Side note:  I just downloaded what I am hoping will be a very useful calendar for 2012.  I bought it because it encompases everything I strive to keep track of in one handy-dandy notebook.  If you’ve read some of my past posts you’ll know that I like to do 30 day challenges – just because.  In this notebook is a 30-day challenge tracker!  Gotta love that!   I’m thinking I’ll add blogging for 30 days in a row as a challenge – because as I noted in yesterdays blog – Blogging makes me happy and I’m all about doing things that make me happy.

Speaking of doing things that make me happy.  Yesterday I ran the Polar Dash with a friend of mine.  Greg and I go to the same church and every year we volunteer for a overnight shift with the Families Moving Forward.  So technically he’s the only person in the world that can claim we’ve slept together in the church (which he does).  Anyway, Greg is a runner and for the past few years he’s invited me to do various runs with him, but every year I’m completely out of shape and unable to walk 5k let alone run one.  Until now!  As you know I’ve been running every other day for the past 15 weeks, so when Greg asked me to do the Polar Dash with him I not only accepted his offer – I did the 10k with him.

Polar Dash 1/1/2012

I’m so glad I did.  It was good catching up with Greg (outside of church) and had I not run I would have missed the bald eagle that flew over the crowd of runners as the National Anthem was playing.  It was truly one of the most beautiful and incredible things I’ve ever seen.  Way better than any midnight firework show.

This past month I have been pondering a lot of things, mainly the changes I want to make for myself and my business in 2012.   The main thing I want to work on is being better about making the time to do the things that make me happy, and sewing, or more specifically quilting, makes me happy!    So in 2012 my goal is to schedule more time to quilt.  Remember when I started to run?  For the past 15 weeks I’ve made running a priority and so have found the time to do it – even if it’s late at night.  I really want to quilt so now I’ll be penciling quilting time in my schedule before scheduling anything else.  My Quilting Plan (or QP) for 2012 is to:

First, remember this post last October where I set a goal of cleaning out and working on my stashed projects throughout 2012.  I’ve done a pretty good job of organizing those projects.  Not 100% done, but enough to know what I’m dealing with.  My first project to tackle will be quilting this quilt that I’ve had for 3-4 years.

January Quilt

I’ll share more about it when I’m finished – maybe (with any luck) it will be tomorrow’s post.

Second, I want to offer one quilting class per month at the store, which means I need to make samples for each of those classes, beginning with this Tokyo Subway quilt.  (I’m already working on my larger queen sized version).

Tokyo Subway Wall Hanging

By the way – this second idea seemed like such a good idea that I rallied the girls at the store and asked them to do the same thing with things they love to make.   Laura is our expert skirt maker so she will be offering a different skirt class each month.    Annie is our professional knitter so she will be offering a new knitting project each month and since Raina is so talented in all areas she will be offering a variety of projects – including up-cycled projects.   Keep an eye on our website for a listing of the classes each month.

To encourage everyone to make 2012 a year of sewing/creating I am offering a Sewing Class Bundle: Buy 4 classes, get the 5th class free.  This offer is good now till January 31, after that you’ll have to wait till 2013.  The cost is $200 and is good for any of our classes.   Once you take 4 classes your 5th class will be free*.  All classes must be taken in 2012.  You can purchase your Sewing Class Bundle online, by stopping in or giving us a call 612-827-9550.

I can’t wait to see all the projects everyone creates in 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now ~ Tigger)

Being a fabricaholic I decided to bring some fabric strips, jewlery clamps and clasps and have everyone make fabric bracelets.  

My friend Jennifer brought 4″ tiles and scrapbooking paper so we could all make coasters.

I was a little late to the party, so my tiles didn’t quite dry before I wrapped them in tissue paper….

 Looks like I’ll be picking off some tissue paper.

Jennifer’s sister Harriette brought buttons, wire and ribbons and we made button wreath tree ornaments.

Super cute wreath

Finally, there’s Jayne.  Let me just state up front that any girl that has a blow torch and knows how to use it is A-O-K in my book!

Blowtorch Jayne

Jayne had us make fabric roses.  Unfortunately Jayne didn’t have a sample of her craft made up so we could just look at it and replicate.  (cause that’s how we roll).  No, Jayne started on her project after we all had at least one beer –  (safety announcement: do not mix beer, rotary cutters and blow torches).  However, we cut Jayne some slack since she did host the S&B this month – and because we love her.

We first put in a running stitch on one edge of the fabric strip.   Roll it up, blowtorch or melt the frayed edges (being careful not to melt the thread used to create the running stitch – ah hem) , glue a small piece of felt to the back

(It totally helps is the glue gun is pink), and sew (not glue) a pin to the back and voila – a fabric rose.

Beautiful when done, unfortunately none of us finished our flowers, but these are what they WILL look like – right girls???

Thanks for hosting (and taking one for the team), Jayne!!  ;-)

The second challenge was to use a ‘charm pack’ (5″ x 5″ squares) of Kona solids from Robert Kaufman.  I initially wasn’t going to do this challenge because I wasn’t sure I could finish it before the October deadline.  But, there just so happened to be more than enough charm packs so I decided it was a sign and to give it a try.

 The ‘rules’ were;  I had to do “Half-Square Triangles” (HST) and I could use only one other KONA solid fabric.   After I had all my HST sewn I put them up on the design wall and was totally uninspired.   I took them all down, went to bed and about 5a.m. thought of this design:

I didn’t intend to make a queen size quilt, but I wanted a falling leaves effect of the triangles and it just seemed to work better on a larger scale.

 

Close up of the quilting

I

Falling leaves

 I wasn’t sure if the white would be considered my second color, but there seemed to be a theme with using gray fabric in the other MMQG quilts… so I added gray to the first border, binding and back.  I decided to ‘stitch in the ditch’ on the main part of the quilt and to ‘meander’ on the border.

 I loved working on this quilt, but have decided to list it on my personal Etsy store.   You can see what other members of the Modern Quilt Guilds did here.

I was on Pinterest and saw some unique ways to finish the edges of quilts, including tying knots into strips of fabric and then sewing them into the edges.

You can see that some of the strips of fabric were sewn before tying and then I realized sewing the strips was just an extra step, so I just folded them and tied.  The hardest part was pinning them in place so that they would stay put while I sewed over them.   I love the effect of the knots and though I might not use the technique in a quilt, I’ll definitely be using it in a another (smaller) project.

 My bathroom is really coming together, but wait till you see what else I made with this line…..