Blogger's Quilt Festival

I know you guys have seen this, but I wanted to share it again.  Why?  Because I wanted it to be a part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!



This quilt is titled "The DOG" and I made for my dad for father's day.  I made it as a representation/interpretation of an old truck he has.  I learned a lot of cool things while making this quilt.  I learned how cool tulle looks when you use it to create a shadow.  I learned that solid fabrics would probably be the easiest way to do this layering sort of technique successfully.  I learned that I can quilt in little circle shapes.  I learned a lot! 

This is the third quilt I did using a photograph to create an image.  The first two were of my grandparents as children.  You can see them on these posts: Gramma's 79th Birthday & Papa's 80th Birthday.  Each time I've tried creating an image using this layering technique I've tried things a little differently.  Fusible web is the way to go; glue is okay, but gets a little messy.  Reverse applique doesn't work with 7 (or so) layers.

Enjoy the rest of the festival! 

Blogger Quilt Festival

Amy at Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  The quilt I'm going to share for the Spring 2010 festival is the Bastille Baby Quilt.

This quilt was made a few months ago for my sister-in-law's baby-boy-to-be (phew!  That's a lot of hyphens!).  Baby Bastille got his name because of his due date.  He's due on July 14th, Bastille Day.  Don't worry, the baby won't actually be named Bastille.  We just refer to him as that because his name hasn't been decided just yet.  The last baby to be born in the family we called Giblet, but he turned out to be a Lucas, so things will work out I'm sure.  :)

So, the Baby Bastille Quilt is one of my own designs.  I was inspired by Oh, Fransson's Canasta Quilts.  I wanted my blocks smaller, so I came up with 4 different block designs.  I did 3 of each block, giving me a total of twelve 10" (finished) blocks.  I added sashing in my design.  I also used the same fabric in each of the center blocks.

The final result:

I think the photograph below does a pretty good job of showing how much the quilting wrinkled when I washed it.  It was the most that has ever happened on one of my quilts.  I love it! 

I think the back looks like an elephant's skin.

For the quilting on this one, I did a custom pattern.  Jason and I scanned in the fabric I used for the sashing.  We traced a few of the leaves and made templates for me to trace on the quilt. 

Here's a detail shot of one of the blocks on the front.  I did a 10" block with 4 rings around the focus fabric. 

Here's a detail shot of the little guys I put on the back.  I did 5" blocks with only two rings around the center focus fabric. 


It was a fun quilt to make.  I'm working on my first quilt-along using this pattern.  Look for it sometime in July (I hope). 

Thanks, Amy for putting together another festival.  It's fun to see what others are working on & your festival is a great place to see a lot at once.  :)

Chicago Day #2

Today my mom and I took another great class.  Today's class was Small Works, Big Impact taught by Melanie Testa.  We learned some really fun techniques.  Here's a few photographs from today's class.  Sorry about the bad lighting.  The images of my projects were taken in the hotel bathroom. 






We also hit the vendor part of the festival in the evening.  Unfortunately, we were caught by surprise to learn at 6:45 that they were closing at 7pm and not 9pm.  Bum deal.  I did get to try out this machine, so not all was lost.





Note: If you click on the images above, you will be linked to the flickr page where they are hosted. The flickr page has a much better description of each of the images.

On the Road Again!

Jason and I are heading to Chicago. We're meeting up with my parents there tonight for the International Quilt Festival. Yippee!

I'm taking some classes I'm really excited about. I'm taking Quilting with Character & Charisma from Pam Holland. I'm enrolled in Small Works, Big Impact with Melanie Testa. I'm also really looking forward to Machine Quilting Sampler with Melanie Testa.

Can't wait to get there and get the party started!

Park City Girl's Blogger's Quilt Festival

How cool is this? I'm writing this post as part of an online quilt festival!

Each entry is supposed to be the participant's favorite quilt. My favorite quilt changes about every time I make a new one. This is my current favorite.

My best friend, Amber had her first baby, Lucy in August and this is a quilt I made for her. After she told me she was pregnant I had a dream about the quilt I was going to make. In my dream there was a big tree with a swing. I went back and forth in my mind for weeks before I decided how to construct this quilt. I finished this up just in time for her baby shower in June.

This is a photo of the full top. The finished size is about 3'-0"x4'-6.

The mosaic below is some detail shots of the quilt.

Here's a photo of the back. I wanted all the thread on the back to be purple, so it would just look like a line drawing mirroring the front. Want more detailed photographs or a better explanation of this quilt? I wrote about it in a previous post.

Just think... it all started with a dream I had.

Want to see other entries? Click on the button below.

Will you join me?

I'm going to participate in Park City Girl's Blogger's Quilt Festival starting October 9th!

Do you want to join in? Click on the button below to see answers to frequently asked questions.



Check back on October 9th to see my entry.

Saturday Night Sampler

While in Chicago, Jason and I attended the Saturday Night Sampler. We learned all sorts of things. The sampler on Saturday night included 14 different exhibitors. Each exhibitor was given a table to set up their displays and there were several chairs lined up so the attendees could sit for a five minute presentation by the exhibitor. Each attendee was given a packet of handouts from each instructor so they could take notes and have a good reminder of what was presented.

A woman named Marilyn Doheny did a little lecture about Tantalizing Tango! Here are some of the displays she had at her table.
The quilt in the borders and the fan to its left were both made using the same beginning strip.

You can make butterflies using her method.

The strip in the top right of the photo is the strip that she made first. She then used the special ruler to slice it and create the quilt in the photo. Pretty cool, eh?

She was a lot of fun to listen to. It was almost like watching a really excited infomercial seller. By using her special rulers and shifting them a certain way across your already made rows, you can end up with one of these sort of quilts.

Debbie Caffrey did a little demonstration on how to do perfect & painless half-square triangles. I enjoyed her presentation and thought her method was so awesome, I bought her book Becoming A Confident Quilter: Perfect and Painless Half-Square Triangle Units and a 4" square rotary ruler. Her website can be found here.

One of the other presentations we sat through was by Darcy Berg on Painting Fabric. She did a quick demonstration on how to paint your fabric using Setacolor paint. It was a pretty neat little demonstration and I learned quite a bit. She showed us how to dilute the paint, apply it to the fabric and mentioned a few different things you can do to get a different effect. Did you know if you put salt on the fabric before you paint it, you get little spot marks? You can find her blog here.

We sat through the lecture by Nancy Brenan Daniel on how to stencil and applique quilts. It was pretty cool. It's amazing how much you can do with a stencil and get it to look like an appliqued quilt. She had an example quilt there that had been stenciled, feathered, and appliqued. Did you know pen-stitching is when you draw a dashed line along the edge of a stenciled image and it looks like you stitched it with thread? It turns out really bold. You can find her website here.

The last demonstration we watched was by Glennis Dolce. It was called the Stitched Manipulation of Pleated Shibori Ribbon. This ribbon was pretty neat. She did a demo where she made a flower out of the ribbon. It was really cool to see the way the ribbon opened up as she stitched it. You can visit her website here to see what exactly shibori is.

So that's a quick recap of one of the events we attended while in Chicago. Check back tomorrow for a website I discovered while in Chicago.

Publish your Patterns for Profit!

The last class I took at the Chicago Quilt Festival was Publish your Patterns for Profit also taught by Morna McEver Golletz, publisher and editor of Professional Quilter Magazine.

If you're interested in maybe publishing patterns in the future, read on.

This, too, was an awesome class with an overload of information. It was geared mostly towards people who have written a pattern and are looking for ways to increase their profit. I don't necessarily fall into this category, but I felt it gave me a head start so I'm not swimming in circles before I do it correctly.

One of the first major points discussed was how to grab your prospective buyer's attention. This can be done with some sort of Bonus! offer, maybe offer a hot tip for a the project. This almost always grabs the buyer's attention.

Some things that should always be included on a pattern cover:
-UPC
-Photograph of sample project
-Project Title
-Project Number or Code
-Your company name and contact information

The UPC doesn't have to be on the cover when you first start to sell items, but as your pattern business starts to grow, you will need to purchase them. You can get them at a discounted price at a place like upcexpress.com, but the part of the code that signifies who owns the UPC was sold to UPCExpress, so it doesn't point to your own company. If you want the part of the code to signify your company and not someone else, go to uc-council.org

One more thing to consider for your pattern cover is your future patterns. Do you want to create some sort of template now to use on future patterns? This will help streamline your patterns. If your logo, photograph, title, code and UPC information are always in the same spot and always done in the same font, there is no question about whether or not the same company did the different patterns. If someone buys one pattern of yours and likes it, they'll be more likely to buy another. If they can easily identify you buy your cover, it's even more likely that you'll get a repeat customer.

An interesting thing I learned in the class is that it takes $22,000 to self publish a book. Wow!

Some good resources that were given in the class were:
-uc-council.org
-Publish Your Patterns! by Nancy Restuccia. This book is apparently known in the Quilting Pattern World as the Green Book or The Bible.
-422 Tax Deductions for Business and Self-Employed Individuals by Bernard Kamaroff, CPA.
-The Creative Woman's Getting-it-all-Together-at-Home Handbook by Jean Ray Laury.
-The Basic Guide to Pricing Your Craftwork by James Dillehay.

Jason, if you read this blog post, replace the section above titled "Some good resources that were given in the class were" with "Books Jessica would like as gifts" and re-read.

Turning your Quilting Passion into Profit

Did you know it costs between $50,000 and $100,000 to start a quilt shop?

Did you know a long arm machine can run anywhere from $7,500 - $10,000 for a basic model and for a fancier model, between $30,000 and $40,000?

These were all things I learned in the Quilting Passion for Profit Class taught by Morna McEver Golletz, Publisher and Editor of The Professional Quilter Magazine. This class was awesome. I learned so much about copyrighting, taxes, zoning, and small businesses in general.

Here’s some things I wrote down that you might be interested in if you are thinking about starting a sewing or quilting business.


*On average, for every one hour of design or work time, you should figure there is at least two hours of administrative time that should be put into your business. The design time includes things like creating patterns, sewing, quilting, etc. The administrative side could include things like figuring prices, advertising, marketing, taxes, billing, etc.


* If you open a business and later decide to close it, there is a lot of red tape to go through if you have registered as an LLC. It may be better to go as a sole proprietor instead.


* Be sure to check zoning requirements before you start a business.


* Do you know how to get into quilt market? It takes a business card and a bill from a supplier or a letter from your banker. They look to make sure you actually have a business, since it’s an industry only event.
I also learned a few things about how to price an item.


*One way to figure a price is to charge 2.5 times the amount spent on supplies.


*Another way to figure it is to find your overhead cost. This includes utilities, rent, equipment, and other general expenses. Then you need to figure an hourly rate for yourself. Next, decide how much of a profit you want out of the item. Be sure to factor in your materials used; this includes needles, threads, fabric, glue, etc. So, now that you’ve figured all those numbers:

~Say your overhead is roughly $12,000 per year. If you work 40 hours a week for 48 weeks of the year that is 1,920 work hours. $12,000 ÷ 1,920 hours = $6.25 per hour. That is how much you need to add into your price for overhead.

~Let’s say you pay yourself $20 per hour for labor.

~For this example, let’s spend $30 on materials.

~Let’s go with a 20% profit.

~Now let’s work out the example for a project that took us 3 hours to make.
(3 hrs x $6.25/hr + 3 hrs x $20/hr + $30) x 20% = $138


This was a really interesting class. If you ever get the chance to take it, I recommend it. Morna really knows her stuff!

International Quilt Festival in Chicago - Vendors

Here's a few fun photos of the vendor section of the Quilt Festival. Jason took most of these photographs since I was in shopping mode.




Jason started calling the fat quarters "fatties". Kind of fun, eh?



There was all sorts of thread for sale.



And lots and lots of fabric.


And lots and lots of people.


We were so tuckered out. This is a photo of Jason after our snack break. He loves when I post photos of him (not really). :D

International Quilt Festival in Chicago - Quilts on Display

These were some of my favorite quilts that were on display at the Quilt Festival.


Fleur des Etoiles by Sandy Doubek, quilted by Christy Marnell


Fleur des Etoiles en noire by Sandy Doubek, quilted by Christy Marnell


Meet me at the Fair by Faith Wescom


Dancing Trees by Tina Curran


A Detail Shot of Dancing Trees by Tina Curran


The Kiss: An Homage to Gustav Klimt by Mary Barry


Left view of Quilts: A World of Beauty by Sandy Gregg, Pat Smith, Lynne Conover, Janet Duncan Dignan, Graciela Piccolo, Janet Dye, Betty Crowell, Joan Randall, Penny Myles, Bobbie Sullivan (the Coastal Quilt Artists)


Right view of Quilts: A World of Beauty by Sandy Gregg, Pat Smith, Lynne Conover, Janet Duncan Dignan, Graciela Piccolo, Janet Dye, Betty Crowell, Joan Randall, Penny Myles, Bobbie Sullivan (the Coastal Quilt Artists)


Hospital Rising by Ginny Eckley


Christmas Chickadee by David Taylor


Little S'Tinker by David Taylor


Journal Quilt Project II: Elements - Earth, Water, Air and Fire by Leigh Elking


Journal Quilt Project II: Elements - Earth, Water, Air and Fire by Jenny Williams


*Each tile or strip of Quilts: A World of Beauty by Sandy Gregg, Pat Smith, Lynne Conover, Janet Duncan Dignan, Graciela Piccolo, Janet Dye, Betty Crowell, Joan Randall, Penny Myles, Bobbie Sullivan (the Coastal Quilt Artists) can be found on my flickr.

Live from Chicago

The trip has been awesome so far. I've learned a lot, walked a lot, and had a blast. So far, I've taken a class called Creative Thinking for your Studio and a class called Turning your Quilting Passion into Profit. Both were really awesome and I learned a lot and got a lot of great ideas forSewbot's Laboratory.

Yesterday, Jason and I walked through the exhibits. This show is even bigger than what I had imagined! We didn't even make it all the way through in 4 hours. I've picked up some fun fabrics for the Row Robin Swap that I'll have to share when we get home. I also picked up a few fun things for me. I bought a few tools I had been wanting to get. And most importantly, I got a bunch of bobbins for Meredith, my new Babylock.

Today I'm taking a class called something like Selling your Patterns for Profit. The woman teaching it is the same woman I took yesterday's Passion for Profit class from, so hopefully it will be equally as good.

Anyway, I'll be home sometime on Monday, so hopefully I'm up for writing a blog that night. If not it will be probably Tuesday night before I am. Tomorrow's favorite things has a theme, so be sure to stop in!

We're off on another adventure!

Jason and I are travelers. We love to go, go, go. We have a 2005 Pontiac Vibe just for this reason. A few weeks ago we decided to head to Chicago for the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Today, after work, we will be hopping into Hugo, the Vibe, and cruising down the highway.

We're both totally stoked to take a road trip. We haven't done one in a while. The last one was to Arkansas for the weekend in October. Before that, our last good trip was probably last July when we went up to Minnesota!

I have a posts set up for Friday and Sunday, so check back for those. I might be able to squeeze in a few others from Chicago, but if not, have a great week and I'm sure I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with lots of fun stuff!

Yippee!

Jason and I decided last night that we should go to the International Quilt Show in Chicago on April 17-19.

He worked it out with the boss this morning and talked to his sister, Elle. We can take the time off work to go and now have a place to stay (Thanks Elle & Kevin!)

So, we're going to drive up to Chicago for a few days and go the the quilt festival! I'm really excited about this. Since we're driving, we'll be able to go to IKEA.

We've got a lot to do before then, so wish us luck.

I love Chicago and I love quilts. This is going to be an awesome trip!