There is still no cure for the common birthday. -John Glenn

Hmmm, seems I've been away from the blog for a little bit! You'll have to forgive all my bloggy sins though since it's my birthday today! Yes, yes it is; I'm even closer to thirty than to twenty today than I was last year. You really will have to excuse my absence; for some reason getting back into the swing of things with school has been very difficult this time around. I think I'm starting to get used to it again but I guess my brain just really wants to be done! And if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been sick for over a week...yuk! I think I'm at the tail end of it now, but I'm still a bit under the weather.

Now let's see, what first? Well, I've been knitting up a storm lately! In the past few weeks I've knit two scarves (one for me and one for Alex), a hat (Autumn by Jane Richmond), and am currently about 75% finished my Madelinetosh honey cowl (I'm making the long version). Here's a picture of the scarf I made for myself...

It's just a simple ribbed scarf, but I'm not joking when I tell you that this is the first knitted project I've actually ever finished. Crazy, I know! I learned how to knit when I was about 7 years old, but just never finished anything. I used the same idea and made Alex a ribbed scarf too using some Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in Wood, but cast on fewer stitches to take into account the chunkiness of the wool.

I don't have a picture of my Autumn to show you right now; I never realized how difficult it was to take a picture of a hat on your self so I'm going to have to ask Alex to do it! But here's a picture of the lovely Madelinetosh Tosh DK that I'm using for my cowl, it's super-yummy!

This colour is called Composition Book Gray and I bought it at The Knit Cafe here in Toronto; the lovely lady who owns the store even wound them into cakes for me at no cost - love that kind of service! This picture was actually taken in the shop while she was winding the first skein.

My friend Mo had a birthday last weekend, and I knew her boyfriend was buying her a sewing machine, so I decided to buy her a bunch of notions (machine needles, bobbins, thread, pins, buttons, etc) and some fabric. I also made her a tote bag that all the other little gifties went into.

The outside was made using a very soft, decorator weight fabric (actually the same fabric that I used on the back of my Mum's pillow) and some linen. For the inside I used a quilting weight cotton and included one of the little labels I printed through Spoonflower recently. Unfortunately I couldn't be there when Mo received it, but she liked it!

How about a little sneaky peek of something one of those top-secret projects that will be coming out this month? Yes? Okay!

Hmmm, I wonder what it could possibly be? Do you have any ideas? *wink*

Oh, and did I mention that Alex got mu a Bamboo Pen tablet for my birthday?! So very cool! I had been looking at the Bamboo Craft and Bamboo Fun tablets, but the Bamboo Pen is a very good entry-level tablet and I've already spent the morning watching all the tutorials and playing around with it a bit. Can't wait to get the hang of it and find out what it can really do!

Trust me, I still have a bunch of things to show and tell you but right now I'm going to sew! I've been having a rough time lately with that too (with finding time and feeling creative) but right now I really want to so I better get on it before the feeling flies away! Birthday hugs to all of you!

Home is not where you live but where they understand you. -Christian Morgenstern

Hmmm, looks like I took a bit of an unintentional bloggy break there for a bit (especially if you consider the fact that the last post was basically only a picture) - sorry about that guys!

A week ago last Sunday Alex headed to the cottage in Quebec with his Dad and I stayed home for the week by myself; I had grand plans to get a lot of sewing done, and I did get some, but on Sunday after Alex left (the day where we got up at 4:45 am by the way) I ended up vegging on the couch all day doing pretty much nothing. Monday I woke up and realized we were out of toilet paper and had to find somewhere that was open on Labour Day (thank goodness for Shoppers Drug Mart), then I came home only to fall prey to a migraine for a few hours; even after it subsided I was pretty much wiped for the day (although I did get a little sewing done around midnight). One of my projects involved quite a bit of handwork (hexagons and embroidery) and so I worked on that for a big chunk of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after work; Friday I worked in the afternoon which means I didn't get much done, Saturday I did some shopping and got some knitting done, and on Sunday (after cleaning up all my fabric *ahem*) Alex came home! I missed him a lot and am so happy to have him back!

I think another reason why I haven't blogged recently is that I can't share anything with you! I'm working on three projects right now - two patterns and one for a friend (who reads my blog) so even though there has been creative stuff going on, I can't show it! And, really, nobody needed to hear me crab about my migraine, so it worked out for you too ;)

I do have a few pictures to show though!

On Sunday while I was waiting for Alex to come home I finally got around to putting up some art that we had hanging around. The letters are from Anthropologie and although they don't sell these exact ones anymore they now have slightly smaller ones that are lower case and have some stitching on them (just saw them today...yes, I went to Anthropologie this morning looking for the cute pie bird they have on the website - didn't have it in the store unfortunately).

The large print in the centre is from Hidden Eloise on Etsy, as is the small print (actually a postcard) above the K, and the one below the A is a postcard I received in an order from The Black Apple.

On Friday after work I decided to go and get my hair cut. I had been thinking about it for a bit but I am leery of hairstylists and usually just cut it myself. Here's a before:

You can kind of see how long my hair was - it was down to my waist. Here's the after:

She cut off wayyyy more than I wanted her to (again, this is why I'm afraid to let other people cut my hair), but it's starting to "grow" on my...hahaha...I know. It's also much more voluminous and wavy without the heavy length weighing it down; I'm okay with it, really. Oh, and I bought that yellow cardigan I'm wearing when I went shopping on Saturday.

This morning I left the house to pick up something specific but took a little detour on the way and wound up at the thrift store.

I found these lovely wooden knitting needles (as well as the attached stitch counter) for .49, the knitting booklet was .99 (I bought it because I like the patterns for pillow covers it has), and I also picked up some more embroidery hoops for .99 each. The yarn in the background was not from the thrift store but it did arrive in the mail today. I bought it for the little, personal knit-along Amanda and I are having - we're going to knit Jane Richmond's Oatmeal Pullover (and yes, I am totally making it in the exact same yarn and colour as she did); I just need one more set of needles and then I'll be ready to go (at some point).

I specifically went out today to pick up the latest issue of Stitch magazine (I should really just get a subscription already). Stitch is definitely my most favourite magazine in the whole world!

I also went to the library and picked up a copy of Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights that I had on hold. After flipping through this gorgeous book I definitely want to buy myself a copy! Everything looks so yummy; the book is divided by season and I just love the stories she tells at the beginning of each (Sophie Dahl is actually Roald Dahl's grand-daughter).

I began school again on Monday and I could not possibly be less excited about it. It's so weird - I have never been this unenthusiastic about going back to school before in my life, but hopefully I'll get into it soon. This is the last year of my Masters, and will hopefully be my last year of school ever.

Okay, I'm off! Alex and I are going to watch an episode of The Tudors before going to sleep.

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

Alice Kate loves Heather Ross...a lot! And she is very excited that Heather's newest collection, Macaroni Love Story, was released today exclusively through Spoonflower!

P.S. Happy Rosh Hashanah everyone!

A Little Vintage vs Modern...

I completely forgot to show this in yesterday's post even though I meant to...

Here's a little vintage vs. modern for you! As many of you know many of our fabrics today are copied from or inspired by vintage textiles including feedsacks and sheets - there's even a Flickr group dedicated to showing off modern fabric beside it's vintage counterpart!

On the left in the photo above is a vintage napkin that my Grandmother gave me about two years ago and on the right is a print from the upcoming Dream On collection by Urban Chiks for Moda. I have seen the vintage version in sheet form also, so it's quite possible that this napkin started out it's life as a sheet (my Grandmother would definitely not let fabric go to waste!) or maybe this print was featured on a variety of textiles.

There is a wisdom of the head, and... a wisdom of the heart. -Charles Dickens

Hey guys! How's everyone's week been going? I have been super-crazy busy with work and quilting, but the crazy work schedule ends at the end of this week and then (I think) I have a week off before school -yay! I say "I think" because inevitably my boss will ask me to come into work and of course I will say yes...but I can dream right?

My Mum wishes to thank everyone who sent her birthday wishes and even told me that I'm allowed to reveal her age...she turned 45...and I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20 (haha!)...you do the math. Yup, she's a young'un and she looks it too! After I mentioned here on the blog that the pillow I made her would be living on her bed, she sent some pictures to share with you!

Here's the back of the pillow which I didn't originally take a picture of. Sorry I can't tell you what the fabric is on the back - it was a home decorator weight scrap without selvages that I picked up at my LFS. But look, you can see the handmade buttons that I mentioned before!

And here is the pillow on my Mum's bed! The coverlet is coming out a bit more purple than it is in real life but it matches pretty well! It also matches the quilt that I made her for Christmas (please ignore the horrifically bad pictures...and the ugly quilting).

I received a couple of awesome packages this week! Mel sent me some awesome scraps and I got five sets of knitting needles that I needed. I actually bought the needles on eBay and they were wayyyyy cheaper than buying them in the store (yay me)!

Amanda sent me this super-awesome package this week too! She knew that I was missing the Flea Market Fancy print in the middle and offered to send me this fat quarter she had found - woohoo! She also sent along some more fabric and these cute, little zippy-pouches she made. See? Isn't she talented? If you've never visited Amanda's blog, you seriously need to!

As many of you know my siggy swap blocks for round 2 were lost on their way to Julie's house. When I mentioned in the forum that I would not be participating in round 3 because of my bad luck (my blocks for round 1 have not made it to my house yet either even though the deadline was 6 months ago), a bunch of lovely ladies (as well as one boat and a teddy bear, haha!) offered to send me a block from each of them. Those are the blocks in the bottom two rows (and there's still some on the way I think).

When Julie gave me the last update telling me that she still hadn't seen my blocks I told her that I would feel glad if she would use the blocks that I would have received back in one of the charity quilts she was making; however Julie very graciously offered to send me some of the extras anyway and 52 blocks landed on my doorstep from her this week too! Thanks so much to Julie and to all the other ladies who sent blocks my way - you guys are all great and super-awesome!

I've still been quilting and knitting away this week and if all goes well I'll get a lot accomplished next week! Oh, in case anyone is interested I have some fabrics that I'm looking to swap - you can see the fabrics I have here and you can see my ISO list (as well as a longer list of what I have to swap) here! Hope you've had a lovely few days everyone; I'll talk to y'all soon!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. -G.B. Stern

Thank you all for you lovely comments on my first Moda Bake Shop pattern and here on the blog! I really appreciate all your kind words of encouragement and approval; I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but I'm so glad that it was well-received! Oh, and the pattern is now available as a pdf download so that you can print it out - just scroll down to the bottom of the pattern post and click on the icon that says "printer-friendly version". I'm already working on my second pattern for Moda (another of my little secrets) and can't wait to share it with you too!

On Tuesday my Mum came to Toronto and we went to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition). We go every year and always have a lot of fun and eat way too much! This year we were *this* close to seeing a baby lamb born - we saw the mama's water break and about a half hour of the labour, but unfortunately a lamb's labour can take up to two hours and we still had so much to see and do. I got to hang out with one of these beauties....be still my heart! We spent a lot of time in the international pavilion checking out all the awesome goods from around the world and I bought myself the sweetest matryoshka...

Last Tuesday (the 17th) was my Mum's birthday, so of course I had to make her a present!

The fabrics in this pillow are a mix of linen and prints from the Shade Garden collection for Henry Glass (all of which I got from Above All Fabric - Mel rocks!) - the colours are very "my Mum"! The hexie blossom in the centre is all hand pieced and sewn down, and I did some hand stitching around the blossom in a burnt orange-brown colour perle cotton. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's envelope style and I used some handmade wood buttons that I picked up at Bluebird Handmade.

My Mum really seemed to love the pillow and said that it will be living on her bed. I had a fun time showing her what hand piecing hexagons was all about; without actually sewing a hexie in front of her I showed her all the steps from the paper pieces up to sewing them into blossoms (she was particularly amazed when I popped the paper piece out of the centre of a blossom I'd already sewn) - it's so fun to be able to share the things I love to do with her! She even sat for a few minutes arranging the hexies I had made into a new pattern.

It was also very cool to have my Mum here on the day of my pattern release - I was able to show her the pattern and the actual quilt in person. She emailed me last night and told me that she's printed off the pattern so that she can take it and show it to my grandparents - she's very supportive!

I'm heading back to school for the last year of my Masters in about two weeks and I'm nervous but also excited, and to be frank I'm also a little leery. The Faculty was in such an up roar last year and we were the guinea pigs for their new curriculum (which by the way they did not tell us when we applied - we only found out things had changed after we started classes. Pretty lame if I do say so myself); I'm hoping this year goes a bit better in that regard, but I can't help but wonder what crazy thing they're going to do next!

Okay, I've got some sewing to do (yay!) and then off to work (boo!). This weekend Alex and I will be attending a wedding and on Sunday I'll be heading my second meeting as President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild - should be fun! Talk to y'all soon!

A Secret Revealed: My First Moda Bake Shop Tutorial

Oh yes, I've been baking! This is one of the little secrets that I've had to keep under wraps...

My first project with Moda Bake Shop is entitled Pinwheels in the House! I came up with this idea while thinking about mixing different traditional block patterns together, and was struck with the thought of pinwheels mixed with log cabins...get it? Pinwheels inside log cabins... pinwheels in the house?! I just love it!

Head on over to Moda Bake Shop and check out my very first pattern-tutorial with them! I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment over there (and here too if you'd like) and let me know what you think!