Wee Wonderfuls

sitting and spinning

Finally made it out to some garage sales this weekend. First time all summer! Crazy. Just think of all the treasures we've missed out on.

new book

Dear ISBN978-4-529-04700-5,

I love you and hate you. Why did you come now? I ordered you like 2 months ago and you decide to show up on my doorstep right when I haven't a free minute to sew.

Don't you know how vulnerable I am right now to gorgeous book design? Are you trying to make me cry?

And why don't you have at least one sucky pattern. There's not one single 'pass' in your whole book.

And man, you look difficult! Why are you in Japanese?

And why oh why didn't my jr. high offer Japanese?

this hot thursday

oh free time, where did you go? I'm so anxious for things to get back to normal around here. I can't wait to actually have time to read blogs, and write my blog, and sew stuff. I received my fq's in the mail yesterday and was just innocently looking around for inspiration and have been sucked into two sites that have me wanting to chuck all my work and just sew, red pepper quilts and a stitch in dye. I can't even remember how to blog properly. if I want to put up pics of their amazing work on my blog I have to email them right? crap, no time. here's a bunch of links...

I want to make this! love the neutral background with pops of color thing. reminds me of Yoshiko Jinzenji's work which I love so much.

and check out these hexs with circle centers, love them.

and this half hexagon piecing. does that work?! guess so, look how awesome

love this inside out quilt! would that be cute for a baby quilt? something for them to fuss with?

and I love this triangle quilt, but I think maybe this is what I'm going to try with my fq's, pinwheels!

more craft daydreaming tomorrow.. I just got the cutest book in the mail.

fq's and a boy!

When Kristin at Sew Mama Sew asked me to do a fat quarter pack for them I was so so excited. I've realized that this just might be my favorite thing to do - putting together piles of fabric! Of course this is a virtual pile but it was just as fun. I so love making project piles... picking colors, matching up prints, imagining how it'll all go together. I think I may need to revise my career goals with this in mind. Thanks so much Kristin for the opportunity!

They posted my picks yesterday and you can see them here. I fell in love with those tiny elephants and went from there. You can leave a comment over at SMS to enter the giveaway to get a pack for free.

And an update on the baby quilt plan... we now know it's a boy! We're expecting a nephew in November. I can't wait to get my pack so I can start on a cutie boy baby quilt for him. I'm reading the comments over on the giveaway post looking for good pattern ideas and there are a bunch. Maybe some fellow fq packers will want to do a quilt along with me? I've never done one and think it'd be so fun.

wanna take one for the team?

It's that time... time for me to start begging for help. I'm looking for some testers for the patterns from the book. Do you have some free time? Fabric in your stash dying to be made into a toy? Want to help out your fellow sewers by being the first to discover that whopping mistake that is inevitably there in every pattern?

This isn't like our normal pattern testing so it may not sound as appealing to some. First thing, time. I'm looking for people who can start right away and finish in a timely fashion. Unlike my own self-publishing that tends to drag its feet, this is on someone else's timetable. And second, it has to be top secret, hush hush, on the down low. The projects can't be blogged or flickr'd or fb'd. I know that'll be a bummer to those of you who like to blog the craftiness, sorry!

But when you're done you'll have a new friend to play with and I've also got some cute thank you treats in mind. If anyone's interested leave me a comment and also maybe what sort of project you might be up for... simple, more complicated, for a girl, for a boy, baby, embroidery, hand-sewing, etc.

Thank you!

Oh geez! Thanks everyone! I feel bad I didn't close comments sooner, I went out to run errands. I'll go through the list and hope to get back to everyone soon. If you volunteered thank you so much for offering to help!!

t.g.i.f.

phoebe, originally uploaded by Hillary Lang.

old lady lang and her crazy fabric collection

It's not my fault. It's the 80's fault. Do you remember fabric shops in the 80s? Do you remember riding your bike to Minnesota Fabrics and the best you could do was a pale pink striped seersucker? I cannot help it that I hoard fabric, that I buy fabric I'll probably never use, definitely way more than I'll need. But some day.. mark my words... it'll be the 80s again. Cool, hip designers won't be selling gorgeous fabrics online and then who will be laughing. And yes, I realize I sound like my depression-surviving grandma did when she was justifying her collecting habits. But just you wait...

and since I've already dated myself here... is it old age or just the 5 years of blogging that has me feeling like every single thing I write, I've written before?

junebaby

Today's the day! Here's the birthday girl with her favorite present, the pop up phlat ball and her present from the coffee table, a black eye.

And here's the pan! The tasty-fill from Wilton. It worked like a dream. Of course that's probably because Tim did it.

And here's part of the loot.

Hopefully the sun will come out to wish Phoebe June a warm and happy birthday.

two is terrible

I freeze up every time I sit down to write about my sweet tiny baby turning two. It's so sudden! She was just, five minutes ago, a brand new tiny little baby, right? I swear it. But there was cake and a big balloon and a mountain of presents so it must be true. It doesn't help me that the last few weeks have seen her outgrow half her clothes, centuple (had to look that one up) her vocabulary and try to potty train herself. And Oscar, I just had to fill out his paperwork for university! Or was that kindergarten?

Well I'll be back soon with some photos and chit chat. School's finally out for Summer, the pool pass has been bought and the sandbox filled. And I have two more days til Phoebe is officially two so I should be able to pull myself together.