I really need to clone myself!

Help! My house has been taken over by quilts!! Wait...that's a good thing! I've been taking photos, listing and relisting, sewing custom quilts and pulling out partially completed projects and getting them finished up...if only I didn't need to sleep! My first big custom project is completed, shipped, and happily received:) It's so great when I get such wonderful feedback from buyers for this 'work' I love so much:)

It's time for a new computer now ... part of my sporadic communication on this blog is my frustration with my current computer. I bought it back when I did little more than check my email but now I've outgrown this and plan to upgrade very soon to a much faster processor and graphics card. That will eliminate my frustration with slow loading and untimely shut downs. I will however have to finally take the time to understand just how this technology works and to use it to my advantage. Time for that...well, I'll find it as we always find the time for the things that are important to us...right?

I'll have some more new listings soon for the holidays, but first we'll be heading to Chicago's American Girl store next week for a birthday celebration for one of Meg's good friends. We leave next Wednesday and when we return I'll be refreshed and filled with sewing plans for October...and a new computer too!!

Off to work!

Another rainy day

Once again it is raining here in Des Moines. We just got back from a wonderful walk in the rain and splashing through puddles! I'm not minding the rain but I really needed some sunshine to take some photos today. Ah well, there is always tomorrow and another day of unlisted quilts won't hurt. I'm working on a king size custom quilt today and enjoying the process. And I have another custom quilt that needs more design work...so boredom isn't part of my vocabulary:)

I got my new Fabric Trends magazine yesterday. My fav quilting personality has taken it over ... Mark Lipinski... and as expected, it is wonderfully improved!! I read it from cover to cover and am so excited about all the new fabrics arriving soon. But then I started feeling overwhelmed since I have so very much fabric (one day I'll take pics of my stash so you can truly comprehend what I mean here), what am I going to do with more??!!! But we all know I'll buy it anyway and after some brief guilt, enjoy it thoroughly even if it sits on the shelf for 10 years!! You only get one shot at buying a line of fabric you know:) Rationalization is a skill most of us quilters have mastered:)

Okay, I'm not getting any work done here. Tomorrow, one way or another, there will be 3 more items on my Etsy site. Maybe 4 if I get a binding completed on another table runner. Yeah! Then there will only be about 35 things remaining in my closet to quilt and about 2000 on the shelves awaiting inspiration!! Hehe. What a life!

Life with Cats!

This is what happens when I'm working and I go to answer the phone! Some days as I move from the sewing machine to the cutting table, Cuppy takes over my chair, I toss her off and she goes to the cutting table...then to the chair and so on...heavy sigh:) But they are so cute, aren't they? :)

Shopping:)

Wow...shopping justified! I have a woman who is wanting a custom quilt like another on my site and so I got to go shopping for fabric...and I HAD to buy enough to give her choices, right? I love blues and greens so this was just the excuse I needed to go nuts! Of course I have enough here to make 4 quilts:)

My daughter and I drove to the amana area yesterday with the goal of hitting fern hill gifts and quilts. It was much fun and a great store. This is where Stephanie Brandenburg works/designs...her design area is so tiny but so filled with wonderful inspiration. She wasn't there though I'm sure I'll see her at the big quilt show here in Des moines next month. Darn me though...I forgot there was a second quilt shop in the amanas so didn't get to that one. Oh well...next time.

I have much to do so I'd better get to it!!! First up though...muffins made in a really cute halloween muffin tin we found yesterday. I'll post pics if they turn out as cute as I think they will!

Working, working, working:)

Can I really call what I do work?? I'm not so sure I can...work has such a negative connotation in our society. It's something we complain about, tolerate, wish we didn't have to do...I know, I was in there for a very long time. But now, not so much. I love sewing. Well, I love quilting...yesterday I made my daughter another sleeping bag for her other american girl doll and I must admit I fussed and complained a bit about that. Zippers! ugh! She is happy now though and it is off my list of things to do...and if I do say so myself, it is very very cute:)

Back to quilting. I've always heard people talk about working at what you love. I understood on a logical level but until now I couldn't relate. I had good days when I was a Physical Therapist. There were days when I didn't hate it. But overall, given the choice, I'd have stayed home on any given day. Now I can 'work' all day long and never tire of what I'm doing. I can move from one task to another happily and so far I look forward to all of it. Vacation isn't an escape from work and I cannot wait to return home and sew. I just have to take care not to work too much as I still have a family out there:) Granted, I'm not making the $70K plus I made as a PT, but thankfully I don't have to either. I can build this as long as I choose and have a great time in the process.

Ok, enough on my awesome life! I'm working on getting things quilted! 3 off the last entry are on my site and I'm binding a 4th. There are just not enough hours in a day and I still have so many quilts to finish for customers (I've long-arm quilted for 8 years now). My goal is to get those all completed by the end of september ... kind of a tough goal since my self-proclaimed quilting ADD gets in the way and I'm forced to comply and start a new project regularly:) Then of course there are those quilts I want to make as gifts...there simply isn't enough time for everything swimming around in my head...but I'll get as much done as I can and give myself a break on the rest.

Okay...I'm off to quilt a friend's quilt and get one step closer to returning to my fabric to create something else new:)

Coming in September to The Meandering Thread at Etsy!

I posted this before it was sewn together. Completed now and ready for quilting!

Halloween table topper/wall hanging.

Wall hanging...I love halloween fabrics!!

Finally got to playing just a bit with the new Stephanie Brandenburg fabrics. This is just a simple idea of how great this stuff is!

I recently bought a vintage pink irish chain baby blanket...torn and used, but oh so soft and beautiful. This is my modern take on that beauty

Simple hearts quilt for a sweet little girl.

Halloween table runner mostly made from a cool striped fabric I bought last year. These are so fun to make!

And, my favorite! The ghosts and words fabrics are metallics...very fun and cool...just wait until I quilt little ghosts and cobwebs all over it::)

So, you can see I've not been idle! I cleaned up my sewing room this morning...I am a messy quilter:) Now I must get to my Gammill and get all these quilted and bound so I can put them on Etsy! it will take some discipline though as I've just washed all my Halloween fabrics and they are calling out to me to make something of them. I have some really great stuff ... but first I must catch up and get these done. We're headed out on vacation in a week so we'll see what I manage to accomplish before that.

More later!

My nemesis...Time

Wow...I've been gone from here a long time. Time...there never seems to be enough of it, but I'm trying to make the most of it. I recently spent quite a lot of it working with an Etsy customer who wanted 3 king size quilts. I learned a great deal about shipping overseas and communicating on design ideas. It seems it has all fallen through, but my greatest lesson has been to be true to myself and what I want from this experience. Getting talked into working for less than I'm worth ... well, it does not make for a happy quilter. I am grateful for this experience at this early point in development of my shop. And it is never a waste to work on a quilt as it can always be completed and offered to another:) I'm grateful also for being 46 and thus able to look at this as such a great experience...when I was younger I would have gotten discouraged and upset. Not so now. She may be back, or she may not, but she taught me so very much about being a shop owner.

Given that...I have more time now to write and take pictures and prepare for the holidays. There are so many things I want to make. I LOVE Halloween!! Now I must find the time to put together some wonderful items from my stash of fabrics. I'll post pics this week of new projects...I'll be back and focused!!! This week anyway:)