Whew!

Five days, 8 states, 2 hotels, close to 40 hours in the car and I can't even remember how much coffee. I am finally back home after delivering our daughter Lindsay to college in Florida and then spending Sunday and Monday in Maumee, Ohio at the Checker Distributor Open House.

The first thing you should know is that college has changed. Well, not everything. The food is still pretty bad, the classes aren't that different, and books are still ungodly expensive, but the living conditions are definitely improving. Lindsay is attending UNF in Jacksonville Florida where they have just opened a new dorm. Long gone are the days of prison cell sized rooms and the bathroom down the hall. This photo is of The Fountains, the brand new dorm, and yes, that is a lazy river, complete with inter tubes for floating. The lazy river is directly across from the Olympic size swimming pool that is surrounded by lounge chairs and occupies the other side of the patio area. Do you remember your dorm having a patio area? I remember when we were happy to have a bean bag chair.

Lindsay is not living in the lap of luxury. She is in the older freshman dorm. Somehow sharing a huge room with 3 closets and a private bath with one other person in a building that features sun decks still doesn't seem all that bad. Classes are going well too. I think we are off to a good start.

I did feel a little guilty when we basically dropped poor Lindsay in her room, kissed her good-bye and headed home so that I could get back to work. I was scheduled to give a presentation to other shop owners at the Checker Distributor Open House in Maumee Ohio on Sunday. That required driving back to Pittsburgh, dropping off my husband, picking up Debby and heading for the other side of Ohio. A lot of work, but well worth the effort.

It was a wonderful event. If we ever have to select a committee to organize world domination, I am going to nominate the crew from Checkers! They managed to gather an amazing group of vendors, set them up in their warehouse space, allow several hundred customers to shop the warehouse, see demonstrations, attend lectures, feed them lunch, check them out, pack their cars and still see to every single need and comfort the vendors requested.

We had great booth neighbors. The girls from Quilt Branch were on one side and Nancy Zieman from "Sewing with Nancy" was on the other. In the few moments when we weren't busy demonstrating and answering questions we had the opportunity to exchange ideas and chat with the other vendors.

Proof positive that Debby and I really were hard at work!

Then, just after we were packed up and were ready to head home the staff at Checkers surprised me with this delicious birthday cake. Aren't they sweet? Then I returned home last night to a dozen roses from my wonderful husband, phone calls from my kids and an email box full of best wishes from some wonderful people. I call that a very satisfying weekend.

You Can't Get There From Here

This photo not only represents the horrendous mess that is my sewing area, it also pretty accurately represents what my brain would look like if you could peek inside my head. Everything is in piles scattered all over the place and nothing is finished. Nothing can be finished until something else is done and I can't get that done because something is missing.

I’m working on the quilts for fall Quilt Market using the batiks that will be introduced at the show. As always the yardage is limited, there is no room for mistakes and I have to squeeze out several projects from the same yardage. For the most part, changing my mind midstream is not an option.

For example, the nine patch quilt on the wall started out as an Ohio Star. It looked great on paper, but I had only cut a few triangles when I realized that it just was not going to work the way I had planned. Scrap the triangles and start plan B, a shaded Trip Around the World variation. Scrap plan B. The fabrics are individually beautiful but without a background to set them off they “mush”. I mean really mush, right into mud. These are beautiful prints in unique colors (we are calling this collection “Desert”) and they deserve to be seen. Simplicity is sometimes best, hence the Nine Patch. I love it again. To make it more interesting I alternated 2 different background fabrics, which I promptly ran out of when I made the quilt larger to accommodate a simpler cutting plan. More fabric is on the way, but I can’t go any further until it arrives. I also don't want to remove it from the design wall because I have already planned the location of each of the 9 patch blocks.

The 2 rows of crazy patch blocks on the left represent the first part of the new Block-of-the-Month program that we will be running this fall. There will be 30 different batiks in that program, including the 10 in the Desert collection. I can’t finish the Crazy Patch blocks until I am sure that I have everything I need for the 9 patch project. Once I chop the fabric up, there will be no more until the shipment arrives from Indonesia hopefully in early October. That accounts for the small piles of fabrics on the floor behind my desk. Each of those piles will eventually be a set of Crazy Patch blocks, unless I run out of fabric and have to make a substitution. That could change everything.

I’ve moved on to the Indigo project while I am waiting for background fabric for the 9 Patch. The blue and white pile on the end of the ironing board is the other half of the strip sets I need for the free handout quilt for Timeless. I have already completed one quilt from this collection so every square counts, no room for miss cuts or an "oops"! I have divide the fabrics in half so that if I accidently read my ruler wrong, only half of the remaining fabric will be wasted.

As for all of that other clutter..... it represents things that I would be sewing on if I had the time. Which I wish I had... but I don't. Personally, I think that if Obama really wants to pass his health care plan he should get rid of some of the "pork" and put in a provision to extend summer another month. Move Labor Day back to the first Monday in October and give us another 30 days of summer vibes. I don't want to be picky, but I really don't want another 30 days of hot, sticky, July weather. I prefer another 30 of warm, beautiful mid September temperatures. It would do wonders for my mental health! Who would argue with that?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

We started the tradition a few years ago at The Quilt Company of closing for one week each summer for a shop vacation. The first time we did it was out of need. My manager and I were going to be in Europe at the same time and most of our staff had scheduled events that were very important and they were unavailable. We decided that if we closed for a week, the world would not end, and it is a very European thing to do.

The next year we took the time off and my husband/landlord and I used it to do some messy work inside the shop. Now it is a tradition. This year we had the roof replaced, other than noise it did not disturb the customers. With the entire week scheduled off we decided to run an in-store retreat with a “Locked in the Quilt Shop” theme.

Our nine guests arrived Friday at 1:00. They moved into our classroom space and spread out. The doors are locked to outside customers, but the lucky 9 are free to shop, sew, eat, talk, laugh, sew, press, relax, talk and sew to their hearts content. Debby and I are providing meals, snacks and expert opinions – although they are doing very well on their own!

Debby and I are actually “working”. We are packing and shipping mail orders, taking phone orders and squeezing in a little sewing too. I managed to finish all of the blocks for our new sample of Can You Spare a Dime. Debby had made her daughter a skirt, her son a table topper and is working on a quilt for another member of the family.

Our guests are getting Lots of things accomplished! This is Rose laying out her French Kiss project from our BlockWatchers Club.

Ruth has been diligently working on the last several blocks of an applique project and keeping us entertained at the same time.

We have a second Rose and believe it or not, this is her first quilt!

Alice is doing her best to duck out of this photo, she has already finished one quilt top and is now working on our French Braid project. The quilt on the design wall behind her is a 3-6-9. It belongs to Mary Ann, who arrived with it all cut out and is already sewing the rows together!

This is Jean and her turquoise and white double wedding ring project! That pile of fabric beside her represents over 200 curved segments that will be included in a wedding gift for her niece.

Not too bad for one full day of sewing! We still have a great dinner to look forward to that is being catered by the Hartwood Restaurant, several more hours of sewing tonight and all day tomorrow!

It has been the best vacation you can have - without sand, water and sunshine!

Karen

Where's Waldo?

My BFF Bernie has a sleeping problem. (That’s Best Friend Forever, for those of you that don't have a teenager in your house. We’ve been friends for about 20 years, a lot longer than terms like BFF have been around). Bernie lives in Florida and we keep in touch, almost daily, by email, wonderful, hysterical emails. If we ever really want to be rich and famous, we could publish those emails, but our families would never forgive us.

The other morning my email contained a message from Bernie titled “Where’s Waldo?” It seems she was having trouble sleeping and had been up surfing quilting websites and reading blogs at 4am. Bernie considered this a total waste of time, but as a fellow fabric designer I have convinced her to chalk it up to research. It doesn’t help with the lack of sleep, but it does make you feel better about being awake.

Bernie had sent me this link: http://pamkittymorning.blogspot.com/ and told me to scroll to the July 24th entry and look at the photo, where I found this photo of quilts laid out on the floor.

It is a nice photo of the quilts that are going to be included in the next addition of Alex Anderson's “Start Quilting” book. The blog belongs to Alex’s “stunt quilter”, the person that does all of the actual work behind Alex’s quilts. My first thought as I looked at the pile of work on my own sewing center was “I gotta get one of those”.

Bernie had told me to enlarge the photo, so I double clicked and realized what old eagle eye Bernie had wanted me to see! The border on the Flying Geese quilt is the leaf print from my Lindsay Collection! How cool is THAT? Logically I know that with thousands of yards of fabrics out in the world there are all kind of quilts and other projects with my fabrics in them, but it is always a surprised when I see one.

I was sure that photo was what Bernie had wanted me to see until I went back to the blog to snitch the photo to include here and I scrolled down a little further and saw the cover of the new book! Whoo Hoo! We made the cover! Even better, the leaf design is my favorite print and the blue is my favorite colorway in the Lindsay line. Although the fabrics have been discontinued, we stashed away a stockpile of that fabric and will have it available for customers when the books arrive.

Life is good.

Top Secret Sewing

Are you wondering what I have been working on lately? I have been sewing and binding and writing instructions for several projects... but I can't tell you about them. I could tell you about them, but I can't show them to you. It is like being on double secret probation. Although sometimes the best place to hide something is right under someones nose..... are you curious yet?

In the last few weeks I have finished a project for American Patchwork and Quilting that will be featured in an issue of the magazine sometime next spring or summer. As you can imagine they like each quilt in every issue to be new and fresh looking and they certainly don't want the designers stealing their thunder by posting photos of the projects on their blogs. I will tell you that it was made with a group of navy blue and white batik prints that are absolutely gorgeous and it was delightfully fun to do. This project was so far in the future that the fabrics are not even ready yet, they don't debut until fall Quilt Market. I was working with a limited amount of sample yardage and I will be using the remaining scraps for a second project for Timeless Treasures. I designed and constructed the quilt top and Rebecca Stahl did an amazing job quilting the project for me. If you were in the shop you may have seen it. It was in pieces on the design wall, photographed in the classroom and spent several days draped over my ironing board. Sometime next summer you may pick up a magazine and think to yourself, "hmmm, that looks familiar".

We were also thrilled to receive a pattern order for our "All that Miters" project from... let's call them a "large catalog house". They too don't like to have their selections publicized before the catalog is released. This table runner pattern was a last minute project for my Traditions fabric line for spring Quilt Market. After finishing all of the full size projects for the market booth I realized that I didn't have one that featured the stripe print, so I made this runner using only the stripe. After hours of designing, planning and construction on the theme quilts this last minute project attracted the most attention - go figure. In this case the pattern All That Miters will be featured in the catalog, but it will also be available on our website very shortly and is already available in our store. If you would like to order the pattern now, you can call the shop at 412-487-9532.

As long as I am doing "sneak peeks" I might as well show you the newest Button Pillow in our selection. CookieTime is hot off the needle and the instructions are finished. Kits are underway and we are pre-cutting and pre-fusing the gingerbread men to be included in our kits. As always we will be including the cute embellishments and floss right in the pattern pack so that you have everything you need to finish the project. It takes the staff elves quite a bit of time to put the kits together, but we expect them to be ready very soon. You can call the shop to reserve one and we will gladly set one aside for you. The fun part about this pattern is that you have the option to dress the gingerbread men in aprons or shorts, although I prefer mine wearing nothing but icing trim!

The button people have finally responded to our many requests for sew-through buttons and you can expect to see several new designs featuring snowmen with carrot noses and birthday candles and Hanukkah items and winter trees and lots more very soon!

Karen

TA DA!

Now is that cute or what?

There is a reason we named the pattern for this project the "Super Simple Mitered Placemat"! You won't believe how easy it is to do. There is a link to download the full color step-by-step instructions in the post below. You will notice when you print out the pattern it is priced at $2.50 and if you stop by the shop and request a color copy, that is what we charge, but if you print it out yourself, it's FREE!

I made this sample in about 25 minutes this afternoon. It is one of our great litte projects that has a "magic trick" to go along with it. You quilt the focus fabric to the batting and oversized backing. Then you trim and fold the edges. A few simple seams later you flip the backing over the raw edge to the front and TA-DA! The backing forms the border with finished edges and mitered corners in one simple step! A little top stitching and you are done!

The instructions are for one placemat, if you would like to make more, one yard of focal fabric and 1 1/2 yards of backing will make six. When it comes to the quilting, I chose to stitch around each of the bagels instead of marking an alternate design. I also think a row of decorative top stitching around the inside edge of the border would look nice, but I have five more placemats to make first!

Enjoy!

Testing, One,Two,Three....

I don't have time to discuss my relationship - or lack of relationship- with technology today. Let's just say that my how-to education as far as uploading, pdf'ing, hot linking, etc. is equivalent to those that learned about sex by reading the graffiti on the back seat of the school bus. There have been lots of mistakes and hands on learning involved.

I do have some tech savvy friends that understand my utter lack of skills and are willing to speak to me in "english". I also have a son-in-law that is an engineer that writes the computer codes that keep airplane engines running in all kinds of stressful situations. He has learned to keep a straight face when I ask a question. All of this is leading up to the fact that I think it is possible to post a free pattern here on the blog. I've been spending some time trying to figure that out, but when it gets right down to it, I just have to try, so here goes:

http://www.thequiltcompany.com/SUPERSIMPLEPLACEMATS.pdf

That link may take you to a free placemat pattern that would be absolutely adorable made out of the new bagel fabric we just received yesterday OR it could just be blue letterning.......

one way or the other, I'm working on it.

Karen

P.S. Confession is a good thing, so I must admit that after over an hour of taxing my brain to no avail, I emailed Amy our web guru and ping! In a matter of minutes she emailed the link that works. Now I'm going to go sew and as soon as I have the quilt top I'm working on assembled I am going to start on bagel placemats using black for the border and the self mitering instructions on the handout.