Every quilt I make right now is scrappy. I just love scrappy. It can work through a large fabric stash really effectively. Quilts made with simple color palettes with just a few colors, or all solids, for example, can completely transform when made using a scrappy sort of “recipe”.READ MORE
Being the only one at the helm of this ship called Wise Craft Handmade ⎯ the only one to produce, make things happen, create new products, post online, write patterns ⎯ is both challenging and exciting. There is never a time that I don’t feel I could be doing more- more work, more reaching out, more social media, more product design. There is pressure to work more efficiently, quicker, smarter, and do all the necessary things to make more of a business to my creative world.
You can read more about my work today on Rachel Rossi’s blog series “Summer of Inspiration”. In it we talk about the path that lead me to where I am in my business today, and some of my favorite things. Thank you Rachel!
Little known but widely done- I spend many days in my studio not talking to anyone. Its the very essence of working “remote”. Except for the occasional sputter of profanity that I’ve been known to unload when I experience a computer crash, or a very wrong quilting error, I don’t really talk to anyone on those days. But I have people that mean alot to me that I text with often. They are in other parts of the country, likely doing very much the same thing I’m doing- quietly working hard at home.READ MORE
I finished up my submission for Curated Quilts Mini Quilt challenge. The theme is Connections/Improv and I immediately knew what I wanted to do.
Yep. I needed more hand stitching.
I am traveling to Las Vegas in just a couple of weeks to spend a weekend with the lovely folks at Quiltique. I will be presenting a brand new lecture I call Finding the Value in Your Scraps on Friday evening, and on Saturday I will be teaching a workshop on upcycling and how to create your own quilt design (even if you are a beginner!). Here is all the info on what we’ll be doing while I’m there.
When I was in the testing and filming phase of Dream, Learn, Quilt!, I made a quilt with very specific goal in mind. I wanted to test out the concepts from the class- make sure everything was well-covered and understandable, with visual, video, downloads, etc- plus it gave me the perfect excuse to make another quilt! READ MORE
I thought it was time to get new photos of myself taken. The last ones were taken by SCB for my book back in 2015, three years ago! So, I asked my friend Marlo to bring her camera to the studio and help me out. Thank goodness she has patience, I’m not an easy subject to be photographed. I make it awkward, but we got through it!
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We will soon be starting our 4th stitch along in the Wise Craft Quilts Facebook Group. We’ve had great fun stitching these projects together (you can see some of the projects in the #wisecraftstitchalong hashtag on Instagram. Our stitch alongs are casual, and focus on or expand on techniques from my book Wise Craft Quilts. Its been a great way to give myself a little permission to just stitch something new, revisit the projects from that book, and sew up new versions.
For this next one, I was inspired a bit by the sunny skies and warmer temperatures we are having in Seattle right now. I’m thinking tropical!READ MORE
Have you heard of May Day Cones? Little cones, often paper, filled with a small bouquet of blooming flowers from the yard, hung on the front doorknob for friends and neighbors on the first day of May. The perfect way to announce “Spring is Here”.READ MORE