LizzyHouse

Canada feelings.

First I want to start by saying that I, no surprise, did not bring a camera with me. I knew that I would be with Karyn who is a brilliant photographer, and that our time would be well documented. And I wanted to focus on teaching. So I did. And she did take beautiful pictures. 

So my posts will probably be backwards chronologically speaking, because I'm taking them from her flickr stream as she posts them.

So this first post isn't about any of the classes, it's just about my feelings.

I loved Toronto. I loved everyone I met. I loved the food that we ate. I loved having pie for breakfast. I loved my Mini Quilt class peeps. I loved my block printing peeps. I loved my Champion Ribbon peeps.

I love the workroom. I love the workroom girls. I love Nani Iro. I love Fresh. I love Mokuba (sigh). I love Katherine. I love Karyn. I love Maisy.

I loved everything about last week.

I found that I really love sewing things for myself! I'm always making quilts and things for patterns, so they always feel like samples even when I keep them... but this past week I sewed two Enchanted Bow skirts, a 241 Noodlehead bag, and a dress from Stylish Dress book. We were a regular factory. One of my favorite things to be. All this says to me is that a. I need a better sewing machine (duh), and b. I need to make more time and things for myself. 

It feels like a dream now. I was on such a tired/ loving/ pie/ high all week. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the kindness and love that was shown to me, and I really feel like one of the luckiest peeps in the world.

Toronto was just what I needed. So much so, I know I'm gonna need it next year...

We're having a great time!!!

I'm still alive in Canada with a whole slew of new bff's. Champion Ribbons were awesome today, and Andrea of Liligo Designs made me a fantastic cake with these sweet flags on it. More pictures to follow, to be sure.

sweet picture of Karyn and me from my new friend, Jacqueline.

Farewell to 1001 Peeps Summer Camp!

It has been a really great summer, and it's with heavy hearts, and dozen peep projects that we draw our 1001 Peeps Summer Camp to a close.

So for the final time this summer, I'm sending you to our last counselor's blog to check out a sweet action project using 1001 Peeps! Monica has made a fantastic project. It's a Scoodie. A scarf hoodie! and it will take you right in to a magical fall.

I hope that you have had a great summer, and that you have enjoyed camp. Also, a huge thanks to all of the counselors for participating and creating fantastic tutorials. Check them out!

June 24: Alexia Abegg.

July 1: Lemon Cadet

July 8: The Fat Quarterly!

July 15: Quilt Asylum.

July 22:  MrsMcPorkchop

July 29: Flax and Twine

August 5: Heather alamode

August 12:  Make Something

August 19: Whipstitch

August 26: Happy Zombie

happy back to school fall time! Have a great school year!

so....

Turns out I look the same while doing the same things in Canada...

photo from Karyn's instagram

a forever pilgrim.

This coming week I'll be in Canada.

I was riding my bike tonight, to pick up a few things before I leave town again in the morning... and I can't even express how overwhelmed I felt by being so happy to be alive. I haven't felt that exact feeling in a long time. It's like a specific flavor of ice cream, and I hadn't had any in a while. But I had a whole pint today.

I'm spending the week with my peeps at the workroom in Toronto, and i'm just so happy to a. spend time with my friends, b. meet new peeps, and c. visit a new city. 

I feel like I have been collecting cities, and I'm excited to see how Toronto stacks up.

When I was in New York, my friend referred to someone as a forever pilgrim, and I think that's what I must be too. I'm just not content to stay. I feel like I am constantly on a pilgrimage to find more understanding and inspiration and I just have not found what I am looking for yet.

It's like investing in a dress. I will spend the money, but the fit and the quality and the color and the fabric have to equal the cost. And nothing has equalled the cost of staying yet. It's going to take something pretty powerful to ground me.

I leave you tonight with one of my very favorite songs, and probably one of my all time favorite music videos.

 

I wish I could whip up a batch of happy to be alive in my ice cream maker, store it in my freezer, and have a spoonful whenever I needed a moment of tonight.

 

Five Magical Projects flickr group...

One quick thing!

I'm not really hearing much from my quilt along peeps. Are you out there? Are my videos just obnoxious?

Anyway... I made a flickr group for your works from the book. Join and add your pics! Especially progress shots! I love it when you show your work.

Here is the group

Look at Michelle's FANTASTIC Midnight at the Oasis using Julia Rothman's Miscellany! I'm totally loving it. It's making me feel like I need one in Miscellany too!

I'm calling it Miscellany at the Oasis.

Nearing the end!

Hello Peeps.

We are nearing the end of 1001 Peeps Summer camp as your little Peeps start heading back to school. Today Deborah of Whipstich, who I think is probably one of the funniest, smartest and most down to earth people I have ever met, seriously I could not think more highly of her, has made a super great project for your little peeps.

Go forth and check it out!

have a great weekend deary dears.

real talk Quilt Along Schedule...

You guys aren't into speed quilting????

So, 10 blocks a day might not be super realistic?

There are 90 blocks in the quilt.

If you can do you 10 blocks a day, then your quilt will be done in 9 days. That's my kind of quilt!

but let's break it down:

track #1: if you could make 15 blocks a week, and at the end of two weeks attach your blocks at the end of every 3 weeks, you can have your quilt done in 6 weeks! I think that sounds a little more reasonable.You should finish around the end of September!

track #2: if you make just 5 more a week (20 blocks), you can have your quilt done in 4.5 weeks. That's 10 rows and 2 columns! You should be finishing up around the 12th of September.

track #3: This is the most leisurely of all the tracks. Just 10 blocks a week! You'll be finished around the middle of October.

This of course is just a suggestion! This whole thing is a suggestion! I just want to promote your success, as well as a higher percentage of project completion. We are all guilty of starting things that we don't finish. With my little diagrams, videos and my big ol' teeth, you can do this! 

 

Diamond Mountain Quilt Along #3

 

Sorry for the delay! I hope this video makes sense. Of course my camera battery died, so pics will follow soon.

I was thinking about a schedule.

If you sew 10 blocks a day (5 rows, 2 columns) you will be done in 9 days! I don't know if you want to knock it out like that, but you could certainly be done by the end of the month.

Also, it was brought to my attention today that the fabric requirement for the Purple Illuminate is 1/2 a yard, but it tells you to cut 3, 4.5in WOF strips, and 2, 3.25in WOF.... but that equals 20 inches, and 1/2 a yard is 18... yikes!

but there's more! It says that it needs 38, but you really only need 34. I recommend instead of cutting all the way across your 3rd 4.5in strip, you get the pieces that you need from it, and then cut it down to 3.25.

22 of the main triangle in the Purple Illuminate are crucial. The rest can be traded out. It is more important that you get your connectors (3.25in sqaures) than it is all the larger triangles

Like I said, I will make a diagram for you. All will be well.

Workshops at Juniper Moon Farms

I swear. I'm starting a Squam family tree.

It was Saturday night in the back end of the Deep Haven Dining Room during the Art Fair at the close of the very first Fiber based Squam Art Workshops. I was overwhelmed. I think we all were. I think for a lot of us this was the first time that we had ever connected to so many people with whom we knew we belonged.

I was selling my art work. And CRYING. All night long. It was out of control. I was a mess. Someone would come up to my table, someone who had either taken a class from me, or said something generous, or I had just felt a connection to and then they would ask about one of my works, and then I would start explaining it, and then I would start weeping trying to get through the explanation, and then they would start weeping. It's a good thing I wrap up all of my prints in cellophane... I just think that emotions were running really high, and I felt/ feel very deeply about that body of work. I was deeply dehydrated by the end of the whole thing.

Susan and Erin were running the Juniper Moon Farm table kitty-corner to me (we essentially shared the entrance to the bathroom), and they could not have been sweeter. I think at one point they had teared up too. It was catching. I loved them. I was loving everyone, but I really loved them. Susan is just one of those people that you want on your team. You know that she is good, and her integrity fills the space around her. Plus she is from Texas, and I think we have magnets in us that pull us together. I also really loved Erin. She to me seemed like one of those people who a person like me really needs in their life. I could be off base, but I think she has that God given stage manager gene. She gets things done. She also purchased two favorite pieces of mine.

I'm glad to know that they loved me too!

So much so, that Susan came and took a class from me the following year! At the beginning of each of my classes I ask, your name, where you are from, and why did you sign up for my class? And Susan said her name, where she was from, and her answer to why she signed for my class was pretty much something along the lines of, "I had the table across from you last year, and everyone you spoke to started crying, so I knew I wanted to take a class from you".

oh great! I was probably blushing. Blush and crying. Two of my best things.

Since then, my love has only grown for Susan, and for her wonderful Fiber Farm, and the good things that I instinctively knew about her, have all been confirmed. There probably aren't too many days that pass before I tell a new person about her farm, and what she is doing. Or pull up the blog to show said person pictures of the lambs or the new dairy goats. I even keep a picture on my desktop. I'm in love with this place, and a serious advocate for it, and yet I have never been.

Until now!

Next year in March for almost 2 weeks you can find me at Juniper Moon Farm, where I will be teaching a whole range of classes.

March 3rd and 4th (Saturday and Sunday) I will be teaching a Quilt Class. I can't show you the quilt just yet, but you will love it, and more than likely be able to finish your top while you are with me!

March 10th I'll be teaching block printing on fabric this is by far my most popular class. Why not come take it with little lambs all around us?!

March 11th I'll be doing a session of Mini Quilts. this is a favorite class of mine. The results are like presents to me, even though I don't keep them.

Lunch will be provided along with snacks! And if you are coming from out of town, I know that for an additional $50 you can stay at the farm, or there is a Best Western near by. Also, there are only 12 spots in each class. They will go quickly, so let it be you (ewe, ha), and come spend a couple of days in March with me on the best Fiber Farm in the world.

Make March magical!

all the pictures come from the JMF blog. Check it out!