#484...western strip quilt

Last week, I completed a crib quilt and pillow for a client's new baby boy in Dallas. The couple wanted to use some vintage inspired cowboy fabrics, but wanted the quilt to feel modern, so I opted for a big block strip quilt design to display the fabrics in a non-traditional way. The couple chose the two cowboy prints and I mixed them with the horseshoe fabric (first used here in Lyla's room), the red print, and the blue and white ticking stripe fabric.

Here is the front of the quilt and pillow.....

...and here is the back of the quilt and pillow

#483...fitz

My parents got a new puppy, and I am watching him this week while they are on vacation. He is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and we think his name is going to be Fitz (after F. Scott Fitzgerald). He is really wiggly and hard to get a picture of. I'd forgotten how fun, soft and time-consuming puppies are. We've had fun having a baby at our house. 

This is Fitz's big brother Charlie. As you can see, they are the same breed. Charlie is slowly warming to his new puppy. He won't play with him yet, but he is very interested in what Fitz is doing, and follows him around.

#482...my barbie dream house

Have you seen this bookcase turned dollhouse? I found it while researching ideas for a little girl's room on Pinterest. It is from The Land of Nod, but I can't find it on their blog anywhere. It would be so easy to create this with an Ikea bookcase. I played Barbie's until I was about 12 years old....I would use books to create walls for rooms, and my sister and I would build our Barbie house maze out clear across the living room. We would have loved this house.

#481...gallery art groupings

A few years ago, I wrote a tutorial  post on how to hang a gallery art wall. You can read my hanging tips here. I help many clients hang gallery art walls in their homes, and I still basically follow my own guidelines, with one major exception. I used to arrange the frames on the floor and then draw a diagram of them prior to hanging (which you can see example of in my previous post). I now simply take a reference photo of the arrangement instead of making the sketch. It's a crucial step, because as soon as you pick a few frames up to put on the wall, it is hard to remember how they fit together. Here are some reference photos I took of a gallery photo wall I hung recently.

...and here is a progression of my hanging

...my client has some work to do now filling her frames with photos.

I love the graphic quality of gallery grouped art displays. Here are a few inspiring groupings found via Pinterest.

#480...glass, rock, candle

My friend Robin was reminding me about how Anthropologie displays their pretty Volupsa candles in glass vases around the store, so I copied the look for my candle.

• One Volupsa Candle Tin
• Limestone rocks gathered from my driveway
• Glass Vase saved from a floral arrangement I received

#479...ice creamy

I have long been a fan of  YUMMY Donut by Heidi Kenney

So, for my little friend Marin's ice cream themed third birthday party I decided to make her an ice cream cone version of the stuffed donut. Here is ICE Creamy. I used fleece, poly-fil, and embroidery floss to craft him.

....and here is Marin going to sleep with her new plush friend.

#478...all fired up

We moved my kiln to its new home in the cabana back in November (here), but just this week I finally got around to hooking it up and firing it. It is pretty exciting to fire it up, as it has been out of commission for about 2 years. After doing a cone fire test to confirm that the kiln internal temp was as it should be, I fired up the pottery pieces that my nieces Audrey  and Lyla, and my little friend Marin painted at Christmas time. Everything came out really nicely, so I'm happy to say my kiln is back in business.