Play Nook Accomplished

BEFORE

AFTER

We did some downsizing...went through the multitudes of books and after days of picking it apart during naptime it is DONE!  Whew hew...

Of course now we'll move you know.

- rebecca lynne

My Friday Night

5 of 8 strips completed for Miss O's ZigZag Quilt

Damn straight.

- rebecca lynne

TGIFF Hummingbirds & Hexagons FINISHED!

Hummingbirds & Hexagons

IT IS DONE!

Close up of Free Motion Quilting by moi...  Grey thread, hand drawn flowers to complement the flowered fabric

As soon as I finished binding H&H Miss V ran over to me and said "Nana's blanket" (she being Nana, she coyly wrapped herself in the blanket and hasn't let go since).  I wasn't sure who I was going to give this quilt to so how perfect is that?  She decided for me...

When it came to photograph the quilt she pressed her face against the screen door to make sure I wasn't running away with "Nana's blanket!"

Finally the Mr. was able to put Miss O down and everyone came out to help Mommy photograph the quilt...  Of course this was a family affair as usual in the MRL household.  





All Hail to Nana's Blanket!





Hummingbirds & Hexagons Stats
- Size: 46" x 46"
- Fabric: Tanya Whelan Dolce
- Piecing Pattern: custom design by rebecca lynne's parents
- Quilting: FMQ hand drawn floral pattern by rebecca lynne
- Binding: Handsewn (oh the devotion); Taka Kona fabric

To see the progression of this quilt check out previous posts HERE.

Linking to TGIFF.  Check it.

- rebecca lynne

Project Play Nook [Thursday Think Tank]

Introducing my next project...  The play nook.  Which, let's be real, is hardly a nook so much as this corner with a built in bookcase that the girls throw their toys towards...so as to "clean up."

Then we started taking away toys.  I mean, LOTS of them.  And you know what?  They couldn't care less.  Seriously.  No difference to them.  In fact, the threat of taking away toys from them is really useless as they apparently have way more than they really need anyway.  

To top it all off I started seeing these...

Eclectic Kids design by New York Furniture And Accessories Kelly Donovan

Contemporary Kids design by San Francisco Interior Designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

Contemporary Kids design by New York Photographer Alexander Johnson Photography

Eclectic Kids design by Vancouver Interior Designer The Sky is the Limit Design

Talk about clean minimalist design.  And that is when it hit me...they don't need all this nonsense everywhere.  I just need to reorganize what they already have and make it more useful to them.  Duh.  Granted, these spaces won't stay this way when used but hey, it is a start.

- rebecca lynne

Got a Think Tank for this Thursday?  Hook me up!  I'd love to hear what you are brainstorming about...

Under the Wire Wednesday

Vacation is defined differently by everyone...agreed? For me, part of my vacation should involve creating. And, lucky for me, a vacation at my in-laws always includes some time for me and my mother-in-law Shirley to get something creative under way. So, I did actually do a little bit of this while I was away...

 

 I also found time to do a lot of this...

Which is good because tomorrow I am returning to work. It hadn't really hit me how hard it is going to be until my Daddy so easily summed it up by saying "wow, that went fast" and yes, yes it did. Luckily Miss O will be staying home with her Daddy and not going to daycare for at least another month or so and that is a huge consolation. In the meantime MRL starts dieting and I kick it off by making myself parfait in a jar for work. Wish me luck!

- rebecca lynne

Inspiration Overflow [Thursday Think Tank]

I have been thinking so much while out here on vacation that I have changed my mind over what to post for Thursday Think Tank about a million times. Mostly this is due to the late night blog reading I have been doing while nursing Miss O... Plus I cannot discount the value of the quilty conversations I have been having with my mother in law. It demonstrates how important it is for an artist to have a community to bounce ideas off of and makes me miss living near like minded creative folks...

With this in mind rather than translate my inspiration into my own words I'd like to share a few awesome links with you this week that I have found especially thought provoking. I hope you will let me know what you think I'd love to get a dialogue going!

Making Handmade and Pricing your goods

Tickle and Hide: Price War in My Head

The Quilting Edge: Pricing One's Work

Selling Sewing Patterns

Meylah: More than a 1,000 Sales in One Month

Commercial Artistry and Creativity

Whip Up: Finding Time to Fail

What are you pondering these days? You know the drill...

- rebecca lynne

Fabric Eye Candy

I finished this simple patchwork top before leaving on Holiday.  

Just love how deliciously SUMMER it looks don't you?  More pics once I've gifted it...

Hope you are staying cool!

- rebecca lynne

On the road...

 

Three kids, two adults, one dog...packed and on their way!

 

- rebecca lynne

QuiltCon MRL Style [Thursday Think Tank]

If you are a quilt blog reader then you must know about the upcoming QuiltCon presented by The Modern Quilt Guild.  Since I live under a rock and I know about it I assume everyone else does too...  And, because all the hotels in Austin near the QuiltCon are already sold out I think my assumption is pretty safe!

Unfortunately, given our recent dedication to fix our finances and buy a home I will not be traveling to Austin to partake in the QuiltCon.  S-I-G-H.  Bummer...

However, Mary Fons, one of the scheduled participants at this year's QuiltCon, is actually going to be lecturing near me at the Chautauqua Institution's Annual Quilt Show.  Say what?  Now I was going to boycott the Institution's quilt show this year because it went so poorly for me last year.  How, you may ask, could a quilt show go poorly for a mere onlooker?  Well...I was pretty much the youngest person there and the other quilters were definitely giving me a hard time about it...actually commenting on my interest as if I could not possibly know the first thing about sewing two pieces of fabric together let alone sandwiching fabric and batting (or wadding as my Brit friends say) to create a quilt.  It left me feeling very sour and I was not going to return this year.  But...when I saw that Mary Fons was going to be there and lecturing on the rise of 30-something quilters no less I decided it was time to give the show a second chance.  Besides, if I can't go to QuiltCon at least I see Mary Fons in my own backyard instead!  

Not too shabby, eh?

So what are you Think Tanking these days?

- rebecca lynne

Feel free to rattle off anything that has been brewing in your creative heads. It can be anything, quilting, home improvement, fashion, crafting, DIY gifts, cooking...whatever you have recently thought "hmmm, you know what I should create" is perfectly appropriate for the Think Tank.  TTT is all about whatever you are currently brainstorming and would like feedback or encouragement on!

Have a blog? Grab the Thursday Think Tank button displayed on the right. Thanks to everyone who linked up last week.
One small request: Please remember to Add a Link to Thursday Think Tank in your Blog Post - this enables Your Readers to visit the Linky Party and share other people's TTT links with Your Readers.  Thank you!

Under the Wire Wednesday

I will be returning to work very soon...sigh...  Don't misunderstand, I love my job, I love getting up in the morning and having a life, putting on clothes and talking about adult things, but I will miss squishing my three girls whenever I want to.  Especially leaving Miss O so young.  It will be very very very tough.  But, I am not working the ridiculous hours I once did in NYC so I am grateful for that...at least I will see my girls every night, every morning, and every weekend which is more than some people can say...  Sad state the world has gotten itself into isn't it?

Anyway - we could go on forever on that topic.

My point for bringing this up is that I am now under a crunch to focus on finishing some things up!  I will be going on holiday next week and have set aside my hand binding to focus on machine driven projects.  Hopefully I will get some more sewing done next week with my Mother in Law but there are no promises as it will be my only week of summer vacation!

Here is what I am working on...

Miss O's Zig Zag
- All of the squares are cut
- All have been sewn together
- And I even squared off the corners  <-- What?  That is so not MRL but I am being extra good this time!

Simple Patchwork Quilt
- Special project for a friend [Part 2 - you can see Part 1 here]
- Just a little peek
- Finally sewing all the strips together today

Stash Sorting

- I've made some progress, but am far from finished!

What projects do you have in progress?

- rebecca lynne

WIP STATS

- Hummingbirds & Hexagons Quilt (binding, on hold for car ride)

- Special Secret Part 1 (backing)

- Special Secret Part 2 (finishing top, backing)

- Miss Vs Colorway (cutting)

- Miss Es Colorway (cutting)

Zoo Crazy

Miss E and Baby Orangutan

We have been in the house for almost two solid weeks.  Yup, you read me right, fourteen days.  A newborn, an almost two year old, a three year old, two parents and two grandparents (different sets of grandparents traded off during that span of time) in a three bedroom house with no air conditioning.  For those of you who aren't in the contiguous United States - it has been hot here lately.  Where the MRL Family lives, Far Far Away, it has been 85 degrees or more all weekend.

You can only imagine that the words Stir Crazy do not even begin to apply...

So, when Miss E had to go all the way back for her post operation appointment in Erie, PA this Friday we jumped on the chance to do something out of the house!  The Zoo was the perfect opportunity for us to all be together - the animals would entertain the older two while the open air would help Miss O avoid the infectious germs that comes with closed in crowded areas like a Children's Museum (ew).

Miss V notices the enormous Rhino

Rhino checkin' out the excited Miss V

Zoo Path

Miss V and Biti

So... I am not exactly the nature loving type.  Far from it.  Like, very far.  When I lived in Colorado  (allegedly one of the United States' healthiest states) I once explained to someone that my idea of exercise was a brisk walk through the shopping mall.  Hahahhaaa, I didn't win any points for that comment.  I love animals, I love running - on asphalt, but when it comes to hiking, wearing bug spray or even sunscreen for that matter I am so not your girl.  However, I married a nature loving type and apparently my daughters take after their father in that respect.  You can imagine my surprise when I turned from checking on Miss O in the stroller to seeing Miss E having a serious moment with a brand new baby Orangutan.  I mean these two were having a serious one on one...  She and the baby were literally staring into each other's eyes while I, stupidly, had put the camera away and was now fumbling to get my trusty Nikon out of its protective case!  

Meanwhile...in this glorious age of cell phones {read sarcasm} everyone ELSE in the Orangutan viewing area all of a sudden noticed that my firstborn had hypnotized this baby Orangutan.  They all swarmed around the glass case and Miss E wielding their phones.  I could barely push past the oohing and aaahing crowd to take a shot of my own daughter let alone make sure no one snatched her!

This all resulted in the following picture:

Oh the age of technology.  Luckily I am rather happy with the cropping I did in the picture at the start of this post!  On the positive end of cell phone photography, I am totally digging Instagram these days.  If you have an account leave me your username in a comment below - I love seeing what everyone else takes shots of!  You can find me at makingrebeccalynne.

As usual, I still found a way to incorporate Fiber Art into some aspect of our weekend.  In the African area of the Zoo I couldn't help notice the beautiful textiles they included for atmosphere...

Loving the patchwork quality...

I see Chevron everywhere these days!

Blockprint, awesome colors

Who doesn't like flying fish?

Overall it was an awesome day.  Miss E checks out and all is back to being well in the MRL Household.  Whew hew!  

Under the heading of Make I spent a lot of my weekend doing this...

H&H binding by hand

How was your weekend?

- rebecca lynne

Stash Rehash [Thursday Think Tank]

I've been reconsidering my stash.  I am starting to rethink how I have it organized...  The more I ponder the more I want to spend a whole day in my sewing room ripping things apart and reorganizing!

MRL In Color Order Stash - in a DRAWER

For guidance, I have revisited Jeni's Art of Choosing.  Last year when I followed along I couldn't bring myself to break up some of my most precious collections...

Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope

Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley

Tina Givens Chloe's Imagination

But now I am reconsidering and I think that the time has come to break up some of my collections.  Well, some of them.  Also, instead of keeping everything in drawers or bins I am going to display at least my collection that is kept in color order.  I think SEEING the fabric may help me make my choices a little easier.  Plus, who can resist the lust over seeing all that glorious fabric beautifully laid out?  I'm thinking of doing something like this...

{source: Wren Handmade}

Hmmm how awesome if I could find the time to do this and show you photos...ah ha...now there is motivation!

What are you all Think Tanking these days?  Link up and share the ideas!

- rebecca lynne

Feel free to rattle off anything that has been brewing in your creative heads. It can be anything, quilting, home improvement, fashion, crafting, DIY gifts, cooking...whatever you have recently thought "hmmm, you know what I should create" is perfectly appropriate for the Think Tank.  TTT is all about whatever you are currently brainstorming and would like feedback or encouragement on!

Have a blog? Grab the Thursday Think Tank button displayed on the right. Thanks to everyone who linked up last week.
One small request: Please remember to Add a Link to Thursday Think Tank in your Blog Post - this enables Your Readers to visit the Linky Party and share other people's TTT links with Your Readers.  Thank you!