Read more

I’m a drop in for a visit gal.

A couple weeks ago we were in Salt Lake for a little family trip and I didn’t tell one of my best friends that I was even in town. We haven’t seen each other for at least a year and we don’t talk on the phone much. I just showed up at her house and when her kids opened the door and said their Mom was napping I just went to her room and got in her bed 😂, and we just started chit chatting and cracking up.

We showed up in some fashion every day after while we were in town.

I used to make a lot of visits on Sundays. Especially when I was at school. I’d make a bunch of cookies or brownies and pack them up and just drop in on people just to wish them a good week and check up on them. I’d usually take a friend and we’d go visiting until it got dark.

Now Ben and Magnolia do a lot of the visiting, because I’m the one making food, or birthday treats, or snacks, and they drop them off for me, and everyone wants to be with Magnolia.

I feel like most of my visits now are on the phone.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to visit with you in person. Fill you in on everything that’s happening. It’s a lot.

The first thing I’d tell you about is that family trip to Salt Lake City.

I lived in SLC for about 5ish years. Ben grew up in SLC. So it doesn’t seem like it’d be that big of a deal, but it was.

Magnolia got to go spend everyday with cousins or friends that we were there.
Ben and I got to go on day dates for basically three days in a row.

We got to eat at all my favorite places. We got to be generous with family and friends. We got to be WITH family and friends. I got to have multiple deep and fulfilling conversations with people I love.

I realized that for 5 days I wasn’t stressed in anyway (except for when we went to see Spiderman. That’s its own deal). It’s funny that a little trip up to Salt Lake could be so meaningful and restorative, when we’ve been there a million times and have never had such a profoundly different experience. I think this says more about how much I need a real break than it does about the locale.

One of the truths of the matter is, that for about 5 days I wasn’t doing any explicit care taking. Meals were easy, Magnolia was occupied, and my Mom was home taking it easy in Southern Utah. Of course I didn’t realize how relaxed I was until we got home and reality punched me in the face.

Stress is TOXIC. It’s like poisoning yourself. It’s crazy how different I felt and how abruptly it ended when re-confronted with regular life. I could feel it spread out in me. My shoulders got heavy. A headache laced its way across the back of my head. The contrast was profound. For 5 days I felt little to no pain, and I’m always in some sort of pain. No racing heart. Very little interrupted sleep. Just lovingly existing.

What I’m taking from this: I have to A. (ALWAYS) be better about taking care of myself in my daily life, and like duh, but what are things that can give me little and actual breaks. B. I need to be with my friends. I need to remember that people need me and I need them and that in whatever broken form I show up in, I’m good to be around. My life is pretty isolated and I’m taking care of a lot, and like so many things, I/we forget that being with people we love, telling jokes, sharing food, and deeply connecting are some of the greatest joys of being alive.

I get tied up in everything and I forget. I’m trying to be better about remembering. The contrast helps.

The second thing I want to share is how much I’ve changed!

I’m always wondering if I’m actually making progress. I can recognize the problem in myself. I’m good at self reflection, but not always sure about the rectification of the situation. Especially ones that are so deeply rooted.

The way in which I’ve changed: I’ve become really good at standing up for myself. I’ve been able to see it work in my life, and it’s the deep contrast to how things were before that lets me know that I’ve actually evolved in this way.

I never liked confrontation. Confrontation led to a lot of trouble with my Dad. Confrontation led to visibility. For most of my life, I’d rather dissolve into the background than get into any sort of trouble, or fight, or just stand up for myself in pretty basic ways. And I’m not a passive aggressive person… i’d actually just let stuff go, to my own detriment… and maybe the strange thing… or the not strange thing… is that I’ve always been good at speaking up for others. Protecting my little sisters. Standing up in tough situations.

Others, yes.
Me, no.

Not TODAY!

I’ve gotten so much better at speaking up for myself. When something isn’t working, I say something. When something has been done to me, I say something. I will confront things now that I would have let biodegrade in the past. I don’t let things fester.

It’s actually really hard to be an artist that doesn’t have the audacity to speak up for themselves. It’s hard to get paid when you don’t speak up for yourself, or when you’re afraid to ruffle feathers, step on toes, or generally let people down.

With all this comes the wisdom to know what to let go of and what to fight for. I used to let go of everything. Then for a while I fought for everything. Now, I’m better at weighing things out. I don’t react quickly.

I think also because I know myself so much better (with age) that I’m much more aware of what works in my life, my family life, and my work life. I’m able to stand up for the things that work for US, and loving release what doesn’t.

It has been a really powerful realization and to be honest it has created this energy explosion in my life. It’s making me feel more magnetic. And surprisingly enough I think it’s helping to heal my skin.

This new found voice has gotten me to the point that I want to teach a class for artists about speaking up for yourself. You’ll sell more work. You’ll get more jobs. You’ll get more shows. You’ll get paid quicker. You’ll feel better about ending work relationships that aren’t working for you. You’ll make better work. You’ll sleep better… etc. I’ll keep pondering on this.

The other thing I’ve gotten better at, which I’ve been working on for a VERY LONG TIME, is not biting off more than I can chew. I think the confidence to speak up for myself is tied to this.

I don’t feel the need to prove myself anymore. I don’t feel the need to over promise and then die trying to deliver.

I can leave well enough alone. This has been a life long pursuit and it feels REALLY FREAKING good to not spend so much of my time trying to get out of pickles I’ve put myself in.

We don’t put ourselves in pickles ANYMORE.
Because that’s weird.

There’s more I want to share, but it will have to wait for now. It’s amazing as you heal old wounds, new ones show up. I’m a real work in progress, but the progress is real. Writing helps me recognize that contrast.

Contrast is the word of the year for me. It has shown up in so many ways.

I’ll be back next week with more.

I hope you’re enjoying the last bits of summer. It’s still very hot here, so the only real indication that it’s on its way out is the change in the light and the sun setting nearly an hour earlier than last month. My girl goes back to school next week and I’m not ready to let her go and also ready for a bit of a new routine.

I’m grateful for the impromptu break I took, and grateful to be back.

Also THANK YOU! Thank you so much for all your support with the Advent. It’s so much more work than you might imagine and the work is ongoing. Really right until the finish line. It’ll be a little easier next year, but it has been a very big pull this year for everyone involved, and I’m just so deeply grateful for all your support.

Slow and Steady, as they say.
sending you lots of love

xolizzy

ps. I can officially show you my new Halloween Collection September 25th. You’re not going to want to miss it!

Share

Leave a comment

Since I was a little kid I was making work. I took it very seriously. I take most things a little too seriously.

I had gallery shows in our hall as 5 year old. I became obsessed with pattern design as a 6 year old. I won Rodeo Art awards (Houston, y’all) all throughout my public school career. I sold my friends parents art as a kid and teen. I started a business in High School offering clubs there own t-shirt designs. I designed friends bands cd covers. In college it was the same but bigger. I designed every show poster for nearly every show I was in, along with the cast shirts. I dedicated myself to becoming a fabric designer and it didn’t matter how much time it took as a sophomore in college. I started printmaking and selling my work, to collectors, and museums, and new friends all over the world. I started designing fabric before I’d finished school.

Out of school, the scale of my work changed. I was still making work, but you start working for other people and the nature of your work changes. I was really free before, and then I made myself less free. You start doing your thing, and making money in specific ways and it starts to shape what you can and can’t do. Or what you have time for, and even how you see yourself.

I remember one day 10 years ago, I was in Toronto at the workroom studio on Noble Street. A sizable group had elected to help me with my look book for my fabric collection Printmaking. I loved every person in that room. It was magic. All these years later I can feel the effects of that week. But something happened that hit me like a bolt of lightning, and then everything froze and the ground shook under me. As all these people were buzzing around, working together, and all these projects were being made, I realized that I’d made myself so small. My work so small. My world so small. I’d constructed this tiny box for myself to live and work in, these fractal parameters in which to operate. But something changed. For a moment I could see really clearly: what I’d done to myself and what I could really be, all in the same moment.

I don’t know… something happens to you when you see your work on a couch.

It’s hard to express the impact it had on me. It was shortly after that epiphany that I stopped designing fabric. I didn’t know what to do, I just knew that I needed to do something different. To see myself differently.

Those 7 years were my 40 years in the wilderness.

Not designing fabric, having a baby, getting really sick, needing to depend on Ben, all contributed to a sort of identity collapse. I see now how important it was. I can see the hand of the Lord in my life.

I woke up this morning from a strange dream.

If strange dreams are not your thing, skip to the next section

you’ve been warned.

I was walking (on my own) through an old fashioned arcade. Not a video game arcade, but a covered shopping arcade. There’s an old one in Ann Arbor, the Nickels Arcade that it was like with a low ceiling, not like the ones in Europe with towering ceilings, but this one went on and on and on. I felt something on the back of my thigh and I reached for it. It was a long, like foot long, white hair attached to the back of my leg. I pulled it out, and inspected it. In the dream, I was very much like, “what the heck is this?” Then I realized there were more, and I pulled them all out. In the dream I said, “have I just been walking around like this?” That’s the main part I remember. It was the back of my right leg.

I looked up what it meant and it always amazes me what the mind is trying to help you understand through the body.

“Pulling long white hairs from the back of your thighs in a dream symbolizes an active effort to shed negative emotional baggage, release long-held worries, or let go of outdated beliefs. Because white hair represents wisdom and the legs signify your ability to move forward, this suggests you are clearing the path for personal growth.”

Dream analysts categorize these specific symbols as follows:

• Pulling the Hair: In dream interpretation, plucking or pulling hair often indicates a subconscious need to remove frustrations, relieve pent-up tension, or regain a sense of control over your life. It represents physically distancing yourself from issues that have been weighing you down.

• Long White Hairs: White or gray hair universally symbolizes maturity, accumulated life experience, or the resolution of past struggles. It means you have learned from difficult situations and are now wiser.

• The Back of the Thighs: Anatomically, the thighs provide the strength needed to move forward. Issues or actions located on the back of the legs typically point to past experiences or hidden burdens that you have been carrying “behind you.”

Together, this imagery suggests you are actively purging old habits, past regrets, or lingering stress to step forward with a renewed, cleansed perspective.

What’s interesting is I had a dream like this last year. It’s different but not dissimilar, and it’s tied to the exact same things.

I think I’m actually learning.

This Advent Calendar has opened me up again. It’s shifting things around in my life. It’s showing me possibilities.

It was actually right after I’d had that initial dream that Chelsea from Pink Door Fabrics contacted me and this whole thing was set in motion.

But when I woke up from the dream this morning, I realized something else had been unlocked. I’m really strong illustrator now.

That might sound funny to say, but I’ve never thought of myself in that way.

Yesterday Chelsea and I did a live talking about what the greatest challenge around the Advent calendar was.

No. 1 keeping it a secret

No. 2 Everything

Everything was a challenge, because what I wanted this Advent Calendar to be was somewhere I wasn’t yet. So I rose to the occasion. I pushed myself, and my work in every way. If I didn’t know how to do something, I figured it out. I got better.

And this morning the thought came to me, I’ve always wanted to illustrate children’s books. It has been a life long dream of mine, and now it feels like it’s right around the corner. I never felt like I was ready enough to do what I wanted to do, and now I see that I’m not ready, but I will rise to it.

I’m a kneaded dough, ready to RISE! (I made bread last night).

If you love or have loved my work. If you love or have loved me, If you can work it into your budget, OR ask for an early Christmas gift, I’m asking you to get our Advent Calendar before it sells out and this window closes.

I want you to experience this with me. This growth. This infinite amount of possibility. I want it to open up so much possibility in you. I want this little tale, this special little place we’ve carved out to give you a strange dream that shows you you’re ready to let go of what you thought was true, for what is true: that anything is possible, and that you will rise to meat the occasion. All good things are on the way, and everything will be made to work for your good.

I believe that. I feel it working in my life.

all my love to you.

If you’ve already pre-ordered your advent calendar, thank you.

If you’re still thinking about it, learn more here.

If you’re ready to go, click here to pre-order

Leave a comment

It dawned on me that not everyone likes surprises.

I pride myself on being a bit of super spy. Which if you know me, I’m actually oblivious to so much, so I’m more like the spy who knew too little 😂. But I can find out all sorts of things… about a surprising amount of things. Ben teases me about being a spy, but I really just like solving mysteries.

This could have something to do with being an endlessly curious person, or it’s an Gemini thing. I’m not sure. But I’m nosey. Really nosey. About the tiniest stuff too. I can find just about anything.

And it isn’t in any way malicious, I think it’s actually tied to the way I try and understand the world.

So when I hear people saying, Ok… but what’s in the box?… I get it.

So let’s get something straight… I too like being sneaky.

Which is why I’ve hidden some clues around my updated website.

I have LONG wanted to finish my website. And while it’s still a work in progress, this was a perfect time to spiff it up, and hide some Easter eggs for you.

The truth is there are lots of things (clues) hiding in plain site, and HAVE BEEN the whole time.

Happy Hunting.
xoxolizzy

Ps. Come back and tell me what you find in the comments

Leave a comment

Over these past few days it has occurred to me that there are not only a lot of new people here, BUT lots of people for whom my work is completely brand new. That means we’re just meeting and I couldn’t be more pleased. What an exciting time to become friends.

For the people who know me, and have been with me for the long haul, this upcoming project feels like a gift that I curated just for us. What an exciting time to BE friends.

We’ll start from the beginning.

I am an oldest daughter.

I am also the oldest granddaughter on my maternal side, and it seems its a very integral part of who I am, and how I have carried myself in the world. I have that oldest daughter energy, that Big Sister Energy. I have a gift for seeing people’s gifts and encouraging them to see them in themselves and use them. I also have a really hard time taking care of myself. I fill up everyone else’s cup first to a fault. I’m working on it. I think it has to do with being that first daughter in a single parent home. I was always looking after everyone, and because I wasn’t a squeaky wheel in a family of squeaky wheels I was sometimes overlooked. I’m relating WAY too much to “the Other Bennet Sister,” right now.

People have often mistaken my seriousness for coldness, and seen my straightforwardness as rudeness. The truth is I’m a serious and deliberate person! I’ve also often been very tired in my life. A burning the candle at both ends Gemini. Pushing myself to the absolute limit, while also harboring some chronic health issues.

I’m also often late, impractical and have been known for biting off more than I can chew. Which are all symptoms of a misunderstanding. In my mind I can still accomplish that of a single 25 year old Lizzy in the same amount of time she could. This is categorically wrong. I think I’ve even misrepresented what that 25 year old could accomplish… it’s a dastardly cycle of wishful thinking. Luckily, as the years go on, I’m getting better at promising less and delivering more as verses promising most and delivering little, often too late. I have the best and dearest of intentions, but we all know about those. I have more faults but we’ll cap it here for now.

Be so glad that I’m not responsible for shipping the advent calendar.

I’m also very emotional and tenderhearted and will be moved to tears over the most benign things. I remember talking about something close to me while teaching a class in New England one summer. I began to cry. The class looked at me as if they’d all seen a ghost.

When Ben knows that I’ll start crying during a scene in movie or show or piece of music he’ll look at me waiting for me to cry. I’ll intentionally not look at him, because 1. how dare you, and 2. you can’t make me. He is gleeful over more emotionality.

My deepest desire is to be of use to the people around me, and to be appreciated just as I am, and not have to explain myself. I hate explaining myself, because it all makes perfect sense to me 😂.

I love to make things. I find so much excitement and peace from it.

I love cooking and baking. I love cooking and baking for other people.

I love gardening. I love walking in gardens. I love garden talks. I love walking around a garden at dawn or dusk talking to a friend, or Ben.

The greatest joy of my life though, is being a mother. Magnolia is my whole world. My little family is absolutely everything to me.

As far as my work is concerned, I have made work my whole life. It just was part of who I was from the start.

I started designing fabric before I’d even graduated. My work is illustrative joyful and often silly. Very colorful. I’ve also designed fabric for 20 years next year. That’s pretty wild. I could show you work for hours, but I’ve just picked a few.

I love designing products. I think it might be the thing that brings me the biggest thrill in my work. Beautiful and useful objects.

The advent calendar has been such a wonderful thing to create. I have loved working with Chelsea, and Sandra at Pinkdoor fabrics. They are truly perfect partners. We’re going to keep doing so much good together.

My sweet husband has interviewed me. If you’d like to hear more about the advent calendar, how I got started in fabric design, and my thought process behind all of it click below.

You can listen here:

If you’d like to order your Advent Calendar, click here.

Advent Calendar

Thanks for learning a little bit about me.

I’d love to hear about you, or answer any questions that you might have about me, my family, the Advent calendar, fabric…. you name it. I’m a pretty open book.

Leave a comment

For years and years I’ve thought to myself: wouldn’t it be incredible to make an advent calendar? One where I could design every item? To tell a thorough and complete story?

Advent calendars have changed a lot in the past decade+. As far as the commercial ones go, they hardly even sold them in the US until relatively recently. I don’t think most people even know what “advent” is. Somewhere in my mind is a memory of Cost Plus World Market importing the thin paper boxes and little german chocolates hiding behind a punch out window. As it turns out, the invention of the printed advent calendar box is deeply tied to the advancements in commercial lithography in the 1900’s.

I think the first time I ever saw a grand boxed advent was in Liberty of London. It was Thanksgiving of 2014 and the very first year they introduced their Beauty Advent. Which notoriously sells out and has over £1000 worth of full sized product. I turned to my friend and told her that I wanted to make one of these. I think I even wrote out a list somewhere of what I’d put in the box (I’m going to have to look for that). This is when I started talking about making an advent calendar.

I think Liberty, as they often do, set the mark. Now twelve years later, actual dreams are being fulfilled. I think about that a lot in my life. Dreams/the desires of our hearts, that have been long held, have a way of working themselves out in time. Often working in their own way on their own timeline, but always on the way. As more and more of my life long desires become fulfilled I see that I can not only dream bigger, but love my life more knowing that all good things are on the way.

This advent calendar is very special. And I’m not saying that because I haven’t stopped working on it for nearly six months, I’m saying that because we’ve engineered it as such. We’ve seen too many advent calendars where there are 3-5 good things and the rest of the stuff is just filler. Our box tells a cohesive story. Every little piece contributes. Also, every single bit of it is giftable. There isn’t one item in the advent that you’d say to yourself, “what am I supposed to do with this?”

Ok. I’ll leave it there for now. Thursday is the launch, and we’ve decided to not share what’s in the box. We want every day when you open the box to be an absolute joy. There’s so much to share and also still so many secrets to keep, which is hard, but these are good secrets.

xolizzy

Leave a comment

For the past 6 months I’ve been whittling away at an enormous project. It’s basically bigger than anything I’ve ever done before, besides growing a baby.

This project has been an integral part of my grief process, and has kept me afloat. I have felt so much joy and so much purpose in all of its creation. The creative work and collaboration has been an absolute life line.

I can’t really give you any details yet other than I’ve poured my whole heart and soul into this, supplies are limited, and you won’t want to miss this.

Full details this Thursday

Give me your best guess at what we’ve been up to?

Share

Leave a comment

I had an echo cardiogram where they jab an ultrasound wand between your ribs for 30+ minutes. I once heard someone call it, “one of the sluttier exams I’ve had,” as you’re on hospital bed on your side with your gown hanging open and from the waist up your full top half exposed. Breezy! With the rib prying, I didn’t realize that’s what they were doing, and I asked the tech if it was supposed to hurt so bad after I’d been essentially holding my breath because of the intensity. He said yes, it’s painful. Jab jab jab. Right into my left ribs. I just kept thinking, wow! this is awful! and it was just an ultrasound.

The following day a nurse called and said everything looked good. That I was totally fine. Everything was working as it should, and I didn’t have blockages, or any misfirings that would cause a problem. No leaky valves, etc.

I was like… are you sure? She said, “yep!” I asked if she got a lot of confused people on the other end of the call when nothing was wrong, but something is obviously wrong. She said, “yep!”

I wore a heart monitor for a month. After the echo, I went into a room and had to take my top off for another tech. I had to keep a phone/monitor within 30 yards of myself for the full month. Each time I had an “episode,” I would enter in my symptoms on the phone. The day after I turned it in, I got a report back from the doctor saying I was fine. It was anticlimactic to say the least. I know it was a good thing to do, but they were like, you’ve got a fast heart rate.

Since all of this started, and the conclusions started rolling in that it wasn’t my heart, I’ve really tried to tune into what was triggering these panic “episodes.” I think what it really comes down to is the fear of dying. I know that’s a common fear, and I can honestly say, I’d never really even brushed up against it until I really had something and someone(s) to live for. The fear of leaving Ben and Magnolia prematurely, my family, my dearest friends became so overwhelming after Luke took his own life that I was spiraling. And wouldn’t stop. I believe that’s what was causing the panic attacks, and once they started, I quite literally felt like I was dying, so I sunk lower and lower and lower into that dread of leaving my loved ones high and dry. It was arresting.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful there isn’t anything happening with my heart. Though, to get a relatively clean bill of health back confirms that my suspicions are correct. In the past little while I’ve gotten better at talking back to the oncoming tornado. I’ve also implemented things into my life that help a lot. We go on walks every night as a family. I’ve been working on my sleep hygiene and that helps. I try not watch scary stuff where parents die, or children die. I’m avoiding things that are actively triggering right now.

Basically, I’m attempting being gentle with myself. Going so much slower than I have in the past, and being more deliberate about what I consume on the whole. I guess that’s the story of getting older

There was something else that came up that I wanted to share my thoughts on.

Last month on Mother’s Day at church in the women’s meeting the topic was about being known to God, a topic I deeply love, and somehow we got onto trials/hard time and how God sees us through our individual trials… and the conversation devolved into comments about the best thing to do is just be grateful for your “trials,” because they were meant for you, to teach you something. God is trying to teach you something in every hard thing, so best to figure it out and be grateful. “Everything happens for a reason.”

My anger turned quickly red hot.

We have sisters in our congregation who’ve never been able to have children. Sisters who have never found a partner and will remain single their whole lives. I know of several sisters who’ve lost children, two of which just lost adult daughters. Sisters whose children have taken their own lives. Sisters with debilitating depression. Sisters who’ve been abused. Sisters who’ve lost their husbands. Sisters who husbands left. Sisters who are full time caretakers. We have sisters with cancer, and we have sisters with degenerative diseases. Sister’s whose children or spouse are in prison… the list goes on and on.

I’m currently reading the Old Testament and the tie that binds the whole thing together is that God will make the best of the bad things happening around us, choices made by other people. Things completely out of our hands. He even helps us make the best of it when we’re the ones that created the problems. He helps us pick up the pieces and make something useful from the rubble.

I don’t understand this pride in suffering that people have. They relish their suffering. It becomes this badge of honor and identity. I don’t believe there’s any pride in suffering, I believe the lesson is what can be made from the mess, not why did the mess happen. Who are we after all the pain and the hurt? Who are we when witness other people’s suffering. Especially when it’s unjust.

Against my better judgement, I raised my hand and made a comment through hot tears. I said something to the effect of: “not everything happens for a reason. People make choices that effect everyone around them, and the bystanders are effected, what lesson are they supposed to learn? To not get to close to people? To love people less so you won’t be so effected by their actions? What about victims of war? Are they supposed to learn a lesson? The lesson isn’t the trial, it’s who you become on the other side.” I was shaking. And in that moment, what I didn’t say out loud, is that my brother killed himself, and everyone of us, his family, his friends, his young children get to learn a lesson from it? Because it happened for a reason? No. They have to learn who they’ll be, and how they’ll treat themselves, and the people around them moving forward and how every move you makes ripples to everyone around you.

I’m always weighing when is it time to teach and when is it time to keep my mouth SHUT. It’s mostly always time to keep my thoughts to myself, I just couldn’t let it go, not on mother’s day, and not when I know so much about the suffering of those in the room.

Our lives are varied and complicated. I came home and shared my frustration with Ben, and then I felt the distinct and quieting impression that the sister sharing this naive idea of suffering hadn’t actually experienced much life. It actually made me incredibly sad for her, as I know it will come, because that’s just the nature of being alive and loving people. No one goes unscathed. I can have more compassion for her in that, as I had probably felt something along those lines before much life had happened to me. And in my own naiveté, I’d most assuredly made debilitating comments about the nature of suffering.

Maybe the women in the room who are a little further down the road had more grace for her a little more quickly than me.

All this is to say: growing in front of people is challenging. Changing is challenging. Feeling compassion through your own misplaced anger is challenging. Picking up the pieces of a fragile and broken heart that beats a little too fast is challenging, but it’s who we are and what we make of it on the other side that really matter, in my opinion.

And you don’t have to do it alone.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some super secret updates for paid subscribers, literally because I have to keep it hidden. You won’t want to miss it.

Thank you for being here, I’m officially back now.

xo
lizzy

Leave a comment

remember me?

I’m Lizzy. Mom to Magnolia, wife to Ben. Daughter of a loving God and also Cherri’s daughter. Sister to Ashlee and Melissa, and Luke (somewhere in the universe), and friend to every fallen honey bee or stray cat that wanders through my back yard.

I’ve been having a bit of a hard time.

When I look at my hard time in comparison to the soul crushing hard time of war and innocent people all over the world, I’m not really having a hard time. I have a hard time not doing that. I have a hard time allowing my hard to be acceptable. But it is.

I mentioned that since the funeral I’ve been having really severe panic attacks. I had gone to the ED to get checked out on a particularly bad early morning. Nothing came of it. Then it got progressively worse in the months following, it’s mostly because the nature of them has changed. They are seemingly unprovoked now, to the point that I, Lizzy House, made an appointment with a cardiologist to see if there’s something actually wrong with my heart. They were able to use the labs and EKG from my ED visit to rule out those issues, and next week I’m scheduled for an Echo and they’re placing a heart monitor. They want to see what my heart is doing when I have one of my “episodes”. The doctor was very kind and gentle, and said we’d figure this out. He said he was glad that I came, because a lot of people don’t follow up (that would have been me if I felt even remotely better). Also he said he was glad that I started here (cardiology), because some people go straight to the anxiety, but it’s actually a heart condition. If it isn’t a heart condition then I can move on to the anxiety. I really appreciated that. Not for the pat on the head, but the assurance.

It has been very hard to live whole days unable to fully function. To feel like my legs were going to constantly collapse beneath me. It feels like I’m dying, which isn’t a good feeling. I thought I had some anxiety before. I thought I understood dread. It turns out, I did not. All my life I’ve been a pull yourself together and go kind of girl, and I was the same to people around me. Loving, but also, not. So much the attitude of, JUST GET IT DONE. I can see that I was this way to others, because it was what I expected of myself. Sometimes life calls for that, but you know….most of the time it just doesn’t. I can see now how I’ve been harsh, with myself and others.

I can also see something that has taken me my whole life to understand. I have always been so deeply independent. Mostly out of necessity, but also out of habit. Within me It’s an attitude of I’LL SHOW YOU, or I’LL JUST DO IT MYSELF, and sometimes being willfully independent is just bad form. It offers very little flexibility in what you allow into your life, chief among them being people who are trying to be with you/help you/love you. For a while now I’ve felt the need to soften up. To let Ben lead. We were kind of doing this awful dance. I wanted him to step up and lead but he wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t back off, and I wouldn’t back off because he wouldn’t step up and lead. Leave it to me to actually have to get knocked on my butt so hard to finally let him. 10 years. It has taken me 10 years to let Ben take the reins. It’s kind of brutal looking back and seeing that my insistence on things being my way was causing so many of our problems. Now there is more balance in our home. It feels like there’s more love in our home. I mean, I’m still bossy, but I’m getting better at trusting in him, being confident in him, and letting him take care of us. He’s good at it. He’s a natural leader, he really loves us, he is always showing up for us, and I just really needed to get out of his way. Things work better when we work together, and it’s ok that I need him.

Hey! I’m evolving!

Over Spring Break, in March for us, we took a trip to Orem, Utah. If you know Utah, you will know this is not where you’d ever really want to vacation… but things are different when you’ve got a kid and the most important thing you can do is let her be with her cousins.

We started the trip by driving up to Salt Lake and taking Ben’s folks out to dinner. We told them we’d love to treat them and that we could go wherever they wanted. My mother-in-law chose Olive Garden. I would never choose the Olive Garden, but what mattered more to us than anything was that they were comfortable and that we were together. I love my in-laws. We’re really different, but I love and respect them. They are good people finding their way just like anyone else. But something sort of magic happened at the Olive Garden. They were so comfortable. They were so themselves. Especially my mother-in-law. She was so fun and funny, and she was so sweet with Magnolia. I think what’s crazy about it, that maybe I’m having hard time expressing, is that it felt like the most benign of things and choices and we witnessed this huge shift in them. I actually haven’t been able to stop thinking of it. It feels like it was a combination of things: being out of their space, being in a place where they could eat just exactly what they wanted, being treated instead of doing the treating… it was just a magical scenario.

This was all new. In the past we’d be up in Salt Lake for work or a Market. We’d be worn out and order take out, or I would make something for us, and Debbie would make something for them, and we’d eat at the same table. In my effort to let go of every little thing, I just suggested that we go out together, wherever they wanted. I wouldn’t have chosen that place, and I wouldn’t have thought going out would literally change everything. Again, it was a shocking shift in openness and love. It was like Ben and I said to them, where are you, we’ll come meet you. I think so often we want to love people where we are. Bring them to our understanding of things and love from that place, but the real key to love is loving people where they are. It’s a hard lesson I had to learn with my dad. He was never going to come to me. He was never going to change. If I was going to let him in my life at all, I had to just love him where he was, and I’m so glad I did a few years before he died. Like I said, I can’t stop thinking about it, and I never thought I would hear the the words, “the Olive Garden was life changing,” come out of my own mouth, and yet, here we are.

The following morning we went to a few shops near my Mother in-law’s house. Knot and Spool. Such a great shop! and Sewtopia! Where I got a Heather Ross wide back (the one with the bunnies) for a quilt for Magnolia, and a very sweet Liberty-esque Japanese floral print. Gosh I love CHIT-CHATTING about ribbon and textiles.

We were then able to meet up with my dear friend and college professor Carla (we’ve now know each other HALF OF MY LIFE). She was in Provo with a group of students. I was in the middle of a panic attack that I kept coming in and out of so I wasn’t super fun to be with, but it was so special for me to see Carla with Magnolia. Seeing people you love and have gone through so so so much and shed so so so so many tears with contemplating the future and then for them to be with your child years later is a real kind of a heavenly gift. We had great gelato that night and I bought some adorable tiny ice dessert spoons.

Friday we saw Project Hail Mary on an IMAX screen, which we’d been waiting/hoping/wishing to do for over a year since we read the book altogether. Magnolia has been talking about Rocky for A YEAR, and as the trailers came out and they were showing him more and more, we got more and more excited. It just worked out that the trip was over opening weekend and we don’t have any imax screens where we are, so it was a perfect treat.

Saturday morning we were leaving the hotel to go meet up with cousins at the Provo Rec center (if you know, you know), and as we’re getting into the car, I see a familiar family coming out of the hotel in swimsuits. Magnolia’s best friend from school moved to Idaho over the Christmas break, and she’d been missing her so much. There they were. The whole family, right behind us, same hotel, same weekend, in OREM, Utah also to visit family. We were all shocked. We talked for a second, then I asked about their swimsuits. They were also going to the Provo Rec Center. The girls got to play all day. So not only did Magnolia get to play with her cousins, she got to be with her best friend too. On the way to the pool I just cried and cried in the car. I know God loves Magnolia. Everyday in her prayers, she prays for a friend. I pray everyday that she will have a friend who needs her, just as much as she needs them. It was so beautiful to witness the manifestation of his love for her that day. To see that he sees her just as much as I do. It was so comforting. And what are the freaking odds? That night we went back to the gelato place from the night before and got a scoop with them. It was a really good day, and a great way to close our mini vacation.

If you ever need a hotel recommendation for Orem, Utah, I got you. LOL

When we got home a few of the vintage girls dress patterns I had ordered the week prior from ebay had arrived. I troll ebay HARD for cute vintage girls patterns and decent prices. The way some people price this stuff is coo-coo for cocoa puffs.

I don’t think I’ve made a dress since Magnolia was really little. But, I just started doing it. I’d take little breaks from my work (VERY big design project) and cut a few pieces. Then I started sewing and fitting it. It was such a joy to do, and it brought me a lot of peace. Also, Magnolia was over the moon. We went with view 2, and decided against the sleeves. They really dated the pattern. And I knew she’d wear the dress more if it wasn’t having to adjust/tug on her sleeves. This just made it a little more comfortable. I also didn’t add the bow to the back. The way the skirt is cut/attached to the bodice doesn’t allow for pockets because of the button placard on the back. I considered patch pockets, but in the end didn’t add them. I’m making it again, and am just revising it for pockets. A girl needs her pockets.

I used the cute print I grabbed at Sewtopia. It’s called Sweets Forest Project by Cotton (Amy is checking if she still has it, and I’ll link it if she does). I think I just had a yard and a half. I also used a scrap from a quilt back I had quilted of my cream pearl bracelet 108. It was a perfect coordinate to mellow out the flower with so many busy components.

The pattern is Simplicity 4480 from 1953.

I can hardly get her to stop wearing it. It’s a super fun dress.

The sleeves would have been overkill…. the collar, the scallops, AND giant poof sleeves? no. I made a seam binding and finished them off. I was going to line the top, and decided against it. Firstly, I didn’t want to do the darts again, and secondly, I was trying to make it super comfortable/lightweight for Magnolia. She’s really sensitive to the feel of things.

The buttons are really lovely little glass buttons from the antique store Cat’s Cradle in Provo, Utah. And oh my glob, if you’re in there, ask Glen if you can see his Fire Opal ring if he still has it. It’s the craziest stone I’ve ever seen. 10/10 would buy if I had a free $30k laying around.

In the midst of my affliction, I made Magnolia an Easter dress. That feels pretty good.

I love you. I’m hanging in. I’m having a hard time, but I’m here, and I’m trying to love me where I’m at.

I’ll be back sooner. I’ll let you know about my heart, when I know about my heart. Thanks for not giving up on me.

Leave a comment

In the middle of all the turmoil of the last few months, my Funny Valentine quilt patterns slipped to the back burner. This caused a lot of upset, which I can understand, because people and shops make plans, and purchase fabric. I get it. I also, could never ever have imagined what unfolded over the past couple of months for myself or my family.

Amidst my panic attacks I managed to finish all of them. I want to give a huge shout out of everyone at Moda for working with me, and helping my get through this.

Moving forward, I will volunteer significantly less. This will help everyone.

All that being said, I actually completed 6 patterns for Funny Valentine, and that was 6 too many. However, they are lovely, and really fun quilts, and I hope that you’ll make them.

I designed Love Notes back in January/February of 2025, it was released in the catalog in April, and then another pattern designer released essentially the same pattern a month before I could get mine out, because, well, life. Initially, I thought, why am I doing any of this? This is only causing me grief.

Then I thought, I have a voice, and I’m going to keep sharing it. This quilt is based on antique block combo of a 9 patch and a snowball. I did not invent 9 patches or snowballs, but I did turn them on point. It uses a Jelly Roll and some yardage. It’s a great quilt. You can make it smaller or larger to suit your needs, and will 1000% look great on a bed, which is how I judge most quilts.

Another great thing about this quilt, is you KNOW you have basically everything you need to get started on this quilt today. I love that for us.

If you make it, I want to see it!

Thanks for being here. Thank you for hanging on with me.

Read more

On the 29th of December, he took his own life. He was 42 years old and the father of 4 children, ages 18-11.

I’ve thought a lot about writing in the past month. I write a lot in my head, but I’ve just been too overwhelmed to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Which in hindsight might have helped with the overwhelm.

I want to say first, thank you for all the love and support and texts and messages you’ve sent me and my family over the past month. It really means so much to me. They’ve been little hand squeezes. Little hugs that have gotten me from moment to moment and even though I haven’t been able to respond to many of them, I’m here, and I’m grateful.

It’s hard to know what I’m most sad about, and it’s not as if I need to know, it’s just that when I start thinking about it, there are competing feelings.

Magnolia and I went to Texas to attend the service, and Ben stayed home sick with my Mom. It was really sweet to get to spend that time with Magnolia. It was also really important to be with and spend time with my sisters and their children. Magnolia and her cousin Oona are just a couple months apart, and when they’re together they become really bold in their naughtiness. The 6 year old naughty twins. They’ve always been this way together, there’s just something about being 6.

At the Airbnb, the little girls shared a room with me, and they eventually ended up in my bed each night. The room had a really big and empty closet where they set up their own little camp. It shared a wall with my bed, so I would stay up listening to them tell stories and share their feelings with each other. They were probably the funniest and sweetest things I’ve ever heard. So much depth and sincerity, and also profound nonsense. It was wonderful.

My sisters and I drove to the Galleria and got haircuts. My cut, a month later, is still trying to find its way. It was a lot of money for an entire month of limbo… We also went grocery shopping at HEB which made me homesick for Texas, and I was able to get twice the amount of food that I am at home for the same price. This made me grateful and also very frustrated.

The day of the funeral I woke up early and started to get ready. I talked with my nephews about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom strategy. We got pretty into it. I love being Magnolia’s mom, and I also really love being an Aunt to all these wonderful and amazing kids.

We had a family prayer with the whole family at the church before the service and I was just so happy, and also so sad to see my Dad’s siblings Amy and Roy. My uncle Roy looks and sounds just like my Dad. It broke my heart all over again.

My brother’s sweet boys spoke during the service. I still am having the hardest time with what he has done to them. The choice he made for them. To lose a parent is really hard. For that parent to opt out of your life feels harder.

Afterward I took Magnolia to where lunch was being served so she could get settled. When I came back into the hall I was embraced by so many people from our past life in Humble, Texas. I was shocked at how many dear dear friends from years ago came to show love to Luke, and loving support to us. Cried with us. Dearest friends from our ward/church congregation growing up. High school friends. Beloved teachers. Friends parents. Some of the best people we’ve ever known showed up for us on that day, and it has changed how I see our shared past.

We sat at a table in the cultural hall at the church and just laughed and laughed. Shared funny stories.

It was so unexpected, and it was actual medicine.

All of this has made me think of the people I grew up with. They were all just the same, in the very best way. These are people, some of whom, I haven’t seen since I graduated in 2003, and they showed up in our darkest hour. And it’s not that I had written them off so much as I just haven’t lived where I grew up for 21 years. I think there’s something about time and space that makes you think you’re on your own, or having a small child makes you really feel on your own, but the truth is there are people who you’ve loved and have loved you all along the way. I’m thinking of home differently. I’m thinking of being in Houston a little more than never. Not to move back, but to witness more people’s lives. I’m thinking of the other places I’ve planted myself through the years… Salt Lake City, Rexburg, Boston, Toronto, etc. How can I reconnect to all the people I’ve journeyed with? How can I more fully express that your lives matter deeply to me? Is this what Christmas cards are for?

That can’t be it.

It just can’t be that the only time we get together, or show and express love is at a funeral. Same with my sisters. We were only able to all be together because Luke was an idiot? That doesn’t work for me anymore. It makes me feel like I’ve been sleep walking.

We all left the next morning. I wish my family had been able to stay together longer. I wish that Magnolia had been able to be with her cousins longer. I wish that Luke had made better choices.

Immediately following the funeral I started to get dizzy. It felt like there was something off with my heart and my blood pressure. Luckily I had a high dose liposomal magnesium/calming supplement with me, which helped significantly, but it didn’t take it away. It got to the point that I was praying to just be able to get home.

It persisted for about 2 weeks until one morning, I was sure that I was going to die, so Ben took me to the emergency room. I received an EKG and some fluids, they ran labs and they monitored my BP for a few hours. They said there was nothing wrong/nothing they could do for me and sent me on my way.

2 things about this. The doctor never put his hands on me. Never looked into my eyes or felt my pulse. I just got hooked up to a bunch of monitors. Care that I’ve received in the past, even in an emergent situation seemed more personal. I know doctors are trained differently now, in that moment it just struck me as odd.

The second thing. They told me there was nothing they could do for me. From all their readings, I was fine. I’ve thought a lot about this. From a certain vantage point, this gave me some comfort. I’m not immediately dying. Cool. From another vantage point, this told me that what I’m experiencing, they can’t fix. There isn’t a drug (not one that I’d take anyway) to resolve this perilous feeling I’m living with. It’s a ME problem.

Honestly, I think it was a combination of grief and shock. And while I could be present for the task while we were in Texas, the MINUTE the funeral was done and then coming home feeling my way through the aftermath proved really difficult.

I’m doing better. I haven’t had any panic attacks for at least a week and a half. Working on my Valentine sale helped so much. Thank you for that. It was so much work, but it kept me focused. It kept things light.

The things I’ve been trying to achieve schedule/health/family wise for a while now, I’m bringing to pass this year.

My schedule for the rest of the year is different than in years past. I’ve got Halloween fabric that we’re about to get strike offs for. That will be, I think, in the October catalog. I’m not designing more than a 2, maybe 3 patterns this year. I enjoy designing them, but the full execution of them has been an albatross around my neck. With all of the tragedy of this past year, I could never keep up. I’m happy to let other people work with my fabric. I think everyone will be happier.

From now until summer, I’m working on another fabric collection, a very big and very exciting project, new artwork, and being present for my family. I’ve paired things back to the point that I can just keep work hours to while Magnolia is in school.

This year I’m trying my Christmas/Holiday sale in July. It will be big and fun. There will be so many new skus, and original artwork too. This, I hope, will free up some of your own energy when the holidays come around. The reason for this is largely so we aren’t working in most of November or December. Since Magnolia was born I haven’t really been available to my family for the holiday season and I just won’t do it anymore. The new year starts and I’m totally burnt out. I need that downtime. I need to be with them. I want to be with them. I will be with them.

Following Christmas in July, I’ll be able to focus on new work, 2027 Valentines, more fun projects I’ve been wanting to work on, and traveling.

I’m really bummed that I couldn’t make quiltcon work this month, hopefully it will work out sometime in the future. We would, however, like to do one show this year, and we’re thinking we might apply for the NutCracker Market in Houston. This will let us see friends and family and participate in a historic show that supports the Houston Ballet. All things that I like.

This new schedule allows for planning, flexibility, new work that I want to be doing, taking care of myself and my family, and actual downtime. It’s what I’ve needed for years, and I just finally got to the point where I had no choice but to step off the crazy train.

I know things are heavy right now. In our country, in the world, etc. But in this moment, it feels very much like so much of it is intentional and manufactured to keep us apart. To keep fingers pointed at each other instead of us asking the question why the chaos appears like clockwork on a two year schedule. I won’t do it anymore. Nearly half of my immediate family died in 2025. I lost my only Grandma in February, then my brother in December. My Mom was diagnosed with cancer this year, and couldn’t live on her own anymore. I lost my dad in 2022. Life is really short, even if you live long. My two sisters and Mom are all we have left. I don’t have it in me to hate someone that disagrees with me. Or dismiss someone from my life that has different lived experience than me. You know, sometimes you do need your circle tighter, I get that, but for me, for right now, I just want people to feel less alone. More worthy of love. More needed. More capable. Not isolated. Not unimportant. Not irredeemable. Not erased. More human. More beloved.

This life is fleeting. It’s gone in a second.

No one is all good, or all bad. My brother was an imperfect person. We didn’t have a strong relationship. He was cruel to me for most of my life, and still, I’m desperately sad about the choices that he made while he was here, in this life, and the one he ultimately made. I’m heartbroken for his children, I’m devastated for his wife. I’m sad for my sister’s who had a different relationship with him. I’m heartsick for my Mom, and for all the people who loved him. I’m so sad he couldn’t feel it, he couldn’t let it in, and he most definitely couldn’t let it change him.

In a strange way it feels like he killed all of us. Not just himself. That feeling is dissolving more and more with passing time, but it still comes back in waves.

I love you very much. Thanks for your patience with me.

Leave a comment

I was on a call earlier this week making some very exciting plans that will be unfolded and known to you in the not so distant future.

On that call we talked about the challenges of plans, deadlines and being flexible around life. I have found myself almost completely helpless to my current situation and instead of fighting it, which I am wont to do…. I have learned to surrender. Was SURRENDER my word of the year? No. Is it what happened anyway?!?! yes.

I had wanted to have my holiday shop update in the middle of November, and when that became an impossibility… everyone sick, my Mom in the hospital, I just kept my head down and kept working. And by that I mean, I painted the faces of 1500+ bears, for you. All for you.

Tomorrow!
The Holiday Shop will open December 12th at 2:00PM MST, and then it will close on December 16th 7:00PM MST. It’s a pop-up. We’re popping up, and then we’re popping down. This will allow us to get everything to you as quickly as possible.

Let’s talk about my gifts to you!

The first 16 customers that spend over $85 will receive a lovely tote bag with their order! I collaborated with Moda on this bag, and I never knew the dimensions until I ordered some. Y’all, I thought it was a tiny tote. It isn’t. It’s a big bag and it’s so cute in person. Don’t miss it!

Also, every order will get a little grab bag of holiday cards. So fun!

Deals:
All of the current zipper charms will be listed, they’re normally $9 each, but for this holiday pop-up, when you buy 3, or more, they become $6 each. These make such a fun stocking stuffer! This discount will show up in your cart! They also all have updated packaging, which is très chic.

Bears:
This go around we’ve got 2 different sets of the mini floss bears. A Cool set, and a Warm set. There are 9 bears in each set, and they come in an iridescent gift box with a bow. Perfectly ready to gift, or to admire for yourself.

We have restocked the chunky white glitter BIG thread bear that can hold 12 skeins of floss. We have also updated our packaging so no bears will lose their heads. (RIP tall thread bears who are no longer with us)

We have just a handful of the cutest Bear ornaments. Maybe you don’t need a bear to hold floss, or ribbon for you. You don’t need a chore bear, but you love a friendly face. These bears are for you. Perfect for the tree, or hanging off a bag, or as a friend in your workspace. Each come with some Italian cotton ribbon so you and your bear can choose your own adventure.

Rogue Bears. We’ve got a bunch of cuties that aren’t in full sets, in the small and medium sizes. Some with ribbon, some without. They’ll be available individually or in tiny sets. Prices will vary

Cats:
I’ve got just a handful of cat binding spools. A variety of colors, but a few veeerrry special SPACE CATS! You won’t want to miss them!

Holiday:
We’ll have Christmas cards, gift wrap. This year the gift wrap is available in rolls of 3!

Stationery:
We’ve got lots of fun sets and new cards, plus stickers

Patterns:
All currently printed patterns will be available! Also (just as a note) the holly pattern that you see on my stocking will be a free download for my subscribers.

Gifts:
Funny Valentine Hankie sets, some fabric and more

I can’t stress it enough, there are limited quantities of everything so act with haste! This way we can ship stuff ASAP.

Shipping: We’re only shipping Domestically for this pop-up. We’re so sorry about this. We will have a big Christmas in July next year and plan for all the hoops we have the jump through to make that work now. It has become so needlessly complicated. Again, I’m really bummed about it.

Domestic orders over $45 will have a flat rate ground shipping for $8

I think that’s everything… I’m finishing photos and listings today and I’m around. Let me know if you have any questions.

As always, I wish this was in person so I could give you a hand squeeze, a hug, and a cookie. There would be cozy lighting, festive music, and an abundance of the Christmas spirit. That thing that we don’t get enough of, but when we really feel it, we wish it’d stay all year.

You know the feeling.

See you tomorrow 💗
xoxolizzy

PS. I still have a Block roundup for the Holiday Cookie pattern. I’m going through every single block as if we were in a workshop. It’'ll probably be around an hour. I’m scheduling it for Tuesday next week. I’ll send more details. The lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t really plan a quilt along during the holidays when you’re caring for your in and out of the hospital mom and frequently sick 6 year old. I’m not making excuses, just learning tough lessons in public 🥲

PPS: Here’s a link to the shop. If you click on it today, it won’t be active. If you click it tomorrow at 2:00PM MST, it will be.

HOLIDAY SHOP

I’d meant to have this out ages ago, and wouldn’t you know it, we’ve been sick on and off for well over a month now. It feels like we’re nearly through it, and that is to be commended because this mom can’t take anymore sick days!

I designed this quilt with Lexi Ellis (@honeybee.homemaker), and it’s too much fun. The blocks are HUGE so they sew super fast. In fact, it’s so quick, you can make this quilt in a day, or two. I made one with 4 blocks, a kid size quilt for Magnolia, and it took me half a day.

The pattern is free to download. You will, however, need to take the pattern pieces to a copy shop or a quilt shop with a plotter for printing patterns. The sheet is 24x28. Print 2 or 3. So if you slice through the pattern pieces you don’t have to go back to the copy shop, and delay your very speedy progress.

You truly could make the quilt with just the sheet of pattern pieces, but I went overboard, as one does, and as I tend to do.

Download Hankie Hearts Pattern Here

Hankie Hearts Quilt Pattern Lizzy House

10.6MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Download Hankie Hearts Templates Here

Lizzy House Hankie Hearts Templates

29.4MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Have fun! I can’t wait to see what you make!
xoxolizzy

Leave a comment

We left later than we’d planned and didn’t get in until 9ish the night before the event. I think we were asleep by 10 once everything was unpacked for the pop-up, and we were in our room. It was really fun to get to do an event with Ben and Magnolia with me. I’ve never had a speaking engagement that they were both present for, and most of my events/retreats/workshops actually took place before Magnolia was born. So this was really special.

For weeks before the event I thought of a lot of things I could talk about. Fabric design always comes to mind… the state of the quilting industry/how things have changed since I’ve come back, or the idea of knowing where your work is coming from/acknowledging you didn’t invent rectangles, etc. (I have to find a way to talk about this without it seeming negative), and on and on. I thought about a lot of things I could talk about. But in the end, I just decided to keep it simple and talk a little bit about my history and quilts, with a special guest appearance from Magnolia whose entire body and soul were commandeered by a bellhop cart, to the point she told everyone she wants to be an acrobat when she grows up, and quietly asked me every three minutes (while I was speaking) if she could put on a show for all of our friends.

When I began my talk, I asked if anyone in the room had ever heard me speak or had taken a class with me. Over half of the room raised their hands. Then I asked who was really looking forward to taking a class with me in the future, and everyone raised their hands 😂. I appreciated that.

The talk was totally fine. I could talk about quilts for a long time, but I kept it relatively concise because of acrobat Barbie scratching my arm, and they said to keep it to around 30 minutes. I closed it with a treatise about digital printing with samples of how it has changed. I guess I can’t help but get technical.

After the talk I popped over to my pop-up shop. I didn’t have price tags on almost anything, because it’s the last thing that happens, and I didn’t get there. So I was shouting out prices, while checking everyone out, because I know the prices of 100+ skus 😅, even though I’m positive that brain space and energy would be useful somewhere else. I had to take a few very deep breaths. At one point I was just staring down at the table, gone somewhere in my mind, and I had to apologize to the woman waiting on me to come back… It was a big day for a Mom who spends most of her time making meals, and grocery shopping, and working quietly by myself during school hours.

As women were checking out at my table, the question I kept getting asked was:

“Do you remember me?”

and then they’d tell me about our time together, and I did, and I do. I remember you dearly.

They’d attended a workshop, or a retreat, or they picked me up from the airport for one of my Meadow classes. We’ve had long talks, and heart to hearts. I pack your orders. It’s just me, that’s why they take so long. I see your name and I think of you. I think about what you’ve shared with me, I think about how you’ve stuck with every version of me over all these years, and how grateful I am for you.

The thing I want to say back is:

I don’t know if you could ever really know what you mean to me.

Maybe I’m just a fabric designer you met one time, or someone whose work you like, but to me it’s not like that, it was never like that. It wasn’t just a job. I don’t think anyone who travels the way I did could just be doing a job. It was a calling. The women I’ve worked with at these retreats, and workshops, and in shops, and talks for all those years, all those years ago, you were my life! I made this my work because I loved being with all of you. Learning about you, and your families, and your likes and dislikes, your struggles, your hopes and dreams, and quilting too it was all so important to me. Back then my whole life was being with you, and knowing you.

When the day was done, I packed up my table, and said my goodbyes. I headed back upstairs to the hotel room and cried. I felt what I could only describe as deep sadness, but now that I’ve had some time with it, it was deep sadness, but also loss.

It took a minute, but I rallied myself and my family to try and get a table at Takashi, one of my very favorite restaurants in SLC. We bundled up as much as it’s possible for people coming from Southern Utah to bundle and we got put on the list. In total I made my family walk to and from Takashi from the hotel twice. But it was worth it. We had the best dinner. The food was perfect, and the service was top tier. We walked back happy and tired.

We all fell asleep, and I fell into one of the most vivid dreams I’ve had in years:
(trigger warning for weird dreams)

I noticed a tiny bump on the sole of my right foot. It was hot, and looked like it was a bug bite that would come to a head after a few days.

An indescript amount of time passed and it was getting worse. Eventually, I put a warm cloth on it, and then tried to pop it. A bunch of gross stuff came out, and I wiped it clean, but then what appeared to be a tiny green snake ducked its head out of the hole that had formed.

The thoughts that went through my head at that point were, I think, what a normal reaction to a tiny green snake living in the bottom of my right foot would be, such as: Is that what I think it is, or am I going to have to pull that out of my foot. Can someone knock me out and pull that out of my foot… but did I really see that??? Those sorts of thoughts.

The next thing I know, I’ve made a contraption, a box of sorts, that goes around my ankle, with my foot inside. There’s a few people helping me, but it’s not clear who they are. We lure the snake out of my foot. I quickly remove my foot from the object and the snake is left in the box. We look at the tiny snake, and he has a really wide mouth with so many tiny teeth. He was a really devilish thing. I tell them to chop off his head, and they do, but the mouth keeps chomping around the box. They chop the mouth again and it finally stops. We think it’s over.

Out of the body of the tiny green snake comes a 3 inch mystery parasitic bug. We kill that one too.

The dream ends.

In the next dream I’m in a movie theatre with a few nondescript friends, and the lights are on, in fact there are windows in the space and it’s daytime. I take a bite of something and my back teeth, on the right side of my mouth, get stuck shut. I can feel it’s only my back teeth that I can’t get open. It’s so frustrating. I’m trying and trying to get it open when I finally open my mouth and strange twisted bone like object dislodges itself from where my back right molars are. It’s like a tooth, but it isn’t a tooth. The only way I can describe it is like a bone a soothsayer would toss when they’re saying some sooths.

Then I wake up.

My family was still asleep, so I did what any normal person would do in 2025, and I asked AI what these dreams meant. I almost never use AI, but thought this was a fitting time.

This is the description I gave:

I dreamed that a tiny snake lived in the sole of my right foot and we lured it out and killed it and a parasite came out of the snake. I also dreamed that my back tooth kept getting stuck and I couldn’t open my mouth. Eventually, I opened my mouth and something came out. I thought it was a filling but it was more, but it wasn’t a tooth.

Here’s what it said back to me:

These dreams appear to be connected and point to the need to address a hidden, ongoing issue in your life that is affecting your personal progress and ability to express yourself.

Tiny Snake in the Sole of Your Right Foot

• Snake Symbolism: Snakes in dreams often symbolize hidden threats, deceitful people, or a need for transformation and healing.

• Sole of the right foot: The feet represent your ability to move forward in life and maintain balance. The right side often relates to logic, career, or forward action. A snake here suggests that a subtle, hidden issue is affecting your life path or progress in a specific area (perhaps professional or a personal goal).

• Luring it out and killing it with a parasite coming out: This is a very positive action in the dream. It suggests you are actively confronting and successfully removing a toxic influence, a bad habit, or a long-standing issue that has been draining your energy and resources (the parasite). The parasite coming out of the snake indicates that the root cause (the snake) was, in turn, being sustained by something else (the parasite), pointing to a multi-layered problem you are resolving.

Back Tooth Getting Stuck and Something Coming Out

• Teeth Symbolism: Dreams about teeth often relate to personal power, communication, and self-expression.

• Back tooth getting stuck: A back (molar, or “bag”) tooth often relates to deeply ingrained beliefs or private matters. The feeling of it getting stuck and inability to open your mouth suggests you have been unable to verbalize your feelings or express yourself effectively, possibly feeling “gummed up” or that you couldn’t get your point across.

• Something coming out that wasn’t a filling but more, but wasn’t a tooth: The release of this unknown item suggests a breakthrough in communication. You’ve managed to release a pent-up emotion, a secret, or an unexpressed truth that has been “stuck”. It wasn’t an expected fix (filling) or a major loss (tooth), but something more substantial, suggesting a significant, but perhaps abstract, weight has been lifted.

Overall Interpretation

The two dreams likely relate to a single overarching theme: you are successfully dealing with a hidden, toxic situation or relationship that has been impeding your personal progress and making it difficult for you to express yourself. The dreams are an encouraging sign that you are becoming aware of these issues and are taking the necessary steps to extract and eliminate them, leading to a sense of relief and renewed ability to move forward and communicate effectively.

I was kind of amazed by all of this. First, the dreams being so vivid, and then both of them pointing to the same things. When Ben woke up, I told him about what had happened, and read him the summary.

It was all tied to that deep sadness, and sense of loss I was feeling when I got back to the room the night before.

When I stopped designing fabric, it was for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons being that I was just so burnt out. I waaaay overdid it, so instead of saying hey! I need a rest. I said, hey! I’m outta here! And when no one came after me, in my mind, it was because no one actually cared one way or the other, and maybe they never did. And not quite instantly, but eventually, all the people I’d gotten so close to vanished from my life. And then I had Magnolia. And everything went wrong and I was sick, and it made her sick, and they cut me open and in so many ways, I’ve never felt whole since.

I’ve been broken. And the people in my life didn’t vanish, I vanished. I hid myself away, like a wounded animal in a hole in the woods. I’ve hurt myself with neglect. And all the actions I took, confirmed my own worst fears. I became a ghost of myself. Some of the best things about me, and so many of the gifts that make me me were just put away with someone else’s name on them. They couldn’t be mine. And also to be clear, this isn’t stuff I’m actively dealing with everyday, but it is like a low frequency hum that exists in the background of my life.

That is until I step into something that puts me fully back in my purpose. Purpose that has the power to collapse all of the feelings of worthlessness, and brokenness. These times of remembering and boldness have always been when I’m speaking, or teaching in front of a group. Speaking to art students, or kids, or quilters. Every single time, it has snapped me back to life. I feel like I’m on fire, and where I’m meant to be.

When I sat at that table and person after person came up to me, and asked if I remembered them, I wanted to ask back, “wait! you remember me?!”

The weekend broke something in me that needed breaking. And it was SO tangible that even my dreams were putting the pieces together for me. I am the one standing in my way. These unfortunate, and desperately sad lies that I’ve allowed to embed into my feelings about myself have kept me away from fully being who I’m meant to be.

So yes. I remember you. And I remember me too. I carry you with me. Always.

Thanks to Amy and Megan from Sewtopia for having me, and Megan for all the help with my pop-up.

Thanks to my sweet family for being so loving, sturdy and solid in my life. We’re such a great team.

And thank you to all of you for being here and reminding me about me. I’m so forgetful sometimes.

I’d love to hear from you. What makes you feel most alive and in your purpose? How have you created space for that in your life?

xoxolizzy

Leave a comment

At the end of this month I have a halloween collection due. I thought it’d be really easy since I have years of halloween designs just waiting to go. I had half of what I thought I’d turn in done already.

So am I using them?

No. Not really.

The truth is, I’ve never been a huge halloween gal, and my feelings about it keep evolving. I’ve made a ton of fun work around it, but it has typically been at the request of someone else… I literally made my first Halloween fabric collection because a friend asked me to. “It would be so fun if you made a halloween collection”. And me responding, “oh you mean like this?….(insert very silly little ghosts and giggling)”. My ghosts and I have come a long way. My feelings about halloween haven’t traveled as far.

All holidays just revolve around Magnolia, and in the case of halloween, the Great Pumpkin. The only reason halloween matters at all to me now is her dressing up, being brave knocking on doors, and having fun with her friends. And still just Charlie Brown. Always Charlie Brown. That’s all it is now.

I’m strictly no tricks, only treats.

Much of my previous stuff, while being cute, leaned a little spooky for my taste now. I’m going for something sweeter. And I’ve gotten so into it I might write a book around these new characters. I might do the thing I’ve always wanted to do, and finally become a chirldren’s book author.

I’ve made a lot of new artwork in the last few days, and I’m enjoying myself so much, that I’m waking up in the morning super excited to get back to it, and staying up way too late. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this good about anything I’ve been working on, and it’s thrilling!

I can’t wait to share it with you in like a year 😂

In other news, my Mom is home from this hospital this week, which is very good. Thank you all for your prayers and your generous energy, and the kind messages you sent. We are grateful she is home, but last week threw me off my game. I’m still getting my ducks in a row for the Sew Along.

This week is simple.

We were supposed to meet today, but I’m still trying to reorder our life after our eventful past week, so we’ll have our first meeting next week. I still have a few patterns to send out, so if you were feeling late to the party, I’m running late to my own party and you can grab one here.

I’ll email everyone with the first vids and meeting time early next week.

Week 1 Blocks:

• 1E Sugar Cookie

• 3A Peppermint Bark #1

• 4E Malted Milk Biscuit

• Peppermint Bark #2

This weeks blocks are the simplest of the whole quilt, and require no hand holding. Next week we’ll start holding hands.

You can do it! I believe in you!

If you haven’t already, think of a friend you’d want to make this quilt with, and share this post, and this post. ↓

I’m off to early bed, because I’ve been so carried away with this new collection I’ve been staying up very very late every night this week like a kid in college, for which I am not.

Love you a ton, and I can’t wait to get together with you next week.
xoxoxolizzy

Leave a comment

My mom is in the hospital right now. She’s got sort of a nebulous pneumonia that they can’t quite find. We’re hoping they do as soon as possible, and that they can get her blood oxygen saturation stable so she can come home and,“we can eat good food and we can watch Galaxy Quest”(her words).

It was my Mom’s birthday this week, and we were also supposed to take Magnolia to Disney World to visit my bff from school. So while everything is sort of crumbling around us, in our life, and very much, the world, I baked a really great cake and wanted to share it with you, so if you have a birthday coming up, or the world is falling to pieces around you, you too can enjoy a ridiculously good cake.

Lizzy’s version of a Black Forest cake:

Any time I need a chocolate cake my go to for everything is Ina Garten’s Beatty’s chocolate cake recipe. You’ll see from the ingredients and the process that it straight forward, simple, and fast.

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour

• 2 cups sugar

• ¾ cups good cocoa powder, such as Valrhona

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken

• ½ cup vegetable oil

• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans (for cupcakes, see note). Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. (Not to worry; the top will sink a little in the center.)

I used olive oil because that’s the only oil I had in the house (I have made it with butter, and it tastes great, but isn’t quite as moist). I didn’t use Valrhona cocoa powder, because I’m a Guittard chocolate girl, and their cocoa powder is great. You could also use a black cocoa powder here if you wanted it to have more of an oreo flavor, which is great. I also bought an organic coffee in a cute little glass bottle from the grocery, because I don’t drink coffee, but if a recipe calls for coffee, I’m 1000% using it.

It bakes two perfect 8 inch layers.

Do you know something that made this such a delightful cake to make/assemble?

I spend about 10 minutes prepping the pans. This is often an after though or something that I rush and then you have to fight your cakes out of the pans when they come out of the oven.

Not today! I just took my time with it, and made parchment rounds to go in the bottom of the pans. Buttered everything and completely coated them in cocoa powder. Once they were done baking, those cakes came out of those pans as if it was their only job in the whole world. And in that moment, it was.

For the cherry filling, I took a bag of organic frozen sweet cherries and added them to a sauce pan, along with 1/2 a cup of sugar. I Let them cook down over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, then added the juice of a lemon. A typical black forest cake uses sour cherries, but I wasn’t going to be able to get my hands on any of those, so I made due with a lemon. I let it reduce further. To finish it off, in a small dish a added a teaspoon and a half of potato starch (you can use corn starch) and a tablespoon of water to make slurry and added this to the cherries. This tightened the whole thing up so it behave as a cake filling. Add a little salt to taste. Let this cool completely. I made it the day before I assembled the cake.

The Frosting is a stabilized whipped cream from one of my best books. If you enjoy baking I can’t recommend BAKING by James Peterson enough. He’s so thorough, and meticulous in his explanations. He essentially covers every component of everything you would need to know to be a proficient baker. If you aren’t a baker, but know one, it would make a really good Christmas gift.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons (⅔ packet) powdered unflavored gelatin

• 2 tablespoons water

• 2 cups heavy cream or crème fraîche

• 4 tablespoons sugar or more, to taste

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

Method

Put the gelatin and water in a small bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until it swells, or blooms, and absorbs the water. Stir the softened gelatin with a fork to get rid of any lumps.

Add ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of the cream to the gelatin mixture and put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula—a rubber spatula allows you to pull the gelatin away from the sides of the bowl—until it is smooth, then take the saucepan off the heat. Don’t heat it any more than is needed to dissolve the gelatin.

Combine the remaining cream with the sugar and vanilla and beat to medium peaks. Turn the mixer to low speed and pour in the gelatin mixture in a steady stream, avoiding the whisk and sides of the bowl. If you’re making the stabilized whipped cream by hand, stir the gelatin mixture into the cream with a whisk. Continue beating the cream just long enough to incorporate the gelatin.

Spread the cream in or on a cake with an offset spatula or pipe it, with a ½-inch or larger plain tip, in straight lines on top of a cake.

I doubled the recipe, but used half crème fraîche, and half heavy cream. This worked TOOOOO well. With regards to a stabilized whipped cream, I might never use plain cream again. The crème fraîche made such a huge difference.

For the chocolate shavings I froze a few chocolate bars and then used a vegetable peeler to shave them into a dish that I put back into the freezer until I was ready to use them. It was a total mess. Putting the shavings on the cake was a total mess, but freezing them helped, and the cake looked great so sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice your body.

I had a part of jar of amaretti cherries in the fridge, and I just needed 10 to decorate the top of the cake… but I only had seven. I used all seven.

The cake was delicious. The olive oil bitterness with the chocolate and the coffee REALLY worked. Especially with the cherries and the cream. It was just an all around winner. Too good really…. certainly the best cake I’ve ever made and the best cake I can remember tasting in a really long time. Maybe ever… and I’ve eaten cake all over the world.

If you have extra cherry filling after you’ve assembled the cake and you haven’t eaten all of it with spoonfuls of the stabilized whipped cream, serve it with the cake. If every single bite could have cherries with it, it would just put the whole thing in another universe.

To Break down the process:

• day 1 bake cake, and make cherry filling. Chill cake layers and cherries. Make chocolate shavings and freeze

• day 2 make stabilized whipped cream and assemble cake. Send Ben to grocery store to buy cake box because you didn’t know you’d need to transport it to the hospital.

Things have felt like too much lately, so making something so lovely felt like a real win, and in an effort to not dissapear into the void, I’m happy to share it with you.

If you can spare a prayer or a good thought for my Mom, send them her way. And if there’s a way that I can be praying for you or someone you love, let me know and I’ll add you to my list. I mean it.

xoxolizzy

Leave a comment

A gal needs a hobby, after all.

I am serious about casting something on in the next little bit. When I get done with my work, and everything is settled for the evening… dinner is put away, and everyone’s teeth are brushed I’d really love to knit in bed for a little bit before I fall asleep. For some reason this feels romantic to me.

The only problem is I’m a little manic about finishing things. Finishing books. Finishing projects, etc. It could be the gemini in me knowing that if I put it down, I will move on. So i’ll aggressively finish projects, which is less than romantic… I actually only have a handful of unfinished projects which is good, and bad… good because I don’t have many unfinished projects waiting around, and bad because I will 1. likely never finish them, and 2. I have brutishly finished most of my work with my sheer determination, and radical neglect to my health, and other parts of my life. Projects get done, but no one really wins. I’ve always been a good sprinter, and an abysmal marathon runner, but I’m still trying to unwind that, and allow for little daily actions. But I have found knitting to be a really good toe hold into that for me; implementing the idea of small daily actions because of the nature of handwork. This is likely also why gardening brings me so much peace, joy and stability. There’s just only so much you can do in one day when you’re waiting for things to grow.

All this is to say, I’d like to start a knitting project.

I asked in my instagram stories if friends could share knitwear pattern designers that they like, as I’m not really in that world, and while I do procrastinate, even I know I don’t have the time or energy to peruse at 1.7 million patterns on Ravelry.

To my delight, I had a great big response from so many of you with suggestions!

And much to my surprise, I also received a very big response from those of you asking if I’d share the results of people’s suggestions with you!

I’d love to.

A few things before we begin. First, I owe my teeny tiny baby love of knitting to Virginia B Johnson of Gather Here of film and television costume design fame (she’s Emmy nominated now 🥲) She taught me to knit, and retaught me every time I came back to Boston. I was kind of living there from 2013-2015. It was such a special time in my life, and I miss it and Virginia and Noah and Gather Here very much.

The other thing… I like stripes. A lot. You’ll start to sense a pattern in the things I like. Honestly, anything that’s going to look like I may or may not be part of a circus is pretty good indicator of what I like in knitting patterns. And I don’t love knitting lace patterns. A little lace in the yolk, sure. A full lace shawl… no. I’m just not there in my skill level or commitment. But I do love bobbles…

This list comes from messages in my inbox of suggestions. I’ll try to list everything that was sent. Some I really love, some were suggested a lot, and some while not for me might totally be your thing!

The most suggested knitwear designer was by far Petiteknit, and it’s easy to see why! Her work is classic, simple, elegant and explicitly for everyday. Her stuff is the sort of stuff you always look put together in. I’ve definitely looked at her work before and have added a few projects to my ongoing list. I also really like that she has women’s and children’s patterns in quite a few of the same designs so Magnolia and I can match for the foreseeable future.

Boyland Knitworks. She’s got a really fun style. I added the big bobble crop to my list.

Tin Can Knits was recommended a lot! And I love Canadians so that’s great. They seem to have a bit of everything! And they have a free app to help you with their patterns! That’s awesome!

Aimee Sher Makes She has really beautiful classic patterns.

Knit Love Wool She does really lovely colorwork in the yolks of her sweaters.

Hunt Hand Knits She also does very fun colorwork/pattern design in her patterns

DreaRenee was recommended a handful of times. She has a lot of cropped sweaters. And if you’re short waisted like me, that’s very thoughtful.

Savory Knitting She’s got a really cool technique that she’s using to do really interesting colorwork. So cool!

Jessie Maed I love the G8 Gingham Raglan sweater. So fun!

Isabelle Kraemer. My favorite of hers is the Shaun sweater. She designs

Summer Lee Designs. She’s got really great socks!

A couple of people suggested PurlSoho, but they didn’t need to, because I already know. I love so many of their quick and simple projects. They make me feel like a pro. But what I really love is they just get me with their colors. They offer so many types of yarn, and the color just do me in.

While I’m not starting a knitting project tomorrow, these suggestions have got my wheels turning. The desire is STRONG.

Don’t forget!

The Holiday Cookie Party Quilt Along starts next week! If you ordered a pattern, and haven’t received a notification yet, we ran out of the proper sized mailers for them and the new ones arrive today. The workroom will have the digital pattern this week, and there’s still time to join in. I’m genuinely excited about this. I haven’t sewn with anyone in a long time 😪 and now I’ll get to sew with all of you.

ok. Gotta get back to actual work.
Lots of Love to you!!!!
xoxolizzy

ps. Did a miss a fun knitwear pattern designer you love or your favorite local yarn shop? Will you add them to the comments?? 💗

Leave a comment

Sorry for the deluge of emails 😅. I wanted to first say thanks for subscribing and also I hope you’ll sew along with me. Even if you can’t keep the schedule (I know we’re rushing headlong into the busiest time of year) I want you to have access to all the content. Read about it below

I also wanted to send you a discount code for $8 off the pattern so you can be totally ready to sew. It’s just a tiny gift to say thank you, and that I can’t wait to sew with you.

xoxolizzy

Read more

We’re finally having our Holiday Cookie Party quilt along.

It’s going to be loads of fun. There will be prize drawings each week. We’ll have tutorial vids, and almost every week we’ll have a little get together! Not too long. I don’t want to take too much of your time, but I do love a club, and getting together with a group of friends every week feels like a good thing right now.

The Quilt along begins on the week of October 13th!
This will give you time to gather all your things. Your fabric, and your pattern.

Here’s the schedule:

Week 1 First meeting Thursday October 16th blocks 1E, 4E, 3A, and 5DE

Week 2 Second meeting Thursday October 23rd blocks 4A, 2D and 5A

Week 3 Third Meeting Wednesday October 29th blocks 2B, and 4D

Week 4 Fourth meeting Tuesday November 4th blocks 2C, and 5C

Week 5 Fifth Meeting Thursday November 13th blocks 1A, 3D, and 2E

Week 6 Sixth meeting Tuesday November 18 blocks 1B, and 5B

Week 7 No meeting Thanksgiving week blocks 3BC and 4B

Week 8 Seventh Meeting December 4th blocks 2A and 3E

Week 9 Eighth Meeting December 10th 4C and 1CD

Week 10 Ninth and Final Meeting December 16th Sashing and finishing

While the schedule is subject to change, you can mark your calendar for these dates.

You certainly aren’t required to attend our weekly meetings, but we’d love to have you. You can think of it as office hours, so you can get help and support, but also just a little company. I have a feeling it will feel a little sad once we’re done.

This will be such a fun and low pressure way to make this quilt. Most weeks you’re only making one type of block. A few of the weeks you’ve got multiple blocks but I paired them up in a way that makes sense.

The other thing I was thinking of is… I would LOOOVE to put together a booklet of everyone’s favorite cookie recipes. That I can get printed before we conclude. I’ll work out those details.

To get your copy of Holiday Cookie Party go here!
And if you’re a subscriber, I have an $8 off coupon for you I’ll send you.

If you are a shop carrying the pattern will you leave a comment below so I can include a link to your store.

If you’re a Canadian or international friend looking for the pattern, starting next week the workroom will have the digital pattern available, as well as a printing service for the 24x36 pattern pieces if you’d like to skip taking it to the copy shop.

If you’re an international shop outside of the USA and Canada and would like to carry the digital pattern, leave a comment!

I can’t wait to make this quilt with you!

xoxo
lizzy

Leave a comment

I had an Earth Wind and Fire spotify “radio” station on with the windows down as I was leaving her school after I dropped her off, and Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere was playing which is just kind of a magical song… and I was singing and moving to it stopped at the light, and I almost immediately felt eyes on me. I look out the window and a teenage boy also had his window down in the back seat of his mother’s suburban and he was just staring at me with the most horrified look on his face.

I laughed and rolled up the window. Age is such a strange thing. I don’t really feel older, I just feel like myself, but in that moment, I felt ancient and it made me laugh out loud.

Time is an even stranger thing.

A month and a half ago we moved my Mom in with us. In some ways it feels like she just got here, and in other ways it’s like she was always here. We’re most definitely still getting settled. We’re all adjusting and the house is still feeling it. It was like I had to move also without moving because I had been using the master bedroom as my office, and we gave that up for my Mom to have more space and an ensuite bathroom. As it turns out, I have enough stuff/equipment/product to fill a whole building. It’s actually not a crazy amount. It just needs its own space. So I had a move, and I’m still recovering from it and finding a way to work through it.

The break was necessary, but I’m always missing you when I have to step away. I’m always thinking of things to write. Things to say. Thoughts to share. Things to send you.

Here are some good things on the horizon:

• I’m working on a Halloween line of fabric that I’ll turn in come November. I wasn’t going to go through with it as I’ve mostly only done seasonal collections since I started working with Moda, but there’s a reason for that, and the reason is I like Holiday’s and I'm good at them. I’m not sure when this collection will get released, but it’s probably 2 years from now. Womp womp. After that I want to do a candy collection, a cat collection, a storybook collection, and desert bird collection. We’ll see how it goes…

  

• I’m hosting my first (in over a decade) Quilt Along, those details will follow!

• I’ve got a booth for Quiltcon 2026 in Raleigh

• We’re working on more thread bears!

• I’m really close to being done with all the Funny Valentine patterns and getting them to the printers. I’m feeling really good about that.

I think that’s mostly enough for now. Life is pretty full, and I’m ready to be so far ahead that I can sit by a fire, and knit something. The weather is changing. The garden is overgrown, and I’m leaning into my life.

Love from all of us over here to you.
xoxolizzy

Leave a comment