october!

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.

so i quit my job.

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.

leaving california... (don't worry, i still came back)

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.

yep.  that wasn't a lie.

i totally did quit my job.

but more on that... next time :)

new journey starts here

 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 :)

hi again.

 don't worry, i'm here.

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 :)

labor day weekend vibes

don't you worry, you're not losing your mind.
you're not wrong, today is in fact tuesday and NOT monday like usual.
i figured i'd take the three day weekend off from blogging as well, and include monday's productivity in this weekly update as well.

i'm a little shocked we've also made it in to the september level of 2020.
what chaos is going to ensue this month?

this week included a lot of prep work, and then the weekend hit at full steam.
monday, i started cutting out the blocks for the baby quilt i wanted to get done this week (you know.  the one with the fat quarter bundle i impulse bought).  tuesday, i bought the kona to go with it and chopped it up.  by thursday (i think) i had all my blocks done and a layout up on my design wall.  i needed saturday to come, because i needed to spread out.

and saturday sure did happen.
i went to my parent's house early in the morning (by early, i mean 9am) and then my mom and i set out on a voyage to check out what was left at fabric garden for their going out of business sale.  we made it there by 9:30, to be the 5th and 6th in line (luckily, they let us both go in together even though the cut of was 5)
i found a backing for my kapow quilt, binding for a christmas quilt, plus a few random pieces of yardage here and there.  no grunge to stash away, or i could have gone for broke.  then headed to swifty stitches where i got some thread for quilting and then we attempted to go to fabric garden, but i didn't check ahead of time and they don't have saturday hours again just yet.  my bad.
after lunch i got down to business and knocked out the entire quilt top in one day (including a dinner pizza break) and followed it up with making the 3 backs needed for quilting.

monday i quilted for 6 hours, and got all three quilts done!
now the rest of this week will be spent recuperating and gearing up to making some binding.  
i suppose i could also start working on either my big/little sister quilt sets or the shop samples.
hmm... decisions, decisions...

girl at the (future) rock show onesie set

 my best friend is having a baby girl!

well, you saw the peek at the virtual shower a few weeks ago, now it is time to take a closer look at the onesies!  one of our favorite things to do together is go to concerts, and we have been to a total of 5 fall out boy concerts along with seeing backstreet boys, panic! at the disco and more.  it was on our "to do" list for this summer to go to the hella mega tour, but covid had it's own plans, and that has been rescheduled to next summer.  probably for the best since we were going in houston in the summer and she's pregnant.  so we'll see the show in 2021, but in the meantime, that baby girl is going to be rockin' out in style!

i needed a little decor for the back of my own zoom screen, so i busted out my freezer paper stencil skills and created a set of 5 onesies for the little princess headed our way.  since we love our live music, i picked all the bands we have seen together (or will see together) to give this girl the style she needs while rockin' out to the music i'm SURE her mom is blasting.  i used size 6-9 month onesies for this set, but apparently i should have gone a bit bigger due to the size of some of the band logos!  of course, i ran out of reasonable shaped band logos to do with freezer paper (green day was a bit too intense for my cutting skills)

i painted all the onesies in neon colors, because... well... i wanted to!
the neon just seemed a lot more bright and fun to me, and made them a little more girly.  of course, i had to do the fall out boy one in "mania" ultraviolet purple though.  and the token disney onesie absolutely needed to be in traditional mickey mouse black.  without further delay, here they each are in all their hand painted glory!

the first phase of gifts are now revealed and on their way, while phase 2 is currently under construction.  i'm SO excited with how that part is coming together, i cannot wait for the big reveal on it.  luckily, i've got a 3 day weekend with no live show saturday and neither job on monday (i was strongly encouraged to take the day off from the shop) and a date with a long arm.  fingers crossed my mail arrives on time and things get done!