If life gives you lemons...

 ...make a skirt.  I have had a "helper" in the studio for the last couple of days.  My Birthday Girl was feeling a little under the weather and didn't make the trip to Grandma's house with her sister.  The trip was a gesture from my Mom in order to help me get caught up on some work.  So... we have been getting some quality time together.  She has been a very good sport and was even really helpful in packing up orders!   But, none the less, I wasn't getting caught up on anything.  Then the walking foot on my machine broke in the middle of trying to finish up a custom quilt that needs to be done for a soon departing college freshman!  After a few curse words, I decided to throw in the towel and have some fun.  After discovering her love of a beautiful corduroy fabric we worked together to make a VERY simple skirt.

I never knew how happy a simple elastic skirt could make a-now-eight-year-old.

 We used some Amy Butler corduroy with a little ribbon accent from Ana Maria Horner.

Then the UPS guy dropped off a box with some pretty Orla Kiely soaps.  Things are looking up and maybe I will get some work done tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have a happy girl and clean hands!  

10 Years Later

I started quilting in 1999.  At the time the only other quilters I knew were my Mom and a few of her friends.  I had no idea what I was doing, so I did as I was told (except for my "overuse" of solids).  In 2002, I was told to enter a quilt in the MN State Fair.  "It's what quilters do".  So I did it.

 I entered this little wall hanging that I made with broadcloth remnants and some sheer embroidered ribbon. 

As a first time entrant and novice quilter, I didn't expect to win a thing.  I was just along for the ride.

 Imagine my surprise to find it hanging in the display.  I hadn't won a prize or a ribbon, but it was hung up for everyone to see!  

After noticing the absence of  Modern Quilts at last years fair, I decided to enter again this year.  Again, I don't hope to win a prize for my less than perfect quilting skills, but I do have a goal.

I contributed something in a non-traditional style (A.K.A Modern) in hopes of letting the "powers that be" know that WE ARE HERE and we love to quilt too.

Time is a jet plane...

 Summer is flying by like it ALWAYS does!  I'm not sure why every August I am suddenly surprised that summer is more than half over and I haven't gotten to nearly half of the things on my to-do-this-summer list.  

One thing that I didn't plan to do this summer was become addicted to Instagram! It is so fun to look back at the summer so far and realize that although there aren't a lot of checks on my to-do list, I have been spending my time wisely so far!

 

I've been hanging out with these two lovelies...

Spending some time here...

Spending more time than I wanted to here...

Selling my wares at the farmer's markets...

Packing up these lovelies for the move... 

...and doing not quite enough sewing.

Moving into my new space has given me some much needed new perspective and I have lots of thoughts and ideas about the direction(s) that I should go with my business, my craft and my career.  I am looking forward to whittling all of those ideas down into some manageable goals and having a PixieSpit "reboot" this fall.  In the meantime, I will suck every last bit of fun and sunshine out of the next few weeks as I can. You can follow along with me on Instagram or better yet...get on there yourself if you aren't already!

Settling in... FINALLY!

 My move into the new studio has been a lot longer than I expected.  After starting to move in and then realizing that there were some minor (but messy) fixes to be done, I halted my move in and headed out on a fantastic road trip to visit family in Ohio.  

 We had a great time and even picked up a stow-away cousin.

 Then there was another delay while waiting for the A/C to be installed during the sweltering heat.

I was all ready (and excited!) but then came another road bump.  Jury Duty... and of course I was chosen to be on a trial.  Not quite the short detour that I thought it would be.

But today is my birthday and I got a wonderful gift.  The judge had some personal matters to attend to, so we got the day off!  The first thing that I did after I ate my birthday donut was to sew something.  I whipped up some simple curtains for my daughters bedroom.  It felt so good to SEW for the first time in my new space!!  More of that to come once this trial wraps up...

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

 I have a floor!  There are still some details to finish up before I move in, but I couldn't resist plopping down in the middle of my new floor and stitching up the binding on my latest quilt.  

 I also couldn't resist hanging some curtains last week.

 How fitting that the pattern that I used for the quilt was Yellow Brick Road, because I feel like I have arrived in OZ! 

Some threads on my studio floor...Now it's official!

Let there be light & a giveaway winner!

 The electrician came by today and we have power!!  

 I agonized over which white to paint and am very happy with how it looks so far.

The flooring will be delivered tomorrow and installed "soon".  After that I can start MOVING IN...

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now, and so should Annik because she had the lucky # 2 comment on my quilt market posts.  I was hoping to post more often about market, but got distracted by trying to decide between  swan wing white and moon rise white...

Quilt Market Fun

I have had the pleasure of attending the Spring International Quilt Market for the past three years.  One of my favorite parts of Market is getting to meet the designers.  I have admired many of them for years and was pretty star-struck back in 2010.  Since then I have come to know that most of them are just regular folks... with INCREDIBLE talent!

Joel Dewberry is always so thoughtful.  He takes the time to talk to everyone and even remembered a conversation that we had two years ago.  He had a booth with some great new sewing patterns and dropped a heavy hint that he will announce a new fabric collection later this summer.  I can't wait!

We had some chuckles with  Monaluna (Jennifer Moore) who was at Market debuting two new collections of organic cotton.  Fox Hollow will be out soon and Havana will follow.  She added some SOLIDS! that go with both collections.  I am excited for a good organic solid.

Anna Maria Horner is as fun as she seems.  She didn't hesitate to move under the antlers displayed in her booth in order for me to catch her with horn-head.  She also didn't hesitate to adjust my name tag for me so that it didn't cover her beautiful ribbon that I used to trim the dress I was wearing.   Her new collection of fabrics coming out for FreeSpirit is called Field Study and is full of inspirations from nature.  

Getting to meet and chat with all the creative folks at Market is so inspiring and just plain FUN!  I come home not only excited about new collections of fabric, but also loaded with ideas on how to use them in my sewing.