Efficiency step-by-step

Have you ever had the feeling that you have too many juggling balls in the air? Of course we all have. And for me anything more than TWO qualifies as TOO many. Never been much of a multi-tasker.

However, that's not to say I haven't been getting some things taken care of properly. I finished the commissioned wall-hanging on deadline and hope that it is bringing smiles to many faces.

I've been receiving some really great blocks for October's do.Good Stitches Bliss circle too. I have to admit I am going to be on a last-minute schedule to get my blocks done for November, but will come through. This is one of those commitments that I love being a part of and get enjoyment from more often than not, but may have taken a back seat in recent years. In fact, I still have 2 tops yet to quilt from this past year +, not including the most recent month. 

My samples for October's Bliss blocks, from the wonderful Garden Fence tutorial by Hyacinth Quilts.

Blocks collected nearly a year ago that I FINALLY finished up in October.

Back in August and September Cherie and I applied to a few holiday craft fairs in the area for both The Creative Bungalow and Surrounded by Scraps. We saw a lot of wait-list action in the subsequent months, which maybe wasn't so surprising, but somewhat disappointing. I'm still convinced that holiday bazaars are not the target for TCB, but will be a good way to get our feet wet. And as luck would have it, one of the shows we were wait-listed for passed along our info to another group (same auspices) for a HS Booster Club holiday bazaar. Which means I've been getting on the horn making up more of the smaller items, adding cocktail napkins to my repertoire.

Ooof, sorry for the blurry picture. Was in the process of turning my double-sided napkins right-side-out.

There are so many other updates I could include (since I have been slacking on the blog of late), but for now I will leave it with this. My feelings on what's ahead are to minimize in order to maximize. Pare down the number of directions I invariably want to pursue in order to really succeed in creating something I am proud of. Wish me luck!

Looking forward

Wow, where did the summer go?! I had a whirlwind of a trip to NYC for my brother's wedding (which was AMAZING!!!) and visiting friends.

The handsome grooms standing under the chuppah that my mom and I made for them (she did the lion's share of the work, trust me!)

I have otherwise been spending time building up The Creative Bungalow and taking care of our pup, Atlas.

Isn't he a cutie?? Our first visit to a body of water larger than a Portland puddle, taken at Sauvie's Island.

But the month of September has been an active one and has presented great opportunities for looking forward. I've recently started working on a commission - from someone I've never met. And we are enjoying working together for the finished product! That's exciting.

She has requested a wall-hanging for her office that is kid-friendly and engaging. She saw a quilt that I made for someone else and we have used that as a starting point. It's allowed me to put to use some of the MANY novelty prints I have in my studio while adding just a few new ones.

And I've combined them with some fun, bright prints:

It's still in progress, but I am happy with how it is developing. And somewhat inspired I have to admit.

I've also been concentrating a good amount of time on The Creative Bungalow. We've applied to a couple of holiday craft fairs and are still working on new projects. I've also been working on developing new patterns, which I'll share very, very soon! One of those patterns might look somewhat familiar if you shop at Cool Cottons and saw my wall-hanging back at the beginning of the year...

So I am trying to get back into the swing of things and stay on top of the blogging and updating and making. Definitely the making! And just trying to stay inspired.

A Page Has Been Turned

2014 has been a year very different from any previous. Lots of great changes have been occurring, a few obstacles as well, but in all of that activity I have kind of lost sight of Surrounded by Scraps. Or rather, I've put the scraps part of it on hold. My time and efforts in making things has been focused on getting The Creative Bungalow off the ground with Cherie and working on some personal projects. Like this beaut for instance:

Blocks for my brother's wedding chuppah. The paper-piecing templates designed and drafted by my mom, inspired by a quilt we found on Pinterest without any reference or source for the pattern used.

And maybe a little dip into this, too:

A test run for a McCall's dress pattern that I am hoping to make up using less whimsical fabrics as well. But I'm loving how this is looking!

And then yesterday something changed.

The Creative Bungalow got our first Etsy sale that came directly from Etsy (as opposed to the kit my friend Niki purchased during our first month online! Thanks, Niki!!) Ironically it caused us quite a commotion. There had to be a proxy delivery of inventory from Cherie's studio where it usually lives, meeting at 9:15pm a little off-course for all involved (but not TOO out of the way, thankfully) in order to get the order filled in a timely manner. But it's done! And we are thrilled.

And then today I just got a custom quilt request for Surrounded by Scraps, also through Etsy. My Etsy shop has been silent as the hills all year, so to get an inquiry into a potential project just hours on the heels of TCB's sale is exhilarating. Now, I know better than to get ahead of myself on the custom order requests. I've gotten burned in the past, putting way too much energy into trying to snag a big order. More than once. Though sometimes it does pan out.

A commissioned set of place mats from Fall/Winter 2013.

So I now approach cautiously, putting all cards on the table and making sure the details are spelled out and amenable to all parties before investing too much time or money. Is that cynical of me? Let's just call it practical.

That being said, I am staying optimistic that something will pan out with this order. From the details that were shared with me it looks like it could be a lot of fun! And after the trip to NY for the wedding AT THE END OF THIS MONTH my sewing schedule will be seriously freed up! That is unless kits start flying out of The Creative Bungalow and we jump in with more and more! See, optimism!!

WIP Wed. 6/11/14

This is an uncommon Wednesday for me. Not just because I've been lax about keeping up with these posts, but instead of sitting at the quilt shop I am sitting in a Jury Assembly room waiting to see if my name gets called. Gives me plenty of time to play around with combining mobile apps and my computer to hopefully post some photos of recent projects underway.

Right now I am working on two big projects: still making samples for The Creative Bungalow, trying to populate our Etsy shop with some great kits for you quilters! My most recent finish (or finished top, at least) is from the Modern Quilt Relish pattern Taffy Twists. LOVE how this one turned out and I'm even eager to quilt it up!!

I feel like there is another sample top that I've finished lately, but the last few weeks have been such a whirlwind that something is escaping me. Plus Cherie has also been busy at work and has busted out some gorgeous quilt tops which I cannot claim for my own WIP (though she did make up a sample using my new-ish pattern Dorm Room Cots!).

My other big project is busting out more of those paper-piecing blocks for the wedding chuppah my mom and I are making for my brother and his fiancé. We met up at her home in Scottsdale the last weekend in May and were able to get just a few blocks together on the design wall to give us an idea of how absolutely gorgeous it will be when it's all together!

I had been somewhat vague about these before, not wanting to give away any surprises. Even though Lee and Glenn helped choose the general design (which my mom drafted in EQ7 for the paper-piecing) they hadn't seen the fabrics we chose to work with. And those fabrics are these luscious hand-dyed ombré jelly rolls (I want to say from Northcott, but that's probably the other ombré she picked up) with Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Snow as the background. However, I can reveal now that Lee face-timed with Glenn who was still in NYC at the time and they got to see this preview "together". It was super-cute! And my first experience with Face-time!

Sadly, that about covers it. I did make a muslin of the bodice for one of the dresses I'm hoping to make for the wedding trip next month. It's too short-waisted, which is exactly what I had feared. Next step is to see if I can recall my costume shop education from college almost 20 years ago in order to make the necessary alterations to the pattern. Yikes.

Sorry there aren't more photos to share. Thanks for keeping up with me on this journey!

Branching out

So Cherie and I are doing a major push to get The Creative Bungalow off the ground. We have a new kit in our Etsy shop, for instance.

The new Lock 'n' Bolt kit featuring assorted prints from Art Gallery Fabrics.

And we have a couple more kits cut and almost ready to make available...

Double Shot Star kit coming soon!!

A whole slew of new fabrics are on order. Oh, and I got a great response to my blog post about pattern-writing and proofing! Thank you for the generous efforts of Michelle, Dawn (First Light Designs) and my mom (who is actually pattern testing with a sample for the upcoming Dorm Room Cots!!).

Our new adventure as of this week is expanding on social media. I have, of course, been blogging off and on over the last few years, and am active on Flickr (though less so recently), Pinterest and Facebook, but with all of these mobile devices the list must expand. I had never logged onto Twitter before yesterday. Well, that's not quite true, but the previous time I did was out of curiosity and didn't go anywhere (and was before I even had a smartphone). Cherie and I have signed up for a series of short classes on using social media as a marketing tool for online business — actually Cherie has signed up for the series, I was only able to make one of the classes, which met this past Wednesday night. In response to the class, both The Creative Bungalow and Surrounded by Scraps now have Twitter profiles, @TCBQuiltStudio and @linda_SbSdesign, respectively. We are still figuring this stuff out and just getting warmed up. So, any of you who may be old-hats at this Twitter thing have suggestions? Or feel like leading by example? Stop on by!

And stay tuned for our Double Shot Star kit and Sessoms kit coming soon!!

Third time's a charm?

We all have our UFOs (unfinished objects) that have been hanging around for ages. Right? Well, I know I certainly do! Too many to count, I must admit.

But there is one that I keep pulling out and playing with, only to tuck it away again into a project drawer to be ignored for another several months. That would be my quilt from the Design Camp [think outside the block] improv bee.

Remember this guy??

Well, last week I made a trip to the sewing studio (a very rare thing these days) and after taking care of the top priority task on my list I looked around to see what I could work on for just a bit to make the trip truly worthwhile. For some reason I thought that I had much more of the parts of this quilt pieced together, but then I recalled that before stuffing it away the last time I took a seam ripper to several parts that weren't sitting well with me.

I think one of the big issues was that it was looking way too busy without having a strong design element that kept me interested. Oh, and it's HUGE!

Just a reminder, my design wall is 8' x 8'.

What is pictured above is in about 6 or 7 different segments, and I still hadn't put up at least 2 more of the blocks I had received from other bee members. Even with those large swaths of solid neutral fabric it just was too much.

And then it occurred to me – who says I have to put them ALL into just one quilt?? NO ONE. And immediately my excitement about this project returned. One of the best lessons of working in the visual arts is that of editing. Of course having the raw materials from which to work is crucial, but if one doesn't edit out the extraneous then it's all just a jumble of information and does not effectively communicate with the viewers.

My first step was to break it up into two different projects, then rebuild each individually. I didn't get too far into that last step, but I am well on my way and feeling MUCH better about where this is going!

As much as I loved the idea of trying to work that mustard yellow in with the neutrals as equal backgrounds, I think this distribution makes these much more cohesive. Thoughts??

Pattern-writing — more than just designing.

I'm sorry to say this is a picture-free post.

Earlier this week (or perhaps technically it was over last weekend?) I read a compelling blog post by Marianne on her always inspiring blog The Quilting Edge about a disappointing pattern purchase. I found it truly eye-opening and refreshing, especially coming from the position of trying to develop some patterns of my own. In short, she called out a self-published pattern that she purchased at an LQS (Local Quilt Shop) as being sub-standard. She listed among its faults not only confusing typos but a poor description of the techniques used.

Another aspect of her entry that intrigued me was in the first couple of paragraphs. She points out (and I paraphrase) that for quilting books one can usually find written reviews published in magazines, on people's blogs, written up in trade material, but for some reason finding similar reviews of single patterns is unlikely. So we depend on good old fashioned word-of-mouth and rely on the integrity of our LQSs to steer us well.

The timing on her entry couldn't have been more relevant in my world. As my regular followers may already have read, one of my goals for this year is to finally start publishing my own patterns. I have been working on the writing and layout of just a few to begin with, but I am hung up by one major factor: having trouble finding proof-readers and/or pattern-testers. And I KNOW those are both tasks that must be fulfilled by someone other than the designer in order to have a successful pattern.  Coincidentally I had JUST talked with a quilting friend who is also embarking on pattern-writing, and we will soon be proof-reading each other's pieces. It's a start!

I found Marianne's observations to be very informative. Some of what she cited as the downfalls of this particular pattern happen to be concerns I have about my own writing. It has made me that much more aware of the need to read and reread and then reread again my instructions to make sure I am including everything I should without being overly wordy. Oh yeah. Was that wordy enough for you?? As you may have guessed, that is one of my weaknesses.

I do love the design and drafting process. I am excited to try and bring some of my designs into pattern form and share with other quilters, but I know that I won't be satisfied to put out an inferior product. I KNOW there's no such thing as perfection, would never hope to attempt it, but I do believe that one can provide a superior product if given the time, consideration and discerning eye. I hope to, at the very least, achieve something that other people will enjoy making, won't have too much trouble interpreting and will be happy to recommend to others. Is that realistic?? I've already dedicated much time, and know that there is much more work to do before that happens, but I am ready to keep pushing on, have deadlines and specific goals toward which I am working and hope to have something tangible to share with you all before too much longer. 

Oh, and if there is anyone out there who would be interested in proofing a draft or trying his/her hand at pattern-testing by all means drop me a line and I'll be happy to work with you!! Just sayin'... :-)

WIP Wed. 3/26/14

I am still getting my footing returning to sewing. Atlas and I have been gradually upping the time at the sewing machine and he even accompanied me to the studio over the weekend! First time since his injury!

But it's slow going. And how come it's so hard to concentrate with an injured pup looming over me? I mean, he's doing loads better, doesn't need that much attention, but somehow I still cannot help giving him the attention. And J keep reminding me that we've only had him since December and yet SO MUCH has occurred. Rehabilitation will take time.

So, we move forward. And get back to projects. Like my do.Good Stitches commitments:

March blocks based on the Rugby Stripe block by Teaginny.

Collection of the blocks from January (some of which I finished Tuesday afternoon to make one more row), based on the Converging Corners tutorial from Film in the Fridge.

I've also been working on finishing the quilting on a quilt from last year. Quilting was finished Tuesday morning, and binding chosen and cut that afternoon...

Obviously I need to take out a few little tucks back there, but otherwise I am hoping the little gathers blend in once this guy is washed.

There's been less progress with the paper-piecing, though I've done just a few over the last week or two on both the chuppah project and the The Creative Bungalow sample.

And today will mark the first day that both J and I are *supposed* to be at work full days since the pup's injury. However J took pity on my anxious self and is planning to go into work late so that Atlas' alone time will be closer to 5 hours than 8 hours. And this time HE will be the last one out the door and the first one back home. Ha!

Okay, linking up at Lee's blog for WIP Wednesday. Been a while but glad to take part again! Check them out!