The Silly BooDilly - Huge Holiday Sale!!

~ All items in my Silly BooDilly Etsy shop are now on sale for the holidays!

~ 30% OFF the listed price for each and every item in the shop!

~ (Difference will be refunded via Paypal once payment has been received.)

~ Note: This is a one time sale that will continue throughout the month of December. Any items left will be removed from my shop sometime in the beginning of the new year, (once I have new items to post). I am ready for a new look and direction. There are some great savings to be had here, so if you ever wanted one of my pieces... now is the time to buy!!

~ P.S. Thank you for indulging this self promotion!

Highland Cows and Happy Holidays!

Eldest daughter met up with some Highland cows last week while traveling through Scotland. After pleasant introductions they all became fast friends. :0)


Tomorrow will be the first Thanksgiving that we have not been together since her birth. And even though I will miss her so, I am so grateful and thankful to see her having such fun and adventure. She may be an ocean away but she is always in my heart.

Whether you are here, there or anywhere, wishing you and yours much love, laughter and gratefulness, today, tomorrow and always. Happy Thanksgiving. xo

Inspired by Color

A few months ago I was contacted by the lovely Sonu Mathew, who is a Senior Interior Designer for Benjamin Moore & Co. She also is the host of Benjamin Moore's Living in Color with Sonu, a wonderful blog full of color inspiration. Sonu wanted to know if my little Abstract No.5, (pictured below) which I created about a year and a half ago as part of a small series, could be included in a future post featuring quilts as color inspiration. (Absolutely!)


Today the post ran and I am really delighted to find my work included in a post also featuring the work of Jan Myers-Newberry and Denyse Schmidt, both genuine rock stars in the quilt world! (Geez Louise, I sound like a silly groupie !)

Please be sure to check out Sonu's great blog and quilt inspired post here.

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A big Thank You for all the great comments in regards to my current work in progress, (see post below) and the struggle to overcome the critical voice of the perfectionist, (something apparently many of us share). This piece is so personal to me, (not in terms of private, but in terms of a journey) and I am truly grateful for everyones encouragement and support. I will be sure to share the final results once I finish. xo

Silencing the Inner Critic

Okey-dokey. I've finished the second layer of my work quilt, (which consisted of sewing on more patches, and quilting many more rows of machine stitching, both straight and zig-zag stitch). Now I have moved on to the 3rd and final layer, which consists of hand stitching, (I still have a long ways to go on the hand stitching.)


I knew from the get-go that I wanted this quilt to have a "rough" quality to it. By that I mean I didn't want it to be precious or perfect, with lots of neat and straight rows of stitching. I wanted the machine work to be a bit crude and crooked. I wanted the hand quilting stitches to be irregular, on the large size and a bit unevenly spaced.


Well, I have followed what I set out to do, but in truth the perfectionist in me, that part that likes everything just so, is really having a hard time. She is being very critical of this piece. (But my true spirit, where the child in me still resides, loves it.)

In the past I have often struggled with this overbearing, critical side of me, and have felt that although it comes in handy in insuring I make good, solidly constructed work, it also at times can be a real hindrance to my artistic self-expression. I feel that the perfectionist side of myself keeps me boxed in by playing on my fears. She knows how to keep me afraid to explore all of the ideas I want to explore. The perfectionist in me censors my creativity. I am really getting fed up with her.


I am fighting everyday to muzzle that perfectionist, appearance driven, part of me. I am pushing myself to keep going with my intial vision. I am begging myself to not get hung up on outside approval, or fear of failure. Ask anyone of my family members and they will tell you, this is a real and daily struggle for me.

So, this may appear to be just another quilt, but for me it's becoming an exercise in letting go, trusting my inner guidance, and following something that has been tugging at my heart strings for sometime.

Layer by Layer

Remember the shot cotton quilt I was working on from a few posts back? Well, what I didn't explain in that post was how I am approaching its construction...

Because my muse for this piece is old work quilts, (which I am not trying to duplicate, only be inspired by) I thought it'd make sense to build the quilt up in various layers...


I first started off with 9 12.5" x 12.5" base squares of fabric and appliqued various patches on each one. (These squares were to represent the various patched fabrics that would have been recycled into a work quilt.) Then I sewed them all together for the quilt top and did the first layer of quilting, (which is what I showed in the first post.)

Now I've moved onto the 2nd layer. This finds me sewing on more patches, (such as the ones in both of these photos) some overlapping patches from layer #1 and some overlapping the seams joining the base squares. (This is to represent the patching that would have been done after the work quilt got used and worn even more.)


Along with the shot cottons, I'm also starting to incorporate bits of really lovely woven cottons that have an aged look to them. (The white thread will be removed, as it was just used as a preliminary basting stitch until I could machine applique the patches in place. The brown threads will also get trimmed off.)

More long rows of quilting come next, (this time in a zig-zag stitch I think, just to add some interest).

After that I move onto layer #3... probably more of the same, just slowly building it up until either I have the look I want, or I have made a complete mess... hoping it's the first! More to come later!

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There's a new quilt blog recently started called Modify Tradition. It's about the journey of marrying the look of a modern quilt with the techniques used in traditional quilt making. Discussion is encouraged and I am finding the posts and the conversation very entertaining. Check it out, it deserves a look!

Featured on The Fabric Shopper!

Recently, via Twitter, (which I am still trying to get the hang of) I had the good fortune and pleasure of meeting Rosie of l. blanch designs, and creator of the wonderful resource The Fabric Shopper. Rosie contacted me about the possibility of doing a little write up on my new experience in trying my hand at fabric designing, including what intrigued me and how I went about getting started. Today she has featured it on her wonderful site. You can see it here. Thanks Rosie! (And while visiting Rosie's blog be sure to check out some of her other posts, including this awesome 1950's style dress made out of fabric selvages! Also have a peek at this Max of "Where the Wild Things Are" costume that Rosie made for her granddaughter, it is the cutest thing ever!