Last weekend I spent 9 hours over two days making Pac-Man and Clyde the Ghost costumes for my 13 year old son Parker and his best friend Will. I had no pattern to work from and little idea of how to put the garments together, knowing only that the boys wanted dimensional costumes and that I was to create what they described.
Once the boys explained what they wanted, I found a patio table that was about the right size for the circle shape of Pac-Man and started from there. We designed as we went, discussing different options and the pros and cons of each. We brainstormed about how we could construct the pieces so that Parker and Will would retain the ability to move around in their costumes, at least enough to be able to function at school on Friday. We ironed together for two hours, with me on one iron and the boys, on their hands and knees on the floor, using the other one. We cut out the shapes of the characters and I pinned.
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.
Raindrops
Are the most
Inexpensive diamonds
You can find…
Since one of the terrific features of the tool is the barrel design (it’s squared off so it won’t roll off your desk or sewing table), we positioned her lying down on her desk. Only she was having trouble, um, not rolling off. I’m not kidding…she was trying to lie on her side, perfectly straight, and she rolled backwards and almost fell off her desk! We didn’t catch that on tape, but it gave us a serious case of the giggles that carried through when we did have tape rolling. I even kept mispronouncing her name, so on our third try, you hear me pausing to concentrate on saying her name correctly without laughing. The picture on her office door is one of our how-to shots which shows that you can use the tool to stuff a doll’s head…and we put a picture of Gailen’s face over the doll face.
We also caught a glimpse of PacMan and the Ghost running through the maze of cubicles in our office. Our Publisher Amy made fabulous costumes (with a whole bolt of fast2fuse!) for her son Parker and his pal Will…and they surprised us with a guest appearance.
Amy painted the fabric for these costumes with Liquitex® Acrylic Inks!—notice how bright the colors are? She needed less than half an ounce of each ink color, mixed with lots of water, to paint the fabric for the whole costume! Now that’s some amazing pigment! She made the ghostly orange herself by mixing the red and yellow inks. That Liquitex is good stuff.
Yesterday we had our annual Costume Contest and Halloween Party and, like always, it was tons of fun. The below snap shots show some of the day’s highlights. Additional photos are on our Flickr page!
First, the 10am Management Team meeting got a bit ghoulish…
Then, the competition in the Costume Contest was FIERCE
(I am the fabulous Bacon, btw).
It seems a bit fitting that our Creative Director would walk away with first prize in the Costume Contest. Gailen’s rendition of Alex Anderson’s 4-in-1 Essential Tool was so well-executed I don’t think anyone was very surprised.
Lynn and Amy came in close at second place as Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, respectively, and Kerry the camel walked off with the third place prize. Congrats!
Gailen, our shining star
Later in the afternoon we were paid a visit by a few friendly video game characters, Pac-Man and and the orange ghost who chases him around.
And of course we enjoyed some Halloween goodies, i.e. cupcakes the size of small pumpkins!!
C&T is excited to announce an upcoming book with the popular online quilting bee, Block Party. The book won’t be out until Spring of 2011, but in the meantime Alissa Haight Carlton and Kristen Lejnieks are reformatting their quilting bee as a quilt-along and all of you can join in!
You really need to take a look at their blogs – their work is just beautiful:
I’ll leave it to the Block Party gals to tell you all the details, but I will say we at C&T are so excited to be working with this amazing group. They have not only contributed a unique voice to the quilting community, but are an inspiring example of how to create a sense of community in this increasingly digital world. And they are fun!
A fantastic way to get involved in an online quilting bee of your own or to increase participation in one you are involved in is through exploring the resources in the Quilting Bee Blocks Group on Flickr. I am looking forward to seeing all the blocks you make!
My 6 year old, Alivia, came home from school recently and informed me that her best friend, Minae, is going to be a witch for Halloween and she will be her cat. Finally! I thought, This is the costume-making opportunity I’ve been waiting for!
I sewed the skirt with tail, ears, and fur wristbands. At C&T Publishing, most moms and grandmas make the kids their costumes. Until now, I’d always just taken the easy route and bought the kids their costumes. After all, the store costumes are cute and never too expensive. Alivia really changed my attitude this time: She was so proud of this not-so-great costume just because her mommy made it that I am already looking forward to making Alivia’s costume next year.
The Arizona Quilter’s Hall of Fame has selected C&T author Helen Frost as a 2009 Inductee. Co-author of Radiant Sunshine & Shadow, Helen began teaching quiltmaking in 1974 and has taught at guilds and conferences across the country and in Europe. She is best known for her innovative strip-piecing methods, but her first love is hand appliqué.
The Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame inducted Helen along with 4 other quilters on September 27. Helen spoke of the place that quilting has had in her life as she accepted her recognition. Congratulations Helen!
Ever since I went back to work 2 years ago after a 14-year hiatus, I have realized that there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything done that I would like. So, I have to prioritize my values and tasks.
It is clear to me that mounds of dog hair floating and bouncing on my hardwood floors is no big deal, I would rather take the time available and spend it with my kids and with my sewing. I have also realized that I don’t have the luxury of hours of free time to spend sewing away on my trusty machine – I have to grab 10 minutes when I can and not get discouraged that a project seems to take forever to finish.
With this “chip away” mentality established, I decided, in September 2008, to start a Halloween wall hanging. I love the projects in Liz Aneloski’s book Simple Fabric Folding for Halloween and went for the haunted house with the interesting 3-D folded windows and doors. Well, here it is, October 2009, and you can see that I have it done. (It was a very busy year with kids going everywhere!)
Another reason it took me so long to finish was that I needed some confetti/doodads to embellish the quilt, and they are seasonal.
Next, I am going to continue working on the world’s heaviest tree skirt. Who knows if it will be ready for Christmas 2009? I’ll get to the end of this project when it happens.
Call me lucky that I get to go to Quilt Festival in Houston for work. There were so many fabulous quilts there and it was so exciting to see quilts made by C&T authors that won prizes.
First up, “Cinnabar and Indigo”by Judy Mathieson, which won First Place in the Innovative Pieced category.
"Cinnabar and Indigo" by Judy Mathieson
Next up is Gloria Hansen, who won 2 awards: Third Place for “Circles Collide” andHonorable Mention for “Witley Decay”in the Digital Imagery category sponsored by C&T Publishing. Continue Reading…
Hi, I’m Kim Schaefer in Southeastern Wisconsin, where I live with my family. This month my fifth book with C&T Publishing, Cozy Modern Quilts, was released! I have been happily designing patterns for my company, Little Quilt Company, since 1996 and in 2005, I started designing fabrics for Andover Fabrics.
I absolutely love, love, love all my jobs and feel like I am the luckiest person around to be able to do what I love and get paid for it too. I am truly appreciative and very grateful for all the encouragement and support I have received from my fellow quilters over the years.
I am so excited about my new book, Cozy Modern Quilts—it is so different from my previous titles. Although I love appliqué, I wanted to do something totally different for this new book. I’m hoping this title will appeal to both beginning quilters and quilters who prefer piecing.
The book contains a collection of simple pieced projects using only squares and rectangles. It includes placemats, table runners, wall quilts, and lap quilts, many of which are very scrappy and will be great stash busters. Although the techniques used are simple, the results you will achieve are anything but. Continue Reading…
C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
