Yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. All day long – I even took the trash can up for pick up (which happens early Thursday morning). Guess what? It was Tuesday. So it is like I gained an extra day this week! I need to organize myself so I use the extra day wisely!!
At the moment, I have three quilts actively in process.
The Sewcial Bee Sampler hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. It is week 23 for the sew along but I am behind by four blocks. Once I get behind on something, it is hard for me to pick it back up and focus on it. I will try to get some of these blocks done though. I really like the first 18 or so that I have made and I look forward to laying them out and looking at the overall quilt.
The floral and cream quilt (Twisted) that I started in a class at the beginning of June. I am hoping to get together with my friend Sophia and we are going to work on this one together. I have lots of pieces prepped for chain piecing. This one will come together quickly.
My Ring Me quilt hasn’t been touched since I started it last spring. Remember when I shared this as a part of the blog hop for Amanda Jean Nyberg’s recent book? I love it but I haven’t worked on it for a long while. It is going to have to continue to wait. There is too much going on right now!
I also have two new quilts to start. One is a whole cloth baby quilt for an Etsy customer. She wants a bright and cheerful quilt for her baby girl who is due any day now. I am going to start this one today.
The other is a quilt made of football and baseball jerseys for my nephew, Sam. He is off to college in the fall and wants me to make a quilt with his huge collection of jerseys. I am a little bit nervous because these aren’t knit t-shirts (which I have worked with before). These are made of that silky jersey fabric. I am unsure how I will stabilize the fabric. Also, the logos are all over the place as far as size. Hmmm…. If anyone has any suggestions or if you can point me to an article on this, that would be great!
Along with all of this, I am making some changes with my Etsy shop and how things are organized. I decided to separate the pattern sales from the fabric sales. Both are growing a lot and it makes sense to have two different shops. There are only 15 categories a seller can use in their shop. Splitting these between the fabric and patterns in one shop is becoming difficult. So I am slowly moving the patterns over to the new shop. This is a labor intensive task as there is no way to do it automatically within Etsy. I have to re-list each one and I have hundreds. I try and do a few each day. If you have shopped for patterns with me in the past, the new shop is called Needle and Foot Sews, Vintage and Current Patterns. It would be best to favorite both shops if you want to keep track of the patterns. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this is complete.
I better get to work!! I am going to baste the whole cloth quilt and get it started this morning! Later this week I will be posting the fifth interview in my Meet the Designer series. You will get to know Carrie Bloomston and there is a giveaway involved in this one! Don’t miss it.
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Wow, Bernie, you have quite a bit going on! I can relate, on a much lesser scale 🙂 As to the jersey shirt quilt, I’d suggest connecting with Sarah at Confessions of a Quilt Addict. She has done several t-shirt quilts, and I’m wondering if she might have worked with that silky jersey fabric too. At the very least, she might be able to suggest a good stabilizer, etc. At least you have an extra day you didn’t think you had! Enjoy!
Wendy, thank you for the excellent suggestion to reach out to Sarah Craig. She will have some input — I hadn’t even thought of that. As for being busy, it is funny but when I have a lot going on I tend to be more productive. Not sure why that is. Maybe it forces me to be more organized with my time. 🙂
Migrating your patterns sounds like a time consuming effort, and I am sure that you will be relieved when that task is complete. I am so glad to hear that things are busy for you, too. The whole cloth baby quilt sounds lovely and I’m sorry to not have suggestions for the jerseys.
Moving the patterns is definitely a laborious task. Coming from many years in a hi-tech world, it just seems like Etsy could charge some nominal fee and migrate those listings to the new shop. I would certainly be willing to pay for that service!! But it isn’t to be so I am working at it just a few at a time. Now I have to make sure people can find the new shop too. That is a bigger concern, not losing customers who have been shopping with me for patterns!
What exciting times! I love the way your Sewcial Bee Sampler is looking. How neat to do a custom baby quilt! I had noticed you had a new shop – good luck with all the migrating.
I noticed when I signed up for your newsletter that the address shows a PO in Downieville – you haven’t moved there, right? I think you should open a quilt shop in Downieville! 🙂
Linda, I know you aren’t working on the SBS project right now but your initial blocks were very pretty. Do you think you will come back to it? Or, maybe it just isn’t as compelling as other things you are working on? Gotta make choices because there is only so much time in the day, right?
Bernie, I did initially have a lot of enthusiasm for the sew-along, and it’s the most enjoyable one I’ve participated in, probably because of Instagram but also because I love Sharon and Maureen and their support. But I tired of HSTs. Not my favorite thing to do! And I didn’t like the way my blocks were looking. But thank you for liking them! 🙂
Wow, lots going on! For the jerseys, can you baste them securely to some quilt fabric and treat them as if they were one unit? Obviously they’d need some interfacing as well, but that’s my best idea. I second getting in touch with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. She’s very nice! Good luck with the second shop! You’re becoming a mogul!
I plan to contact Sarah. That was an excellent suggestion. I am sure there is some way to do this. I just don’t want to make a mess of the jerseys as they are special for him. When I said I would do this, I didn’t really think about the fabric jerseys are made of. Then when they sent them over to me I was surprised to remember how slick the fabric is. Where there is a will, there is a way. 🙂
Oh, wow, so many neat projects. You are doing a great job of fitting everything in to your busy (business) life, and if there are some things that get left behind for awhile, that’s normal for a quilter, right? I wondered how you were going to fit in a baby quilt for a baby that’s due soon–then I realized that was the whole cloth quilt! What fun! I absolutely love that floral fabric. The bee quilts look like so much fun, too. ( I have regrets of missing out: ROMO–is that a thing?) Now that I have finally participated in a sew-along (Yours was my first one!) I’m thinking I just might be ready to try a quilt-along, so thanks for that! I’ll have to see what pops up over the next few months. I’ll be interested to see what you find out about backing jerseys.
I am surprised to hear you haven’t done any sort of QAL. I think you would like it. I have only done one prior to this Sewcial Bee Sampler. I like the comraderie of the group and watching everyone’s progress. Plus – for whatever reason – I enjoy having someone design the project and dole it out a bit at a time. If you find one that looks good (maybe in the fall) let me know and I might join you. The SBS project finishes up in July so I should be done with it by end of August.
And I just realized it was Wednesday! I should have taken the garbage up last night. It’s a good thing I don’t create a lot of garbage!
Haha, that is pretty funny Claudia. Too much going on and I lose track! Hope all is well with you. Are you enjoying summer?
The whole cloth baby quilt sounds intriguing and I hope that you manage to move the rest of your patterns without too much difficulty.
WOW an extra day I sure could use one of those. The baby quilt sounds good and I can only imagine having to move all the patterns.
You’re a busy bee! I like to stay busy too, sometimes I get a little carried away. 😉 I suggest a light weight fusible interfacing for the jerseys. You would have to be very careful with the iron because I’m sure there’s logos on them. A pressing cloth should help with that. I’ve never made a quilt with all jerseys, but that’s what I would do. I did make a quilt out of my step daughter’s school polo shirts once & that was a challenge with the collars!