NEW Quilting Book Review: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young

In today's post, we're taking a brand-new quilt book for a test drive: Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young, available here on Amazon.  (Full disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, and I was provided with a free advance copy of this book so I could review it for you).  Overachiever that I am, I made not one but TWO of the pieced backing projects in this book, and I will be using this book for a lot more than just quilt backings...  I'll get to that later!

Initially I was interested in this book as a resource to keep in my office for the times when clients come to drop off a quilt for long arm quilting and their backing doesn't quite meet my minimum size requirements.  I run into this issue a lot, especially with the charity quilting I do for the Outreach program of the Charlotte Quilters' Guild.  When the volunteers on the Outreach team put fabric kits together for our members to take and sew, they often size the backing fabric just a few inches larger than the quit top should finish.  That works great for guild members who are quilting on a domestic machine, but it doesn't give me the allowances I need for loading the backing onto the canvas leaders of my long arm frame.  The first project I'm sharing from Kelly's book is the simplest one in there, and it was the perfect solution for enlarging a too-small backing for one of these guild outreach quilts.

First Pieced Backing: Walking Path

I Just Love How the Quilting Shows Up on the Plain Old Muslin Strip!

I didn't have any leftovers from this patriotic themed quilt top to work with, so I just cut a wide strip of plain old boring muslin and inserted it into the original backing fabric following Kelly's instructions for the Walking Path backing.  Once quilted, the muslin looks terrific.  I just love how the quilting design that is completely lost against that busy navy print fabric springs to life on the muslin strip!  That quilting design I used is Feathered Spirals E2E, designed by Jess Ziegler, stitched in So Fine 50 wt thread, color Snow, and I used the Pellon 80/20 With Scrim batting provided by my guild.

 

Here's the front of that quilt:

CQG Donation Quilt with Feathered Spiral E2E

Isn't it pretty?  I forgot to write down the dimensions of that quilt before I turned it in at our guild meeting for another member to bind.  With the Americana themed fabric prints, this quilt will likely be given to a child who is hospitalized over the Independence Day holiday.  Most of our donation kit quilts have very simple piecing, and the "walking path" pieced backing with a single contrast strip is a great choice for enlarging the backing without making it compete for attention with the quilt top.  But, flipping through the book there were so many other fun ideas...  

"Heartbroken": A Valentine's Day Mini for the Scrappy Improv Quilting Blog Hop Tour

Woo-hoo!  It's finally my turn to share my project on the Scrappy Improv Quilting blog hop, hosted by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation in conjunction with the release of her newest book!  When Kelly asked me to participate several months ago, I was thrilled to accept because: 1. I have never done ANY improv quilting before and it's something I've been wanting to try anyway, and 2. the "mini quilt" projects in Kelly's book are small and manageable, most finishing at 24" x 24" like the one I'm sharing today.  Great size for experimenting with new techniques when you're not sure you are ready to commit to a huge bed quilt.  

My 24 x 24 "Heartbroken" Improv Mini with Rose Texture B2B Quilting Design

The project I was assigned is called "Heartstruck" in Kelly's book, and it's the Valentine's Day project from her Seasonal Sensations chapter.  Most projects in this book finish at 24" x 24", by the way, which is awesome for your front door,  entryway, classroom, office  -- any space you're wanting to brighten up with a splash of quilty cheer that can be swapped out regularly so you never get tired of any one quilt.  Since many of my clients drop off and pick up their quilts from my home, I'm thinking of making a whole series of these mini quilts to display on my front door to welcome new clients -- and to reassure them that yes, this IS the right house where the quilter lives!

Kelly's 24 x 24 "Heartstrings" Improv Mini, As Featured In Her Book

Studying Kelly's "Heartstrings" mini, I love how her arrows direct your eye through the quilt in a back-and-forth motion and I was also excited about all of the empty "negative" background space because that's a great opportunity for dramatic quilting to make an impact. When Kelly invited me to participate in the blog hop, she encouraged me to "make the project my own" and have fun with it.  So, as much as I like Kelly's Heartstrings mini, I was looking for a way to change it up somehow to make it "mine."  I started thinking about the fact that there were three hearts rather than just two,  kind of like a Love Triangle.  And THAT reminded me of the late Princess Diana's remark in her 1995 BBC interview, about how there were three people in her marriage, making things "a bit crowded."  💔. Aha!  In my version, the top two hearts were going to be lucky lovers who get "struck by Cupid's arrow," but the third one was going to be a broken heart that Cupid passes by.

The Joy of Mitered Stripe Borders, With a Little Help From Donna Lynn Thomas

My Jingle BOM project is starting to come together, FINALLY!  I dragged the cutting and seaming of these striped borders for weeks, and then procrastinated actually attaching them to the center applique medallion of this quilt because I had to be in the right frame of mind for it.  Actually, I just had to be fully awake and "sharp" for it, because I didn't have any more of the border fabrics I was using and I did NOT want to spend hours carefully cutting those stripes in single layer..  No math errors, and no cutting errors!  It wasn't brain surgery, but it wasn't "mindless sewing," either.  I'm glad I waited until I was awake, fully caffeinated, and had plenty of time so I wouldn't be rushing.  

Inner Borders Attached and Mitered!  Woo Hoo!

I think this is only the second time I've mitered corners on a border before, and I've never done it before where I was matching stripes at the miter.  I referred to one of my favorite reference books by Donna Lynn Thomas, Quiltmaking Essentials 2: Settings and Borders, Backings and Bindings, and just followed Donna's clear instructions step by step, and those borders came out pretty near perfect!

I have Donna's companion book to this one, too (Quiltmaking Essentials 1: Cutting and Piecing Skills) and I recommend that one, too.  What I like about these two books is that they are thin, quick reads initially, but packed full of useful information at a very low price point.  There are no projects in either book, but these two books are like the instruction manual that tell you everything you need to know for any pattern you got from a magazine or dreamed up in your head.  The information on how and why to create a pressing plan in the first book goes way beyond the old adage of "press to the dark side" and made a huge difference for me between perfect points and points blunted or chopped at the seam -- who knew?  But I digress.

It Fits!

After all of that waffling back and forth, hemming and hawing, I really do like these borders.  The green herringbone was a random quarter yard piece in my stash that I don't remember ever buying, and all of that careful cutting along the border stripe paid off because it looks exactly like I wanted it to look -- like an ornate picture frame and the green fabric is like the mat.  Best of all, the center medallion with borders attached is actually the size it needs to be to connect to the pieced diagonal set block borders that I spent, oh, just a few years on...  

Yes!

That corner is square -- it looks funny because I took the picture at an angle when I was pressing the border on my ironing board.  I was so worried about the stripes not meeting up perfectly at the miter!

I Love My Borders!

Now I can't imagine this quilt any other way than with my happy little border stripes around the center medallion.

Alright, I don't think you need to see pictures of all four corners, do you?  But there are a couple of other detours I'm contemplating.  

I Was SO PLEASED With This Fussy-Cut Tree...

For instance, when I pieced this particular block 5 years ago, I worked so hard with my fussy-cutting and wanting all the points to be perfect, and did not realize until the block was finished that because of the diagonal setting, my little Christmas tree in the center of the block is leaning like the Tower of Pisa:

Do I Fix That Crooked Christmas Tree?

So...  Do I fix that or leave it alone?  The thing is, I'm NOT willing to take the block apart, remake a new one from scratch, or even remove it from the setting triangles.  Since the block is nicely starched and crisply pressed, I think I'd carefully remove the center patch with the crooked tree, glue-baste a new piece of fabric behind the hole, and then reverse applique it in place.  

Should I Embroider Label Info On the Front of This Quilt?

Also, as I was looking at this up on the design wall, I kept seeing embroidered dates in that birdie-wreath block in the center of the bottom border.  So I'm thinking of embroidering 2013-2019 in the center of that block, like you see in some of the old Baltimore album quilts.  My husband the quilt expert (not!) doesn't like that idea.  He doesn't understand why I would put that on the front instead of just putting the dates on the label on the back of the quilt, but it's kind of like when they put a date on the cornerstone of a building.  It adds historical interest.  Also, it answers that question people always ask "Oh my gosh you MADE THIS?!!  How long did it TAKE?!!!"  And perhaps when people see that it took me 6 years to finish this quilt, they won't even ask the follow up question "Will you make one for ME?!"  Hah!

This quilt is destined for a wall in my family room where I'm planning to display it throughout Advent and Christmas each year.  No one is ever going to be looking at the label on the back of this quilt.  

My Son, Anders, Posing With His Roman Square Blocks in 2013

And someday my son Anders gets this quilt, because he was hanging out with me in my sewing room a lot back when I first made the blocks in 2013, and making a quilt of his own.  We watched Tom & Jerry cartoons and Fraser reruns, and I loved listening to him laugh.  It's hard to believe that was six whole years ago until I look at the pictures and see how small he was back then.  Now he's almost 16 years old, and he is towering over me at about 5'10' or 5'11"!  

Six Years Later...  Anders' High School Orchestra Concert

Ah, my sweet little boy is turning into a handsome young man, and these abandoned blocks are finally turning into a quilt!  Anders also gets this Jingle quilt someday because he has been relentlessly nagging me to finish it all these years -- but for now, it's mine!

I had planned to finish assembling this quilt top with the remaining borders today, but I was so tired when I got home from church that I decided to just lay down for a nap -- and ended up sleeping most of the day!  Very disorienting when I woke up and it was already getting dark outside, but my body must have needed the rest.  Well, there's always tomorrow for borders and things...  And by "things," I mean embroidering dates and fixing crooked Christmas trees.  Or not.  What do you think?  I'm still undecided.

I'm linking up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/
• ·       BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/  

PsychoBabble: In Which Rebecca Takes the StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment and is Annoyed By Her Results

Okay, all of my near and far-flung friends and family -- you who have grown up with me, accomplished childhood and adolescent mischief with me, you who work, sing, or worship with me as an adult, and all of you who know me from the torrent of verbiage I've been spewing into the Internet via this blog for the past nine years -- I just took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 personality test, and I want to know if you agree with my results or think it's a load of baloney!

What Does Your Toothpaste Have to Say About You?

No, I'm not talking about the Toothpaste Test (but just for the record, I'm DEFINITELY the second from the left).  Has anyone taken the CliftonStrengths online assessment, formerly known as the StrengthsFinder assessment?  The concept is that we can be happier, more successful, and more productive if we identify and invest most of our energy in developing our natural talents, maximizing our areas of greatest potential, rather than devoting most of our efforts into trying to overcome our weaknesses (our areas of least natural potential).  My friend was telling me about this tool over lunch the other day (thank you, Elizabeth!) and I was intrigued enough to buy one of several books that includes the necessary code for taking the online assessment.  After all, I'm coming up on my 45th birthday in May -- perhaps it's time for me to start thinking about what I want to be when I grow up.  What better place to start than by focusing on my top strengths, right?

I understand that this test is currently in vogue with many corporations, religious organizations, etc. for team building purposes.  If you have already taken this assessment yourself, I would love to know what YOUR Top 5 strengths are.  Please share them with me in the comments and let me know whether you feel like they are accurate.  And if you haven't taken the assessment yet and you're interested in finding out what your CliftonStrengths are, you can get your copy of the book right here -- just make sure you are purchasing a NEW copy rather than used, because the online assessment code in each book is unique and only works for a single use:

As of this writing, Amazon sells the new book including the test code for $17.79, so that's a better deal than going straight to the CliftonStrengths website and paying $19.99 for the Top 5 test with no book.  With Amazon Prime, my copy of the book showed up on my front step the day after I ordered it.  But if you are impatient or you just enjoy paying higher prices, you can go straight to the online assessment right here.   You can also opt to pay $90(?!) to get a report that ranks all 34 strength themes for you, if you're so inclined.  I just went for the Top 5 report that was included in the price of the book.

I must warn you right now that this is bound to be a LONG blog post, even for me.  I think I will divide it into chapters for your convenience, in case you need a bathroom break.  (If you're only interested in what's going on in my sewing room this week, feel free to skip ahead and scroll all the way down to Chapter Two).  

Chapter One: Rebecca Approaches the StrengthsFinder Assessment with a Skeptical Attitude, is Annoyed By Her Results, and Makes Fun Of Her Supposed Strength Themes

And so, with high hopes and expectations that God's unique plan for my life was about to be revealed to me courtesy of the Gallup organization, I entered the secret activation code from my book into the little box on the CliftonStrengths website, hammered through the questions, and eagerly scanned through the computer-generated "personal" reports and recommendations, ready for my life to be transformed...  

Hmmph.  The "personalized" short descriptions of my "unique" talent profile are all vague enough that they could apply to just about anyone, like newspaper horoscopes.  And you'll notice how each theme description talks about being "especially talented" in that area.  Now, how do they know whether I'm actually talented in any of these areas or not?  All I did was answer a bunch of questions in the format "which of these two statements best describes you?"  Remember Meryl Streep's outstanding recent performance as Florence Foster Jenkins, the New York socialite who mistakenly believed she was an opera singer?  In case you missed that film, check out the trailer below:

If Florence Foster Jenkins was taking a test like this and had to choose between "Others admire me for my singing ability" and "I prefer to listen to professional musicians," she might have clicked on the first statement and gotten a "scientific" test result stating that her top talent was singing.  My point is that our own impressions of our strengths and weaknesses are not always in alignment with the way others see us.  Some people's self-perception is WILDLY out of touch with reality (which is why colleges and potential employers want to see references and letters of recommendation rather than just asking the applicant to tell about themselves).  And unfortunately, as was the case with poor Florence, those closest to us, whom we rely upon for honest feedback, may have their own motivations for telling us only what we want to hear.  Pondering all of this, I'm realizing that the folks at Gallup also have a motivation to stroke our egos by telling us things we want to hear -- so that we will recommend their books and assessment to others, and so they can sell us more ancillary products (the full report ranking all 34 themes, coaching packages, T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with one's top strengths, etc.).  So I'm going into this with an open mind tempered by healthy skepticism.  

Okay, without further ado, here's what this pop psychology quiz lauded psychometric assessment spat out for my Top 5 Talents:

My Supposed Top Talents

But come on, man -- my main strength, the biggest talent I possess, and where I should be focusing the majority of my time and energy according to this test is -- CONTEXT?!  What does that even mean?

Okay, so probably not THAT kind of context.  Maybe more like this kind of context:

My Number One Strength: Context

I'm sorry, but "Context" is a really lame Top Strength.  I mean, let's look at this in superhero terms.  How am I supposed to be a superhero when my strongest magical power is CONTEXT?  I know -- I am Verbal Standardized Test-Taking Woman, and I use my amazing power of context clues to figure out the meaning of obscure vocabulary words on multiple choice exams...  Blech!  Reading the longer description of the Context theme is even more annoying, since it includes statements which which I am in strong disagreement, such as:

 "From your vantage point the present is unstable, a confusing clamoring of competing voices... The earlier time was a simpler time."

(In my mind, I can hear my high school Western Civilization teacher telling us over and over again that "EVERY era was just as complicated as our own!")

 And:

"Because of your strengths, you are inclined to read about major wars."  

Ah, yes -- I just have to tear myself away from military history if I ever want to get any quilting done...  Not!  And yet, this is my TOP STRENGTH, because I clicked on "I like to read about history" versus "I like to talk about sporting events" or some such nonsense.  And what does this mean for me, and what do the Gallup folks suggest I should do to invest in and further develop this strength?  I'm advised to read more historical fiction, nonfiction, and biographies (that's pretty much ALL I read already).  And I'm supposed to partner with someone who has Futuristic or Strategic strengths to prevent me from being "mired in the past" -- but Strategic was also in my top 5, so...  I'm supposed to partner with myself??

As for the other themes in my Top 5 -- they aren't quite as goofy or as vague as Context, but they're not exactly eye-opening, either.  Individualization, my #2 Strength, is about making an effort to get to know people as individuals rather than treating everyone the same, which is certainly a trait that I value and something I try to do -- doesn't everyone? -- but again, just because I TRY to do this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm particularly good at it.  

My Number 2 Strength is Individualization 

So, I like to find out whether someone is a monkey or a goldfish before I ask them to climb a tree.  And this is another strength theme that I'm not sure how to leverage or develop, or whatever I'm supposed to do with this information...  

On to my #3 strength: Ideation.  This one makes sense, I suppose -- ideation seems to be the psychobabble term for creativity, and considering that today's post is an aberration in a sea of artsy-craftsy-quilting-design posts, there are no surprises here.  Again, I answered questions indicating that I enjoy creative pursuits and that I prefer such activities over activities that do not involve creativity.  This accurately reflects what I like to do with my spare time, but it's not necessarily and indicator that I actually possess creative talent.  Perhaps this test is only revealing that I THINK of myself like this:

My Number 3 Strength: Ideation

...When what OTHERS see in me is something more like THIS:

Does Ideation Belong in my Top 5 Strengths, Even if My Ideas Are Terrible?

As I alluded to earlier, my Number 4 strength is Strategic.  After reading through that description, it seems like that means I am able to make decisions quickly, overcome obstacles creatively, and figure out how to get THERE from HERE.  So...  I am like MacGyver!  Good news -- at least I know how to further develop THIS strength!  I need to increase my investment in duct tape, bubble gum and paperclips!

Was MacGyver's Top Strength Theme "Strategic?"

Chapter Two: Rebecca Reluctantly Realizes that Her StrengthsFinder Profile Explains the Slow Pace of Progress in Her Sewing Studio

And yet, I took this test a couple of days ago.  As I'm  re-reading my the descriptions of my Top 5 Strengths, they are resonating more with me today.  In fact, the total picture presented by my Strengths profile actually explains the way I approach my sewing and quilting projects, why they suck up SO much time, and why I rarely have a finished project to show for myself.

Take my current work in progress, the Tabby Mountain quilt that was supposed to be a "quick and easy" quilt for longarm quilting practice.  This whole longarm adventure is a kick for me primarily because there is so much to learn (#5 Learner).  Every step of the way, with each decision for this quilt, my number one priority is not getting it finished quickly or finding the easiest way to do it, but how can I get as much learning as possible out of this one quilt.  That's why I am not quilting it with a pantograph.  That's why I insisted on stitching in the ditch.  That's why I am using so many different threads in this quilt, including monofilament invisible thread, and why I forced myself to overcome my fear of bobbin winding rather than ordering prewound bobbins in the colors that I need.  I'm using a wool batting with this quilt that is loftier than what I'm used to, so that's a new challenge, too.  Quilting perfectly straight lines with a ruler was a new skill to learn, too.  I LOVE LEARNING NEW THINGS.  And I would much rather spend twice as long learning a new way of doing something instead of doing the same thing over and over again.  

All Done with Ruler Work, Ready For Fancy Feathers!

I completed all of the ruler work, straight line quilting on Tabby Mountain about a week ago, and I haven't taken a single stitch since.  Why?  I have been brainstorming, scouring Pinterest for ideas, and researching techniques for different designs that might look good on the remaining print fabric triangles that need to be quilted.  I have decided that I want to quilt elaborate feather designs (elaborate for me, as a beginner longarm quilter, anyway), and I have spent the last few days mulling my options for marking and executing this quilting design on all 96 print triangles on the quilt.  I have consulted at least 6 different quilting books and three different online forums.  I have been experimenting with making my own stencil and transferring it with pounce chalk, and I woke up this morning with a new idea in mind that I want to try next.  Could that be what #1 Context (research), #3 Ideation, #4 Strategic, and #5 Learner looks like in a quilting studio?

The Strengths Wheel above categorizes the 34 Strength Themes into four major categories.  You'll notice that four of my top five strengths fall under Strategic Thinking, and one of my top strengths was under Relationship Building.  None of my top strengths came from the EXECUTING bucket, so is it any wonder I am wallowing happily in all of my research and development, ideas and experiments, and not actually accomplishing anything?!

I want my mom and my husband to take this assessment now.  I'll bet that both of them have top 5 strengths from the Executing category, because when I really need to get something done on a deadline I am most successful when I enlist one of them to help me stay on track.  I am thinking of my Christmas caroling dress, or putting up/taking down Christmas decorations, or packing household belongings for a move to a new home...  That's why, when I found out that Lars needed a kangaroo costume to perform in a children's play with his theatre class, I bought the pattern and the fabric and asked my mom to make it for him.  I knew that she could dive in and just get it done much more quickly and efficiently than I could, without needing to research and explore and contemplate every single step of the way.

My Son the Kangaroo and His Grandmother, Who Gets Things Done

I think my 17-year-old son should take this assessment, too -- he's in his junior year of high school, starting to visit college campuses and thinking for the first time about what he'd like his life to look like as mom and dad gradually step back and he gains more and more independence.  Perhaps the StrengthsFinder results would help him clarify what he should be looking for in colleges that would be a good fit for him, and what fields of study and career paths might be a good fit for him.

Here's that link again, in case you'd like to take this assessment for yourself and/or foist it upon your loved ones:  

And please DO share your results with me in the comments!  And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a quilt upstairs that needs feathers!

Does This Fabric Spark JOY? The Japanese Art of Making Room for a Longarm Machine

Marie Kondo of KonMari

Hello, folks!  As many of you know, I've been quiet for awhile because my husband just had a heart valve repair surgery on April 19th.  The surgery went well and he's home now, recovering.  The mitral valve repair was successful and his heartbeat is back in normal sinus rhythm, but he's still considered to be in "heart failure" because his ejection fraction (measure of the heart's efficiency in pumping blood) was below 40% when he was discharged from the hospital.  So he's taking lots of medications for that and trying to walk around as much as possible, but the healing process is much slower than he expected and it's hard not to get discouraged when you're a 48-year-old, very active and healthy man who suddenly gets winded from a 5 minute walk around the cul-de-sac.  Only time will tell how much of the damage to his heart can be reversed now that the valve is working properly.  Thank you for all of your well wishes and prayers, and please keep 'em coming!

But before Bernie went into the hospital, and I mean THE DAY BEFORE, we set up my new-to-me APQS Millenium longarm quilting machine with her 12' frame.  Woo hoo!!!  Making room for Thoroughly Modern Millie required some deep soul searching and a heavy dose of Japanese organizing, KonMari style!  Have you heard of this professional organizer?

Available on Amazon here

My sister Susan was swooning over Marie Kondo's best-selling book a year or two ago, so I gave it a try.  In a nutshell, this organizing method is about getting rid of as much of your material baggage as possible so there is very little left to organize once you've completed your purge.  How ruthless are you supposed to be about what to keep and what to throw away?  You're supposed to dump everything you own in the middle of your floor and then pick items up one by one, asking yourself "Does this item spark JOY?"  And if the answer is no, if you're not absolutely thrilled with whatever it is you're holding, you're supposed to let it go -- either to be donated or to be trashed.  I laughed myself silly when I first read this book, because if I tried to organize my closet with the KonMari method I'd be left standing naked in an empty closet with nothing to wear. 

You Cannot Keep ANYTHING Unless it "Sparks Joy!"

The KonMari book touches briefly on sewing and craft supplies in the "Kimono" section, but this book is focused on simplifying your whole life by decluttering and drastically reducing the amount of stuff you own and need to care for.  It's not a "how to organize your sewing room" book.  However, I thought of that "does it spark joy?" litmus test again when I was standing in my studio, days before the longarm machine's scheduled arrival, looking at a wall full of hoarded fabric remnants, patterns, partially completed projects, back issues of sewing and quilting magazines, drapery workroom supplies, etc.  This photo shows my room setup prior to ordering the longarm machine, with two back-to-back workstations creating an island in the center of the room below the chandelier, and a nice work triangle from sewing machine to cutting table to ironing board.  It was functional and I liked how it looked, but the two sewing stations in the middle of the room were encroaching on where I wanted the longarm to go.  Also, the original reason for putting the desk behind the sewing cabinet was to create a larger work surface for free motion quilting on the domestic machine, which I won't be doing anymore:

Previous Setup with Back-to-Back Sewing Stations

The photo below was taken after I had already been straightening up, dragging furniture around, and reorganizing in here for a solid week, and had hit a roadblock where I felt like there was just too much stuff and too little room to store it all:

That Back Wall Needs to be Cleared Out!

My ironing board is now positioned on the opposite wall, in front of my design wall, and I moved the desk into its place.  Eventually I'd like to replace this desk with a smaller sewing cabinet that fits the space better and has storage for serger accessories and tools, but it works for now as a secondary sewing station either for the serger and coverstitch machines (if I'm sewing garments or home dec items) or for one of my Featherweights if I'm doing fussy, fiddly curved piecing, inset seams, and other patchwork tasks at which they excel.

Masking Tape Marks Future Home of 12' Longarm Frame

See?  My mom had the great idea of marking out the footprint of the 12' longarm frame with masking tape ahead of time.  Prior to taping it out on the carpet, I had a 14' frame on order, but when I taped that out and saw what it did to my space visually, I knew the 12' would be the better way to go.  Either the 12' or the 14' frame would fit at this point, except that the 14' frame would be so close to the step down into the room that it might be dangerous and would definitely look cramped, and with either size frame I wouldn't be able to easily access any of the stuff along that back wall once the quilting frame was set up in the taped out location.  Everything on that back wall had to go because I need more room to walk behind the machine when stitching paper pantograph designs from the back.. 

Like many of you, I had been hoarding a lot of crap in my sewing studio, especially fabric remnants.  My drapery workroom returns scraps to me from my clients' projects, and if they are decent sized scraps I give them to my client so we can use them for a throw pillow or something like that.  But some fabrics are so luxurious that I can't bear to throw any of it away, even if it's a weird skinny zigzag shaped scrap that couldn't be used for anything other than a couple of strips in a crazy quilt.  Then I had odd-shaped scraps of polar fleece, minky fabric, little bits of satin and faux fur because maybe I could use them for some kind of applique baby blanket someday...  Weird shaped scraps of bright orange sequined lycra from Bernie's Aquaman costume, doll hair leftover from a long forgotten craft project years ago... 

And when you're considering just ONE of those small, odd-shaped scraps or treasures, saving it seems reasonable enough.  But I had been accumulating these useless treasures for over 15 years, and I never did get around to making that crazy quilt or whatever because I have a bazillion other project ideas buzzing around my brain that I'd much rather do instead.  And the projects in my head that I'm most excited about are the quilts that are going to get finished on my new longarm machine!  Those scraps were occupying precious real estate in my studio that I needed for my longarm machine!  Oh, that Japanese organizing diva is so right, after all!  My studio was full of stuff that I didn't really want, didn't really need, but was saving because of either guilt about "waste," nostalgia for those projects I made when my kids were little, and fear for the future (because that's what we're really talking about when we say "what if I NEED IT SOMEDAY???")

Okay, so I confess that I did not go so far as to thank each item for its service prior to chucking it in the trash.  If my teenagers overheard me doing that, they'd have me committed!  But I did throw out a lot of stuff that I was holding onto out of guilt or nostalgia, and that felt very liberating.  Besides those fabulous-but-useless high end drapery fabric scraps, I also went on a Japanese organizing rampage in a large armoire in my master bedroom that was already storing some of my sewing paraphernalia, but also a lot of junk that fell into that "attachment to the past/fear for the future" category.  I threw out:

• Uncut patterns in outdated or unflattering styles, like pleated front trousers and '80's style oversized tops, too-full skirts, and toddler patterns. 
• All of Lars's and Anders' baby teeth (which the Tooth Fairy had been hiding in the house for over a decade because she couldn't bear to trash them at the time)
• Most of my kids' arts and crafts projects, saving a few of my favorites but relocating them to the top closet shelves of THEIR bedrooms
• Giant rolls of filler cord that I purchased in bulk way back when I fabricated window treatments.  I kept the 3/8" diameter that I use to whip up welt cord with my serger and the 1/8" mini cording, but chucked the 1/2" and jumbo 1" diameter rolls that I've probably used once in the last 15 years.
• Two hat boxes full of hosiery that I did not know I still owned.  These are 20-year-old pantyhose and thigh high stockings, folks.  I have not worn hosiery since moving to North Carolina in 1999, and I do not plan to wear hosiery EVER AGAIN.  Pantyhose definitely does NOT SPARK JOY.

Infrequently Used Supplies Organized in Master Bedroom Armoire

Once I let go of all of that "baggage" and relocated a culled collection of family photographs to a chest in the guest room, I was able to neatly store sewing supplies that I wanted to keep but access infrequently, and as of right now, both of the drawers on the bottom are completely empty:

• Machine embroidery thread
• Embroidery module for my Bernina 750QE
• Hand embroidery floss, needles, and hoops
• My Grace lap hoop for hand quilting and sewing basket full of hand quilting thread, needles, and Roxanne thimbles
• My beading supplies
• Hot Fix Swarovski crystal supplies
• The 3/8" and 1/8" diameter filler cord rolls
• Accuquilt GO! fabric die cutter and dies

And you know what?  Just like the book title promised, getting rid of all that stuff WAS magical!  This is all I was left with on the back wall, a half-empty filing cabinet that is destined for longarm related papers, and a plastic drawer unit full of serger thread. 

I should be able to store both of these UNDER the 12' longarm frame, so I have achieved the impossible at last -- I cleared out that back wall so I have enough space to work comfortably from both sides of the longarm machine, and I didn't have to get rid of any fabric or supplies for projects that I really do enjoy.  Just looking inside my tidy armoire is sparking a little bit of joy... 

Another perk to this massive purge and reorganization was that it forced me to go through my stash of garment fabrics and patterns.  I have amassed so much more garment fabric than I have sewn.  I'll be on fabric.com, gorgeousfabrics.com, patternreview.com or emmaonesock.com, and I'll fall in love with a pattern or a fabric.  Then I would order the fabric and pattern online.  But sometime in between ordering the fabric and pattern online and its arrival in my mailbox, I would either get distracted by other projects or chicken out because the pattern seems too difficult for me.  So the patterns all got shoved in the bottom drawer of my bedroom armoire, and the fabrics got piled into a deep former entertainment center cabinet that lives in my studio.  And there they sat as the years went by, until I no longer remembered what fabric and patterns I owned, which fabrics were meant for which patterns, etc.

Garments I Never Got Around to Sewing

So with this big purge, I decided to measure every piece of fabric in my garment stash, match it up with a pattern, catalog all of this so I know which projects are on my to-do list (and so I know what I have before I shop for more), and then store these waiting-to-be-sewn projects neatly and accessibly on that MDF shelving unit that used to live on the back wall of my studio but is now in my guest room.  Now, is this shelving unit a beautiful décor addition to the guest room?  Um, no...  but it sort of blends into the wall, at least while it's empty.  I'm still working on those piles of fabric and patterns.  Trying to remind myself how much time and effort, above and beyond the cost of fabric, goes into a sewing project, and repeating "DOES IT SPARK JOY?" like it's my own personal mantra.  So many of those unsewn patterns I now realize may not flatter my figure, or may be too much trouble to fit properly.  Some of the knit prints that I fell in love with looking at photos online, I now hold up to myself in front of a mirror and wonder "What was I thinking?!"  So there will likely be more hitting the trash before I put the lucky survivors on these empty shelves.

From Toy Room to Studio to Guest Room: The Well Traveled Book Case

Bernie built this years ago for toy storage in the bonus room, and the shelves are too shallow for books and not very deep, either.  I'm thinking this is a temporary solution, at least until I work through the backlog of garment projects I've been hoarding instead of sewing.  But if I end up refilling the shelves with patterns and fabric as quickly as I empty them, that won't be the end of the world.  My guests will just have to get over it!

And once again, my "quick blog post update" turned into a novella.  If you're still reading this, I commend you, and I commiserate with you -- because that means YOU probably didn't get any sewing done today, either!

I'm linking up with Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. 

Don't Even Think About Buying a Longarm Quilting Machine Until You've Read This Book!

Rather than wholeheartedly encouraging or discouraging readers from purchasing these mammoth quilting machines that cost as much as a car, Clayton shares her personal experience and the many potential pitfalls that the longarm dealer won't disclose so that you can make the right decision for your personal situation. She goes over machine basics, the pros and cons of various optional features (I really appreciated her explanation of why the smaller L bobbins might be a better choice than the M class bobbins that hold so much more thread), and gives a much more realistic depiction of the challenges of starting and running a longarm business than what the machine dealers tell you.

For instance: Did you try writing your name on a demo machine, and the salesperson sidled up to you and admiringly commented that you have "a real knack for this?" That's a sales pitch. And just purchasing a longarm machine does not guarantee that you will be able to use it successfully as a business, because a longarm machine is essentially like a paintbrush and paint is the thread. Just because Pablo Picasso and Georgia O'Keefe painted masterpieces with a particular brand of paintbrush and paints, doesn't mean that all of us are capable of creating the same caliber of artwork even if we use the exact same paint brush and paints. The award-winning longarm quilters whose work we admire at shows are exceptionally talented artists, and although practice and work and having the right tools are all important for developing talent, that artistic talent needs to be there initially.

Clayton also points out that longarm quilting, especially as a business, is very physical work. Do you have back, neck, or shoulder problems? How is your upper body strength? If you aren't a physically fit person who exercises regularly, you might find that your body can't handle quilting on a longarm machine for hours at a time, day after day.

There is much more to think about before taking the plunge and ordering a longarm machine, and Clayton covers most of it in this book. The information in this book (as far as pricing, machine options, additional tools etc.) is still very much up-to-date, and there are also a score of links to videos and additional information throughout the text that enable you to learn even more and expand your research further. Highly recommended, definitely worth reading prior to committing to a machine purchase.