Inspiration by osmosis

We made a trip to our storage unit yesterday for some of our rugs and I came across one of my vintage quilts. I have a number of other quilts in storage, but this is the only one I was able to liberate yesterday.

This quilt came from my grandmother's house. My mom thinks it was made by one of my great-aunts on my dad's side. We remember a number of the fabrics in the quilt from various things around mamaw's house, such as one of her kitchen aprons. My mom has a baby quilt of mine that's made from many of these same fabrics and has the same backing. That would date this quilt (and me) in the early 1970's.

It's beginning to feel a little like fall around here, so I placed this folded quilt across the foot of the bed last night and used it as an extra blanket when I got in bed. The entire quilt is very random, but this area made me think of a string quilt. I wanted to sleep in today, but I woke up early with an idea to do a simple, wonky diamond quilt inspired by these blocks. Inspiration by osmosis.

In the sewing room, I had stacked my Good Folks in two stacks, warm and cool, and they jumped out at me as perfect for this project. I spent most of my morning turning these strips...

into this. I asked Sean for his opinion and he said "They aren't straight," so now I'm worried that rather than looking wonky, they just look like I didn't know what I was doing.

I've got some sewn together and I love it. I love it so much that I've already decided to hand quilt it and I think the quilting will emphasize the wonkiness even more (see the chalk lines above). I just hope the wonky looks intentional and not accidental. What do you think?

Play ball!

I'm not much of a baseball fan. I have respect for the game and it's fans, but I can't watch baseball. It moves too slowly for me. However, you can't live in Fort Worth right now and be unaware of the fact that our Texas Rangers are going to the World Series. (I'm told this is a pretty big deal?!)

So, now seems like a good time to share a quilt I made last month for my cousin and his wife's new baby.

My cousin is a graphic designer for the Texas Rangers. He's a third-generation die-hard baseball fan and they decorated the baby's nursery with a baseball theme. The Rangers provided all of their front office staff with tickets to all the World Series games. He and guest (who might not be his wife, she's like 36 weeks pregnant) even get to attend the away games on the Ranger's dime (airfare and hotel included.) The home games are like going to work for him since he works at the stadium. Exciting stuff for a baseball fan though.

This quilt isn't made with fabric I would normally choose, but I like that it's sports and novelty without looking too, you know... like the licensing aisle at Joann. The print is Alexander Henry and the solid is Kona Stone. I pitched these wonky squares together quickly and they really seem to like it.

The label is my favorite part. I think it turned out cute.

So, that's probably all the baseball you'll ever get out of me. But, I do hope the Rangers do well and score lots of touchdowns in their first World Series game tonight.

Just kidding. I know they score goals, not touchdowns.  ;-)

three words.

I have three words about the new house. Worth. The. Wait.

I've been unpacking since we spent our first night here this past Sunday night.  This is our third massively renovated/rebuilt home and it's a culmination of all the things we learned and loved about the last two houses. I love the location - Our new home is about as urban as we could get unless we moved into a high-rise a mile away in dowtown. Just what I wanted!

I've been working primarily on the kitchen and the sewing room. We've been slowing retrieving our things from storage and still have a few things to do on the house before I can get completely comfortable. I worked on the sewing room until about 3:00 a.m. night before last and made some pretty good progress. The photo above is Wednesday night.

Here it was last night. I still have a long way to go, but I love unpacking and organizing! I can't wait to give you a little tour once things are more presentable. I hate that I've been away so long (there are 4,800+ unread posts in my blog reader and I'm dreadfully behind on emails), but I'm so happy right now I could just scream. Maybe I will. While I unpack.

I can't believe it's October! (And the giveaway winner!)

Thank you for all the well wishes regarding our move! Unfortunately, our house still isn't ready. I would complain about the builder, but he's my husband and I love him madly regardless of how long it's taking. Doing so much of the work ourselves takes longer, but stretches our dollars much further and in the end, that's a very good thing.

I won't bore you with details of our delays, such as of deluges of rain dumped on north Texas by a tropical storm (thanks, Hermine), broken sewer taps and dealing with the water department, or our current foe, the electric company. I won't bore you with the story of my 20 plus consecutive days with a headache, which is now gone thanks to some strong antibiotics for a sinus/ear infection and a round of steroids. (I hope I never have to take steroids again! They made my feel terrible.) Sorry, I guess I just bored you anyway.

We've probably got another week until we can move and I'm anxiously tapping my foot. Living with my mom has really been fun, but I want my stuff out of storage! I packed for about three weeks and we've been here almost six. I can hear my fabric crying out to me from the bottom of a massive stack of boxes.

I'll share a couple of construction shots of my favorite room in the new house, the kitchen!

My kitchen island without it's butcher block top and the floors pre-scraping and staining.

A corner of the kitchen with counters (absolute black granite) and backsplash (Cararra white marble). That hood is over the cooktop that still hasn't arrived. I'm so excited about cooking in that kitchen! I officially pledge to eat out less often after the move.

In crafty news, I've almost finished this quick baseball baby quilt for a shower on Sunday. It's not my really my style (sports), but I think it will be a home run with it's recipient. wha wha.

Alright, I know what you are thinking... get to the big news, Mel!

Oh, you mean who I'll be sending this bundle of happiness to?

That would be number 82...

Ashley who blogs at Our so called life!
And, wow, does she have some adorable kiddos!

I'll send you an email shortly, Ashley. I hope you enjoy the fabric!

Well I'm off to run some errands and seal the backsplash tile in the kitchen to prepare it for grouting. If anyone wants to help, come on over!