back in the studio

Today was my first day spent in the studio in a long time.  Too long!  

In the middle of last week, I took a look at my to-do list and all of the exciting projects I have going on, and my head started spinning: finishing up my coaching certification and launching my business, revamping and revitalizing this blog, cultivating the awesome Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild, oh yeah, and planning my wedding!

It's such an exciting time of ideas, energy, and abundance.  The kicker is that everything on my list is a want-to, not a have-to.  Ideal!  But I want to do it all, and I want to do it now!

I know it can't all be done at once.  But I also know that they will all get done.

Two important things I came to realize this week:

• I need to trust myself.  I know that my projects will move forward even if I'm not plowing ahead full force.  I am a person who naturally leans into the future (for better and worse!), and thrives off of moving forward.  
• I need to carve out studio time.  I've marked off all of my Sundays between now and the wedding as "QUILTING DAY," and I'm treating them as sacred time to ground myself. 

to start the week

via yogachocolatelove

Madrona Road Challenge Quilt

A couple of months ago, the Modern Quilt Guild issued a challenge to its members: create a quilt using only the Madrona Road fabric line from Michael Miller, along with solid fabrics.  Here's my answer to the call:

I was inspired by one of the prints in the line to create a large herringbone design.  This is part of my attempt to make my quilt fronts more like my quilt backs...since my quilt backs are usually everyone's favorite!  I love the cleanness of how this design came out.

Here's the back - an improvised design using the leftover fabrics.  You might recognize the prints, since I used them in the tiny house quilt that I made a few weeks back for my brother and sister-in-law's housewarming gift.  I love how these colors go together!

This quilt gave me the opportunity to try out some of the new free-motion quilting designs from the books I got at Christmas.  I used pebbles in the sashing, and allover boxes for the rest of the quilt.  It was fun!

Thanks to my girlio Monica for helping out with this photo shoot!