[100 day city sampler challenge] day two, block one

all my fabrics for this project

So obviously, my 100 day city sampler life quilt challenge got off to a bit of a rocky start, and I didn't make a block or post yesterday, which was day one.

Today I redeemed myself, and after photographing my pretty stack of fabrics a few more times, I cut into the blue fabrics to make block one!

block one

I'm pretty pleased with this block. It looks very pretty - Adam chose the four blue fabrics for the block and then I cut into them sort of at random, trying not to think too hard about which fabric would be for which pieces, if that makes any sense? I was a little paralyzed at the beginning, thinking I needed to make my block look like the one in the book. But, in the beginning of the book, the author Tula Pink says something along the lines of "I numbered these blocks so that you could have creative liberty and really make it your quilt". So I'm trying to take those words to heart and just do it.

Like Nike.

[100 day city sampler quilt challenge] day zero

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my new quilty life challenge!

Let me explain. I've been feeling pretty down lately, what with my new job being stressful (as new jobs often are) and leaving little time for crafting. It's gotten pretty bad here lately. I've browsing quilt books and blogs, and I found this Tula Pink City Sampler book quilt-along. I kind of fell in love with the whole concept of 100 different blocks. 

Today I took a little (haha) drive to the nearest Barnes & Noble (which is over an hour away) to find a copy of the Tula Pink City Sampler book (see above!). I spent some time browsing all the beautiful quilt books there, and reluctantly left with just the Tula Pink book. Then I went over to the nearby Jo-Ann's and picked out a stack of rainbow fat quarters (see above!) with which to make the 100 blocks contained in the (really pretty) book. 

So here's the challenge: I am going to make at least one block per day, going in the order they are presented in the book. In approximately 100 days, I will (hopefully) have the blocks completed and will be able to start assembling the quilt.

My goal is to have grace for myself if I miss a day, but to have this project to keep me going and looking forward. I'm in love with my rainbow fabrics, and the whole idea. I am excited to see this quilt come together over the new few months!

[completed] marriage cross-stitch

My younger sister got married yesterday and this is what I made the happy couple:

A cross-stitch of themselves on their wedding day! (This is not the best picture of it). J's dress is stitched in a shimmery white floss to capture the silk of her actual dress, and i used metallic gold to represent the hand-embroidered white-and-gold belt (made by our mother) that she wore. R's outfit was stitched with a blue floss for his shirt (which matched surprisingly well given I didn't see the shirt until the day of the wedding!). 

There are word bubbles containing hearts (symbolizing their words of love) with exclamation marks, and their initials and the date. Their cross-stitched selves have big smiles - just as they did at their wedding.