4 a new series: swatch 1.0

I have an obsession with color so I think it's time for me to start a color series!  We'll start with swatch 1.0, taken from a room in one of my favorite magazines, House Beautiful.

0 lovely things: for the hexagon lover.

Just a little something to brighten your Friday.  This card is perfect for those people that can't stop making hexagons!  I've yet to hop on that bandwagon but it just might happen soon.

via How About Orange

The best part about this card (aside from the fact that its bright, colorful, and fun)?  It's free!  Compliments of Ginger & George.

Happy weekend!

15 arcadia lattice quilt.

It's finished!  Can we talk for a second about how well this one matches my living room?

The back looks pretty nice in here too.

I quilted it with diagonal lines, it was pretty fun to quilt and very fast.

Made with strips from an Arcadia honeybun, Kona Ash, and Kona Snow for the back.  Bound in Kona Medium Gray.

This one was donated to a silent auction for the American Heart Association.  Would it be bad if I bid on it myself?  It was made to live in this room!

I'm back after an exhausting week of work and a 21 mile bike ride around Lake Geneva this past weekend (partially in the pouring rain and seriously ALL UPHILL, I swear!).  I spent most of the day in bed on Sunday and have had no desire to do anything productive the last few nights.  I'm still pretty tired but hopefully after this coming weekend I'll be all caught up on my sleep and back to regular sewing and blogging.

9 weekend sewing.

I actually got quite a bit of sewing done this weekend, including starting (and finishing!) the quilting on my Arcadia lattice quilt.  I wasn't expecting to get much done considering I had to work on Saturday.

I sewed the binding on the front as well, so all that's left is the best part (the handstitching!).  I've been enjoying stitching bindings down lately, which is funny considering I used to hate sewing by hand.  I think I've been converted.

I don't anticipate having much time for sewing this week, especially after being told that I will need to complete 45 hours worth of work in 3 days.  Something tells me that sitting on the couch and stitching on the rest of the binding will be the only type of sewing, if any, that I'll feel like doing after that amount of work.  I'll try to post here this week when I can but I make no promises.  Hope you all have a great week!

2 lovely inspiration: maira kalman quote.

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I'm kind of in love with this quote from Maira Kalman.

via sfgirlbybay

In fact, her entire blog for the New York Times "And the Pursuit of Happiness" is kind of awesome.  I'll have to buy a copy of the book for The White House when it comes out next month.

I hope you all have a nice weekend!  I may or may not have to work all weekend and won't find out until the end of the day tomorrow.  Sad face.  Deadlines are no fun.

16 nicey jane patchwork quilt.

I think this is one of my favorite quilts that I've made so far.  The colors and prints make me so happy!

The back is a random mix of half square triangles and some Kona Medium Pink and Kona White .

Quilted in straight lines about 3/8" from the edges of each square.

The binding is Kona Medium Gray.  You all know how much I love a gray binding!

I had plans to list this one, but little Alaina Rose melted my heart and I couldn't help but to give it to her instead.  Can you blame me?

I didn't think so.  I have all the squares cut out to make another one, and I swear that the next one is going in the shop!  

15 one year.

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus, life has been busy!  Adam and I had a wedding in Minnesota this past Saturday and just celebrated our 1st anniversary on Sunday.  I cannot believe a year has passed already!  It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating our wedding day and then cruising the Mediterranean on our honeymoon.  It has been a wonderful first year.

We spent Sunday in Minneapolis.  I bought tickets to the Twins game because my husband is a huge Twins fan.  The weather was perfect, not too hot, but not freezing either.  It was a great game (the Twins won!) and Target Field is really nice!

After the game we grabbed our stuff and walked across the street to our hotel.  We stayed at the graves 601, which is super modern and beautiful.  We got upgraded since it was our anniversary so we actually had to press the "PH" (penthouse) button when we got in the elevator.  We felt pretty special in our corner room on the top floor, and it had an awesome view of the city.

We got dressed up and went to dinner at Seven Steakhouse & Sushi, which is right across the street from the graves.  We enjoyed some shrimp, steak (him), sushi (me), and wine and were given a giant slice of carrot cake to go.  We ate the cake for breakfast the next morning because we were so full from dinner!

It was nice to have one night to do something for ourselves, that hasn't happened much lately.  Next year we'll be in Minneapolis again on our anniversary (another friend is getting married) so I think we just started a new tradition!