new journey starts here

 oh boy.  where to begin?
back in august 2019, when my personal 2020 started with heartbreak that just kept on rolling?
nah, that's too far to start rehashing.

we're all fairly aware of how rough 2020 has been in general, so no need to recap those early months in entirety.  but for those of you that are just joining us, i'm emily.  i'm a preschool teacher that was put on hold because of COVID, was on unemployment for a bit, and then started working at a quilt shop before going back to childcare in may.  since then, i had been working both jobs split, with the additional dance classes i teach just out there in space, because that just straight up wasn't happening.

ok, fast forward to september.

1. i cut my hair (FINALLY)
2. i quit my job
3. i left the state

okay, that made it sound super dramatic... 
but just hang in there.  i'm going to break this down in to parts.
first, the hair cut, since it made the list.

i was supposed to have a haircut in like... july... but then it got cancelled.

then, as luck would have it, california was allowed to reopen things and i went in for the CHOP.

long overdue, but 10" is ready to be donated.  and it feels SO GOOD to have short hair again.

i told some coworkers that it was the breakup haircut i needed a year ago. partially true, but also they didn't know i was just days away from turning in my notice.

yep.  

after much deliberation and internal debate, i turned in my two week notice.

preschool wasn't resuming any time soon, the district is currently fully distance learning and wouldn't be moving to hybrid until AFTER my birthday in november.  

i cried a lot that week, as one would imagine, and then drove to my parents after work that day.

no, i didn't need THAT much consoling.

instead, they were driving me to the airport (see?  that previous time lapse post wasn't irrelevant!)

but now that i've checked off parts 1 & 2 for the september list, i'm going to make you wait on part 3.
because its a pretty big deal, and a whole lot of awesome :)

hi again.

 don't worry, i'm here.

the last few weeks have been a real whirlwind, that i'm still trying to both wrap my head around as well as document here for the years to come.

also, i felt real weird blogging christmas quilts in september, so even though those are done, i'm still going to wait a little longer to post them... at least until the weather is a little bit cooler.  thanks, fake california fall.

in the meantime, here's a fun little video to tide you over, which will also play in to the update post that is yet to come :)

labor day weekend vibes

don't you worry, you're not losing your mind.
you're not wrong, today is in fact tuesday and NOT monday like usual.
i figured i'd take the three day weekend off from blogging as well, and include monday's productivity in this weekly update as well.

i'm a little shocked we've also made it in to the september level of 2020.
what chaos is going to ensue this month?

this week included a lot of prep work, and then the weekend hit at full steam.
monday, i started cutting out the blocks for the baby quilt i wanted to get done this week (you know.  the one with the fat quarter bundle i impulse bought).  tuesday, i bought the kona to go with it and chopped it up.  by thursday (i think) i had all my blocks done and a layout up on my design wall.  i needed saturday to come, because i needed to spread out.

and saturday sure did happen.
i went to my parent's house early in the morning (by early, i mean 9am) and then my mom and i set out on a voyage to check out what was left at fabric garden for their going out of business sale.  we made it there by 9:30, to be the 5th and 6th in line (luckily, they let us both go in together even though the cut of was 5)
i found a backing for my kapow quilt, binding for a christmas quilt, plus a few random pieces of yardage here and there.  no grunge to stash away, or i could have gone for broke.  then headed to swifty stitches where i got some thread for quilting and then we attempted to go to fabric garden, but i didn't check ahead of time and they don't have saturday hours again just yet.  my bad.
after lunch i got down to business and knocked out the entire quilt top in one day (including a dinner pizza break) and followed it up with making the 3 backs needed for quilting.

monday i quilted for 6 hours, and got all three quilts done!
now the rest of this week will be spent recuperating and gearing up to making some binding.  
i suppose i could also start working on either my big/little sister quilt sets or the shop samples.
hmm... decisions, decisions...

girl at the (future) rock show onesie set

 my best friend is having a baby girl!

well, you saw the peek at the virtual shower a few weeks ago, now it is time to take a closer look at the onesies!  one of our favorite things to do together is go to concerts, and we have been to a total of 5 fall out boy concerts along with seeing backstreet boys, panic! at the disco and more.  it was on our "to do" list for this summer to go to the hella mega tour, but covid had it's own plans, and that has been rescheduled to next summer.  probably for the best since we were going in houston in the summer and she's pregnant.  so we'll see the show in 2021, but in the meantime, that baby girl is going to be rockin' out in style!

i needed a little decor for the back of my own zoom screen, so i busted out my freezer paper stencil skills and created a set of 5 onesies for the little princess headed our way.  since we love our live music, i picked all the bands we have seen together (or will see together) to give this girl the style she needs while rockin' out to the music i'm SURE her mom is blasting.  i used size 6-9 month onesies for this set, but apparently i should have gone a bit bigger due to the size of some of the band logos!  of course, i ran out of reasonable shaped band logos to do with freezer paper (green day was a bit too intense for my cutting skills)

i painted all the onesies in neon colors, because... well... i wanted to!
the neon just seemed a lot more bright and fun to me, and made them a little more girly.  of course, i had to do the fall out boy one in "mania" ultraviolet purple though.  and the token disney onesie absolutely needed to be in traditional mickey mouse black.  without further delay, here they each are in all their hand painted glory!

the first phase of gifts are now revealed and on their way, while phase 2 is currently under construction.  i'm SO excited with how that part is coming together, i cannot wait for the big reveal on it.  luckily, i've got a 3 day weekend with no live show saturday and neither job on monday (i was strongly encouraged to take the day off from the shop) and a date with a long arm.  fingers crossed my mail arrives on time and things get done!

august 15 minutes wrap up

 this week has for sure been productive, let alone this month, compared to others.

well... except for all the blogging i was planning on doing.  whoops!

i looked back at my chart made for sewing 15 minutes a day in august, and i feel like i did pretty well at it.

there are a few days where i counted blogging... and a few where nothing happened (like last friday... YEESH i was zonked when i left work) but in total, i had a very consistent base of productivity.

i pattern tested a quilt, and finished that up yesterday.  i'm hoping to quilt it next week, which means you'll get to see it very soon!

my norweigan woods quilt was completed this month as well, along with the mini kitty meadowland quilt (i STILL can't find poly mailers to send that off.  probably need to try not-walmart) and the holliberry alexandra tote.  finally, erika's virtual baby shower was earlier this month, and i and still super thrilled with how her onsies turned out.
speaking of erika... see that fat quarter bundle?  yeah, that's going to be a super adorable riley blake quilt for her impending baby girl.  someone shared the fabric in a young & millennial quilters group that i'm in (and also added lisa to) and within 12 hours of seeing it, bought a fat quarter bundle... and then had to figure out a pattern.  but rest assured, the pattern was found and the selected fat quarters have been starched and pressed for my post work arrival tomorrow!  my goal is to have this completely finished by monday as well, since i had the day off from one job and decided to take the day off from the shop to have a long arming day.

more crafting and quilting means more finished projects to share, right??

speaking of long arm quilting, boy do i have some exciting news!

just over a week ago, tayva asked me if i would be interested in attending a workshop on the long arm machines they have at caliquiltco.  uh... yes please?

they're sending me to SLC for a 2 day workshop next month, and i am SO EXCITED.

best part is, after the workshop brings the weekend, which means i'll get some cousin hang time before heading back to california on sunday.

i'm sure you're all wondering if i'm nervous about flying in the current status of the world... and the answer is yes...ish.  it's a short flight, and given how things have been figuring out these past few months, i'd like to put my trust that the airlines are doing everything they can to keep things as safe as possible.

now... let's get back to quilting!

california's burning

this last week was a doozy.

virtual baby shower wrapped up, christmas quilt finished and then BOOM.

california is on fire.

where i'm at in northern california, it seems like we're between two fires, and the ash is everywhere.

the skies are gray, the weather is murky and the windows haven't been open for days.

tuesday the weather was decent enough to swim, but by thursday night, we got a text to not come in friday morning because of the weather.  THAT is how insane things are right now.

anybody roll a 5 or 8 to get us out of this jumanji jungle yet?

i finished my norweigan woods quilt this week as well, so that was a nice little feeling of accomplishment despite the sluggish heatwave feeling.

this weekend i also started working on pattern testing for joanna marsh with kustom kwilts.  i'll be doing the baby quilt size, so everything should piece together this week.  but check out that GRUNGE.  in the end, this doesn't have a recipient, but it will absolutely be stashed away for the day that i do.  i can't wait to see how it comes together!

here's to hoping we don't sweat our brain out this week... and that maybe these fires get under control so the skies can clear up a little bit.  i'm ready for an open window to create a breeze up in here... i've got at least 4 quilts on my roster to get done soon!

moda holliberry alexandra tote

i'm in love with this bag, but i'm not going to lie... it has a funny backstory.my boss asked me one friday night if i had any plans after work.  being the year 2020, obviously not...  my only plan was to sew, but i was intrigued to hear what the offer was.  tayva asked me if i would be up for sewing a new sample bag to go with some sew by number battings we had in stock for our live show that weekend.  with a handful of jelly rolls to select from, and a quilt shop at my fingertips, i selected moda's holliberry jellyroll for my exterior and a cut of grunge for my bag lining.  my apologies now, i forgot to write down which shade of grunge it was...
but let me tell you, it was fabulous.
the hardest part of this bag was deciding the layout of the strips.  overall, it used about half of a jelly roll, which allowed for a lot of variation between the two sides of the bag.  i started with one consistent middle red strip, and worked the rest of the colorways out from there.  when it came to the other diagonal on the bag, i tried to keep them matching the best that i could so it would be cohesive on both sides.the process of sewing the bag was super easy.  spray baste the lining to the solid side of the batting.  then, once that is flat and good to go, select your strips and lay them in the numbered rectangle.  sew, and then repeat.  apparently i wasn't supposed to iron it until the very end, but you know... rules are meant to be broken sometimes.  no quilt police were called on me either, so that's a plus.speaking of breaking rules...

i totally didn't understand how the pattern wanted me to do the straps, nor did i end up with 2 matching jelly roll strips to do it the way i thought it was saying.  so i flubbed it.
i pieced together the straps from some of the lining/binding fabric (grunge) with one of the jelly roll strips i really liked but didn't have enough for two straps.  i then folded it around the batting strip as well as the webbing that was included and stitched down the center to close up all the seams.  i also did a top stitch on both edges to help finish it off and really hold it together.
it may not have been what the pattern said to do, but i love it.given that this was a question that was posed before i left the shop, i didn't really have time to analyze what color of thread i would need, since the inner quilting would be visible.  i did not have the right shade of gray AT ALL, so i decided the next best thing would be a bold, contrasting red.  and i was right!  it adds a little bit of festive-ness to the inside and really helps the binding on the edge pop.  the pattern also says that you can leave the inside edges raw or zig zag them, but after talking to tayva about how she did her batik sample, i went ahead and made a sort of binding for that as well.  i much prefer the clean (yet slightly wonky) look that it gives without having white batting peep out against the gray.

go figure, i don't have any photos of that though...

i really enjoyed how quick this project was, and the instant gratification that came from finishing it in about an hour or so!  i can't remember if i had a show or movie playing, or if i ended up listening to a podcast... but it didn't take long at all.

this would be a great project for beginners, since it gives you all the numbers of what way to sew the strips on and everything.  

would i do another one?  absolutely.

i've already oogled halloween rolls and thought about how cool they would look, or even some of the other fun june taylor bag patterns caliquiltco carries.  wouldn't it be a super fun gift bag?  or trick or treat bag?  i was also thinking of how cool it would be for a baby shower gift, filled with diapers or other necessities.