Looking back, the test was absolutely accurate, but in ways I could not see at the time. I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart, and as a mom, I was called upon time and again to use my nursing skills as I raised our four children. And, there is still no doubt in my mind that a nursing career would have been a good fit for me. I satisfied part of that desire by becoming a childbirth educator, enjoying both hospital and home birthing environments. However, it is the art-related skills I have used over the years, which have surprised me and continue to do so to this day. For many years, I was a cake decorator, designing and creating delectable and unique wedding and special occasion cakes. When my daughter was born, I delved into the world of clothing design and spent countless hours designing and smocking beautiful dresses for her. Now, I am a longarm quilter and aspiring pattern designer, as I immerse myself in a world of color, design, and quilt history. When I am quilting for a customer, or myself, the quilt is my canvas, and the machine is my paintbrush.

Am I an artist? Possibly, but not in the way I had originally envisioned. I visited an art gallery with my son this past weekend. I have no idea how a painting is created, but my son can break it all down and visualize all the layers and techniques used by the artist. Sometimes women tell me that they are not very good at quilting, i.e. they can’t visualize color schemes, or they have difficulty following a pattern, etc. Triangles create nightmares in their minds! My advice would be to develop your natural abilities and follow your passions, but don’t sell yourself short by dwelling on your weaknesses. Support your local quilt shop by taking some classes and rely on others to help you develop an eye for color and design. Practice makes perfect. You can learn these skills, and who knows, there may be an artist lurking behind the nurse, the teacher, the engineer, or the stay-at-home mom or grandma for that matter! Have fun!  -Cat

My friendship with Dana Hines goes back many years. She taught me so much about the art of English Smocking and was a great inspiration to me in the sewing realm. The clothes she smocked for her children were unique and of a very high quality. I have many fond memories of those days when our children were young. We had so much fun sewing for them and sharing our successes at our local smocking guild. As the children grew up, we lost touch with each other. Imagine my surprise one day when I received a phone call from her inquiring about my quilting services. She found my name on a list of quilters from a local quilt shop, and I now have the pleasure of quilting her beautiful quilts. Her sewing is still impeccable, of course, and I always look forward to what she will bring next. It was interesting to discover how we both transferred our love of sewing from children’s clothing to quilts!

The quilt I’m sharing with you today features pinwheels and feathers. Dana said she was drawn to one particular color in this fabric collection–the soft teal. That fabric was her inspiration for making the quilt, and the final result was well worth her efforts. As I studied the quilt, I decided to break up the rectangles and half square triangles with circles; more specifically, feather wreaths. The pinwheels became my focal point. I did tiny stippling to make the pinwheels stand out, and the feather wreaths gave them motion. I finished the borders with echoed feathers and was quite pleased with the finished quilt.

Congratulations, Dana, on another beautiful quilt to add to your collection!

Dana's Quilt

Feather Wreaths

Quilt Back

Quilt Back/Borders

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by busyness? Is it hard to find the time to make a quilt? Sometimes it seems as though one day just rolls into the next…I get up in the morning and before I know it, I’m getting ready for bed. I ask myself, “What have I accomplished?” Time is such a precious commodity! We all have 24 hours in a day, but some of us get a lot more done than others. Summer is on the heels of an already busy spring, which means graduations, weddings, yard work, etc. Lately, I feel like I have so much to do, I can’t possibly get it all done. That’s when this paradigm pops into my head, and I hear my friend, Sue McMillin saying, ” You’ll never have time to organize; you organize to have time.” Now that’s a powerful concept!

The last time I posted about organization, we focused on the idea that organization is not perfectionism. It generated a lot of conversation on my blog. I guess all of us can identify with the organization, or lack thereof, that we have in our personal lives. We have financial budgets, calorie budgets, and if we’re smart, time budgets. But, that’s all easier said than done, right? For me, it involves changing the way I think about things. For example, I would love to make a scrap quilt someday. Taking time now to organize my scraps by color, type (such as batiks, reproduction, or novelty), or even cutting leftover fabric into 1 or 2 inch strips will go a long way toward actually accomplishing my goal. But, it’s so much easier to just throw the scraps into a bag, and that’s where they will likely be found five years from now. I need to change my thinking about those scraps. The key is taking time to organize them now, so there will be time to make the quilt when the mood strikes. Remember: You’ll never have time to organize; you organize to have time.

I can apply this paradigm to many areas in my life. Creating a system to organize my patterns now saves me time from having to go through stacks of stuff to find a specific pattern I need to make a quilt for Aunt Susie’s birthday next month. That’s precious time I could have used for sewing. It is so freeing to be able to find exactly what I need when I need it!

Alas, we are all works in progress. If your sewing room still needs a bit of organizing, and you need to make a quilt…fast, here’s a link to a fun quilt you can make in less than an hour. Yes, less than an hour!! All you need is a jelly roll. Check it out and have some fun! (Then use all the time you saved to get organized. )  -Cat

Today, I will share a wall hanging quilt made by my longtime customer, Kris Sprehe. Since we’ve been talking about setting goals and finishing up projects, Kris’ story will sound familiar.  She told me that the curved pieces in the border were very time-consuming when following the instructions she had been given. After awhile, she put the quilt away and didn’t work on it  for several months. One day, she decided it was time to get it finished and worked out a new way to put in the curved pieces that was easier for her. Finally, it was done, and she couldn’t wait to drop it off at my house so she wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. Sound familiar?  :)

After many hours on my quilting machine, here are the results:

Click the images to enlarge.

Lone Star Variation - Piecing and Appliqué by Kris Sprehe

Detail - Lots of Feathers!

Lone Star Quilt Detail

Kris was quite pleased that she had put in the extra effort it took to piece and appliqué this quilt. When she left my house, she was very excited to get it bound and hung on the wall of her guest room. Congratulations, Kris!

The Difference Between Chain Store Fabrics and Quilters’ Grade Fabrics

by Jim Salinas

I’m often asked, “Is there really any difference between the printed cottons found in chain stores for $2.99 to $5.99 per yard and those found in quilt shops and the best mail order catalogs for $7.99 to $9.99?” You bet there is! Premium brands start with high quality greige (gray) goods. Premium greige goods have a thread count of at least 60 by 60 threads, and most have thread counts higher than “60 square.” Higher thread counts produce a silkier hand, less bearding when quilted, longer fabric life and better printing definition.

Most chain store cotton prints are made from less expensive greige goods that have 60 square construction or less. In chain stores, 60 square construction is considered to be the benchmark of high quality. In addition to thread count, fabric quality is also determined by the diameter of the yarns used, the size of the cotton filaments and the length of the cotton staple. Although premium raw materials are more expensive and add to the final price you pay, you get a far superior finished product.

Premium brands typically make use of a higher number of screens (the number of colors used in the print) and more complex and sophisticated engravings. High screen counts and complex engravings require using slower and more exacting flat bed presses than the high speed rotary presses used by domestic printers for most chain store fabrics.

Once the greige goods are printed, they have to be “finished.” The printed fabric is placed in a chemical bath that sets the dye into the cotton fibers. Unfinished or poorly-finished goods bleed badly and have a very coarse, “boardy” hand. Premium brands are finished using more time-consuming and expensive processes that create the silken hand of quilters’ grade fabric in addition to superior colorfastness.

It is, of course, an over-simplification to divide the cotton print industry into chain store brands and quilt shop/mail order catalog brands. Indeed, chain stores often carry a limited range of premium brands. But, generally speaking, chain store offerings are price driven. They cannot easily sell the higher priced fabrics to their clientele. As a result, chain stores tend to carry the lower priced (and therefore lower quality) cotton fabrics.

Consider also the element of design. Premier designers tend to design for premium fabric companies. The technical aspects of the use of premium greige goods, printing many screens with fine definition, creating a silken hand through more sophisticated finishing processes – all these elements enhance a designer’s efforts. World-class design brings a unique dimension to premium quality fabric. It comes with a price, but it adds immeasurably to the special nature of quilters’ grade fabric.

There is one more point that should be addressed. That is the issue of service and expertise.  Most quilt shops and mail order quilting catalogs, the prime sources of premium fabrics, are well staffed with knowledgeable, friendly, quilting experts. Most shops provide classes and expertise unmatched by the chains. Quilt shops and mail order catalogs generally do not sell jobber goods. They offer only first quality, premium brands at fair prices. These firms deserve your support.

In conclusion, there is most definitely a difference in fabrics. You get what you pay for. Premium brands offer a vast quality advantage over cheaper alternatives for just a modest increase in cost, especially when you consider the effort, skill and love that will go into your use of the fabric.   -Jim Salinas

I hope you enjoyed this valuable insight into the world of fabric!

I have a good friend, Sue McMillin, who is a professional organizer. She has been my inspiration for getting my sewing room and quilting studio organized. In fact, she is responsible for the above quote about organization and gave me the keys to make it happen. We all have 24 hours in any given day. Lack of organization eats up huge chunks of time as we go through our work to get to our work. Imagine a home or workspace where everything is assigned a place and is readily available to you in just seconds. Just think how much more productive you could be with the time you save. However, to get to that point, you must be willing to make the time commitment to get it done.

One of my excuses was if I didn’t have enough days in a row to get it all done, then I didn’t even want to start. I got so overwhelmed just thinking about it, I felt paralyzed and unable to accomplish anything. It’s funny, because I knew the steps I needed to take in order to sort, throw away, give away, and contain, but I lacked the motivation to act on it. I was amazed at how much I was able to accomplish by having an organizer at my side, encouraging me and giving me the courage to just dive in and get it done. In one day, we were able to go through all the stuff in my studio and sort it into throw away, give away, and put away boxes. Once that was done, I went through a box or two a day until the project was complete.

I had to learn that by doing a little each day, it did eventually get done. Thinking about it never got me anywhere. I kept my mind on the goal of a well-organized workspace and all the freedom it would give me. Every little bit of progress I made kept me motivated to continue. Yes, there were times when I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But each organized area made me feel so good that I couldn’t wait to get it all done. It’s a lot like what I wrote in my last post, New Beginnings, about getting quilts finished. Dividing the work into small steps will eventually lead to a finished quilt!

Perhaps the most important tip Sue gave me is that “organization is not perfectionism.” I think many of us, including myself, equate the two. For example, we were sorting large quantities of ribbon that I thought should be carefully separated and wound into neat bundles. Sue asked me, “Why?” She said I really just needed to put all the ribbon into one container so that I could get to it easily. Someday, if I have lots of time with nothing better to do (like that will ever happen), I can separate it.  In the meantime, all my ribbon is in one container, and I can easily get to it. So, it’s not perfect, but it’s organized. This change of mindset has brought me great freedom!

I’ll share more of my organizing secrets in future posts. If you’re thinking about getting started on your sewing room, don’t hesitate any longer. It will not only give you great satisfaction, but it will give you the wonderful gift of time.

The Infamous "Not So Perfect" Ribbon Stash

Not Perfect, But Organized!

Organized and Contained

It’s easy to come up with all kinds of goals or resolutions for the new year. The problem lies in making them stick, or in other words, achieving the results we desire. I know one thing for sure: it doesn’t happen by simply thinking about it and wishing it to be so. We must:

1. Set realistic goals. If you have 12 quilts you want to make and 3 of them are  king-size bed quilts, it may not be possible to do one project a month. By prioritizing your projects, you will determine which ones need to be done first and then, how many can be finished this year.
2. Divide goals into several small steps. Instead of planning to have one large quilt finished in three months, figure out how many blocks need to be finished each month, then how many per week.
3. Decide how much time to devote to sewing each week. Some women can devote only 30 minutes a day before work with longer time slots on the weekends; others have 2 – 3 hours a day to devote to sewing. The important thing is to be consistent. You will be amazed at how much you have accomplished by the end of the week, even if you can sew only a few minutes a day.

I have a good friend who follows these steps whenever she begins a new project. Her results are amazing! She finishes one beautiful quilt after another. A little over a year ago, I was feeling overwhelmed by my desire to have three wall hangings finished for Christmas gifts. I had four months to make them, but I also work full time at my longarm quilting business. By dividing the work into small steps, I was able to accomplish my goal. One of those wall hangings I designed became my first pattern, Serenity. It was well worth the effort and planning it took to achieve my goal.

I also remember wanting to finish a Trip Around the World for my parents’ wedding anniversary but found it very boring and repetitious. I decided to spend 30 minutes a day sewing the strips, and before I knew it, the quilt was finished. It could have just as easily ended up in the unfinished project pile. Instead, it is an heirloom my parents cherish each and every day.

So, don’t be discouraged by all those unfinished quilts or all the new quilts you want to make. Simply set some realistic goals, divide them into small steps, and sew a little bit each day. Not only will your pile of projects get smaller and smaller, but your stack of beautiful quilts will grow larger and larger. You will be able to realize your dreams and achieve the goals you set for the upcoming year.

Christmas Quilt Pattern - Nutcracker Sweet

When my daughter was growing up, it was our mother/daughter tradition to attend the Nutcracker ballet every year. In my community, the Nutcracker is always performed the weekend after Thanksgiving. From my initial blog posts you may remember that my early sewing career focused on making hand-smocked dresses for my daughter, and every year I would smock a special dress for her to wear to the ballet. We have so many fond memories of those times we shared at this special event. During those years, I also began a nutcracker collection, which I display every Christmas. I have many different nutcrackers ranging from finely crafted German nutcrackers to ordinary department store types.

German Nutcrackers

The Soldiers

Jim Shore Santa Nutcracker

Novelty Nutcrackers including Herr Drosselmeyer (center)

Nutcracker Collection

My Largest (3-1/2 feet) and Smallest (4-1/2inches) Nutcrackers

Big and small, I love them all!

The nutcracker tradition in my family continues to this day with a different twist. Now my granddaughter, who is a budding ballerina, dances in the ballet every year, much to her grandmother’s delight.  She auditions for one of the children’s parts each fall, and has a wonderful time dancing on stage with the ballet company. I just attended the ballet on Saturday night, and Corina danced beautifully, as always!

When I considered designing a Christmas quilt pattern, I thought about all the darling snowmen, Santas, Christmas trees, wreaths, etc. But what about a nutcracker? I couldn’t remember seeing one, so I set about to remedy the situation. My new Christmas quilt pattern, Nutcracker Sweet, has just been released. Of course, I couldn’t resist the play on words referring to the actual Nutcracker Suite by the great composer Tchaikovsky. This little quilt makes a charming wall hanging to display in the midst of all my Christmas decorations. In fact, it was very easy to make with a Christmas fabric charm pack and a few small pieces of wool and trims. Now I have a brand new nutcracker to add to my collection! –Cat

Nutcracker Sweet Cover

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• A faithful God
• A loving family
• Grown siblings who enjoy each other and look forward to family gatherings
• The blessing of grandchildren
• Close friendships
• A cozy home with lots of warm, comfy quilts
• A thriving, longarm quilting business
• Loyal customers who have become my friends
• A successful launch of a new career in pattern designing

“May the people praise you, God; may all the people praise you.”  Psalm 67:3

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with family……. food, dishes, food, dishes, and more food and dishes. My daughter-in-law, Sarah, helped me make these cute, edible “turkey favors” for our table setting. I thought some of my readers might enjoy bookmarking this page with the instructions for next year’s holiday.

Our Thanksgiving Table

Edible Turkey Favor

Ingredients:

• Fudge-striped cookies
• Candy Corn
• Old-fashioned Cream Drops or Chocolate-covered Cherries
• Chocolate-covered pretzels
• Chocolate Chips

Using the above picture as an example, begin by melting chocolate chips to use as the “glue” to hold candy together. Dip candy corn into melted chocolate chips and stick to cookie in a fan shape. Dip the base of a cream drop into melted chocolate for turkey body and stick it to the cookie. Add a single piece of candy corn to front of cream drop for head and beak. Put in refrigerator for a few minutes to solidify the pieces. When firm, attach the body to a chocolate-covered pretzel with more melted chocolate. Once again, refrigerate until firm. Set turkey on a piece of colored paper with guest’s name written on it. These candy turkeys look great on the table, and the kids love them! Enjoy–Cat

I took a wool class at a quilt shop a few years ago and made a fall leaf table runner.The leaves were appliquéd by hand using pearl cotton for the blanket stitch. I look forward to bringing it out every fall and enjoying it’s vivid colors on my coffee table.

Wool Table Runner

The fall pumpkin quilt I made a few years ago in Thimbleberries Club hangs on the wall, and this year I will add a new quilt I made in Jo’s Little Women Club to my dining room table. It’s called Holiday Inn and has a very scrappy, colorful appeal.

Thimbleberries Pumpkin Wallhanging

Holiday Inn - Civil War Reproduction Quilt

Of course, my fall decorating is never complete until I add my Jim Shore figurines celebrating the harvest. They add just the finishing touch with their quilting details and fall harvest theme.

Jim Shore Harvest Figurines

Well, I’m ready! How about you?