First Quilt.

I have been inspired by quilting forever. One of my most prized possessions is an heirloom quilt I've had since I was about five years old (pictured above). It was made by my great grandmother whom I was named after, Elizabeth Nome (Nome--meeh) and comprised of her old wing dresses. She lived in a small home on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in Parker Canyon. She wore braids, a silver watch, round glasses and floral dresses. Always dresses. This quilt has meant a lot to me and will always be a part of my life. It lives on my bed and occasionally my couch and is still beautiful after all these years. In almost all of the creative things I do and even more so in my recent daily life, I try to channel her energy. I even like that our house is small because it reminds me of hers.  

Top Left: Great Grandma, older sister, me, and dad in a tipi. 

Top right: Great Grandma and I in her home.  

Process pics from my first attempt at creating a quilt. 

Needless to say, I have finally started quilting! I've been threatening to make one of my own for at least 10 years now. Not sure why it's taken so long, but I feel ready now. I am so inspired by their differences, traditions, origins, and functions. The possibilities seem endless from the color of fabric and thread to the design and dimensions, even down to hand quilting vs. machine quilting.

This first attempt hasn't been easy, but it's been a lot of fun figuring everything out. The biggest challenge has been relearning how to use my sewing machine (for the machine-piecing). In the beginning, I had to rethread it after every square which was becoming unbearable, but I think I have everything under control now. Everyone has to start somewhere I guess.

One of the best things that has happened in the process so far was my discovery of a a small shop. I was searching for a specific thread and after calling several shops in Seattle, I was finally able to locate it at "Okan Arts," a small independently owned shop that specializes in Japanese fabrics run by a wonderful woman named Patricia. She had me bring my quilt top project to see what I was working on and ended up giving me a ton of tips and pointers on it. Turns out I made several mistakes and was able to fix them all after visiting her. Her passion for quilting was evident and truly inspiring. I strongly recommend her shop if you're ever in the market for fine fabrics, threads or quilting classes.

Craft.

What a cute catalog by Craft. 

Weekend.

Brunch at Sitka and Spruce, home-made meals, and some major creative and productive lady-time this weekend.  There was plenty of indigo dye, clay, yarn, magazines, levis, heeled boots, styled hair, worn-in painting clothes, delicious snacks and plenty of wonderful company. Hope you had a nice weekend! Love, -n

Happy Friday!

I haven't had one minute of free time this week and am SO ready for the weekend!
Also really excited for a craft-night tonight. Have a great weekend! Love, -n
(Image by lupin).

Sewing Inspiration.

A friend sewed this bag above (the shoes are just a bonus), using fabric from an old bed-spread. She even included a cell-phone pocket and a place to latch your key on. I'm really hoping to make some dresses and bags this summer!

Christmas Ornament.

I have to share this Christmas ornament project by Abbey Hendrickson, it's such a good idea! It makes me really wish I was getting a Christmas tree this year and making a bunch of ornaments for it. She is making one ornament per weekday until Christmas time and will be posting them on her blog "Aesthetic Outburst," keep up with her here!

Porterness Embroidery.

I love embroidering, especially in the Fall. It's such a fun and crafty hobbie and whatever you end up with can almost guaranteed make for a good gift. So, I'm super happy about finding this crafty blog "Mr X Stitch, the number one contemporary embroidery and needlecraft blog on the planet!" See for yourself.

Hand-made.

I finished my Cowl! There are maybe one or two imperfections/hand-made touches from knitting and watching a movie at the same time, but I'm overall very pleased with the outcome and it's so warm and cozy, so thank you Yokoo for the inspiration! Can't wait for cold weather. Oh and I also made myself a blouse with an "interesting" neck-line, it was my first attempt at making a top, did pretty good I think.

Hem your pants.

If you're anything like me, you will put this off for awhile because it's a hassle to unpack your sewing machine and learn how to use it again by watching the instructional VHS it came with because it's been so long since you used it the last time. Fortunately, I learned from this mistake and put stickers and numbers all over it with a label-maker, so that I could easily remember how to use it, and it was awesome! Now I want to make more things, I hemmed these before I went to Chicago and they turned out great, I suggest you get your machine out too and make some stuff!

Scarves and Fall.

One of my favorite ideas of what I think I like to do when it gets cold out, is knit myself a scarf. It makes me feel productive when sitting down to watch a movie, and not only is it cheaper than going out and buying one, but it's customizable to your liking. So, after getting very inspired by looking at Yokoo Scarves and Accessories, I am going to try and make myself a "cowl (featured below)." I picked up the yarn already and started on my cowl last Friday, we'll see how close I can get it! Oh! And I picked gray because it was the coziest color they had.

Cute Overload.

I LOVE all things tiny, could be a smaller-than-usual stick of butter, doesn't really matter, and I'm not sure why -I just do. So you can pretty much understand how I felt when coming across these little guys by mochimochi land, they are so cute! Tiny Tacos, Penguins, Eggs, Burgers, toasters, etc., why didn't I think of this?