Unexpected Surprise

Today I was looking over a credit card statement for my business. I saw in the fine print -- which I had not noticed before that this card has reward points. I've had the card for quite a few years and when I went online I discovered that I could purchase quilting books, magazine subscriptions, fabric or other tools using the reward points. I had a lot of points so I now have coming a magazine subscription, a couple books and I joined a quilt club. What a fun surprise!

From scraps to a really cute quilt

It's amazing what one can find in their stash of quilting fabric. I was looking last week for some scraps that I could use for a lap sized quilt to give as a wedding gift. I found part of jelly roll. It was a Moda Christmas pattern from several years ago. I made several table runners with the fabric but didn't use the designs that weren't very christmassy. Using this leftover fabric, I cut it into 6 inch strips and started to sew them together. I only had enough for 4 rows. Not enough to make a quilt top, but I had about 1 1/2 yards of this black polka dot fabric that looked really good with the rows. So using 1 1/2 inch strips, I sewed those around the 6" jelly row strips. Still not big enough. Then I added the long white strips, another white border around the whole thing and finished it off with a 4" black polka dot border. It was cute before it got quilted but extra cute after the quilting was finished.

Day Off

One of my goals for the new year is to take more time off. Having a home business can be hard in that the work always seems to be calling to you. There's advantages; you can work any hours you want, you can combine work and other things at home and best of all -- there's no commute! But I also get stuck in the routine of thinking I should work most days. I've never wanted this business to become full-time. It's purpose was to help out the family financially and to do something I love -- quilt. It's been over 10 years since I started. A lot has changed. There are so many machine quilters in the area now. My studio space has more than doubled with a few of my children moving out and moving into their space. I feel much more comfortable in what I do and I think I'm pretty good at it. So life is good. But today was a day off. And a very enjoyable one. I visited with several friends, went to lunch with my husband, spent a couple hours in a quilt shop and best of all -- it was sunny outside. I purchased fabric at the quilt shop to go with some fabric I currently have that needed some companion prints to make an apron out of. The photo shows the fabrics I bought. The plaid fabric on the left is the one that I have a whole bolt of. And I mean a lot of fabric -- it started out with 40 yards of fabric on that bolt. I may never use it up. I think it will make a cute apron though. I'll post pictures when it's done. Now off to sewing and enjoying the rest of my day off!

Recent Customer Quilts

I have always loved house quilts, though I have never made one. I really liked this customer's scrappy looking house quilt. It almost inspires me to make one -- notice I said almost. My determination and discipline is to not start any new quilts until my list of quilts to finish is down to about 5. I have worked at whittling that list down for about two years now and I am seeing progress. Anyway, this was a lovely quilt.

Recent Customer Quilts

I'm enjoying a slower pace of life and a slower pace of quilting. That's probably one of the best things about January -- everything slows way down. I don't feel under the before Christmas pressure with quilting. I'm also taking a little time to work on a few of my own projects. Hopefully I can chip away at a few more quilts on my 'projects list'. But more on that later. Here's a couple pictures of two recent customer quilts. The red, white and blue quilt just has an all-over pattern and the little work trucks quilt is more custom. Notice the cones I quilted down the one border.

Happy New Year

I had to go check the calendar yesterday to remember the year. I am serious. I couldn't remember what year was ending and what the next year would be. Maybe it was my foggy head from having a cold. It does seem almost impossible to be in 2011. Time definitely accelerates.
Here's wishing all of you a happy new year. What will 2011 hold? A few plans are in the works, but only God knows the future for sure. So I will trust Him as I watch 2011 unfold.

Here's my favorite view out my studio windows -- my garden and the chicken coop!

My Quilt Studio Reorganization is Done

My quilt studio is done -- well, mostly done. There are still some project bins to go through. It's basically cleaned up, fabric sorted through and a new arrangement. I love the way it looks. Having a storage closet is a great help. Even after getting rid of so much stuff, I still feel like I have too much.
It's been almost a month since I quilted anything on the longarm. So Monday I get back to work. It will be inspiring to be in a clean, organized studio. I'm ready for 2011.