Going to QuiltCon!

The Modern Quilt Guild has a linky party over on their blog for people going to QuiltCon to get to know each other a bit.

If you've clicked over from their site, welcome!  My name is Debbie and I love to make quilts!  I'll be teaching Machine Appliqué, Hand Appliqué and Bias Appliqué (still spaces in these last two!) at QuiltCon and taking Jacquie Gering's Building Bridges class.  I also design and sell quilt patterns, some of which will be available in the Modern Quilt Relish booth at QuiltCon.

The MQG suggested we include 5 things you don't know about me.  Here goes:
1.  I was born outside the US and became a citizen when I was 25.
2.  I met my husband working at a Domino's Pizza.  He was a manager there and later owned a franchise for a while.
3.  I was a figure skater until the age of 13 when they wanted me to get serious and train for competitions.  I just thought skating was fun and I wasn't that good anyway :)
4.  I haven't done a lot of traveling outside the US (although I really, really want to!), but I have been to Australia and Finland (at 10 and 13 years old) and England and Iceland as an adult.  France is number one on my travel wish list as I took French all through high school and part of college.
5.  I was a VISTA volunteer (like the domestic Peace Corps) with Literacy Volunteers in western Cook County, IL for a year.  I was the local program coordinator.  My favorite part was training the tutors in how to work with their students.

If you'd like to know more of the usual stuff about my quilting story, check out the "About Me" tab above.

Hope to see you in Austin!

Bliss of another kind

I thought yesterday would be a blissful sewing day.  My younger daughter (on semester break) took the bus to Chicago to visit my older daughter and my computer was in the shop, so what else to do but sew, sew, sew!  I had big plans to do a lot of quilting on the new/original version of Spell It Out.

A call from the computer repair shop interrupted my plans ..."I'm sorry to say that your system is shot and we'll have to wipe the hard drive and start again..."  That sent me in search of my backup/flash drive, backed up the day before, which I then couldn't find.  Minor panic ensued!!  It had to be buried in those papers somewhere!  I knew it was well past time to do some major paper organizing, so now was obviously the time.  A few, ahem, hours later, some clear countertop space!

You'll note my lovely laptop back where it belongs.  I won't say this too loudly for fear of tempting fate, but, so far, it has been a breeze to reinstall the things I use the most - it took about two hours this afternoon to reinstall programs and copy documents and pictures from that flash drive (found about 20 minutes into the clean-up yesterday).

It feels so good to have my work space clean!

However, it the spirit of keeping it real, I must show you the shelves which are just out of view at the right end of my countertop.  Definitely in need of some work - it's a never ending process :)

How about you?  Are you a "clean as you go" type or the "wait until I can't find anything and it's driving me crazy" type?

WIP Wednesday

I have two WIPs to share today.  I'm not saying that is how many I have altogether...

The first is a WIP I shared a little over a YEAR ago in a WIP Wednesday post!  It is the third project in that post and is a remake of the cover of my Spell It Out pattern.  Since I have a great photo of the original and the pattern is finished, it hasn't been urgent that I finish this one, but now it seems to have finally wormed its way up the list and I just need to GET IT DONE :)  As you can see here, I have all the blocks together and the applique finished.  All I have to do now is attach the appliqued border and quilt it - hopefully in the next few days.

The other WIP is a baby version of my Traffic Pattern design.  I've been wanting to go back and add more sizes to that pattern for a long time, so I'm working on that now.  Aren't these little birds sweet?

One thing I have crossed off my "To-Do" list is to learn how to watermark my photos.  I really want to put my logo on them, but it isn't in a format that makes that easy with the software I have, so, for now, I'm settling for just the words.

(If you're wondering about those other two WIPs from last year:  The first one is almost finished.  The second one was finished not long after that post.  It was for a specific project that fell through, so I never got around to sharing it.  I guess I need to decide what to do with it now.)

Don't forget about Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day tomorrow!

How are your WIPs coming along?  Is finishing them a big goal for you this year?  I'm linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.

Local Quilt Shop Day!

Thursday, January 24 is Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day!  What a great idea!  Lots of quilters are participating in a blog tour to highlight our fav quilt shops - check it out here.

I know I'd be lost without all my LQSs.  I'm lucky enough to have at least a dozen quilt shops within an hours drive of my house.  Since each quilt shop has a personality of its own, rather than tell you about one, I'll tell you what I like about some of the ones I visit most often.

I have to start with The Quilting Season.  I took my first quilting class from Mary, the owner.  Mary is just the nicest and warmest person you 'd ever want to meet and she has a great staff too.  If you're stuck on a project, they'll be able to help you out in no time.

AASC Kona wall

Ann Arbor Sewing Center stocks the entire line of Kona solids, so I visit them pretty regularly when I need a new color or more of one I already have.  If you are a fan of batiks, this is the place for you!

I recently discovered that Bits 'n Pieces (Wayne, MI) carries the entire line of 50wt Aurifil thread.  I'm pretty picky about my thread color, so I bet I'll be stopping by a lot from now on.

Quilts at the Marshall House always has lots of my favorite Quilter's Dream batting in stock and also has a fantastic blender wall as well as tons of other beautiful fabrics.

So, please go and visit your LQS today, tomorrow and on Jan 24 in particular.  I know they'll have something fantastic there that you just can't live without!

If you'd like to check out some other favorite LQSs, here’s who’s kicking off the blog tour this weekend:

• Abby Glassenberg – While She Naps 
• Alissa Haight Carlton – Handmade by Alissa 
• Allison Harris – Cluck Cluck Sew 
• Cara Wilson – Cara Quilts 
• Carolyn Friedlander – CarolynFriedlander.com 
• Cheryl Arkison – Dining Room Empire 
• Christina Lane – The Sometimes Crafter                 
• Debbie Grifka – Esch House Quilts 
• Diane Gilleland – CraftyPod 
• Pam Harris – Gingerbread Snowflakes (Read Diane’s and Pam’s back-to-back) 
• Jane Davidson – Quilt Jane
• Jen Carlton-Bailly – Betty Crocker Ass
• Krista Hennebury – Poppyprint 
• Laurie Wisbrun – Scarlet Fig 
• Michelle Freedman – Design Camp 
• Monica Solorio-Snow – Happy Zombie 
• Pat Sloan – Create with Pat Sloan 
• Penny Layman – Sew Take a Hike 
• Rachael Gander – Imagine Gnats 
• Rae Hoekstra  – Made by Rae 
• Rita Hodge – Red Pepper Quilts  
• Victoria Gertenbach – The Silly Boo Dilly

You know we quilters travel a bit too, so tell me the name of your favorite quilt shop and where it is.  You never know when someone will be passing through your area in need of a fabric fix :)

Taking it on the road...

Some of Brenda's quilts ready to be admired

Besides making quilts and fabric shopping, what is more fun for quilters than talking to other quilters about quilts!  Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics and I visited the Log Cabin Quilters in Kalamazoo earlier this week to talk about modern quilting.  Like many traditional guilds, they had seen some modern quilts, but weren't entirely sure about what exactly makes a quilt modern.  We started with the Modern Quilt Guild's list of characteristics and added information about the role of the internet and social media.  Then we moved on to fabric and fabric designers and some of the trends we've seen in modern quilting.

They were such a nice and welcoming group!  It is always fun to see what other guilds are up to.  I commented to one of the ladies that it was wonderful that so many of them were wearing their name tags (most of the time I totally forget mine).  She explained that they are fined 25 cents if they don't wear it and they can't get a ticket for the door prize drawings unless they have their name tag on - that is some pretty good incentive!

One of the guild members, Stephanie, got together with some others and has started the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild for those in the Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids area.  If you live over that way, you should check it out!

Thanks Log Cabin Quilters for such an enjoyable evening!

Zen Fabric Fondling

Doesn't it look pretty?

After a busy holiday season with a couple of quilt deadlines, I needed some fabric zen today.  I always pre-wash my fabric.  I know it isn't as important as it used to be to pre-wash - especially if you buy good quality fabric and I always do, but I just feel better getting the factory finish out of the fabric.

I rarely iron my fabric after I pre-wash it since that is the first thing I do before I cut it.  But today, I had a load of freshly washed fat quarters, fat eighths and a few larger pieces, a sunny day, a book on CD and I spent a very zen couple of hours trimming frayed threads, ironing and folding.  Total bliss!

The light half of the washed fabric is all set.  Tomorrow is for the dark half.  Will I invest the time in zen ironing or just trim the really badly frayed threads, fold and put away as usual?  Hmmm.....


(Fabrics are Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater, Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander, Comma by Zen Chic and Juggling Summer by Zen Chic)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  2013 is going to be an outstanding year, I just know it!

I'm starting the year off with a look back at 2012:

1. Facade, 2. Who wants a Hug?, 3. Kiss Pillow, 4. FTLOS2 Sent, 5. Daisy Chain Table Topper, 6. Reunion Rebel Flock WIP, 7. Twinkle, 8. Coasters, 9. Echo Pillow, 10. Summer Sunrise pillow, 11. Petal Pop, 12. Coffeehouse, 13. Pillow, 14. Neighborhood Charm, 15. Owl Pillow, 16. Linked, 17. Piping Pop Pouch, 18. EHQ Stocking, 19. North Pole Tree Skirt, 20. Winter Night Pillow, 21. Joy Centerpiece, 22. Christmas Tree Farm, 23. Randot Table Runner, 24. Bee Block, 25. Janome Horizon 7700 QCP

I made a lot of small projects this year and not so many big quilts.  I started off the year with Rachel's (PSIQuilt) Facade class which she ran through Flickr.  It was a fun, fast project using a layer cake and we are still using this quilt on our couch every night.

Last year also brought several firsts for me as I added 10 free tutorials/patterns to the thousands (millions?) out there on the internet.  I had my first project, Neighborhood Charm, published on Moda Bake Shop and I participated in the six-week long Holiday Craft Bash with Meredith, Jacey and Jessica.  Earlier in the year, I hosted my first "pillow along" featuring my "Linked" pillow design.  Add my "Kiss" and "Hug" pillows from February and that is 10!

I participated in four swaps this year:  For the Love of Solids, Pillow Talk, GenQ Valentines Swap and the X-Factor Pillow Swap (previously called the Modern Quilted Pillow Swap), had four designs published in magazines and designed four new projects for my QuiltCon classes.

I didn't come close to meeting all my goals for 2012, but I knew I wouldn't when I wrote them - I'm chronically over-optimistic as to how much I can accomplish :)  Some of my key goals for 2013 are to write more patterns, blog on a more regular schedule and learn to free motion quilt.

What about you?  If you set goals, did you reach them?  What do you want to do in 2013?

I'm linking to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day!