A Young Quilter in the Spotlight...Natalia

Natalia is the daughter of my friends and she is 14 years old.  She is very creative and already an accomplished quilter.  I am showing off some of her quilts as they are spectacular!

Natalia has been quilting since she was in the 3rd grade.  She has completed 1 full size quilt (!!!), 2 quillows and 12 smaller quilts.  Additionally, she has also made a dress, a Halloween costume and several scarves.  Natalia sews on a Pfaff sewing machine (good choice Mom and Dad).

This is Natalia's favorite quillow.  She made it at a quilting camp with her best friend.  Natalia takes her quillow with her everywhere she travels because it folds into a pillow but it opens up into a large quilt.

 

I love her choice of colors on this quilt.

Natalia has also entered 3 quilts in the Orange County Fair and she won 2nd place on ALL of them!  Every year, she receives a ribbon for participating and a ribbon for winning 2nd place (I told you she is already an accomplished quilter).

One of her favorite quilts is actually her original design.  The Disney quilt was designed for the OC Fair.  There's a very cute story to this quilt.

Natalia's cousins aren't really into princesses so she researched the different female Disney characters and chose those who were adventurous.  Natalia drew the 9 Disney characters she chose and sewed borders around each block.  Natalia then stitched  a dedication to all her female cousins into the seam of her quilt.

The 9 characters who made it to Natalia's quilt are:  Nala, Megara, Alice, Mulan, Minnie, Pocohontas, Maid Marian, Jane and Faline.

Natalia is also very thoughtful and generous and has made a baby quilt for her newborn cousin.  I enjoy seeing how Natalia has grown as a quilter and we will have to schedule some play time in my quilt studio this summer.  Perhaps I can learn a thing or two from her.  I admire Natalia for her creativity, her fearlessness and adventurous spirit (like the Disney characters she chose) and her very charming personality.

A Shopping Trip to Los Angeles

So far, January has been a very busy month partly because my computer crashed and I've had to reload all my programs and files.  I've got a lot of news to share but lets start with a trip to a Los Angeles quilt shop.

Dad went back to Asia and on the way to the airport, we made a quick stop to Sew Modern.  I've heard a lot about this store as it is where the LA Modern Guild meets monthly.

The store is beautiful, clean and spacious inside and has a "minimalist" look so it is very easy to shop and not get too overwhelmed.

Here is the sitting area for shoppers to browse books, patterns or visit with other quilters.

I met Lauren, the owner, and she is so warm and lovely.  

They were also having a great sale and I was able to purchase backing for one of my future quilts at 40% off!  Yey!  Now that I have the backing, I've got to get to work putting the quilt together.  I would really like to take some classes here but it is quite a drive from where I live.  I found a great article about Sew Modern here.

This quilt on the wall also caught my eye.  I had quite a chuckle because I recognized Marcel from the Bravo  TV show "Top Chef" (one of my fave reality shows!) and his penchant for adding foam to almost all his dishes.  The quilt is made by Alissa Wright as part of a series of quilts called "Reality Show Villains".  Here is an article (and better pictures) of Alissa's quilts.  Love it!

A few of the LA Modern Guild members and shoppers work in the entertainment industry so the store has a different (as in fun and creative) vibe!

I also wanted to share with you this beautiful Sashiko tote bag one of my friends (Carolyn Y.) received from her mother-in-law.  The handwork is just gorgeous.  Carolyn is a very lucky girl!

Be Still My Heart

Sorry for the long silence.  My laptop had to go to the hospital.  To cheer myself up, went to Michaels and their new seasonal merch is in.  Check it out.



Here's a magnetic board and calendar.


I love all the pink shabby chic home accents! 


And check out these glitter letters.  LOVE!

But I've had the hardest time finding the letter *I*.  I've called over 10 stores and no letter *I*.  What's up with that?

And a Joyous and Prosperous New Year, too!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and New Year celebration.  For me, it has been a great season for getting together with family and friends, which of course included food and feasting.

One of my favorite things to do the week between Christmas and New Year is to hit the stores for their after Christmas sales.  Instead of loading up on wrapping paper and ornaments (which of course I've done in the past but seem to always tuck away in the deepest corner of my garage) I like to shop for food and baking mixes at Crate and Barrel, Cost Plus World Market, Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table.  By then, the imported food products and gourmet mixes are marked 50-75% off.  Here are a few of my purchases.

Obviously, there were quite a few gingerbread flavored goods marked down so I stocked up.  Here's my gripe though (please bear with me).  When will Baskin Robbins and the rest of the ice cream manufactureres ever come up with gingerbread ice cream?  Am I going to have to break down and buy an ice cream maker for goodness sakes?  I also stopped by Red Robbin for my annual gingy shake and was told they were sold out due to a gingerbread syrup shortage.  Huh?  Are you kidding me?

Anyway, rant and rave over..back to regular programming.  For new year's eve, I decided to bake the gingerbread cupcakes and look how CUTE they turned out.

Isn't this just the cutest village of gingerbread boys and girls?

My friend Lynn came over for our annual "sew-in".  We worked on our quilting/sewing projects and drank champagne, watched TV and snacked on Lynn's homemade pecan pie.  Yum!

Here we are toasting to a joyful, prosperous and blessed new year.

Cheers to 2012!  May this coming year bring us all good health, good fortune, abundant friends and family and enough time in a day to work on all our quilting projects.