Friday, March 25, 2011

WOW!

I have to say today has really been a great day. I got the nicest email this morning from someone named Niki, who told me that my monkeys make her smile :) She also told me she'd forwarded my blog link on to her quilt lists, which is apparent in the 400 blog hits I got so far today! So I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has visited my blog, and especially to Niki, who helped them find me :)


In honor of the over 500 hits I've gotten in the last 2 days, I've decided to post a sneak preview to my new quilt pattern that I'm working on! How do you feel about owls? Let me know!


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Almost...

I got my final proof ordered this morning, and I have my distribution channels set up and ready to go. In fact, it's already live on my createspace estore page! It's not available for sale yet, but as soon as it is, Monkeying Around can be purchased here:



https://www.createspace.com/3548723



Come check it out! It should be available for sale this week.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hope to be sewing again soon!

We recently moved. Well, not terribly recently, we moved in December. But now that we live over an hour from my job, and I work in a very high traffic area, I am driving and working longer hours so I have had ZERO time to sew. I haven't even had time to unpack my sewing room, which has been in boxes since early November. The only sewing I've done since then was to get pieces put together for a cub scout troop craft for Christmas, and to sew the gaping hole up in the behind of my son's snow pants.

And my job gives us a Friday off every 2-3 weeks. So you'd think I'd have time to get things put together! But it seems every time I get a ME day, Logan (my oldest) either has the day off school or gets a snow day, or Ridley (my youngest) is sick and can't go to school/day care (which I have to pay for anyway, whether he goes or not).

So I've been kind of aching to get things out and ready to do SOMETHING. The pattern has been a good outlet, but not a complete replacement for actual sewing. This past Friday, Ridley was sick so I spent the day with him, folding laundry and playing with him, and working on my book. Saturday my husband had to work so I had both boys home.

Once I got the boys in bed, I put my foot down and decided to get something set up. I managed to unpack my sewing cabinet although I don't have a final place to put it yet, and I got my quilt frame set up. All I need to do is plug in my machine and I can get back to some quilting!

I'm currently about 1/3 through quilting a mystery quilt top I made a few years ago but never got any farther with. It's a very geometrically pieced quilt, so I decided to go a little curvier with the quilting. It's taking much longer than I'd like because I don't have a long arm machine yet, so I can only sew in 3" rows or so. I am hoping to get a long arm machine in the next year or two, but money's tight for everyone these days. If the monkey quilt pattern sells well, maybe I can do it sooner rather than later!

Here's a picture of the mystery quilt I'm working on getting quilted. I will probably sell that one, I already have 2 people fighting over it and it's not even done!


Just wanted to share my first quilt design :)


I thought I'd share a picture of the quilt I designed for my 2 year old last year. It's a Thomas the Tank Engine quilt made from Cranston Village fabrics. My son absolutely LOVES Thomas! So, since I'd made the Fons and Porter Victory Lane quilt for my oldest (it's a Disney Cars quilt), I thought I should make one for my youngest too. But I didn't like any of the existing patterns out there. So I started looking for fabrics, and came up with this. I didn't get exact measurements of the pieces till I had the fabrics in my hands, but it went together very quickly after that!

I was going to try to put together instructions for how I made it, but one of the fabrics doesn't appear on Cranston Village's website anymore. So I will have to rework it a little before I can do that, but in the meantime, here's what I made.

This was the first quilt I ever designed, although I have a few more floating around in my head waiting to get out!

Friday, March 18, 2011

It's HERE!


Wednesday was the big day that my proof copy of "Monkeying Around" arrived! It seemed like it took forever, but it was really less than 3 weeks. Next time I order a proof, I'll spring for better shipping than media mail!

Anyway, here's a photo of my first ever book!

This pattern was inspired by the children's song "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." I've been working on it off and on (mostly off) since October of 2009. I just finished it in February and submitted it for publishing.

Getting the pattern itself designed wasn't a huge deal, but the formatting and diagrams took a while. I use AutoCAD for work, so that was what I used to do the entire book except the cover (which was done in Photo Shop). The book includes directions for five sizes of a fat quarter quilt, and directions and pieces to applique the five monkeys onto it.
I'm currently trying to upload the file with my changes, and by tomorrow I should be able to order another proof. That is, if I can ever get the file to process! Cellular internet doesn't seem to like me too much, but we have very few options where I live. It may have to wait till Monday when I get to work again. Either that or my little guy and I will have to make a stop for lunch at a local wi-fi hot spot.
I am confident that I've made all the changes I need to. It was all minor fixes. So as soon as they tell me that my proof has shipped, I'll approve it and it'll be available for sale!! I will post a link here on my blog as soon as it's available.

I always wanted to write a book. I always thought it'd be a novel if I ever did it, but here I am with a 36 page quilt pattern with my name on the cover. Snazzy!
EDIT: As of March 22, this pattern is available for sale! You can get your copy here:

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

About me and my quilts

First and foremost, I'm a wife and mom. I have been married for 9 years, and we have 2 boys, ages 7 and almost 3.

I am also currently working full time as an electrical engineer. Not the kind that designs cars or electronic gadgets, I work with buildings. My background is in loss prevention systems like fire alarm and security. But I lost my job back in 2009, and after almost 2 years of being unemployed, I'm now working in lighting and power. It's a contract position though, and in this economy I'm not holding my breath that I'll get hired when my contract is up. I would certainly be happy to accept the position!

I have been quilting since January of 2007, when I jumped in with both feet and took part in 2 mystery quilts. Before that, I'd never found a craft I'd been able to stick with. Crocheting, scrapbooking, cross stitch...none of them gave me the satisfaction that quilting has. I think it's because with quilting, it doesn't take that long to make a block, and for a newbie, that's a great motivator!

Since then, I've done a few more mystery quilts and a few standard pattern quilts. Back in October of 2009, I was playing with my youngest son and we were singing the 5 Little Monkeys song. I'd always called him my little monkey, so I started looking for a quilt inspired by the song. But there wasn't one! I couldn't believe nobody had ever made one. So I decided to take it upon myself to design it. I use AutoCAD for so many things, why not for quilting? So my 5 little monkeys were born.

But it's hard to make an applique quilt pattern with no direction for the top! So I designed a fat quarter quilt top to go with it. I decided to use pretty large pieces so if someone with a large collection of monkey fabrics (such as myself) wanted to showcase those fabrics, the pattern would allow for that.

I worked on the pattern off and on (mostly off) for over a year, until I decided to try to wrap it up and publish it. In February, 2011, the first edition of Monkeying Around was sent to CreateSpace.com to be printed. I'm still waiting for my proof copy, and as soon as I get it and approve it, it will be available for sale!

I'm also working on a second quilt pattern, which will showcase owls. It's still in the design stages though, so it won't be ready for a little bit. Once my proof comes in for the monkey pattern and I can see how it turned out, I'll be able to better move forward on the owl pattern. I'm expecting the proof this week!