New Year, New Addition, New Studio, New Everything!!

Again, sorry for the long absence! The Quilted House's new addition arrived a wee bit early, but healthy and happy as can be! We welcomed our baby girl, Zoe Lorraine, on December 7th, 2011! I'm still busily purging and organizing our home and having a blast with my little sidekick. A REALLY early labor, hospital stay, bedrest, and another preterm labor and delivery, found us rushing to get the house baby-ready. Since I was on bed rest for the month before Zoe's arrival and the studio was off-limits, every spare piece of everything got stacked about in the studio space! So now I'm tasked with a major purging and reorganizing project as we get rid of the excess and transfer the studio to another space in the house. It's so exciting to transform The Quilted House studio into a more organized, streamlined, and baby-friendly space. I hope you'll enjoy following along with the tranformation!

The online shop hasn't seen any new additions in a bit, but while I get things in order, the Clearance section still houses items that I very much loved creating and hope you love as well. You can also still use the MAKEROOM4BABY coupon code to get 20% off the entire shop, including clearance.


A sample of the items you can find in the new Clearance section!



I'm Back!!

The Quilted House at Wedgestock
with baby "on board"

So sorry for the long absence, but I've been busy growing a baby! Very excitedly we'll be welcoming a new addition to The Quilted House in early January. We've been busily purging and organizing our home to welcome our new baby. As my nesting instincts kick in, I can't help but want to do the same thing to The Quilted House studio. It's more than just organizing designs, fabric, and supplies, but also organizing my thoughts about my shop. There are so many things I'd like to try and so many things I really love creating. I already have new priorities as my pregnancy proceeds and I know they'll change even more once our baby arrives. It's fun to re-envision the types of items I want to create and provide for sale in my shop and how I'd like to run my business with my new responsibilites as a mom. It's so exciting to be on this journey and I hope you'll enjoy following along with me!

My first step is creating a Clearance section which will house items that I very much loved creating and hope you love as well. I've looked around the shop and found items that I'd like to have a new home, so my instincts to purge could be a big win for you. Get started a little early on your holiday shopping and check this section often as new items catch my eye as I organize!


A sample of the items you can find in the new Clearance section!



Hiatus

Hello lovely blog followers! I've missed you and I've missed bringing you wonderful features, insight into my process and new products, and fun tutorials. I'm currently under the weather and am going to take some more time off from the blog to get back on my feet. No worries: I promise to come back better than ever! Enjoy your spring and I'll see you soon!

Friday's Fresh Find: Our Secret Treehouse

Continuing the theme of finding new and awesome shops that will be coming to MayDay, today's Fresh Find is a fun, fun shop: Our Secret Treehouse. I can't wait to meet them at MayDay - I just bet this dynamic duo is a barrel of laughs.

Woodland Critters XOXO Print

Woodland Critters Squirrely Print

Saurs & More Ankylosaurus Print

Thursday's Thoughts: Fearsome Focus

Silver FOCUS Ring
by Nora McNamara

I have mixed feelings about whether reading books on time management are a good use of my time, but I have a slight addiction to them. To save you time, however, I thought I'd bring you a little snippet of good guidance from The Power of an Hour, by Dave Lakhani. Lakhani suggests that you can create time by being "fearsomely focused." To acheive this intense focus, carve out some time away from family, friends, phones, etc. and:

1. Decide what to focus on. Be as detailed as possible.

2. Create a roadmap for action listing what steps you need to take.
3. List the tools that you will need. Have them ready and available.
4. Stay focused. Do not let anything distract you. This goes for e-mail, co-workers, and your own thoughts.
5. Get started. Taking decisive action to begin your project creates momentum.
6. Constantly check your progress against your list of steps. This positive feedback will build up the momentum you have started.
7. When distractions arise, take only a moment to acknowledge them, then get rid of them and go immediately back to work on your chosen project.
8. Keep working until you have completed all your steps. Being methodical pays off.
9. Congratulate yourself for completing the task and allow yourself to relax.



Lakhani suggests that we practice by attaining this focused state regularly, create a routine, and dedicate a specific, regular time and place to work with intense focus. I'm going to try this tonight. I have about four hours and twenty Gettin' Down to Business Card Wallets to finish up. We'll see how much I accomplish when I'm fearsomely focused!

What do you do to help you focus?

Wednesday on the Worktable: A LOT More of the Same

This is crunch week: the last full week before my back-to-back shows. This weekend I will make some iPod/iTouch pouches, about a million bookmarks, and some more jotters, but this week I dedicated to finishing up all the Quilted Tissue Pillows, qClutches, and Gettin' Down to Business Card Wallets that were cut and prepped and ready to be sewn. One of the things I really love about making massive amounts of items in preparation for a show is having stacks of completed items, all uniform in size, just showcasing lots of fun fabrics! One final push, and we'll be show ready, but right now the studio is looks a bit like a war zone!

Un-stuffed Quilted Tissue Pillows look so nice in a stack!

So many fun Gettin' Down to Business Card Wallets to choose from!

This qClutch should be named "Green with Envy." This is definitely a fave!

I couldn't resist making a qClutch in one of my new favorite fabrics.
Michael Miller's Sea Beauties add so much fun to a wallet!

I just love this one. The fabrics are individual favorites of mine
and I think they work so amazingly together!

I added a little extra flair with some satin ribbon around the zipper.
Just another pop of wow!

Tuesday's Treasures: Carrots for Easter

I have a large and beloved collection of carrot items and I really love that at this time of the year, with Easter upon us, carroty goodies abound! I thought I take today to share with you some of my favorites.

Acrylic Robot Painting, entitled Pick Me by Wayward Girl Meets Boy

Carrot Arrangment by Horns Home and Garden

5x7 Riot of Orange Fine Art Print by abcd images

Fittipaldi Car Carrot Knit Pattern by HandMadeAwards

Carrots by Blue Bond Studio