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.

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!!!

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!! ;)

LA and More!

First of all, I just found out I got into the Master of Arch program at UIC in Chicago!!! I am SO excited. I really wanted to stay here in Chicago, and the program at UIC is fantastic, and I can even stay in my same neighborhood!! The only downside is less time for crafting...haha. I will find time no matter what!!

On to the point of this post, my amazing trip to LA. I took the quilt I had been working on as a housewarming present for my best friend from Utah, Jennifer, her wonderful boyfriend Robbie, and their dog Roman.

They loved it. And so of course did Roman!! The next day Jen and I visited her friend Ashley at her office/showroom. Ashley is the designer and owner of the Myne-LA fashion label, and her designs have been seen on everyone from Rachel Bilson to Vanessa Hudgeons, to Selena Gomez and she is even featured in Elle this March! Her clothes are exactly my style, simple, beautiful, modern yet also with a vintage flair, and easy enough to wear anywhere for a hot look. Definitely check her out!!

The next day was Valentines Day (blech!) but it was the perfect day to be outside. Jen had to work so I walked up a few blocks to Runyon Canyon for a hike. I admit I was so busy looking for famous people the whole time that I barely noticed how steep the hike was, but believe me I am feeling it in my legs even today!! I guess thats what happens when you live in the FLAT midwest!! The skies over LA were crystal clear and the temp perfect for a brisk hike. I came back and laid out on their grassy lawn and enjoyed as much of the sun as I could before heading back to Chicago. That night I met up with a great friend from Colgate, a superstar on the Bakersfield Condors, and his equally stellar teammate. They were the best Valentine's dates ever. We went to dinner at my favorite place, barneys beanery, then hit up a club, a must to complete a fantastic night. I danced circles around those boys, but they are definitely better on skates!! (thats no question as I am a disaster on ice).

The next morning Jen and I headed to the Long Beach Flea Market where I picked up some fantastic finds:
Several embroidery patterns (Aunt Martha!), some Scandinavian style trim (Heather is going to LOVE this!), and a Coats&Clark book, "100 Embroidery Stitches". Can you tell what my next project is going to be?? I also got a beautiful resin aspen leaf pendant. That night we made a wonderful burrito dinner, and I made a Brownie pudding, courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa. One word: wow. It was the most amazing dessert EVER.

My last day was Monday and before I hopped on the plane I took a second trip to Mood Fabrics. Uh. Bad. Idea. Really. I have a hard time with clothing patterns, that whole following written directions thing is lost on me. I need pics. Please. but I came away with the absolutely most beautiful silks I've ever seen...I'm enlisting my mom to help me make a dress and two skirts. (do you see the ant fabric in pumpkin!?)
Then it was back on the plane after a sad goodbye to my Los Angeles family. I really had the most fantastic weekend. I can't thank Jen and Robbie enough for putting me up. I will hopefully be back there soon, this time for the Rose Bowl Flea Market, and maybe a hockey game???

Trip to LA

the quilt top, originally uploaded by Carson.J.

This is the finished quilt I took to my best buddy Jen, her fabulous boyfriend Robbie, and of course Roman, their child, i mean pug. They loved it, really really loved it, it made me so happy to finally give it to them!! For more pics check out my flickr.

ps. please note the sunny weather, it was AMAZING!! booo Chicago winter....

Design Disgust?

So I am working on the quilt I mentioned in the last post. As you may be able to tell it is made up of different shades of purple and grey. Well, I don't know if anyone has noticed but there is like ZERO grey fabric floating around out there. I only found two shades of grey at my local Joanns, both different weights and had to order a third (which seems to be a silly waste of money). I went looking for more yardage of the darker grey today and it was nowhere to be found. UGH. I also just want grey striped fabric for the binding!! Why can't anyone carry grey striped fabric!?! I am seriously doubting this project, despite the top pretty much being finished.

Jen's Quilt

Jen's Quilt, originally uploaded by Carson.J.
Yay! Finally got my third grey (Kona Slate) in the mail yesterday from Fabric Depot. Washed it this morning (even with a massive hangover), then after brunch with Katie I sewed and cut and sewed and cut and cursed at my machine, and sewed some more. Can't wait to get the top done so I can start working on the machine quilting!!!

Resurrgence of the blog

Hello, I don't know that anyone will ever read these posts. But I have been inspired by so many things recently that I need to share them. And since my friends, family, coworkers, random people I force into chatting with me, can only tolerate so much I thought I would try the blogosphere.

I haven't been making my jewelery for about 3 months now. I'm not sure why, I have a tendency to lose interest in my projects pretty quickly. I sold a total of two items to people I didn't know so I guess I got frustrated and gave up. But not to worry, because I have been crafty nevertheless.

First I was working on my architecture school applications. I LOVED putting together the portfolio!! I am obsessed with blurb and lulu and ended up making a book for my brother for Christmas. I now have dreams of making picture books for everyone in my life. In addition, I found out that my good friends, Simon and Lisa, were going to have their first baby in March. A girl!! So that gave me the perfect excuse to buy some of the awesome fabric Id been scoping on etsy and make a quilt.

Well that opened a HUGE can of worms. I finished the top and sent it along with the beautiful backing home to SLC with my mom to get quilted. I haven't jumped into machine quilting yet, mainly because my sewing machine might not make it through. And i might go crazy, so I sent it to the Quilting Bees, and they did a phenomenal job. I finished it up when I was home for Christmas and sent it off about a week ago. I got a message from Lisa and they loved it!! I can't wait for the little one to come and snuggle up in it. I always dream that my quilts will become their beloved comfort blanket forever.



During my week in Utah my mom and I went to the most amazing quilt store, Quilts, Etc. It is so huge and overwhelming if you don't have a project in mind. But Madre of course managed to find a project, and somehow it got passed along to me!!

So the first weekend I was home, I felt the itch in my pedal foot and sewed the whole top. I am a little nuts. So that got shipped off to mom for quilting, but she hasn't made the hand off yet to QB.



Since then, I've obsessively been stalking etsy for more fabric and bought ALOT to make goodness knows what. Laptop covers? but how many laptop covers does one girl, with one laptop need!?! Ive volunteered to make everyone I know one, but no one really leapt to the offer. Oh well, I'm just going to put together some more quilts. Namely a modern solid colored one for my BFFAEAE Jennifer and another one for my other BFF Jackie and her bun in the oven (a boy!!). I'm going to post things here to ponder, and also to see various images i find in a different light. I am always finding beautiful works of art in nature and in life so I will share them with anyone who reads this!!