Face Lift and New Start

So the day style blog’s just had a major face lift. Much more than a 15 minute treatment of L’Bri’s Facial Masque!

I’m wanting to use this blog to be more in touch, but to also share more about my quilting life.

This blog isn’t the only thing that’s changing for me right now.  The Duchess, my first wholecloth quilt will be shipping to Denver for the Denver National Quilt Show tomorrow.

After that, she’s headed to the North Carolina Quilt Symposium, then the National Quilting Association show in Ohio.

Needless to say, creating show quilts and teaching is my new focus!

This week I’ve been working on a series of simple quilts, probably to be called “Simple Blues” to showcase exactly how far you can “quilt it up a notch” even on the simplest quilts.

To celebrate my new focus and path, I’ve been expanding and cleaning my sewing studio.  Up until now, I’ve mostly sewn in my basement kitchen.  It’s a nice room, with plenty of space for my tables and machine.

Recently I purchased a new Bernina, and decided that it was time to split quilting and piecing.  Quilting will now take place in a smaller room off of my sewing studio that I’ve previously used just for fabric and sewing  junk storage.

It’s absolutely amazing how much sewing junk you can accumulate in just a few years!

Going through it all hasn’t been fun.  Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is very difficult, especially when I have several completed tops just waiting to quilt, but no time to finish them.

As overwhelming as it can be, I’m resolved to take everything one day at a time.  Today I will finish cleaning and block “Baskets in Bloom” and tomorrow it will be photographed.

Off to sort fabric!

Leah

Stitched Stuck

So I’m feeling really stuck lately.

Like I’ve just stitched myself to a quilt (though not literally, that would be very painful).

Instead I feel stuck between the skin care business that I’ve slaved away tirelessly on for two years and my new budding quilting business.

Why stuck? Shouldn’t I feel GREAT that I’ve got a ton of work to do in the middle of a horrible recession?

Yeah, in theory, but the grass is definitely greener on the other side.

See, skin care is now taking up a considerable amount of my time.  Scratch that.  ALL OF MY TIME.

Where is the time to quilt and work on my quilting website or videos when I spend all of my time helping people with their oily skin?

Don’t get me wrong I really like helping people with their skin, but I LOVE quilting and really feel drawn and called to quilt daily.  To help people learn to not only quilt, but to quilt amazing things that they never thought they could make.

In looking back over my life of the last 2 years I see that I took the easy path with skin care.  Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that I was terrified of failing miserably if I started a business in quilting so instead I went with skin care feeling that if I completely failed I would still be okay.

Now 2 years and a giant dose of self esteem later, I feel more than capable of trying and failing and continuing to try to build a quilting business.  Can’t have some success without some failure.  Heck, you should look at some of the terrible quilting mistakes that I’ve made over the years!

But with no time to devote to a quilting business now, I feel like I’ve been stitched stuck and placed on the edge of a cliff.

I have 2 choices:

1. Stay stuck – Try to pursue both businesses to the same extent and hope that I don’t have a heart attack or wake up in 10 years and find that my son is grown and my husband has left me.

2. Seam Rip Myself Free – As painful (and stupid) as it may sound, severing my connection with skin care would pave my way, and open up my time for starting my quilting business.

Sometimes my path seems so clear and easy, but other times I absolutely don’t know what to do or what direction to go in at all.  For now, at least, I will stay stuck and take each day as it comes.

I think that’s all anyone can do right now.

Leah

Where have I BEEN???

Lost and Wandering in the world of quilting

You know what happens when you go away for awhile?

You go away and you think: “I’ll get in touch with everyone when I get back.”  Then you get back and think: “I’m too busy now. I’ll worry about it when I have more time.”

Then things get busier and life happens and suddenly you wake up one day and wonder where you’ve been for the past four months.

That’s right, FOUR MONTHS!

I aught to be seriously scolded for leaving my blog to suffer like this.  I aught to be put on a fabric buying diet. No new fabric for me…

Naw, I’ll just resolve to post more often, which probably won’t do much good seeing as I still have far too much to do and far too little time to do it in.

Why am I complaining?  I’m not really…well, yes, I guess I am, but I feel kind of stuck right now and I don’t know if there’s any way of becoming unstuck anytime soon.

But despite my sticky stuckness I’m back and going to be posting MUCH more often with tons of fun tips and tricks on quilting, plus more on my journey through The Artist’s Way, my new favorite / most hated book (you’d understand if you read it).

This is kind of like an addiction though.  I need you all to help me get addicted again so please comment, rate, post, whatever to let me know that you’re out there and love, like, or hate what about what I have to say.

Be an enabler!  Help me get blog addicted again!

Leah

Tips for Photographing Quilts

For the longest time I struggled to take decent photos of my quilts. I really tried everything: hanging them on the wall, spreading them over a bed, adding bright lighting, etc. and nothing seemed to work.

Finally I came to the realization that I’m a quilter, and just not going to get the professional quality photographs I want. I needed a photographer to take care of this job for me.

Now, I know this sounds like sacrilege. For some reason we believe that just because we can hem pants, sew quilts, and mend jackets that we should also be able to photograph our quilts, knit, and god knows what else.

Sometimes it’s better to just admit that someone can do a better job!

So I went to my local camera and video store and spoke with the man that owned the store. He happened to do in store photographs of artwork and quilts for just $5!

Another reason why we’re probably resistant to getting photos made by someone else: price. I don’t think anyone can argue that $5 a quilt is definitely worth it!

It also made me a little miffed at my own prejudging. We naturally assume that a photographer will charge $50 or more for a photograph, when we have a hard time asking $10 for a decent blind hem. Talk about unfair!

I had a really good experience with my local photographer though. I would advise bringing long, 2″ straight pins so you can pin your quilt to the backdrop. Otherwise the photographer might use clips that will eventually show up in the photo.

Also understand that quilts are made from fabric and are never going to hang in a perfect square. Crop your photos so they include some backdrop and it won’t matter if your quilt doesn’t hang perfectly (for real quilt hanging problems, check out the article: “How to Block Your Quilt“).

Also make sure that the entire quilt is photographed from edge to edge. If you plan to submit the photograph to a juried quilt show it will need to show the whole quilt, binding included.

Check out the following professional photos of The Food Quilt and The Rainbow Quilt, two new pattern available at Day Style Designs Online.

The Food Quilt

The Rainbow Quilt

Problems with The Bottom Line Thread

My bottom line with The Bottom Line Thread?  This thread is not worth the spool it was wound on.

I purchased three spools of The Bottom Line Thread in black, white, and green back in October to finish three quilts.  The first spool of green thread wasn’t so bad.

I managed to get through a full sized quilt, but had to make major adjustments to the tension of the top thread and bobbin to make it work.  I also noticed a big difference when using Embroidery needles verses the Universal 80/12 needles that I usually use.  The thread broke less with the embroidery needles.  Even still, there were more thread problems with that quilt than I would have liked…

Then I started working on this latest quilt.  It’s just a basic Christmas number with black fabric that I wanted to test out my new Juki with.  Unforuntately I can’t seem to dial down the tension enough to make this thread happy.  It keeps shredding!

Needless to say, stopping every 2 minutes to tie off thread that’s shredded itself to bits gets annoying really fast.

Before I go back to tear out my hair a little more, I just want to say this: there’s a point when looking for the thinnest thread gets ridiculous.  My time is better spent FINISHING quilts, not fighting tooth and nail to get them quilted.

Anyone have any suggestions for other threads I should try?

I’m certainly open to suggestions because The Bottom Line is definitely going in the bottom of the trashcan.

Leah

Hand Piecing Hexagons On Vacation

Vacations can be really tough on a machine quilter.  It’s really unfair that those hand quilters have such small, portable projects they can take anywhere with them.

So this past week when faced with the prospect of 7 full days away from my sewing machine, I decided to break down and try hand piecing.  And it actually wasn’t that bad!

For my traveling project I decided to start working on a traditional 1930s Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt.  In case you’ve never seen one of these beauties, these quilts are entirely constructed from hexagon shaped blocks.

Little did I know, but hexagons are actually easier to piece by hand than by machine.  You have to stitch from dot to dot, not edge to edge like most blocks are pieced.  Because it’s too tricky to chain piece dot to dot, it’s actually much faster to hand piece while you’re driving down the road.

I was also thoroughly shocked by how quickly this pieced itself up.  I mostly just concentrated on piecing the flowers.  This is a central hexagon surrounded by 6 contrasting hexagons (the flower petals).

I made a million of these before realizing just how big they were.  I’m planning on surrounding them with green blocks for the leaves and then a black border to seperate each flower.  When stretched out on the floor, this is already going to make a pretty big quilt.

For cutting out the pieced, I used the “From Marti Mitchell” small hexagon templates.  I must say these templates were very easy to use and the holes for marking the dots very accurate.

Even in the car I could mark my blocks and stitch away without having to stop.  The only limitation was the number of blocks I had cut!

This really is a terrific project and I’ll be sure to post pictures and maybe even a movie when I get more organized.

Hand piecing rocks!

Leah Day

Thread Painting Disaster

Thread painting is wonderfully fun and can produce really amazing quilts. It can also produce pretty time consuming disasters.

Unfortunately my latest thread painting foray ended in total disaster.

Here’s the specs:

Thia project was originally started because I wanted to have a quilted portrait of myself to use as an avatar online and maybe even on my business cards.

My husband snapped the photo for me with our digital camera and I loaded it into the computer and blew it up to more than 300 times the original size. The project was going to end up making a medium sized wallhanging.

So my first mistake started when I selected the materials. I used white 100% cotton muslin that had been prewashed.  I had not, however, starched my fabric, or stabilized it in any way.

For stabilizer I was only using one layer of scrap batting that was just big enough to cover the fabric.

So after sketching the lines from the printed photograph onto the fabric using my lightbox, I immediately started thread painting.

The first part I started on was the flesh tones of the face because I figured this was the largest area to start with and I wouldn’t have many thread breaks.

So after painting the whole face, my lips and eyes were now bulging out of my head! I had extreme problems already with the non-painted areas puffing out and distorting the painted areas.

Rather than stop here while I was ahead, I forged on and did another 6 hours of thread painting on this disaster waiting to happen.

And to no avail.  This portrait is really not going to work out.  The distortion caused by incorrect stabilizing has lead to really sever problems with the whole piece.

This is a big lesson in when it’s time to let go and call it quits with a piece.  I have no qualms about putting 8 hours of work and more than $10 in thread into the trash because I know the alternative is to put another 20 hours into it and still not get anywhere.

I might try this project again because it’s really a good idea, but not for a while. I learned a lot of tips about thread painting from this disaster project, which is more valuable than any spectacular thread portrait avatar photo.

Check back soon for photos!

Wholecloth Quilts

Wholecloth quilts are quilts made of one single piece of cloth, hence the name “wholecloth.”  The design of these quilts is created entirely from the dense quilting stitches that form patterns and motifs across the surface of the quilt.

I must admit that just 6 months ago I would never have considered creating a wholecloth quilt.  They appeared way too difficult, stuffy, and a little too girly for my taste.

But then I met Karen McTavish.  Well, I didn’t technically “meet” her, I just stumbed across her website and bought bought all of her books (all of them are absolutely worth it) and finally learned the truth about wholecloth quilting.

You see, the only wholecloth quilt I’ve ever seen was a pre-printed panel at a quilting shop.  I hated the design, so, of course, I hated the quilt.

But now I understand the ease and simplicity of designing a wholecloth quilt. Unlike traditional pieced top, your totally open to pick any designs, and you have no limitation of fitting the motifs into spaces around blocks or appliques.

Take a design you like such as the scroll pattern over your fireplace.  Draw that onto a piece of large 1″ graph paper.  Now place that under a large piece of white fabric with a lightbox beneath and mark the design on your quilt.

Rotate the design, alter it slightly for borders, and you’ve got yourself an absolutely beautiful wholecloth quilt!

This might be intimidating for some people, but for me, this is true freedom! Since learning about wholecloth quilting I’ve transformed my entire quilting space. I now have a lightbox table the exact same height as my sewing tables so I can draft quilting patterns and easily mark tops.

I’ve even started my first wholecloth quilting project inspired by the movie The Duchess.  It’s so much fun to finally appreciate the quilting process as an art into itself!

Pictures and videos of The Duchess Quilt are soon to come!

Leah

New Focus, New Goals

This October was an absolutely spectacular month for my quilting business.

No, I didn’t sell a huge quilt for thousands of dollars.

No, I didn’t get contracted to make patterns for a big name company.

No, I didn’t even finish my braided bag tote pattern.

Instead I just refocused my goals and decided to learn how to really finish a quilt.  I was feeling pretty down about my quilting ability.  Piecing is fairly easy for me and is no longer a struggle to cut and piece fabrics very accurately.

But my quilting has always been less than stellar.

It’s not that I’m a bad quilter, I always had a fair amount of talent.  The problem was I couldn’t “see” what quilting design to use on certain areas of a quilt.  I assumed (wrongly) that all patterns had to be freeform and built into muscle memory so I could pull them out whenever needed.

Now for background filler quilting patterns, that is definitely true.  It’s important to know how to stipple, McTavish, do paisleys, and echo quilting at will.  I already had this ability, what I lacked was the insight as to how to design the quilting pattern to support, if not set off the piecing.

So in the past month, I’ve been a little MIA on this blog, and for good reason.  I’ve been working.

What I’ve discovered is the wonderful world of trapunto and just how amazing this technique is for quilting. Using this newfound skill, I took this quilt top (view above) and instead of doing random, meandering lines all over it, I’ve finished it with style!

Of course, the first attempt at a new technique isn’t always perfect. I definitely learned a lot with this first project and will post more about those lessons soon.  What I gained from this experience was the knowledge of how to look at a quilt pattern and see the potential quilting lines that could enhance it.  How to “see” that inner pattern and have the guts to draw and design new elements for a quilt that might otherwise have been finished very simply.

My newfound focus and goal are definitely starting to play out with my life and quilting business. I’m ready to devote real time and energy to making this business a success and it’s so exciting to share this moment with you!

Braided block tote bag

Green Border

I’ve been hankering to make a really fabulous quilted handbag. I’m not particularly fond of the quilted bag patterns commonly found in quilting stores. They just look too much like diaper bags to me, though maybe I have that association because I still have an 18 month old in diapers, who knows.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to think up a pretty simple pattern that looks complex. I want the bag to be fairly large, but not so big people think you’re hauling the kitchen sink. It also has to have fabulous quilting, but that goes without saying.

So I start playing around with fabric and end up cutting up a favorite fabric I’ve saved for quite awhile.  Unfortunately, once pieced back together, I couldn’t quite figure out what border color to use with it.  As you can see here, the green clashes horribly with the orange fabric.

Now let’s try with blue – NO!

I realized by this time that the original fabric I choose was probably a bad choice. I always liked it because I could see the little purple dots, but overall, it reads just orange, orange, orange.

Now I try it to pair my orange disaster with other similar toned colors. Ah! Now this works much better.

It just goes to show that often the color you like in your fabric isn’t necessarily the color that is super apparent when you look at if from a far distance.  A great tip for being able to truly “see” a particular fabric or color is to take a photo of it.

Even if it’s in poor lighting, a color picture will minimize the image and allow you to judge the color value.  It might look odd to walk through your local fabric store taking photos of random fabric displays, but quilters never seem to care what other people thing anyway…

I’ll post up the end result of this bag whenever it manages to get finished!