Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. As you may have noticed, things were pretty quiet here on the blog. I took full advantage of winter break: slept late, baked, and went on adventures with my family.

But now the kids are back in school, and I’m ready to hit the ground running!

First off, it’s pattern testing week for Quilt Theory’s second collection! I’m having a fun time reviewing and working on my assigned pattern. If you follow my on Instagram, you should see some sneak peeks over the next couple of days. I can’t wait for you guys to see these patterns- they are awesome!

I’m also so excited for the return of Color Play Friday this week!  We took all of December off, and it was just enough time for me to really miss picking all those beautiful bundles. In order to focus more on her other work, Trina has decided to step down as co-hostess, but will be joining us from time to time as a participant. And one more CPF change: because having ALL the pictures taken by me would be boring, our Color Play participants will also be submitting photos for us to use!  We have two this month from Sarah at 123Quilt, and they are gorgeous!

Aside from all that, I transfered my list of WIPs and upcoming projects into my 2017 Quilter’s Planner, and I am not comfortable with how long it is!  I need to get some things finished up!

Speaking of finishes! Today I want to share with you some details on my latest finish, a scrappy improv quilt called Leslie in the Sky With Diamonds. It was a Christmas gift for my sister (Leslie) that I started over a year ago.

The inspiration for this quilt was always about the process. My sister is the kind of person who makes art for the sake of the MAKING, not the end product. I used that example by sewing and embroidering bits and pieces of this over the course of a year or more, with a mad frenzy of creation right at the very end.  If you look carefully at my Instagram feed, you’ll see parts of this quilt coming together slowly over time. Because I made it as I went, it is completely improv. Once I had most of the blocks I wanted, I put them up on my design wall and started filling in the blank spots.

When I was a teenager, Leslie took an embroidery class. She would come home from class each week, come into my room, and teach me the stitches she had learned. So of course, I had to have embroidery on her quilt!

The name of this quilt comes, of course, from the Beatles song. When she was very young, Leslie thought the song was about her, and we always put her name in there.  Heck, I STILL sing the lyrics “Leslie in the sky with diamonds.” In keeping with that theme, I incorporated lots of night skies and stars in this quilt.

Now, it wasn’t all peaches and lollipops for me! As I was finishing up the quilting on this, I just wasn’t thrilled with the look of my free motion quilting. That happens, I suppose, when you’re inches away from it instead of looking at the whole quilt. I actually had to step away and take a nap and convince myself that I don’t actually suck at sewing. Sometimes you need a break. Sometimes you need to tell that critical voice in your head to shut up. That day, I needed both, but I got over the slump and got it done!

Busy quilts are not my normal style, but I got the best compliment I could get when she said that she felt like I really captured who and what she is in this quilt. I hope she has many happy nights snuggled under it!

So what have you all been working on now that the holiday season is over?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Happy sewing, ~L