Catching Up (or....Seduced by Instagram)

Hi all,  it has been a busy month for all of us I am sure. Here we saw school get out and the garden go in.  We have had family gatherings, a day spent at Plant Con (the local water conservancy district has wonderful gardens, displays and classes) and helped our grown kids move into new digs. As well, I did the local Utah Shop Hop with my cousins (nieces, really) and have been sewing my brains out.  Aha! you say..... that is where they went....

First, a couple pix from the Utah Shop Hop, where the theme this year was Quilts Over Broadway. Each of the 13-14 shops were themed after a Broadway play, like West Side Story, Grease, Paint Your Wagon, Wizard of Oz and Little Shop of Horrors.

Here we are (L-R: Kim, me, Jen) as Oz characters:

The highlight of our 2-day trip around the state to visit the shops was seeing lots of Lori Holt’s quilts displayed at Thimbles and Threads. And in fact, I will be attending a 3.5-day retreat there next week with Lori herself...

And, it’s time to post the Farmgirl blocks (from her book and above quilt) that I have worked on, two per week, for the last three weeks....

Churn Dash

Corn and Tomatoes

Cool Threads

Country Crossroads

Crops

Egg Basket

I have learned (from Crops, above) that these photograph much cleaner (straighter) when laying down rather than being hung by pins from my design board....

I’ve also sewn, but have not pictures of, a small ironing pad for my travel iron and a quilted mat for my sewing machine with pockets for scissors, etc.  Both of those will be used regularly here at home and also at the Retreat next week.

Garden News:  Two pix of my back yard showing our climbing roses and our garden grow boxes.  You can see how small the garden was about 3 weeks ago when the roses peaked. Then, how much the garden veggies grew by the time the roses were waning. Now, with the roses needing deadheading so they will re-bloom, the garden is even bigger, but no pix of that for now.

Rose glory

waning roses, growing veggies

Lately I’m feeling so discombobulated because I have been taking some pictures with my camera, some with my iPad and some with my iPhone. The latter two I can, and do, use for Instagram, where I seem to keep more up to date with my sewing postings. The camera pix are mostly for my Etsy and sometimes the blog.  But sometimes I need my iPhone/iPad pix here on the blog, then I have to email them to myself, and they will not save in the new Photos section on my iMac (thanks a lot, Apple). In short, I have pix scattered about here and there..... *deep sigh*

By the way, you can follow me on Instagram. I am   @cathy_k_in_ut
I have more to blog about, including a quilt finish, but I am going to put that in a separate post.  Also, I have NOT given up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but hope to begin working with my light blue and aqua scraps (June`s monthly color) this weekend....

Finally, I am closing out most of my Etsy Shop (see link at right). As soon as I get back from the Lori Holt retreat next weekend, I will begin a 20% off sale on all merchandise; lace, fancy fabric packs, vintage patterns, vintage sheet fabrics, etc - even clearance.  The percentage off may increase as time goes on (and inventory decreases).  The plan is to convert the shop to vintage sheets/fabrics, vintage sewing patterns, and vintage linens only. Lace will always be my special love, but I have commercial clients now that I must focus on instead of the shop.  So, watch for that sale!!!

Whew!  See you soon!

Hugs,

Rearranging Colors. And Priorities.

Yesterday I showed you a picture of a large HST (half-square triangle) quilt I had started for my son.  As he is an artist and graphic designer and has always - since the age of 6 - painted with oils, the fabric with the artist paint colors on it was a no-brainer. However, I wanted to keep the quilt masculine, so we selected charcoal gray and a bold design off which to bounce the colors.

This was yesterday’s picture, and the more I looked at it, the less happy I was.  The paint pieces are chaotic and need to be tamed. I had originally tried the layout using the same color or fabric for each concentric circle (an orange circle, then a multi circle, then blue, etc).  That didn`t look right, and I didn`t have enough of some colors.  Then after taking the picture below, I also noticed that one of the multi pieces is positioned sideways (second row down, just to the left of the orange).

So today I got busy and deconstructed most of it. I decided that solid colors around the central diamond would work.  That bulls-eye effect draws your eye there, and it is the most important area of the quilt. So I added a yellow HST, and the remaining pieces inside that gray circle were given over to the multi-print, all with the correct orientation. Much better.

The rest of the quilt can and will be randomized as far as solids and prints, but as long as that central part is in order, I think it will work.  There are six rows pinned up there and three more that will join them.  I hope to have this sewn up today and/or tomorrow.  It won`t be finished for 2014, but should end up being my first finish for 2015.

Thanks to my readers who have stuck with me through thick and thin this year. My posts have been sporadic, but I think I am getting my groove back. The most important thing for me this fall and winter has been to “clear my plate” of commitments and things that have been taking too much of my time.  I spent November and December hunkered down, stitching, sewing, planning my weeks, then days, just to get every last thing done. And my Etsy shop was hugely busy with special orders.  And I did it. But I do not want to repeat that.

My Etsy Shop
I am going to simplify my Etsy shop. Hand-painted lace is being phased out. I will offer white and golden-dyed lace trims and a few appliques. I have been working as a rep for a lace mill for a few months, and love working with large customers (bridal shops, clothing and lingerie makers) and large orders. More human contact, more lace, more money, fewer tiny details than selling by the piece. 

The fancy fabric packs are being phased out; I will instead concentrate on selling off my drawers of vintage fabric, both fancy and cottons (vintage sheets).  And vintage patterns. I have hundreds and need to list those.


My 2015 Plans

Going forward into 2015, I want to have more fun.  If I plan on a handmade Christmas, I will begin much earlier. My granddaughter London has started school, so there is no babysitting in the near future (although my son Ryan and his wife Kim are pregnant and will welcome Baby Flox in July 2015).  And as for my online CQ activities, I plan to take a back seat. I will not be planning any retreats. The Yahoo Groups forum is dying, and I am tired of trying to resuscitate it. We added CQI to Facebook, but there is already another thriving CQ community there, and I wonder if it is necessary to re-create the wheel?  Besides, running an online group is a giant time suck, and few realize the work and effort it takes if you are organizing activities, challenges, etc.  That’s not what I want to continue to do with my time. So, I will be stepping back into the shadows as far as crazy quilting.  But I do have 2-3 projects that will go on my 2015 calendar to finish.

And then there is the sewing and quilting.  I have joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and in between making quilts for family members, I will make blocks here and there that will eventually come together in scrappy quilts.  I want to sew more clothes. Spend more time in the garden. Take more walks.

Times are changing, and so am I. So are my interests. But I will always be Crazy. By Design.

Hugs,

Year-end Projects Completed

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas??  Ours was great, and the weather was perfect. It began snowing lightly on Christmas Eve, and we woke up to white ground on Christmas Day.  It continued to snow throughout the day on Christmas, steadily but not heavily enough to disrupt family traveling. With everyone coming to our home, plus a fire in the fireplace, it was such a cozy, wonderful day!

I was able to finish up all my planned Christmas projects. Unfortunately, I did not get any great pictures of the entire cream-on-cream crazy-quilted wedding commission wall hanging I did for a client. I will share some (poor) block pictures I took, however.  I don`t know why they are so dark here. They look much better in my photo editing program.....

(Above) This is the center medallion area, 2 blocks tall. It is outlined in a dyed gimp trim, and the bow used to tie the flowers is from the wedding dress. There are rolled roses, gathered velvet flowers, yo-yo flowers and others. Carved MOP buttons and vintage millinery too. The woman for whom this was made used to be a florist, so we wanted to include a lot of flower motifs in the quilt.

(Above)  There is a lot of lace included from the wedding dress.  In addition to what you see above, there was a marquis-shaped motif that we used a lot, and actually influenced the shape of the center medallion.

(Above)  You can see the marquis motif in the lower left of the above picture, as well as in the one below.  As well, I included lots of vintage laces, doilies and buttons.

None of the blocks are too elaborate, because my client wanted to keep the look elegant and simple, without a cluttered (what we would call encrusted) look.   Below you can see the second bow used in another block. 

Naturally, there had to be the traditional Victorian good luck motif of a spider in a web. As it turns out, that motif also has a special meaning for my client.  See the butterflies in the cluny lace?

This is the picture, poem and other information that was printed on silk and attached to the back of the quilt.

We hope to get more formal and better pictures in the new year.  :-)  The quilted wall hanging finished out at about 44” across and 34” tall.

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This is the Frozen-esque flannel nightie that I finished up for my DGD London for Christmas. It fit her perfectly and she changed into it to hang out in all day!  :-)

Finally, I have begun a new quilt for my son Shane.  He wanted dark, bright, geometric. And since he is a painter/artist/graphic designer, I had to use the paint print fabric.

As you can see, my design wall is waaaaay too small. I am currently working on rearranging my sewing studio so I can double the size of the board.  So if that looks funny (only the first 2 rows are sewn; the rest are pinned), it is because it is curling around the bookcase. Make do.

Finally, I am having a year-end sale in my Etsy shop. 20% off everything (even the Clearance section) with the code BYEBYE2014.  Link to my shop is on the sidebar. I hope you will drop by!

I may have a bit more to share before the New Year rings in officially.  In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your Holidays!

Eight Months Later. . .

This post could be subtitled “How I Spent My Summer” (and spring and fall. . . ), but hey. Life gets in the way. And it has been a great ride these last few months. . .   :-)

So, let`s do a whirlwind recap of what has been going on.

I think I last showed a picture/teaser of this pile of fabric.  It has since been made into a block and published in a calendar. Specifically, Pam Kellogg of Kitty and Me Designs asked me to do the block for the 2015 calendar that accompanies her quarterly publication, Crazy Quilting Quarterly (to begin in Feburary of 2015).

From scraps. . . 

. . . to naked block. . .

. . to embellished block for June, 2015 calendar

Pam assigned me the month of June, with colors of pink and aqua (which I changed to blue) and a Marie Antoinette theme (which I changed to just 18th century French). I was able to use a lot of golden-dyed laces from my Etsy shop (link in sidebar).  Pastel blue and pink are not normally colors I work with, but I really enjoyed the creative stretch.  (Now, what should I do with the finished block??)

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I also did a baby quilt for my daughter’s longtime friend, Riley, who had a cute baby girl last summer.

Baby quilt for Marlee

Beginning in early spring, my cousins (actually, Bruce`s nieces, who are my age, but it is easier to call ourselves cousins) and I began having regular sewing sessions at our place every Sunday. During the nice weather, we ate out on the patio and watched as the garden went from dirt, to raised planter boxes filled with dirt, fertilizer and seeds, to sprouting vegetables to a monster garden of tasty delights. Then back again to dead/dying plants that were dug up, mulched, etc. etc.

Before. Sorry, there are no “After” pics, LOL!

In my Etsy shop this spring, things were booming, so I hired my friend and neighbor, Mary, to help me for 10-12 hours per week.  Together we dyed and painted lace, ironed lace, shopped for and cut fabric into fabric packs. Mary took up a lot of the photography, which allowed me more time for listing and working on bookkeeping. I also now am a rep for a family-owned lace embroidery mill on the east coast, and have three large-ish customers who buy laces in bulk directly from me. They are a wedding store, an Australian bridal designer, and a lingerie company. Since school has started, Mary`s hours are fewer, but we still get together once or twice a week to catch up on all the “work” (too much fun to be called that) of running an Etsy business.

And here are sneak peeks of three quilts I have been working on.  My next post will show the finished sea-themed quilt and talk about that.  The cream-on-cream CQ is a private commission that I will publish after it is given to the recipient after Christmas.  The third one is a quilt for my son, Shane that I will finish later this month.

Top half of “Saltwater Wedding” quilt (pieced top)

Early progress on private commission crazy quilt

Testing a layout on quilt for son Shane. Design board was in use!

I plan to begin posting more regularly, with a shift toward regular quilting projects and sewing. I will still be crazy quilting, too, but for the foreseeable future will be primarily finishing UFOs (unfinished objects) and projects that have languished.

Watch for my Saltwater Wedding quilt post!

Hugs,

Blocks - Crazy, Sane and Mental

Well, the mental block is nothing new. If I want to focus on something, I have to write it down. Yesterday, I made up a list of things I wanted to get done and by golly, I did get most of them done. But sometimes I am unrealistic. In addition to cleaning 2 bathrooms, changing the catbox, cleaning the kitchen and mopping its floor, preparing and mailing my Etsy orders, doing 4 loads of laundry, doing a blog post (that I forgot to send until today), and writing long overdue letters (emails), I thought I could quilt the in-process baby quilt, cut out another one, and dye the last of the seaweed lace. Yeah, only if I went without sleep. So, Monday’s goals will probably spread out over the entire week. And maybe I should go with the flow instead of writing daily goals?

So I said a post or two back that I would share the work that the ladies in our recent Lace & Pearls Round Robin (for Crazy Quilting International) did on my blocks. Previously, I shared the work I did on their blocks, but this is the lusciousness that I got back.

Barbara W. always does amazing flowers!

This is Gayle’s lovely work. Wish I’d given her a bigger piece of lace - my bad.

Connie K did this gorgeous work.

Andrea did the lower right area and Connie finished up this block for her.

Liz R used the lace to make a peacock! Isn’t it amazing?

And this is the block that awaits my stitching.  

A few of my female relatives and I have started a Sunday Sewing Session. My cousins Carrie and Kim (who went to Arizona with us and are really my hubby`s nieces even though they are roughly my age), along with Carrie`s grown daughter Jenny (who has two kids that stay at home with their daddy) get together in my studio from 10am-ish to 2 or 3-ish on Sunday to sew.  Having a regular few hours to stitch has enabled me to get a lot done. I`ve been helping Carrie with our local quilt shop`s Block of the Month (BOM) blocks (which are red and black and white and I have no pictures of because I give them back to her).  And she has been helping me organize my stash of quilting fabric.

It`s not finished yet, but it is sure looking better. Thanks, Carrie! I love you!  :-)

Last year in January I started an online BOM and only got the very first one done. That’s because February’s block was awful - paper pieced center block with 8 sections, and I could not get it. I finally got smart and made the center plain. I figure the quilt police won`t show up and arrest me or anything, LOL.  That block is on the left, below.  The right block is the same line of fabric (Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry) plus some birdie fabric. That pattern is the one we have for March for our local BOM. I don’t like how those 2 strips came together to make that big oval in the lower left, but I am still undecided about fixing it.  What do you think?

So now I have 3 blocks done for this quilt, which will eventually be for me. But it is a long-term project to work on here and there.

Finally, I have another CQ block to finish by the end of June for a friend. I can`t really talk about it, but this is it`s start:

I am still in the idea-gathering stage. I`ve been researching and reading and pinning pictures on a private Pinterest board, collecting online pix, sketching ideas in a sketchbook, etc.  I have given myself another week (until the end of the month) for this phase before I gather all my possible supplies and begin piecing the block.  And then everything will probably change, or at least morph as I go along. It’s always a fluid process, isn’t it?  

Now can you see why I finally cut yesterday’s post short and published the first half this morning?  This second half was way long, and together - sheesh. I need to blog more often.  

By the way, I will have one more post either today or tomorrow. Subject: Lace Seaweed. It is all dyed up and just needs to be packaged and listed in my Etsy shop. That’s what I am doing this afternoon.  Oh, and for those of you who commented (or wrote to me) saying that 11 yards of seaweed lace isn`t very much, I neglected to mention that it is 13” wide. It really IS a lot. I’ve been dreaming seaweed. . .

Hugs,

Just a Teaser (if you like Seaweed)

I have spent waaaaay too much time dyeing laces lately.  Awhile back one of my suppliers offered me a deal on some vintage lace that looked to me like seaweed. To a seamstress, that would not be particularly appealing, but to a crazy quilter, WHAT A FIND!   I purchased all of it (11 yards) and now have a lifetime supply of lace seaweed, LOL.

The problem was that this (rayon per the supplier) lace is acting more like a rayon/poly blend and has been quite difficult to dye.  I have been playing with it for a couple weeks and finally found what works and what doesn`t.

There are a few more colors I want to get made up, like brighter oranges, some pinks, plus some greens that are more emerald.  Then I have to decide how to package them (by color? in assortments? with other lace sea growth? some undyed? all of the above?) and then price accordingly.  So, it will be another week before they are listed in my shop. And then we can all go crazy with our Under the Sea themed blocks!!

In the meantime, though, I do have a new Spring Woodland inspiration assortment of fabrics, trims, laces (and beads, buttons, a silkie print) available in my Etsy shop.

I am very close to having not one, but TWO baby quilts done to show off, so I will be back with that next week.  In the meantime, I will photograph and show you my Lace & Pearls blocks that I got back from the other ladies in our recent RR. You will recall that I’ve been showing my work on their blocks, one by one. Now it is time to show you the lovely work they did for me on my blocks.  Later this week.  :-)

Hugs,