I saw the scene unfold (sometimes imagination takes control)

I hope you weren't holding your breath too hard for that surprise, because I'm not sure how excited you will be about it...
I moved to a fancy schmancy dot-com website!  With new look!

You can now find me at Hello, Lovelies!

And, the best part: I'm no longer a disaster.  I mean, in real life I am still an enormous klutz, but I feel that it was getting to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  And besides, I've gone by that online alias since 2007.  It's time for a change!

So, all of my lovely readers, I do hope you'll take a few minutes to update your Google Reader and any links that you may have for me!

I've also updated my twitter alias, so for all of you who are on Twitter, I'm now @hello_lovelies (And no, I'm no longer using Facebook).
Let me know what you think of the new site! 

President of What? by Death Cab for Cutie

All the time we get by, trying to figure out our lives.

Hello dear readers! It has been far too long since I last posted and you might (or--I shouldn't flatter myself--you might not) wonder where I’ve been. I'm so sorry that I basically dropped off the face of the planet!  

But here's that update I promised oh-so-long ago...
I finished up my second year of textile design at Sheridan College, got a sweet scholarship from G&S Dyes, landed a summer residency at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, working in their textiles studio a few days each week.
I also just got a part-time job working at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), giving people samples as they walk in the store.  (Liquor is pretty regulated in Ontario, you can't simply walk into the local Wal*Mart to get it, as I was shocked you are able to in the states.)  Anyway, I'm excited for that, because hey, how much stress can there be giving people free booze?!
Last weekend I went to Toronto Island for an outdoor music festival and saw Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses and Pavement.  It was absolutely perfect, except that I was dressed for rain (it was supposed to be awful!), but it was nothing but clear skys all day.
Finally, on Wednesday we had a 5.0 earthquake here in Ontario (Quebec as well), which was crazy.  Nothing much was affected in our area, but my studiomate Shuyu and I felt the tables shake and the clock rattled against the wall.
I've also got a surprise to share with you soon, but it's not quite ready yet.  I do promise though, I won't wait another two months to update!
Anyway, I hope you've been having a lovely summer so far dear readers!

Oh!  One last thing--I've been running every night of late, which is perfection (I always forget how much I love it), but I'm desperately in need of some peppy music.  I'm bored with lots on my iPod...any suggestions? Nothing too sugary sweet though.

Sweetest Kill by Broken Social Scene

Wait by the shade-tree one more year

Since it's been getting warmer outside, I've been keeping my window open a bit at night.  Now, in my bedroom I've got vertical blinds, which, when you're trying to get to sleep with the window open, are pretty much the most irritating window treatment ever.
About a year ago I picked up a pair of velvet curtains from a thrift store, always meaning to dye them since they were all discoloured.  However, I just never got around to it, so when my last drawing project was assigned, I decided that I would print my drawings on them and would finally then hang them up.
The trees are my own drawings, I went into the forest right between my school and condo and spent a couple of hours drawing trees with India Ink.  Then I enlarged my drawings, shot them to a screen, and printed them right onto my curtains!

It was a pretty great solution, because not only did I get a great mark on the project, but once I get some hanging mechanisms in my place, I'll be able to finally get rid of those vertical blinds!
Two Hungry Blackbirds by Iron&Wine

A love is not complete with only heat.

For awhile I've been wanting to take some pictures of my work outdoors.  But by the time I think of it, it's usually midnight, so an outdoor photo op is out of the question.  Therefore, in honour of Earth Day, I finally planned to do it.  This piece is awkwardly huge, so getting a picture in the schools photo studio would have been difficult anyhow.  (The title of the project was "Small and Colourful". Clearly, I am good at following directions).
Without further ado, here is one of my newer pieces. I already shared my colour palette with you.  It's a queen sized quilt, strip quilted with linen and heat-set organza, and backed with quilted white cotton.  I knotted the layers together with co-ordinating embroidery floss, and, though I didn't actually get a picture of the back, the tiny pops of colours look fantastic on the white. And not only that, but I was able to watch the entire series of 30 Rock while doing them.  I'm not kidding.

Anyway, tomorrow is my last day of school for the semester, which is crazy.  But I signed up for a summer web design class, so it won't be a total hiatus from school after all.  And hopefully by the end of the class I'll have a spiffy new website to share with you.

Intuition by Fiest

Isn't the ending so much as the start

All around my room I have stacks of fabric.  And notions.  And patterns. A lot of it I try to keep in Rubermaid bins, but when I need a piece of material that is buried at the bottom, I need it stat.  So I'll rummage through until I find it, and before you know it, my neatly folded stacks are not so neat anymore.  

I found this small cabinet a few weeks ago at a thrift store and re-finished it with Lake Simcoe  by CIL.  

Lately I've been adding teal in with the usual mix of sage and olive greens in my work, so that's what I went with for this little project.  Hopefully it helps me keep my fabric in order.  Or at least hidden!

         

The handles are actually knots that I made myself with some upholstery piping I had kicking around (the kind without the side you sew along).  I made them using the Monkey's First knot from this tutorial.  I slipped them right over the knobs that came with the unit and stitched them into place, and added a bit of hot glue to keep them from twirling around.

Now I just have to tackle the organizing part....

Let it Die by Feist