Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins, your weekly quilty linky party. I was so focused on remaining bubbly and happy and all things positive at work today, that I came home and completely forgot that it was Thursday! So here I am, a little late in the evening, but here nonetheless!
As always, I ask that you please visit three or so other linkers (share the love people!) and add a link and/or my button to your post/side bar. The reason that I started the I Quilt linky was to give back to the great online community that we have. I want to provide a place where we can get together, share our quilting process, our lessons learnt, successes and things we might do differently next time 
Immaculate photos of beautiful quilts are great eye candy, but the process is what gets me really excited. Thank you for sharing your process and for spreading the quilting love 
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.
This week I am featuring the amazingly talented Karen from Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals. Last week Karen shared an absolutely stunning table runner. Karen’s free motion feathers are stunning, there is no doubting that, but what I love most about this piece is that it came from a visit to a Fiber Festival. Now this really warms my heart, because last week when I showed one of my quilts, it was a thread embroiderer that came up and was super excited. I love that whilst we may choose one field of art or craft, we can still appreciate the work, skill and expertise that goes into another. Karen added wool felt flowers and three dimensional cotton flowers to her table runner. Karen, I LOVE your creativity! Mixed mediums are so much fun and I love experimentation can take us to whole new realms of creativity. Please pop over and visit Karen, I especially love her recent cardinal piece and all the FMQ, just beautiful!!
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.
Thank you all so much for the advice that you shared with me last week on this balancing act that I’m fumbling my way through. I really appreciate it. Being back in the office is a bit crazy, I’ve been gone eight years and am a bit shocked to find that NOTHING has changed. It is a stark contrast to my life that has changed radically during those eight years. I have had three wonderful children, found my passion in quilting, struggled through illness and stress, faced challenges bigger than I imagined possible and come out the other side as a happier, better, nicer, stronger person.
Contemplating the sunshine this afternoon after big storms yesterday <3
Every day I’m at work I feel like my shadow that is eight years past is one step ahead of me. It’s a bit of a mind bend, but it reminds me how important it is to be positive, to be the best me I can be and to not take on shallow or petty mind sets. I often find myself giggling under my breath at myself when I remember the things that used to be all consuming, having a cubicle near a window, chasing a promotion, being regarded as a go-get-er. I am sure that I am way more productive now than I was back then. It’s funny how motherhood has made me a more productive and confident employee. Here I was for all those years with a sense of inadequacy that I was no longer the young professional I once was LOL On the off chance that I ever become a manager I will value highly the skills that parents bring to the workplace!
Me yesterday in a local sculpture garden that we discovered. I love this photo (I spent the day with my husband) but I also don’t really recognise myself. Aging is weird, right?!
In terms of finding balance, quite a few people mentioned setting goals and writing ‘to-do’ lists. I’m a bit scared of the to do list as I will then see how much I have to do LOL But I have been setting myself daily goals and I am super happy that I have been getting a little quilting done on my office days On my studio days I have been trying to get quilting and paperwork done. It’s a struggle to get it all done, but I’m following much of the advice that I was given last week and it is definitely helping Thank you for sharing!!
I’m loving my Intelliquilter (computer guided system) which allows me to quilt on the days that I don’t have time to do custom/free motion work. I love this customer quilt with it’s cool tones and contemporary feel.
Speaking of balancing and quilting, I’m really finding the Intelliquilter (computer guided system for the longarm) is a Godsend. I had thought it would be a means to an ends, but I still find it very rewarding to load a quilt and do an edge to edge pattern after a day at the office. I’m hoping to do more custom/free motion quilting on my studio days. Watch this space
Another computer-guided edge to edge design. I LOVE this backing fabric! I think it would make the perfect full skirt <3
So that’s me in a nutshell (OK, how many of you are picturing that scene from Austin Powers now? ) I have a few secret projects on and great hope to get back to blogging more often than once a week… But in the meantime I will be visiting your blogs, trying to gain some more balance and staring on a new version of my Starry Skies quilt, I can’t wait to share that one!
Now it’s your turn Add your link, visit three or so other linkers and share you quilty process! Big love xxx (Can you tell I’m feeling the love this week? Kinda weird that being back in the office has me super happy LOL)
An InLinkz Link-up
Can you believe it’s Thursday already?! Welcome to your weekly quilty link-up here at Pretty Bobbins; I Quilt. This link up is all about the quilting process, we want to learn and grow together and my goal is to give something back to the online quilting community. Before I start to talk about my theme this week, I want to remind you to please visit a few other linkers and add the linky button and/or a link to my blog.
Image by Quilty Habit, used with permission
This week I am featuring the very talented Jessica from Quilty Habit. I always love visiting Jessica’s blog, it has a fun, fresh feel to it and her projects are always beautiful! Her profile picture also features her in a scarf with one of my favourite prints, so I feel happy whenever I pop on over Last week Jessica shared a beautiful improv curve mini that she was making for Valentine’s day. If you follow me at all, you will know that I LOVE improv and I LOVE improv curves even more!
Image by Quilty Habit, used with permission
Jessica finished her Valentine’s mini (above) and it’s just gorgeous! Seriously girl, you got everything just right! The colours, the prints, the quilting, everything (even the photography)! Well done, it’s beautiful! I encourage you all to pop over and check it out.
Getting back to my theme this week of balance. Now, this isn’t strictly quilting but it is integral to me as a quilter, if you know what I mean
As you know, I’ve recently been running around my new home town of Canberra asking the local quilting stores if they’d hand out my business cards for longarm quilting. I also offered myself as a teacher. Well, two stores, Addicted to Fabric and Hobby Sew, have signed me up for a number of classes including free motion quilting, piecing (with a focus on modern styles), foundation paper piecing, cushions, my starry skies quilt, table runners, and possibly a few other things. (Details to follow, I’d love some local friendly faces to come along!) At the same time I have had my first few customer quilts AND I have returned to my day job part time!
I’m super excited to be teaching, seriously, I can talk for hours and hours about quilting and I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm with students and offer some fresh, modern techniques and ideas. My big dream is to be a full time longarmer and on my days at home I will working towards this as well as fitting in teaching and teaching preparations (samples people, I have samples coming out my ears!). I then spend three days a week at the office (today was my first official day, I did go in about a month ago for a planning day). Every day I drop my kids at school, and two days a week I collect them (from two different schools).
I am feeling overwhelmed, excited, overwhelmed, anxious, overwhelmed and… Well you get the idea I feel like I’m over committed, I feel like I have too many equally important priorities pulling me in different directions. I am living in chaos and I need to reign it all in and feel in control. BUT, I am doing all of this so that I can live my dream of being a longarm quilter. So I’m not complaining, I don’t resent the hard work. I’m just sharing this journey Balance is something that I am craving. I want to quilt and piece. I want to teach and quilt. I want to be with my babies and have an income. I don’t necessarily want to don a suit three days a week but I do want that income (and it’s kinda fun to dress up).
When I quilt I am pedantic about tension, I want that perfect balance between top and bobbin thread. I take my time setting everything up, I test threads, I don’t let myself panic or worry. I focus on getting the perfect balance and then I quilt knowing that my quilting will be beautiful, I will enjoy the process and I will feel relaxed and energised. Right now there is no balance in my life. It’s all GO GO GO!!!
How do you find balance? Do you have any tips? I would love to hear your advice. This whole working mum, starting a business, teaching and quilting for others is new to me! I feel comfortable and confident in each of these roles, but trying to do them all at once is a challenge!! Share your wisdom lovely quilters And I promise that next week there will be lots of quilty photos Oh, and speaking of balance… I’ve realised that I can no longer visit all the linkers, I just don’t have time, so I’m visiting half a dozen or so each week from now on. Thanks so much for understanding, I just need to seek that balance
An InLinkz Link-up
Welcome to I Quilt, a weekly linky party all about quilting, here at Pretty Bobbins. I have to say, I am still in shock by all the amazing linkers last week! Thirtynine fabulous quilters linked up and yes, once again I am still getting through all the blog posts… I hope y’all visiting a few other linkers too, there’s nothing like quilty comment love <3 Don’t forget to add a link to my blog or the linky button to your post or sidebar
Image used with permission by katyquilts
This week I’m featuring the very talented Katy of KatyQuilts. Katy shared a practice piece that she was working on. Katy, I love you for sharing this! All too often we see the polished, perfect, errorless final product. But this linky is about process and we all experience tension issues, design imperfections and quilters block at some point! Thanks so much for sharing Katy! I think your feathers are beautiful, but if they’re your practice piece then I can’t wait to see where you end up! Oh! I’ve just checked out Katy’s post this week, make sure you pop over! Great stuff!
Image used with permission from katyquilts
Katy’s post got me thinking about how it’s important to look at the entire quilt, not just elements of the quilting design in isolation.
This week I’ve been working on my very first customer quilt and I’ve been super critical of myself and spent ages working out the design. As always I just jumped in and I didn’t mark anything other than the points. I did use my straight ruler and whilst I still need a lot of practice, I’m happy with where I’m at.
My customer asked me to incorporate the art deco style arum lily so I went to town creating art deco designs for the whole quilt. I also incorporated the recipient’s name and I LOVE how it turned out (I did mark the letters first)!
Quilting the lillies was kind of death by nerves. I started with the bottom two leaves, then the stem, then the petals, back down to the bottom and then the curly bits up the sides. I honestly was not a fan but once I’d finished the first lilly and stood back and looked at it in context, rather than isolation, I actually loved it and am really proud of my efforts.
I’ve said before, and I will continue to say, please don’t worry about achieving perfect quilting. If you aim for perfect, every little error will erode your confidence and you won’t be able to appreciate the big picture. Whenever I quilt I work on an area or specific aspect of the design and then I stand back, re-evaluate the quilt and only then do I come up with the design for the next stage of quilting. I try not to worry about the little errors, rather, I focus on the whole design, how the next stage of quilting will improve on what I just did.
I love to quilt and I firmly believe it should be a fun, enjoyable experience. Sure, quilting my first customer quilt was terrifying, but once I forgot the nerves I had a great time!
So here’s to imperfect quilting, to having fun and to not worrying about every single mistake!
Happy quilting
P.S. I have to apologise about image quality and tardiness of this post. My laptop is officially dead and I’m working on my husband’s itty bitty 10″ laptop.
