Pumpkins in Disguise

Jack o'Meow Meow
 - a pumpkin disguised as a jack o'lantern masquerading as a sassy kitty

My Etsy team, RNEST, has monthly creativity challenges centered around a theme. This week's theme is "In disguise." So inspired, I designed four pumpkins in disguise. First, they are all disguised as jack o'lanterns, but I couldn't stop there. I thought it would be really fun to play around with why and when people use disguises. The theme speaks to Halloween, which is where the jack o'lanterns came in for me. But I wanted to have even more fun with it and so I started thinking of one of my favorite things: historical romance novels and the "fancy dress balls" they are always attending. Fancy dress or masquerade balls seem so romantic and fun and I just had to incorporate that into my project. So, take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine a world of pumpkins-turned-jack o'lanterns and what they might be doing in Victorian times. They might indeed be getting all fancied up for a fancy dress ball, like my pumpkins have.

I'm still working on three of the pumpkins, but the one shown is Jack o'Meow Meow.  This jack o'lantern is masked and ready for the ball - and is ready to compete against some scary competition. Check it out here! I'd love your vote!

It's Good to Know Crafty People

This weekend my family and I went to Hearts and Crafts, an indie art and craft show here in Rochester. One of the best things about being a crafty person is knowing other crafty people. If I don't know how to or don't want to make it myself, I probably know someone who excels at making whatever it is for me.

Here's a few crafty people whose wares are now my own (or, rather, whose wares are now Zoe's):

Kira Arts: Her nubbins are a favorite of Zoe's. In fact, Zoe so loves her orange nubbin, a gift from Kira, that she's loved the heart right off.

RErooted: We picked up this very cool bottle from a new-to-us artist. We love combination of the shiny new wire work on the old, foggy bottle and imagine we'll house all the little flowers Zoe will pick for us - when she actually starts walking and can go flower picking. Ha!

Nancy Topolski: I've admired Nancy's work for some time now. Her Foundlings are just beautiful and adorable. I know Zoe will own one eventually, but yesterday I actually bought something for myself: fingerless gloves.  Now, while you are reading this blog, you can rest assured that my hands were warm while writing it!

Work of the New Studio

I'm just now getting back into the work of running my shop, but there have already been some pretty cool things created in the new studio space. And more good things to come!

"Freedom" - created for a memorial auction to celebrate
the life of a young man who like nothing more than
the freedom of riding his bike.

"Into the Sun" - Another piece for the memorial auction.
I had so much fun making both of these!

Scrappy centipedes for Zoe and some friends. My little
taskmaster and quality assurance agent makes sure
nothing leaves the studio with imperfections! I think here
she's pointing out a thread or two that needs to be clipped!

New Studio

Cutting area. I put the tables up on bed risers to provide
more storage and to make cutting easier on my back.

The new studio is finally up and running. It's a much smaller space, but I find myself more focused and more creative there. And of course there's a special space for my little sidekick. I imagine Zoe's corner turning into a little art space when she gets older, but for now it's room for her to kick and crawl around.



Fabric shelves and play space.
Organization is the key to making
my new small space work.
Well, organization and space for Zoe!

Sewing and ironing space.
Sometimes I just visit my room and
gaze at the wall of thread.
A real work of art!

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

Monday's Marvel: The qClutch: Refreshed

You may remember a while back that I introduced the clutch-style wallet that I'd just finished designing and was about to launch in the shop. Well, I didn't launch the new design back then, but, after a few improvements, I'm ready to launch it now! Oh how I love these wallets and really love the improvements, too! These are fun to make, but they do take quite some time due to the measuring, folding, and pressing of the interior card pockets. It's worth it though! These wallets just have it all!

Friday's Fresh Find: Erika Martin Designs

I saw this amazing work in a beautiful treasury and immediately visited this shop: Erika Martin Designs. So many eye-catchingly beautiful and unique hand-stitched pieces, this shop is definitely a fresh find. I look at her work and it makes me happy! You and I will get the opportunity to meet the artist at MayDay, but in the meantime, I hope you pay a visit to Erika Martin Designs and check out this wonderful shop!

Hand-stitched Felt Covered Album

Red and Coral Blooms handstitched Girl's Felt Belt

Felt Embroidered Eyeglass Case - Bright Blooms

Fairy Finger Puppets with Roll-up Bed

Thursday's Thoughts: Take a Stand

Dress Form - Original Papercut Art
by Papercut Art by Tina Tarnoff

Talk around my work team is on a recent article professing that folks who sit for eight hours daily at work are 54% more likely to die of a heart attack than those who stand at work. WOW! I sit for 40 hours a week at my day job and then I sit for about 50 hours a week in the studio.

Regardless of whether sitting actually leads to an increased risk for a fatal heart attack, I know that sitting so much is really hard on my back. So I, and several of my coworkers, decided to make a change. We're working on converting our workspaces into standing stations - I'll have mine done next week and will post some pictures.

Since I actually spend more of my time in the studio than I do at work, I decided to make a change there too. After my April shows, I will be raising my cutting table to waist height. They say that standing  while cutting improves accuracy anyhow, so that's a good thing. The only issue is that I am very tall - waist height for me is 48" so I think I will put my tables up on cinder blocks to get the height I need. The other areas of my studio will be uplifted as well: shipping station will go up on blocks, photography station gets some height, and the ironing board is already raised for stand-up ironing. The only thing I will still sit for is sewing, but I think the up and down from the sewing chair to the rest of the work spaces will be good exercise.

I'll post pictures of the transformation and keep you posted on how its working for me. What do you think? Do any of you work standing up? Thinking about making the change? Here's a great blog post if you're interested in making some changes to make your space work better for your body.

Wednesday on the Worktable: Quilted Tissue Pillows

I mentioned on Monday that half the cut fabric on my table was for a new design that I would show you today: Quilted Tissue Pillows! Oh boy, do I love these! About half of my creations come from personal necessity (while the other half come from requests from friends and customers) and these are something I've always needed to have on hand. As an allergy sufferer, there are never enough tissues around when I'm out and about. Having a cute little Quilted Tissue Pillow in my tote bag will be so handy! I hope you think so, too! When they are stuffed with a pocket pack of tissues they look like little pillows (or burritos, but Quilted Tissue Burritos doesn't sound quite as cute!)

Tuesday's Treasures: Cutting, Cutting, Cutting

As you know (if you read yesterday's post), I spent most of my weekend cutting, cutting, cutting fabric, so I thought a scissor-y theme would be perfect for today's Tuesday's Treasures.

Carribean Blue and Green Beaded Scissor Fob by TJB Designs

In The Hoop Scissors Holder by Digitized Creations

Handcrafted Birthday Card by Cards by Lynelle

scissors, orange by Cusp Studio

SNIPPY (CREATE) Metal Scissors Necklace by Airzinnn's Artwear Jewelry

Monday's Marvel: Did I Do Anything This Weekend?

Some Mondays I look back on the weekend and feel like I wasn't very productive at all. This is one of those Mondays. I don't feel like I was productive because I didn't actually MAKE anything this weekend (though I did create and test a new design - more on that on Wednesday). These seemingly unproductive weekends are all part of my process. Especially when I am preparing for a show, I pick one or two designs and spend the weekend choosing all the fabrics and cutting all the pieces for however many of those designs I want to have for that show (or for the shop.) That's what I did this weekend.

So, this weekend I:

• Coordinated, measured, and cut 36 sets of fabric for Gettin' Down to Business Card Wallets
• Coordinated, measured, and cut 28 sets of fabric for a surprise new design (number three to be launched at MayDay) which I will show you on Wednesday
• Measured and cut 64 pieces of batting
• Made 64 labels
• Cut 36 1" pieces of velcro

By the end of the weekend I wanted to throw my rotary cutter out the window! But now I have everything cut for these two designs and can just lose myself in the sewing and quilting. My process may start out with all the tedium of cutting, cutting, cutting, but it ends with the glory of the sewing, so I can't complain.

I love nice, neat rows of fabric all cut and ready to sew. Thrilling!

Friday's Fresh Find: Upstate Herb Works

My awesomely creative and wonderful friend Karen alerted me to this wonderful herbalist right here in Upstate New York: Upstate Herb Works. By every stretch of the definition, this shop is definitely a fresh find! I'll get the opportunity to meet the owner, Catherine, at MayDay and I really cannot wait! For now, though, I just enjoy looking around her shop and reading the wonderful descriptions she writes for all of her products - you know immediately that she loves each and everything she creates. Take a look through her lovely, wholesome offerings and you will know what I mean. Upstate Herb Works is definitely a shop you want to visit soon and visit often!

Double Calendula Vegan Body Butter

Rosemary Relief Chapstick

Himalayan Pink Salt Body Polish