LizzyHouse

A year in review.

2012 was a curious year for me. 

At the end of 2011 when I was getting offers for workshop jobs, I felt compelled to pass. I didn't have specific reasons or explanations, other than that it didn't feel like the right thing, and you know me, I want to do the right thing. I took some considerable time thinking about why it wouldn't be the right thing, why I should be home and not wherever in the world I would be otherwise... I felt grounded. I had at the time, also, a strong desire to move to New York at the end of the year, to be so much closer to so many people I love. Again, it wasn't the right thing. Grounded. 

It's literally as if my security clearance was revoked. (I've been watching Alias)

So I stayed in Salt Lake. I hunkered down. I tried really really hard to make friends. I tried, for the first time in my life to plant some roots. My whole adult life (gross) I have been on the loose. I've been running and searching, and working, and seeing, all that was available to me. And when I look at it now, they were years well spent. They shaped and taught me lessons at a price that I could afford. 

But 2012 was the year I stayed.  

I took a few jobs that took me away, and every time I left, it was as if I had been given special permission to be where I was. But for the first time in my life, it felt like I had something to get home to. A life I had started in January, cultivated and kept, waiting for me. The year of the garden. That garden changed my life. It taught me lessons that I have needed, and have misunderstood for years, in a visual living breathing way that made sense to my better nature. I grew more in 2012 than I thought possible.

So here are some things that happened:

I got fit. I look fly. I didn't say super skinny, I said fit. I'm taking good care of myself, loving the Bar Method. 

I made friends. The kind of friends that you're all like, "this is really rude I didn't know you sooner, oh well, what are we doing for dinner," kind of friends. The kind of friends that when you say your prayers at night, or write a list of all that you are grateful for, your little eyes well up and you can't see straight for three minutes because your heart swells up and pushes all the tears out. Gross, but true. The kind of friends that you are always telling people about, because you think they are amazing and you think everyone should be so lucky as to know them. 

I killed it in the kitchen. This past year, I wanted to take my cooking/baking skills to the next next level. It worked. It's all about patience. 

I learned a real lesson about patience, that made me more patient than you ever thought I needed to be. 

I learned to be more trusting and not SOOOO guarded ALLLLLLLL the time. It's a work in progress. 

I tried to cut being offended out of my life.

I've chosen love and honesty with myself, so I can continue to change and progress, without being unkind or overly critical. I don't want to hurt myself anymore. I payed a lot of attention to this, as this has always been a one way ticket to a downward spiral for me. 

I really put into practice taking people from where they are, not where I am. Again choosing love and honesty, not criticism or judgement. 

I over all just stopped being so hard on myself. Which is real achievement, that actually solves a lot of problems for me. A clean sweep, truly.

I found out I am almost all the way Danish. (Not an accomplishment, just something that happened). 

I had cascading Princess Hair. 

I took time for myself. Like almost a whole year time. I knew that I might never get time to figure this kind of stuff out, figure myself out, and all that biz in such a concentrated way... so I read, took care of my garden, made a bunch of clothes, designed some fabric, visited with friends, rode my bike a lot, and made some plans. 

I got really good at making dresses. 

I had a serious epiphany in France. 

I made the biggest, and very best commitment of my lifetime in March.

I realized how grateful I am for my little sweet life. If somehow it were frozen right here just as it is, it would be wonderful, and I could always be happy. 

I became a life long gardener. 

I chose to be happy, and it worked. 

I'm just listing the positive outcome of these lessons... they were hard won. It got messy. But I didn't ruin a phone by crying into it this year... that's an accomplishment. It could, however, be that I was just on speaker phone most of the time instead of crying directly onto the device.

I think the biggest thing. Like the very biggest thing, is that I am getting better at remembering who I am all the time. We lose our way when we forget, but it's our job to remember, and I'm getting better at my job. 

If I can give you one piece of advice, just one little thing to put in your pocket or sew into all your quilts, or spin into the thread that you tie onto your finger: choose happiness. Choose it every time. Do whatever it takes for your decisions, thoughts and actions to be based in love and not fear, and you will be happy. It will change your life. You will love yourself more, and you will love others more.

Peeps are that they might have joy.

That's a not so direct quote. 

all my very best to you all in this New Year. I know it's going to be great. And BIG!!!

xolizzy

ps. beautiful photos by Carolee Beckham

I've been away.

I've been away. Maybe you noticed. 

I have several blog posts that I've owed you for some time now. Maybe it's just best though to pick up and move on. I went to Paris. I went to New York State to visit one of my dearest friends and her sweet family. I spent a week teaching peeps I love in Cambridge, MA how to do things that I love. Then I was home for a spell, only to sew my heart out until I left for Quilt Market. 

There are lots of posts in there. And lots of grateful tears for the people who remain steady and constant in my life. 

But I'm here today to tell you that I have so many exciting things coming this holiday season for you! The first of which, is in the shop right now, and will become available at 10:00 AM (Mountain Standard Time) in the morning. 

Hopefully you will see this in your feeds so you get a chance...

The first item available will be.....

24, 50 fat 1/8's set. They were such a hit last year, that we thought we'd give it another go. This time we are releasing them earlier than last year, so we A. have time to cut them down, and B. after all that cutting have time to get them to you. 

So as I just stated. There are only 24 available. So act swiftly. The fabric will be as always, a delightful rainbow ranging from Outfoxed, Hello Pilgrim, Guising, and Constellations (including some new and loved PB's).

We'll be shipping internationally all season long, fyi. 

Here is the link for the bundle, and good luck! 

Here is a list of dates of upcoming shop updates!

Monday November 12: Paper Goods

Monday November 19: Stocking Stuffers

Monday December 3: New art and last minute gifts

We'll have it all. Ok. Happy almost Holidays.

love dove,

lizzy. 

So excited!

Check out all these treats in the shop! 

Summer Shop Update!

Hi peepers. I've been working on a slew of new products for all your summer treat making! These products have come from a love of making beautiful things as well as threatening jeers for the past 5 or 6 years that have been aimed at me with the sole intent of getting me to produce recipe cards. Well it finally worked. You've shouted long enough. 

Tonight at midnight all of the new stuff will go live in my little shop. I've been giving you glimpses on instagram and twitter, and so some of you have inklings of what I've been up to. But I will have you know that there is one item that is limited. The summer treat set is in an edition of 50. It includes 10 recipe cards (5 of each design), 10 hang tags, 10 canning labels (only available in the treat set), and 3 yards of the prettiest blue bakers twine you've ever seen. All of these designs come from Hello Pilgrim which I can't seem to get over. So I won't, I'll just keep loving it. 

  

And if this treat set goes over well, then there might be a few more up my sleeve. Radish edition anyone? 

So! See you tonight or tomorrow! 

I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!!!

I love quilting. I will always love quilting. I will always quilt.

It brought me out of a darkness. It gave me a new language of skills. I can actually write and think in pattern speak. I love design. I'm a pretty good designer, and designing quilts is fun, and interesting, and challenging, and can be a little magical to see a drawing or a print off of something that you worked up materialize itself on your wall and in your hands. With fabric you designed, no less!

I come from the best. 

But I at the same time, I have never really known where I fit. Its always been as if my stuff was too designed, or too different to really hit it. I think I've been focusing a lot on the subtext of things, I do that, and I don't know if that translates as well in a moderately mass produced pattern as it does a limited edition hand pulled piece of art. I take that back, I know it doesn't. 

So that made me question the validity of my producing fabric designs. You see I've been waging a bit of a war with myself. Is there a reason to keep producing this. Will people get it. Will people care. Is it too weird. Does it make sense that I keep doing this? Keep investing in this? Some people really seem to like it... 

Things have really grown, and I have really grown. And I love my peeps. LOVE. I love you here. I love you on instagram. I love you on twitter. I even love the handful of you Facebook. 

but I want to let you in a discovery I made. This is not a goodbye. This is not my signing off. This is something I have been working towards understanding for some time now.

My fabric makes sense to me when I make clothes. Fabric seems to make more sense to me when I make things that I wear, or sisters wear, or friends wear. It comes alive. And there are parts of me that I don't always get to use, like my secret engineering side, the side that can look at flat pattern pieces and assemble them in my mind, work out all the kinks, redraft the bust (obviously), and then assemble a beautiful thing. Making a new thing to wear is all of my favorite things about the creative process. I love the planning, I love the math, I love the problem solving (I especially love the problem solving), and I love the details. 

I also really love clothing, especially dresses. 

What's odd is this is something that I have wanted to do for years. I knew I could be good at it. I knew it was in me, but I just didn't do it. But it's my dear friends like Karyn, and Virginia, and Jana who cheered me on when I said... ok I'm gonna make this now. And then I did, and there was more cheering. Maybe I just had to work it out, or get to a place, or be in the care of people who could take down the road blocks that I had assembled as I had internalized the pros and cons of my ability for years. 

And now it's something that I have been doing, and gaining speed at for almost a year. 

So I will continue to design quilts, because I love them. I love designing them, and I love making them. But I'm also going to keep making clothes, and I am going to get really really good at that. And we are going to see where that takes me and my fabric designing.  

But above all what this discovery has led me to better understand, is that I am not putting limitations on myself anymore. I am not going to draw lines in proverbial sand about who I am and what I am allowed to create and for what purpose. That's done, and I am happier for it. So I'm going to do the things that make sense to me and call it good. 

I made a dress.

When I got to Toronto last year, Karyn had just finished this dress. All she had left to do were the buttons. It was just too freaking cute. And I was all, hey, I want to make one of those... 

so I did 

the pictures aren't spectacular, my hair is looking ultra stringy! but it was Friday night at midnight, and I had a lot of work to get done, but I realized I needed to take a pic to show my peeps or you'd never see the sleeves!!!

I used the Blue Red Letter Day stripe from Hello Pilgrim, and the meadow print from the blue colorway for the lining and the pockets. I also covered the buttons with different prints from the line. It's a fantastic pattern, and that is coming from a dyslexic right brainer who has the hardest time wrapping myself around other peeps instructions. That's why my patterns are fully illustrated, and broken down to a point that I can be all about. 

So all I have to say is two can play at the cute game, Anthropologie. 

I made the dress on Thursday, and I was so excited that I wore it out that night, and I hadn't even put in the hem. When my friend was dropping me off, I said something sassy, and then he said, "Oh, go hem your dress." In a really funny tone. It made me laugh, and then I didn't hem my dress yet. Because no one tells me what to do.

kidding

sort of.  

Oh and Mona Lisa eyebrows here... they exist, you just can't really see them.

Spring Seeds!

wowowowow! I just got back from a 10 day trip/workshop/vacation at Juniper Moon Farm! I am still decompressing, and I haven't quite been able to really sleep since I got back, so I'm a little wired, a little weary, and missing my peeps, and all my new friends (Jerry the Llama). 

So as I collect my thoughts for an epic post, start my seeds for my garden, finish up fabric, send off The Meadow to print, and all around pull myself together I wanted to have a little sale. Because we are starting fresh people. This is a big week for me. 

Until Sunday you can have 20% off any items in my pattern shop. Just use the discount code SEEDLINGS. That's just 4 days, but enough time to decide if there is something that you've had your eye on, and want to put in the queue for this spring/ summer. Or on your wall for that matter. 

A word about the quilt, The Meadow. Obsessed. 

No but really. This quilt has caused me a little heart ache, with it getting lost and what not, but when it got to the farm from Angela on Thursday, it's like all my dreams came true. So is the pattern late? Yes. Is it on its way? Yes. Does it use Hello Pilgrim and most of the back Pearl Bracelets and Jewel Prints? Yes. Is it a pain in the butt? Yes. But can't you see how worth it it all is? I hope so. The pattern will ship in 2 weeks. Shops, if you are selling Hello Pilgrim and want to carry the pattern, let me know, so your order will get turned around immediately. It will also be carried by Checker for sure, so you know. 

And another thing. If you want to read up on the week here are some great posts

From Virginia, Lisa, Amy, and Susan

I'm feeling joyful and hopeful. The feeling of Our House by Crosby Stills Nash and Young pretty much sums up my mood today. An all time favorite. 

I still love everything and everyone. It's amazing!

I'll duck back in soon. 

And one more thing... I still owe you an explanation about Hello Pilgrim, the actual pattern names, and the colorways that peeps are jumbling up. So that's a lot of posts I've promised for this week... 

yikers. 

school girl crush.

I've got a crush. I don't really like to talk about this kind of stuff on my blog, because my feelings change so quickly (roving eyed gemini here)... but I just have to tell you about this...

I'm pretty much head over heels for Hello Pilgrim. 

I think my knees get a little weak, and I definitely get butterflies. I just can't help it, it really does something to me... more than any other collection to date. 

I'm looking at you Outfoxed. 

I'm so all about it that I decided to make my friend, Kenneth, a tie. And because I was making this tie, I decided that we should probably match. I believe it was a smashing success all around. We wore our Hello Pilgrim outfits to church, and I couldn't help but giggle all day. 

What are you making with Hello Pilgrim?