It’s happened again. I have a song stuck in my head.
When I’m quilting, I love to listen to music. But I must admit I get in quite a rut. I listen to the same CD over and over, most likely because I’m not really listening to it at all. I just hum along and use the music to keep my groove when I’m ironing, cutting, or sewing. But that means I end up humming the songs at odd times after I’ve left my studio, not knowing where the tune came from.
Right now the song stuck in my head is fabulously appropriate for work (or for play…). I just screened Peggy Martin’s DVD (Peggy Martin Teaches you Quick Strip Paper Piecing) that was just released this November and there’s a terrific song that runs over the closing credits. A little research told me it’s “Quilting Party” performed by none-other-than Peggy Martin herself. It’s beautiful! What a talented woman.
I get songs out of my head by thinking the tune of “The Girl from Ipanema”…that gets rid of any unwanted tune and doesn’t get stuck itself. I’m usually pretty desperate to get the songs unstuck, but not this time. I think I’ll let this one stick around for awhile.
Errata. I hate errata.
An errata is an error found in a book after publishing. And we have them. (Not with any frequency, thank goodness!) If any publisher says they never have mistakes in their books, either they’re not telling the truth or they don’t care to check.
When I started at C&T six years ago, I was a technical editor. I love the math, crunching numbers, calculating yardage. There are thousands of numbers to crunch in some project books! The key to being a good technical editor is to also try to predict how someone else might read an instruction, cut a strip of fabric, adjust the yardage requirements and edit or word the material accordingly.
We’re so serious about technical accuracy that we have two technical editors reviewing every project. But unfortunately once in a while (once in a great while), we miss the mark.
This is quite painful for us, but more painful for someone who’s trying to make a project. We often receive calls or emails from readers, mid-project, with questions about construction or cutting. The calls and emails go to our technical editors who work to figure out what’s going on. Usually it’s not a problem in the book and we are delighted to help the reader out with the answer. But sometimes we’ve missed something.
So we list our errata on our website. (Look at the bottom of the home page for Book Corrections.)
We don’t hide them. We don’t use a euphemism (such as “Book Additions”) that would make them harder for our readers to find. And we don’t take them down when a book is reprinted. Of course we fix any errors and clarify any confusing areas as soon as possible. But, unlike other publishers, we don’t take down the correction. That wouldn’t be fair to the thousands of people who purchased the original printing!
I hate errata. The best errata is one that never happens. The second best errata is one that we do absolutely everything we can to make right. We love our readers—we are our readers, quite literally—and we are committed to their success.
It’s an addiction. It seems that I must try every new craft that I come across.
Not only do I want to try it, I must purchase everything I need to try it and to make at least two finished projects. I rarely finish two projects. I sometimes finish one of them. Sometimes I define “finish” pretty loosely.
Felt Wee Folk painted faces
I’m sure it’s not just one addiction… You have the overwhelming need to purchase all of the supplies and the equally overwhelming need to organize those supplies by color, size, or whatever makes sense. Putting them in cute little boxes or baskets helps. That has to be at least two major issues.
Continue Reading…
Usually I’m into instant gratification, but I’ve been remarkably patient on this one.
I’ve been hording gift certificates and the completed quilt shop punch cards my mom gives me for my birthday. (Mom’s a more avid fabric shopper than I am these days and I benefit from her largess.)
How would you spend these?
My husband encourages me to buy fabrics when I want to (as I encourage him to buy wood for his shop projects), but I don’t feel free to do so unless I have a particular quilt (for a particular person or occasion) in mind. I suspect that if I very regularly exercised the freedom to purchase, my husband might not be so encouraging. (I know I wouldn’t.)
So I’ve hoarded the freedom to splurge… a “just because” fabric shopping spree. I can add to an existing collection (I could use some more black/red/cream fabrics and my cowboy collection needs some rounding out) or start a new one. I’ve been bolt browsing (my quilting equivalent to window shopping) periodically, waiting for inspiration or an overwhelming feeling of covetousness. Purples, greens, large-scale prints, Valori Wells‘ new line, plaids (plaids?)… they all beckon.
What would you splurge on?
It’s been a long time since I’ve had any real time to start and finish a sewing project. But it’s almost the end of the year and I haven’t taken my vacation days yet. I’ve decided that I’m going to take Mondays off and spend the days in my quilt studio.
When I was at Pacific International Quilt Festival, I stopped by one of my favorite quilt shops’ booth (Honey Run Quilters in Chico, CA) and picked up a pattern that screamed at me from the display. It’s a Jackie Clark pattern called Cute as a Button Baby Jacket.
Kennedy's jacket
Here’s my version. It’s a little blocky and a little short on my daughter, so I think I might add a little peplum in the same fabric and cover up the seam with some of that darling extra-large rickrack that’s out there.
Then again, the jacket was so easy and fast to make, I may just start over and cut the pattern longer instead.
It was a great half-day project and I can’t wait to start something else! I spent the rest of my first Monday off ironing and starching some beautiful taupey, woveny, Japanese fabrics for… for… well I’m not sure what it’s for yet. I guess I’ll get to figure that out next Monday!
YAY!
While Quilt Market can be fun and fabulous, it can also be tiring. Particularly the last day. Especially if you’re staying late and tearing down the booth. There’s a lot to pack. And you have to wait for the crate to arrive on the fork lift. I can’t say for sure, but from what I saw around us, I think that this year we were one of the first if not the first booth to get their crate. WHEW! What a difference that makes!
At the end of each show we break down the book racks, carefully tuck away the quilts, eat the leftover Quilter’s Chocolate (I mean, we have to do something with it), tear up and store our cushy floor… everything goes in the crate and we go off to a nice dinner proceeded by a nice adult beverage for those so inclined.
John caught in the crate
Publisher Amy Marson was (and usually is) in charge of packing. It’s like packing the car for a family road trip. One person needs to have a vision and the commitment to following through. Super-tall Sales Rep John Pilcher (left) was in charge of everything high up, including quilts and curtains, as well as anything that looks exceptionally heavy. Editor Lynn Koolish was in charge of boxing books, flyers, folders… anything that can be accomplished sitting down and that her questionable back can handle. I was in charge of collecting our display items from other booths and whatever else I could do without getting in the way… book rack breakdown, floor tear up, chocolate eating, etc.
While it’s hard work, I really enjoy tear down. It’s like doing dishes at the end of a day-long house party: You get a few fun people in the kitchen, washing the wine glasses, nibbling on leftovers, telling jokes, and really enjoying working together. After four or five days of Market meetings when I’ve been dressed nicely and on my best business behavior, it’s just the kind of break I need.
As always, I’m looking forward to next year!
Lynn freeing John from the Crate
I spent three full days on the floor at Quilt Market, meeting with people, trolling the aisles, studying booths, running from one end of the convention hall to the other. It wasn’t until tear down that I looked up. There was the largest flag I think I’ve ever seen.
How did I miss this flag?!
I don’t know how it could have slipped my notice until then.
Perhaps there was too much beautiful, exciting, fabulous new stuff at eye level for me to really take in my surroundings.
I made Lynn Koolish (editor, author, and fellow-tear-downer) stand directly under the flag for perspective. Wow. That’s one big (and beautiful) flag!
I love fast2fuse. Can I love Timtex, too?
For those of you who aren’t familiar with fast2fuse, it’s a stiff, double-sided fusible interfacing, perfect for use in any and all 3D crafts. Some quilters, including Laura Wasilowski, use fast2fuse instead of batting on their wallhanging quilts.
Timtex was fast2fuse’s forerunner. It’s a heavyweight interfacing, but without the fusible. When our fast, fun & easy Fabric Bowls book (by Linda Johanson) first came out, there was only Timtex. (And I bought a bolt!) So you had to use fusible on your fabric to fuse it to the Timtex on both sides before you could make your bowl. More time and more product to buy.
So we developed fast2fuse to cut out that adding-fusible step.
And I embraced it! I love to use it in Halloween costumes (check out Super Simple Creative Costumes by Sue Astroth to see the possibilities), bowls, boxes… anything. For awhile, Timtex was unavailable, and I didn’t give it a second thought.
But now Timtex is back, and I don’t always need to fuse in my fast2fuse applications (like in purse bottoms). So I’m being tempted away from fast2fuse. I feel guilty. Yes, I will readily admit that I’m the queen of anthropomorphizing! (Knowing in my rational mind that inanimate objects don’t have feelings doesn’t stop me from feeling bad for them…)
So here’s my questions: Is it possible to cheat on a substrate?
Car projects are always hot for me. I have two toddlers and a temporary house (we moved in a year and a half ago and won’t finish building our new home for another year and a half… can a three-year house really count as temporary?) so I don’t have the time and space for my usual quilting.
A great portable roadtrip project
I have wool appliqué quilt blocks (from a Quiltmaker magazine project) that I started on the way to a Las Vegas tradeshow and worked on heading south en route to the grandparents in Los Angeles and north to my brother’s house in Chico. That counts as quilting, although I don’t intend to sew them together (I ended up not being wowed by my felt color selections).
Continue Reading…
I’ve had this fabric for years (through 3 different houses!). Until pulling them out to take this photo, I’d never even taken the squares out of their tidy little ziplock bags. (The fabrics are from two Keepsake Quilting collections: Wild Things, forty 10″ squares, and Chicken Parts, sixty 6″ squares.)
What would you do with these fabrics?
I don’t particularly like chickens. Animal prints aren’t necessarily my thing, either. However, something about these colors and textures really attract me. They just haven’t attracted the right project yet. The closest I’ve gotten to something that would work for me (and the fabrics) is a basic square-in-a-square pattern. But it doesn’t seem special enough to cut the now-carrying-way-too-much-pressure Venerable Fabric Collection.
What does a quilter do now?!?
How do you pick the perfect patterns for favorite fabrics?
Subscribe via RSS
Email the Blog editors
Sign up for our Newsletter
Flickr
Twitter
Facebook
Technorati
