Giveaway! Your Chance to Win a Nature-Inspired Necklace

Today I have a lovely little giveaway for you from jewelry maker Natalya. One lucky reader will get to choose a piece from her etsy shop and have a pretty new necklace to wear this spring.

To enter:
1. Post a comment about your current source of inspiration—what is currently inspiring you to make things or what is filling you with new energy this spring, etc. (This could be as short as "Tulips!")
2. Make sure you post with a user name, rather than as anonymous, so that I know who you are if you win.

***You have between now and 8 pm Central time on Thursday April 22 to enter.

And in the meantime, here's a bit from Natalya about what inspires her to make jewelry in between studying for graduate classes.

Name: Natalya Lakhtakia
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Website/Blog/store: etsy.com/shop/letmenatalya, Facebook,  Twitter

Tell me a little bit about what you make and why you enjoy it?
Creating is such a wonderful outlet for me.  I spend all day reading textbooks and doing clinical work, and then I  get to sit down and make something that I think is really beautiful.  I love laying all the elements out and then going through and piecing everything together.  It's both relaxing and fun!

How and when did you become interested in making jewelry?
A few years ago, a friend's girlfriend was creating jewelry, and I bought a couple of pieces from her, and I thought, "Hey! I would love to be able to make my own things!"  so I set off to Michael's, bought some supplies, and started experimenting.  Of course, what I make now is VERY different than the pieces I made back then!

How would you describe your style?
Kind of a mix!  I do a lot of what I label as "vintage chic," but I also do more modern stuff, as well as jewelry that is more classic. I think I make a style of jewelry that anyone can wear.  Most of my pieces can be worn with a tee-shirt and jeans, yet also look good with something more dressy.

Where do you get your inspiration?
Everywhere!  I have color books and I love to walk around different stores at the mall to see what is "in" so that I can make it my own.  I also draw a lot of inspiration from the supplies that I buy.

What are you in graduate school for?
I'm in graduate school, getting my masters degree in Speech-Language Pathology.  I actually graduate in just a few weeks!

Weekend Highlights: Bluebells!

Saturday afternoon was very sunny with a touch of chill in the air, which meant that we headed out to enjoy some fresh air with a long walk. We found a new spot, Walnut Woods State Park, which while not filled with the hiking trails I long to exist in Iowa, it had a lovely walking path that was long enough for a nice walk. AND, the bluebells!

Oh my, I stopped and stared when I came around the bend and saw them surrounding trees as far as I could see. There were a smattering of couples with cameras, so this isn't exactly a secret spot, but it did feel rather magical to come across them unexpectedly. The afternoon light on the periwinkle flowers was just stunning and it made me feel extremely grateful to be experiencing spring.

Other highlights of the weekend included a surprise lemon tart, my first night spent by a fire pit of the season, and a pot of sauce on Sunday. It's been a little hectic, so I'm definitely making more of an effort to notice the small stuff.

Lovely photo via Pye42 on flickr as I didn't have my camera with me. The field I saw looked remarkably similar to this photo.

My Sixth Quilt: All about the Stitches

More than once over the past year, I've thought of this quilt as "the most heavily hand quilted thing in the history of the world". Both because I made my quilts big enough to fit on top of a queen bed and because I chose to quilt the lines of my backing fabric, this quilt is Very heavily hand stitched, which is a true testament to how much I love doing this. This front is much different than all of the others that I did—when I was deciding what to make for my friends Katherine and Jonathan, I was determined to find a way to cut straight to the quilting. I'm not as big of a fan of the process of piecing the front, so this seemed like a good solution since the piecing was minimal. And once I started quilting and saw how lovely the texture was on the front, I knew I was sold. I did go through about 4 spools of thread in the making of this though, which is a personal record. 

All of the fabric for the front was leftovers from previous quilts. The backing is the Good Folks Dusk fabric from Anna Maria Horner.

I have to admit that I'm really proud of this one and I'm going to have a hard time parting with it. But Katherine, if you're reading, I'm planning to bring this to you when I come to nyc in late May, and I know you and J will give it a wonderful home.

Since I had a few questions on my process, I'm going to take a moment to explain a bit about how I do my quilts. I quilt them all by hand because for me, that's the part of this process that I like the most. I get to spend about a year with each quilt that I make (though only a few months for the wall hanging), which has been a real plus for me since all but one of them have been gifts. It makes it easier for me to give them to friends and family when I've already had a length of time to enjoy them.

That said, there is a point along the way, usually at about the 75% completion stage that I am hit with the feeling that I Will Never Finish. My way through this—which actually hit really hard with this last quilt because of the sheer amount of stitching—is similar to how I've gotten myself through long hikes/climbs, walks or runs. I think, "Just Keep Going". That might not sound very compelling, but it really has helped me. And once I get over that hump and I start to see the end coming near, well then I get pretty giddy.

I have used my machine for some piecing, but it really depends on my mood. I don't find the need to iron seams as much when I do it by hand, so that is often why I skip the machine. As far as size, I've tended to buy 3 yards of fabric for the backing, so it winds up being about 1.25 yards in length (I make sure to save enough, about 4 inches or so all around, to use for the binding).

If any of you have other questions, please don't hesitate to ask! I'm sure I've skirted over important aspects since I'm so familiar with how I do these.

News: For anyone in or around Des Moines who's interested, I've set up a Modern Quilting Guild group for us on ning, so please register and share with your stitch happy friends. I am still figuring out how the site works, but for now I'm hoping we can use it as a way to see who's out there and interested in eventually meeting up. Thanks!

My Fourth (and Fifth) Quilts: Florals and Polka Dots

I made this quilt in 2008-2009 for my friends Dan and Virginia who were married around that time. I chose the fabrics to fit their personalities and even though it took a while, it was a joy to make for them since they were entering such an exciting time in their lives. They recently moved into a new house and the quilt lives in their bedroom, where it's a lovely compliment to their blue walls and white duvet.

Here you can see it in action in Virginia and Dan's very pretty (though suitably masculine) bedroom. I am very happy that the quilt works so well with the blue of their walls.



And here's a close up!

After I finished V's quilt, I got to work making my parents a wall hanging for their house. For those of you who have been reading for a while, you will remember this one (and I'm remembering that this is not my best photo ever- sorry!), so I won't repeat myself. To learn more about it, and see my process, click here.

My Third Quilt: Graphic Meets Florals

My third quilt was a wedding present (well, they got it in time for their first anniversary) for my good friend Colleen. We go all the way back to kindergarten, and while we don't see each other nearly enough, she is one of the most compassionate and thoughtful people I know. I value her friendship enormously and it meant a lot to me to make this for her and her now husband Pat. In all three quilts that I've made for friends to celebrate their weddings, I've really tried to strike a balance between feminine and masculine so that they can both enjoy it.  (The paisley and the turquoise circle fabric will make another appearance on Friday!)

I'd totally forgotten how I'd used a contrasting brown thread for the quilting, which looking at it now, I'm really glad I did that since I think it really helps tie things together. And looking at this makes me think of how much I love random patchwork quilting.

And here you can see the floral backing fabric, which if I remember correctly, was yardage that I'd purchased and had for a while, just waiting to be put to good use.

My Second Quilt: Pink, Brown and Yellow Patchwork

My second quilt was a gift to my sister Katie for her college graduation. I think there is remarkable progress between the first and this one and I particularly love the fabric combination that I used. The fabric came from a stash that Katie collected during high school when she sewed bags, most of which came from a nun at her school. I sort of like that even though we didn't know exactly where the fabric originated, it could be put together as a cohesive whole, which is an appropriate thought for college graduation I think! (If you look closely at the quilts over the week, you'll see fabric appear in more than one—I always have leftovers and I like the idea that I've tied them all together!)

My First Quilt: Figuring it Out Along the Way

As I wrapped up my current quilting project (you have to wait until Friday to see it!), I thought I'd share the ones that came before it since most of them were completed before I had this blog. I find it interesting to see the progression and I hope you find it interesting too!

This is the first quilt that I ever made. Well, that's not entirely true. I pieced about half of a quilt during the class I took where I first learned the craft, but after my teacher told me that she didn't really think my fabrics "went together", I stopped going and made this quilt instead. Which may have been a little immature (it was a long time ago!) but I think there is something to figuring out how to do something you enjoy on your own. I made it using fabrics that I had, and that were in my sister's stash, and while it's not the most complex of quilts, and my stitches are far from perfect, I do still love that the non-matching fabrics actually do work together quite well. And that the backing fabric is so mellow, which is a lovely alternative to the front.

 This quilt has actually accompanied me through my adult life, which is kind of amazing—from NC where I made the top, to NJ where I stayed at my parents for a while as I figured out what to do with myself after doing a year of AmeriCorps, to NYC where I learned how to be a writer and editor (and made some amazing friends), and now it lives with me—and keeps me warm—in Iowa.