I start some feathers or stipple and then I just....

Whoops! I made a face.

These little ladies have been showing up when I'm practicing lately.

Apologies for the photo quality--  they are instagrammed.

I heart instagram. Hang out with me there?

I decided to try one with contrasting thread:

Obviously not concerned with perfection on these, just using the machine like a paintbrush.

That's all. Just wanted to pop in and say hi and share my thread ladies!

Mwah.

xoxoxo

melissa

I got my machine a few weeks ago and this weekend I did my first two customer quilts!

I really feel like I have finally found the thing I am supposed to do for a living. It's like I have been practicing for this my whole life! It is such a perfect fit.

I don't have a lot of experience with the machine yet, maybe 40 hours, but it feels so natural - it's just like drawing which I have always done.  I look forward to learning all the nuances of this new-to-me art form and finding my way with it. I love it so much.

I am so grateful  to Mary Julia Skwar (Judy) for trusting me and jumping right in to be my first customer --- she sent me six quilts! I can't wait to show them all to you. But to start with, here are the first two, a pair of similar ones that were my very fist customer quilts!

(apologies for the wonky colors - they are much prettier in real life!)

I am referring to this freeform allover as Melissa Freestyle--- I just play and do what I want! It is wicked fun.

You can't really tell, but the sashing is a beautiful turquoise and I used a matching Glide thread from Fil-Tec.

On the other one I did a largish stipple.

I love my quilting room. LOVE IT. I have more pictures to show you of the transformation sometime soon.

But for now, I just had to share my Very First Customer Quilts with you!

Thanks so much for all of your love and support during this new venture!!

xo,

melissa

I do so love improv piecing. You know, I have never made a quilt from a pattern. I have never made any traditional block. I would like to learn, and I will, but making shit up is just so much more fun for me.

That's right, I swore a little bit. If this is a problem, then we probably shouldn't be friends.

Here are some more quilty doodles, feathers:

Still getting accustomed to the machine. That is just a practice piece, but I can't waste fabric, so I bound it and it's on my bed.

Some exuberant feather action.

And playing with type.

Gah, I can't wait to get the machine HOME so I can quilt ALL THE THINGS!

Yes, I am getting  my own longarm. If we are pals on twitter, facebook or instagram then you know this already.

I am offering simple allovers to start, like meanders, loops and lines. To begin with I will only be doing my own custom quilting until I feel ready to offer it to others.

More to come on this exciting new adventure--- you should SEE how the studio is shaping up! I took before and during pics so I can show you. I am going to put together a slideshow.

Oh, ok, fine. Here is a sneak of the room before:

So I kind of have a lot of stuff. This is, like, half of it.

And here is what the room looks like today, almost ready:

SQUEEE!!! It's going to be a tight fit, but I can't wait to get started.

I have 4 quilts in the queue already, plus I think two on the way shortly. So exciting to embark on something new. More soon on how this all came about. I totally didn't plan on writing about this today, but I couldn't help myself.

How many quilt tops do you have laying around that need to be quilted?

Will you send me some? I'd be pretty psyched if you would.

Hit me up at melissa(at)yummygoods(dot)com to chat about it!

xo,

melissa

I do not usually finish things.

I especially do not usually finish things before a very long delay.

This thing, I made it and I finished it!

Kind of.

Since it was my first time with granny squares (also I am lazy) I didn't weave in the ends as I went.

So I had a big granny square blanket with, like, random fringe all over it. Did this stop me from using the blanket? No it did not. It has been used and washed many times in the last few years since I made it. My Adorable Husband (tm) liked to tease me about it. I fully expected that it would stay fringey forever.

Eh, whatever.

And then I started longarming. And then my amazing new friend Judy showed me how to bind a quilt the not made up way (which is pretty much the way I do everything, the made up way) and in the last few weeks I have bound all of the things that I quilted.Even the things I did last summer. This one I machine bound (which Judy doesn't do because she is hard core.)

And most of them I actually HAND SEWED the binding to the back (which is what Judy taught me), which is something I always thought I would hate to do. Sew teeny tiny stitches? FOR HOURS? That you WANT to be invisible? That no one will ever see or notice, you hope?

Maybe it's because I got to hang out on the couch and watch Dexter while I did it, maybe it's because I was drinking Fireball Whiskey on  the rocks, maybe it's because I got to drape the quilt over me (and you know how I am ALWAYS cold) --- whatever the reason, turns out, I really love handsewing the binding to the back of the quilt! (My own quilts, let me clarify.)

Neat! Old Dog, meet New Trick!

So, after several evenings of contentedly binding quilts (and watching Dexter, Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey), I ran out of quilts and my hands were lonely and bored.

I looked at my afghan.

It looked at me. I grabbed the snips and a hook.

And I spent a couple of evenings tidying up and FINISHING my first granny square afghan!

Cat APPROVED!

Yes, I used crappy acrylic yarn.

Thor and Riley don't judge me.

I love seeing all the critters hanging out with my handmade stuff. It's so cute.

Now I gotta make a million more quilts.

And bind them.

I'll have a whiskey on the rocks.

And Bates.

xo,

melissa

I finally get to tell you about my new book!!!!

DIY Mason Jars : 35 Creative Crafts and Projects for the Classic Container

That's right, I wrote a book all about crafting with Mason Jars!

But wait, I didn't just write it, I ILLUSTRATED IT, which is a dream come true. I can't wait to show it all to you, but for now, here is the adorable cover:

I had a blast working on this with the lovely folks over at Adams Media! They are a division of F+W and if that sounds familiar to my crafty peeps, it might be because they recently acquired  Interweave.

DIY Mason Jars comes out this spring but is available for preorder RIGHT NOW on Amazon, so, you know, go preorder it!

I mean, if you want.

xoxoxox

melissa

Well, technically not a vegetarian, so much as a fishatarian, as I do occasionally eat seafood. Most people still think of that as a vegetarian, so it was just easier to use 'vegetarian' as shorthand.

Anyhoo, aside from the aforementioned seafood, for most of my life I haven't eaten meat. Nope, not even chicken. I don't know why but people always still think you eat chicken, too. "But what about Thanksgiving? I mean, you still eat turkey, right?" No, no I don't.

But, what about when you smell bacon?

Bacon smells amazing, everyone knows that.

There was this one time about 12 years ago when I did try to eat meat again for a few months. I have always struggled with fatigue and I hoped that eating meat would help. You know, protein, iron, all that business. You can definitely get all you need from a veggie diet, but I thought I would give it a try, since I am a lazy vegetarian and had never made  an effort to get enough protein (until this year when I started lifting weights.)

So I tried to eat meat. Yes, tried. But after years of not eating it, well,  it kind of freaked me out! The texture, the taste, the thought of *what it actually is*.  It always just felt like i was chewing on someone's thigh.  (And not in a good way.) I could handle chicken sometimes. Beef, no.

Bacon? You bet your sweet ass I ate bacon.

After a while it was the only meat I was still eating. And I didn't feel any less tired. So I stopped eating meat again. No big deal.

Being a vegetarian was mostly habit by this time. I started off my vegetarian career as a 16 year old who had just read Animal Liberation. Frankly, that would turn most people off of meat for a while if they were willing to read it. But I did still wear leather, so it wasn't all for animal welfare reasons. It was complicated. It was kind of a cultural thing as well, I was hanging out with people in their 20's who had been vegetarians for several years, and it just sort of rubbed off. It never felt like a sacrifice or anything, it was just something I didn't eat anymore. I didn't want it or crave it or miss it , even though I was always a big meat-eater.  I mean, I still loved the smell of bacon, but it just didn't occur to me to eat it anymore. I figured I would always be a vegetarian, er, fishatarian.

So it was habit, a social thing and kind of an identity thing, though I was never militant or preachy.  Different strokes, you know?

Then about two months ago something inside me changed and I was like, you know what? I think it's time to eat meat again. And again, it's kind of complicated. Part of it is that I do lift weights now and I want more protein options. Part of it is willingness to let go of my identity as a vegetarian to find out what really works best for my body. And if I'm being honest, the biggest part of it is this weird deep exorcism of a painful relationship from when I first became a vegetarian. I know, it's weird.

So this year when Thanksgiving was coming up, I was pretty sure I would have turkey for the first time in over 20 years. But the day came and went and I just didn't want it. I *could* have it, I was *willing* to have it, I just didn't want it. So I waited.

I waited until last Thursday when I went to my friend Alison's open house at her lovely business Supple Apothecary. She was like, "Honey, you gotta try the candied bacon!" And I was like, "If I ate bacon I would be all over it!" About an hour of mingling later (and no, I wasn't drinking!) Stuart and I were standing by the food and,knowing that I have been ready to try eating meat again, he was like "The bacon *is* REALLY GOOD."

I looked at. All glistening and chewy-looking and crispylike. And I thought, you know what? I WANT SOME.

So I ate a piece. And it was so frigging delicious. And then I ate some more.

And you know what? I didn't instantly become a bad person. The world didn't crumble, I was still me and it was all good. In fact, I felt giddy! I felt, kind of...free.

And now pretty much all I want to do is eat candied bacon. Stuart came home from grocery shopping on Friday and sing-songed "I bought you some BACON!" And he made me some candied bacon for breakfast on Saturday. And it was still amazing. And I wanted some the next day, so he made me some for dinner. And I wanted some today but he was like, "Honey, we are out of bacon" and I was like "Well BUY MORE BACON THEN" and he made me some  for dinner. He is being most accommodating about my new habit.

Who knows how long this will last, or what other meats I might try to eat again. But for now I am eating the hell out of some bacon. I'm pretty much being Ron Swanson about it, "Give me ALL THE BACON YOU HAVE."

Oh, here's how you make candied bacon:

Preheat oven to 400. Dredge bacon slices in brown sugar. Use regular or thick cut, fancypants smoked kind or regular old red-package-kind, whatever. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Crack some peppercorns over the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the slices are your favorite level of brown and amazing and crispy and chewy and crack-like. Eat with your bacon-eating fingers.

(Vegetarians, please do not send me hate mail. Thanks a million.)

xo,

Melissa

aka

The Baconater

 I have been practicing drawing what I want to quilt:

So I keep trying to practice feathers when I get on a machine:

That's sort of my oakleaf version! I like it.

Backed this one with a print from my Dazzle collection:

Here's another allover design I've been practicing on paper:

And on the machine:

ANd this one is kind of a combination of a feather and that shell thing!

 Loops and meanders:

 more meandering:

Ahhh, I love it so much!! I wish th equilting machone fairy would visit me.

I even had someone on twitter ask if they could send me their stuff to quilt! I wish!

Off to practice on paper until I can get my paws on a machine again.

Do you send quilts out? Do you quilt yourself? Talk to me about machine quilting. I am obsessed.

xo,

melissa

I quilted it!

Squeee! My only other longarm quilting has been on scraps, this is my first quilted quilt!

Some lines.....

I'm still just practicing and doodling, so it's full of wackiness.

Trying out of my coral-esque stipple...

(Hi bunny!)

Some loops on the bee fabric...

Playing with outlining the motif in the fabric.....

I gave this one whiskers:   (!)

I was taking these pictures on my couch, where Owlie McPillowpants lives. This is Pillow Mountain, the corner of our sectional where we pile pillows and blankets so we can lay down on the couch with our heads at the corner.

That blue polka dot quilt? It was made by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! She GAVE it to me. It is amazing. I need to take some real pictures of it to show you its awesomeness. It is my nap quilt.

Back to Lemony Snippet:

Feather practice:

I backed it with the yellow basketweave from my Dazzle collection:

Pebble practice:

Pebbles are hard! I like my wonky ones, but I do want to perfect them, too.

Also, bunnies are cute.

xo,

melissa

It's 5:30 am and I am having some coffee and relaxing before I get ready to leave for CrossFit at 6:40.

You know I always have struggled with weight and eating. I'm on track then I'm off track. I'm gung ho, then I'm apathetic. I have been consistently working out since January, but the healthy eating comes and goes. I had lost most of the weight that I gained writing my first book! And then I gained most of it back working on my second!

Social support really helps me--- I need that accountability and camaraderie.

So I started a facebook group!

It's a great venue to give and receive support and motivation for working out, eating better and generally taking good care of ourselves.

And we aren't all doing the same thing. We each focus on what we want and follow whatever program works for us, but it's a common place to meet and connect with other people.It's off to an amazing start with people from all corners of my life joining in and answering questions, making daily goals and in general being awesome.

I mean, if I'm going to be screwing around on facebook anyways, I may as well use it to help me build positive habits and a supportive network!

Join us? Go to the Fitness Monkeys page and click 'Join Group'!

xo,

melissa

ps I quilted all day Saturday! pics coming in the next couple of days!!

First I asked for colors. @EleanorJustice offered periwinkle. @SisterDiane from CraftyPod chimed in with charcoal gray. And to go with those two?  Sarah @shemkus said "Orange, clearly."

Then I asked for an animal. That loveable wiseass @PamKittyMorning said: DUCKBILL PLATYPUS.

I asked for a design element like stripes, squiggles, dots etc. Pam said dots. I said ok, I'll be back.

I had said I would operate under a ten minute deadline, but 8 minutes into try to draw a (damned) platypus, I had to apply for an extension.

After a total of 35 minutes, I had this:

Not bad! Kinda cute, right?

I wanted to do a quicker design, I requested another set of colors and a letter of the alphabet but I wasn't crazy with my results. The colors just weren't working for me and I felt like I was taking to long and just all round wasn't digging it. As my therapist would say, "They can't all be gems."

I would love to do this exercise again, but I think I won't give have a time limit and I will allow myself to swap out one element or color that doesn't do it for me, if necessary. That way I can have more fun with it and really come up with something that I like.

I hope you'll play along with me sometime!

Oh, and while we're on the subject, here is the beginnings of a fabric line I started way back in spring of 2010.

I will be revisiting it next month and hopefully you will see a variation of it on actual fabric someday!

....................

In other news.... I get to play on a Gammill again tomorrow! Squeeeee!

xo,

melissa