a quilting adventure...

Hello all! As some of you may already know, one of my many interests in life is sewing. Ever since I was little I always wanted to make/sew my own things, be it clothes, bags or hair accessories. It took me up until my senior year of high school to start expressing my true interests to others and let them know the 'real' me. I have to thank my gram for gifting me my very first sewing machine when I was 18. I wanted to go to design school so badly, but my parents did not like that idea too much. [I currently study accounting at my local community college.] Don't get me wrong, I actual really love accounting, as strange as that sounds.. the honest to betsey truth of the matter is though, that i don't know what I want to do with my life, so for now I just attend school to earn a degree, and [hopefully] figure out what I am going to do with rest of my life.

But back to the purpose of this post [geez, i ramble an awful lot.. sorry guys!] I am taking my love of sewing in a new direction, once again thanks to my gram. I've suddenly become extremely interested in quilting. She has made some seriously badass quilts and the detail on them it amazing! I give her mad props for being able to create such works of art.. plus they're super comfy! I stumbled upon this tutorial, and decided that this was the perfect choice for two reasons, 1. IT"S A UNION JACK!!!! Anyone who knows me knows i have an insane fascination obsession with all things British! so naturally, as soon as I laid my eyes on this tutorial, I knew I was going to attempt to make it. 2. It's not your grandma's quilt, it's much more contemporary and awesome! haha

I decided to change the dimensions a bit, since this is going to be my first quilt ever. For right now, the smaller, the better in my opinion. The final measurements of my attempt at this union jack quilt is [i think] 22 x 22, give or take a few inches. I didn't use Lynne's tutorial word for word. I mostly used it as inspiration and a guideline to create my own quilt block.

Here's is what I have started so far. The very beginning of my soon-to-be Union Jack quilt. I started working on this last weekend and realized that I didn't purchase enough fabric [the ultimate cliche first-time quilter mistake ha] So I quickly hopped on Etsy and purchased some more fabric from the always lovely, Laura of Fabric Square Shop. It arrived only a day or two after I ordered it, which was a very pleasant surprise...Thanks again, Laura! 

I going to be posting about my progress as I get further along, so stick around to see how my Union Jack quilt comes out!

Have a happy Monday everyone! 

xxoo

11 things...

So I've been pretty MIA in the blog world and just today, I visited Miss. Kaelah Bee's Blog where I saw this post titled, "11 Things," so I decided to join in on the fun and post my own "11 Things." Hope you enjoy reading my randomness!

There are five rules:

1. Post these rules.

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

[  My hard drive just recently went on my Mac, 

so all my pictures were lost, hence the horrific picture above : )  ]

1. I have not had a legit haircut since my freshman year of highschool [read: 7 years!!] I long my long hair entirely too much to ever cut it again.. long hair, no care! lol
2. My first and only tattoo [so far] was done by my very close friend in her basement when I was 20.. it was one of the first tattoos she had ever done at the time. As well, I pierced my own lip in my sister's bedroom when I was 19.
3. I have a stigmatism in both my eyes, which means I'm blind as a bat without my contacts/glasses. Definition of a Stigmatism for those who don't know, means that my eyeballs are oblonge, like a football, instead of round like the average eyeball.
4. I love everything Harry Potter. Period.
5. I am huge fan of hockey. My team is the New Jersey Devils.
6. I love to craft and creative things. Sewing and graphic design/card making are my two favorite hobbies that I enjoy doing in my free time. I hope to one day be able to make a living by doing something in the creative field.
7. I'm freakiously good at hiding my emotions.. it takes an awful lot for me to express how I'm really feeling, especially when comes to anger. Ask anyone who know mean and they will concur that is takes an awful lot for me to get anger with someone...
8. I'm in love with my birthday. Ever since I was little, I've really loved being born on January 8th, mostly because it's Elvis Presley's birthday and Dave Bowie's too! {I secretly believe I'm destined for fame because of this hahaha}
9. I never what to grow up. Ever.
10. I'm kinda, sorta, just little bit lazy. Haha. but serious, I am.
11. I want to live in Cinderella's Castle in Walt Disney World.

1. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

    I'm not sure that I do. I do read my horoscope often and sometimes I do take what it says to mind, but I don't really know much at all about astrology so I would have to say that, no, I don't believe in it. 

2. If you could teleport to any time and place, where would you go and why?

    This is going to sound outrageous and will probably reveal some of the insecurities I have about myself, but when I read this question, I instantly thought of teleporting to my wedding day. Although I do not know the time or place, I would mostly just want to know that that day really does exist in my future because more often than not, I feel like that day will never come. So I would just want some reassurance to know that one day, some day, I will get married. 

3. What are the three closest items to you right now?

     The three closest physical items to me at this very moment[besides my laptop] are my Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, my New Jersey Devils jacket, and lastly, my sewing machine.

      

4. If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?

    This question totally reminded me of the Harry Potter films, where the characters in the movie have Patronuses, which are similar to a spirit animal haha but anyway, I would want mine to be a Siberian Tiger. I've loved tigers since I was in the second grade and had to do an assignment on them. I fell in love with there beauty instantly, and it breaks my heart knowing they are endangered. : (

5. What is your earliest childhood memory?

     I'm not sure if this is an actual memory, or if I watched this moment on an old family video, but I think this is the earliest moment of my child hood that I can remember. I was about 2 or 3 years old, living in my old house in Wayne, NJ, driving down the sidewalk in my pink Barbie convertible. I loved that car, with the phone in it and you could talk to Barbie haha Sooo much fun!

6. Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?

    Ohhhh my! I kinda hate this question. I hope to see my self successfully running my own business{I'm not going to reveal what it is yet, because I'm not quite sure lol} and hopefully madly in love and happily married.. but only time can tell, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. [I'll keep you all posted!]

7. Have you kept in touch with your childhood best friend(s)?

    Not necessarily childhood, but some high school friends I still keep in touch with. Being that were still in college, it's tough to constantly keep in touch all the time. 

8. If you had to describe yourself in 5 words, what would they be?

    Funny, Shy, Creative, Childish, Awkward... the list goes on.

9. Describe your idea of a perfect day: Where would you go, what would you do, who would you do it with?

    I would go to one of the many places I always wanted to go to, there's a lot of them, but I would just pick one at random, bring my family and my closest friends and just do anything and everything. Just spending time with loved ones is a blessing in of its self.

10. What kind of "weird" foods do you like? (They could just be weird to your friends/family, kind of like my pickle sickles!)

       Well, some all of my family and friends find all the "vegetarian foods" that I eat extremely weird and even unappetizing at times.. I just laugh because it's all delicious and they don't know what they're missing out on!

11. Do you collect anything? If so, what? 

      I do actually! I collect movie tickets. I have every movie ticket from every movie I've ever saw in theaters from 2006 until present, and future of course. The first one that started my collection is a true classic in the film world, Mean Girls! lol okay so some might not think thats necessarily a 'classic,' but I think otherwise. I absolutely love watching movies, not necessarily going to the movies, but I find movie watching to be very entertaining. My favorite trait about myself, is being about to directly quote an entire movie. My mom absolutely hates when we're watching a movie together and I'm just sitting there quoting every line right along with the characters. I don't know what it is, but I just find it so entertaining, and hilarious! haha

Now, here's my 11 random questions for you! Enjoy!

1. Are you afraid of the future/growing up?
2. If you could change anything about your life, what would it be and why?
3. Who is your biggest inspiration in your life?
4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
5. What is your hands down favorite movie(s) of all time?
6. What is your favorite childhood memory?
7. If you could fix one major world problem, i.e. racism, world hunger, which one would you choose and why?
8. Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?
9. What's your favorite holiday, and why is it your favorite?
10. Did you ever experience something that made you reevaluate your life and make you realize how unimportant somethings are compared to others?
11. Do you truly believe the world is going to end this year?

This is who I tagged in this post: Kristyn, Charlavail, Sara Eli, & RosiePosie...
For anyone else who might stumble upon this post, join in on the fun and post your own "11 Things," and please let me know if you do! I'd love to read it!

Thanks for reading and be sure to do your own "11 Things!"

Fun Fact Friday

     This is my fourth Fun Fact Friday!! I'm soo proud of myself that I;ve been able to keep this up lol I'm surprised that I even remember to write these post every Friday lol Here's to keeping this going! haha

     Sooo this week's I want to share with all of you my love for all things related to sewing!!!! I received my first sewing machine from my gram when I was 18. It's such a great machine; I love it! I make loads of different stuff on it from doggie shirts, to dresses, to phone cases, and etc... It's one of my favorite hobbies next to playing the guitar. I just wish I had the money to finance my hobby lol I would be out buying all sorts of fabrics and bits and bobs to go along with the infinite amount of projects I have lined up in my head lol I love having an outlet like sewing to help release all my creative energy into something amazing!! I'm planning on posting pictures of new projects as I complete them, so stay tuned!! Right now I'm working of a kind of iphone case/cozy key chain thingy lol It's soo fun being able to create this from your own two hands!

Do you love to sew too? Have any great sewing craft projects? Please share, I'd love to try them out!!