lost in summertime feelings

Oh, my how flies by. I just checked out my own blog to realize that I have only ONE post in the Month of June. What was going on this month?? We had two birthdays and a house warming party! I had one weekend to enjoy the solitude of great weather and no interruptions where I could concentrate solely on my sewing hobby. How much better can life be?

I enjoyed a great post exposure of my new cutting table which was also posted at Ikea Hackers and took a little summertime break. I also finished up my DQM quilt for Mary Pat and will be sending to her within the next few days.

Here is what I made in my last weekend retreat - a cathedral window pin cushion. Now, this is my very first try at cathedral windows, and I am not the best at hand sewing. It takes me a while to get going and find my rhythm before my stitches are a little more even. The project is small, but I always take on more than I can chew; I just wanted to learn the technique and get a project finished!

When this one was done, I move on to the next one of learning how to sew in a zipper. I have sewn in zippers before, but I felt a little bit out of practice. I also learned how to "hide" the zipper underneath the fabric thanks to my dear instructor, Sabine of Quilt Oase!

I made four pillowcase covers for my old sofa in the new house. Since my wall in my dining room is PURPLE, I wanted to united the red sofa with the wall. I have been looking for the right fabric and then found this from Makower. I wanted it simple - [Simple, Easy, Practical] - The quilting took the longest since it was a "quilt as you sew" method.

I hope now that June is over, I have more time to get back to the topic at hand - more sewing and pattern designing. I have a new pattern waiting to be published. This one will be free of charge, because I want you all to have it and start your own sewing projects with it. It is a fun little project that your really can finish in just a few hours.

I would like to thank all of you that either subscribe or read my blog. I really and truly appreciate your support. Thank you for the wonderful comments as well.

Yours truly,
Karen

how colors change your mood

My husband and I have been looking through a lot of flooring catalogs lately, because we will be redoing the floors in the house (from top to bottom). In the process, I came along a really good company that separated their flooring into these five basic categories. I kept going back to this diagram to explain to my hubby how the different floor colors and textures change my mood.

For instance, in my living room, I like rich dark, walnut colors and dark reds - something that makes me feel warm and comforted. At the end of the day, I just want to snuggle on the sofa with my family, light a few candles and drink a glass of burgundy. MAN CAVE

As a total contrast, in my sewing room and in the kitchen, I like a fresh color scheme that keeps me on track - keeps me focused. Here I would like maple, birch, beech, or an old barn type of flooring - "Eichesägerau!" I am really trying to push this idea through. NATURE 

I will have my own sewing room soon, {yahoo} and I did a little research to get ideas for setting it up. I found quite a few rooms with white painted furniture and lots of color or no color. That's just out of my comfort zone. I need a little bit of warmth with light yellows.

In the children's rooms, it should be friendly and inviting. My kids will be playing in their rooms (hopefully), and it should make them happy and coordinate with lots of bright and friendly colors. NATURE or BEACH

Now, generally, we have lots of white in the bathroom. I guess it just goes hand-in-hand with water and "cleanliness." You always see lots of white in the hospital as well. BEACH

In the bedroom, I think we will be going for that spicy feeling with rich reds and yellows. AUTUMN 

We went with a beach type of feeling with light blues in our last apartment and another time with light purple and beech wood, but is really hard to pull off a romantic feeling in these colors. It still remained cool.

And lastly getting to the urban color of gray/grey. I know this is very modern, especially for quilts. I find this color really hard to get comfortable with. It gives me the heebie jeebies. I had one appointment with a female gynecologist who had her office decorated totally in this urban feeling - cement, cinder block walls, black leather sofas with metal detailing. I felt so uncomfortable there. I wanted a female doctor, but the textures and colors made me feel very uneasy. Needless to say, I never went back to her simply because of her office. URBAN

When I design quilts, some say that I like "gedeckte Farben." I don't really know what that means but translates to muted colors. I know I am drawn to dark fall colors. I have a nice collection of very traditional bicentennial fabrics in my fabric bins, but that's not really me. I think I bought them all, because that's what the market was telling me that I wanted. Or that was the only thing that was available when I bought them six years ago. Anyone want to swap fabrics?? I have some great old prints. I really like a collection of colors. I am an eclectic contiseur. I also recently realized my own style. I can work with the urban (20-ten) color palette, but I have to mix in one other rich color to "make it mine."

So, we will continue to look for the perfect flooring. Now that we have this little helper, it is easier for us to make a decision, at least a step in the right direction.

Keep sewing and look forward to hearing what you have to say.