Returning with Ribbons, Raindrops and a Rehearsal!

I know, I've been a bad blogger.

Sigh.

But I'm back - well, at least with a short ramble to catch up on the latest highlights.

March was kind to Quilts 'N Kaboodle - my original "Texas Pride" quilt was chosen to represent Galveston County in the 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Quilt Show - AND! One of my customers, Mary, had her quilt chosen to represent her county - we both came home with a ribbon! I'm so thankful that Mary went to the rodeo on opening day and text messaged me the photos of our quilts on display - gotta love technology! Alas, too many calendar conflicts for me to attend personally...but it was exciting when they mailed back my quilt and it had a ribbon attached!

Also in March another one of my customer's quilt, Celtic Wave (pattern by Judy Neimeyer) won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the Tri County Quilt Show held in Cypress. It was a joy to be able to actually go to a quilt show and be a participant - even if it was a short day, I enjoyed looking at all the quilts, seeing quilting friends, checking out the vendors and just plain breathing quilts!

A short week later I found myself in Dallas for Quilt Celebration 2012 - this time as a vendor. I was blessed that my customer loaned her beautiful quilt as part of my decoration AND several of my A1 customers also contributed to the quilts hanging in the booth. We were sooo busy sharing about the A1 Quilting Machine that I never did get a photo of the booth after it was fully set up (photo below is just half the booth) nor a photo of my fabulous A1 customers who volunteered to work with me over the course of the weekend. I'm blessed indeed.

In between shows and machine set ups I've been quilting some fun quilts. Here's just a small sampling...the first is a block of the month sampler offered at Cactus Quilts and the other one is called Raindrops - another Judy Neimeyer pattern.

Then there's another one that is paper pieced by my customer and fixing to be auctioned off at her church...here's hoping for a successful auction!

This year has been FULL of family events - from three out of four of the "young'uns" having birthdays (my two sons and daugher-in-law Alena) to the planning of an upcoming event - Eric & Katie's wedding in just 10 short days...

I've been busy behind the scenes picking out the right dress to wear to the wedding, the right shoes (and I'm still struggling with the right purse) plus planning the largest party I've ever hosted - the rehearsal dinner for the wedding party and extended family on both sides - almost 100 on the guest list. Yep - we do things bigger in Texas (grin).

So give me a chance to finish my prep, host the dinner, then relax and enjoy the wedding and I promise to be a better blogger in the future!

Up!

"It's 'bout as bad as it could be

Seems everybody's buggin' me

Like nothing wants to go my way -- Yeah, it just ain't been my day

Nothin's comin' easily.

Even my skin is acting weird

I wish that I could grow a beard

Then I could cover up my spots

not play connect the dots

I just wanna disappear

Up--up--up--

Can only go up from here

Up-up-up-Up

where the clouds gonna clear

Up-up-up

There's no way but up from here...."

Shania Twain lyrics.

I really like that song as there are a lot of days I can echo the sentiments. 2011 has been a whirlwind of a year (and we're only 3/4 of the way done!) Many times I've had to hold on to hope just to make it through the day. My best laid plans didn't always materialize ....

For example, this little quilt that I now call "Up!" was suppose to be called "Class of '37"

I designed it back in January using AccuQuilt's Block of the Month patterns and with the setting design inspired from Circle of Nine, a book I picked up at the Houston International Quilt Festival last year. The idea was two-fold. One to teach a piecing class using the Go!Cutter and two, to teach longarm design elements.

Okay? You still don't understand the Class of '37 do you? See, I was going to divide up the outer borders into quadrants as well as the inner borders...if you counted all the opportunities for designs (sashings, blocks, borders) it added up to 37...I see said the blind man.

Teachable moments!

But sometimes the best laid plans just don't work out as intended. Due to my studio redo and being displaced for so long the quilt top didn't get pieced until my birthday in July.

But that was okay, because it then doubled as my annual birthday quilt. Since 2004 I've made a quilt on or near my birthday. With the exception of my 47th year, that one carried over into my 49th year and is still waiting to be quilted. But! I made two last year for my 50th, so I still can say I've made 8 birthday quilts (grin).

The fun thing about procrastination is that I learned something new prior to piecing and quilting this little fun quilt. The Rose of Sharon block was cut out my with Go!Cutter (as was the entire quilt) and based on a block from Sharon Pederson's book The Rose of Sharon Block Book.

I'm not an appliquer so this was a bit of a challenge. It was made easier by putting double sided fusible on the back of the fabric prior to cutting and then I simply ironed it on my background fabric.

That's as far as I had gotten. Had no idea how to go around it. Would I do it on my domestic sewing machine? Clueless.

Well, on my birthday the Island Quilter's Guild holds an annual sew in - they don't just do it for me on my birthday (grin) but it always falls then because my birthday is in the third week of July and that's the time of the event! No better place to learn something new than at a guild sew in. With a little help of my friends I learned a new term "appli-quilt" and I decided to be brave and do it on the longarm because I am much more comfortable with my longarm than my home sewing machine. So instead of going around the parts and pieces during the piecing process I simply waited and did it all when it was on the frame - thereby securing the parts as well as quilting them all in one process!

Okay, so back to my original intent...to use this quilt as a teaching sample. The pressure was on. I'd been displaced so long out of my studio that I was guilt ridden to do this sampler when I knew I had customer quilts to do.... but my A1 reunion was fast approaching and I'd promised my A1 family a "class of '37"

Quilting is hard on the body, let me tell you. I've got multiple chiropractor receipts to prove it! There's been years that I have totally blown out parts of my body that have shut me down from quilting...some is due to the repetitive motion and some is due to stress....sad to say, stress has hit me big time this year (many many contractor woes that I haven't shared) and I've been physically suffering (trying to do it silently, but lately I've been a whiner).

So between physically hurting and my deadline fast approaching, parts of the quilt didn't get finished...namely the inner borders. So much for 37 design elements. Sigh. But the reunion went on and the quilt has sat unfinished for over a month.

Opportunity knocks sometimes at the most inconvenient times. My guild holds an annual show in conjunction with the Galveston Historical Foundation. I've always tried to have a quilt in the show but for the past couple of years haven't....I wanted this little quilt finished and hanging in this years show - well, it's an exhibit actually...runs from Oct 10-Jan 6 in the 1861 US Custom House on 20th Street.

Problem....crippling pain in the neck and left shoulder that radiates pain all the way down to my finger tips. Multiple chiropractor visits (wish I could trade quilting for their services! Ouch! in more ways than one). Instructions to take it easy, no heavy lifting, light quilting (or no quilting) while things heal...UGH!

But the quilt needed to be finished! All I had was the inner borders, 4 sets of 3 little parts....alas, my brain was somehow fried too and I couldn't come up with a dozen new border designs...

Instead I did what I love to do best, and that's feathers....and I repeated them instead of multiple designs. Fire me.

It's almost finished. I still need to do the binding and a hanging sleeve before the deadline in October. A little here, a little there. It will get done. I work a few hours a day playing catch up on my customer quilts and one of those days I'll work for me. Recovery is slow from injuries and I'm not the most patient of women. I've tried not to whine, at least publicly, my closest friends are probably VERY tired of my comments...can I help it if I have a low pain tolerance (grin)

As I was gathering the photos to put on webshots of all the close ups I noticed this close up....my favorite feathers and notice -- they are pointing UP!

Shania's song is fun and upbeat, but my true "upness" comes from the love of my friends and family and the promise that no matter what my Jesus is always faithful to me even when my faith isn't strong....He is my healer, and even though this seems like the long way home He is faithful and I'm trusting Him to work things for my good.

So here's all the close ups of UP! or "Class of '37 minus 9" (grin).

UP!

by quiltsnkaboodle

Tour My Studio!

Welcome to Quilts 'N Kaboodle, my name is Karen and I'm going to be your friendly tour guide (grin)

It's been a little over two months since my remodeling began...and finally, tonight I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and honey, it's NOT a train!

I may be a little premature in showing off, as there are still items that need to be done...but as with most things it's a work in progress...and I just need to share the progress!

So take a little trip, take a little trip, take a little trip with me...(did ya' sing that with the Low Rider voice? - if not, go back and do that, we'll wait)

I'm starting this tour at the entrance to my studio instead of meeting you at the front door of my home. If you were a customer coming to drop off a quilt top to be quilted I would have met you at the front door, holding a wiggling Pixxie as she gets so excited when we have guests....she just thinks everyone comes to see her... But since the other areas of the house are still impassable I'm going to begin this tour at this location, the entrance to the studio off my living area.

OH! Interruption. A big thank you to my sister-in-law who came over to help me today. She certainly helped keep me on track and encouraged me. Interesting side note, she's a teacher, has been for a long time. Longer than she's been my SIL...so as we were working together and I'd go from one side of the room to the other jumping from one thing to another I asked her...do you think I'm ADD? .... I think I've just got a busy brain (grin) and get easily distracted. Anyway...walk with me through my studio and enjoy the ramble...

As you enter the studio and look to your left you will see the longarm side of the room (to the right is the sewing side, but hold on, that's later). Above is the view of my 10 foot A1 Quilting Machine - this is my new baby, the one I received just days before the remodeling began...

The white cabinets are pretty much full of thread, except the first one with doors - that's full of prepackaged batting. How do you like my wall cabinet? I've always wanted an antique pie safe, the kind with the pretty glass doors. I have thought that would be way cool to house my quilts all neatly folded up showing off their colors....well, that dream has never materialized, besides I really don't have the floor space - so this cabinet is my reality, and I love it!

It was so much fun folding my quilts and adding little fun things to the shelves. The top shelf in the bottom picture has a big Polly and Ester quilt my grandmother made. Sitting next to it is a stuffed bear that I made her, and he's sitting on a little quilt I made for her with the same fabric - the label says " To the best quilter in the world, this is my first machine quilted quilt" I did it on my domestic in 1997.

Part of the reasoning for enlarging the studio was my desire to have two longarms. The one on the left is the new 10 foot one and the one on the right is old faithful, my 12 foot table. In the middle is Pixxie (grin) asleep on my sleeper sofa.

These photos were taken about 10 PM, Pixxie is so sleepy she can barely keep her eyes open. She worked really hard decorating too ya'know.

Okay, back to the tour...

I've shared this little corner before...

Here's a view of some things that cheer me...including the most fabulous tree frog in the rain screensaver...I want my very own tree frog, right here in the studio...the thoughts of simple things like this bring a smile to my face.

This is the sewing side of the room. I just love my new island - so much room for sew many creative fun stuff!.
Here's another view...the fun end piece on the island is actually a bulletin board of sorts - if I wanted to I could stick pins in it..had thought of using it for my schedule and cards perhaps, but then I decided I liked the lime bubbles too much to cover them up. Yes, this is a happy room and I am going to love sharing it.

Just another view....I can already tell that this area will probably stay cluttered with many creative projects...ah! but that's why I have it, room to work!

And yes, those are giant M&M's...they are tins that hold only dark chocolate M&M's - I'm on a strict diet.

Eventually I will have my sewing machine inserted in the cabinet .... or not... I might like it this way. I do love my A1 saddle stool, it will go high enough for me to sit at this 36" table and it's so comfortable to sew with as well as quilt at the longarm...

The ironing station is 3' x 4' - I covered a board with padding and a fun stripe fabric. Below is an inside peak of one of the cabinets - this is where I keep my Go!Cutter dies and my two Go Cutters (the original and the Go!Baby). Behind them are plastic shoe boxes with fabric shapes cut with the Go - instant scrap quilt waiting to happen.

Eventually there will be a storage unit added so I can move my freezer out as well as have a place for all my extra batting...right now things are a tad crowded, but I'm not complaining! I've gone from a 20 x 20 room to a 20 x 30 room and am loving it!

This Faith banner has been around a long time, like a faithful friend. It's only right that it continue to have a place in my life.

And here's the lime green door and the lime green laundry room. Again, a work in progress. The doors will eventually be covered to make a design wall and the surrounding wall will be covered in a tropical mural.

Here' a close up of my son's future masterpiece...

And if you look real close at the bottom you can see his sketches for the next phase... I can hardly wait!

Right next to the laundry room is this section that is actually to the right of the entrance door. This little area packs a big punch. The rod is for hanging completed quilts for photographing. Behind it I will have my TV mounted so I can watch all those cool quilting DVD's I've been collecting. Did I mention that I plan on having fun in this studio!

I played around with my camera and took a video with my rambles as the view changed around the room. It's totally unscripted and I have no way of editing. But if you've made it this far then perhaps you'd like to see a full 360 tour of my studio.

For grins you might want to check out views of how the studio has changed through the years. Visit my webshots and look for My Ever Changing Studio Album

Thanks for stopping by...ya'll come back now, ya'hear?

In my own little corner in my own little world...

Can't you just hear Cinderella, in Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical version, singing "In my own little corner, in my own little chair"... as you see my colorful new pink broom and orange dust mop next to my A1 Quilter's apron so beautifully hiding the obvious (a roll of batting!) Guess I sorta feel like Cinderella - just looked it up on google to find out how to spell R&H and wikipedia says "the title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed into a remarkable fortune"

Well, that's a tad drastic, even for me...but I can relate to her sweeping up (grin) as I've been trying to dig out from all the remodeling. And I can relate to circumstances being changed .... but certainly not suddenly (as remodeling has taken its tole) but remarkable none the less.

So here's my progress thus far...and it really is just one little corner in my own little world...the other corners of the room haven't come together yet (grin).

This is the longarm side of the newly remodeled studio. Bare in mind, I do have two longarms now, but only my faithful original A1 has it's corner all nice and neat and ready to get back to work.

The above view is to the left as you look into my room. The couch at the far left of the photo is located in front of my exterior window and separates my two longarms. As fore-mentioned, the area housing the new A1 isn't ready for public viewing just yet... nor the view if you were looking right as you darkened the door to the studio - that's the sewing side and it's in despairing need of organization...a story waiting to be told. Sigh.

In the meantime, wanna take a look behind my longarm?

How do you like my shocking pink floor? Can you see the raspberry trim peaking out? Unfortunately there's not enough of it showing in my room after all the hard labor of painting it... I just have so much stuff lining the walls. Ah, but I know it's there and I like it. Matches my basket....my inspiration for my wild coloring.

And behind the curtain (quilt)?

Some of my fabric stash as well as drawers holding customer quilts. My original intent was to just drape a quilt across the top to make a counter area for my things, then decided that it was a good way to show off another shop sample - this one is called The Goose Flew East and was made after we sold our goose-neck trailer years ago after coming off the road as national special events operators (we sold Ben & Jerry's, Nestle, Dove, and Lemon Chill at places like Kentucky Derby, Indy 500, Oshkosh Airshow, Houston Rodeo, NASCAR and such)....so good memories....but the real reason it was chosen was (1) because it fit and (2) because it shows an example of all over/edge to edge quilting proving once again that not every quilt needs to be custom quilted.

So, is the remodeling over you ask? Yes and no. The contractors have finished their part, now we are doing the final painting of cabinets and the tedious task of moving things back in. Never in my born days did I realize just how much my passion of quilting had accumulated so many much needed items! Fabric here, books there, various tools, batting (oh my the batting! and it comes in so many varieties! 80/20, 100%, wool, bamboo, poly, soy...) There's a lot of sorting and putting up to be done and it's not a quick task. But yes, the hired help has completed their portion...

This project hasn't been without some calamity. In previous posts I've shared about the accidental unplugging of the freezer, or should I say the accidental I forgot to REplug the freezer event....well, add to our version of the Hee-haw song "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all"...

On Saturday a week ago the workers finished installing the flooring in the newly enclosed laundry room....on Sunday I washed a load of clothes, noting that the hot water didn't work, so just simply switched to cold until hubby could take a look at it...with all the things going on it slipped my mind...fast forward to Wednesday a week ago today....what's that smell in the man cave? No one else seemed to smell it...fast forward again to Friday night trying to have dinner and a movie in the man cave...yep, now it was no question about it. Something stunk...and it wasn't Pixxie's bed (which had been moved in there due to the living room being taken over by all the POD items)....poor Pixxie, being so displaced for so long.

Long story short, we discovered the carpet under the couch was wet. Yep, the man cave shares the same wall with the laundry room and seems the hot water that wasn't working was indeed leaking, a slow steady leak for almost a week...

Fortunately, it's only a small area, but it did require removing the padding and drying out. It's still waiting its turn to be replaced...oh so many things to do! We've started calling this the Money Pit....will we ever have all the rooms back to normal again? Sigh.

In my own little corner in my own little room... One corner at a time. It will get there. And it's going to be great!

But I have trusted in Thy mercy;

my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.

I will SING unto the Lord,

because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13:5-6

Bodacious Longarm Gift Basket

It's been a while since the Houston International Quilt Festival....but I need to revisit that time for just a bit and update on the Bodacioius Gift Basket that was drawn among the new longarm quilters purchasing an A1 Quilting Machine at our booth this year....

Since my last post we have been two steppin' all over Texas setting up new A1 Quilting Machines and in just a few short weeks our winner of the Bodacious Gift Basket will join the ranks of a new A1 quilter!

...now I want to share just what was in that basket and take time to thank our sponsors for making this gift possible.

Thank you to Stewart Plank, owner of A1 Quilt Machines for the tote bag and Towa Gauge - the tote bag has multiple uses of course, but for those of you unfamiliar with the TOWA, it's a tool to assist in determining the proper tension on the bobbin, thus eliminating half of the tension headaches (grin).

Thank you to H.D. Wilbanks and Darlene Christopherson of Pellon Legacy for their contribution of a 9 yd x 96" wide bolt of 80/20 batting and a queen size bamboo prepackaged batting.

Jamie Wallen, A1 dealer and national quilt instructor, along with his partner, A1 dealer Roseanne Campisi donated their newest DVD The Care & Feeding of Your A-1 Quilting Machine. They have joined forces on several instructional DVDs including quilting design elements and fun items like gallery baskets.

Another A1 dealer, Brenda Janovy, donated a handy longarm apron to our new quilter.

Texas designer, Patricia Ritter of Urban Elementz, donated two beautiful pantograph patterns.

Diana Phillips of Cozy Creations donated one of her Line Dancing Books, More Line Dancing - so many beautiful quilting designs to inspire and encourage our new quilter! She has many wonderful design books for machine quilters.

Quilters are such generous people. When I first posted on a longarm forum that I was looking for ideas for a gift basket my online buddy, Dawn Rameriz, the Pajama Quilter , quickly contacted me that she would be happy to donate her newest DVD and workbook, Pajama Quilter Retreaded. Dawn's work just makes you smile! She's sooo cute demo-ing quilt designs in her PJ's.

Almost immediately after receiving Dawn's generous offer to help out with the gift basket, Vicki Anderson of Machine Quilting Unlimited suggested that our new quilter needed a one year subscription to her wonderful magazine. I totally agreed! (It is my favorite longarm magazine!)

Bob Purcell of Superior Threads graciously donated King Tut and So Fine to our new quilter. A special thank you to Bob for being a provider of thread for not only the Houston show but all the shows that A1 Quilting Machines attends. The customers just love the beauty of the King Tut, Rainbows and Metallics that we run on our machines!

Lorrie Coats of Columbia River Quilting donated Superior Thread's Rainbows and Bottom Line threads along with wonderful Titanium needles. As you can see from her flyer, she operates a one stop online shop for longarm quilters - books, threads, needles, rulers, etc.

Chris Meyers of Fil-Tec graciously donated several spools of Glide and Maga-Glide prewound bobbins. Thank you to Chris, Matt & Rachel for your support at both MQS and the Houston Festival in supplying Maga-Glide prewound bobbins to use in the booth for demos as well as in the classrooms for the A1 Quilting Machines. We also enjoy running the Glide as a top thread in the booth.

And from my "neighbors" - another Texas company...thank you Gadget Girls for the donation of the stitch in the ditch ruler, a good start to a new collection for our new quilter. This will work perfect with the extended base that comes with the A1 Quilting Machine!

Thank you to Havel's for their best selling snips - these will come in sooo handy for clipping those threads!

And to sweeten the pot, I added a few of my favorite things... Havel's seam ripper for those times you have to "frog" (rip it, rip it), my favorite marking pens and eraser, Best Press, a longarm centering tape and more snips (can never have too many scissors) AND my purple longarm zippers that will be added to the take up rollers on the A1.

I can't say thank you enough for the generosity of my sponsors for making this gift basket possible - a wonderful jump start for our newest A1 quilter. Welcome to the A1 family Carol - enjoy your goodies!