PinkLemonadeBoutique

I really wanna quilt.

  I've been so intensly occupied with my purse making business that I can't remember the last time I made a quilt start to finish. I'm beginning to feel nostalgic. Lately I've been reading blogs and gazing at Flikr photos of quilts and quilting vicariously through these. This post would be endless if I mentioned all the quilters i really admire, so I'll just share a few with you, that lately I've been especially fond of.

First is Laurie Taylor who  makes these gorgeous, luscious, color saturated quilts. I love her wild abandon approach to color and pattern. 

Allissa makes these wonderful, eye-catching beauties. I love her use of white to frame the great fabrics. i recognize so many of them as some of my favorites. Squares are something she also uses alot of, which is my favorite patchwork shape.

 Ok, i could stare endlessly at Malka's   quilts.  And i think I have in the past week or so.  She combines her handdyed fabric in ways that will amaze you. They are an alchemy of vintage, stripy, dotty, floral goodness. A mix of tradition and innovation that is fresh and modern. I covet. 

So, armed with such inspiration, I stole a few indulgent hours yesterday and fashioned myself a wonky log cabin pillow, adorned with my first attempt at stipple quilting. I think I like it. Ok, I love it. 

      

So I'm thinking..."Pinklemonadeboutique at home", what do you think? Boy that's a mouthfull, I would need to shorten that I think. These are some  purses that I've made recently for the shop. 

  

 

   

Of Babies, Peas and Anne Geddes...

On the same day as I started a baby quilt for a friend who is expecting, my mother in law came over with a glorious bounty from her garden.

 The baby's gender shall remain a mystery until the blessed day, which of course sends us baby quilt making people into a tizzy, does it not? For me, when a friend announces that she is with child, the first thing that swirls around my head is a baby quilt! We wait with bated breath until that 4 month ultrasound reveals the gender and then as soon as we know, we head off to the quilt shop with boy fabric or girl fabric in our heads. It literally makes me giddy. I love making little baby quilts. I get to indulge in the sweetest, pinkest, girliest fabric on the planet. Or with just teeniest less enthusiasm, I am on the hunt for vintage train or stripes, or Jack Russell Terrier fabric for the boy.  So when I realize that gender neutral is the way to go, I am a deer in the headlights. Polka dots? Too girly for a boy? Blue/green, to boyish for a girl? Yellow, too obvious? Purple, too kooky? If there is a print that has a hint of even magenta and the baby turns out a male, will the father secretly fear for the boys masculinity? Such are the worries of the baby quilt maker. I love making them just the same. Especially since I make purses all the time, it is such a treat to stop and indulge in my favorite craft of all. A baby quilt is small, manageable, instantly satisfying and  I can usually piece the top in one afternoon. This particular quilt I started at noon, and had it basted by Liv's bedtime. I will show the final product when it is complete, but here is a pic of the fabrics all together. Oh, and it is gender neutral. I hope.

  

The main print is by Kaffe Fassett, and it's called "Planets" I beleive. They remind me of oblong Everlasting Gobstoppers. The background is dark plum. I am now wishing I incorporated orange in my coordinating fabrics, but I was kind of overwhelmed and overly influenced by the nice quilt shop lady (who by that point was sick of me wandering around the shop muttering to myself, and pulling every other bolt of fabric from the shelves.) 

 So with the thought of babies swirling around my head, my Mother in Law arrives with beautiful fresh peas from her garden. Here she is with Liv shelling them on the back deck. How perfect. Liv is delighted by a pod bearing a motherlode of 9 peas. 

 Understandably, I couldn't get this crazy image out of my head.

Introducing Pinklemonadeboutique BABY!

I am so excited to announce a new line Pinklemonadeboutique BABY!

I've just listed it on ETSY today, and hope this sweet little set will be off to a sweet little girl soon! I was so inspired by the scallop edge quilt in that fabulous and famous book Bend the rules sewing by Amy Karol, i thought it was the cutest little quilt I've seen in ages, the scallop edges were lots of work, but don't you think it was worth it? I do. It's ruined me to plain old straight edges from now on. i added the whimsical little bird, and daisy to the matching bib.

Also, up on etsy today are 3 new wristlets:

Grandmother's flower garden...

That's the name of this patchwork quilt pattern. I have always wanted one, I've seen gorgeous take your breath away vintage ones...all way to expensive for my budget. So I set out to make my baby daughter one for her big girl bed. 3 years ago. It's really the most labor intensive project I've ever gotten myself entangled in. The process is english paper piecing, you take these 6 sided little paper templates, wrap the little piece of fabric around it, secure and whipstich together, one....by.....one. Actually it's a bit of a zenlike process, once you get into it. And if you're in the mood. I go through fazes where I'll work on it compulsively, and then I can't pick it up for months. Oh well, maybe it'll be a nice wedding quilt...I used the sweetest little 1930's repro fabrics.      

meanwhile, the poor girl needed something for her bed,

and a little chair pad...