Desiging Women

My fabric for the next quilt for Quilt Gallery Shops arrived yesterday - minus one. By the time I finished up my HandiQuilter class and did everything else I was supposed to do, it was too late to call Timeless and see when the missing bolt would arrive. Of course the red is what I want to use to sash the panel squares! I did bring home a red Moda that goes but I will put off actually using it until I find out if the Timeless Treasures red will arrive in time. The quilt must be done & photographed by the end of the month. Who said we work best under pressure???

I did get the panel squares cut out & semi arranged on the wall. This will be a puzzle type quilt center - I have a certain size space to fill so that the Jacob's Ladder blocks will form an undulating border -kind of like waves. Now I need to figure out sashing that looks nice, isn't too chunky and fills in enough space to make the whole thing work!

I took my Shop Hop charm quilt to the store & rejected the border I'd planned to use & found another that I like, but it doesn't go with one of the sashings I put on. So that's sitting on my desk silently mocking me that I have to take it apart. Ugh! I did find the camera so I will post a picture before I take it apart.

Also yesterday I was asked to kit two Benartex projects for magazines. Of course they needed prices for the kits by 5pm! Hopefully, I did it right, didn't forget anything and they will sell like crazy! One is a wall hanging from a new line of fabrics called At The Park and the second in a small wall hanging done from Nancy Halverson's Winsome line. Very cute! They will be in Quilt magazine that comes out in February.

I still haven't finished my serger jacket for class this Friday - better go sew!

Charms, Teaching & Tests

I did put together something for the shop hop charm quilt - I'm not sure I like it so it's sitting at the store waiting for inspiration to hit for a border that will make it stunningly beautiful! As soon as I find that perfect fabric and also find the camera, I will post a picture.

I'm also not sure I get or like this charm phase the quilt industry is going through. Before quilt market a friend observed that this would be a market of charm squares ad nausea and she was right. Patterns for charms and jelly rolls were everywhere. Other fabric companies have joined Moda in cutting their own sizes of charm squares. Hoffman has some really neat batik ones that come in clear cylinders that are gorgeous! Market for me became a hunt for patterns that DIDN't use charms or jelly rolls. Quilt historians will look back at this time of charm squares and jelly rolls and I'd love to know what they say about them!

Yesterday I taught machine classes to customers who had bought sewing machines from us. Students ranged from 7 to 65+. I love to teach these classes because I've bought a very expensive sewing machine and gotten no lessons. So you take it home, take it out of the box and are petrified of it so you don't use it to it's fullest potential. When I first thought about opening the shop, I knew I'd carry sewing machines and give lessons. Bringing home that New Home 8000 that I'd paid quite a bit of money for and being frustrated with it because I KNEW it did more than I could figure out, drove me crazy.

Teaching guide lessons allows me to show people how great the machine they bought really is and how to make it do all kinds of things they want to do but couldn't on their old machine. It made me laugh that the 7 year old could thread the needle easier on her own than she could manipulate the needle threader, while the 65+ year old bought her machine just FOR the needle threader!

Bragging time - My oldest son is an architect. He has a 5 year degree and had to work for three years before becoming eligible to take the tests so he can be certified & go out on his own (and get a raise!). There are nine tests and he called, on top of the world, Friday night to say he'd passed the first one he taken right before Christmas. Having been a little more than nervous to have to take a test more than three years after graduating & second guessing himself since he'd taken the test, he was over the moon that he'd passed. Eight more to go . . .

I need to go take the four yards of flannel out of the dryer & make a jacket for serger club Friday afternoon. It's from an Indygo Junction pattern but of course I want to change the bottom . . . Someday I will actually make a pattern just like the picture on the front - probably not!

Debbie