Sunday Open Studio

I love the 4th Sunday of the month Open Studio at Quilter's Way in Concord, MA! It's 5 hours of stichin' and bitchin' with friends! What a way to spend the afternoon. :) I have missed going as it is was one of the those items cut from the budget when I was unemployed last year. But we are off to go sew/quilt/laugh the afternoon away!

I am hoping to work on my jackets, the totes for the kiddo's, make binding for the baby quilt, and finish fussy cutting the other two baby quilts I started at FUF  this past week.

The camera is back, so I plan to take some pictures at Open Studio... but I didn't... I forgot to bring the camera with me to Open Studio. Ah well it was a great time! There where seven of us in Open Studio today. We all where doing very different projects.

I brought a few projects to work on that I have been trying to get done. Fussy cutting a couple of baby quilts, cut the crayon tote fabric, cut the sleeves of hubby's favorite shirt from long sleeve to short sleeve (the elbow had worn thru), and pinned the sides of one of the sweatshirt jacket that I had started in December.

It is great to be able to spend a block of time just cutting. It was wonderful to be able to just do the preparation to just sew over the next few days. So, I am off to sit with my sewing machine at home, as I did not sit with my sewing machine at Open Studio. :)

Thanks for stopping by :) Ciao for now!

J :)

Teaching Tonight :)

It has been a major push around our house for me to get over this lingering cold. Along the way I have been telling you that I need to make display items for the mini sweatshirt jacket workshop I am teaching. Well tonight is the night and I have finished all but the printing of the handouts... It had been 10 pages long... but I have gotten it down to 4 pages. Which is a good thing...

I also needed to make the parts of the jackets and at least one completed jacket. As I am off to another interview this afternoon, I need to have it all set to go now. Let me share some pictures with you :)

This is the box with everything inside, except for the jacket right now.

I will need to teach how to make a sweatshirt jacket in 12 minutes... Something that has taken me about 12 hours to put together.

Here is some pictures of the completed American Girl Doll sweatshirt jacket. This one is going to be Miss E's AG Doll, Sammi's jacket. The pattern you see in the back is from Liberty Jane Clothing which has a collection of 18" doll clothing.

This is the front of the jacket, notice the heart shaped button for closure, rather than a zipper.

Yes Ms G I did include inseam pockets on this jacket. You will be able to check it out tonight.

The doll stand can also be purchased at the Liberty Jane Clothing Website. 

This is the back of the jacket, you can see the inseam pocket open. 

The front, the pattern, the doll stand... all ready to be shown tonight! Yea!!!

So now I can take this off of my WIP list! {{Does a Happy Dance around the dining room}}Sweetness :)

Ok, off to get ready for this afternoon and evening...

Thanks for stopping by! Ciao for now :)

J :)

Wonderful Friends :)

Being at home, looking for work, sewing projects that have not seen the light of day in (nope, not going to say!)... One forgets to look outside and remember all of the people who care. I am very guilty of this of late and I really am sorry. Family and Friends remind me often that they are here for any support that I need and I need to remember this.

The reason for starting today's blog with this reminder is that I received the cutest quilt pattern in the mail yesterday, with a note reminding me that friends think about you always. :)
  This is a picture of the quilt pattern:

The quilt features a foundation-pieced Crane block designed by Margaret Rolfe. The quilt is a wonderful way to showcase beautiful multicolored Japanese prints. The origami crane has become a symbol for the world's desire for peace, so add your voice to this desire by making this quilt. Level: Advanced.

Can I just say that I was chuckling when I was reading the skill level as being 'Advanced' as I don't think of my skill level as that high. So, I really had to think about it and came to the realization that it could be true that my skill level is really that high. I still learn new things all the time, I still am hungry to try new things...

I am very grateful for my friends and family pushing me to go further and test my wings. Be it for sewing, quilting, or looking for employment outside of my art.

Thank you to my good friend who sent me the origami crane quilt pattern! You are a sweetheart!

A little history on the origami paper cranes:

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Japan, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

Retreat...

Due to being unemployed, there have been many items that have been crossed off of the "To Do" list this year. One major one is the November Retreat in New Hampshire put on by Karen P.

I am going to miss going this year, but wanted to congratulate Karen on reaching the Major Milestone of 10 years! Congratulations Karen!!!

Karen P at 2009 Retreat. 

Projects that I'm working on...

I am still working on my jacket... between the sewing machine being temperamental and my bad habit of not using pins all the time, I have been ripping out seams left, right, and center! Ah well, patience my dear as this too shall pass...

Sew I am off to sew... Thank you for joining me for coffee and today's rant :)

Ciao for now :)
J :)

Ah, Monday Morning

Typically I have a bit of time in the morning to go thru my emails, check out FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the different blogs that I follow. Today, just as I was starting to go thru my emails, I received a "pleading" phone call from my child to drive her to school. Now I am back, after fighting the traffic to and from and getting back into checking out all the different sites I am usually done with by now.

While reading my email, I came across a very interesting survey that had been conducted, rather informally, about privacy. Do you worry about your privacy?

This is what the results produced:

It's no surprise to you that privacy is very important to people. In fact, nine out of ten American adults say it's important to maintain privacy when looking for a job. 
What might surprise you is the age group that found privacy most important. 
It was 25- to 34-year-olds who answered, 92% of the time, that privacy and confidentiality were important or very important in their job search. 
Despite the popular image of young professionals Facebooking foolishly and Twittering like, well… twits, it turns out that privacy is very important to their professional lives. 
In fact, we found that 64% of adults surveyed would not accept an invitation to connect with a recruiter if coworkers could see the connection. 

I do have to admit that I was surprised at the age group that views privacy as most important. I had not expected that age range would worry about it as much as those in the 50+ age range in looking for a job.


I am still working on my project... I did find pictures of other jackets...

This is the 1st one that I did:

Check it out, I even lined the front panels...

Then I received a request for another jacket for a friend. This one has pockets, a button closure, and is fully lined:

After all that, my mom said that she would like a jacket like mine... I hauled over my collection of jelly rolls to her house to give her a choice of which one she would like... she liked mine so much she choose the very same fabrics for her jacket. Again, she has pockets, it is fully lined, and she has a zipper instead of a button.

I think that the pockets impressed her the most... don't you?

These pictures give you an idea of what I am doing with the fabrics... but as is typical of me, I am trying something different this time. Off to the ironing board to press the seams of the strips I have already sewn together.

Before I leave you all today, I wanted to share a posting from a fellow quilter/artist that she directed at fellow quilters/artists who follow her.

My only question, after reading this list, is do I have to underline EVERYTHING? How often do you do/feel/think any of these 10 reasons listed above? If not, how have you gotten past them?

Thank you so much for joining me today! Hope you have enjoyed your coffee break :)

Ciao for now :)

J :)