Friday, March 7, 2014

Hiatus

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post. A lot happened last year, the biggest thing was my mom's health declining significantly until she lost the battle with her diabetes related liver disease May 30th.
Losing a parent is a big life event, and one that you really can't understand how it will effect you until you've lost one yourself. I haven't really felt like blogging in a long time, but lately I've been thinking a lot about it, so here I am!
The last couple of years have been a trial for me filled with change, loss and a lot of betrayal. Every time someone would say 'It will get better!" something even crappier happened so I forbade people from saying it to me! But as the saying goes, nothing good or bad lasts forever, even though it seems like it at the time. And as Train says "I stopped believing although Journey told me not to. Before I call it day, maybe this'll be my year." 
Thanks to my family and friends, and running away to Scotland for a month, I've finally found the good things in life again and have become a stronger, better person for it. This year is starting off pretty amazingly. I'll go into that soon, so stay tuned.

I still haven't posted the latter half of my Scotland trip, so I will do that soon. I really want to introduce everyone to the wonderful quilters I met there! 

Here's a little recap of my projects from the last year for you. It's going to be a quick and dirty synopsis, so please bare with me!
This is a quilt I made for my darling Emmett's wedding in Sept 2012 that I just finished in time for his sister's wedding this January! I baby sat both Emmett and Liz since they were born and they are both very special to me and I love them tons. I can't believe they are both old enough to be married since I'm totally not any older!
Ironically enough the quilt pattern was designed by a quilt shop owner in Austin, Texas which is where Emmett got married! (I can't recall the name now, I'll update it when I find it again) Michelle and I discovered it when we were hitting all the quilt shops in the Austin area!
I used the first David Butler line w/Basic Grey' Grunge. I freaking love Grunge! It always come through for me when I can't find the perfect coordinate to pull it all together. It's white Minky on the back. I made it extra large because Em is ridiculously tall, and I wanted it big enough for he and Chrissy to be able to cuddle up together underneath it.
I quilted this vintage quilt top that a friend of mine found in the attic of her family's farmhouse which several generations of her family lived in. I couldn't believe what gorgeous shape it was in after being packed away for so many years!
I quilted the empty blocks with a traditional wreath pattern. It took me a long time to decide how to quilt it because I wanted to do it justice and be age appropriate (probably the only time I am age appropriate!)

I thought it photographed well on my grandmother's buggy bench.
I've had a terrible case of project ADD lately. I recently started working on this wall hanging. It started out as an entirely different quilt set on point, but I wasn't thrilled with that, so now it's straight set and will have applique when I get done. 
I've also been working on this for my baby cousin's baby quilt. She turned a year in November, so I'd best get it done before she's too big for it!!! I can't figure out how to rotate it, so you'll have to turn your head. I think I'm going to continue the pink down the tree trunk.
I've also been working on some wool applique when I travel or go to guild. 
This is the pattern:
I'm using a variety of 3 Sisters by Moda (because you know, I have quite a variety of it in my stash!) I think I'm going to change around that top left corner block too, because I'm not much of a heart person outside of Valentine's Day decorations.
On the home front, I've been quite busy as well. I found this cabinet at a barn sale for $50.
The bottom is now my sink in the Tiffany bathroom. The top will eventually be repainted and hung in the laundry room.
I have custom molding for the edges of the sink to put on and the backsplash tile to install, then it will be done!
I got the knobs at Anthropologie, I think they cost as much as the sink did in total!!! The 4 corner ones are mercury glass and the center is all blingy and rhinstones. Now if I can just figure out how to put a chandelier in there....

I finally finished painting the master bathroom. Say goodbye to the last of the Avocado Green!!!!
And hello to the gorgeous Farrow and Ball  Blue Gray! I thought I took a photo w/the mirror up, but I guess I didn't so I'll do an official before and after when I do that.
Ahhhh, that's better, isn't it?
I was going to go into the outdoor projects, but I have a feeling Blogger will explode if I try to add more photos, so I'll do a separate post on that. Also, I can't seem to get the font out of red and underlined. I'm not sure what' up with that. Apparently Google and Apple don't play nicely together, still.