No quilty posts today, I’ve been busy working on secret Christmas projects and in my spare time attempting to establish an illustration “style.”  I loved drawing as a child and really wish I had gone to art school so that I could have had mentors help me develop my drawing strengths and weaknesses. I find I have too many styles that I enjoy, and it is hard for me to pin point a particular aesthetic that screams, CORINNE! So, my goal is to just draw tons of stuff and at some point look back and see if there is some sort of cohesive style I can develop.

I love folk art, and have been drawn to Scandinavian folk art for some time. It’s been really trendy as of late, so I thought it might be fun to design a simple yet modern applique Christmas quilt based on the style. I started drawing birds from the 12 Days of Christmas and arranged them as blocks, seen below. I thought it might be pretty appliqued red on cream, and perhaps hand applique other flourishes in white on the cream surrounding the birds? That part isn’t illustrated but you get the idea. I can’t decide if I like it enough to actually make it.

I’d also like to design a collection of fabric to print on spoonflower.com this year. I’ve been tossing several ideas around, but whipped up a cute polar bear pattern I think could be fun. I’m still developing the idea, but think its coming along. Faces have always been the simple part, but I am terrible at drawing bodies, whether animal or human.

Last but not least, I REALLY want to draw some cat fabric. I volunteer bottle feeding orphan kittens with Austin Pets Alive and currently have two fosters kittens at home. Have y’all seen the “Pin all the things!” stick cartoon? I thought it would be cute with a kitten twist, so I whipped this up and think it would be a fun tshirt.

I’m hoping to have some actual quilty stuff to post soon.

It’s officially the time of year where I get to work on Christmas presents, which also means content for my blog will be lacking until after the holidays. With my focus on several “top secret” projects, there is only so much time to sew my two million random ufos. I actually have made a ton of progress on my Winding Ways, but still have a lot more to go. I’ve been piecing in units, which makes it a bit easier to handle because you do the same motion over and over again instead of going from one step to the next.

I also decided to try my hand at Amy Butler’s Weekender Bag. I’ve seen so many awesome ones I couldn’t resist giving it a whirl. I only have one pocket panel done so far, but I think it will be fun!

My last WIP is to get a tutorial up on how I figured out my Water/Waves quilt. I’m halfway done with the post and hope to get it online this week.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

So you know how much I love fall. The only thing that keeps me from getting sad after Halloween is over is knowing Christmas is around the corner, otherwise I’d be totally bummed out, winter just isn’t my thing (one of the top reasons I now live in Austin.) I do miss the East Coast’s autumn though. I have many fond memories of driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains to and from college, going to Halloween houses with my sisters, and pumpkin picking with my family as a child. My dad turns our house into a haunted haven each Halloween, and kids are always met with large bags of candy. No scare tactics, just spooky fun. I hope to one day carry on the tradition, but living in an apartment doesn’t afford that opportunity just yet.

I have almost completed piecing my Not So Modern Maples quilt top, just need to add 4 inch squares around the entire top as a semi-border! This photo is terrible, the sun is going down earlier now and I just don’t get home early enough during the week to take sun-filled shots. Maybe I’ll remember to get one this weekend! In the meantime, here is my progress.

Last fall I fell in love with all the wonderful wreaths you find on pinterest. I came across this tutorial and wanted a similar product. I ended up using a wire wreath frame and sewing instead of gluing. If glue is your thing, that is cool, I just find it weighs things down too much, and it takes just as much time as sewing large stitches, so why bother. I made the black and white wreath below last year and it has been hanging out on a shelf in my laundry room flower-less all year. I busted it out this weekend and finally whipped up some lovely flowers to make it festive. I made a ton of these flowers in red last year for my Christmas tree, and thought they would look awesome on this wreath in orange. Again, I didn’t use glue, I sewed the petals on. The glue weighed the Christmas flowers down and took way too much time to dry. The only perk of glue is you get to peel it off your messy fingers when you’re done, but that doesn’t outweigh the cons in my opinion. 🙂

This wreath is hanging on my wall above my computer at work so that I can enjoy it. It took a year to finish, but I like how it turned out.

Going to keep this short today. Almost done putting my Not So Modern Maples top together, hope to take pictures and post soon. Now that my autumn themed quilt is almost ready for quilting, I am again working on something beachy. I cut out a million and half pieces of the Winding Ways quilt a while back on an Accu-quilt, and did 4 or 5 practice blocks (not the ones posted below, they came after lots of practice). I have to admit, I was ready to give up. I’d cut it out though, so it is going to happen! I think I’ve found my groove, it involves A LOT of pins. I only have four decent blocks done, but I have a big pile of various parts pieced together. I also realized I didn’t cut out enough pieces from four of my fabrics. Going to have to figure that out, I’m not cutting these out without an Accu-quilt!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP.