Loose Ends

One last post on the Leah Day diatribe.

Last Monday I wrote a lengthily email directly to Leah Day about her response to my comment and a comment by BMayer on her blog. It was an attempt to educate Leah about the industry outside her little blog. I haven't heard back from Leah, nothing, nada, zip. BMayer, who happens to be a friend of mine got the following response. "I think the most appropriate place for your comments, and this lengthy email, would be on your own personal blog or website." I'm not sure why Leah didn't make the same suggestion to me or why she chose not to respond to my well thought out, informative message. I do know that in my experience hot air tends to dissipate and has no real substance. I wonder if there is a correlation between the two?

I have received dozens of emails and phone calls about copyright, some of my comments in my last post and those that I posted to Leah's blog. Answering those questions and comments made me realize that I should save time by positing those answers right here on the blog.

I get credit for knowing WAY more than I actually do. The truth is, I've been in this industry for well over 20 years so I have learned a thing or two, but more importantly I know the people that DO have the answers and I'm not afraid to ask. So if you have a question about why things are the way they are or better yet, how to do something, fire off an email mailto:karen@thequiltcompany.com or post a comment right here and I will be happy to address it. If I don't know the answer, I will find out for you. Around here we call that Customer Service.

Lets start with something I addressed with Leah. The "personal use" statement that some designers choose to put on the edge of their fabric. This is what I sent Leah:

It would be helpful if you took the time to understand and explain the reasoning behind the "for personal use only" statements that some designers choose to print on the selvedge edge of their fabrics. Almost all quilting fabric is printed outside the United States. The countries where the fabrics are manufactured do not have the same standard of ethics that we do in this country. Fabrics are printed in minimum 3000 yard runs. On occasion a print run has a problem. It might not be the correct color or the print registration may be off. The contract most likely reads that the inferior yardage is to be destroyed. Often the defective yardage is actually sold "out the back door" to a manufacturer or jobber that sells the yardage to cheap outlets, discounters, etc with no compensation given to the fabric company or the designer. A fabric company or designer might never know that this was done, or it can turn up in obvious places after it has changed hands several times. Taking action against the print plant requires an international dispute. This is hugely expensive because the laws are different in each country and there may have been 3 or more countries involved. You might be thinking that letting it go and moving on is the best way to handle it, but what do you think the print plant will do with the next defective batch if there are no repercussions with the first? What is to prevent the print plant from printing an extra 1000 yards of a top seller and selling it on the black market? If a designer prints "for personal use only" right on the fabric, it cuts to the chase in their international copyright suit. That statement was never intended to prevent a consumer or designer from using the fabric for its intended use. Once again, personal use is defined as making anything for yourself or for sale or to give away as long as you don't cross the line into manufacturing.

Got it? If you are a consumer and you purchase fabric with the personal use statement and you intend to make something for yourself or someone else - even if that other person is going to pay you for your services, go ahead. Chop off the selvedge and move on. If you want to make a dozen of something to sell at your local craft shop, then you will need to call and ask permission. Chances are the answer will be "yes", but you have to ask. You have no way of knowing if the designer has a contract to produce a product that you may be infringing upon.

One other tip. If the fabric you are thinking about using is either Disney or NFL, don't bother contacting them, the answer is "NO". Don't think they won't find out about that one day sale in your church basement either. They might not, but if they do, they won't be happy.

Any other questions?

Common Threads

If you live within driving distance of Columbus Ohio, I hope you are a member of the Common Threads Quilt Guild. If not, you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity. I was invited to speak at the guilds March meeting and teach a class featuring my Quick Trim Ruler and my Sea Glass pattern the following day. I have to say that they are a pretty impressive group!

My guild presentations are a little different than the usual show and tell of beautiful quilts. I want everyone in the room to learn something - even if you have been quilting forever, I believe you can always learn something. I'm not there to just sell you a ruler, I really want to give you plenty of ideas and techniques that you can use as well as let you know what is happening in the industry. I'm pretty confident that once I show you the ruler, you are going to want one, so I try to include as much additional information as possible. Someone referred to it as the Lamaze method of quilting. The more you know, the easier it is to get through the process.

I travel and teach quite a bit and I have to say that working with Common Threads was absolutely delightful. They were well organized, fun to be with, receptive to learning something new and very talented quilters. Not everyone that organizes guild activities understands the importance of letting you know every detail, like zip codes for your GPS. Not everyone welcomes you with a gift bag of treats in your hotel room. After a week on the road it is very nice to arrive home to a hand written thank you note. It's not necessary, but one of those touches that makes you feel like all those miles in the car, schlepping all of those quilts and rulers and bins of patterns was appreciated. Thanks Common Threads, it was fun getting to know you!

Done

And....DONE!

The king size quilt is bound and on the bed! One UFO done and checked off the list and it is only January 10th! My goal was one a month so I am going to feel really sanctimonious when I finish off TWO of my UFO's in ONE month! Doesn't that make you feel like a slacker? Go ahead, grab an unfinished project and finish it off! Don't let me get ahead of you! I think you will find that the time it takes to actually finish the project is far less than the amount of time you spend fretting over the fact that you haven't gotten to it, yet. Today - or possibly this weekend - should be "yet". It should be the deadline you need to move something, anything, from a pile in your sewing area to display worthy. You are going to love it when you are done - trust me. Finished is a very good feeling!

I'm moving on to project #2. A curtain for my daughter. This one is on the very top of the unfinished pile. It has only been there for about a month. Our oldest daughter and her husband and the twins have finally moved into the house they have been refurbishing for about a year. My gifted daughter found out she was having twins and to her the next logical step was to purchase a 110 year old victorian house that needed a TOTAL rehab. Something to keep her busy while awaiting the delivery of the twins. Is it possible that a house could need MORE than a total rehab? This one had no kitchen, no functioning bath, it didn't even have main stairs to the second floor! Luckily the majority of that is all behind them and they were in the house before the holidays.

Lauren requested that I make cafe curtains for her kitchen. Cafe curtains with Eifel Towers embroidered on them. She did the measuring, I did the sewing and the 2 window curtains were delivered mid December. She also needed one for the back door. I did my best to explain double rods, hems, headers and how the rods would mount, but I decided not to make the door curtain until I could see the door and take my own measurments. Today the door curtain gets stitched - because I am going ther to visit tomorrow. The "last minute" is a great motovator! It still counts as finishing off a UFO!

If you are planning to keep up by finishing off your own projects, you better get busy. I am spending all day Saturday sewing with friends and I have already packed up the pieces for those twin bed quilts as my project for the day. I would have to sew for a week to get the tops finished, but progress of any kind is better than none!

As you finish off your own projects, let me know about it so that we can celebrate together! Post a comment telling everyone what you have completed or send me a photo that I can post and share. Email photos to Karen@thequiltcompany.com.

Bibs, Bibs and More Bibs

I love having grand kids. I also love having an embroidery machine. If you have both of them, you can make absolute magic!

Our Granddaughter Madeline just cut her first tooth and her brother Grant is following right behind. They are in the drooling-all-over-everything stage so some quick and easy bibs sounded like a great idea. AnitaGoodesign has an adorable embroidery CD to stitch out bibs in the hoop, so I decided to give it a try.... I loved the results!

To make the bibs you have to have an embroidery machine and a hoop that will accommodate a 7 or 8 inch stitch area. I use a BERNINA 830 with a Jumbo hoop, so I had all the equipment I needed.

You will want to have the following on hand:

The Embroidery CD, Bundle of Joy, by AnitaGoodesign. You can order it here: http://store.thequiltcompany.com/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=144711242047421447&Store_id=466&page_id=23&Item_ID=2009

8 1/2 inch square of fun fabric for each bib

8 1/2 inch square of PUL water resistant fabric for each bib

You can order that here:http://store.thequiltcompany.com/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=144711242047421447&Store_id=466&page_id=23&Item_ID=2010

Thread to match or coordinate

No-Tie shoelaces or ribbon for ties

Water Soluble Stabilizer

The bibs are available on the CD in two sizes and two styles. Select the one you prefer and load it into your machine. I stitched out the larger size, and naturally I had to make both the boy and girl versions!

Hoop just the stabilizer and thread your machine with the same thread top and bottom. Any brand wash away stabilizer will probably work, I had OESD Aqua Mesh and it worked great! Because I planned to make more than one bib, I didn't cut my stabilizer to the size of the hoop. I cut a long length, about 40 inches and started my hoop at one end. See the photos below.

Stitch out the placement line on the stabilizer.

Place your fabric and the PUL wrong sides together, the same way you want them to look in the finished bib. The PUL is wonderfully soft, but water resistant, so nothing will soak through the bib. It is easy to sew, in fact this is the material that they are using for the newfangled diaper covers. It also works great for purse lining, it stays clean and everything in your bag stays dry. Back to the bibs....

Place the fabric/PUL over the placement line with the PUL on the bottom and stitch the tackdown stitches.

Take the hoop off the machine (but don't take the fabric out of the hoop!) and trim the excess fabric. I trimmed one layer at a time to get a nice clean cut. It also allowed me to take extra care not to snip the stabilizer layer!

Put the hoop back on the machine and stitch the satin stitch.

Your done!

The satin stitch finishes all of the edges, including the neck edge. It also stitches two small eyelet holes, one on each side to insert the "no-tie" shoelace into. You can pick-up these curly shoelaces in any discount store. They are permanently curled and stretch. To use these to hold the bibs in place you poke a hole in the eyelet and slide the shoelace end through the hole. If you prefer ties, you can always tack a ribbon in place instead. I found the no-ties in white, red and black.

Because I left a long length of stabilizer all I needed to do to make the next bib was gently tear the first from the stabilizer and slide my hoop further down the length. This photo is of the first two I stitched, then I realized I could put them even closer together. Very little waste. When you have them all stitched out, rinse away the excess stabilizer and let them dry. You can press the bibs if you need to, but do it on the cotton side. If you find that you have to press the PUL, press on the woven side or use a pressing cloth.

Once I got going, it was very hard to stop! The scalloped edges took a few minutes longer to trim, but they were just as quick and easy to make. Speaking of quick, I am lucky enough to have several machines to stitch on, so while the 830 was humming away making bibs, I was able to use another machine to stitch up a quilt top.

The package of PUL is enough to make a dozen bibs, which makes the cost for the PUL about 44 cents each. A set of bibs would make a killer shower gift for a new Mom. You can even personalize them. I passed over the decorative stitching on some of the bibs and added names or initials using the fonts built into the machine.

These things are like potato chips - you can't make just one!

If you are just joining us, scroll down through the previous posts to see additional ideas and a peek at future projects.

And the Winner is........

DPUTiger!

Your comment was selected by the random number generator to receive the free fat quarters! I also want to thank everyone that participated. We received some wonderful feedback and we will look closely at your requests as we do our future planning.

Judging from the comments that we received, most of you will be happy to see the new website when it goes live in the near future (keep in mind that "near" is relative - I think the first of September is really, really, near - but plan is to have it ready for the first week of August!) I agree whole heartily that it should have been done much sooner, but it is extremely time consuming and tedious work. Once we are up to speed, maintaining it will be easy, but doing all of the background work isn't my idea of a fun job. Let's face it, we here at The Quilt Company are all about the fun. It is why we come to work each day.

Then there is that little matter of ever changing technology. Our suppliers have been preaching "Social Media" as the way to go for over a year now. I have a website that is getting a total overhaul, I am repeatedly told I don't blog enough, I have to create yet another Facebook page for the store so that you can "like" us (ignore the current page - it isn't a business page and the new rules require a specific business page, it will go live with the new website)

Industry big wigs can't believe I don't tweet on Twitter. Really? Do all of you really want to know the details of my world? Because I can pretty much guarantee that the tweet I would be sending this morning would read something like "Of course it is RAINING! Now the fricken asphalt guy has yet ANOTHER reason that he won't be finishing the parking lot today". Later I might have to tweet that you should "Ignore the lump in the parking lot paving - I realize it is shaped like a body that has been flattened with a steamroller but that is a coincident. For the record I haven't seen Phil". That would probably get me into trouble and I would end up residing in a place that won't allow you to have pins, needles, scissors or other sharp impliments. Then where would we be?

The whole reason for the survey was to get a good idea of what my customers really want. I hear you - Sunday hours. Every now and then Sunday hours might be possible, but 7 days a week? Not happening. I have a life outside the shop too. More evening hours? We are already open on Monday and Thursday until 9pm. That is more hours than any other quilt shop in our area. You love Brandon - I can understand why. We have award winning customer service when it comes to our BERNINA Tech. Fast, reliable, and reasonably priced. What more could you want? How about 3 years of FREE Cleaning and a fabric discount? That is what is in the works for our those that purchase their BERNINA from us and we still have the absolute best prices on machines. Events - we are planning even more! Trunk shows for October and January. Handmade for the Holidays is planned for the Community Center so that everyone that wants to can attend.

If you are sorry that you didn't take the opportunity to voice your opinion, it isn't too late. You won't be in the running for the free fat quarters, but you can still speak your mind. Email me directly: mailto: Karen@thequiltcompany.com. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Don't Forget!!

The Quilt Company will be CLOSED FOR VACATION

from August 1-6.

Home From Quilt Market

Home.

It has taken a little over a day to crawl back into the land of the living, but I think I have adjusted back into my timezone, gotten a good nights sleep, unpacked the mountain of paperwork and goodies that I managed to bring back, sorted through everything that piled up while I was away and can say I am officially home from Market. Whew!

Salt Lake was beautiful! The sun was out and the weather was perfect. This was the view from my hotel. Waking up at 4am each day (not by choice, but by habit, it was 6am at home) gave me plenty of time to get outside. I even took my running shoes and managed to go running a few mornings. I don't run far, but it was a great way to see the downtown sites. I also don't take my camera when I run, so for photos of the beautiful spring flowers at Temple Square, click on over to Karen Snyder's blog, http://annalenaland.com/

I bought batiks, batiks and did I mention batiks? Then I decided I had to branch out a little and I added some great new patterns, big bold contemporary fabrics, some retro and a ton of blenders and basics. Our favorite designers didn't let us down and we will have a stream, make that a river, of fabrics arriving from now through the end of the year. I bought for the areas that we needed to fill immediately - like red white and blue. Thanks to Bonnie and the great job she is doing with our Quilts of Valor group, our usual assortment is running pretty low and we can't have that!

One of my favorite parts of Market is the displays. The amount of work that goes into pulling together a single booth is mind boggling. Don't you just love this tree from the Riley Blake display? The quilts and kids clothes in the background were well made and looked great. I have to admit that I was particularly drawn to the baby and kid items. My daughter is due with twins any day now and I am definitely in Grandma Mode.

I did see a few things that I can guarantee or at least feel pretty confident that I won't be making for those new additions to our family. Then again, I learned a long time ago to never say never.

Jililly featured their newest patterns in an Ice Cream Store display, complete with a handsome guy handing out free small cones! You can see their well deserved and well earned booth ribbon displayed up front.

I was fascinated by these..... um, green things! I thought of them as something from under the sea and imagined that they would look great with a fish print behind them until one of my friends pointed out that she thought they were cactus! I guess that explains the snake coiled around the one in the lower left. Don't know what they are, they are totally non functional, but I want some anyway!

I better get to work, I have a thousand things to do and I still have visions of purses and totes and fabrics and table runners dancing in my head!

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I received the following in my email today from the U.S. Census Bureau:

"Each decade, after it tabulates the decennial census, the Census Bureau calculates the center of population. The center is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all residents were of identical weight."

What the heck for?

Considering that the U.S. is NOT flat, is NOT weightless and does NOT balance on anything, not to mention that one thing we are definitely NOT in this country is IDENTICAL WEIGHT, why do they bother with this calculation? And after a bunch of math brains get together and figure it out why do they think I have nothing better to do than expect us to join them for their big announcement?

"Join the US Census Bureau for a live UStream event discussing the new Centers of Population at 11am EDT on Wednesday May 11. They will be taking questions from the public during the event on Facebook and Twitter."

Really?

This is a tweet worthy event? What question could the public possibly have except "Why do you bother doing this"? Who uses this information? Isn't it obsolete as soon as the first person moves, even if it is just across town? One baby is born and oops there goes the perfectly balanced-everybody weighs the same-on the perfectly flat imaginary map of the United States calculation. Considering that according to their very own statistics 11,000 babies are born every day but not necessarily evenly spaced throughout the US, I would venture to say that their statistic is skewed.

I have plans to be somewhere over the midwest, flying to Quilt Market in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. There are a few thousand of us that will decend on the city for the multi day event. We tend to bring lots of fabric, quilts, books, patterns and notions with us. Those things tend to be heavy. I hope we don't tip the map!

Market

I have to say that the combination of joy, exhaustion, creativity and adrenalin of attending International Quilt Market has me wishing I was facing a three day weekend instead of a full work week, but I wouldn't want to miss it for the world.

Four full days of teaching, demonstrating, walking the floor, and placing orders, combine with drinks and dinners with other shop owners and vendors that feel more like family is more fun than work, but exhausting just the same.

Debby and I have fun no matter where we go. Sometimes I am pretty sure that we are the only two people that find the situation funny, but that doesn't deter us from having a good time. For example, Ty Pennington was at Quilt Market. He is offering a new fabric line called Impressions and you could stop by this booth to meet him. During set-up time, when the walls of the booth had to be screwed together, Ty was nowhere to be found. There were a few girls and a cordless drill manhandling things into place. Where is that DIY guy when you need him?

Talk about fun.....

The Swirly Girls pattern company has designed a new block of the month program for Michael Miller fabrics. MM was gracious enough to invite us to a beautiful breakfast so that Susan, from Swirly Girls could explain the program to us. Deb loved it immediately, but I was a bit more cautious. I know what it is like to be in over your head, making promises that you only hope you can keep for the next 12 months. I usually prefer to be in charge of my own destiny, so I decided to think about it. By our last day at Market neither of us had seen anything that we liked better than the new Clubhouse program, so we stopped by to give it another look. I then realized that if you bought the program, Swirly Girls (also girls that know how to have fun) allowed one person from your party to be entered into their glass wind tunnel. You had the opportunity to "grab" as much Swirly Girl cash as possible in 30 seconds.

That made the decision.

We were definitely doing the program.

Guess who was going in the booth

Deb secured enough cash to
win two charm packs of the
same fabrics that are used in the block of the month.

I guess she will still be buying lottery tickets if she really wants to strike it rich.

Deb's quote "That isn't as easy as it looks!"

Luckily the quilt is beautiful and you can look forward to making it starting just after the first of the year.

Wind tunnel not included.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I've been busy getting ready for International Quilt Market in Houston. Normally I am knee deep in fabric scraps of a new fabric collection right about now, but this year things are different. I don't have a new fabric collection.

Last year, about the time I should have been working on the artwork for this Market, we chose to take on a BERNINA sewing machine dealership. It wasn't a decision that I took lightly and the time commitment to new dealer training, staff training, store adjustments, etc. was too important to share or impose on my design time, so I decided to let this Market slide.

Now that the dealership is up and running in full speed, over the last several months I've been contemplating how nice it will be to just go and enjoy the Market atmosphere. No sales side of the aisle, just the buying side of the aisle. Everyone knows buying is much more fun than selling! Buying is good, very good, but in my mind creating is ever so much BETTER!

Without the pressure of Market samples for a new fabric line, I have had time to create. I've still been ankle deep in fabric scraps, they just aren't mine! Along the creative journey I have found a few new items that have made me very happy. I have access to just about anything that I want in the sewing world and I have very discriminating taste. A notion has to really be worth it's weight in gold to make it into my stash or earn a recommendation to my customers. I also like things that work with ease and hopefully do more than one thing. Working on my most recent projects I have discovered a few new favorites.

Sue Hausmann told me about Steady Betty. It may not look like much, but like a tried and true friend, Steady Betty is there when you need her. I have the 15 by 24 inch size. Betty is a foam covered pressing surface that is suitable for ironing but is unbelievably helpful when hooping a project for machine embroidery. If you have ever felt like you needed another set of hands to get a project in a hoop, I suggest Steady Betty. She comes in smaller sizes, but in my opinion, get the big one! Your little hoops won't mind. Naturally we have them in our store, but if you are not local, I would bet the quilt shop in your area could order one for you too.

My sewing moto has always been "It is all in having the right tools" but sometimes I don't take my own advice. When we get the time, most of us are just happy to be sewing. We can figure out how to make do with whatever we have. There are always multiple ways to accomplish a task and if we can do it without having to invest in something special, all the better. The other day I was working on a wall hanging that needed some "in the ditch" quilting. I wasn't looking forward to doing it. I can do it and I can do a good job if I go slowly, but those few stitches that "jump" out of the ditch drive me crazy. I decided to try a specialty foot for my BERNINA. They call it an Edge Stitching Foot, because there is a center fin in the foot that helps you guide your fabric so that you can stitch an even distance from the edge. BUT if you put that same guide in the "ditch" created by your seam, the needle stays right there - in the ditch! Wow that was easy! I have the BERNINA 830, which is why this foot looks so huge. The 830 is a 9mm machine with differential feed, so the foot is wider. You can get a "regular" one for your machine.

As long as I was in fancy feet mode, I decided to give the foot for sewing on buttons a try. I can't honestly remember the last time I stitched a button on by hand. Any machine that zig-zags will sew a button on. Simply set your stitch length to zero. The holes on all buttons are standard, no matter what size the button is. Technically you are zig-zagging in place. Who the heck needs a special foot for sewing on buttons? Any zig-zag foot works just fine. Ok, fine. Occasionally you break a button or a needle. It is rare that one slips out and zings its way across the room. It isn't like I've ever put anyone's eye out. I guess that explains the little rubber grips on the specialty button foot. They hold the slippery little devils in place while you sew. Some genius also thought about adding that little bar in the middle that gives just the right amount of slack to the thread so that if you plan to actually button the button, there is room for the buttonhole to close underneath - what will they think of next......