La Passacaglia Update: July 2016

So much for #2015projectoftheyear. This is a large, slow project, but so very enjoyable. Sometimes it gets set aside for other things and that's okay. But when I am working on it, I enjoy every fabric selection, every fussy cut, and every stitch. This is my latest complete rosette:

Heather Ross plus bees Rosette

I've been dragging my feet with this one.  I attempted the single piece centre star, which worked out pretty well, but after adding the bees, I felt like this one just wasn't working.  Too light maybe? And I had no idea what to do for the diamonds in the next round.  I knew I wanted to use the strawberries, but just didn't know what to pair them with.  Then a brainstorm hit, and I pulled out the yellow beehive fabrics and the rosette blossomed from there.  At first, I thought I would end up changing out the centre bit with the frog and the green long diamonds, as I didn't think that the pinks and the greens worked with the outer ring.  But once I got it all put together, I loved it.  Sometimes I overthink things.

I think the small stars were really holding me up from hitting my stride with this pattern. I simply dreaded working on them. But I figured out two things that make them more efficient and therefore more tolerable. Previously, I would stitch each star point onto the pentagon individually, each with an individual thread. Now, I use one thread to sew the points on in a ring around the pentagon. Also, I only attach the bottom four when I am working on a large cog. The top point I attach to the double pentagons above so that there is more straight line stitching in that round, which is much more efficient!

Topless Stars......

There they are!

I have pieces prepped for the next round as well. 

My fussy cut game is on point!

I'll keep working away and will update as I go. It may be soon, it may be a ways off. That is the nature of this project! Follow along on Instagram with #ltslapassacaglia. And if you are working on your own, join the #LaPassPieceAlong!

To see more of this project, check out The Homemade Heart's La Passacaglia Quilt Index

Disney Quilt Swap Part 2

After finding out my original partner was ejected from the #disneyquiltswap four days before the shipping deadline, I had to expedite my usual stalking/brainstorming/creating process to make sure I was done on time.

My new partner was a fan of the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World since she got married there (lucky!). She had this poster in her inspiration board, so I decided to recreate it in her favourite colours. 

I added quilted fireworks in silver metallic, purple variegated, pink, and teal to match the colour story of the castle.

I also snuck in a hidden Mickey with glow-in-the-dark thread!

I made a Mickey Mouse label for the back again. Can't go wrong with the mouse! 

I made her a needlebook as well, from some Lady and the Tramp fabric, and included needles, wonderclips, a baby tiger needleminder and scissors with little pink Minnie Mouse bows.

Front

Inside

Back

I also made a pin cushion from a lion fabric that reminded me of the pride from Lion King. 

I somehow managed to get all this done in under a week, and got the package mailed out in time! Big thanks to my husband for taking the baby to give me the time I needed to finish. 

The complete package

From my partner, I received another awesome Ariel mini, this one with human Ariel walking out of the water in her shimmery dress. 

Now I have two Little Mermaid quilts; wouldn't you say my collection's complete?

Disney Quilt Swap Part 1

Before baby Stanley was born, I signed up for the #disneyquiltswap on Instagram. Since it didn't ship out until the beginning of April and baby was due mid February, I figured I would have plenty of time to plan, construct, and mail a mini quilt plus some extras to my partner.

My partner likes Mulan, especially Mushu and Crikee, so I dreamed up a mini quilt based on the first time they meet Mulan. That means fire, a dragon in shadow, and snarky quotes!

I created the background from 2" squares of yellow, orange, and red fabric placed in a gradient. Then I cut out silhouettes of Mushu and Crikee and used raw-edge appliqué to attach them to the quilt. I had to do a bit of embroidery for Crikee's legs and antenna, since they are way too skinny to cut out of fabric. 

Mushu

Crikee

I chose to use part of the Mushu quote "I'm not tiny, I'm travel sized for your convenience." I dropped the "for your convenience" simply because that was way too many letters to cut out! 

I had a brainstorm to try to make the quilting for this mini look like flames to evoke that first meeting scene even more. So using orange and yellow variegated thread, I free motion quilted flames all over the quilt. I used a black backing fabric to let the quilting pop. Last but not least, I made a quilt label in the shape of Mickey. 

The back with flame quilting

Mickey quilt label

Before mailing, I made a couple extra to include. I made a Beauty and the Beast needlebook complete with a rose needleminder, needles, wonder clips, and scissors. 

Front

Inside front

Inside back

Back

And because my partner likes Yzma from Emperor's New Groove, I recreated this scene:

I made an Emperor Kuzco flea, and painted two boxes to match the scene from the movie. This is such a fun and funny scene, that it deserved to be honoured with crafting! 

Then, with four days notice, I was informed that my partner had been kicked out of the swap! I had to start all over again for a new partner with less than a weeks worth of time and a newborn! My original partner contacted me and we agreed to do a private swap between the two of us, so this package still got to go to its rightful home.

In return, my partner sent me an Ariel mini quilt in the shape of a shell, a Mr. Tumnus cross stitched mini, and some awesome Harry Potter items. This was a super fun way to swap, as we knew that each other was sending to us, so we were able to post sneak peaks and get excited about our packages. 

Mini by Alyx Hashman

All these fabulous goodies!

Stay tuned for my next post showing what I made for partner number two!

Mini Mini Quilt Mania

Make Modern Magazine is hosting a mini mini quilt contest this month. Quilts can be no bigger than 6" square, which you would think would be limiting. But dang, I made one last night and the ideas just kept flowing!

When I first heard of the contest, the first words that came to mind were Mouse House. So I decided to run with it and create a mini mini with those words in mind. I knew right away I wanted to use the mouse on the bike from Mice on Bikes by Lizzy House. I explored my fabric collection for inspiration and started cutting and glueing away. In the end, I had a scene with the bike mouse leaving his house under the watchful eye of the cat in the moon. 

Mouse House

I laid the mini mini out with a tape measure and some sewing supplies to prove the size (5.5" square!). 

This morning I was all fired up to make another. Today I made a mini Polaroid block using a scrap of Briar Rose fabric left over from my B Rosie quilt. I embroidered Spring 2016 under the "photo", to replicate how people used to write on Polaroids, and I accented the photo with some French knot pollen dots. I finished this one with some mini pompom trim. 

Spring 2016 Polaroid

Again, I set up a little scene to show the size (3x4"!). I have a few other ideas rattling around in my brain, so this likely isn't the last mini mini quilt you see out of me!

The Homemade Nursery: Alternate Universe FEMALE

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

You've seen the Boy quilt, now let's talk girl quilt!  Like I said before, I wanted to have similar design elements for both quilts, just different actual pattern and fabric (and quilting, because I find that the pattern influences the quilting).  Selecting the fabric was easy.... Heather Ross had recently released a new fabric collection called Tiger Lily! With the cats, ballerinas and sweet florals, this is a perfect line for a girly quilt.  

Selecting the pattern took a little more thought.  I wanted something that can utilize a white background, and was similar to the pluses of the boy quilt, but different enough that the two quilts weren't just copies of each other.  On Instagram, I was inspired to make wonky star blocks with the fabrics to combine into the quilt.  I joined a quilt-along that required making one block a week until finished, and it was a great way to stay on track.  

I backed this quilt with a pink rosette minky, and bound it with white satin blanket binding.  I quilted it using a little echo quilting around each star, and stitching along either side of the seam lines between blocks.  

I am very excited to see which of the quilts gets put into use.  Not very long to wait!!

Boy quilt or girl quilt..... which will it be?!

The Homemade Nursery: Alternate Universe MALE

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

My husband and I made the decision to resist the temptation to find out the gender beforehand, and keep that for a birthday surprise.  There are so few actual surprises as an adult, so it is really nice to preserve that.  Also, it is so delightfully torturous having to wait!  Another part of the reason we like this plan is because it is fun for kids to imagine how their lives would be different had they been born in the alternate universe of the other gender.  I always found it so fascinating to imaging what my life would have been like had I been born a boy name Daniel (my parent's choice of boy name for me).  

Another part of the fun of not knowing, is that I decided to make two different quilts, a boy quilt and a girl quilt.  They are similar in their elements, but different designs, fabrics, and quilting.  

First I made the boy quilt.  I had recently purchased the Natural History collection from Lizzy House (those dinos!), and knew it would be perfect for a little boy.  Bugs, gems, dinosaurs, constellations, whales?!  What's not to love?

I took my time deciding just what I wanted to do with the fabrics, but was eventually inspired to make a plus quilt using the blue and green colourways from the fabric line.  This was a very easy, straightforward pattern to follow and make, and I think the results are very nice.  I used a white background for the pluses to allow the fabrics to really be featured.  

I backed the quilt with a soft rosette minky in blue, and quilted with a diagonal checkerboard pattern.  I bound the quilt with satin blanket binding because it is my husband's favourite, as he had a blankie as a child with the same binding.  

Up next: the girl quilt!  For now, the quilts are stacked in the closet, just waiting to see which one will be put to use!

Nurture Hope: an infertility story

After I had surgery almost a year ago, I was very hopeful that my husband and my dream of having a family would quickly become a reality. I followed up with our fertility clinic a few weeks into my recovery, and I was given a prescription for fertility medications to help us along that path. Unfortunately, when I went back in for routine monitoring a month later, my doctor found that the endometrioma (a cyst caused by endometriosis) on my left ovary that had been removed along with part of my bowel, had returned and completely taken it over. That means that, despite having just had surgery, my endometriosis was back and doing significant damage to my reproductive organs. At this point, my doctor recommended that we take advantage of the very small and honestly, a little unlikely window of opportunity we have after surgery, and attempt an IVF cycle. 

This was a scary thing for me to hear. I have never been keen on the IVF process, and the low chances, made even lower by my medical status, make the investment of emotions, physical pain/discomfort, and finances all the more of a risk. But we really want a family, and if this was the only way, then so be it. 

When I got the call that our name had come up on the waiting list to start a cycle, it was a few months sooner than I had thought it would be. So of course we jumped on it, and started the long and intensive process of oral hormone medications, injectables, almost daily blood and ultrasound monitoring, scary medical procedures, progesterone suppositories, and emotional turmoil. 

I made a beautiful hour basket to hold all my injection supplies- the process wouldn't be pretty, but gosh darn it, the needles can be kept somewhere pretty!

To help me cope with the emotional side of this process, I decided to make a special quilt to give me comfort at the end of this, regardless of the outcome. I wanted something cozy, with my hopes and dreams and pain sewn right into it, and significance in every stitch. 

So of course, I called my fave Charley Harper into action. His most recently released line was called Nurture, and it features mama animals with their babies. It was meant to be! And the name of the line fit perfectly with my meditation, and eventual theme for the quilt - Nurture Hope. Because above all, hope and faith are the most important things in this long and hard journey. And Hope doesn't necessarily come easily. You have to keep it tucked away in your heart, and feed it happy thoughts (which are sometimes hard to come by when dealing with infertility), and stroke it when it is feeling small and scared. And you have to do this even when The Facts are screaming at you that your hope is unreasonable and unlikely. You have to Nurture Hope. And this quilt helped me do that. 

I decided to make a sampler style quilt, so that each print with their different scales could be properly featured in an individual block of their own. First I spelled out the words Nurture Hope. Sometimes you need a constant reminder of your task before you, to help you stay on track. Having these words up on my design wall for a few months was very helpful indeed. Next, I made the large blocks, using a different print for the centre of each block. I didn't have a plan at all in terms of where the quilt was heading, so lastly, I made small blocks, and the ones with funny shapes to fill in the spaces between blocks in the layout. This was a very fun part, changing and rearranging until the final product was just right. And sometimes, initial thoughts and intentions changed or modified into something better. 

I have many parts of this quilt that have special meaning to me, and here I will share them:

Above all, the message is so important to me.  Nurture Hope.

Infertility is filled with ups and downs.  I try to maintain more ups, but sometimes you fall into a pit of despair.  Especially when your period arrives despite all your hopes otherwise.  Hence the red arrow is the down arrow.  

This little piece of artwork is called Family Owlbum.  That is just so special, and one of my favourites from the collection.

These penguins pretty much sum up living with infertility.  All around you, everyone has their egg, but you are alone in thinking "Where's my egg?"  Everyone has their eyes up and focused on other things, but the mamas without their eggs have their eyes focused squarely on where their eggs should be.  Rarely are your thoughts diverted otherwise.  My heart aches for the penguins without their eggs.  

Sometimes you have a million thoughts in your head during the IVF process.  What if I'm doing the injections wrong?  Is this feeling normal?  Does this pain mean it isn't working?  Will this work?  Of course it will work.  It's impossible that it will work.  What happens to me if it doesn't work?  It's not fair.  Fear, anxiety, glimmers of hope.  You must Be Still.  Have faith.  Nurture Hope.

The feathers represent for me that, as with fabric scraps that you can piece together to make something whole, so it is with life.  Sometimes you don't have the whole image to be able to have the perfect picture of life.  But you can still make a good life with what you have.  

This artwork is called Love from Above.  I truly feel that love is greater than all of us, and God's role in my journey has been integral.  Faith and hope can be hard to come by, but that constant love from above can keep you going when things seem bleak.  

And ultimately, love conquers all.  

For me, this process has been such a metaphor for this journey. You start with the major plot points planned out in your head, and then you have to fill in the middle with unexpected and unplanned aspects, all the while rearranging, adapting, and persevering through, even when you don't know how it's going to turn out in the end, fearing that it will all be a terrible mess, and all the while remembering to Nurture Hope. 

And finally, after all the waiting and all the work, and all the anxiety, you have a happy ending. A beautiful quilt, and a beautiful pregnancy. I am so happy to report that our journey has a happy ending. Against many odds, our hoping and wishing and praying has been for a baby to call our own, and now we have that chance. Oh happy day!