My Interview with Tricia Fidler, a KonMari consultant

 

I have a great new interview for you! If you have followed me for any length of time, you may remember than I went through a process of purging and organizing my basement studio in our home in Seattle, Washington a few years ago (I think it was 2019).READ MORE

Mindful Making in New Mexico with Quiltfolk

 

I am excited to share with you all about one of the big projects I’ve been working on. Quiltfolk spent some time at my house a couple of months ago and together we created a truly unique online workshop experience!READ MORE

New Found and Foraged Handmade Pincushions Coming

sashiko pincushions

 

I have been diligently working on a brand new collection of Found and Foraged Pincushions that will be hitting my shop in a couple of weeks. Many folks were sad to have missed out on the previous groups, so ceramic artist Kristen Ballou and I worked to make as many as possible available for this next collection. Keep reading if you want to know how to snag one of these beauties.READ MORE

The Process of Rediscovery

F & F Collection Peek
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.

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No smoke and mirrors here (and a little about me)

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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In Defense of the Small Project

mini quilts
Time in my studio and how I use it has always been important in one way or another. When the kids were younger, I felt pressured to use that time to its fullest while I had it. Inevitably, creative time was short and precious, usually last on the list of needs in our days. As the kids got older, I found myself spending more time in my studio, but those were days I spent a lot of time thinking about exactly what I wanted my creative time to be. Writing a book has given structure to my studio time, but in between those books my time in the studio has become more and more my own. With teenagers, and one away at college, my time in the studio is blissfully mine. No more trying to keep kids busy while getting creative things done, or trying to create a project for them so that we could craft side by side. These days, I have lots of time to make what I want, or to create a real body of creative work that I am very excited about. This usually involves quilts, and quilt-related things (like pattern writing). I love every minute of it, but being the sole proprietor in the studio has created a schedule of working on lots of long term things a little bit each day. In some ways I really love that, but in some ways I’d love to see results more often than I do.READ MORE

My Favorite Sewing Tools

Studio Sewing Table
The right sewing tools can make your life so much easier. And there are tons of them out there. Some work great and your projects come out even better because of them. You wonder how you got along without them. But there are some that are truly a waste of money. I’ve bought a few that make no sense and feel just plain awkward to use.
Interestingly, most of my favorite sewing tools were not really made for sewing at all. I thought I’d share a list of what I use all the time in the studio.READ MORE

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