2020 is SUPER WEIRD guys! i didn't even think about making a costume this year, but who really has anyways?
though i did realize that i never did the post i promised from last year's halloween costume. so, 365 days later... here we are!
disclaimer: if you have not watched the good place, please note that i'm not a flight attendant. also, if you haven't watched the good place... go do so now. 4 seasons of delightful mike schur feel good fun.
watching the series, janet was pretty much my favorite character.
seeing her evolve and grow from being not a robot and not a girl to a straight up awesome individual was so much fun to watch. when the series was ending, i knew i needed to be janet for halloween, while she was still "relevant" as a tv character. granted, she'll always be relevant to me... but that's neither here nor there. so since we're a year behind, here's some photos i made my dad take this past weekend so that i'd have something beyond dark phone photos for y'all
i was so determined to find the actual fabric for janet's shirt somehow, some way... and after searching for a good long while... i did!
and of all places, it was project runway's favorite fabric shop, mood (thank you, mood!) now finding a pattern for all the pieces though... THAT was an adventure. the vest pattern was sized down from something else we already had (because apparently finding vest patterns are quite difficult these days, and the skirt came from a few rounds of buying patterns that i thought were the right style but then i'd compare and go "nope"
since i'm a quilter by nature, i absolutely did a test run on this shirt pattern before cutting up my fancy mood fabrics. so somewhere around this apartment is a very harry belafonte blue and yellow ruffle front shirt, because i ran out of fabric to do a practice one in a solid color. it's SUPER attractive, really. the worst part of this was the zipper, because i just couldn't quite do it right. i know i pulled it apart at least twice, and left it for my mom to do. two thumbs up for having a costumer mom who is WAY more familiar with stretchy fabrics and such than i am. i also sized down the vest a little too much, so i'm quite surprised i didn't hulk out of that thing at any point.
i am still super stoked with how this all came together, even if people thought i was a flippin' retro flight attendant. maybe at some point we'll still get to throw together the good janet/bad janet/michael combo with my sister and my dad like we had planned for our dance recital... unless we come up with some other crazy idea to go with instead! and for good times sake, here's some halloween throwbacks from 2019 in the costume.
i think i've tested a few patterns in my day prior to this one... but i honestly cannot think of any others besides boba fett... but this one was a real delight to put together! in the past month or so i joined a young and millennials quilter group on facebook, and have zero regrets about the group. like... i made lisa join it too, and she's had great results from it. one of the first posts i responded to was from joanna with kustom kwilts looking for people to test her pattern. i thought it looked AWESOME, so i jumped on board and responded, despite the other things i still had planned to do.
i'm sure you're sensing a pattern here with my project behaviors. can't be productive if 10,000 things aren't happening at once! originally, i signed up for the lap sized quilt, but when she needed testers for the baby size, i gladly obliged. let's be real... i should have only taken on the baby sized quilt for testing... but you'll see where this same situation happens again VERY soon.
before this quilt, i had never made one that was 100% out of grunge. and if you've seen my posts before, you know very well how much i love, love, love it. like, we just got all the moda grunges in at the shop, and i'm like a walking heart eye emoji whenever i'm near them. i took advantage of this size and pulled a rainbow assortment of fat quarters that helped complete the rainbow plus a few extras to make it pop (i needed 9 for the baby size). with that, i starched, ironed, and then got to cutting!
i tried to space the colors out the best i could, since i didn't want the same three colors to rotate through the blocks, leaving me with only 3 different colorway sets. i have to say, i think i did a pretty darn good job with it! this quilt, much like the mini meadowland i posted last week, had 16" blocks, which was perfect. the size of the center star was just the right side, and with the grunge there was no worry about anything being directional.
the great thing about this crayola-esque color way, is it isn't really gender specific. the fabric i picked for the back was this perfectly matched rainbow brick print i got at thistledew's retirement sale. once i quilted this quilt, i assumed it was just going to sit and wait for a home before i decided how to bind it. then, i remembered a dear friend of mine from high school was expecting her first baby, and she would be the perfect person to receive this fun quilt. i bound it in raspberry pink grunge, since i had a ton left over from the meadowland backing, and sent it on it's way.
beyond the grunge, i loved a lot of things about this pattern. everything is made from traditional quilt block piecing - half square triangles and flying geese in particular. there is plenty of room to trim down, and most of the points aren't even near the final seam allowance to get lost. i'm one that often loses points on my block edges, but this one i had GREAT experience with, and i think i only lost a few points, and that was due to binding. i call that a win.
i loved looking and seeing other pattern testers versions of this block. some fussy cut things for the middle and others used only two color ways instead of 9 to get a totally different effect. i hope someday i'm a little more bold when it comes to pattern testing instead of following the instructions EXACTLY as written. but you know what. i love my grungey kapow so much. i think that top left pink/yellow/aqua one might be my favorite block though.
i got SO MANY PROJECTS done this week! first off, i ran a bunch of errands last monday, got some cans exchanged for a solid $5 AND got taco tree for dinner. that was just on monday!
tuesday was a trickier day - our dance studio started back up, which was an event all in itself. can i just say i'm glad at least some of us know how to wear masks correctly? oy. psa: not covering your nose doesn't count.
wednesday though... wednesday was productive! after a full day at work, i knocked out the quilting on my bold blocks quilt i've been pattern testing for allison ramsing AND came home to make 2 pillowcases that i had been putting off. i bought some really cute"dinoween" fabric well over a month ago at the big J, but it just sat. finally on monday, i bought the flannel to coordinate and i knocked these suckers out. at least i'll have 10 days of pre-halloween useage of them this year.
thursday and friday i sewed up the rest of my dinosaur blocks in to a quilt top, and then saturday i got binding on my bold blocks quilt. on sunday, things got photographed, which means more blog posts are about to happen!
i've printed off a blank calendar to start planning for next month's posts, and that leads me to my next predicament. should i invest in a 2021 planner? or is it going to be a total wash like the one i bought for 2020? i've got some big blogging and youtube plans for 2021, so part of me wants to say yes, just based on that alone. its not like i'll be having to keep track of summer camp writing deadlines, preschool meetings and such.
i guess if i go run errands and hit target today (or stay home and spend too much time on amazon) then i'll see if i end up impulse buying something!
granted, i'm nearing birthday week. so impulse buys are going to be more justified (by me) than normal... but that's also really difficult with a november birthday followed by december in christmas. i usually get told i'm not allowed to buy anything for myself between now and january. ha.
there was awhile back where i did a LOT of swaps (primarily in my craftster days) but it also seems like the swapping concept totally died out on instagram. it is weird how these things come in waves. anywho, my friend angelina added me to her online crew of sewing/quilting type and at some point during one of the saturday night hangouts, they suggested a halloween themed swap.
simple small item, sounded easy enough, so why not put off all other things and jump on in? sounds like my style.
once the wait was over, i was given angelina's name to create something for. i decided that i would create a tote bag using one of the fussy cut sampler blocks from the class she did in 2018, but make it "spooky." i switched between a handful of fabric ideas before settling on using a bunch of the fabrics from moda's ghouls and goodies. this line was just TOO CUTE to pass up, and PERFECT for fussy cutting.
i used one of the blocks from chapter 6 (see the catasaurus version here) and the majority of it all is the ghouls and goodies line. the black squares are moda grunge (holla!) and the witch boots i believe are riley blake. those teeny tiny kitties were just too cute to not arrange this way!
when crating the front of the back itself, i used this star print i picked up locally from swifty stitches. i didn't use a specific tutorial for the bag/block placement, but instead just doodled up some measurements in my bullet journal and went for it. the bottom strip is probably an inch bigger than the top one, just to give it a little more weight visually. things i learned in photography classes do in fact pay off with quilting!
for the back of the bag, i considered just doing a solid... but i kind of went on an impulse buying spree and had so many cure prints leftover that i hadn't used yet! i made 3 strips of fabrics of varying colorways and prints, pieced them together and wha laa! one fabulous bag back. as far as the quilting goes, i primarily did a stitch in the ditch on both the front and the back of the bag, and then did a skinny straight line stitch on all the black. on the front, the vertical and horizontal lines intersect in the corners. keeping it simple sure helped my sanity! i probably should have layered the batting with some muslin to stabilize it a little bit better when quilting, but i still think it turned out great.
the purple clothesline from the collection was something that i instantly knew would be the lining. i couldn't bring myself to cut it up and loose bits of it because of how insanely cute it was. i sewed up the sides, squared up the bottom and then attached at the top. i should have left a hole in the side to flip it right side out, but instead i left the hole in the top and closed it up when top stitching. if i made a tote again, which could easily happen, that is what i'd do instead.
fot the straps i started off a little bit wider, but once i got the inner witch boot strips cut, they needed to come down a smidge, so the focal could be on the boots in the center of the lining. i kept the star black consistent on top and sewed the 3 layers together before flipping right side out. top stitched the edge and about a quarter of an inch away and they were perfect! i also wanted to include one of my new quilt tags on to my bag, so after realizing i could have sewn it in the seam of the lining (fail) i cut it down to size and sewed it on to the inside of the strap. i love how it turned out there, and i might just need to order some square tags now specifically for these kinds of projects!
while i might tweak the creation process of this bag, i have no regrets in the final result! i'm so glad i went with this one line of fabric... and it honestly made me want to keep making fussy cut sampler blocks for a halloween quilt. but then i swiftly reminded myself i have a list a mile long to deal with, and that fleeting idea will have to wait for another day (or year).
oh my goodness... this poor quilt has been done FOREVER and just got mailed off last week. it is WAY over due for it's time in the spotlight!
when i found out my dear friend jessica was having baby girl number three, i was thrilled to come up with a way to incorporate our childhood love of kitties in to this quilt. but apparently that is the theme for her getting baby quilts... they come eventually! (half hexi smokey cat quilt was baby girl #2).
being in the midst of quarantine while making this, and possibly even during my unemployment phase, i needed a pattern that was quick, easy and i could use my stash for. the meadowland quilt was one i had my eye on for quite some time, and it was the perfect size for a wee one to grow with. i had a lot of pinks, aquas and grays from previous projects, so it was the perfect mix for a baby girl.
the collections of pinks i had surprised me, since i don't often use them in my quilt! granted, a bunch of them came from my rad 100 days 100 blocks quilt that was all over the rainbow. the aqua kitty heads were just too cute to pass up when i did some shop hopping awhile ago, and they became the perfect tie in for this quilt!
these blocks were much larger than i expected them to be, which was great to feature these fabrics even more so. bigger blocks = more kitty cuteness, am i right? i used to think 12"blocks were gigantic and good, but something just feels good about these 16ish ones. maybe that's because i spent a good three months making 6 and a half inch blocks a few years ago!
i picked up the gray binding and raspberry grunge backing from caliquiltco.com to help tie it all together. i felt like the gray was enough to frame it up without being too "in your face" while the pink on the back was perfect. i did a simple crazy puzzle pantograph all over it to keep the focus on the blocks and not necessarily overwhelm it with quilting.
i would absolutely do this quilt again, using a wider variety of colors and in a larger size. could i use a new quilt for my bed? hmmm... 6 quilts layered during the wintertime could be exactly what i need! i should also add that i found a blog post that helped figure out how to keep the directional fabric going the same way on all of the flying geese pieces (helpful for those kitty heads especially) if you plan to do a meadowland and want to know how to keep it directional, the link is here: four at a time geese with directional fabric
i think calling october as a whole "spooky season" is pretty cute. but this post doesn't have a single spooky related thing in it...
oh well.
i have to say overall, this week has been pretty good in the crafty department.
monday, i went to the long arm to complete someone else's quilt, and after a few funky moments, i finished it! it will go to it's home this week, and then i'll actually be back long arming my own project this wednesday. whoo hoo!
last week, you may have heard i cut out 1200 white squares... yeah. true story. well, a few days went by that i had nothing to sew, and then i finally hit the ground running. i bought the fabric i needed for the next phase of my cutting, which is only half of the ones i need. we don't seem to have all of the "old colors" for the v and co ombre dots, so i'll be looking to see which new ones to mix in. as well as comparing to add in to the little sister quilt that goes with this one.
ALSO... we had a sew day yesterday out in elk grove, which means i got started on my baby sized elizabeth hartman dinosaur quilt. so far, i got all my plants done as well as half the dinosaurs. i don't have any sneak peek photos yet, unless you look on my instagram, but this one is SO GOOD. i had a different idea for when i made the one that would be "my size" but man, i'm going to have to scrap it and make it in this colorway for sure, i love it so much. also, i had to start the hashtag emilylovesdinosaurs, which i imagine will take over instagram in no time. well, a girl can dream, right?
i also impulse bought a ring light this week, which will hopefully be a game changer when i have to do late night blog header photos (like the one above) BUT i also have a crazy idea for 2021, quilting and youtube, and i really think that this will help out. granted, i bought the cheapest one on amazon, which comes with a crummy non adjustable tripod and a weird phone mount, so i might need to make some adjustments there.
stay tuned for new finished projects this week! i've got 4 coming at you before the end of october, so don't miss out.
can you believe we're now over a week and half in to october? where has the time gone? i feel like it took SO LONG to get through april and may, and now the days are just flying by and christmas will be here before we know it. am i ready for christmas? despite the amount of holiday quilts i have made... absolutely not!
i've officially worked a week and a half full time retail now, and i have to say... i regret nothing. the transition between everything has been smooth, and besides my whacked out sleep schedule, everything is going great. i feel like i'm getting better each day about pulling online orders, getting things put back, and being overall knowledgeable about where things are, information about products, and all the random bits in between.
yesterday i went to brunch with a few members of the preschool team, and it was delightful. noisy, but very delightful i look forward to many more future "non-work" gatherings with these lovely individuals i worked with these past 6 years. don't worry, we were distanced, masked and extra safe even with things starting to be lifted in our counties here in california.
after brunch, i took my trolly full of things to my parents house to get projects started, double checked, and even on their way to their new homes! i photographed and packed up 3 baby quilts, sorted my grunge FQs for my dinosaur quilt, and even got some kona cut for some matching quilts. productivity underway? you betcha!
now on to this week.
today, i'm long arming a quilt for someone who got my info through caliquiltco. holla! it's a mega one, so even though i just finished a quilt i'm pattern testing, i will be holding off and putting all my energy in to the one. i'll be doing a pantograph i'm very familiar with, so that helps as well. (loop the loop, for reference. it is the same one i have done on my kittens quilt and numerous music quilts)
after i complete that, it will go back to it's owner and i'll be able to take a breath and do some more things on my own list. those things include, but aren't limited to:
-finish bold blocks quilt -prep little sister quilt -prep big sister quilt - FINALLY start my dinosaur quilt
i also realized you all never saw my halloween costume from last year... there was a plan for it to be worn during our dance recital this summer, but due to current situations, that clearly did not happen. so perhaps i'll add "awkwardly photograph self in parent's driveway" to my list of things to do in the days before halloween as well.
and i think once we hit november, i'll feel better about hitting you all with my christmas quilts. once i finish my bold blocks quilt, i'll be up to three completed quilts, and then i just need to finish MINE. can i get it done before december? let's all send good productive vibes out in to the world saying a big fat YES.
don't worry, i'm not jobless at all. in fact, quite the opposite. ya girl is FINALLY working a full time gig.
months ago, when i went back to working childcare after being unemployed and then hired by caliquiltco, i was put on hold at the shop due to COVID still being fairly new and unknown of what i could contract now working with children of essential care workers.
spoiler alert: i didn't get covid. (granted, i fear jinxing myself EVERYTIME i write that)
anyways, in the meantime, i was given a full time offer that lingered for awhile. but i was anxious for the potential of preschool to resume. but it didn't. and it still hasn't. so after much reflection and realizing the things i want to do with my life that putting everything on hold just wasn't going to help with, i made the plunge to leave my job of 6 years and accept the full time offer presented to me.
of course, i did it the day before i went to the training, which i guess was nice, since it helped cushion the blow and shorten the amount of days remaining before my final day.
yeah, i cried. a lot. i'll admit it. for like a week before and after. but come my final day, i survived. i got a little teary and sad when i saw the note on the white board, but i managed to not fully melt down. so that's a plus. man, we're getting REAL on this post!
i'll miss the familiarity, and i'll for SURE miss the kiddos, but now it is on to a new adventure that will open doors for so many more things. it's going to be a transition working retail again for the first time in like... 8 years? but here's to new adventures. onward and upward, they say.
ok, so yeah... i totally made it sound WAY more dramatic than it really was, but with this current covid situation, i knew that if i mentioned leaving the state it probably wouldn't go over well. but it has been 2 weeks since my 2nd flight, and no symptoms, so i'm pretty sure i'm extra in the clear and can talk about it more. especially since my own dad said he would have just driven since it was utah.
thanks dad.
so i got to the airport with plenty of time, and my flight was DELAYED.
somehow, every trip i go to involving SLC airport, there is a delay. i spent over FIVE HOURS there once... but this isn't the time for that story.
got to get on the plane, they changed my seat, and now here i was with a row to myself!
couldn't get better than that.
plus, the way they are doing "snack packs" on delta flights are legit. ziplock bag, mini purell, water bottle, cheese its and cookies.
ok, so lets get to the reason of WHY i was headed to SLC.
about a month ago after a live show, joe was talking to tayva about another worker at the shop not wanting to travel right now go to a training. they asked me if i would be interested in going, and after hearing all the good details i said ABSOLUTELY.
what training was it? it was a two day training at the grace company for using the quilt motion programing with the qnique long arm machines! i have pretty much only used a self guided gamill, so using a computerized machine was a new and exciting adventure for me. i got a crash course in the table from tayva before leaving, which combined with a few youtube videos helped me feel a little bit better about not having used the machine hands on at all. the first day was so great, i took so many notes, and was really ready to get back on the machine as soon as possible.
look at this rosco cat i stitched out. could i have done that on my own by hand? NO WAY. it would have turned out looking like a derpy snowman, i'm sure.
we did block placement in multiple ways, used all three different pantograph (edge to edge) modes, and then got in to the cool gold features like borders and corners, fonts, and more! here's some videos i took put together to show you the machine doing it's thing.
besides the first one being a boomerang i saved from my instagram stories, these are all normal speed of it magically quilting on it's own. isn't it the coolest! i love that they created this panel for us to break each skill down in a designated area. here's the panel broken down in to different sections so you can see all of what was done! don't mind my untrimmed threads. totally skipped my brain until i got to the last segment of this panel. whoops.
there were so many cool tricks we learned over the course of two days that left me so excited and anxious to get my hands on a machine again soon! i should really finish up a quilt top or two, just so i can get something of my own quilted as practice, so maybe i'll throw something together quickly this week in order to do so... even though my list of other projects is also quite long.
but wait! i wasn't only in SLC for training!
i was able to stay a few extra days and hang out with lisa and her crew before coming home sunday morning. she picked me up from the training on friday and we drove out to 3 or 4 different shops, plus a nail salon for pedicures and dinner at olive garden before coming back to their place in layton.
saturday was spent in the RAIN at football and soccer games, eating chickfila, cruising wal mart and eating twisted sugar cookies. SO. GOOD. it was a nice little get away to see people outside of my normal work/home/parents house routine, and be able to talk about all the crafty & quilty things going down. sunday morning was an early flight home, and then back to reality of the next week and a half before my last day of work.
oh boy. where to begin? back in august 2019, when my personal 2020 started with heartbreak that just kept on rolling? nah, that's too far to start rehashing.
we're all fairly aware of how rough 2020 has been in general, so no need to recap those early months in entirety. but for those of you that are just joining us, i'm emily. i'm a preschool teacher that was put on hold because of COVID, was on unemployment for a bit, and then started working at a quilt shop before going back to childcare in may. since then, i had been working both jobs split, with the additional dance classes i teach just out there in space, because that just straight up wasn't happening.
ok, fast forward to september.
1. i cut my hair (FINALLY) 2. i quit my job 3. i left the state
okay, that made it sound super dramatic... but just hang in there. i'm going to break this down in to parts. first, the hair cut, since it made the list.
i was supposed to have a haircut in like... july... but then it got cancelled.
then, as luck would have it, california was allowed to reopen things and i went in for the CHOP.
long overdue, but 10" is ready to be donated. and it feels SO GOOD to have short hair again.
i told some coworkers that it was the breakup haircut i needed a year ago. partially true, but also they didn't know i was just days away from turning in my notice.
yep.
after much deliberation and internal debate, i turned in my two week notice.
preschool wasn't resuming any time soon, the district is currently fully distance learning and wouldn't be moving to hybrid until AFTER my birthday in november.
i cried a lot that week, as one would imagine, and then drove to my parents after work that day.
no, i didn't need THAT much consoling.
instead, they were driving me to the airport (see? that previous time lapse post wasn't irrelevant!)
but now that i've checked off parts 1 & 2 for the september list, i'm going to make you wait on part 3. because its a pretty big deal, and a whole lot of awesome :)
the last few weeks have been a real whirlwind, that i'm still trying to both wrap my head around as well as document here for the years to come.
also, i felt real weird blogging christmas quilts in september, so even though those are done, i'm still going to wait a little longer to post them... at least until the weather is a little bit cooler. thanks, fake california fall.
in the meantime, here's a fun little video to tide you over, which will also play in to the update post that is yet to come :)
