My Scissors Collection

I’ve always been curious about what people collect. I’m amazed by what people come up with, from collectible action figures and comic books worth lots of money to seemingly inconsequential things like bottle caps and Pez dispensers. My husband’s niece collects Barbie dolls (she’s married and has a child) and his brother-in-law has a framed barbed wire collection that’s actually kind of cool-looking.

When I was a kid I had a huge sticker collection. My sisters and I were obsessed with stickers. I also collected erasers shaped like different objects like fruits or cartoon characters. As I got older I started collecting things like small metal tins and containers and antique medicine bottles, but I lost interest in them after awhile. Throughout my life, though, without realizing it, I was amassing a collection of scissors. I’ve always had a fondness for scissors—small or large. I don’t know why but there’s something about them that attracts me to them. Maybe it’s because they come in all shapes, colors and sizes and they’re so useful.

At last count I had 30 pairs of scissors and that’s not even counting the decorative-edge scissors which would bring my total near 50. Why so many scissors you ask? I don’t know why. I’m a quilter and sewer, so naturally it stands to reason that I would have a few pairs of scissors for cutting fabric and to have near my sewing machine for cutting threads. I also do some cross-stitching so it’s nice to have a good pair of sharp embroidery scissors on hand. My collection isn’t just to look at. I actually use the scissors that I collect.

Lately I’ve really been into buying embroidery scissors; especially ones with decorative handles like cats, storks or owls. I don’t have the stork or owl ones yet and would like to add them to my collection. The pair that I really want are these gold Eiffel Tower scissors but they’re just a little out of my price range. Maybe some day if I win the lottery I’ll get them.

I think that once I get the few pairs of scissors my collection is missing, it will be complete and I won’t need to add any more to it. I hope. I’m running out of room for places to keep my scissors. And if my husband only knew how many scissors I had he would lose his mind.

I’m curious. What do you collect? Is there anything you’d like to start collecting?

Handmade Holiday Shopping

I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I just wanted to invite you to the Lucky Star Holiday Market at the Prairie Moon Winery in Ames, Iowa on December 4th and 5th. I’ll be selling my handmade goods there on both days along with lots of other cool artists and vendors. You’re sure to find something unique for that person that’s hard to shop for in your life.

I did this show for the first time last year and was very impressed with how well the show was publicized and organized. It’s the best crafts show I’ve ever done and I’m happy to be a part of it again this year. There was a huge turnout last year and I hope it’s the same again this year.

I’ve been as busy as one of Santa’s elves the last few weeks, trying to finish making items for the show. I have some new items this year that I hope will be popular. I always like to see what people are interested in buying. It seems like it’s different each time.

If you received my shop newsletter, I mistakenly wrote that admission was free on Saturday. It actually costs $1 to get in, which I think is still quite a deal considering all the great artists whose work you’ll get to see. Friday night there will be a Preview Party. It costs $10 to get in and you get first dibs on everything. I’ll be there from 6:00-9:00 on Friday and 9:00-4:00 on Saturday. I hope to see you there!

What I’ve Been Up To

I know I’ve been gone a long time, but I’m back now. After a long and unproductive winter (during which I mostly hibernated), I’ve had a somewhat creative spring and summer so far. I thought I’d share some projects that I’ve finished over the past few months.

I made a Sew Together bag for my pen pal Jennifer’s birthday. It was easier to sew than I thought it would be. It just took a long time because there were a lot of steps. The Sew-A-Long by Quilt Barn was a huge help in putting the bag together. Every step was covered and had photos.

For my husband’s nephew’s high school graduation gift, I made an arrows quilt. He was really tough picking colors for because his mom said she wasn’t sure what colors he liked but he likes to wear blue a lot and sometimes orange and gray. So I went with those three colors and hoped for the best. I decided to go with solids because I couldn’t find any “boy” prints that I thought he’d like.

For the pattern, I chose one called Flyin’ South by Canoe Ridge Creations. It’s supposed to be a mini quilt but I thought it would look nice as a twin-size quilt. After making it though, I wouldn’t make it as a full-size quilt again. It took me 59 hours to make and took forever to cut out all the pieces and sew the blocks together. I thought I’d never get it finished. I love how it turned out, though.

My sister Grace had a baby girl last month, so I made her a Fancy Fox quilt which I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. Great excuse, huh? I love how it turned out. Grace likes blues and grays and didn’t want too much pink, so I didn’t put pink in it at all. I though it would look good with solids with all those different colors. I quilted it with a wood grain pattern. I was really nervous about it because I didn’t want to ruin the quilt, but it ended up being easier than I thought. I really like how it looks. I think it’s my favorite quilting pattern right now.

A couple years ago I was obsessed with quilting with words. One project I wanted to make was a pillow that said Me + You. I just never got around to it. I finally finished it this month. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. And it seems like perfect timing because I was able to quilt it with a wood grain pattern. If I hadn’t quilted the Fancy Fox quilt with the wood grain, I probably wouldn’t ever have attempted that pattern. That pattern fits perfectly with the whole carved initials and tree theme. In the photo the two strips of gray fabric between the ME and YOU look lighter than the rest of the gray fabric but it’s all from the same bolt. Weird, huh?

And finally, I finished a ripple afghan that I started in 2010. It’s kind of a funny story because I bought a bunch of skeins of yarn back in 2010 in blue, gray, green and lavender, intending to do the whole afghan in those colors. I started the first 9 rows in those colors. Then I stopped for some reason. When I found the afghan this year, I discovered that the brand of yarn and colors I bought five years ago was discontinued. I didn’t want to start over and I didn’t want to unravel all nine rows that I already crocheted. So I just left them and tried to find colors that would go with the colors that I already bought before. I found a couple of colors that were similar to the ones I already had, so that helped. I think it turned out ok and I like how the colors look together.

Join Me for Some Christmas Shopping

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday. I decided to stay home that day and avoid all the chaos. I’m so glad I did. I can’t believe that Christmas is only three weeks away! I’ve just barely begun my Christmas shopping. I really need to get started.

Speaking of Christmas and holiday shopping, I will be selling my wares at the Lucky Star Market at the Prairie Moon Winery in Ames this Friday and Saturday. I’ve never done this show before, so I’m kind of excited about it and hope there’s a huge turnout for it. If you’re in the Ames/Des Moines area, I hope you’ll stop by. There will be a lot of great vendors there. You’re sure to find that special handmade something for that hard-to-shop-for person in your life. And you’ll be helping to support a local artist.

I’ll be there Friday from 6:00-9:00 p.m. (it’s a special Preview Party). It costs $10 to get in and you’ll have first dibs on everything. On Saturday I’ll be there 9:00-4:00. Saturday is free and the show is open from 9:00-4:00. I hope to see you there!

Modern Cross Pillow

Back in April I was contacted by the social media and marketing director of Camelot Fabrics. She was interested in having me create a quilted project for their web site. I was very flattered. They have some really cool fabrics. I was able to choose from all of them and pick the ones I liked the best to use in whatever I designed for them. Having never designed a quilt before, I decided to start small and created a pillow design.

I’ve always liked half-square triangles and crosses, so I combined them and came up with the design below. My friend Emma said she liked the design but she probably wouldn’t make the pillow herself because of all the triangles. I do see what she means. It’s also a pretty large pillow at 20″ and could seem daunting to some people. When I submitted the design to Camelot Fabrics, they asked me if I could redesign it with just one star so that it would be a little simpler.

So after the redesign, here’s what the new pillow design looks like. It’s a 16″ pillow. I think I do like it better with just one star. It looks a lot more doable. So doable in fact, that I had to try it out for myself. I used this pattern for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Michael Miller fabric challenge that ended last month.

Here’s my submission for the challenge. I also entered it in the Iowa State Fair and it won second place. All’s well that ends well.

If you want to try the pattern out yourself, you can download it for free here.

 

Fort Collins Trip 2014

Dave and I drove to Fort Collins last week ostensibly to attend his niece’s high school graduation. But we turned it into a much-needed mini vacation for us. We were there for almost three days and it went by so fast.

The first day I was so lucky that I got to go fabric shopping at Mama Said Sew. In fact, that just happened to be our first stop when we got into town. That store is fabulous. It’s the only store I’ve ever been to that has fabric by Suzuko Koseki. I’ve always had to order it online, so that was a rare treat. Angela, the owner was super nice. And when I told her I was meeting my online quilting pen pal for lunch for the first time (whom she happened to know because they’re in the local Modern Quilt Guild together), she recommended a couple places to meet for lunch.

After fabric shopping I got to meet my pen pal Jennifer in person. We have been writing to each other for four years. We found each other through Jen at Indie Fixx back when she started the Pen Pal Project in 2010 and asked if people wanted pen pals. Jennifer and I had very similar interests, so we started writing each other. We did a doll quilt swap last year. I never thought we’d meet but when this trip came up, it just seemed fortuitous because she lives in Cheyenne which is only an hour away from Fort Collins.

It was so fun meeting Jennifer. She was just as I imagined she would be. She cracked me up with stories of her husband who is an air force colonel. She even kept Dave amused. It turns out her husband and Dave share an interest in watching TV shows about Sasquatch, flying planes and shooting guns. We were having such a great time talking and catching up that we stayed in the restaurant past closing time and they practically had to kick us out. It was really hard for us to say goodbye. I can’t wait to come back again soon so we can meet up again. Next time we’ll have to meet in Cheyenne.

We didn’t get to spend a lot of time doing as much stuff as we would have liked because we did come to Fort Collins for Dave’s niece’s graduation after all. We also had to go to the graduation party and spend time with Dave’s sister’s family. It was funny seeing his niece Ava all grown up and graduated, ready to go off to college. She was the cute, little flower girl at our wedding 10 years ago.

Dave’s nieces Alexa and Ava (the graduate)

We did find time to take a tour at New Belgium Brewery which was great, and I’m not even a drinker. It’s definitely a fun place to work. I could tell everyone there really enjoys their jobs. When you work there for a year, you get a specially designed New Belgium bike. After five years, you get a free trip to Belgium. After ten years you get a month off from work, plus a share in the company. Dave was trying to figure out how he could get a job there. The tour was really interesting and they weren’t stingy with their beer samples, either. Dave got six good-sized samples of their different beers, plus a free can of Fat Tire beer for helping to pour beer during the tour.

We also drove down to Denver our last day because I begged Dave, even though he didn’t want to do a lot of driving around during this trip. I really wanted to stop at Fancy Tiger Crafts. I’ve always wanted to shop here and never dreamed that I would, and we were so close. What’s an hour of driving time, right? I kept dangling the flagship REI store there to entice him. It was a win-win for both of us.

Fancy Tiger was great but I was hoping they would have more Japanese fabrics than what they had. An employee said they would be getting more soon. I did find a few cute Japanese prints I hadn’t seen before, so it was worth the trip. And they had more Liberty of London fabrics than I’ve ever seen at any other fabric store. The store was really cool and I liked the fun vibe of the store. If I lived in Denver, I’d love to work there. They also had lots of yarn and patterns. There seemed to be something for everyone.

We liked Denver but we didn’t get to spend much time there. We only spent four-and-a-half hours there because we had to get back to Fort Collins to go to church and then go to the graduation ceremony. We’d like to come back again when we have more time to spend there. We’re thinking of coming back next summer when the USA Pro Cycling Challenge goes through there. The weather will be better then, too. It was a little rainy during our trip.

Colorado is still one of our favorite places to visit and if we could manage it, we’d move there in a heartbeat. Their winters are milder and there’s no humidity. After the long winter we had, I’m ready to move anywhere where there’s no winter or where it doesn’t drag on forever. And I’m kind of getting tired of our humid summers. But I’ll tell you one thing Des Moines has over Fort Collins: great Asian restaurants. We couldn’t find any good sushi or Chinese restaurants while we were there. The one Chinese restaurant we ate at had us sorely missing Cafe Su. Dave’s sister said we probably weren’t going to find anything like that there. I guess you have to go to Boulder or Denver for that.

It was still a fun trip, but next time we’ll go just for ourselves when we can just relax and travel at our own pace. It’s hard to enjoy yourself when you have to rush around and always have to be somewhere at a certain time.

Happy May Giveaway

Yes, I’m still here. It’s been a long, brutal winter and spring is finally here. To celebrate I thought I’d have a giveaway. Since it’s still technically May Day, I guess you could say I’m giving away a May basket. You could use it for all sorts of things. Some ideas right off the top of my head are storing candy, spools of thread, charger cords, business cards, keys, cosmetics and small toys. You could also use it as a thread catcher by your sewing machine to catch all those loose threads you clip as you sew. You guys can probably think of a lot of other uses for it, I’m sure.

The basket is fully lined, reversible and measures 4.5W x 4D x 5H” (depending how far down you fold the top down). I’m thinking of making a pdf pattern of it to sell in my Etsy shop with two other versions (without the bias tape binding around the edge) so that you have some other variations to make and in case you don’t want the binding edge. I’ll let you know if I put the pdf in my shop.

In order to be entered to win this basket, leave a comment below telling me what your sewing projects are for this spring. Or if you’re not a sewer, tell me about any crafting projects you’re working on this spring. Sorry, but this giveaway is for U.S. residents only. I’ll leave it open until Monday, May 5. I will randomly choose a winner and contact you by e-mail. So, make sure you leave your e-mail address with your comment.

For an extra chance to win, you can do so by becoming a follower of my blog. All you have to do is click on the Follow Me button on the right side of my blog; then leave a second comment telling me you’re a follower of my blog. If you’re already a follower, just leave a comment saying you’re already a follower. Good luck!

**The giveaway is now closed. The winner is Kathy H.
Thanks to everyone who participated.**

Starting the Year Off with a Finish

I’ve been in hibernation mode since Thanksgiving, so I’m happy to report that I actually started this month off by finishing a quilt. It’s my Bloomsbury Gardens quilt that I started in 2012. I really love all the fabrics together. They’re very striking and they complement each other well. I’ve always wanted a Liberty of London quilt and now I have one!

I’m not happy that you can’t see the quilting very well on the front. I really wanted to use cream thread on the front and blue thread on the back, but I had tension problems with the cream thread showing up on the back. So I used blue thread on both sides. So it’s hard to see the quilting on the front. But you can see it really well on the back and it looks pretty good. The quilting design I used was Ohfransson’s Dogwood pattern. I really love it so much. I just wish you could see it better on the front.

Last week at my quilting group’s monthly meeting, we brought a list of all of our UFOs (unfinished objects). My list was the smallest with eight projects unfinished, but I do want to make a dent in it and finish at least a third of those projects by the end of this year. Of course, by the time I do, inevitably, more projects will be added to that list (it’s funny how that works). We agreed to revisit our lists in December and see if any of us have made progress on our UFOs. I hope to be one of them.

But I also decided that there is one UFO I won’t be finishing. It is a group project my quilting group and I made together when I first joined the group. While I enjoyed working on the medallion quilt when we were making it, it has prairie points that I’m not really crazy about. And my tastes have changed since then. So I don’t really want to spend the time, energy and money to have the quilt top quilted and bound. Making that decision feels good. And it feels right to me.

I think that just because you have a UFO doesn’t mean you have to finish it. You may not be the same person you were when you first started it. Things change and your tastes change. It’s ok to admit that you don’t love something you started awhile ago. Give it to someone else who might like it more. Or donate it to a charity. In my case, I’ll keep the medallion quilt top. It means a lot to me because my friends and I made it together. I’m just not interested in finishing it anymore.

I have decided not to make any resolutions for this year. They always seem to fall by the wayside, anyway. I’ve decided what I want is for worry, fear and unhappiness not to have a place in my life. I want to be happy and have more fun this year. I’ve also decided that life is too short to spend a single moment doing something I don’t want to do. So I want to make every minute count. 2013 was kind of a bust for me, so I’m hoping 2014 will be much better. I hope this year is a good year for you, too. Happy 2014!

Shop Update

This is a brief post to let you know that I just listed some elephant pincushions in my Etsy shop in case you’re interested in buying some right now. Lately I’ve been busy being a machine making stuff for a crafts show last weekend that was kind of a bust. I didn’t sell as much as I had hoped, but I guess that means I won’t have to work as hard to make as much stuff for my final Black Friday Market Day show.

Anyway, I listed five elephants, so if you’re interested, go take a look. Everyone at the crafts show last weekend loved the elephants, but no one bought one. So they’re up for grabs. I may do another pincushion giveaway for Sew, Mama, Sew’s annual holiday giveaway in December. But if you can’t wait that long, treat yourself and just buy one. These little fellas are looking for a good home.

Welcome to Des Moines, Stitch!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a great new fabric and yarn shop in Des Moines called Stitch. That’s very exciting news, my friends. Des Moines has been ripe for a modern fabric shop for a long time and I couldn’t be happier. It’s located in the East Village on East 5th Street. I think it’s the perfect location.

I stopped by over the weekend and fell in love with the store. The whole look and vibe of the store is very fun and modern. It carries such fabrics as Leah Duncan’s Tule line, Heather Ross’ Briar Rose and some lovely prints by Anna Maria Horner; all fabrics you’d otherwise have to purchase online. I’m so happy that I don’t have to drive all the way to Iowa City anymore to buy quality modern fabrics I love. (But you know me, I still will.)

I was delighted to discover that I had already met the one of the owners (Tami Stroh) and her daughter before. They had purchased a tissue cozy from me at an East Village crafts show a year or two ago. Tami shares my love of cute Japanese fabrics. She said she may be getting some Nani Iro fabric in the shop sometime. I can’t wait!

Tami Stroh, one of the co-owners of Stitch

Sewing machines that you can rent per hour for sewing projects

In addition to fabric, Stitch also carries yarn, knitting needles, books and sewing patterns. I haven’t knitted in years, but with all the yummy yarns they have, I just may have to take it up again.

While I was there, Tami asked me if I would be interested in teaching sewing classes at the store. Of course I couldn’t say no. I was so flattered and happy that she asked me. Her store is so awesome. I think this could be Des Moines’ version of Purl Soho. I hope it’s a huge success. Please spread the word and tell everyone you know about it.