like it Jenn! 



This is my original row that a fellow member has right now. I so can't wait to see what others have added to it! (Photo by Beth)

Fabric Love

Hello my name is Bry, and I am a fabric addict.

Today was a great day because I got the most wonderful package in the mail from Fabric Worm. My Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush order came today! I mean just look at all the pretty!



My absolute favorite from this line is Shattered. Reminds me of fireworks.



I also got in the mail some of Robert Kaufman's Quilter's Linen. I have been wanting to try it out and the feel of it is nice but I am not sure I like the look of the weave. We'll see though. It'll probably look much better to me once I have incorporated it into some project. I have also gotten tons of other fabrics in the last 2 weeks including a layer cake of Moda's new Bliss! Can't wait to cut into this stuff.



And Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks Voile...Oh my goodness. I cannot express how much I love the feeling of this fabric. I had no idea it would be this wonderful!



Robert Kaufman's Carolina Chambray and Kaffe Fasset's Shot Cottons also surprised me with how lovely they were. They are both extremely soft and the colors are fantastic.



And today while running errands I stopped at one of my favorite quilt stores, Quiltworks, and managed to get my hands on 5 different Tula Pink Neptune fabrics, and some Heather Bailey Nicey Jane stripes.



I also got some more of Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. I LOVE THIS LINE. This and Neptune are 2 of my all time favorite lines. I feel like they could go with anything. I still need more so that I have them all, but for now I am happy just looking at this big pile!



The first step is admitting I have a problem right??