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Archive for the month “August, 2012”

09 Aug 2012

No Work… and more Olympics!!

Last night after getting home a little late from work I just couldn’t muster up any energy to spend time on my projects. I keep telling myself that all this work I’m doing for my company will not make me this busy forever… I had a lot of projects that are coming to a close and this will be the third weekend in a row that I’ll be doing some work from home.

It hasn’t stopped me from starting new projects, but as I’ve said earlier it’s as though I’m sloughing through mud trying to get them done (or some other simile). This presents me with two entirely different issues. First because I’m working Saturday night and into Sunday morning, my energy levels will be a little on the low side. Second, all this starting and stopping work makes it more difficult for me to give the needed focus to my projects. I certainly don’t want to end up with blue pinwheels in the purple quilts! All this stopping also make it hard for me not to get distracted and difficulty starting at all!

One of the silver linings to all this is that I’m able to see an inordinate amount of the Olympic games. As distractions go… it’s not a bad thing to have to spend you time doing while trying to relax. I love almost everything about the Olympics and find that like most people I know, I don’t just cheer for my country’s athletes… unless it’s volleyball, go Misty May and Kerri Walsh!!!

This is the last week of my really difficult schedule, I will persevere though, I want to finish the blue pinwheel quilt even if it does take me all weekend long due to interruptions. I hope everyone’s upcoming weekend is a good one and as always, happy quilting.

Posted in Daily and tagged beginner, blogging, distraction, learning, manage, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts | Leave a comment

08 Aug 2012

7 Comments

Quilt for my niece’s daughter Teagan

The quilt arrived for Jayden who is yet to be born, but that didn’t stop my niece from enjoying it until then. Of course her sister is just as precious to me as she is and I had already bought the fabric to complete her daughters quilt, all I need now is the time.

Here is a look at the material I’ll be using for Teagan’s quilt.

I can hardly wait to get started on her quilt. I’ll be quilting this down myself and of course using a satin binding to finish it off. If only I had enough time to do everything I wanted to do…

Posted in Daily and tagged beginner, blogging, crafts, Fabric, learning, manage, mini quilt, Niece, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Sew, sewing

07 Aug 2012

Another Free Fabric Give-A-Way!!

You guessed it, I’m giving away more fabric and the name will be pulled on Saturday the 18th of August. Just select the “Free Stuff!!” link at the top or click on the picture to the right and follow the instructions for a chance to win some really great fabric!

Posted in Daily, Giveaway and tagged beginner, blogging, crafts, Fabric, Free, Giveaway | Leave a comment

06 Aug 2012

10 Comments

The weekend that got away from me… complete with pictures!

Can you imagine trying to get FOUR quilts done in one weekend? That’s what my wife and I attempted to accomplish… and failed miserably.

We started trying to do the two blue pinwheel quilts, but as I said in a previous post… shopping comes first! So, after work on Friday we made a special trip into Fort Worth that has the largest selection available. I wanted to be able to get some early Christmas fabric as soon as I could and this is what I found:

Back to the story though, Saturday morning came and I had a leisurely breakfast followed by an unbelievably long problem at work that needed to be taken care of. Fast forward to 1pm on Saturday when I finally had the time to “Start” the pinwheels. I was feeling confident that I could still manage to make three of the quilts at that point.

Sunday morning came and we started to get the ball rolling early. We were making good time until a comment from me stopped play again… have you ever heard of a couple fighting over seam allowances and construction techniques? We don’t argue that often, but this seemed to be the weekend for everything to go askew so why not?

As you can see, we made up, but that caused another four-hour stoppage! Then as we’re setting the blocks together, you might have already guessed… they did not line up the way they were supposed to. Blame it on Karma or a cosmic joke, but no matter what we did they were off here and there. It was 6pm on Sunday night at this point and we were about to call it quits without having completed even one quilt.

They panels were done however and we just needed to sew them together. Of course they didn’t line up. We tried to figure out what to do with them and in the end came up with an idea that we’ll try later this week and I’ll post pictures of. In the mean time, here are the panels together.

At 7pm on Sunday night we decided to start work on the purple. It requires almost 150 squares, we did not finish cutting both sets of it out. Here are some pics of the material and the blocks that were finished.

Posted in Blogs, Daily, Shopping and tagged beginner, blogging, crafts, Fabric, learning, manage, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Sew, sewing, Sewing machine, shopping, Viking

03 Aug 2012

9 Comments

How much do YOU charge?

I was reading an article on selling your quilts and although that is something that I’ve done before, I find that letting go of something made is a lot easier said than done. What do I charge for something that I’ve spent time and effort on? I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and there are hundreds of sites out there that go over the topic. The best I’ve been able to glean is to charge .05 an inch. I did the math and on the surface that sounds reasonable if you are quilting it down yourself. If another person is involved quilting it however, most of the money you make will go to the quilter and the fabric shop.

After thinking about this for quite some time, I’m not sure that I will sell any of the quilts I make at least not at .05 an inch. I do not quilt them myself… yet! The wonderful quilters I’m able to use don’t do a simple meander, they quilt in designs that are rich and dense and take the fabric from being a blanket, to a quilt that will last several lifetimes if cared for properly. I like to think of them as more than something to keep you warm, they ARE works of art or more correctly, usable works of art.

To give you an idea of size and cost here’s a quick look:

Crib	Twin	Queen	King
36” x 54”	65” x 88”	86” x 93”	104” x 93”
1944 square inches	5720 square inches	7998 square inches	9672 square inches
$97 at .05 per inch	$286	$400	$485

Quilter	Quilter	Quilter	Quilter
$40	$150	$200	$275
Fabric	Fabric	Fabric	Fabric
$20	$50	$80	$100
For your labor… $37	For your labor… $86	For your labor… $120	For your labor… $115

These are just some figures that I’ve encountered. I think this is why I would have a difficult time letting any of my quilts go for sale, or at least not at the .05 per inch amount.

Posted in Daily, How to and tagged beginner, blogging, crafts, Fabric, learning, manage, Pricing, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Sew, sewing, shopping

02 Aug 2012

4 Comments

Blue Breeze Pinwheel Quilt

So this is two of the quilts we’re going to be making and like I posted, it’s from the McCall’s Fast Quilts magazine. Fabrics similar to these are available just about anywhere. If you end up making this one or have made it, share how it turned out!! I was able to get fabric almost identical and will post it up on Saturday.

Skill Level BEGINNER

Finished Size 59˝ x 75˝

Featured Fabrics

Ann used assorted fabrics from her stash to make this quilt.

This quilt is fully patterned in the McCall’s Quilting America Makes Fast Quilts special issue.

Posted in Daily, Quilt-a-long and tagged beginner, blogging, crafts, Fabric, Fast Quilts, Joann Fabrics, learning, McCall's, project, quilt, quilt-a-long, Quilting, Quilts, Sew, sewing

01 Aug 2012

9 Comments

Two quilters, One weekend, and Four Quilts

That’s what we’re attempting this weekend!! Two quilters, one weekend, and four quilts… It will be fantastic if our schedules allow us to pull it off. Trying to get some of these other projects out the door lately has been like trying to run through mud… I don’t know what the deal is, but I’ve been struggling to stay on task and get everything done that needs to be done.

I heard a line from a movie that went something like “all forward motion counts”. That is what I am sticking with for now. I may not be happy with what I’m doing, or the time I’m taking to do it but believe it is important that I’m accomplishing what needs to be done to get to what I really want to be working on. This is not to say that I do not enjoy these other tasks.

Two of the quilts we’ll be making are pinwheel quilts that we found in the soon to be replaced issue of the magazine “Fast Quilts”. The other two quilts are VERY basic and I’ll provide the information for those quilts after the weekend. Basically, the second two are big squares and smaller squares and we’re calling the quilts “Purple Explosions”. It should be fun and very quick to make.