More Market Prep and Necessary Diversions From Market Prep

It's way fun around here as my family watches me turn into more of a crazed lunatic than usual and wonders why I keep forgetting to make dinner. To them I say "Thank God for Stop and Shop pickup service or you might not even have food in the house, so enough with the whining and eat a cheese stick."

Yes, the countdown to May 21, when Mom is back from Market and this person who can't stop worrying about steel, drapes, floor mats, shipping, signage, drayage, postage, and bank account balance-age goes back to wherever she came from.

It's been a long road, but I have finished all the writing and layout for the last of my Market debut and Market rewrite/refresh patterns, and a print order the size of which is about to give me heart failure is going out today. You are welcome, Smartpress.com. The office party is on me.

I am thrilled to report that "Taking Names" is one of the patterns I have finally finished. Those of you who visit my FB page now and then may have seen it already, but for those who don't, feast your eyes.

 

I am so happy with how it came out; being both a group project AND a scrappy triangle block, there was a fair amount of trying to figure out how to get everyone's blocks the same size during the testing process, but in the end it really became a stunner. The block size stuff got ironed out too, have no fear. Many testers/group participants loved making the block so much they just kept going and making more and more, and I really hope I get to see photos of them all soon.

Every participant had their own special color scheme for the blocks everyone else was making for them. As you can tell, unless color blindness has set in and if so WOW you are awesome for still being a quilter, my theme was black and white scraps with a lime background. Here are a few other color schemes chosen:

Anna D. chose b/w and yellow. It kinda makes me wish I still had my varsity jacket from high school.

Kelli F. chose totally scrappy with mint green background. You really can't get more fun, or simple, than that.

Kelli's blocks that I actually made. I believe some of these scraps are still all over my studio floor.

Glen P. wanted shades of grey to go with her orange background. She was the most challenging to us all, as very few quilters have many greys beyond in their hair. But the blocks turned out pretty cool!

"Taking Names" is finally available for download on Craftsy and Patternspot and will make its print debut in Portland. I hope you'll try it and show me your creations!

I did mention that there were some issues with consistent size of triangles among the participants, right? While in the end I had plenty of triangles to use for my cover quilt, I did end up with several that were just too small. This led to a big fix in the pattern, and I am forever grateful to my testers because without them we wouldn't have gotten it right. It also lead to my having 20 extra blocks, which lead to the brilliant idea to make them into a pennant style sign for my booth in Portland. 

You know Eva will want to hang this on the wall after the show.

Waste not, want not, reuse, recycle, and don't let all the work and fabrics from those blocks go to waste. I think it will be the perfect way to pull the booth together. Plus I got to use my newly acquired "knowledge of the color wheel" mad skills when choosing that purple, so I felt really cool. My family may even get dinner tonight in celebration.

Because I never feel complete without 45 more projects waiting in the wings in some capacity, be it in my head or in a pile of fabric on the cutting table or whatever, I couldn't resist stocking up on a few more projects last night at my guild meeting's UFO auction. I have to say, holy crazy awesome projects that were up for grabs. Almost every item was a kit complete with fabric and pattern, often with most of the blocks done, or tons of fabric yardage put together into one offering, or even quilt tops or other almost finished projects. All told, with the help of our fabulous auctioneer, we raised over 2K to help with our show expenses in just about an hour. I'm really just so impressed.

I brought home two projects I need like a hole in the head, and didn't realize until this morning that they were both holiday themed. I must have needed a little Christmas right that very minute and not even been aware of it. That would explain the egg nog craving.

My first winning, for a big fat $9.00, was this angel quilt. As Barb T, our auctioneer whom I think may have made her, said, "She needs a little help. Like maybe a face would be nice." Then the word "embellishment" was thrown out there and my Jewel-it bottle and I held up our numbered paper plate to bid on her.

Consider this the "before" photo. My goal is to make her stunningly fantastic before Christmas 2013.

So many ideas of ways to glam up this slightly dull angel. When I am done with her St Peter won't know what hit him.

For $28, I brought home 32 blocks that were orphaned from a BOM so that they could spend Christmas with me. Just call me Mommy Warbucks.

 I don't love the actual blocks - way too much white going on here - but I DO see a ton of possibilities for ways I can funk these up and, as Laurie B, who was sitting next to me, said, "Bethify" them. I've considered making a Christmas quilt for my bed for years, but just haven't ever gotten to it. Perhaps these will be the quilt starter and this will be the year.

Plus look how cute these fussy cut fairies are.

So for a grand total of $37, I now have two new projects waiting for me. Love it.

Back to the banner!

The Winter Schminter Winner Schwinner

That's even hard to look at, let alone say.

As always, I am thrilled so many of you stopped by during the recent blog hop. To the many of you who became followers, bless you for making my day. To the many of you who had such lovely things to say about my blog being more fun than a barrel full of variegated thread (and seriously, how fun would that be?), bless you for making my head big for a moment or two at a time until the glow of my awesomeness was overcome by someone not having clean pants to wear to school and we were back to reality. To those of you who embraced the new definition of "geek" and made up your own words like "nutbird" and "yardening", I have a very special place for you in my heart.

To those who entered the giveaway, the bad news is most of you didn't win. But the good news is that one of you did - Sarah J.!

Sarah is a new follower whose number (16) was chosen by the random number generator. She geeks "quilting, science, and kids" and gives us this classically fantastic quote "My five year old son knows what a uterus is and that makes me happy." I really could not be more happy that her number was picked because for that sentence alone I wanted to give her a prize.

Congratulations Sarah! This lovely gift will be all yours!

Sorry I couldn't find any uterus fabric for you.

I really love these blog hops not only because I get so many new blogworld friends, but because the comments really make me feel like I get to know my audience better. I loved learning about what everyone loves to geek; plenty of Downton Abbey (forgive me, I'm trying, but can't get the crazed appeal beyond the clothes are stunning and Elizabeth McGovern can do anything) and Cake Boss, gardening, other hand crafts, and cooking, but some interesting ones were thrown in there too, like vintage cookbooks, accounting, and "old vinyl", which I have to assume means records and not that she likes to go on tours of kitchens from 1965. I also had to look up a couple, "Kumihimo braiding" and "envies", one of which I now realize my daughter uses to make friendship bracelets, and the other which I am just baffled by even after looking it up. But to each their own. As long as everyone geeks something!  

In Market Prep Insanity news, this week has been full of trying to get Taking Names done. It's going to be at least another week, but I am feeling more hopeful that this is not going to be the pattern process that never ends. They all feel that way at some point, some for longer than others. A preview of some new blocks I made that I truly love.

These purples just make me go "MMMMMMM"

News flash - I don't love orange, but I do love this block. Another bit of irony in my creative life.

My studio is in perhaps the most frightening state of creative mode it has seen in months due to all these scraps having to be auditioned. The rest of my house is also in creative mode, but for that I really don't have a great excuse. I'm really excited about this sample of TN, though, because it was inspired by a lecture my friend Judy Damon gave recently for our guild, all about color and using the color wheel for more than just a pretty picture on the wall and what "tint" really means beyond "what one does to one's hair to look prettier." I'm going to call this sample "Taking Compliments" or "Taking Complements,"  depending on who I would rather have think I spelled it wrong - quilters or grammarians. Judy will know what I mean, as will any of you smartypantses who know all about the color wheel.

Until the mood strikes me to overshare of myself with all of you again.....

No Sucking Head Wound, No Entry

Today was the sixth snow day of the school year, fourth in a month, coming close on the heels of the Northeast's yearly study in ridiculousity February Break week; my "Taking Names" quilt was in over 100 pieces on my studio floor, and my machine quilter told me last night that if and only if I got it to her by tomorrow at noon she would be able to get it done for me before she has shoulder surgery on Monday. Before I even got out of bed a friend asked if I could have her daughter over for a while to play as she too had a crazy day ahead. Because I am awesome, and because sometimes more is better and avoids fighting amongst my three, I said yes.

But clearly the situation was not ideal. It was to be me and the quilt vs five girls ages 6-11 for much of the day. The smart money was on the five girls.

But I am mom, and I can pull out the Sucking Head Wound clause, and pull it out I did, gathering all five of them in a cute little clump and informing them that "Unless one of you is unconscious, suffering from a sucking head wound, or have been on fire for more than 10 seconds, I'm not coming up from the basement until this quilt is together." I also pulled out some bags of cookie mix and told them to bake. You so don't want to know what the kitchen looked like. But I do have to say they were all awesome the entire day. Plus no one bled or erupted in flame, which is such a bonus. I'll take cookie mix on every surface for good behavior and uninterrupted work time any day.

Not a great photo, and I'm learning that this green fabric is not the best to photograph, but two of my helpers were able to hold it up an hour ago because I did get the top together. I really like the layout, and I am considering some covered buttons in a complementary bright color in the center of the hexis. What do we think?

This photo didn't make the cut because it pretty well sucked, but I had to show how cute Paige was as she held her corner.

So happy to have a top despite the odds today. Market is not getting any further away after all!

Why are you reading this?....Shouldn't you be sewing?

It's finally here! February 1, 2013, the day that will live in infamy as the day I metaphorically kicked over 50 quilters in the butt and chained them to their machines for at least 20 minutes a day for the entire month. Lucky none of you live in my house or I could totally take out the metaphorically and really get you going.

I am beside myself at the response I have gotten to this thing this year. As of this moment, I have 29 bloggers who have officially "linky-ed up" with hotlinks to their own blogs, where they will keep us apprised of their progress. I have over 20 others who have committed their minutes in the comments section of the DaGMT page. I already have 8 of you members of the flickr group even if you haven't posted too much yet. All of the entries from the various ways one can earn points have already overflown my Tupperware bucket from 1974 and are now in my meat marinating container my mom got me in 1999; plenty more room for them and now the slips of paper are all zesty with a hint of garlic. 

Last year I pledged to not only sew for 90 minutes a day, which is my pledge again this year, but also to blog about my progress every day of the month. That is because I was completely insane. This year I'm going to do the sewing part, but forget hearing about my progress every day. It's just not going to happen. I will try to remember to post to the flickr each time I have a photo of something worthy of sharing, and I will certainly blog as much as I usually do, which is to say whenever I feel like it.

To keep me honest, here is my staggering, blinding, and cow-choking list of projects I need to complete this month:

1. Get this tree skirt/topper pattern done before I throw it out the window. It currently needs one more binding, photos inserted, a final run through with my red pen, and a name. Seriously, like two hours of work and it's done. Someone metaphorically kick me!

2. Blocks for all eight members of Taking Names group

3. Write Taking Names pattern

4. Border, quilting, binding on two small wall hangings

5. Border, quilting, binding on a wedding gift from an August wedding

6. Use EPP stuff with some scraps when I am on vacation in FL so I don't fall too behind in my 90 minutes.

6. Quilt and bind a carpenters star that I made in 2007 and have wanted to hang in my family room since that time.

7. Transfer "Rapunzel's Hideaway" from my book to a stand alone pattern.

8. 2012 bookkeeping finalized so husband does not freak that we won't be first in line for the tax guy.

I think we are all justified in laughing hysterically at that list. But we will see what I can do.

I've already got three of the eight packets of group quilt dealt with, so I'm actually making some headway. Today I worked on Meg's. Love them!

Now really, get back to sewing!

Quitcher whining, USPS.

It isn't MY fault you can't balance your books when I do all I can to keep you afloat with these group projects.

After the intense excitement of getting all of the packages of homework from all of my "Taking Names" participants in the mail over the last week, today was "Shuffle and Stuff" day. How highly convenient that my quilting machine is still sans operating belt so that I could use the 10' table as a staging area. As we can see by the DeWalt task light prominently displayed on the table, this is not for lack of my husband valiantly climbing up on the table and attempting to figure it out numerous times and then giving up and going off to fall asleep in his chair by 8:30pm, apparently hoping the answer might come to him in a dream. Sadly, it has not. Fingers crossed that the guy who promises to come out on Saturday to look at it knows how to get the thing on there.  But anyway, it makes a good surface for all those lovely packets I had to organize.

96 packets heading for 12 homes with a brief stopover in my studio.

I blame the fun of these blocks for preventing me from getting the quilting done on my topper I sandwiched the other day and desperately need to get done so I can finally check off my new pattern as DONE. Well, that, and I have to name the dumb thing still, but it's at the point where you know I'm just finding reasons to procrastinate. These blocks are a good reason right now.

I actually cleaned off my entire cutting table so I could work on these in an organized manner. Then I got all excited about a couple of the packets and had to start pulling fabrics from my bins and I messed it all up again.

Ten little packets, ready for the mail tomorrow! I hand delivered one, and I get one, so that's 10 for those of you thinking I had slipped (again) in the math department. If you are doing this project, watch out for your big old envelope in the next few days.

A Little DaGMT Jump Start

Three days to go before the official start of DaGMT, but I know I am not alone in jump starting my sewing because I see so many of you out there already bragging about finishing a project or two. Well then. La de da. I can do that, too. So there. And because I signed up for 90 minutes a day again this year prior to realizing that I was going away for five days in the middle of the month and that is a LOT of time to make up later, I'm making it up now. Two days down, three hours sewn. I'm feeling the thrill!

I personally have finished only one thing, the cover quilt for my newest pattern, which I will show you at some point when I get the photo fixed by my photo fixer woman. Yes, I have a photo fixer woman. It is amazing the leagues of minions one designer can amass, mostly out of necessity when one is as inept on the computer as I tend to prove myself.

But as many of this year's DaGMT participants have picked up on in their mission statements, the point of DaGMT is not necessarily to finish every UFO in your basket, but to make sewing part of your everyday life, and to celebrate the small accomplishments that bring your projects one step further along. So this morning I embarked on a "UFO Sandwiching" journey. You know, when you have a top, maybe a big enough piece of batting but probably not, and random bits of fabric that need to be pieced together for a backing, which if everything was the right size this would take you 10 minutes, but because nothing is the right size, it is going to take you an hour.

I love those journeys. They are kind of like a real life version of those dreams where you can't find your shoes and you have to be somewhere 20 minutes ago.

You know I am cheap, but I am about to prove it in a new and exciting way with this confession: Almost all of my smaller quilts contain pieced battings. By now my creations know it going in - if they aren't lap size or larger, they aren't going to get a solid piece of batting, and they are going to have to deal with it. Most don't complain too much, although now and then I get a primadona top that gives me a hard time.

For those of you who don't piece your battings and have never considered doing so but may be slightly intrigued, or for you newbies who have never even heard of such cheapness a thing, behold.

All you have to do is butt two straight edges of the batting up against each other and feed it through your machine using a blind hem stitch. I usually set my stitch width to about 4 and my stitch length to about 2 (I have a Janome something something - a mid range mid cost machine). Look how flat and smooth it is! And I haven't wasted any ends of batting!

If you need to, and I usually do, you can even trim off some from the end of your newly sewn piece and add it to the side if you made it too long but not wide enough.

 See? Still flat, still lovely. And remember - seriously, WHO CARES what the batting looks like???? If you have any skill as a quilter at all, you will not have ANY of it showing in the end.

So then it was time to move on to the backing. I had enough of my selected fabric to make a proper sized back, but it was in five pieces. Sigh. Some days you just don't set any speed records. Eventually, though, I was able to sandwich the three layers.

Note how I was able to sew the batting together in such a way that I made it fit perfectly even though it isn't quite square in that lower right corner. Or maybe that was a total streak of luck. I'll never tell.

Here I would like to give a shout out to spray baste. Believe me, it is not without a small amount of guilt for the state of the ozone layer that I proudly salute 505 basting spray, but man alive, the fact that I had forgotten I ran out of it last week almost reduced me to tears today as it meant I had to pin baste. I have not pin basted in about 8 years. I hope never to do it again after today, even if this was a small project. Just when my nails were looking pretty good, too.

The "Taking Names" group project is underway, which means that I have a stack of projects in my studio that need to be sorted out to all the participants who will be working on other quilters' projects. But since I have all the projects in house and have to work on eight of them myself, I felt it would be okay to get started. So I made some for Angie using her red background and my b/w scraps.

I think they came out pretty cute.

Glen, who will be joining us in this endeavor, seems to have gotten all hopped up about the project too, because she sent me a photo of the blocks she made for her own quilt while waiting for her packet of other people's blocks.

I'm definitely sensing a b/w sort of theme going on here. Although Glen wanted greys as well. Very cool!

In honor of so many people starting their DaGMT-ing early, including myself, I have the 2013 flickr group open for business. So go ahead and start posting your photos of projects you are hoping to accomplish in February as well as any you may have started already.

Are we all just tingling with excitement?