Merry Christmas!

While I have been trying to put together a blog of the recent past adventures, Christmas has snuck up on me!

May you all be able to spend quality time with your sewing machines!

And, simply….Merry Christmas!! 

Not quite caught up…

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’m just finishing up the semester, and I’ve been working on getting my final done.  There’s still a 7 page  research paper due that the teacher has been gracious enough to give me an extension on.  For today, I’ll be sending in the final and taking a break!  Interesting to me that even though I never thought I’d post a blog, I’ve missed it;  there simply has been no time.  I’ve been sick the last couple weeks, too, which doesn’t help a bit.

I haven't exactly completed the quilt class that we started for my school project in that the blocks aren't all done and we haven't covered all of the material, but we certainly have had fun and learned a lot!  We'll be continuing the class after the holidays and I'm really looking forward to seeing what my students come up with.  I did however get the school project turned in and have had some good comments from a teacher.

 Oh, and I had a great business idea come my way….making Boise State University Bronco quilts! I’m not sure if you remember that I made my mom a University of Montana Grizzly quilt? Well, I had started a Bronco quilt before that, just hadn’t finished it because I wanted to create a pantograph design of my own, as I couldn’t find anything out there that I liked. That hadn’t come to fruition and I found a football design so I used that instead and started showing people. They LOVE IT! Now, I don’t think I’m being modest, it’s nice and all, but really, there are much nicer quilts out there….

Anyway, I’ve started the process to get a crafter’s license from the school so I can officially start selling them. I already have an order for 2 quilts, which are roughly 75” x 54” and I’m charging $200 each. They have a fleece back with the Bronco logos all over.  Another customer wants a king sized quilt, but I haven’t worked out a price with him yet. I bought a bunch of blue and orange fabric on Thursday on my way home from work, they had a 50% off sale and I’m going to buy the fleece from my wholesale vendor.

We got a birthday coming up next week to celebrate, and then I’m quilting a customer quilt on Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out; I'll let you know!

Sampler Quilt – Class #1 Progress

Saturday was the first day of teaching my Sampler Class.  It was a never ending comedy of errors, definitely a learning experience!

I found that because I had concentrated on providing samples and activities for later in this series of classes that I started to think that I needed different samples to assist with the main presentation.  I started to work on those samples at 9 AM with the goal of being at the facility at 1 PM.  What I failed to remember is that I had planned to use the sampler quilt that I had previously made for this part of the presentation.  It was only later, during the class presentation that I realized my completed quilt would have worked perfectly and that I had stressed out for nothing.

We had some great conversation about color, color value, the grain of fabric and how to cut it, and definitions of fat quarters and what they are used for (lots of variations in your quilt!)

We started with the Roman Block:

Then, because it used the same strips as the Roman block, we progressed to the Log Cabin:

And, having practiced matching points and cutting, we moved to the 9 Patch:

 

These are not my usual colors, but they fit my living room, so I thought I’d give it a try.  Next weekend we are going to work on half square triangles.  Woohoo!

Midterm completed!

Wow, I finally finished it!  My midterm ended up being 20 pages long…and am I glad it’s finished!  I even took two hours to sew!

Yesterday I found the most fabulous fabric for the borders on my baby quilt sampler!

 

  I started it when a friend of mine, Laura, asked me to teach a basic baby quilt class that had gotten cancelled at the local quilt shop.

The more I look at the class components, though, the more I think this needs to be a beginning quilt class, though.  Neither my friend, nor her friend, know how to quilt, so even the basic 9 patch, which is what this other quilt is, are going to be that easy.  And who wants to go around in life not knowing how to do a half square triangle? ;-)

So, I talked to Laura today and she reluctantly agreed to a longer class schedule for a sampler class.  I will help her get the 9 patch baby quilt completed if and when she still wants to do that project, but since she said she wanted to cover the basics of quilting, I really think the sampler will accomplish what she’s looking for in the long run.

Now, I am compelled to finish this project, then I can focus on my next round of homework!  Let’s see, two chapters plus two write-ups, more chapters for the class I just finished, a paper due in a couple days, and starting the outline and journal for the quilt class.  Oh, and don’t forget, I have to work and try to exercise, too!…  OK, now it’s time for bed…

Teaching a quilt class!

As I've mentioned before, I signed up for 2 online graduate courses. One of them has a requirement for 12-15 hours of field observation that I'm supposed to journal about. That's a lot of watching!

One of my friends had signed up for a quick baby quilt class, but it was canceled due to low enrollment and my friend asked me if I would teach it to her and to her friend. My mind immediately started in on working out the details of the quilt. On Friday I found out I can teach the quilting class as a replacement for the field observation, and even use the experience towards applying to the program!

I started, and have almost completed the top for, the quick baby quilt pattern that was the inspiration for the class and it is so darn cute! It’s pink and green, and I pulled most of the fabric out of my stash, although I needed a border and backing so I went to JoAnn’s last night because it was the last day of their 50% coupon sale. We have a new superstore in town, although, unfortunately, it does not have the variety of fabric that one would expect with the square footage available, and very long lines just to get your fabric cut...over a half an hour!

I got the most wonderful light green fabric for the back, I think it's considered a fleece. It's very soft and has a nap, with the bubbled up dots as a part of the fabric. Well, it was a bit expensive for a baby quilt, but it is so cute! I may have to keep this one for myself!

I was talking to Marian from CuddleTime Quilts, who not only has a teaching background, but also quilts and teaches for her own business. I really value her advice and she suggested that rather than teaching that specific quilt as a class, to change it to a beginning quilt class that covers more information and extends over a longer period of time. I tend to agree, considering the people who will be taking the class hardly know how to sew, but that will make the class hours longer and increase the preparation time. It would be a better class, though….

I just need to figure out where to hold the class. My teacher doesn’t want me to have it at my home, since that is somehow less professional. Sigh.

I’m also very behind on my schoolwork, have a midterm due and the teacher even extended my deadline but I am still scrambling not only to finish that project but to keep up in my other class. I do NOT like taking 2 classes at once, and it is definitely interfering with my quilting!

Working on my Website

Well, my website is in transition.  I am finally changing hosting providers and got the name servers updated by this morning so the new location is where the domain name points to but, lo and behold, my software hadn’t installed by then!

So, the site was down almost all day, and now I have only the default Joomla installation files on the site.  Anyone looking at it will not know it is my site until I am able to put a placeholder up.

Wow, it sure is a lot of work to find something I like, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Weekend’s coming, got a lot of homework to catch up on, got a mid term coming up in two weeks!  Eeek!

Two Weeks Post-Innovations

I can’t even believe it’s been almost two weeks since Innovations!    The quilting was amazing and inspiring, and so much has happened, and so much to talk about, I can’t even remember everything!

I came back from Innovations all fired up to quilt!  Would you believe that some of the best instruction happens between classes?  I was introduced to Ione Whitney by Sue R. from American Hero Quilts as Ione was getting ready to teach a class.  I’ve seen her name in the catalog before, but had not taken any of her classes.  I told her that I have the darndest time trying to figure out the continuous lines in a design.  I spend more time trying to be efficient than I do quilting!

One simple question from Ione put me on a new path.  She asked me “do you think you can’t cross over, or double back on, a line of stitching?”  The answer was a thoughtful “yes”.  She proceeded to show me how to quilt a 9-patch with a traditional X placed in the middle of each square.  It was so easy!  When I got home, I put that very design to work on my American Hero Quilt with the set in blocks and 9-patches, and it only took 2 hours to get two rows of 5 blocks done.  I still have to quilt the setting blocks, but I was able to stabilize it enough to take the quilt off so I could show my machine to a potential new Innova owner!

I also came back with a sampler pack of 20” squares of batting from Pellon to quilt up and see how they work out.  They have a new variety of battings that will not be available in the chain stores.  If I sign up to be a distributor, I can sell it to my local quilt shops, if they decided to carry other types of batting, which is a big IF!

The three most intriguing to me are the soy batting, bamboo and cotton blend, and the wool and polyester blend.  They feel really soft and I can’t wait to feel how they feel inside of a real for real quilt.  I was thinking the other day that I should have bought two of those sample packs so I could quilt one with a flannel back and one with regular cotton.  I’m thinking of using a great big feathered wreath, some wonderful King Tut thread, and stitching the name of the batting into the quilt.

Of course, I got together with some of my friends from last year, Edie Ellison and Marion Drain from Cuddle Time Quilts, and Marion Carmickle, and we all met up with some new friends!

The night we had dinner together was not only fun, it was hilarious!  The poor waitress dumped a tray full of salad, salad dressing, water, and other beverages and food all over the heads and backs of Marian and Linda Rech, from Finely Finished Quilts.  Linda and Marian got their dinners comped, including dessert, which was a chocolate mousse cake!

And, with all that enthusiasm for quilting stirring around, I came back to lots of homework, and an even bigger realization that I have a mid term coming up in two weeks, and I’m very behind on that reading!  EEEKK!!