Tuesday, May 28, 2013

A Little Wheel Spinning

As per ushe after a big event in EPQD's life, I find myself a bit overwhelmed and not sure where to begin after Market filled my head with new ideas in both design and business. With only five weeks left of school before that magical time of year you call "summer" and I call "My Yearly Internship as a Cruise Director," and having dedicated 40 plus hours a week to Market prep over the last few months, I won't lie - I'm tempted to lock the studio door with me on the outside, pour myself some iced tea, find a hammock, and sit for five weeks. Bonbons may or may not need to be involved.

A great plan if I were looking to kill off EPQD, but such is not the case. Instead I really want to be able to use the lessons I learned in Portland to make Houston 2014 even better. And I want to snap out of neutral and get to my list of new projects, one of which involves playing with Phoomph, a product I discovered in Portland. A product which, while possessing perhaps the weirdest name ever in the history of naming anything if you take urban legendary twins Orangejello and Lemonjello out of the equation, looks like way too much fun and something I think you will all agree has my name written all over it. Too bad for Phoomph that it isn't really called Beth or at least Quilting Hottie Foam. So much easier to pronounce and spell.

I am guessing the makers are big huge fans of onomatapoeia. Or saying "ph as in phone" when they spell things.
Basically phoomph is a soft foamy sheet that is kind of like contact paper on both sides, so you can stick fabric to it with no more than your bare hands. Then you cut out shapes and play. Instant fabric fun indeed! I've been off the embellishment wagon for a little while now and I think this is just the product that is going to haul me back on up to the rumble seat and stick some scissors in my hand. Plus it says right on the package that you can't sew it, so yay for new uses for Jewel-it!

Phoomph even has its own Pinterest page with all sorts of cute ideas, including this one:

Pretty sure my children are going to want to make a few of these.


Like a brand new quilter's penchant to take on a king sized quilt right off the bat, my first Phoomph project will be trying something I don't even see in those photos at all, but you know that's how I roll. Or poof, I guess, in this case.

I'm also attempting to get back on the EQ horse in light of some contacts in the magazine and book industries that I made while in Portland. I still think I need to take some sort of class on using the silly software, but in playing a bit this past week I am rediscovering how fun it is to just keep changing one little thing and therefore change the entire look of a block or a quilt almost instantly. Now to turn some of that Sample Spree fabric into some of these cute new blocks I'm creating. But that would involve unlocking the studio. And cleaning it up.

Sometimes the hammock just sounds more inviting. Convince me otherwise.



6 comments:

Kelli Fannin Quilts said...

Get in there and work sister!!! Not being in possession of EQ, I've just been dreaming of drawing up big things on my trusty graph paper tablet. Finding it hard to think in terms of blocks. And still needing to finish up my bee blocks and boms. I'll be in the hammock with my tea, pencil and graph paper. :D

Robin said...

When you find the answer, let me know.
After all the pre-Market work, Market days, jet lag, and 3 days of fun and drinks poolside with dear friends, my brain is absolute mush!!!!
I feel like a whiny child...Please mom just 5 more minutes.
Maybe take one day for yourself where you do nothing with no pressure!!! Somehow giving permission to do that puts my mind on overload to get back to designing.
I also open up a folder of doodles and I am off:)
Good luck!

Anne Wiens said...

I'm in the post-market doldrums, too, Beth. I have an assignment quilt that just doesn't want to cooperate. Fortunately, I can see the deadline in the distance and nothing motivates me like a deadline. :0)

Robin Waggoner, Quilter and Designer said...

Beth, again, it was great to meet you face to face after our yahoo group and especially after enjoying your designs so much. Don't despair about motivation. I spent two days just petting my fabrics from Art Gallery that I got at Sample Spree and eventually I started to feel like moving again. Best wishes.

Jeneta said...

You're so funny! I didn't even go to Market and I feel like that (except my feelings are about the housework - just when everything's ship shape after hours and hours, no, days and days of work someone goes and walks on the floor. Or wears clothes that need to be washed again. Or eats their dinner off a plate). I always love reading your posts (just had to fish a pair of knickers out of the toilet, so this post was particularly cheering!). Funny, I found your lack of motivation right now particularly motivating. I'm off to finish quilting a cot quilt.

Renae said...

I volunteered in the youngest hoodlum's class this morning, and during their "morning meeting" it was mentioned that there are only 22 days left of school. Gaaaaah!

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