The Migration Quilt [Planes, Trains, and Automobiles]

I decided to start tonight's blog post with a list.

Fun facts to catch you up with me:

1.) In the past three weeks I have been in eight states. I only slept in three of them.

2.) I am leaving again tomorrow.

3.) I have achieved diamond status with my hotel reward program. That means I have spent over 40 nights in Choice Hotels this year. This would be less sad if I only stayed in that brand of hotels, but that is not true. The actual number of nights in a hotel room is much higher.

4.) Some of my dearest sewing friends and I hung out this weekend. We drank milkshakes, ate pizza, and bought a lot of fabric.

5.) I learned about life mistakes and then I bought more Collage. This entire visit deserves its own blog post.

6.) Today I ate a chocolate croissant and took a pilates class. I think those two events neutralize each other.

There you go, caught up with me. Don't you just feel like we had a cup of coffee together? Except if we had coffee together, you could have added your things too. Then we could have talked about how good your hair looks and I could have asked you where you got those shoes.

I finished another quilt on the plane to in Denver. Then I gave it away the next day.

I improvised a photo shoot, 'cause I wanted to show this awesome finish with you.

I made this quilt for Derek's grandparents, we call them Gammie and Grandad. They are amazing people.

Gammie is a quilter and a former high school math teacher. Grandad is a retired engineer. So, I new this quilt had to have some math. I also knew it had to be good. So, I used some of my precious architextures and I worked super hard.

I think they really liked it. Little know fact, quilters are the best people to gift quilts. They appreciate them tons and they know how to use those quilts. They were both totally surprised and excited. This is technically a birthday present for them both. Gammie just turned 82 a few weeks ago and Grandad is turning 83 in January. I hope they don't mind me sharing this on the internet...

Gammie and Grandad assured me they would snuggle under this one all winter.

That sort of makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Thanks for tolerating me friends. Love you bundles.

Sarah

Quilt Stats:
Quilt Name: Migration
Quilt pattern: Mine, though, I know this block has a name. Shall we just call it *%&$%^ bias seams?
Fabric: Caroline Friedlander's Architextures, Simply Style by V and Co, and a great deal of Essex linen from Robert Kaufman.
Quilting: My lazy infinity quilting, quilted and pieced with Aurifil thread
Size: Ha! Like I remembered to measure before I gave this away.

PS - All photos on this page were taken with my iPhone. I apologize for this, I just did not have room to pack the dslr. We will be back to regularly scheduled photos next time I finish a quilt.

Blue and Yellow and Denver

Do you ever just have one of those weeks months? I mean, seriously. Nothing major has gone wrong. I mean I have my health (poison ivy itches are mostly gone), I have a fuzzy cat, a loving husband, a great house, and a good job.

But, seriously.

Why do I feel like I have not sat down in six months?

Why is being the partner of a graduate student sort of like going through grad school a second time? I think I have learned what people mean when they say marriage is a partnership in the past couple of weeks. We are riding this crazy train together.

Not that I would ride the train with anyone else and, honestly, how do you get anywhere unless you get on a train anyway?

I do not mean to complain in this space. I sound like such a whiner (poison ivy, grad student husband….). This is just a space for me to shout it out. There has been so much talking about the future in my life lately, this blog is a nice place to say, hi friends, I am going to tell you about the right now.

Now, the four of you who haven’t clicked next on your reader feed probably want to know what it is about this finish I have here (hi mom!).

As I write this, I am jetting to Colorado.

You may not know this about me, but I lived in Colorado for 6 years before I moved to North Carolina. I met my husband in Colorado. I drank my first beer in Colorado. I went to undergraduate and graduate school here. Very important things that have made me who I am today.

Derek has a conference in Colorado this weekend (oh hai German Studies Association Annual Meeting 2013) and I decided to tag along. I wanted to see the mountains and revisit some old Denver haunts.

Derek’s family still lives here too.

Naturally, I decided to make Derek’s mother a quilt. What else could I possibly bring her?

This St. Louis 16 patch was a little bit of quiet for me when I needed it this summer. The colors are calm and the quilt just soothes me. It was relaxing and quick to make.

I used this excellent tutorial.

It makes me feel a little old-fashioned. Quilting is totally therapy.

Salutations,

Sarah

Quilt Stats:

Size: 56" x 70"

Fabric: Kona Snow, Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House, a Lana Jansdotter print, Joel Dewberry, Bonnie and Camile, a Moda basic dot, Summersville Spring (?), and I think that blue dot is from an Aneela Hoey line. I am sorry about this… these were long stashed fabrics…

Quilting: Figure 8 or infinity quilting with Aurifil Thread (I like to stay firmly within my comfort zone).

PS – My graduate advisor asked me to give a talk to his graduate student tomorrow, because why not go on vacation and have to prepare an hour long lecture? Also, am I the only one who feels like they cannot say no to their advisor? It has been nearly five years since I left, but I still feel like he could give me an “F”.