independence Archives - Princess YellowBelly Designs

Evolution of Quilted Flight

November 13, 2021 by admin

Freedom Flight pattern and finish product overlay

“Can you use a shaped wall hanging pattern as the centerpiece square of a traditional quilt?”

If that question sent shockwaves down your backbone, then you’re not alone! That deceptively simple little question sent ripples out into our curiosity. It’s inspired our interest, our creativity, and it’s suggested a whole new section that we hope will prove to not only be insightful into the arts of quilting and pattern alteration – but also inspirational for your own quiltivity!

Welcome!

Join Us for One Pattern’s Journey from Idea, to Wall Hanging, to Heirloom

As of this moment you’re invited to embark on a new journey with Princess YellowBelly and our newest artistic friend on the ever evolving journey of one of our very favorite original patterns.

Arguably our single most popular item ever is our soaring red, white, and blue shaped American eagle wall hanging.

“Freedom Flight” was created as a celebration of the Fourth of July several years ago.

Since we first put it up, it consistently has the most views, often by the day, and certainly by the month and year. And it easily leads the field in our original pattern shop, as well.

An Intriguing New Design Idea

Just a couple of weeks ago we received an interesting question via our Etsy.com store.

Carrie asked us: “I am thinking of using the pieced eagle as the centerpiece of a quilt. Do you think it would work to piece this onto a base fabric that could be used in a traditional quilt?”

Fascinating.

At Princess YellowBelly we spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to turn more traditional quilting patterns into shaped wall-hangings, but we’d never thought of turning one of our original designs back into a traditional quilt!

We sent back an answer that we thought would be useful – and I’ll share that a little later. However, as helpful as we were trying to be, we got to thinking that this question deserved much closer attention, and Carrie’s ingenuity deserved a lot more support from us.

Let’s Figure it Out Together!

There’s a lot of icky, picky details to try to figure out if you go around adapting other people’s existing patterns.

Especially something like Freedom Flight, which is already “abnormal” to an extent, and which we’ve played with and perfected until it’s a pretty much self-contained pattern.

So after we sent off that early response, we reached back out to Carrie and asked her if she’d like a little bit more help on trying this incredibly interesting – and potentially difficult – creative adventure.

She Said Yes!

While Carrie goes about re-creating Freedom Flight as the centerpiece of a very, very special heirloom quilt, she’ll be generously sharing her story with us.

A Loving Mother’s Self-Made Trap

Carrie, in her own words, never planned on doing this type of super-creative quilting.

“I’m not really a quilter – I much prefer handwork, crochet, embroidery, stuff I can do in the car or while watching TV!

But I dug myself a hole in 2014, when I made our oldest child a high school graduation quilt (mostly embroidered silhouettes of Paris and hand appliquéd PARIS down the center squares) and thereby set the precedent of having to make the younger children quilts as well for their graduations.

purple and white quilt blocks with PARIS written down the middle

The most recent one was a college graduation for her younger sister last May. I’m now working on brother’s high school graduation – set for May 2022. He wants to go to a Service Academy, so I’m just using a patriotic theme. I’ve hand appliquéd USA onto individual squares and also embroidered words:

white, black, red, and gray graduation quilt

Courage
Discipline
Honor
Duty”

Wow! In my opinion, that’s brave, and that’s a real show of love – doing something you don’t particularly enjoy just because you want all of your kids to know that you care for them equally, and you want them to have something to remember forever.

I started quilting for the same reason (my kids were little), but I enjoyed quilting to start with.

Getting this Party Started

Which is why I’m so honored that Carrie chose our pattern to complete her journey with. Especially since Carrie hand-pieces her quilts!

“All the while, I don’t have a pattern that I’m following – just kind of making it up as I go. And trying to do as much by hand as I can, since that’s actually what I really enjoy. When I saw your eagle pattern, it looked like something that I could piece by hand and then appliqué onto a background fabric.”

Piecing together a bunch of different squares around a central theme and without a formal pattern is something we do a lot of ourselves. And while it’s tricky, it also makes for amazing and unique quilts.

Embroidered honor, truth, discipline, courage

At this stage of her project, this is what Carrie is working with:

A digital download pattern of Freedom Flight (which includes step-by-step instructions, graphic illustrations, and a master template)
And access to a step-by-step video tutorial series, as well
She also has the outer-border squares that she’s already appliqued and embroidered

Building blocks of a new Freedom Flight quilt

Access to Our Hands-On Help

In exchange for being able to share Carrie’s story, and pictures of how she adapts Freedom Flight in her heirloom quilt, we’re offering her hands-on help and access to our ideas and brainstorming.

Depending on what issues Carrie may or may not have, we’ll keep adding updates:

In articles
Social media posts
Pictures
Possibly videos

That last one, videos, may come about if Carrie wants to talk to us directly, probably via a Zoom call.

In our next article we’ll share the advice that we initially gave Carrie – which was basically our personal experience with putting shaped centerpieces onto background squares. We shared several different ideas, and we’ll see which option she does decide to go with. (The hand-piecing should add an interesting element).

See you over there!

Your guide to quiltivity,

Karyl (aka Princess YellowBelly)

Join Us for Our First Ever LIVE Video Event!

September 28, 2021 by admin

How to Adapt and Create Quilting Patterns w/ Slice of Pi Quilts

Find Out How to Adapt & Create Original Quilting Patterns

Hello to all of our wonderful Princess YellowBelly members!

If this is your first time here, then no worries, we’re about to do a first of our own. And if you’ve been with us for a while, then you know that the announcement that we’re about to do a live interview – our first every live video event ever – isn’t an exaggeration.

We enjoy doing video, and doing live interviews has been a dream of our for over a year.

And now it’s finally about to happen, thanks to a true friend and fellow innovative fabric artist Laura Piland from Slice of Pi Quilts.

Slice of Pi Quilts – Original Quilting Patterns

Laura’s already shared a bit of her amazing story of how she creates amazing quilting patterns and how we’ve adapted one of hers. I highly recommend reading her story before you join the video, to find out more about Laura beforehand, and figure out questions that you’d like to ask her live!

We’re sure excited to get to talk to her about creating and adapting original quilting patterns. Please do make sure to join us live for an interesting conversation with questions like:

How many patterns have you adapted?
Do you have a standard method for adapting patterns?
How do you get ideas for new quilting patterns?
What’s your process for creating a new pattern?

hydra scales original quilting pattern facebook live interview

See you there this afternoon, September 28 @ 4 PM (Eastern Standard Time)!

*If for any reason you can’t join us live, the replay will be available on our Facebook page, and we’ll be seeing what we can do to share it here, as well.

See you there!

Join Live Interview

Piercing the Home Sewing Way

October 12, 2018 by admin

A needle sticking into the seamstress's finger - one of the consequences of sewing dangerously

Living & Quilting Dangerously

Last week I went to a Tattoo & Piercing Parlor.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been there but I sincerely hope it will be the last…and I wasn’t there to get a tattoo either. I’m a good girl, I am!

I went to the piercing parlor to get a Daith piercing in my ear to try to help my migraines. I confess to yelling when he pushed that needle through my cartilage – that sucker hurt.

However, as I sat there quietly bleeding, it occurred to me. I do this to myself all the time – when I sew – and I bet you do too.

Sewing is a physically risky business because essentially we’re working with knives. Of course, we like to give them euphemisms like scissors, pins & needles, and rotary cutters, but any seamstress can tell you…they’re really knives.

Personally, I’d be amazed to hear that there is one seamstress out there that hasn’t had a too close encounter with the sharp end of one of these supplies. They are necessary to our work, but they can be very painful.

**Addiction – And How Not to Treat It**

Here again is where the whole idea of addiction can raise its head.

When I was sewing my Peacock Panel, I had to pin every flower in place before I could sew – no handy Wonder Under here.

I used long, sharp quilting pins to secure those slippery leaves to the thick background. Those very helpful pins found no problem scraping along my forearms and jabbing into my chest as I sewed.

I’m pretty sure I yelled more than once, and when I was done, I did look like an addict with needle tracks all along the insides of both forearms. Talk about quilting dangerously.

But it was worth it.

Michael thinks I’m nuts sometimes, but even he has to admit the end result was beautiful.

That’s the gritty truth of an artist’s addiction to his/her craft. No matter the ill immediate consequences that we suffer personally, nothing will deter us from achieving our goal of adding a bit of beauty to this old world.

Maybe we shouldn’t even want to. Without a bit of pain no one would have ever painted the Mona Lisa, or built the Parthenon, or invented quilting in the first place.

Those Who Love Us

Speaking of my darling Michael, have any of you ever read or heard Hank the Cowdog books? They are positively hilarious – especially the audio book versions – but when you read about Slim Chance, just substitute Michael’s name instead.

This man of mine never moves fast, leans as soon as he stops and takes forever to think things through.

To his credit, his thinking is vastly different from mine and he often comes up with a solution that would never occur to me. He’s awesome, but I digress.

The point is that I’ve only seen him move fast 3 times:

When Suzanna decided an anthill was a perfect place to play
When the kids were playing in the ocean surf and a long dark shape showed itself in an oncoming wave
And when I sewed through my thumbnail

Yellow-headed pin going through a quilt into someone's finger!

The needle had pulled out of the machine and was sticking out the fleshy side of my thumb through my thumb nail. That was not fun. Michael really jumped that time – I’m pretty sure that I screamed loudly. Being Michael, he promptly got his needle nose pliers and pulled.

Amazingly, while it was the first time I’d sewed through my thumb nail, it wasn’t the first time I’d sewn through the side of my thumb.

Last year, I was having vision problems in my left eye. But I live on the edge and do quilting dangerously, so instead of stopping, I kept leaning closer and closer to see what I was sewing and actually scraped the end of my nose with the needle. Now, that would have hurt!

Consequences of Quilting Dangerously

I have a special set of quilting pins that are about 3” long and sharp as lances, consequently many times I’ve had to wash out spots of blood from being stabbed. On my dangerous quilting journey I also:

Been burned with hot glue
Shoved hand sewing needles under my fingernail
And glued various body parts together

But it’s all worth it to me – because like any true addict I like the results. I read about one quilter who had actually glued her bottom to the floor. I found that hilarious but not surprising.

So there I am getting pierced and looking at the piercing guy. He’s tattooed from neck to ankles and I started thinking about how many needle punctures THAT took – and he did it on purpose! Now that’s addiction – of a different kind, but addiction nonetheless.

So maybe we’re not as insane as we may seem – when we keep on quilting despite the hazards – and we have something to show for it at the end of the day. And, at least our needle marks aren’t permanent.

Sewing Within Your Means

July 28, 2018July 28, 2018 by admin

Creating High-Quality Quilting Projects Cheaply

Sewing within your means is a challenge because, like photography, fabric art is one of those hobbies that is just not cheap. Creating high-quality quilting projects cheaply, or at the very least for more reasonable prices, is an art form in and of itself.

It gets a lot easier if you remember two simple principles, and learn how to control one with the other.

The Paint & Potato Principle

Do any of you remember the “Happy Days” episode where Howard is sick so Marion takes charge of his Hardware Store for a day?

potato plus a bucket of paint

At the end of the day, Marion greets him by telling him that she sold out his entire paint inventory – for $1 a can. After Howard’s near heart attack, Marion shows him the receipts, which show the biggest single day of profit they’ve ever had.

Then she explains to Howard that it’s just like baked potatoes – you can’t eat them without toppings:

Chives
Sour Cream
Bacon bits
Etc.

Poor Howard is completely confused until Marion assures him that selling paint is the same thing – you make your money on the extras:

Brushes
Rollers
Buckets
Etc.

This paint and potato principle is alive and well in todays’ quilt stores. They have a fabric sale, which is great for us, but they’re making their money on the:

Thread
Basting spray
Scissors
Batting
Etc.

I want to make you aware of this and help give you the courage not to give in to it.

Series of concentric bright-colored circles corresponding to fabric sale and prices

Being a Sucker

Everyone knows how super-easy it is to just buy everything you need because you’re there, you’re into the idea, and the quilt store has everything right there for you to select.

Especially if you’ve bought a pattern and all the supplies are right there.

I fell for this salesmanship seduction last fall when I bought the 3 specialty bag patterns I used to design my media bag. There was such a long list of supplies needed, and since I knew the sales lady, I let her talk me into just buying them, then and there.

3 $10 patterns ended up costing me $120!

It was even worse when I noticed in Walmart that they carried the exact same clear vinyl that I had purchased at the quilt store. Only at the store I had paid $10.00 for a 10” square of this vinyl and at Walmart they were selling it for $3.40/yard and the yard was 60” wide.

I felt like I had been a real sucker – because I had been.

You’ve probably felt badly about fabric art purchases you’ve made once you realized that you got suckered into buying something at a high price, or buying something you really didn’t need. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, every truly passionate quilter has fallen into this trap at least once.

I do want you to be aware of the paint and potato principle, so that you won’t be suckered next time. Mastering the art of creating high-quality quilting projects cheaply depends largely upon your ability to resist these emotional impulses.

I enjoy sewing the “upper layer” of my projects the most, so I am extremely susceptible to the latest notions and supplies that make the upper layers more fun:

Panels
Thread
Trim
Unique buttons
And all things which glitter

Quilt stores excel in carrying these things. And, if we’re being completely honest, we love quilt stores. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as wandering around in a store and discovering new possibilities.

So the girls and I have developed a strategy for avoiding the worst of the pitfalls.

The Chair Control Principle

2 20 dollar bills and a 5 on a background of purple-to-pink fabrics sewing within your means illustration

Just a few fabrics and extras can really add up the dollar signs in the cash register quickly. Paying close attention to what you pay cash for in the quilt store will help to cut down on overall expenses.

When we find a notion that we’ve never seen before, and that we just can’t resist, we buy the smallest package of it that we can.

Then we use the information to find it cheaper – often much cheaper – online.

The same thing goes for hot-ticket items like printed panels. We write down the information in the selvage or on the package, and then look it up on our favorite internet retailers. This one trick alone often saves us around $20 (USD) on a single panel.

This way we often get out of a quilt store for under $100.

Not only is shopping in a chair much easier, it also gives you power and control over what you purchase, when, and at what prices. The chair control principle will help you to regulate the paint and potato principle, and will save you time, frustration, and the feeling of being a sucker!

Problems with Online Shopping

Some things are very hard to buy online. These include items like zippers and thread.

Thread is hard to buy because your computer screen may not be showing the colors accurately, and it can be hard to get a feel for the actual texture of the thread.

Items like zippers and certain buttons are tricky because they’re usually shipped from China and you don’t always receive what you think you’ve ordered. Once I thought I had ordered one 9” sage green zipper. What I got were 50-7” lime green zippers! I’m still trying to come up with a project where I can use a whole bunch of them.

You can usually buy fabric from the computer, but it’s not a good idea to try coordinating an entire project this way. You simply don’t have the quality control over fabrics when you’re using the chair principle.

We usually handle this by getting the cornerstone of a project – like a panel or a certain fabric – online, then coordinating the rest in a quilt store.

Our favorite online vendors help us with creating high-quality quilting projects cheaply

Listed below are some of the best sites we’ve found. We’re always finding more, which I’ll share with you as we go along, and if you know of any great ones, please let us know.

Amazon.com

This site has many advantages. For one thing it is easy to use, even for those of us with computer phobias. Amazon has a huge warehouse along with many independent vendors, and if you buy enough – which isn’t hard to do when you’re shopping for fabric art – you’ll be provided with free shipping.

You just can’t beat Amazon for great prices on notions, appliques, and in-bulk supplies like batting, spray starch, and basting spray.

Amazon.com is not great for competitively priced fabric, however. You can find fabric, but it’s tricky, and you’ll usually wind up paying store prices.

Fabric.com

This is our go-to for quilting fabrics and specialty fabrics like digital prints and printed panels. They have a great site that is fairly easy to use, a huge inventory, and often have panels you won’t see in stores and magazines for months. You can also shop by keywords, like “mermaids,” or by colors, or even by designers.

Fabric.com is another site that offers free shipping when you make a significant dollar purchase, usually $35.

Etsy.com

Etsy is a unique and beautiful site and it can’t be beaten if you want a more personal and special type of item. You can make custom orders, and shop for finished products, vintage items, and crafting supplies.

Because Etsy is based on a personal vendor platform – like a farmer’s market – you also get a more personal quality of service. For instance, once we wanted silver netting and had ordered it from Amazon. Unfortunately Amazon had discontinued that line and refunded our money.

We finally found a similar item on a hat shop on Etsy. We contacted the owner with what we really wanted, and she was kind enough to redirect us to their main site where they had exactly what we needed – for many dollars less than we would have paid on Amazon.

JOANN Fabrics

They have a HUGE selection of everything with good prices. Plus they have continuous sales, and if you’re signed in to their e-mail, you get notified all the time. This is the best place to get your batting in bulk.

Their website is tricky and annoying, however. You have to know exactly what you want. The best way to take advantage of Joann’s is to save those coupons from their emails, and take them into a physical store.

Hobby Lobby

They’re not much for quilting fabric, but their notions are fabulous – from all their wedding stuff, to their fake flowers, and beads and crystals. For instance I found some small, silver poinsettia leaves there, that I’m going to use for fairy wings.

This is another frustrating website to use, but it can be done, and they also offer you large discounts and free shipping quite frequently. One good tip is to save the packaging from notions you’ve purchased in store. That way if you need more and you live a distance from a Hobby Lobby (like we do) you can order that item much more easily.

Strapworks.com

If you’re into making projects like purses, aprons, or duffle bags, this site is impossible to beat. They carry every type & color of strapping available, and you will pay so much less than you would at any physical store. Then there’s the hardware. I paid $1.00/per buckle here, instead of the $15.00 for the same thing at the quilt store.

Silk Flower Factory

They have super great deals on their flowers, but you can only get them in bulk. If you need 50 iris bunches at once – which is something like a hundred flowers – this is the place to go.

Screenshot of Silk Flower Factory

These physical vendors also help us with creating high-quality quilting projects cheaply

Walmart

Walmart’s not so great on fabric anymore, though they do carry a little of everything, and I go here when I need something immediately. The fabric quality varies though, so watch out for that.

They’re also pretty good at notions, fabric flowers, and zippers. They don’t have a great selection, but at least you get only one! I noticed at one of our quilt stores a can of basting spray cost $19.50! I almost choked, since you can get the very same thing at Walmart for around $7.00.

Walmart’s website is a little goofy, so I prefer to go in personally.

Thrift stores

Besides the fact that I love thrift stores, you can often find notions that are 100% unique. From clothes with cool buttons – buy the article for 50 cents and cut the buttons off – to large scarves you can incorporate into your fabric art designs. Thrift stores also sell T-shirts, which can be used to make T-shirt quilts, striped dresses, and straps for bags if you’re into offbeat fabric arts.

Many of them now sell baggies of reclaimed hardware. The store itself cuts off unique or fancy buckles, hooks, or buttons, and sells them separately. We found the coolest buckle in one of our thrift stores. We don’t know where we’ll use it yet, but we couldn’t resist.

Antique Malls

This is touch-and-go, but if you enjoy wandering in antique stores and malls, keep an eye out for unique notions or fabrics. Antique malls can also be hideously expensive, or ridiculously cheap. Exercise good judgement, and you can spice up your projects with old-fashioned charm for practically nothing.

Combining These Powerful Principles

If you stay aware of sales gimmicks and emotional impulses, shop smart, and order online as much as you can, you will be able to save quite a lot of money. Quilting and fabric art will still cost, but by applying the chair control principle over the paint and potato principle you will be surprised at your incredible new ability for creating high-quality quilting projects cheaply.

Turning a Tidal Wave into an Ebb Tide

July 19, 2018 by admin

A tidal wave carrying sewing supplies; iron, fabric, measuring tape, marking pen, scissors, pin cushion, seam ripper, thread, spray bottle, and more

Getting the Best of Your Quilting Stash – Before it Gets the Best of You

You have a sewing space and sewing supplies. The problem is that your sewing supplies will always – always – outgrow your sewing space. Unless you start corralling clutter now, your quilting stash will cheerfully bury you under a massive tidal wave.

All quilters have a stash of some sort.

A stash is any fabric that is left over from a sewing project, or fabric that you’ve bought because you’re intending to do a project that never happens, or just fabric that you fall in love with. For instance:

I absolutely LOVE all fabric that has an autumn theme, so I have a great deal of that.
Barb is physically incapable of passing up anything paisley, so her paisley stash is huge.

Keeping it all neat and organized is an issue that has to be answered by every seamstress. Unless you’re one of those people who work best in an environment of total chaos, then the question of organization has to be addressed for your specific situation before you can even begin to sew.

Ways that I’ve Successfully Corralled Clutter

Over time you’ll develop your own ways to corral the mess and fuss that sewing and quilting generates.

To start with, though, I like to know what I’m going to have to store – and more importantly, where I can put my hands on it when I want it. Having to search and search for something I know I have and want for a specific project frustrates me out the yin-yang and I become very unpleasant to be around.

I tend to buy ahead on any fabric I see that could be used in a fantasy type panel, so I’m always thinking of how I’m going to keep various materials that go with a specific project together and organized.

I also loathe dust and dusting, so I’m all about storing everything in closed containers. Here is what I’ve learned.

Start Corralling Clutter by Defining Your Space

Look realistically at the space that is available to you. Everyone’s situation is different and it changes with the times, so this is fluid. I like to define how far my sewing tide can spread in the space available to me.

When you’re deciding this, look at places for your:

Sewing machine
Ironing board
Cutting space – typically a counter or table
And where you will store your stash.

For years I kept my sewing machine in the bottom of a closet and brought it out to sew with on the dining room table. Now I have a desk where it sits all the time, and that is much more convenient.

For the first time ever, I also have the room to keep my ironing board set up permanently on my right side. This is a huge convenience but not at all necessary.

Big canvas shopping bags to hold supplies temporarily for a particular project - corralling clutter in the short term

Large shopping bags can be used to corral the clutter from a particular sewing project. In this case we are using two big bags to keep the fabric, notions, and batting for a twin quilt in one easily accessed place while we work on various sections.

If you don’t have enough room for a permanent style sewing setup, make sure you put everything back every time. Otherwise it will become a habit to leave it out and soon the clutter will be driving you insane.

Keep in mind that not all of your stuff has to be all in one space.

I store my big rolls of batting and my rarely used tubs of notions in a small closet in the spare room. Barb’s sewing “room” is a small walk-in closet in her spare room and she manages to keep all her stuff neatly organized with shelves where she stacks her fabric and a peg board on the wall behind her machine to hang her thread spools on.

See if there are any cupboards, closets, drawers, or a lazy-Susan (cupboard turntable) you can commandeer for your supplies.

What about floor space or wall space?

I was getting incredibly frustrated with my space when Michael suggested he put up some wire shelves in the 3 foot space on the wall between the cupboard and window. He put up 4 short shelves for me, and that has made a huge difference to my frustration levels.

I like to keep as much of my fabric in tubs as possible.

This is because I hate dust – this solution keeps my fabric clean and – as an added bonus – easily accessible.

I took the measurements of my shelves with me to Walmart and found clear tubs that would fit in that space. Not all of my tubs are the same size. I use the larger ones for material and then I got a bunch of smaller ones that fit on top of the larger ones for each shelf. In these I keep my sewing supplies like iron cleaner, fabric glue, Velcro, markers, etc.

All of these tubs are clear so that I can see what’s in them without having to take them down and look. I also purchased a few of those plastic pullout drawer filing cabinets that Walmart carries. I set these wherever it’s convenient. I like to use the big, deep ones for storing fabric.

Organize the way that makes sense to you.

It doesn’t matter if no one else “gets” the way you corral clutter; it just has to work for you. Even if it looks like a total disaster to an outsider – who cares? You’ll know where you’re at.

I organize by theme and color. I have 3 large tubs of autumn fabric, one of landscape fabrics, a Christmas one, etc. Then I have my blue/purple tub, the teal/turquoise tub, my water fabrics tub, etc.

Wire shelves to hold sewing supplies, all the clutter corralled in tubs

Wire shelving right above my sewing space helps keep all my most frequently used supplies, notions, and fabrics close at hand and still out of the way.

Large plastic tub full of color-themed grey and silver fabric

I use these fabrics frequently, 4-5 times a year. Plenty of time for them to get filthy with dust and lint unless they are kept in clear plastic storage tubs.

Corralling clutter with plastic tubs

A variety of ongoing projects and sewing supplies fit great into these smaller tubs.

Corralling Notion Clutter with Genre Jars

(Leiajoy came up with the genre jar name – BTW!)

Storing notions is something you need to give a great deal of thought to. Because they’re usually smaller (like buttons and beads), or on rolls like ribbon, they can’t be stacked neatly in tubs.

I organize notions just like my fabrics – by color and theme.

A genre jar can be anything from an empty candy tub to a glass jar with a fitted lid (like the kind you use for spices in the kitchen) to a Tupperware or plastic container.

Genre jars should really be clear or clear-ish, so that you can see what’s in them, and they should also have lids (the dust, you know). Plastic works better for higher shelves – but you can use glass if you have a place to set them where they won’t be knocked off.

For small, easily lost items my solution so far has been to use the smaller plastic containers that have a whole bunch of small compartments for buttons, appliques, my thread, beads and smaller novelty items. (These are very nice because they’re relatively small and flat, so they can be stacked neatly anywhere.)

Genre jars are also perfect for things like my decorative ropes, spools of ribbon, etc. And they work well for bigger buttons, and feathers. (I know that because I’m storing feathers in preparation for a tropical project.)

Another thing I’ve found works great is a hanging shoe rack.

These are cloth tubes with sort-of-shelves inside a canvas canopy. They’re made to be hung from a ceiling hook, and the outside has small pockets that are just perfect for shoes – or fabric flowers, or large rolls of ribbon.

Plus a hanging shoe rack can be easily hung over any door.

Corralling Clutter with the “Great Thread Roundup”

I used to keep all my spools in a large wicker basket but this was a nightmare with ends tangling up and having to dig through the entire basket to find the spool I wanted.

Now I have a tub of Aurifil quilting thread. It’s a plastic tub with 2 layers (1 of large and 1 of small spools. I bought this as a set and I’ve never regretted it. It’s been 6 years now, and even though I quilt with these threads all the time, it looks as though I’ve barely started on it.

Old-fashioned crystal jars with solid lids used for corralling button clutter

These old-fashioned crystal jars are my button genre jars. They work perfectly for keeping a variety of specialty buttons which come in odd-shaped packages.

Large genre jar made from a plastic snack tub for holding large and bulky sewing accessories like large ribbons rolls, yarn and faux feathers

Junk food hath a few rewards. One of them being that this once-upon-a-time cheese ball jar has, after being well-washed, pressed into service as my trusty genre jar of odd-shaped supplies like a roll of yarn and faux feathers.

Arguably my favorite method for corralling clutter – ever! These small tubs are flat, simple, and hold those supplies that really tend to run away from you, like beads. This is also my preferred case for regular spools of thread.

I also buy a lot of specialty threads, like metallics and variegated, so I bought a deep plastic thread tub with plastic spool holders built in. This keeps those nicely corralled.

For leftover regular sized spools, I use the same plastic containers I use for my beads and buttons. I have 4 of these and I organize them by color. When I need a certain color, it’s only the work of minutes to find it. These are great because they stack easily and neatly and keep the dust off of everything.

Some threads don’t have a tie-off built into the spool. You can either stick them down with tape – a major pain – or store all these spools in a separate tub to minimize the damage.

Corralling your Sewing Supplies

For the sewing supplies that I use on an almost daily basis, I purloined a Tupperware tub from my kitchen that had lost its lid. In this I keep my scissors, pin cushion, rulers, corner turner, seam ripper, etc.

Besides being real handy, this topless solution allows me to simply grab whatever I need without bothering with lids.

Corralling Your Patterns and Books

You will inevitably end up with a great many patterns, books, and even plastic bags with your applique pieces. My system is to keep all the books on one half of a shelf on the girls’ business bookshelf.

The patterns that come in in Ziploc bags – and the applique shapes – I file in a large plastic basket that I keep in the same closet as my batting.

Here’s to Your Success in Corralling Clutter!

Whatever storage system you eventually adopt you can be sure that the ebb tide will sooner or later swell to a tidal wave and threaten to overwhelm someone else’s space.

When this happens, the only thing to do is go through everything and sort like crazy. You can’t keep everything so you have to be ruthless. Give your throwaways to friends, or a thrift store, or your quilting guild, etc.

Plastic tub filled with sewing supplies used for corralling clutter

I can’t say it enough – clear plastic tubs are the way to go when it comes to corralling clutter.

Plastic candy tubs are used to hold specialty ribbons

These flat plastic tubs once contained Christmas candy. But they are flat, with tight-fitting lids and they stack beautifully. I generally use them to store odds and ends like specialty ribbons and appliques.

If you don’t you’ll end up drowning under it all and that wouldn’t be very nice, now would it?

You will eventually develop a kind of working rhythm, but it’s always worthwhile to clean up every time you finish a project. You’ll be less frustrated, and your clean-up won’t be such a major pain!

The Road Less Traveled

May 11, 2018 by admin

How My Road Less Traveled Led to Fabric Art

At my high school graduation Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” was prominently displayed in the auditorium. This was the first time I had seen this particular poem and it resonated deeply within me.

It was probably because I had a rebellious gene passed down to me by generations of forbears that had resisted being physically or mentally imprisoned.

I decided then and there that no matter what I did on the outside of my life, my inner life would always be free – I would always follow the road where few others had gone before.

It was a decision that would come to define my life as “unconventional.”

Way Leading on to Way

My liberated attitude resulted in my having quite a few unconventional adventures, and dealing with the fallout and consequences of those adventures:

As you may know from your own life experiences, an adventure is something exciting and dangerous that happens to someone else and always turns out right. When it’s happening to you it’s just plain terrifying and dangerous and there are often unpleasant consequences.

Adventure: Spending two months on a short-term mission trip deep in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest

Consequence: Nearly dying from malaria

Adventure: Putting myself through university to get a teaching degree at a time when my entire family all felt that higher education was not something a good Mennonite girl did

Consequence: I became fiscally independent

Adventure: Spending my first year teaching on a Cree (Native Canadian) Reserve in the Northern Bush

Consequence: Handling a problem child who – at age twelve had a serious drug problem – and never, ever losing control of a classroom during the rest of my career

Adventure: Teaching on a Hutterite Colony, grades K-9 in one room

Consequence: Discovered that I best liked being my own boss and in charge daily program

Adventure: Spending a year teaching at a school for American military kids right on the DMZ in South Korea

Consequence: Insomnia – the constant raid drills and tension of living just a few miles from one of the most dangerous borders in the world left a lasting impression

The Road Not Taken

Poem by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Adventure: Reluctantly being goaded into sending a letter to a man in America that one of my fellow teachers from Korea knew

Consequence: Marriage

Adventure: Moving 2,000 miles to a new country and completely different culture (if you want to change cultures try moving from liberal, proper Canada to rough-and-tumble free-thinking Arizona ranch country!)

Consequence: Really, really like being my own boss

Adventure: Raising 3 kids and deciding that, once again, the road less travelled and best for us all would be homeschooling them

Consequence: Brilliant, free-thinking children

Adventure: Moving my family from Arizona to Colorado

Consequence: Learning to weed

Adventure: Deciding to pursue quilting and fabric art full time as my little chickens graduated their high school and began pursuing their own lives

Consequence: Discovered I hate matching corners and love making my own patterns

Which is why we have to make adjustments and take detours on our life’s road. As the poem so rightly puts it – “As way leads on to way, I doubted I should ever come back.”

Where it Bent in the Undergrowth

Where I started from is so far from where I am now, that an outsider would be left bewildered. But from the inside, my life’s journey has simply been way leading onto to way as I made the best decisions I knew out at every crossroads. Robert Frost really nailed this concept because it is everyone’s story.

In my case, simply because I have that one rebellious gene that just hates being told what to do and how to do it, I wandered off into interpretive quilting and creating my own designs. In other words, fabric art.

I will freely admit here that I get a real kick out of knowing that I have created something that is uniquely mine.

I deeply enjoy taking something that someone else has come up with, and figuring out a way to do it quicker, or easier, or cooler. J For instance, my girls needed a briefcase sort of bag to take to a conference, so I went to the quilt store and found 3 different patterns for:

A diaper bag,
A makeup bag
And a classmate bag for pens and notions

Then I took aspects of all 3 and came up with the media bag that is featured in this website. The girls took it to their conference to test drive it and pronounced it “awesome”! I deeply enjoy doing this. I like to learn something new, like fractures, and then take it up another level or two.

Doubting that I Shall Ever Return

I would really like to encourage all of you to do the same, both in your lives and your quilting adventure.

If you’re going to live, live your own life the best you can, taking the road which is less traveled and, sometimes, much more difficult. Because, in the end, what’s in your heart will be in your life, and the roads you’ve traveled will lead you where you need to be, rather than where other people think you should be.

As another example, I have to say that I find much of the “modern” patterns, colors and material choices less than inspiring.

I particularly loathe the combination of the pale teal and anemic coffee brown that is all the rage nowadays. I also loathe the boring blocky shapes that they make out of everything – like strawberries and cats.

These colors and shapes really offend my sense of beauty.

You may have noticed that I lean towards bright colors, flowers, fantasy, and bling, so that’s what I sew. It helps a lot that Suzanna and Leiajoy think the same way I do and that Suzanna is the Queen of Bling. If you view much of our stuff, you will see that we are liberal in our use of “notions”. I love what they add to a project!

So, feel free to express your individuality fellow travelers. You’ll have a few wrecks, but many more successes!

“May the road ever rise to greet you”