What a week!

And it's only Thursday. My job is supposed to be 9-5:30 but it has been 9-6 or 6:30 with no lunch nearly every day for oh…maybe a year? Lately it has been until 7. This is along with a nearly nightly text or 3 from my boss during my family's dinner time. I've had enough I think. Soooo, rather than complain about it on social media and the universe…I need to change it.

I passed my real estate final and will take the State exam after our Season so that I will have my Florida Real Estate license. I do love homes and the ins and outs of real estate. BUT I will need a supplemental income because there will be no more salary or wages for the time I spend working. Plus creating and sewing is my real passion. I'm starting an Etsy store to start with…baby quilts, table runners, modern quilty wall hangings and such. There are a few stores around us that sell local handmade goods as well and I will look into that.

This is the first one that I have started! I love the fabric colors so much! The back of this one is yellow minky. So soft and sweet. I will quilt it this week/weekend and hopefully will have it in my new shop by Monday!

Sophie modeling the baby quilt. Say hi to Sophie ya'll!

 

Of course there was scrappy goodness left over and what else would I do with it but make bunting? This was my practice run and I'm keeping it because it is so sweet and goes with my want-to-be hippie beach house. I'll make sure to post when the new store is up and running. Name is still in the works!

Free Motion Quilting Nightmares

Okay, so maybe not a nightmare exactly…but certainly not fun. I have an old Singer 6235 that is very tempermental. It's a beast (in a good way) when it comes to straight line quilting and piecing - I always forget because I tend to use my little Janome - it travels better and has a lighter touch. The Singer means business - the feed dogs pull that fabric along like no one's business and the thump of the needle up and down is intentional and nothing should stand in it's way. The "whir" is more like a growl where the Janome almost sounds like it is purring.

The biggest difference is the Singer has a free-motion quilting foot and my basic Janome does not. 

I want to free-motion quilt SO bad!! I've done it before and loved the way it turned out! This is my very first art quilt I started in 2003, I hand beaded the heart and the sun, traced Sophie and my hands, made ribbon roses out of hand dyed silk ribbons, and echo quilted the whole thing. I was in the process of making spirals on the 4 marbled yellow/pink small borders and ran out of thread after the first one was completed. Flash forward many years later and I have thread similar enough to the one used and really want to finish the sucker. 

The problem is the machine is really jaunty. I've taken it in numerous times over the past few years and the results are always the same. I can't get the smooth curves and spirals or even straight lines that I did years past. She's become a grouchy old lady. I will keep trying though - Maybe it is just me that is out of practice…the back is loopy but it stitches fine when using the feed dogs (still a little jaunty but not enough to mess up piecing. One stitch here and there is a little crooked). The quilts I am making lately are not for any competitions or anything so it has been fine for straight line quilting too. I'm just disappointed and a new machine is out of the question for the time being. Thanks for letting me vent.

So instead I have been working on this Ferris Wheel Quilt by don't call me betsy. I saw the zebra print Safari Moon fabric by the fabulous Frances Newcombe for Art Gallery Fabrics and fell in love with it! I knew it had to be the center of all of the blocks. I have the smaller print on the same blue that I am using in other blocks. I'm also using a lime-ish green solid with a metallic glint and a soft purple shade that is in the Safari Moon print. I do love these big 18" blocks and I think they will look great all put together.

Work has been crazy busy as it is "Season" for us Florida folks. Everyone is escaping their snowy Winter…and now Spring…and coming to sit by the sea shore in their bikinis and swim trunks. Good for our economy. Siesta Key was named the #3 beach by Mr. Beach this year and the 2 that beat us are in Hawaii. Stiff competition but we are nearly always in the top 5 - this year is the busiest year we've had according to the locals. I will be glad to have the quiet in a few months.

Cheers!

Quilty Catch-up

Hidey ho neighbor! Well, it has been a busy few weeks. So I need to do a little bloggy blog catch-up. This should really be 2 blogs because there is so much to catch up on but…well…I'm lazy so you are stuck with one. 

Disclaimer: The first 5 quilts are not mine! Last weekend was the Venice Quilt Show and the Manatee Quilt Show. Ernie's mom and dad came down Saturday to spend the day with us. Ernie and his dad went off and his beautiful mom and I went show and shop hopping. We saw a few friends along the way and some amazing work done by local quilters. I typically take pictures of the cards so I can go back and read the stories of the artist/quilter and quilt but I also typically have a real camera and not my phone - plus the Venice show was so packed we were lucky to even get a picture at all! So, alas, the quilts below are uncredited but again I will say - they are not mine! They were just some of my favorites.

AMAZING quilting - makes it look like snow drifts

Background is silk and every flower is hand beaded in the center

Grumpy Cat!

Tokyo - made with the quilter's collection of Japanese fabrics

I just thought this was stunning - love the colors

I finally finished my Pinata pillow. It is getting much love - mostly from the cat. I just love the way it turned out and really love that I still have some of that fabric left so I can turn it into something else. Not sure what yet…side note: never ask a quilter what they plan on doing with the fabric when they buy it. Never.











Friday night was PMS night at one of the local quilt shops - Cotton Patch - It was from 6pm-midnight and boy was I pooped. It was sew much fun though! I love the new friends I have made and all of them are very talented, kind, and funny ladies. After lots of the picture below on Thursday night - I attempted to work on it Friday night and ended up with all of the fabric facing the correct way but I had reversed the colorway of the blocks…sigh.

Friday night sunlight and our organized mess

Gah!

 A bit wonky but it won't matter once it's quilted :)

Saturday afternoon was my Modern Quilt Guild meeting and we made charity quilts for a few hours. I sat with a friend who was at PMS the night before and we were both a little zombie-ish. Show and Tell was amazing as usual. Saturday night, Elizabeth Dackson from don't call me betsy suggested a #paperpiecingparty on Instagram from 8pm-11pm and I have a pattern and fabric that have been dying to just be something. So I pulled out Elizabeth's Ferris Wheel Quilt pattern and begun cutting away!  

This is going to be fun! 

Off to do a little sewing before the world wakes up and catches me…
Cheers!

Sarasota Surface Design Guild

I promised myself that I would get more involved in life this year. Creative life, community life, etc. So, the boyfriend wouldn't let me back out of going to the monthly meeting last night as I so often do. I joined in December 2012 and went to 3 meetings all year :( Poor sportsmanship. Epic failure on my part. I joined again last night and plan on getting more involved. Such a lovely group of ladies from all walks of life! The creative energy in that group is astonishing! Weavers, painters, quilters, art quilters, jewelry makers, nature printers, fabric dyers, doll makers…I could go on and on. Plus they do play days once a month and you can try your hand at something you may never have thought of doing. One meeting I learned how to hand dye silk and made a beautiful scarf. I'm not sure why I talk myself out of going to the meetings. Maybe because after 3 meetings I still knew the same amount of people? ZERO. This time I brought a show and tell.

An art piece that I have been working on. I will finish it as soon as I get my other sewing machine up and running. I need the free-motion quilting foot. Oh well, I need it anyway for the Modern Quilt Guild meeting I am going to join this Saturday. They are doing a workshop on free-motion quilting too so it is perfect timing! 

I met some really amazing women last night and am very glad I have a boyfriend as stubborn as me who pushed me to go. Calamity Kim is a member of the guild and is a bit of a renaissance woman. She did a presentation/history of fashion and talked about losing your inhibitions and creating your own style. She talked about cutting up old pieces of clothing and reverting them back into just fabric to create something new and useful. I loved her quirky style and she was too funny! Such a great spirit. It is not my style to wear but I would love to make an artist apron using her techniques. Hmmm…just what I need. A new project…

Cheers!