I'm in the sewing room yesterday trying to finish 2 tote bags and start on 3 others. I realized that while I was cutting for the two smaller totes I failed to cut handles for either one of them. Yikes, I must have used the wrong shampoo that morning. Hmmn, that begs the question did I even take a shower. Ok you're right, let's not go there! I know for one of the pieces I have enough fabric for the handles but what about the other one, nope, gotta think that one through. (Now that I'm sitting here writing, I figured it out. Cool!) So I decide to move onto the other totes and realized that for two of them I need zippers. Bugger. Now I need to make another trip to the fabric shop. (maybe that's not such a bad thing after all!)

Now what do I do, the sewing I'd planned (I'm seeing a life theme developing here) gets set aside and I'm looking around the space thinking, thinking. The room is getting full with the billowing smoke pouring out from my ears. Thinking. I could make pattern pieces for the futon covers and finally do them. Uh, no, not today, too much work. This would mean dragging the vacuum cleaner down stairs, chasing the cats and clearing off the living room floor. No, not today, tomorrow maybe, but not today.

So now what?! More billowy smoke pouring out from the ears and then AHA! yes that's it. I located the fabric for dmil's purse, ironed pinned and quilted that. I enjoyed that and played with the quilting. The fabric is a cream/tan micro check and I used King Tut cream colored thread to quilt it. There's a lot of quilting however, it blends in nicely with the colors of the fabric. More time on my hands, the smoke is starting to build up again.

Hmmn, I need backings for two quilts. I spend time looking at the fabric stash. I pull one piece that I really wanted to use for one of the quilts. Way too small, way too much work piecing it to make it the size I need. Toss it back onto the stash. Then I'm looking at two other pieces. I take one, measure it quickly, yep that will do, now how do I add to the sides. (Room starts filling with the billowy smoke again, I have to be careful here I need a few brain cells left for a meeting I'm having on Friday with my co-chair.) So as I'm thinking I think wow, that will work. Spend time ironing the fabric, grateful for my Rowenta Advancer that gets really really hot. Then I place the two pieces together, having left the selvage edges on, go over to the machine, stitch at 3/4" down each. I know you're thinking hey silly you're making a tube not a quilt back. I then trim the seams to 1/4 inch, decide which piece will be left in tact, cut the other one down the middle (using that middle line that never quite irons out) and press. Shazam we have backing! First one done. Whew.

That sends me back to the fabric stash looking and thinking some more. (You can fill in the billowy smoke/thinking details in here). Choose two more fabrics and proceed the same way. This is one happy quilter here. Backings for two quilts and in less than 20 minutes they're stitched and cut and I didn't have to do too much work to achieve the size I needed.

I do like a variety of quilt backings. There are tons of options out there including the really wide fabrics. I like those but sometimes they are just a bit, well, plain. I don't mean in the sense that they're not beautiful, oh, they're amazing! And I like the fact that I don't have a seam anywhere that I need to be mindful it's there. But sometimes it's just not right.

A while back my friend MaryAnne showed us what she likes to call "fun backings" at guild. She takes all the left over bits from the quilt she's working on, stitches them all together until she gets the size she needs. These backings are a lot of fun, take work, relate well to the front and add so much to the overall look of the quilt.

So, yesterday was a productive day after all. I'm going to wait until Monday night to baste the quilts at guild. We have a huge floor space to do this so it will be a great time. Then I can quilt them both and tick them off my never ending list of things to quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Rant

I want to daily choose to look at life as a series of challenges that help me grow and become a better person and quilter. I enjoy opportunities to learn and share my love of all things quilty. So, what's the rant? It's not so easy to share as I don't want to cause scandal and yet something needs to be said.

About 2 1/2 years ago our quilting world was rocked with the end of Simply Quilts. We wrote letters, made phone calls and still no new SQ episodes. We watched episodes carefully writing the names of the sponsors, called & wrote them to save our SQ. Did it work? No. The sad reality is that the show came to an end. Simply faded away.

What's my rant? Rumors that Alex was the one who ended things with the network. Rumors abound that's the nature of rumors. The grow like pernicious weeds and can cause lots of damage. Another rumor I've heard is that Alex left SQ to begin The Quilt Show. Both of these rumors are not true. The network ended Alex's contract and Simply Quilts. (They are just now beginning to realize the error of their ways and the impact and are showing the shows again.) It was the networks decision, not Alex's! Alex did not leave to begin The Quilt Show, the opportunity for The Quilt Show came about after Simply Quilts ended. In fact Alex was prohibited from doing anything for a period of one year after the network ended the show! I can not begin to imagine being contractually bound to not do anything on tv or the internet in a field I love for any period of time. It's the truth, the network did this. Not Alex.

And even still another rumor is that Alex is getting residuals from the rebroadcast of the SQ episodes. Nope, not a cent here either. Any revenue that is coming in from the rebroadcast goes directly to the network.

And, at this point neither she nor Ricky are making money off this new venture. Just thinking about this that even with under 23, 500 registered members they have a bare bones budget. Okay, there are sponsors and they're kicking in funding, however equipment needs to be purchased, the website needs to be maintained, there are traveling expenses, food expenses, sundry expenses (things like toilet paper, scissors, fabric), video equipment and the list goes on. From an extremely reliable source, it is my understanding that for the web services they’re offering (blogs, messaging forums, chat room, & storage area for our photos, etc) costs way over $10,000 per month!! That number does NOT include the cost (production) of each show. Whew! We’re getting a lot for our $25/year membership!!!

I don't know about you but our household expenses have risen to the point where I'm not sure that I can continue in my own business adventures (used adventure on purpose). I'm thinking I might have to find a part-time job that will allow me to continue begin at home with my mom-in-law and run the guild quilt show. Yikes

Okay! Done. Stepping off the soap box now, back to reality. Soon to return "How to Run a Successful Quilt Show" Part 3. (thanks DM for the reminder! =-)

Today is a perfect day for quilting

It's raining. It's chilly. It's gray outside. The light is perfect for sitting in the sewing room and quilting. Because we're expected to have rainy weather through Saturday I'd hoped to get some quilt related work done.

Hoped.

What's preventing me you might ask? Well, cleaning. I need to clean the house. My family needs a tidy house. Ok its me really, me who needs the house clean. Not anything pristine mind you. Just tidy works for me. In my life Thursday is cleaning day, unless of course I'm going away for the weekend then it's packing and finishing everything in a hurry 'cause I'm on a deadline day. After dinner the dishes get done, that's it! I decided a long time ago that either I can quilt or spend time with my husband in the evenings. He works hard all day so it was an easy choice to make. He doesn't mind if I quilt in the evening, he'll usually fiddle around on the internet and we'll have some delightful conversations. These conversations are incredibly well timed, just as I'm ready to get up and stretch anyway.

What else? Well, there are things that need to be done for the quilt show. I need to meet with my co-chair, work on an article or two with her, send an email or three out to committee members for various things, find sources for some extra funding for things we need, make quilts to enter into the show and well, the list goes on and on and on. This doesn't even include the challenge with my friend in Maine.

Then there's errands to run today. Yep. After I'm done tidying up, I actually have to get dressed to leave. Yikes, that puts a damper on the whole quilting experience doesn't it.

Hmmn, then there's dinner to think about. That really puts a damper on quilting for me. First of all cooking is not my thing. Baking let me have at it. Putting dinner together is a CHORE. Yuck, I'd sooner clean the . . .well, I'd rather not go there! Anyway as we speak I have bread drying out in the oven to make bread crumbs later today for meat loaf. Since it's such a gray day meatloaf seems like a great choice. I have sweet potatoes already mashed and I can pick up veggies while I'm out. Dinner, done!

I will work some quilting in today, despite the fact that there's other things going on today. Quilting is a passion, work and hobby all rolled into one. How much better does it get than that?

Happy quilting!

Teri

How to Run a Successful Quilt Show part 2

Part 2

The raffle quilt took weeks to piece. A few members had to redo their blocks several times before I reluctantly let them in. This slowed our progress considerably; however the end result was well worth it. And the bonus is that these quilters are now much better at paper piecing, needle turn appliqué, & reverse appliqué.

I must add here that the raffle quit chair, Emiliana (Emi) actually surprised me with incredible designs and patterns for the quilt top. Emi chose only the best organic cotton batting and somehow found organic cotton thread to compliment the colors of the quilt. She had the quilt quilted in record time. Amazing, simply amazing. I don’t quite understand why Emi refused membership I the Quilt Police. She would have made a most excellent addition to their highly skilled ranks.

Next I searched high and low for raffle prizes, the likes of which have never been seen. For the sewing machine it came down to two shops. Ooooh, it was so hard to choose. Do I go with the shop offering 10 free classes or 100 yards of free fabric with the machine? Choices, choices! I finally settled on the free fabric, after all good teachers need to be paid and paid well. (As an aside one of the free classes was my highly publicized binding technique that took the quilting world by storm! I just couldn’t have that.)

For the second prize one quilt shop owner out did herself by adding 4 hours of long arm quilting to her basket of notions. She did amazing work putting the basket together including several books, only the best cotton (Egyptian long staple of course!!) and all of those items we quilters just adore. Did I mention she included her own signed copy of my book “Great Binding Techniques”? (When I sent the book for publication the original title was “Simply Stunning Bindings”, however the publisher thought that “Great Binding Techniques” offered the quilting community a better idea of the book. After this flurry of activity, book signings, lectures & lessons I must agree with her assessment.)

The Boutique at any Quilt Show is a challenge. I thought that Josephina was going to pass out when I handed her the latest market research paper entitled “What’s in at Quilt Shows – How to make the most of the Quilt Show Boutique” and links to 6 websites. Good grief, the report was only 100 pages and I did give Josie 4 days to go through it, highlight what she thought might work and give a power point presentation to the guild at our next meeting on the items necessary for having our boutique be successful. I wasn’t asking her to make and bring samples. Josie actually managed to get this done and went so far as to include a great sound tract with the presentation. Maybe she’s after the chair position; I think I’ll keep my eye on her for the time being.

Solomina’s application said she wanted to chair the Raffle Quilt Committee. I seriously considered this until she gave her presentation. I won’t describe her quit here (mere words would not do it justice!) let’s just say the Quilt Police and I were not amused. How I managed to conceal my disappointment should win me one of those fancy dancy awards for acting. I used the old actor’s trick of using the mentholated rub used to relieve congestion and “cried” I was so moved. Then as a bonus she made triple chocolate fudge brownies for us. I knew immediately . . . FOOD . . . she needs to chair the Food Committee. It was after all a highlight of many great shows these days. And what a coup, she knows two trained chefs who are willing to donate their time. How much better than that does it get? The chef’s will prepare the pre-show buffet, the food for the show and the post-show wine & cheese for the ribbon winners. The pre-show buffet will include Solomina’s brownies.

A quilt show is only as good as its advertising and vendor committee chairs. They must, must, must have a great rapport with people, work at a local quilt shop (teaching of course), be internet savvy and know a few key people. Well it didn’t take a long time to find Marguerite Barber Thompson (MB) for nothing. MB works full-time in the advertising department for a major and I do mean major sewing and notions corporation & she’s very well connected. I’m hoping to groom MB for the Chair position so that when this show is over she’ll step right in. MB’s first job included wriggling out of 4 vendor contracts. She did such an excellent job they weren’t angry at all. (I think the Champaign and caviar and 2 pages of ad space helped.) With the space for new vendors new available MB contacted several of her friends. Not only would they vend, they offered to give demos. How cool is that!

The ad campaign began with a tv blitz detailing our charity campaign and goals. She followed this up with a 2 page, 4 color ad in three national magazines. Wow, I’m impressed, very impressed. I can hardly wait to see what comes next.

Confessions of a Pin Thief

I'm a pin thief. In order to understand how I became a pin thief I share the following:

A few years ago when I worked in an office I was a pen thief. Oh, it happened innocently enough. I'd use the pen, stick it in my pocket (thank goodness for hair spray is all I can say!) to use later on in the day and come home. Put the pen on my dresser, dining room table or in my purse with the intention of bringing it back to work the next day. That sometimes happened, not so often as I would like to think.

Part of my job at the office was ordering office supplies, so over the years I've ordered lots of pens. Ball point pens blue, black & red. Felt tip pens, permanent markers. Retractable pens, highlighters, pens that are meant to be stationary (they usually weren't for too long, we tried though, we really tried). Correction pens (these are great! no more messy goop all over my fingers) and then there were the really good pens. Fountain pens and gel ink pens are by far my favorite styles of pens. The fountain pens are best for journaling and writing letters. A bit messy (okay, I'm the messy one with my writing hand somehow ending up on the ink and blotting it everywhere else great for ink blot tests, not so good for reading later on) but great an amazing writing experience. The gel pens with the really fine points are great for a lot of things including accounting work. With their really fine point I could write the numbers in those little tiny spaces in the column pads.

So back to the whole pin thief story. Back in August (I remember it oh so well) I went to my 20th HS Reunion. Had a great time. Met up with my classmates and enjoyed the evening. The DJ was too loud (of course) but hey, that's what he's there for. But I digress, part of the weekend was spent at a friends house quilting. As we prepared for the weekend my friend said that I just needed to bring my projects, I didn't need to bring pins, needles, sewing machine, scissors etc. She had it all there and I'm welcome to use what I needed. Thanks, it made packing a whole lot easier.

So Sunday morning I get there. I have projects to finish and deliver to my sister the next day so I really want to get some sewing done! I take them out of the box and begin pinning. I have the three "cutie purses" as I call them ready to go. And on one actually got most of the binding done, however, I was having problems with the thread breaking (I returned it) and with the needle slipping out because of the bulk, I'm sewing two quilts together with binding, so it makes sense. I get frustrated and put everything away, pins and all. I figure I'll send them to my sister in a couple of weeks. No problem.

Fast forward to yesterday, I finally get these purses out of the bag they were in and there they are, my friends pins! Oh-my-goodness, I can hardly believe my eyes. I realize I've made the move from pen thief to pin thief. What's next pun thief? Good grief. They're the good pins too, glass head, long, sharp, strong and fine.

As much as I had a thing for pens, I have a thing for pins too. As a quilter the search for good pins is on-going until just the right one comes along and you know, just know that this will be the pin for me. Over the years I bought long and short pins with little plastic balls on the end (if you have them a word of advice, keep them away from the iron!), I've purchased steel ball point pins that are really sharp, they work really well for pinning binding down. Then there are the two variations on the flower head pins. I really like the flower head pins and will always have some on hand. The are great for a variety of projects. Again there are the really good ones and the not so great ones. The really good ones can be ironed over, even on high heat and I've even stitched right through them. The challenge comes in when I have to break the flower head part, it's doable however it can be rather painful and they don't quite look so pretty any more. The not so great ones can't be ironed over and what a mess when I do. Thank goodness for iron cleaner is all I can say.

I did talk to my friend yesterday and told her what happened. She just laughed as she has lots of pins and it quite happy to share. It's good having a friend like that, one you can laugh with and just enjoy quilting. It makes being a pin thief a bit of a gift really.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Oh and in a few weeks I'll be ordering some of these glass head pins!

Morning Coffee

I really enjoy coffee. It's an important part of my daily routine. I begin and end my day with coffee. I drink coffee in the mid-morning, early afternoon, and occasionally in the evening. Dark roast, French roast. Iced or hot. Yum! I'm often inspired by Jearlyn Steele's Black Coffee Song from Prairie Home Companion. Makes me giggle every time I hear it!

I've enjoyed coffee with and without sugar, usually without 'cause I'm sweet enough. I've had lattes (had a great pumpkin pie spiced latte yesterday, a seasonal favorite) and cappuccinos and espressos. Not so fond of the espresso. I like coffee on it's own and with a little something. Once, a long time ago, when the situation arose and there was no milk or half & half around I even had black coffee and enjoyed it. Really.

Coffee is the one non-water beverage that I actually bring with me in the sewing room. On a day like today, it's chilly here, coffee is essential. I'm very careful when I have coffee in the sewing room. I can be a bit of a klutz in there, well anywhere really and I spill stuff. I can't tell you how many shirts I own that have coffee stains. It's sad really, wasting coffee by spilling it on my shirt.

Every once in a while we have a coffee mishap in the morning. It starts the night before really, but we don't know it until the morning. For years my sweet husband and I had a our coffee pots on timers so it's ready when we go downstairs in the morning for coffee. Last year we finally purchased a coffee pot that has a built in timer. It's a treat really, however it takes a bit of work. We don't mind the extra work that it takes - making sure it's set for the correct time. Sure it only takes 12 minutes to brew a pot of coffee but good grief, with the timer you'd think it'd be ready on time. I guess this would be considered "user error" when it's not. Oh well.

Back to the coffee mishap. As we're grinding the coffee beans and filling the reservoir with water and setting the timer we occasionally forget to make sure that the pot is on the warmer correctly. So when we come down in the morning, the timer has done it's thing and started the coffee brewing. Instead of this wonderful, warm liquid streaming gracefully into the pot what happens is that we get this muddy brown, semi warm liquid and coffee grounds all over the counter. What a great way to greet the day.

The counter has to be cleaned, the pot rinsed out (more than once to get all of the grounds out, because no one likes crunchy coffee), the basket has to be cleaned, the place where the basket goes has to be cleaned. And sometimes we even have to figure out a way to rinse out the reservoir. Who knew that coffee could back up that far?!

Then we get to make a fresh pot of coffee, and wait the entire 12 minutes until it's done brewing. Now, if this happened to me this morning, I would have cleaned up the mess, brewed the pot and waited 8 minutes for my first cup. Pause & serve is a great feature on a coffee pot. Did I mention this before? The pause & serve feature is what helps us get into this mess, the thingy is open just enough by the slightly askew coffee pot to let some of the liquid through and closed enough to keep most of the brewing coffee in the basket to back it up and create this mess.

Now, here's why I only wait 8 minutes. I'm impatient in the morning for my first cup. If I wait 6 minutes the coffee won't be as flavorful later for my sweet dh (who cleaned up this mornings mess, thank you sweetie) and he likes coffee too you see. Between the two of us we drink between 10 & 12 cups of coffee in the morning. See for us it's only 1 to 1 1/2 mugs, our coffee mugs hold about 16 ounces of this amazing liquid. Sigh.

So, I just brewed another pot of coffee. I'm going to head into the sewing room with my energy renewed and Prairie Home Companion playing in the back ground.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Tips for Having a Productive Quilting Day

Make a plan for the day. As I sipped coffee and read the news and the visited various sites I visit in the morning I made a plan for the day. Breakfast, tidy up my mother in laws apartment, start the laundry, tidy up the house, quilt for hours, make dinner. That's a good plan for the day. It's a plan I like and I'm sticking to it. (well I think so anyway)

Be flexible things will change. I know in my life from very practical experience that things will change, I will need to make some kind of change in my planning that will effect the rest of the day. Today is no different. Read on, you'll see.

Get a good nights sleep - this is essential. Waking up frequently during the night does not help. This makes for a tired, unmotivated and foggy minded quilter in the morning. A good nights rest gets the creative juices flowing, keeping the energy level up. So what happens to me last night, I'm waking up on and off all night long. (There is a reason I'm sharing this, all will be made clear in just a few paragraphs). This morning as he's getting out of bed, my dh turns off the alarm, I was actually grateful for that, however I'd wanted to get an earlier start on my day. I can't be annoyed with him though, I'm a big girl and could have gotten out of bed at 6 when I woke up the first time. Well, not the first time, but you know what I mean.

Have a good breakfast. As the old saying goes, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" or "a good breakfast is a good breakfast". Okay so, I just made that up. I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing here. And with the lack of sleep and the big change in plans I need something special to get them flowing freely. After the coffee I actually had a good breakfast. Two egg omlette with Canadian bacon and goat cheese. Yum. Good grief, I still have to do the dishes! Yikes.

Get the basic chores done. Did that. Sorted and started the laundry. Tidied up my dmil's apartment. Good start. Decided to wait until tomorrow to vacuum our place since I really, really want to get into the sewing room. So, shower time, see I'm flexible when I need to be. (All right, you caught me, I just really didn't want to clean, I really want to pet fabric. I do have my priorities.) This was practical too as I decide to clean our potty. So I open the cupboard to get the bleach (cleans and sanitizes all in one shot, how much better does it get?). I see blue goop all over the bottom of the cupboard. What is it I ask? Did I mention I've got bleach in the potty and now I need to pee? Great planning on my part. Why can't I coordinate myself this morning?

I'm thinking the toilet bowl cleaner leaked, this will take just one minute to clean up. No big deal right. I start pulling bits and pieces out of the cupboard. More blue goop. I know I used the toilet bowl cleaner, how much could there possibly be? Then I look a little deeper. Oh no. It can't be. Yep, it sure is. Blue Shampoo that we keep on hand in gallon size for the cats. It's been leaking for a while there's maybe a pint left in the bottle. I start pulling things out to see where it seeped. I have to pull out the drawers now as it's flooded all over the bottom shelf. I pull out all of the cleaning stuff, start rinsing that off in warm water. Did I mention I really, really need to go to the potty and I've got bleach in there?

I'm rinsing stuff off and start using a sponge to clean up the goop. Effective, but not particularly efficient with nearly 3 quarts of blue goop all over the bottom of the cupboard. I then grab my t-shirt and start using that, it's a lot bigger than my sponge. Then I'm realizing that I'm going to need to toss a few things so I get the trash bag then start scraping some of the blue shampoo into the trash bag. That helped a lot. I got most of it up. I hit my head on the cabinet because I wasn't paying attention to where my head was in relation to where I was reaching in to wipe up more blue goop.

I need to rinse out the t-shirt. It can only hold so much blue goop. So I reach into the tub to turn on the water and as I'm backing out I scrape my shoulder on the corner sink (there is less than a 6" gap between the tub and the sink/cabinet). Rinse. Wipe up more blue goop. Repeat.

See. I'm flexible. I shifted gears to clean blue goop out of a cabinet. I'm clean now. My finger and toe nails have never been whiter. I'm hoping that my t-shirt will return to that sparkling white it was when my husband bought it for me years ago. After all it is a whitening shampoo so there's a good possibility.

So now I get to go change over the laundry, finish the dishes and go clean my sewing room. Then maybe tomorrow I can have a good quilting day.

Happy quilting!

Teri