My first rendezvous with wonkiness…

I think I am a deeply wonky person.  Wonkiness appeals to me on so many levels.  It’s who I am–it’s how I design, it’s how I think and create.  I love a little intentional (and sometimes unintentional) wonkiness and what it brings to a piece.

So here’s my very first wonky log cabin block.  I think I made it a year or so ago?  And I’m just NOW taking the pics.  Sad, sad, I tell you.

It became a pillow.

I love it dearly, because it has two fabrics that I pretty much worship.  The glorious goldenrod “Flea Market Fancy” print–oh, the perfection of the design!  Oh, the perfect colors!  I combined it with some tonal turquoise and orange prints (drawing a blank on these collections–anyone?) and plenty of white Essex linen/cotton blend for texture and negative space.  It’s all quilted in turquoise, except on the white strips–it was too-too, if you know what I mean.

The outermost ring of turquoise-y print is part of a vintage twin bedskirt. LOVE.

And this… turquoise-y vintage wonder…  I have yards of it–it was two matching twin-size bedskirts, found at Goodwill years ago,  so quite a bit of fabric!–and yet I hoard and hoard it.  See the tiny strips I allowed in?  I ration it like it’s spun from unicorn manes or something.  It’s my favorite vintage fabric ever, though, so that’s how I justify my stingy mania.  It has limes and blues and browns and so many different patterns and it’s just glorious.  I’ll have to document its full wonder sometime.  It deserves its own post!

This pillow back makes me happy.

The back is done up envelope-style, with a strip of piecing inserted to the white linen-cotton.

My... what nice buttons you have.

And aren’t these buttons divine?  They came from Waechter’s, a venerable old fabric shop here in Asheville.  They have a pretty fantastic selection of buttons.   I’m starting to see how folks become obsessive about buttons and button collecting.  I used to limit my passion to fabric, but I can see that I’m starting to find a little space in my heart for an excellent button.  Or eight.

Yes, it’s a good pillow, and it is mine.  And it migrates pretty well from room to room.  But it does look best on the turquoise metal lawn chair, no?

Wherein I finally share something I made…

Terrible way to start a blog about things I’ve made, no?  Two posts in and not a stitch of my own (well, aside from the banner up top) to show for it.

Shall we rectify that situation?  We shall.

And yet.

It’s funny that the first handmade-by-me things I’m posting are ones that aren’t staying with me.

Baby, please come soon. I finished your quilt, like, a month ago.

This one is a quilt for Baby E, set to arrive any day now.  This baby’s mama and papa are some of my dearests, and it was SO much fun making this.  The color scheme is slightly more subdued than my usual palette, but so perfect for them and their lovely home and aesthetic.   The four main prints are from the “Arcadia” collection by Sanae/Moda–aren’t they divine?  This collection came out a year or so ago, and I snatched up some half yards because I NEEDED it, though I didn’t know why.  Turns out this was the “why”–who knew?  The soft blue is from “Sweet Dreams” by Robyn Pandolph, and the funky orange faux-bois is Joel Dewberry.  Oh–the lovely, slightly flecked off-white is the Kona solid  “Natural”–these photos don’t do it justice.  It’s so soft and vintage-y in its whiteness.  (Does that even make sense? Oh,  well–such are the musings of a fabric fiend.  What did you expect?)

A zig-zag back, you say? No!

A wonky log cabin front…  with a zig-zag back?  It’s madness, I know, and the only quilting scheme I could really envision was one that ignored the geometrics of both sides–hence the wobbly concentric circles.  Which I ended up COMPLETELY loving, though the execution of said wobbly circles made me want to throttle small animals.  Which I refrained from, I assure you.  But just reliving it is making me shoot lightning out of my eyes at the squirrel that’s invading my bird feeder as I type.   Zap!

ziggy-zaggy fun (and not-so-fun-yet-very-attractive concentric circle quilting)

I bound it in the blue solid with a few little bits of the orange faux-bois for zest (though it didn’t make it into this pic).  I think it works, no?

blue binding and quilting detail

And since I had scraps…  this pillow!

a wonky log cabin Arcadia pillow

It measures 18″x18″–wonky log cabin (it’s my true love right now), machine quilted, and all that.  Same fabrics as above, with some nice natural-toned buttons on the envelope closure on back.  And this, my friends…  is an inaugural item in my Etsy shop!  Indeed!  She’s finally doing it!  After all this time…  finally making an honest woman/entrepreneur of myself and getting it together.   So…  if you like…  you can buy.  It’s crazy like that!

But I assure you… this not merely a forum for me to shill my goods.  Oh, no.  It will be more, much more.  I’m just slow gettin’ started, ya’ll.  It’ll come.  As they say around here (and as I say myself), “I swar.”