Quilt Market, Houston, 2014

I I had the very special opportunity to attend quilt market in Houston with my sweet friend who not only was attending but exhibiting for her second time. It was so neat seeing how she has carved out a name for herself and is rubbing elbows with some of the best in the industry. It's a fun week and this year was no exception except maybe I planned a bit better leaving myself to bring home a whole suitcase full of fabric! (No lie! My suitcase was so full airport security couldn't see through the thick fabric and had to open up my bag. Try explaining a quilting obsession to a TSA agent!) 

My favorite from market was definitely Doe by Carolyn Freelander. Her booth was darling and I absolutely love her newly released masculin and modern line!

 

I picked up 4 jelly rolls of this and can not wait to make something out of it, I'm just waiting for the perfect pattern. 

Here was a quilt by Elizabeth Hartman the thread she wuilted it with is a metallic, with gold! I absolutely love it and really want to try it! It is crazy how great it looked in this quilt! Speaking of her I actually got a copy of her new book, which is amazing, and something that would make a great sit down and make a block when you have time, amazing, three years to make, amazing,kind of a quilt. Did I mention I liked the book. 

The quilt from Patchwork City.

Though I seriously hate the little animal quilts, I don't really see what people see in the hedgehogs or the foxes. Not my thing I guess because others dig it up! 

The cotton and steel booth looked great, but I did have to get a lesson in fabrics from one of the girls as I accidentally bought a fabric better geared for clothing. It was a LAWN, and had a wonderful texture And was very soft but much more expensive than traditional cotton. Well I got to learn something new, and only felt a bit dorky not knowing. 

Look here I am buying fabric at the very crazy sample spree! Yes I spent way more than I was supposed to! Sorry Matt!  My credit cards even got flagged for fraud! Omg! Nope it was all me! 

And my favorite booth was my sweet friend Michelle, hers was so cute with all her stuff and the theme "loads of fun" she even made a fake washer and dryer! It was a great booth! (And no I'm not playing favorites, it was so fun seeing her come up with this idea and create it all before my very eyes!) 

We had a blast, went to a ball park for a MODA fabrics party, gambled for thread at the aurafil booth, and just in general ran around a hundred miles a minute for the entire weekend! 

It was a great week and I got my hands on some not yet released fabric!!! 

That is ALL bags and bags of fabric! OMG I think we have some explaining to do when we get home!  It was a great trip and I really can't believe the talent that there is out there! It was an inspirational week!  

Picture overload, but these are some of the great booths and experiences that I want to remember!

My very favorite fabric releases all came from Art Gallery Fabrics, I think the company is going to really explode soon, there designs are so fresh and fun, with modern elements but with a flair for fabrics that would be great with any old style. Sometimes ultra modern is just a bit much for me, I don't think I'm hip enough or even worldly enough for the style. Which is just fine because at the end of all of this inspiring week, I have realized I like, what I like, and I don't need to follow trends or like someone just because everyone else does. What a fun oppertunity! Maybe I'll have to try it again another year!

 

I am on ETSY!

...When I came home from Peach Days with almost everything I had made I took some peoples suggestions and opened a ETSY account. It took me ages to get everything uploaded, listed, and get the shop online. The low part of my expectations were already crushed from peach days so really I didn't have much to lose from the shop, and I didn't need to make much to fill my shop. :) I sold not one but TWO quilts to someone in Canada the very first week at two my shop was running! A bonus! Unfortunately sometimes in life things just get messed up. Wouldn't you believe it I messed up my first shop order! She was so so nice and we got it worked out, but I had listed the quilts as twin and they were 6 to 10 inches short of being a true twin. So I had to make two twin quilts asap! (and for the size I would have listed them for more, but not for my mistake so my low profit margin was really really low!) I did it but that didn't help me get rid of the stuff I made at peach days! Next would you believe how much shipping is?!? I work for the post office you'd think I of all people would know! These were going to Canada and I charged $35 for shipping. It cost me $55 to ship them both! Double Ouch! So my first sale...yep, BUST! But not really the buyer was so so sweet and left me the nicest feedback and loved the quilts. A boost when I really needed it. 

That being said ETSY has been great! I have really enjoyed my shop after the first  setting up and time consuming listing / shop setup. I love it! Most of my energy has been towards trying to sell off some of my peach days inventory. I still have most of it but the shop has been doing pretty well! 

Here it is https://www.etsy.com/shop/KTsew

 And as for other places I share quilty pics check out my Instagram my account is katieruthptrsn I  most definitely more up to date as to what I am working on than I am at my pathetic post here and there on this! Though I'd like to keep a better journal as to what I am doing here. I try not to be too annoying to my non quilting friends who don't want to look at all my stuff I made on Instagram! Though I'd post more if it weren't for the fear of bothering them! It's all good I keeps me in check, I never want to be one of those posters that I can't stand, the ones who seem to post a thousand pics a day, of every trivial thing. I find that with Facebook, Instagram and other social media there are very few of my contacts that I really truly like. I get annoyed easily and unfortunately find I am not a good mix with most of the political, and religious people that are more than abundant in the area I live.   However I find I like some people more by looking at their on line presence. It makes me wonder often which one am I? Though I'm sure most people are not as annoyed as easily. I probably should make that a resolution for the year, but find I just don't want go out in the effort to be that much better if a person! Maybe next year, or maybe I'll try just a little bit. 

Here are some of the quilts I finished last year for sale in my shop

A scrappy postage stamp that cost very little bit took ages as I used all small scraps no strip piecing! 

This was my first and last and only quilt to sell that wasn't a Minecraft creeper quilt.

Even though this is a simple quilt, I love the way this looks on a bed.

This quilt was not one of my favorites but I actually really love the finished product. It turned out to be a great quilt.

My biggest seller, the creeper quilt, from a video game my little boy loves. 

This is far and away my favorite quilt I've ever made! I love the colors and the quilting. Pictures don't do it justice, it is a beautiful quilt.

Another cute twin girls quilt.

And another 

These bags are so heavy duty and so useful! Seriously I love them all!

A cute picnic set.

And my very best seller, I only have 6 left! These were my favorites! I loved how they turned out. But really,  I love Christmas! The cheer, family visits, friend visits, the crazy hustle and bustle, and spoiling my kids rotten! It's a crazy time but I do love it! 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KTsew

Till next time, 

Katie

A break from a passion

A So from time to time in my life I get so overwhelmed with what is going on that I mentally back off and just become emotionally distant from that particular part. If I just keep myself safely distanced I help prevent myself from caring too much and eventually getting hurt. Don't even get me started on the whys, as this is a bit to deep for quilting. Ha! 

Last year in late July my friend Michelle and I decided to sell quilts at a fair, Peach  Days in Brigham City, Utah. I have thought about doing this kind of a thing for a while and finally decided on a venue. 

Making quilts is a LONG process and not really all that profitable with the price of fabric and time investment. This being said I started quilting for this in January. 

Some of my favorites were the Christmas stockings and the table runners. 

Some of the display, I loved this rack I stole from my mother in laws laundry room! 

Michelle split the booth with me, she has such great stuff, and most of it is from her own patterns MIXI heart. 

Maybe I made too much! 

Needless to say I quilted my butt off for six months! I was so proud of what I got done and so enthusiastic for the fair. I unfortunately put my whole heart into the endeavor and had my expectations of failure at a minimum. All the while I was training for a marathon. (This takes a lot of emotional as well as a physical toll on me) 

Aren't we SO darling in our matching patchwork thread shirts and aprons!  

Long story short, if I hadn't done this with my best friend and seriously successful quilting friend I wouldn't have gotten myself over this failure.   It was AWFUL! More awful that I ever would have imagined. I felt like I was begging people to look at my stuff and that my level of pathetic- ness reached an all new high.

We were right next to a booth selling Mormon temple and Jesus pictures and right across from a booth selling concealed weapon handbags. They were BOOMING! I could not believe how busy they were the whole weekend. 

My (our) booth was Soooooo slow. We had some quilters do the quick walk through but I was ready to pay someone to just look at even one of my quilts. I don't think if I was giving a queen size quilt away I would have been able to find someone who would want it! I am seriously not exaggerating! What even made it worse was my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Wayne, and my Sister in law and her friend all drove up from Tooele county  2 1/2 hours to support me and come see my booth! This should have been a mood booster for me but instead I just felt like people I know are seeing me fail. Kind of like falling in front of people and even though it hurts, the embarrassment is all you notice at first. 

 It was probably one of the lowest times of my entire life. Like really really low.  Which is silly really and so pathetic! At one point I was seriously sucidal (which is from more than just this but just that I was really low about a lot of things, and I was just ready to check out of life).

  Which reminds me of a almost laughable thing that happened at peach days... I was so doing my pathetic pretend like I'm having fun, please come into my booth/this is so awful I just want to go home and die. And thinking about death, a lady and her husband came right up to my booth grabbed 2 x mas stocking and said I want to buy these and handed me the $$ for them. She was wearing a sucide prevention t shirt. Talk about freakie weird timing, I kept thinking did she know??? Could she feel I was that low and thinking about it! I almost said something but really, what am I going to say. I want to die because my quilts are no good. 

Really I'm sure there is plenty more than just a bad quilt/ and or a big failure for one weekend going towards my depression or whatever it was I was going through. 

When Peach Days was over I hadn't even made the money back that I had invested into materials to make the stuff for it, and the booth space.  OUCH!!! 

I came home with almost everything I took! No lie! 

I finally gave myself the time to heal emotionally, and now after about six months I am back to loving quilting again. I really tried to force myself to get into it before now but my heart wasn't there. I never really stopped quilting, but my heart did.  I gave my sewing room a thorough cleaning and started to catch myself up on the things I couldn't push myself to work on.  

It's taken me 6 months but finally I'm better. 

So here's to a new chapter. A fresh start with a fresh 2015. I'm going to journal my  projects and enjoy this again. I love the fun amazing projects I am always getting to try with my best friends and I can't wait to see what I and they finish this year! 

Oh and one last bright moment from peach days, here I am labeling everything the day before. I still can't believe how much I made! 

Fabric flowers for market

I have been so lucky to be working with some collections from Sasha K Studios, EBI Fabric Corporation. The quality of the fabrics are top notch, and I've worked with quilt a bit over the last three years.  I've created a couple of free patterns available both on their site and here on my blog.  

Some of the things I have made and look forward to sharing for my first time to the professional quilting world at Spring Market include...

Downton square

Also I helped to make these flower garlands to be used as leis out of Sasha K Studios, Costa De Las Flores Azure collection. 

My gosh arn't they just the cutest! 

And here are some in a smaller size...

I used my friend Michelle's method just folding circles in half then into thirds pinned and sewed. Simple, easy, and absolutely stunning! Here are some in the garland strung together with fishing line. (My husband asked why I was getting into his fishing stuff :) !) 

 

And here is the little guy who got to do homework while mom was 'working'

Wedding bliss!

It is hard for me to give quilts away as gifts. One of the reasons is just that non quilters have absolutely NO idea how much time and money is poured into a quilt. Fabric is expensive, my time... Sometimes even more so. Then to add to that, what if they don't even appreciate or like it? 

I gave a queen size quilt to my husbands cousin for their wedding about 2 years ago and they never said thank you or even acknowledged they ever got it. Not that I only make things to get a thank you but seriously, it is hard to put in the time and money not knowing if it will be a treasure as much to them as it is to me.  So after the last wedding, I contemplated not making another one... 

Then the cutest couple ever came along. They remind me so much of my husband and I when we were that point, we went through so many of the same type situations every social media post I see from them makes me smile and remember my own love story! From opening their first lawn mower, first doggie,  a new house, and planning a elaborate wedding. They are adorable! So even though I can't make it from Utah to Michigan I am hoping they will love their new quilt. 

I had a really hard time picking exactly what kind of a quilt to make them, but they are young so I pulled for a bit more modern even down to my quilting.  

I love this quilt, the pattern is from my friend Michelle at mixiheart.com It is a fun quilt to make, cute, fast, and easy! My quilting took a bit longer. It was my first time I ever cross hatched a quilt. I like it but it was a slow process for me. 

So off it goes in the mail... A sad happy day. 

Un-Paper Kitchen Towels, and a Commute

I made a commitment to myself to do a couple earth friendly, and cost cutting things for myself last year.  The first was to start bike commuting, I'd wanted a road bike for a long time but the thing is they are expensive.  I figured with gas being so high if I simply eliminated my commute I would save myself nearly $10/day, and get my workout in the process.  It has not always been easy, I have gotten quite a few flat tires, and I have wrecked a few times.  (Not in the get hurt way but in the "Oh my heck did anyone just see that?!!?" kind of way)  I do love my bike though and have never regretted the commitment, it is so much fun and only adds an additional 15 minuets to my commute.  Not to shabby!  
The other project I am going to share...

Un-paper Kitchen Towel

I kicked my paper towels out the door, (or at least to the cupboard for the few and far between times I don't want to ruin my towels ex. bacon).  I found that my family was using so many paper towels and these were the perfect solution.  I simply wash and re-use, simple, cheap, and earth friendly!
These are quick to make, and will pay for themselves in the first couple months of use!
These will make a great addition to my Sweet Fall Table Topper

I am hoping you will make a earth friendly commitment in your house as well!

A whole lot of free patterns!

This last month I made a bunch of items for Sasha K Studios by EBI Fabrics, it was a lot of fun working with them to create some items out of their fabric.  I think this whole process was as new to them as it was for me.  I wrote out those patterns and am excited to share these free patterns!  I am new to explaining thinks in written form, and and absolutely can work on a better layout, and cover...but it's free so please sew, enjoy, and share with me!  I'd love to hear some feedback on how I can improve or what I did right.   I also will be releasing more patterns, so i'd love for you to follow my blog and comment!
Here some of those free patterns are!

Framed Flower Pillow PDF









Garden Bloom Pillow PDF

           Stained Glass Pillow PDF








           

    Sweet Fall PDF

Simple Table Runner PDF

On top of these fun freebies I have 2 more to post later this week, and a fun modern queen size quilt I will be finishing up next week.  Most of my favorite projects become so because I have great friends that make them with me, so grab a few friends share away, and please let me know what you think. Thanks,   KT