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.
That Song Stuck in Your Head
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 (Continue Reading...)
Errata, argh, errata.
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 (Continue Reading...)
Confessions of a Serial Crafter
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.
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 (Continue Reading...)
Hoarding for a Rainy Day
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.)
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 (Continue Reading...)
I Did It! I Sewed Again (Finally)
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 (Continue Reading...)
Fastest Quilt Market Tear Down EVER!
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 (Continue Reading...)
Quilt Market: I Never Looked Up
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.
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.
Cheating on an Interfacing?
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!) (Continue Reading...)
Car Projects and Other Small Commitments
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.
I have wool appliqué quilt blocks (from a Quiltmaker magazine project) that I started on the way to a Las Vegas tradeshow and worked (Continue Reading...)
Fabrics Seeking Available Project for Fun & Long-Term Relationship
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.)
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 (Continue Reading...)
