Thursday, January 24, 2013
A New Direction
So, the Valentine table runner is complete, and actually well before Valentine's Day! I am very pleased with how it has turned out and it makes a festive Valentine accent.
My quilting studio has vastly improved. I now have some track lighting which has helped immensely and have installed some storage shelving. My husband was kind enough to fabricate and hang a design wall so I can play around with coordinating fabrics and block layouts for quilts. Things are really coming together. My daughter and I have completed a fleece blanket for one of her American Girl dolls and I am completing the binding on a quilt for another doll. She has a total of six American Girl dolls and she says they each need their own quilt designed for their unique personality. Ugh! Four more to go! I might gripe a little, but these little doll quilts make great little projects on which my daughter can continue to learn quilting techniques. On this next one for her "Chrissa" doll, I am going to begin to let her loose to do more of her own piecing. I'm really excited for her progress.
Speaking of progress, my online store is up and running. My store is called Quilt Store Next Door and can be found on Etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/quiltstorenextdoor. Right now, I am stocked with about 22 items and have already sold one doll blanket. My shop specializes in 100% cotton fabrics which can be used for quilting (DUH!) or any other sewing, craft or home decor project. I am also stocked with several pre-cut quilt kits that allow you to begin sewing almost immediately without a lot of initial cutting. In my opinion, this type of simple short cut is what moves people from thinking they'd love to have a hobby but just don't have the time, to actually making a hobby something that fits into their busy life. I have one more doll blanket left in stock and I am currently planning a design for a sleeping bag that will fit an American Girl doll or any other 18 inch doll.
The coolest thing I have done thus far, is design my own unique quilt block. I was inspired, of all places, at a hotel we stayed at recently. I noticed this really neat design in the bathroom floor tile and thought it would look cool on a quilt. I guess we'll see if anyone else agrees!
I am loving this new direction I have realized in my quilting journey and chosen to pursue. As I had said before, ten years ago when I was a new quilter I was all about buying beautiful fabrics, taking classes and following patterns. Now, I am exhilarated to be SELLING beautiful fabrics to other people so they can learn the science behind this age old art and DESIGNING my own patterns to follow and perhaps one day share with others. I am even kicking around the idea of offering some quilting instruction. More on that to come. I am so blessed by where I have been thus far on this journey and eager to blaze ahead to where the journey will continue to lead me. Thanks to all who are reading this and taking the journey with me. May God bless you.
Please visit my Etsy store, Quilt Store Next Door and like my store on Facebook at Quilt Store Next Door. I am also on the web at www.quiltstorenextdoor.com
Enjoy the new pics of the finished runner.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The Next Step....
Welcome back to my story. Some time has passed now since my little one received her new sewing machine. Our quilting studio is underway and I have my electrician friend from church coming in a couple days to install additional electrical and lighting...I need lighting! One thing that has changed in the last nine years is my eyesight, and not for the better.
My daughter and I have almost completed our first collaberative quilt project, a Valentine table runner. She has been facinated by the quilting process and is ready to start on something new. Slow down kid, I still have to finish stitching the binding on this one! But, we do have a lovely new four-patch Valentine runner to enjoy. It is not perfect, but it is beautiful because of what it means to her and me.
I have also realized this time around that I have changed as a quilter and a person. When I was younger and under the spell of the wonderful fabrics, tools and patterns, I had only a consumer mentality. I wanted to learn and buy...and buy I did! I have been going through all the fabric yardage and kits I had in my stash and can I say "OMG!" How much did I spend?! Don't get me wrong, I will still buy new fabrics, but now we have ebay and other online sources that make it a bit more affordable and make options endless. I also paid a visit this past weekend to my favorite local quilt store and had a look around. I joined a "Quilt Divas" club that meets twice per quarter to introduce new or review old quilting methods. It was great to be back learning new, old stuff!
As I have sorted through my stash, it has also occurred to me that my tastes have changed so I listed several brand new, unused fabric kits and books on ebay to sell. I have had a great response there so my mind went one step further...how about my own online store? So, that's what I did.
This week, I opened my online quilting supply store on Etsy called Quilt Store Next Door. My store can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/quiltstorenextdoor. I have several items stocked and ready to ship and I'm so excited! Wouldn't it be great to make money doing what I enjoy? I most likely won't get rich, but at the very minimum I have now financed my own fabric habit!
So what have I learned so far on the journey? First, my daughter is a natural at the sewing machine, something she did not inherit from me. Secondly, my eyes are bad and I need an eye exam. But most importantly, I have learned that whatever you do, be smart. Don't just be content to be a consumer, do something with what you have and what you know; make it matter. Do a new thing. "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing."
My daughter and I have almost completed our first collaberative quilt project, a Valentine table runner. She has been facinated by the quilting process and is ready to start on something new. Slow down kid, I still have to finish stitching the binding on this one! But, we do have a lovely new four-patch Valentine runner to enjoy. It is not perfect, but it is beautiful because of what it means to her and me.
I have also realized this time around that I have changed as a quilter and a person. When I was younger and under the spell of the wonderful fabrics, tools and patterns, I had only a consumer mentality. I wanted to learn and buy...and buy I did! I have been going through all the fabric yardage and kits I had in my stash and can I say "OMG!" How much did I spend?! Don't get me wrong, I will still buy new fabrics, but now we have ebay and other online sources that make it a bit more affordable and make options endless. I also paid a visit this past weekend to my favorite local quilt store and had a look around. I joined a "Quilt Divas" club that meets twice per quarter to introduce new or review old quilting methods. It was great to be back learning new, old stuff!
As I have sorted through my stash, it has also occurred to me that my tastes have changed so I listed several brand new, unused fabric kits and books on ebay to sell. I have had a great response there so my mind went one step further...how about my own online store? So, that's what I did.
This week, I opened my online quilting supply store on Etsy called Quilt Store Next Door. My store can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/quiltstorenextdoor. I have several items stocked and ready to ship and I'm so excited! Wouldn't it be great to make money doing what I enjoy? I most likely won't get rich, but at the very minimum I have now financed my own fabric habit!
So what have I learned so far on the journey? First, my daughter is a natural at the sewing machine, something she did not inherit from me. Secondly, my eyes are bad and I need an eye exam. But most importantly, I have learned that whatever you do, be smart. Don't just be content to be a consumer, do something with what you have and what you know; make it matter. Do a new thing. "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing."
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
"Re-Newed" to Quilting
As the title tells you, this is a quilting blog. If you have no interest in quilting or think it's just something old ladies do, then you may want to move on.
But if you're still reading, here's my story. I am not quite an old lady yet, and when I first began quilting about thirteen years ago, I was most definitely not an old lady. At that time, quilting became my torrid affair. My husband and I had no children and he would work long hours, so if I wasn't at work...I was quilting. When I was at work, I would be thinking about quilting. To walk into a fabric store or quilting specialty store was a rush. The smell of the fabric was intoxicating and I couldn't learn enough techniques fast enough to work through all the fabric, books and kits I was buying. Over a four year period I made numerous quilts of all types and sizes; bed quilts, quilted pillow shams, table runners, place mats, Christmas totes, quilted coasters and purses to name a few. My very first project was an American flag wall hanging and that was what sucked me in.
You see, I never sewed. My mother never sewed. Her mother never sewed. My paternal grandmother made attempts to teach me to sew and crochet to no avail. I almost flunked out of home economics in the eighth grade. I was hopeless.
One day in 2000, a woman I worked with whose daughter quilted and made beautiful hand-made quilts, was lamenting that she would like to learn to quilt. She was considering taking a class through our local parks and recreation establishment. She asked me to take the class with her. In horror, I replied that I almost failed home ec and I didn't own a sewing machine and I certainly wouldn't know the first thing about how to even turn the darn thing on! She was relentless--as it happened she had an older machine she no longer used. She would give it to me and teach me how to use it. What else could I say? So I cluelessly headed off to the local craft store and bought fabric for an American flag wall hanging that we would make in this class meeting once a week for three weeks.
In the first class, the teacher taught us how to use a rotary cutter and myriad other things about how to measure, cut and sew strips. I went home and I tirelessly worked on sewing those little strips together on my borrowed sewing machine until it was completed. The lady who invited me to the class never finished her wall hanging. Mine still hangs in the hall near our back door. And so my journey began taking classes and teaching myself sewing basics and quilting techniques and I loved every minute.
As it is said, all good things must come to an end and my quilting hobby was no different. In 2004, my sweet daughter was born and three months later, my sweet mother passed away. I was a mother with a newborn and no family to help me navigate my way through new motherhood.
So for nine years, I would stare at my expensive sewing machine (purchased later to help me fuel my quilting addiction) sitting inside it's expensive sewing cabinet and I would dust it. I had no time to do anything else with it. I would stare in the closet at my unused fabric stash and say "one day I'll be back."
Then one day a couple months ago, my darling girl uttered these amazing words to me: "Mommy, I'd like a sewing machine for Christmas."
She received her new machine two days ago for her ninth birthday. In the meantime, I have set up a new quilting studio in my basement that can accommodate two quilters. I am a new quilter all over again, reteaching myself all I learned in my first quilting life, while I teach to another generation and begin a new phase in my own quilting journey. I have been "re-newed" to quilting....
But if you're still reading, here's my story. I am not quite an old lady yet, and when I first began quilting about thirteen years ago, I was most definitely not an old lady. At that time, quilting became my torrid affair. My husband and I had no children and he would work long hours, so if I wasn't at work...I was quilting. When I was at work, I would be thinking about quilting. To walk into a fabric store or quilting specialty store was a rush. The smell of the fabric was intoxicating and I couldn't learn enough techniques fast enough to work through all the fabric, books and kits I was buying. Over a four year period I made numerous quilts of all types and sizes; bed quilts, quilted pillow shams, table runners, place mats, Christmas totes, quilted coasters and purses to name a few. My very first project was an American flag wall hanging and that was what sucked me in.
You see, I never sewed. My mother never sewed. Her mother never sewed. My paternal grandmother made attempts to teach me to sew and crochet to no avail. I almost flunked out of home economics in the eighth grade. I was hopeless.
One day in 2000, a woman I worked with whose daughter quilted and made beautiful hand-made quilts, was lamenting that she would like to learn to quilt. She was considering taking a class through our local parks and recreation establishment. She asked me to take the class with her. In horror, I replied that I almost failed home ec and I didn't own a sewing machine and I certainly wouldn't know the first thing about how to even turn the darn thing on! She was relentless--as it happened she had an older machine she no longer used. She would give it to me and teach me how to use it. What else could I say? So I cluelessly headed off to the local craft store and bought fabric for an American flag wall hanging that we would make in this class meeting once a week for three weeks.
In the first class, the teacher taught us how to use a rotary cutter and myriad other things about how to measure, cut and sew strips. I went home and I tirelessly worked on sewing those little strips together on my borrowed sewing machine until it was completed. The lady who invited me to the class never finished her wall hanging. Mine still hangs in the hall near our back door. And so my journey began taking classes and teaching myself sewing basics and quilting techniques and I loved every minute.
As it is said, all good things must come to an end and my quilting hobby was no different. In 2004, my sweet daughter was born and three months later, my sweet mother passed away. I was a mother with a newborn and no family to help me navigate my way through new motherhood.
So for nine years, I would stare at my expensive sewing machine (purchased later to help me fuel my quilting addiction) sitting inside it's expensive sewing cabinet and I would dust it. I had no time to do anything else with it. I would stare in the closet at my unused fabric stash and say "one day I'll be back."
Then one day a couple months ago, my darling girl uttered these amazing words to me: "Mommy, I'd like a sewing machine for Christmas."
She received her new machine two days ago for her ninth birthday. In the meantime, I have set up a new quilting studio in my basement that can accommodate two quilters. I am a new quilter all over again, reteaching myself all I learned in my first quilting life, while I teach to another generation and begin a new phase in my own quilting journey. I have been "re-newed" to quilting....
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