The Progress of Organization

In March of this year, I began the process of really going through all my craft supplies and attempt to put some order to them. I have made progress but I realized that I would be at this non-stop because not only do I go through supplies I keep buying more supplies, the key I have found is when I get more supplies is that I put those supply's away right away.

I cleaned up my fabric shelves so it works better. But I have also finished some projects up as well. I finished quilting and binding my Globetrotting Quilt design from Pat Sloan. And I pieced together another top by Pat Sloan her vacation time quilt. I used a lot of batiks in this quilt and really like how it came out. I still need to quilt and bind it but it is going along.

Below is my fabric shelves that I organized by wrapping my fabric around comic book boards. It really helps a lot.

 I got a new Accuquilt Go for Christmas and it is on its own little stand. I re-purposed an butcher block cabinet on wheels for my Accuquilt Go.

 My husband resized my cutting table again for me so that it fits better in the space available to me it about 36 inches by 72 inches. It works much better as I am short so it was difficult to reach across the table to the window.

 And he built me a nice shelf for my serger and a rack for some of my rulers. It is coming together for me in my sewing room.

Becoming organized is not an easy thing for me as I have so many projects that interfere with the process. The more I attempt to organize the more more projects I begin to think about as I run across stuff. However, I am determined to one day have it well organized.

Living Life on Life's Terms

Between Life which for me is taking care of my family, going to school and building a sewing room that is just perfect for me. Every day I wake up and I get to live the life I always dreamed about as a child. It was a long time in coming for me you see I had to get over my childhood first. Today is different for me, today I have a loving husband, loving kids, I have a home that is coming together that actually fits my husband and I.

I have a small break in between semesters and I plan on making the most of it. I have been working on several projects some are further along then others, however, all have made progress. My current obsession is what I call my Mardi Gras Girl, she was a picture in a coloring book and I wanted something larger than that so I created her out of fabric.

 Then at first I attempted to cut the design out of freezer paper and realized that I was doing a lot of extra work when what I really needed to do was trace the design on the heat n bond and adhere that to the fabric and then cut out the design.

 This is the fabric that I chose to go behind the main design. It is really nice fabric but it does have a few problems the silver in it is like tinsel for a Christmas Tree so it is very delicate and can be difficult to work with but I did manage to keep going at it.

 I cut the design out of a heavier denim like fabric with an exacto knife that took about a week to do in between my classes.

 I then added a white satin for the face and a green sateen for the eye color and red cotton fabric for the lips. I then proceeded to zig zag around all of the cuts so that they would remain fairly intact. That took me approximately 9 days to do. It was really difficult to get the zig zag around all those crazy curves. At first I used a blue thread and I really didn't like that so I had to take that out and then proceeded with the black so that it would blend in with the main background fabric.

 This is a semi close up of the eye. Not bad for never having done this before.

 A look at the face.

 This is it under my needle on my sewing machine.

 Here is where I have attached some straight ribbon but then I got the idea that I really wanted some spiral ribbon on here. So that began the search on how to get the ribbon to spiral and someone gave me the perfect method to do it.

 And here are some of my spiral ribbons.

 here I attached the spiral ribbons and I like it but I am thinking that I want to do a combination of spiral and straight ribbons so she is still hanging on my design wall until I figure out exactly what I want to do next with her.

 And here are two wall hangings that I completed for our dining room and the fantastic quilt hangers my husband built for me to display them with. The quilt hangers are made from Knotty Alder and they are just perfect as quilt hangers and they give me some additional shelf space for my smaller knick knacks.

So I have a few weeks before my next semester starts and the second to last at the community college. Then I will know by March if I have been accepted at the university of my choice to continue on to get my bachelors. We shall see. What I do know is that I will be spending most of my time in my sewing room until the next semester begins.

March oh March

March has been a very busy month for me. It is the beginning of Spring, the middle of the Semester, and this year it was the month that my youngest moved out. Her moving out of course opened up a room for my sewing ensemble to go into. This affected a total of four rooms in our home. Originally I set my sewing up in the living room and then it carried over to parts of the dining room. For over 21 years I have never had a room that I could dedicate solely to my crafts and now that I do I find that it is not as easy to do as you would think.

Because I have accumulated many things that I use when sewing to go from being spread out all over to being consolidated to one location. Hmm, logistics is an interesting concept, I have begun the dismantling though and we are on our way. We moved the office into the room where the lighting isn't quite as good so that when I sew I will have as much natural lighting as I can get. We took off one side of my craft table as I have my desk that my husband built me several years ago that I will be using for my embroidery machine. I am also considering letting go of one of my embroidery machines as it is difficult to use two machines at the same time.

I took a few pictures this area is where my light table is set-up in our new office. It will be much easier I think to actually be in a different room from my sewing for this portion.

 As you can see I have a lot of fabric and books, that will need to be organized and cleaned up.

 This is the wall where my design wall will go.

 Under all of this is the desk that my husband built for me that will soon hold my embroidery machines.

 And there you see a small glimpse of my crafting table and the window which it will set next to.

The nice part of all of this is once it is finished than I will have a regular living room, dining room and oddly enough still a full house. 

Update on my museum piece

On February 22, 2015 I posted photos about the Visions Museum Challenge that I am involved in. The Challenge was to create a 10" X 14" abstract piece. I finished that piece this month. It was quite the challenge as it was intended to be. I didn't even know what was considered abstract, so I did some research and then began drafting my idea. I then went and got several different fat quarters and decided to go with the dark brown background. I used an applique method but first I sewed the little pieces together by hand. I enjoyed this challenge and will probably do more. 
This will hang at the 

Visions Museum 
2825 Dewey Road 
Suite 100 
San Diego, Ca 92106

And the link to their website

http://visionsartmuseum.org/index.asp

 The fat quarters I chose to use.

 Design I thought about.

 The little squares I sewed by hand then appliqued on.

The completed piece abstract one.

San Diego Cruisin Quilters

On February 26, 2015 my day was quite active, my husband even took the day off to spend it with me. We put over 200 miles on his truck and spent the day driving around San Diego County. We haven't done that since we were searching for a home to purchase a few years back. We started our morning off driving first to Visions Art Museum located at 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100 San Diego, Ca 92106. I am a member there and enjoy a monthly gathering of local textile artists, currently their exhibition is Expressions of Equality they have some wonderful pieces in there that are well worth seeing. This is their website http://visionsartmuseum.org/index.asp

I participated in the San Diego Cruisin' Quilter Run this date as well.The run actually ran from From February 27, to March 8, 2015 with pre-registered runners getting the early bird time. During the run I visited 13 quilt shops in the San Diego area. This was the very first time I ever did a run like this it was definitely a learning experience for me. With each shop you visited they gave you a pattern either a paper pieced pattern or an applique pattern. Each pattern was related to a central theme, this runs theme was Pirates. Each shop large or small had some form of give away involved. What I found was that not each shop offered the raffle to everyone who did the run. Because this was the first time I did the run I wasn't sure exactly what occurred during a quilt shop run. The first shop I went to was Rosie's Calico Cupboard Quilt Shop. Rosie's shop was a large well equipped shop, it had various fabric areas and many different notion areas. The people were friendly and informative. They had several different events running for this quilt shop run. Everyone participating in the run were given an opportunity to participate in their events. They gave you beads to wear to the shop during the 11 days of the quilt run if you wore these beads and made a purchase of $25.00 or more you would get a raffle ticket to enter into their drawings. They also included an ability to win a treasure chest as well. A nice shop to visit and well worth a visit. It is located on El Cajon Blvd in San Diego.

Another shop that I visited was the Quilter's Cottage it was in Fallbrook Ca. They have several different fabrics available as well as fabrics below $9.00 a yard it is all good quality fabric. They had a long arm quilter set up in their shop and have a quilter there who could quilt tops for you. Very friendly workers, and a nice clean shop, plenty of space so you didn't feel claustrophobic. They are quite a distance from my home though so not sure I will be able to visit them often. The different events they had going were offered to everyone even those they had never met like me.

Cozy Creative Center was a nice shop tucked away in a little shopping center, nice sewing class area, however they were not all inclusive on their raffles, I watched several women fill out raffle tickets before me but I was not offered one, nor did I ask for one, as this was an event hosted by them I felt I shouldn't have asked. They were located at 756 Jamacha Road, El Cajon, Ca 92019. They were quite busy though but the woman in control of the event was a bit overwhelmed with people, I am thinking it might have been better if they might have more than one person.

Memory Lane Quilt shop located at 1626 N. Magnolia Avenue El Cajon Ca 92020 had a really cute block for the run it was a parrot. Small shop nice workers.

Paradise Sewing located at 12639 Poway Road, Poway Ca 9206. Was a nice shop as well they had a small selection of fabric, a nice large sewing classroom, they have dedicated space for the Pfaff and Baby lock machines. Again a nice clean shop, small but a nice variety of notions, though they were not all inclusive with their raffles either.

Now one of the interesting shops that I visited was Eleanor Burns shop Quilt in a Day, I had no idea that she was located in San Diego, for some reason I always thought she was somewhere in the Mid-West. Large shop, many discounts, tons of fabric all nicely separated and  marked. Eleanor even had her own parking spot. They had a separate room where her videos were taped. She had a nice sewing classroom there as well. I found the space to be crammed full of fabric and notions, however, it also caused me to feel very claustrophobic.

Aretoy Quilt Shop located at 4749 Oceanside Blvd Suite A Oceanside California was a very nice friendly shop they had several different little cubbies in which to look and they had a a couple of different events that they made sure everyone participated in and were aware of them. Which was nice for a newbie quilt shop runner.

The Fat Quarters Quilt Shop located at 728 Civic Center Drive Vista California 92084 was a quaint little shop with some beautiful wall hangings that I really loved. They were unique designs and very beautiful batik fabric.

Inspirations Quilt Shop located at 27350 Valley Center Road #B Valley Center Ca 92082 was a little difficult to locate. They had a lot of space which I really liked they also had a long arm machine there and do offer long arm quilting services there. They have a large area for sewing classes and group classes. They actually had a lot of fabric to choose from.

Annie's Quilting Den located at 1876 W. El Norte PKWY Escondido, Ca 92026 was a small shop jam packed with fabric and notions. They did have a nice pattern for the run it was a Compass Rose. Wasn't made aware of any raffles or events with this shop.

The Grand Country Quilters located at 801 Grand Avenue, Suite 1, San Marcos, Ca 92078 was another small shop jammed packed with items. They have a very active class schedule and are very friendly folks. If there were any raffles or anything I wasn't made aware of them though.

Bits & Pieces located at 12625 Danielson Ct #111 Poway Ca, 92064 was a little difficult to find they were in a large warehouse type district. Not sure if there were in any raffles or events they were hosting as I wasn't informed. I am not likely to return to this shop as it was extremely claustrophobic and difficult to locate and was not overly inclusive.

The CraZy 9 Patch now this quilt shop is local to me and they are very friendly woman, it is housed in a yellow house at 2260 Main Street, Ramona Ca 92065. Their block for the run was the treasure chest. This was the last house on the run for me and I actually didn't get to it until Saturday Morning and they were already busy by the time I got there about 10 am. I dropped my passport off there and and got my pin and year  at this shop as well as purchased some batik fabric.

So all in all I found some nice quilt shops, within San Diego County. Some I will visit again and others I will not. I find being a new quilter that the more informative and inviting a shop is the better it is for me and the more I wish to continue to bring my business to them. When someone tells you that they are trying something for the first time I find that often people will glide over that fact. Taking up quilting isn't a cheap hobby especially when you are finding that most people have a preference for the quality of fabric, or a specific machine that is the absolute dream machine. For me though, I find that it is about the journey the people who I meet along the way, the ones that no matter how new I am the first thing they are asking for isn't money but the passing of knowledge. Everyone has to make a living, and when you do an event such as this sometimes it is the new person you want to pay attention to insure that they feel as welcomed as the regular customers for they are potential regulars.

First Museum Challenge

I am working on my first Vision Museum Challenge. The challenge was to create a 10" X 14" abstract piece. I wasn't a hundred percent sure what abstract was except it usually deals with shapes or something that represents something but doesn't look exactly like it. I know that abstract art is by definition "art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures." So with this definition in mind I collected several fat quarter pieces and a fat quarter is a piece of fabric that measures 18" X 22" and a half yard of fabric so about 18" X 42". I then laid my fabrics out one on top of the other and I took a photo of them.

From this photo I then edited the photo to a black and white photo. And by changing the photo to black and white I could see that I had a good range of dark, medium and light choices. So even though I had a large variety of colors the tones of the fabric  blended well together.

I then began to layout several different designs as to how I wanted to do my piece. I knew that I was going to do some hand appliqueing for this piece since it was such a small piece and applique is something I don't have a lot of experience with. 

 Once I had a general idea of what I wanted I then sewed the small squares together I cut squares out 1- 1/2" X 1-1/2" both in colored fabric and in black fabric. I then folded a 1/4"  under on all four sides and pressed the sides under and then sewed each colored square onto the black squares so just two sides of the black fabric showed.

I then sewed the strips onto the brown background fabric  and added the squares in where I wanted them. I used a blanket stitch to add the strips and squares to my background fabric.

I then quilted with a monofiliment thread. Will finish the sleeve, label and binding soon. And it will go on display at the Vision Museum in April.

Staying Busy

It always seems that the beginning of the year is a time for refocusing and evaluating goals. This year is no different. Between working on the budget, taking classes and taking more classes, we have begun to look at what we want to accomplish around the home front this year. We have made arrangements to finally put in our French door and replace the sliding glass door that is something we have wanted to do since we first started remodeling our home. Our last child will be moving next month which will open up a room for my sewing, so we went out and purchased a new desk for me and a new chair to place in the sewing room. We drew out the dimensions of the sewing room and also drew out the pieces I wish to put into the sewing room so we know things will fit. We have already painted the rooms and done the laminate flooring so I don't have to worry about doing that but I will need to do some massive cleaning and rearranging soon.

I have been taking two classes at the school Graphic Arts and Photoshop II those take some time but it is all good. And I have also been taking a once a month sewing class and have a two day free motion quilting class coming up the end of this month.

So what have I been doing sewing wise, I completed the January and February blocks for Pat Sloan's vacation time quilt along. The first block is January and the second is February. I am using black as my primary background fabric and batiks as the focal fabric. I actually had to buy the Eleanor Burns Flying Geese ruler in order to get my points to come out on my february block. In my January block if I don't redo it I will probably lose my points when I sew the sashing on but my february block came out pretty good.

 You can go here to join in with Pat Sloan's Mystery blocks
http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/2015-vacation-time-mystery-bom.html

Here is the link for the Eleanor Burns Flying Geese ruler that I used.
http://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponline/rulers_display.asp?i=707

I bought my rulers at a nice little quilt shop here locally at the Crazy 9 Patch Quilt Shop the ladies there were so helpful and it is a nice clean well kept shop.  Here is a link to their website.
 http://www.crazy9patch.com/


And finally the wonderful quilt ruler storage center that my husband built for me. He is most definitely willing to make one for you as well. Feel free to contact me if you would like one of these as well.