New Chapter

Hi friends. I've got news. I'm the worst secret keeper ever (that's not the news, keep reading). Remember all the stacks? And all the ideas? Well.......



...it's official. Let's throw another slash in the title underneath my signature. Sure, why not. I do it all the time anyway. You know. Sew stuff. I am so, so, so excited! And I vow to not use the word sew in place of the word so anywhere in my book. My book. Hmm. Kinda has a ring to it. Oh, and every fabric for every project in my book (I will not continue to italicize that phrase, but please just allow me today) with the exception of a few vintage finds will be supplied by my favorite fabric store.

I promise, promise details will follow. I am so happy that I have you on the journey with me. Inspiration works both ways. Your thoughtful comments, smart questions and encouraging words really make this sometimes overwhelming uphill march of making beautiful stuff so worth it. Thanks guys.

xo,Anna Maria

Sleepy Studio

So daddy day is good. But mommy day is pretty sweet too. The only sounds heard in the studio for the past few hours have been the quiet tapping of the keyboard, the birds outside trying to figure out what to do in the steady rain we've had since the middle of the night, and the occasional rise and fall swishing sound from cars going somewhere that I don't have to.

xo,AM

My little lunchkins

I have had more fun playing with my new fabric ! I totally feel like a meany showing off stuff when you can't get the fabric yet, but it won't be long! Promise peeps! Speaking of peeps - this is such a good palette for Easter stuff, you'll just have to make it ahead for next year, since the fabrics won't be in stores in time this spring. But for now, these are some simple lunch totes I whipped up for Isabela and Eleni.



They were very excited. It also makes that dreaded lunch packing just slightly more fun when you can toss it in here. Today is "daddy day" which means Jeff gets preschool get-ready and drop-off duty. (I love daddy day. I love daddy too, but especially on daddy day, because it allows me to be like this. Not sure he loves it. But anyway.)



I was thinking of making oilcloth bags, which is perfectly suitable for lunch totes, but the girls had already picked out their favorite prints from the line...so hmmm what to do? Well, I investigated a bit, and maybe you all already know, but there is this cool stuff that allows you to iron on vinyl over any smooth surfaced fabric. It's totally easy to sew through and I found it at JoAnns where they sell all the interfacings and fusibles and such. So I just ironed a sheet onto the lining fabric after I cut it out and before I started assembling. Voila! Wipeable inside lining! It's a bit like turning your favorite fabric into oilcloth. And you could vinylize both sides of something. In fact you could fuse two fabrics wrong sides together with fuse stuff then you could vinylize both sides! Then you would have two sided stuff and wouldn't even need a lining. Then you could just cut it probably with pinking shears and not hem it! Ha!

Totally carried away. Do you see what happens? sigh.



So now that they are all happy and cute-y lunch-like, I can check one supermom task off the list for today.

One a day would be good wouldn't it?

xoox,AM

Refreshed, inside and out

Good Morning! Have a homemade pumpkin cranberry almond muffin! My kids looked at me with amazement and shocked happiness when they got this 7am greeting from me Saturday morning. I think they wondered where their real mother was. After a week of taking it easy during their spring break, I took the last weekend of it by the horns, I tell you! I assumed having everyone home and me taking only a partial break from work would be really hectic.



But the first official day of it, I realized how nice it was not to pack lunches, do homework, shove some out to the bus, get the laundry dry in the nick of time before loading up the others to pre-school, pickup from track practice, and just generally keep a schedule. I almost missed my car, I was barley in it! JOY! I even rippled like I've been wanting to ever since I saw this and this (who wouldn't try it? Seriously?). I just wanted to see if I could do it, since my previous crochet skills included all of the single crochet stitch. . I need to get that book so I can learn all kinds of ripples. I just kinda figured this one out. Jeff and Juliana kept prying me off of it to make me watch some movies with them, or to send me back to the computer and the deadlines of which they've been hearing me whine about nonstop. How funny, I thought, that crochet became my rebellion. Hysterical, really. I'm a good girl I am. We watched that one too.



By 9am saturday morning I was in the garden chatting with the anemones, and making way for my lilies, hydrangeas, hostas, phloxes, pachysandra, and other expected guests by clearing the weeds out of their beds. I have these cute new gloves, another hand-me-down from Jeff's grandma. After a year of living on her own since Jeff's grandad passed away, she's finally decided to go into a retirement community. She's therefore unloading years and years of various posessions to us. A lifetime of useful tools, dishes, furniture and other odds and ends. It's overwhelming, really. I don't think she's aware of how much we love having it all, grand like the china cabinet, meaningful like the dozens of various creamers she collected, or just simple and useful like the garden gloves. So special.



So it was a colorful, fun, relaxing week, and actually quite productive. I sometimes think I get more done when I take a break. It was such a nice change to care for the children a little more consciously instead of at lightening speed in between other tasks. Lots of little things I've been meaning to do for a long while got some attention. Some exciting developments and tentative possibilities have also been stirring in the studio. So I'll be sharing more, of course.

Break break

So I'm taking just a small step away from my blog/spring break to wish my beautiful sister Eleni a Happy Birthday!
Her birthday, most appropriately, is on the first day of Spring. Eleni is about nothing if she is not about delicate and beautiful new beginnings. She is a tender and warm soul. You can see that here in the painting I made of her with my Juliana about 5 years ago.When I made the painting I thought of the cushion she has always been for me, whether I was being brave or stupid. Like her red lap that supports the entire composition of the painting. Content to let me be the center of

attention, since she knew I needed it.
I thought of our inter-tangling pattern of having the same parents, the same makeup. How we are sort of a repeat of each other but individual like the the bend of the arms in each of the figures in the painting. I know just how Juliana must have felt relaxing in her sweet care and having her hair braided. It's the same sisterly embrace I have felt since birth.

That embrace, as most of us sisters know, doesn't always come in the form of an actual hug, sometimes it's a necessary distance or it's a talk on the phone for 5 hours. But always there and always loving and accepting.

Have a happy birthday Eleni, I love you.
And happy spring to all. xo,A

Big Ideas

Is there anything better? Not too much in my rarely humble opinion.

Ducks are in rows here in the studio, and I have lots of big plans. I used 3 different coffee cups this morning because kept misplacing the coffee I was drinking. My brain is a bit crammed at present. In a good way. But crammed.



Quilt market is in a matter of weeks and my product design tradeshow just a few after that. I'm working on a slew of new home furnishing designs that has me planted in this seat almost around the clock. But that work counter full of sewing project plans is the blueprint to happiness awaiting me. I can't wait to tell you all about the piles if ideas that are folded in with those lovelies.

I will likely be taking a bit of a break next week. I need extra space for the munchkins while we have a little lazy time during their spring break. I need to look up the definition of lazy. I can't remember what that means.

xoxo, AM

Is it just me......

....or does King Leo not quite fit here? And am I wrong in thinking that maybe his expression is telling me just that? Clearly he has patiently sat at my feet (in paw's reach I might add) in the studio as I make all sorts of things that have nothing to do with him. Although a few things had to do with him. He actually doesn't even know he's a dog and very often treats himself to all the privileges of our human children, like silk pillows, popcorn and the living room couch. I was telling my Purlfriend all about it as I ordered the cutie fabrics for his new bed.



So keep enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze on the back porch Your Highness. I'm pretty sure you're number 31 on my list of things to do.

Where does your pup sleep? (or where doesn't your pup sleep?)

xox, doggie mommy

Indoor Blooms

Did you know that you can garden from the comfort of your couch? Or under soft lamplight cuddled up in bed with the window open? Well, you can. I did. Spring has come in so fast, and I ache at not having more time to spend welcoming my little bloomlings. Wait for me Spring! I'm not ready yet!



I've been busy propagating this big showy plumey bloomy though. Night after night, I've pieced, ironed, stitched and performed other clever tricks to make this....uhh....I don't know what it is yet. I know it started out as hey I wanna do something besides a circle, maybe a little flower. It's now about 18x18" and waiting for a home. The last time a project started out as hey I wanna do it ended up to be these.



I'll tell you what I do know, I'm feeling a little selfish. This may get introduced to the makings of a frock of sorts for moi. I've been thinking about it for days. I go to sleep thinking about it, and find myself spacing out during other tasks as I have a mental stumble across another thought for it. It's like a crush. I can't stop daydreaming about the possibilities. Perhaps a panel in a kicky skirt. I'll keep ya posted pals.

xo,AM

yo-yolks

Can you find which egg doesn't belong?

Admittedly, like lots of simple cute ideas, I'm not the first to think of this. I've already seen some other cutie eggs out there in blogland. Nonetheless, another reason to have busy hands while watching a good movie this weekend. I've actually had my hands on a different very slowburn project for a week or two now, that I can't wait to share with you! I think with every little rushed detail I have going on these days I wanted to take part in the gradual build of a beautiful thing.

But for now, a fabric egg. Fun.
So which came first? The crafty chic or the yo-yolk?

xo,AM

Got dressed

We had such a fun pajama party yesterday! You guys really had me laughing and feeling normal. I think I'm in good company wearing my pjs for most of the work day. Which has made the fact that I got dressed today newsworthy! So I thought I would document my trip to the mailbox with Eleni. It is so sunny and gorgeous that I was inspired to put on my favorite skirt. I do have a small addiction where skirts are concerned. I find that I collect clothes more than I buy them. Again, I am a study in conflict. Free grandpa sleepies and 200$ skirts. Go figure. It's a balance I guess.



Anyway, my slouchy attire antics apparently hasn't scared too many people off. My neighbor Karen left these on my front doorstep this morning. Just cause. I was so busy gabbing on the phone with a client that I couldn't even thank her. Could a girl have a better neighbor? No. Oh my gosh! I passed my own UPS guy on the road this morning driving home from Isabela's pre-K. I wanted to honk and shout, "hey look!! I'm dressed!!!" But I almost swerved off the road, laughing at myself just thinking about it, and thinking about telling you. He wouldn't have recognized me anyway.



So Eleni and I had a nice slow walk in the sunshine. I am absolutely not an example to her in the shoe wearing category either. But I have a bazillion smart pairs. Of course.

xo,AM

a.k.a. Pops

A good dose of real life never hurt anyone. How's this for a fast-paced, hi-tech, uber-fashionable design studio?

This is the lovely view every morning here. This is office casual. It's the standard dress code for all employees of the studio. Pajamas. And grandpa pajamas too. Jeff's grandma gave us all of these barely used pajamas thinking Jeff might wear them. I tried not to jump when she presented us with the stack, for fear of completely freaking her out. I had those things home and in the wash faster than you can say notched collar piping. Seven sets! And they're the swank Ward Cleaver kind too. Jeff has affectionately nicknamed me Pops.

Do you get dressed if you're not going anywhere?

xo, Pops

Payback Pear

Tucked in with my Chocolate Lollipop quilt is this more nutritious treat for Gina. It's a long overdue thank you gift for doing such a beautiful job quilting my Bohemian quilt for me. Did I ever tell you guys it got nabbed up in that gallery show I put it in? I thought sure I'd priced it high enough that I would get to keep it. Oh well, I guess money will do for now. I did want the quilt though. Really.



So as a little homage to the one that got away, I sealed some Bohemian on the canvas before I started painting. I love the process of starting a painting where something is already there, instead of a blank canvas. Even when I don't seal a fabric down, I like to paint the canvas one solid or muddled up color before I even know what I'm doing. I usually have a few solid painted canvases sitting around waiting. It's friendlier somehow, not so lonely. Lonely has its place, but friendly is always welcome in this studio.

So Gina, my friend, enjoy and view in good health!

xo,AM

From the chocolate shop

One new quilt top. Check.



This little yummy is on its way to Gina for some long-armin'.



And before long, you will be able to make 22 lollipops yourself, by downloading my free quilt pattern from the Free Spirit website. (And of course you'll be using this nifty trick.) I'll let you know when the pattern is up and ready. Wishing you lollipop dreams between now and then!

xo,Anna Maria
a.k.a.
Chief Chocolate Lollipopper

Hot Seat

If a chair could wear ruffle-rear bloomies it might look something like this.



Just another little detail in the path to a more thought-about studio space. I have spent so many years with so many different types of studios. The floor in this one is giving me art school feelings all over again. I like it. My fine art program in college gave us our own studio once we became a junior. I felt like the coolest person on earth. A raw and worn 150 square feet filled with turpentine, metal stools, bulk rolls of canvas, lumber (cause I built my own, I was so tough), stereo, and a drafting table. I painted most of my canvases with them stapled to the wall then transferred them to stretchers. What messes I made on those floors. Gritty, baby. I dared not let my love of sweet things like fashion and clothing show amongst the fine-art crew.



After I started making clothes to sell at shops while in school, the secret was out. I learned not to apologize for being interested in beautifully colorful things that were more obviously beautiful than all the conceptual fine art making I was trained under. So after college my next studio was an 1800 square foot store-which was amazing fun. But overwhelming too. When I translated the clothing line from retail to wholesale and took the studio home, wow, that was hard to fit it all in. Years and years of fabric. I actually sold off a lot of it.

Anyway ever since then we've had several homes but are settled now in the one we never want to leave. So I am at the point where I'm ready to focus on this 500 square feet as mine. It'll always be changing, I imagine, like the rest of my house. Those ripped strips of fabric on that chair will likely be part of a some project after another year or so. And maybe there will be conflicts in design between the gritty painting side with paint splattered easels and tables and the darling sentimental sewing spaces with cutesy nooks and granny fabrics. So be it. It's all me. I am a study in conflict.

xo,AM

Gallery Invitation

It has been soooo busy here. I worked aaaalll through the weekend on a rush project. So I feel like I'm still in the middle of a never ending week whimpering in the corner that I never got a weekend. I have missed you. I thought I would invite you to another little gallery show right here. It's our own opening reception for four little paintings, b.y.o.appetizers. These are painting collages I made from scraps of decorative papers of my own design. It was a very cheerful process. Hope they bring you a little sunshine today too! It's pouring here.



"guest of honor"



"garden lullaby"



"cakes with sprinkles"



"grown together"

Thanks for coming. Wipe your mouth. You have herb cheese on your lips.

xoxo,AM