Valentines

My Valentine's Day this year was spent in my apartment working on an assignment that is due later today. 9 hours straight staring at the computer screen (and listening/glancing at the Olympics coverage!) makes for a long day. Fortunately my awesome and crafty friend Heather had sent me a fantastic Valentine's Day card with some wise words of advice:



Besides that school is SO busy I don't have time for ANY crafting besides what I make out of paper, plastic, and PVC for my assignments!!



PS I am paying close attention to my fellow Parkites in the Olympics. GO JULIA MANCUSO, TED LIGETY, SPEEDY PETERSON, AND STEVE HOLCOMB. AND GREAT JOB NATE ROBERTS!!

Survived!

So I made it through the end of my first semester of school. I am pretty sure I've never had to work so hard as I did over the past 3 months. Architecture school is serious business. I like it, but I am a little sad that I don't have time to enjoy the primary reasons I stayed in Chicago: my friends. There isn't much I can do about it, I try to emerge from my Architecture world as often as I can to meet up with them, but even when I do I'm really out of the loop and out of place. Oh well.

Since Monday I have spent time with my cousin who was visiting and then today I spent all day at home. Lazy? Maybe. But I did almost 75% of the things I said I wanted to do when I had time during break!! I sorted and filed my important documents, wrapped some presents, and made a cover for my all important Moleskine notebook. The first sewing I've been able to do in 3 months, it was a really quick and simple project and so so so enjoyable!! I used the tutorial here by Mr. Monkeysuit and some Floragraphix fabric I've had for almost a year for both the cover and lining. I really like how it turned out. My other to-do is to craft more over the next month of my Christmas break and tell you allll about it!!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

As you may be able to tell, I have been too busy to do much of anything except schoolwork. I love architecture, but architecture school is hard!! My friend Alex put it best, "it looks like this is one of those situations that what doesn't kill you is going to make you stronger." Fortunately I have a lot of people who are supporting me in the wings, I don't know what I would do if they weren't at the end of the phone line when I needed them! (thanks!) With about 7.5 days until the end of the first semester I thought I would take a small break from my Theory Final to post some pics of what I managed to finish craft-wise BEFORE I was too busy! This is the quilt I made for my friends now 4-month old, Helen. She is the most adorable, mellow, awesome baby and this quilt is perfect for her (if i do say so myself). I finally gave it to them on Thanksgiving (since I stayed in Chicago they invited me over) and even Helen's dad said "I love it! Grey and green is AWESOME!" = SUCCESS!!!

I'm going to make an identical one for myself over break and I can't wait to get back on the sewing machine ;)

Zig-Zag Quilt from CrazyMom Quilt tutorial, Erin McMorris Wildwood and Kona Cotton Solids

A long Time

Since I posted last almost two months ago things around here have been SUPER busy. First of all I had my last day of work, then headed off visit my grandparents and uncle, and cousin in Sacramento, then I moved to a gorgeous HUGE new apartment (WITHOUT a moving truck and only a little zip car, well and a few large guys to help), took another trip, this time with a few friends, up to the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and finally, I started Architecture School!! Im now in week 5 as an architecture student and I'm exhausted!! I can't tell if I "like" it yet, mainly because my brain is going to be adjusting to the college life and architecture in general for awhile. I've spent several 10+ hour days in the studio, but its a good feeling to be busy and to be doing something that few have done before me, and even fewer have done well. Here are some pics of things I've seen and done in the past few weeks. Enjoy!!!

Love, Jenny
Sacramento, CA
Chicago, IL on the Chicago Architecture Boat Tour (amazing a must do in Chi)
Odessa Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
New Baby quilt in the work for a dear friend and baby Helen!!

Been Gone So Long....

I know I know, I'm such a bad friend. I just leave for a month without even a good bye or a reason why. If anyone happened to notice, I am SO sorry!! Things have been pretty busy around here. I finished two quilts (see below), went to an AMAZING wedding in St. Louis, made a dress to wear (also see below), lost an apartment and a roommate, and finally today found a new apartment!! If you scroll to the bottom you will see some brand new arm candy I just got.

Me with the beautiful bride and my amazing teal dress (favorite color by the way) :-)
And finally......

Amazing fantastic new watch by NIXON. My most favorite-ist watch company ever.

Architecture Tour Chicago

I see buildings I love (and hate) around whenever I'm traveling and of course walking the streets of my city of Chicago. Now that I'm headed off to architecture school in the fall I've decided to start photographing and keeping a record of these notable structures. Today I went on a walk (because it was FINALLY sunny and warm!) and made a point to go by this amazing home on Burling Street in Lincoln Park. I need to look up who the architect is (uhm, internship please??) but in the meantime I will share what I like about it. First and foremost is the beautiful woodwork paneling going up the facade. The wood is placed horizontally which perfectly opposes the strong linear vertical-ity of the rest of the facade. The dark color next to the greenish tint of the large windows gives it a very "natural" feeling, like a forest and stream. The concrete finishes the look for me. I love it. I want to live there.

Oh and I really dislike this one. I don't think you all need me to explain the reasons why...

Stay Tuned

Gilbert Lake, Wisconsin

I'm currently at the end of a "semester" which I know only included one class, but I still have some final term work to finish up. On top of that I started ANOTHER class which is requiring time and effort away from my more crafty endeavors. PLUS, work is taking me down to Indianapolis in the midst of all this, so I haven't been doing much else. Please look at my older posts and I will be back before too long with a dress (made by ME!), completed wedding quilt, and maybe a peek at my new amazing apartment (with my new amazing roommate/friend Lauren) in the West Loop. Like I says, stay tuned!!!
Love, Jenny

oh darn my arm.

Does anyone else burn themselves when ironing? And I'm talking not just once or twice but on a fairly frequent basis? Hmm...anyone? Well, its not just ironing, I seem to have something with hot metal. Ovens, oven racks, baking sheets, and hot irons (im sure if i had a hair curler that would do it too) all seem to attract my fingers, hands and arms. While I admit that a year ago I got this weird equal sign-looking scar on my arm (cooking pizza) that I think is kinda cool looking (gives me street cred haha), I think I am over this burning thing. In the past week and a half I got a burn on my upper left arm (broiling steak), top of left hand, and wrist of right arm (iron). ow, ow, and ow, im that girl getting neosporin over everything. Also, my doctor looked a little concerned that I have burns and scars all over my arms and hands. Gosh darn.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Phew, I finally got the quilt top done for the wedding I am going to in June. My friend Jessie from Colgate is marrying her lovely fiancee Alex in St. Louis and obviously I couldn't show up with any old gift from the registry. After many months of searching for the right fabric I finally found some to use in the zig-zag quilt pattern shared by Crazy Mom Quilts. I should mention that I really struggled in the middle of this and couldn't seem to get the right squares in the right places. I blame my lack of space to lay the whole quilt out. Anyway, now I need to figure out how to get to Joann's to pick up some backing fabric so I can get this sucker quilted!! Maybe I can sneak away with the car this weekend when my girlfriends Anna and Ruthie are enjoying the sun by Gilbert Lake, WI. ;)

May Weekend

Spring time here in Chicago is heartbreaking. One day its sunny and seventy degrees, the next it is torrentially downpouring, and the next its cloudy and 40 degrees with wind chill. The last one is what the weekend has been like here. After a chilly early morning Dragbies softball game yesterday I came home and worked on finishing up the quilt I am going to give my brother for his 24th birthday in July. He lives in Alaska and likes to camp and be outside so I think it will be great for him to take with him in his truck. The back and binding is a cozy blue flannel. I just need to sew the binding but I have plenty of time for that.
Now I have to make the wedding quilt for my friend Jessie and her fiancee Alex who are getting married June 20th in St. Louis. She requested blue and yellow and is "traditional". Uh, I am NOT traditional. I don't really like flowery fabrics, usually they seem cheesy to me. So I attempted to find the perfect fabric online for about three months. Finally last week I bit the bullet and started to order these frenchish flowery blue and yellow prints, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't work on a quilt for the next month without liking the fabric. So I found these fabrics from the fabric shack. Now I'm going to make them into a zig-zag quilt!! Ill post updates as I move along. Have a great Sunday!!!

I need these.

I browse the Shopbop website everyday. For about 5 years I've done this now. And I haven't purchased a single thing. Its horrible, its like the worst kind of shopping torture. Especially when you need retail therapy and you come across something like these shades. 1. Ray Bans. 2. rounder wayfarer shape. 3. NEON. OMG I want. I'm a nut about sunglasses, I will go for just about any look, the bigger the better. And they match the watch I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Too bad noone reads this who would buy me these things (actually im sure noone would buy these even if they were reading this), but I really want them. Please style gods please??

Such Inspiration

This dress is from Myne, the designer I met in LA when I went there in February. I am going to sound very cheap but I can't afford this. And despite the fact that I LOVE the design, and the elastic gathered empire waist, the Ikat pattern, and the grey and yellow colors, I just don't have the funds!! BUT, I do appreciate quality craftsmanship and beautiful design. If you need some inspiration or a new dress for the summer head over to Shopbop.com and check out the rest of Ashley Ann's Designs.

*Blushing*

thank you everyone for your comments on my quilt festival entry. They have really made my day. :-)

Also, I started a new quilt with some blue blocks of fabric I cut out many years ago for a quilt for an ex-boyfriend (haha).

Blech.

It is raining today, I guess it is spring but I am in desperate need of at least 1 week of sunny beautiful warm weather. Do you ever feel like everything you do is wrong? Like you aren't really in control of things and when you try to get in control nothing works. In general things are pretty great, mainly I am headed to UIC for architecture school next year. And while I love Chicago and I've been fortunate to have wonderful friends here, it just seems like things are drifting apart. I decided to stay here because there really is no better location to study architecture but the world capital of architecture (it's true), but maybe I needed to make a change. Maybe Chicago and I have run our course? Or maybe I am just socially incapable of figuring out rough spots and lulls and boredom. Who knows what the answer is, maybe there isn't one, or perhaps its far beyond any comprehension, either way I guess I will be staying here no matter what so I will have to figure it out. But in the meantime, I am just not feeling RIGHT. Blech. Not even sewing is making me feel better or even distracting me.

My Second Favorite Quilt

I have decided to participate in the online quilt festival. I love to read people's stories of inspiration, so I thought I would contribute mine too. Unfortunately my camera died completely yesterday so I wasn't able to get a pic of my first quilt, which is my favorite because of the sentimental value. I will write about it here sometime. just not today.

My second favorite quilt is the one I made for my best friend Jennifer. Her and I have had a tumultuous friendship, and somehow despite the hardships she has endured and I have tried to help her with, we made it out on the other end. I call her just to call her, and usually she doesn't answer but I usually just feel better after the action of dialing the phone. When I do talk to her, she instantly gives me the best advice because she KNOWS me and she loves my little quirks. She calls me Martha as in THE Martha and we make jewelery together and explore and shop and hike and eat and I love her. I never know if the people I love know how much I love them. So in this case I decided to make her a quilt as a housewarming for the new abode that her and her BF Robbie bought in LA.

I am pretty modern and wanted to do something with solid colors and used a pattern I had purchased to make a batik quilt for my mom, but I thought it would look amazing with greys and purples. Also a perfect color combo for Jen. It was a long process and a lot of cutting, and there was NO grey fabric out there, but oh man. I LOVE this quilt. i can't even express how much I love it. Without further ado, here it is. I hope you enjoy it!!


Thanks for looking!! Join the fesitval and the FUN!! Quilt on!! ;)

Online Quilt Festival!

I am so excited to join this online quilt festival. Everyone should check it out. You take some pics of a quilt project of yours, then you post them and share the story. I know exactly what quilt I am going to write about. My very very first one. I love IT. Ok, I'm going to take some pics and be back to talk about it.

Note: Just realized my camera display is BROKEN!! That dinky viewfinder is WORTHLESS. grrrr unhappy Jenny.

PS: the host of this festival is ParkCityGirl...I haven't figured out what Park City she is talking about, but I am hoping its Utah so we can chat about my hometown!! (I doubt we will chat but at least be like "hey don't you love.....(nacho mamas, baja cantina, the mountains)?")

I want this.

Awesome. I want some neon in my wardrobe, ASAP. Baby-g-Shock via ShopBop.

So this is architecture school

I'm off work today because I have an admitted student event at University Illinois - Chicago (UIC). I'm very excited to see what the deal is, since I pretty much have no idea. Today we are going to be at the school, with tours and talks and meeting people (eeek I always get nervous for that!), then tomorrow we are getting taken to several alumni architecture firms (SOM, UrbanLab, etc). This is IT!!! I am hoping this will help me make my decision between UIC and IIT soon, because I want the decision to be over!!!

Quickie

On Sunday I made another skirt, using the same "pattern" as the other one...BUT this one was NOT silk. Everyone can exhale now in case you were holding your breath. Anyway, remember how I mentioned my obsession with Ikea, and how I'm mostly Swedish, and love modern design? Well, Marimekko has alot to do with all of the above (well except for making me part Swedish, that's because of my greatgrandparents) N-E-ways, my amazingly crafty and stylish Madre has been talking about this Marimekko person since forever. Madre loves to sew, loves Scandinavia, and loves design, and Marimekko was synonymous with all of these. Of course I find out that Marimekko isn't a single person much later in life (I still refer to Marimekko as a her), but have been drawn to their textile design since forever. Along with my introduction to FLW and The Fountainhead, Marimekko textiles were the catalyst that transformed me into a architecture and design fanatic. Not only that, but a modern one at that. Note: I don't like unnecessary adornments FYI EVER.

Ok, so I said this would be a quickie, and here it is. The skirt I made out of Marimekko LELO fabric (first designed in 1991) from the Crate and Barrel outlet here in Chicago. For....wait for it......4.5o a yard...and I used less than a yard for this skirt.
And the buttons were from the DIYODS show last weekend via the Chicago Craft Mafia, approx 5 cents a button. Wish you could tell how awesome they are....

Sewing 102

My friend Kristen was my first friend here in Chicago. I moved here for a job without knowing anyone but the people who hired me. Kristen was a Notre Dame grad my same age and her cubicle was right next to mine. Before too long she decided that she needed to take me under her wing and bring me into her circle of friends. Well I was so flattered, and in desperate need of some company, and it wasn't too long before we discovered our joint love for baking, traveling, and judging ;). So here we are more than three years later, she is no longer my coworker but a best friend nonetheless, and I can generally count on her to go on adventures with me.
About 2 months ago I convinced her to take a trip to the burbs with me to go to Ikea. A staycation as my friend Anna pointed out. I have this extreme obsession with Ikea, largely because I am mostly Swedish and adore modern design. Anyway, after Ikea we stopped by Joann's in the burbs, and Kristen found this bolt of home dec fabric in the red tag section. It was awesome, and somewhere in between the fleece, and zippers, and buttons she decided she needed curtains. So we dug through the patterns and found a great one as a guide for tab top curtains. She went up to get it all cut and it turned out that the red tag fabric she wanted was only $1 a yard. $1 are you kidding?! I wanted to rip it from her hands and steal it.

The next weekend she came over and we started to put together the drapes. Just like a good teacher I had her cut and iron and cut, etc. The fabric was silky and slippery and the drapes were long, 6 YARDS!!! We didn't finish them that first day so she came over the next Friday night. She made me some homemade pizza, perhaps to bribe me to help her finish the drape project, but then we got to work. From 8 to 10 things were going well. Then it was that time we all experience, where you know you should stop. Your concentration and patience is GONE and you're mussing up everything and the seam ripper is on hand always. Well, we pushed through until FINALLY at about 12:00AM she finished. And I have to say that they are AWESOME. I mean they really are people, some might think they are "loud" or "busy" but they are gold and fuchsia and flowery and amazing. Trust me. So ended my first sewing lesson. And another reason Kristen is a BFF. I'm so lucky to have such creative and goodnatured people in my life!!!


This is the process, see Kristen working hard to get things straight? She was very careful about her seams and ironing!! I taught her well HA!

And here is the final product, 100% by Kristen: