This particular drawing is from Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky’s stash. On Berene’s site she has a wonderful quote that says “Busy hands make happy hearts”, and I tend to agree.
I'm so Happy Sew Lucky I don't give a hoot!

The other day my son asked me why I draw fabric. First my brain went back to my art school critique training. Words like aesthetic and juxtaposition floated around. Potential was another word that seemed to apply.
Every bolt or stack of fabric has potential. It was a great question but the word that seemed the loudest and the most simple, even though my art school brain cringed at it was . . . happy! I draw fabric because it makes me happy.

I'm so Happy Sew Lucky I don't give a hoot!

What do you do that makes you happy? What’s one thing you do and it gets you every time, you just can’t help yourself?

I'm so Happy Sew Lucky I don't give a hoot!

On the back of “I’m so Happy Sew Lucky I don’t give a hoot!” I wrote – While Berene let me dig away at her stash for fabric to draw, I found some owl patterns for a needle book stuffed in the middle of a stack. “Hey what’s this?” I asked.“Oh it’s just a pattern I whipped up that I did a while ago. I haven’t posted about it yet, I guess I should do that. You can have one!” she replied. Um. . . Okay,sure,thanks! -March 2012 . . . and I have to admit, that too made me happy!

I'm so Happy Sew Lucky I don't give a hoot!

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Phew! As you may have noticed I didn’t have any posts last week because I’ve been slaving away on this thing. It’s our guild’s reinvention of our feature member page. It’s  our take on the 5 things about you that was going around on Instagram a while back. I’m the lucky duck who gets to go first-Geronimo! It’s also like a virtual tour of my studio and my fabric stash… And… I may have suggested modern quilting is like  hardcore pornography! So there you go.

Feel free to pop by and say hi!

That's me, lysa flower

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My friend Hana reads my blog. She is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. In fact, last month she baked me a loaf a bread and told me it was for how much she enjoys reading my blog! Last week, Hana and I attended a meeting together. As the meeting started, she leaned over to me and whispered, “By the way, I have to tell you, your blog post (which I posted earlier that day) was sooo boring. I just had to tell you, it was all fluff, there was nothing to it.” This would be harsh news from anyone else other than from Hana. In fact, it made me laugh. I knew it was true. It was rushed and lacked any luster. I’m not sure why hearing it from her made me laugh, perhaps because most people wouldn’t have the nerve to be so crystal clear, honest. It was refreshing actually.

Hana's-bread-

So on that note… let me just reach down here… and grab my pom, poms! Aren’t they are a beautiful yellow? Can you hear them as I shake them? Okay, I haven’t done this in a while. Let me get up and stretch… Okay, one, two, three! Jump, jump bounce, Sis Boom Bah! Cartwheel and flip! Ta Da!

Wayyyyy back in November as our little Fab Bee trucked a long, it was my month to be the Queen Bee. This is where I send out fabric and my design to all the other members. They in turn sew up the fabric to my specifications and send it back to me. My inspiration for my block was an illustration from my very favorite book, Naive Folk prints. I bought it a couple of years ago on my birthday at Anthropologie (my very favorite store in the whole wide world!) Having been in an online quilt bee before I knew, even though you set parameters, sometimes you get back things you didn’t quite predict. So it’s important, in my opinion, to pick a block pattern that has structure. However it’s also really important not to squash the personality of the sewist. This has been a big debate around our house as my husband prepares for his month in April. That’s why bees are joined right, to get to know people, learn new techniques, not just be slave bots. So I came up with this tree idea. I asked all the members to sew an insanely long block (100″- 6″) so I could easily sew the trees all together. Even thought it was long I was pretty confident it wouldn’t be too laborious.

I also wanted to send out packages that were unique and pretty! Again, a couple of years ago I bought these standard thank you notes from Anthropologie, the ones where you plunk in descriptive words in the blank spots. Kinda like Madlibs but in a thank you note format. Inspired from these thank you Madlibs letters, I made up a quilt bee letter. Plus I thought if I do another Quilt bee, I could use the letter again.

Letter for Fab Bee November

Holly sent, along with her block, this wonderful letter that made me giggle!

Holly and Sophia's -letter

I did make up my block beforehand I sent my packages out. Berene, who sent out her fabric package back in September, mentioned in her letter that coming from a long line of caterers it’s always better to have too much then not enough. In my case I come from a long line of frugal farmers and apparently I was extra thrifty with my fabric. Whoops, my bad! As a result some blocks were shorter than 100″. Some of the sewers requested more fabric and others agreed, if needed, I could add to the ends. It will all work out in the end. I’ve received most of my blocks back already (quite a few from our January FVMQG as shown in the photo below). I can’t wait to get them all sewn together. It’s going to be quite fabulous, if I do say so myself!

Lysa

Photo by Carol Browne

I plan on giving this tree quilt to my son oldest son. Shhhhh! I made him a quilt when he turned 8 but I didn’t think ahead to who he was going to be. Instead I concentrated who he was at the time. Even though he is determined to keep the quilt I made for him (he is now almost 13 – gulp!) I think it’s only a matter of time before a friend comes over and says, “Dude, you’ve got a baby quilt on your bed!” Hopefully the Fab Bee tree quilt won’t age as quickly as his last one.

Okay, phew, I’m outta breath, hopefully that will pass the Hana test! I think I might have pulled something! Don’t worry I’ll rest up for the next post!

Thanks for Popping by,
Cheers
Lysa

Fab Bee sticker

PS. if you’d like to browse though other blocks made for the Fab Bee, here a few links:
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (one of six) Darlene’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (two of six) Ellen’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup with sprinkles on top (three of six) Berene’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (four of six) Eryn’s block

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It’s hard to believe the weekend has already come and gone isn’t it? This past Saturday our guild, the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild, had the pleasure of having Paul Krampitz teach a workshop for us. I posted about it here on the guild’s site.

This is what I made:

Lysa's-IMG_7556

A snow flake!

In hindsight I don’t think a snowflake really show’s off the technique Paul was teaching us. Perhaps paper piecing might be more the way to go for snowflakes. I’m really glad I have learned this technique, it has inspired me for a future project. All in all it was a really fun day to sit and sew in good company!

What did you get up to this weekend? I bet, if there was a blue sky in sight, you weren’t thinking about snowflakes!

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kurt-cobain

Last week I had to register my 12 year old for grade 8. It shouldn’t be a big deal right, but because he is entering high-school, for me it has been. My son and I have visited a few high school open houses and have discussed clubs that he might be interested in. After recently watching Freaks and Geeks he’s pretty sure he wants to stay clear from the AV club. Not that they’re called AV clubs anymore but he is technically inclined and, like his Dad, is quite the gamer. When I suggested drama, since he has always expressed an interest, he leaned in and whispered to me, “Drama kids get made fun of Mom.” Which is particularly interesting to me since he’s never attended a school that has provided a drama program. I cringed at his insight. I hope with all of my being he will stand tall in who he is and not bother to be what he perceives as being cool (and of course I speak from experience). The coolest people I’ve ever met have this self acceptance and are very comfortable with who they are. They don’t apologize and they don’t justify. They just are. Yesterday I came across a quote that sums up what exactly the advice I wanted to give my son as he enters high school next year. Using this quote, I slyly tried to enter this concept into a conversation with my 12 year old son as we were driving to pick up his younger brother.

Me: You know who Kurt Cobain is right?
Maceo: (Immediately answers without hesitation) Yeah, William Shatner.
Me: (slight giggle) Umm, no, not William Shatner. You’re thinking of Captain Kirk.
Maceo: Oh, yeah, sorry the guy who took a bunch of Heroin.
Me: Well yeah, but remember when we went to EMP in Seattle?
Maceo: Oh yeah, where they had that room with all those disturbing pictures of dolls and the naked baby in water? (he ended with a how embarrassing, shiver)
Me: Yes, the area with all the Nirvana stuff. You know their music right?
Maceo: um???
Me: Well, I’m pretty sure you’d recognize it if you heard it.
Maceo: Yeah, probably.
Me: Anyways, I saw this great Kurt Cobain quote today. It said, “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”
Maceo: . . .
Maceo: Captian Kirk had a great quote too, “Beam me up Scotty.”

Captain-Kirk

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