<p>Midwinter is the perfect time to make an &#8220;Indian Summer&#8221; quilt. The Christmas tree glowed cheerfully in the corner of the sewing room (aka dining room) while I stitched a quilt full of mountains, flowers, teepees, and wandering foxes. And mushrooms. So many adorable mushrooms. I went nuts taking photos of this quilt, first at [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Earlier this week, I finished up this purple and yellow quilt for a friend. I don&#8217;t know why, but I sure did struggle with it. 1. Who is it for? JC 2. Why did you choose these fabrics? We were looking for more geometric fabric designs that are more modern and not too floral-y. I gravitate toward [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spontaneous sewing. It happens. Suddenly, you have an idea for a thing and you have to put everything on pause until that project is done. This time, it was a bag, a laptop bag. I&#8217;ve never made a bag before, really, so I&#8217;m not sure why I was so certain I could pull it off. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The last few stitches coming into place, the last few threads to be cut, the first trip through the sudsy, cool, gently whirring washing machine. I love those moments that take a quilt from being a bunch of cloth joined together to being its own entity. Something that will live a life that&#8211;if it&#8217;s going [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I think it&#8217;s pretty fun that I finished my &#8220;tree&#8221; quilt on Earth Day. I&#8217;ve been working on it since December, when my friend and I made a deal to swap a painting for a quilt. Her specialty is painting trees, so we had a great theme to work from. I struggled to find just [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When we moved into this house, it immediately felt homier than any other we&#8217;d shared. But it was also in need of the most work. As I think about it, that&#8217;s probably why I liked it immediately&#8211;it needed me and I needed it. I needed its high ceilings, its rooms full of uneven wood floors, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spring has been unusually coquettish this year. Typically, the daffodils bloom in late February, followed by the dogwoods, and then the azeleas. By the end of March, spring flowers are belting out their final notes and in April we pull out our swimsuits and kayaks live outside until October. But this spring has tiptoed in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I started piecing the tree quilt for my friend today. I&#8217;ve alternated between staring at and ignoring a table full of little squares and rectangles for a few weeks now, and today struck me as a day to do something about it. I haven&#8217;t finished cutting yet, but I needed a clearer sense of what [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I have a confession. I&#8217;m not always the best at using the right tools for a given task. I&#8217;d often rather use what I have on hand than go out and spend money on something I&#8217;d only use for one project. Examples: I use a tea strainer in lieu of a flour sifter. The time [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Look what came in the mail this weekend! As Garrett said, &#8220;Maegan, if y0u were a fabric, this might be it.&#8221; Now, the hard part. What do I do with it? &nbsp; Purchased from Amanda at Westwood Acres.</p>

<p>So many of my favorite fabric designs are those that have a hand-drawn look to them. Many designers, such as Heather Ross, start their fabric designs with pencil on paper. It results in a lovely, organic design that has a surprisingly fresh finish. Here are a handful of my favorites: 1. Out to Sea in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>One of my proudest quilting accomplishments thus far is my Quilt  in a Day, or what I&#8217;m jokingly referring to as my Roman Holiday quilt (&#8220;Rome wasn&#8217;t built in a day&#8221; + holiday gift&#8230; get it?). Every year, my closest friends and I draw names for a Secret Santa-type gift exchange. After I received my [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It was a very quilty Christmas here at Chez Casa. I worked on this quilt for my cousin for quite some time, because I kept measuring things incorrectly and ending up with too little fabric. I&#8217;m very much a &#8220;measure twice, cut once&#8221; kind of gal, but I still couldn&#8217;t get it right. Nonetheless, this one [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I just realized that I hadn&#8217;t actually posted a full photo of the front of Quilt #2. And then I remembered that&#8217;s because I didn&#8217;t really get a good picture of it before it went to its new home. I feel like I&#8217;ve talked about it enough in previous posts that I&#8217;ll just leave this [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When it was time to begin my second quilt, it felt like a momentous occasion. I could see a yet-unwritten story in all of those quilts I was destined to make. These quilts will wrap around friends and cousins and mothers and even little babies that haven&#8217;t begun to be imagined. All of these quilts [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Boy did I send a lot of time on this quilt. I received the fabric as a gift back in August and had the most trouble deciding what I wanted to do with it, pattern-wise. The fabric is Serenade by Kate Spain and I love it, but there is a lot going on&#8211;in color and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A friend made my week yesterday when she asked how much I would charge to make her a quilt. I know just how much I don&#8217;t know about making quilts, and my craftsmanship leaves a lot to be desired, but I was honored nonetheless. Since she has taken up painting in the last year, I [&hellip;]</p>

<p>My Flea Market Fancy quilt is finished and laying happily on my bed (it is not, at it appears here, laying folded up under a cat named George Foreman). So that&#8217;s awesome. What&#8217;s even more awesome is that I&#8217;m on my way to finishing my second quilt. It sounds like I&#8217;m getting ahead of myself, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I started this quilt in an effort to preserve my sanity. I really needed to pour myself into a non-work-related project, and one day I suddenly decided that a quilt was the medicine I needed. The fact that I had never made one wasn&#8217;t going to stop me. One great thing about quilts is that [&hellip;]</p>