Mindy's Musings

2009-10-14T16:05:00.002-04:00

My, how time goes by so fast! While I've been busy keeping the house neat and tidy for showings, getting the kids off to school and planning next years classes, summer has slipped away and fall has snuck up on me! I'm not complaining really....I love fall. Fall is without a doubt my favorite time of year! I was just hoping to be moved and settled in by fall....

So, I guess all my quilty friends are wondering what I'm teaching at shows next year. Well, I have come up with a couple of new classes to tickle your fancy! Here is a list of them:

I've Got A Longarm (and I'm not afraid to use it)
(Beginner Longarm class)
Hands on class will cover all the basic info about machine quilting on a frame ~ regardless of what frame or machine you have. This is a great class for beginners and for those who are considering the purchase of a machine/frame system. We’ll cover the differences in frames, oiling and maintenance of the machine, timing, tension and adjustments, threads, batting, needles. Mindy will demonstrate how to properly load a quilt on the frame and how to keep it straight on the frame throughout the quilting process and how to finish it off.

Longarmed & Fabulous
(Advanced Longarm Class)
This class is for confident beginners who are ready to move on from pantographs and edge to edge designs and begin custom quilting. In this class you will learn how to stabilize the quilt, master stitch-in-the-ditch and ¼” outline, conquer continuous curve, learn how and when to turn a quilt, and sashay through setting in motifs using the following tools and methods: chalk, markers, paper stencils and templates. We’ll also tickle your fancy with some faux trapunto and background fillers. When you leave this jam-packed class, you’ll have a good grasp of the skills needed to begin custom quilting for yourself and your customers!

TNT
(Drawing class OR hands-on workshop in studio)
Do you love templates? You couldn’t resist buying them, but got home and didn’t know what to do with them? Let Mindy guide you through using acrylic templates to enhance your quilting skills. Circles, ovals, hearts and many more will create numerous designs. Master your templates! This drawing class will simulate using your machine hopping foot around the template and will teach you how to plan your designs to be stitched on your quilts.

TNT2
(Drawing class, OR hands-on workshop in studio)
This DYNAMITE drawing class is an advanced version of TNT which will include more detailed and intricate border and block designs. Learn now to make your designs turn the corner and learn flexible designs for borders, sashings, blocks, setting triangles so you can quilt these spaces without worrying about resizing your designs. Discover how to use registration lines, circles, hearts, swags and many more templates to create fantastic border and block designs!

Bodacious Borders
(Drawing Class)
Do borders have you bogged down? Can’t keep ‘em in line? Tired of the same old border designs? Then this is the class for you! Using free motion quilting, templates and stencils, we’ll learn at least 20 border designs. We’ll use mark and no-mark methods and registration lines. We’ll learn how to keep the borders straight, how to deal with fullness in the borders, how to choose the best design for the quilt, and how and when to turn the quilt.

Not Gonna Take It Lying Down
(Lecture/Demo)
Stretch your imagination and use your creativity! Let’s explore some projects that are not ever going to keep you warm at night. First, we’ll learn how to load multiple small projects on the frame at once. Then, how about some projects that are not even quilts?! We’ll be using threads, yarns, fibers, stabilizers, and other unexpected items to make unique, surprisingly simple projects for gifts or for yourself. This class is loads of fun! Feel free to bring your camera so you can capture all of these great ideas step by step.

Bunny Quilting
(Lecture/Demo OR Drawing Class)
Tired of stopping and starting over and over again? Let’s just keep going and going and going….
Using traditional quilt blocks, we’ll learn to choose quilting designs for them that are easy to accomplish, free motion, continuous line designs and fill the blocks well. These designs will use little or no marking and will make every quilt unique and beautiful! These are great for sampler quilts too. Bring a pad of tracing paper to put over the block designs (your handout) so you can reuse them.

Swags Galore
(Drawing Class)
In this drawing class we will use acrylic templates and free motion quilting to make gorgeous swag designs.
Do you drool over gorgeous swag designs but can’t figure out how to make them? In this class we’ll use acrylic circles, ovals, and swag tools to accomplish just that! We’ll embellish them with freemotion quilting too. We’ll learn when one tool is more appropriate than another, how to make our designs turn the corners, and some ways to make them fit your space perfectly with no math! This class will enable you to create your own designs to make your quilts totally unique and stunning.

So, most of these will be taught at MQX, and I've also submitted them to AQS and Mancuso, so hopefully I'll be teaching more next year.

I'm also going to teach a one hour hands-on workshop at MQX on altered fabric. I'm having tons of fun coming up with ideas for that one! I've also just set up a new Yahoo! group called AlteredFabric today. So, if you're interested and want to learn, or have ideas to share, please join me there!

Also, I'm encouraged that the house has been shown more often lately. So we're keeping our fingers crossed here that we'll have a sale soon!

Must run now. I've just been informed by the children that they have no jeans that fit. Since fall is here and it's getting chilly, I suppose they need long pants now, so I must take them shopping. And so, I guess that's a good excuse to go out to dinner, too!

2009-08-16T16:16:00.004-04:00

So someone pointed out to me that I hadn't put up a "before" pic so you could really see what a drastic improvement we had made in the kitchen. So, here is the "before" pic. This was made a couple of years ago. The original wallpaper is there, along with a sample piece I had taped on the wall. I was "auditioning" it. After a while, Lars decided that it was good enough and he bought 3 rolls of it. I threw them out when we moved. He had painted the cabinets green a few years earlier when I was away at a quilt show. That particular weekend, he killed the stovetop and replaced it, and then decided to paint the cabinets also. In this picture with me, are my friends Dot and Cathie V. from VA.

So, in the "after" pic, you can see that we kept the stovetop since it was still in good shape (and the oven and dishwasher), we replaced the counter top and put up the tile backsplash, replaced the rangehood, and removed the wallpaper and painted the soffitt and cabinets, and replaced all the hardware. So, as my friend Tom says, break out the crayons and color me done. Done with the kitchen anyway.

Every girl needs a pink room!

2009-08-14T12:56:00.005-04:00

So, since we're trying to sell the house, the realtor suggested I "neutralize" a couple of rooms. One of these rooms was Naomi's bedroom. Naomi's room was painted pink and brown. 3 walls pink, one wall brown. Her bed is also painted bright pink. As you've probably guessed by now, Naomi loves pink. We also chose the brown because Naomi loves horses, and horses are usually brown. I love the simplistic way kids think.
So, anyway, the room had to be painted, so I've posted a couple of before and after photos here. It took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to cover it all. Naomi hates it, of course.

This old house....

2009-08-14T12:46:00.007-04:00

My new (old) kitchen!

Wonder why I've been quiet lately? Been busy "making over" my house!

I thought I'd post some pictures of our kitchen renovation. It was the most work, and the most rewarding project we've done!

The first pic is the kitchen cabinets, freshly painted white, and the counter top has been removed. The backsplash is still there and the countertop was the same material.

The next picture shows the new countertop, and the beautiful new sink. The last one shows the new tile backsplash going in.

All in all, it was a lot of work, but made such a HUGE difference. We're very pleased with the results, and actually looking forward to doing some more projects with tile in the future!

Sum Sum Summertime

2009-07-08T16:54:00.006-04:00

Been cleaning up the yard lately and enjoying watching everything in full bloom! I've added some pics here of the girls, helping me plant some flowers near the front door, and the blueberry bush (we're enjoying fresh blueberries in our yogurt and pudding, and on waffles....), and my lillies, and my rose bush in bloom. Hope you enjoy these!

Going to a show!

2009-07-08T16:39:00.006-04:00

See, I promised to do better, and here I am again, already!!
Today's post is not quilting-related, but I had to share. We went to a concert with friends last night. We went to see .38 Special and Styx. This is quite amusing to me because I saw both of those bands in the mid 80's, so here I am nearly 20-something years later, listening to the same music! So, we took the boat across the bay, parked it at a restaurant that we were really looking forward to eating at, and planned to leave the boat there while we went to dinner and the concert. Turns out, everyone else had the same idea! The restaurant was absolutely packed. So we wandered on over to the concert, just down the road, and ate at the food stands there.

The concert was wonderful! Except for the 4 people who were 2 rows ahead of us and refused to sit for the entire show. I have a lot of wonderful pictures of their backsides, but I won't share those with you. I will add a couple of pics from the show here, though. So, of course, by the time the show was over, it was dark and we had to take the boat back across. I had not been out for a couple of years, and I had completely forgotten how much I LOVE being on the water at night. No sunburn, no skeeters, no jet skiiers ~ just calm peaceful water and the company of good friends. That was my favorite part of the whole event!

2009-07-02T21:53:00.002-04:00

Alright, alright, alright, quit naggin'! I KNOW I haven't posted anything here for a long time....but I do appreciate that you all keep coming back, just in case!
So....here's the scoop.....we moved back to MD, I had to get it together to teach MQX shortly afterward, and since then I've been up to my neck in boxes and painting rooms and now the kids are out of school for summer (whose bright idea was that anyway??) so I can't get anything done. Planted some flowers out front and as soon as I can find the camera I'll post some pictures of those. Got a beautiful shot of the magnolia blossoms.
So, we got a few machine sales from MQX, and now we're in the middle of delivering and setting up those. Got one done last week, and will do 2 more this weekend, and then we'll be all caught up. So I have several used machines and frames, if anyone out there is interested!
And we spent a couple of weekends up in PA. Kids had a blast on Uncle Justin's new go-kart and are begging for one of their own now.
Must close now and pack tools and stuff for tomorrow's machine delivery. I promise to look for the camera so I can post those new pics and I promise I will try to post here more often. 2 months is definitely too long!

Until next time.....

2009-04-19T17:39:00.004-04:00

On my way home now from MQX in NH. Had a fantastic time with old and new friends!

My friend Jody (from high school!) came to hang out with me this week. We had a wonderful time reconnecting and renewing our friendship. PLUS, I got to hang out with all my quilty buddies and teach a few classes. What a FABULOUS week!

Landscape quilt

2009-04-13T18:20:00.008-04:00

The quilt is covered with tulle, and then quilted.

Finally done! This is the last of my class samples for MQX. Finally done, and bound, and tucked away in my suitcase for it's trip to NH tomorrow!

Landscape Quilt

2009-04-11T11:57:00.002-04:00

These are pictures of my latest project for my MQX class called "Not Gonna Take It Lying Down." This class covers things we can make on the quilting machine, but not real bed quilts.
So this is a landscape quilt. It's made kinda like a real quilt, but then I've added some charms, shells, foam pieces, rocks. Next I'll add tulle on top and quilt it to finish it off. I'll post more pics of that when it's finished later today or tomorrow.

New (old) Studio in MD

2009-04-04T13:11:00.011-04:00

Just a couple more pics to update you all on the progress in the studio. Got the room painted (well half of it....the other half has to wait til after MQX) and my desk unpacked, and some of the studio set up. More to come...

The rack and hanging baskets came from Ikea.
The green paint dried to a more sage color, that I am quite happy with, after all. I was really worried that it was too green at first.

Still have trim around the windows and door to do, and a door to hide the sump pump, too. All that will come in time (and with much nagging!) I'm sure.

And, I still need to put up a pegboard and get all my thread hung up on it. I love all the color on the wall! But, I'm hesitant to cover up my pretty new paint!

And the IQ still has to be set up.

And the hand-grenade.....well, I think everyone should have one on their desk!!

Now.....back to work. All the business end, bookkeeping and such is caught up, so now I can finish working on my MQX class samples. My new class, Not Gonna Take It Lying Down is going to be sooo much fun and I'm really looking forward to it, but since it's new I don't have any samples made yet for it. So, gotta get to work on that, and an updated handout for TNT, and a new handout for the Bodacious Borders class. Think I can get all that done in one week? We'll see....

2009-04-03T08:16:00.004-04:00

Spring is finally here! My crocus have bloomed and gone, and now the daffodils are in bloom. My little lillies are poking their heads out of the ground and I always really look forward to those coming into bloom! Lillies are absolutely my favorite flowers and I have tons of them planted in our yard.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the lillies to bloom, we've been working on my studio in the basement, also known as "the dungeon." The cinder block walls are now hidden behind beautiful drywall! I had no idea that doing drywall was so much work!! First, there was the framing, then hanging the drywall, then taping and mudding, then sanding....and more sanding....and more sanding. Finally, priming and painting. Now, it's all done and I can finally unpack! That's my goal for today ~ unpacking and arranging the studio.

So, now I'm down to only one week left before I go to MQX and a whole bunch of class samples to get done!! Next week will be awfully busy for me.

2009-03-26T19:57:00.005-04:00

Been really busy here with unpacking and getting settled in, and working on finding all my stuff so I can finish up my class samples for MQX. I've posted some pics here of the samples I worked on today. This is for a class called Not Gonna Take It Lying Down and it's all about things we can "make" on the longarm machine, but not actual quilts.
These are thread appliques ~ made totally out of thread. You see them here on water-soluble stabilizer, but when the stabilizer is washed away you're left with only thread. These are SO much fun to play with!!

2009-03-10T18:31:00.002-04:00

My, how time flies! After some harrassment from well-meaning readers of my blog, I have discovered that I have not posted anything new in over 3 months!
Well, obviously, I've been busy. For those of you keeping up with me thru other means (because you're obviously not going to find out much here!), you know that I'm in the middle of moving. So, now the BIG MOVE has occurred and I am drowning in a sea of boxes. They are everywhere ~ all over the place! Big boxes, small boxes, short boxes, tall boxes! And I have no idea how I'm ever going to get thru them all!
And, in the middle of all this, we're renovating the room downstairs that is my studio. It was the basement ~ block walls, concrete floor. We've now framed it, insulated it and drywalled most of the room. We've done enough that I can move in and set up shop again.
Well, that's all today. I've got to get back to the boxes. I'll try to not go long in between posts next time, and I'll also try to get some pictures of my new studio up soon!

2008-11-24T15:03:00.005-05:00

More business news ~ more digitized designs! Some of these came about by accident. I have a customer who sent me a chair back to replicate and we took some of the elements of it to make more designs with. Jessica also arranged the different elements into a fantastic wholecloth design. She continues to awe me with her creativity of my stuff! I'll try to put in pics of those later.

I've also got some great pics of the last retreat in MD. Here is one of Lars teaching the maintenance class on Sunday morning.

On the homefront ~ we've painted the upstairs bathroom and it looks a million times better now. I love blue and brown together, so that's what we've done, and added a new shower curtain and it's actually a place I like to be in now.

The girls and I went to get haircuts and have some "girltime" at the mall yesterday. They both look absolutely stunning now with their new 'do's and new shoes!

2008-10-27T09:24:00.002-04:00

Well, now I can add "designer" to my resume! My swag designs are now officially published! I'm so thrilled! My digitizer, Jessica has been working hard with me over the last couple of weeks to get these done right away, because, well, as we all know, I have absolutely no patience. I want it and I want it now. So, here we are.

These designs are now available in several different formats for computerized quilting machines, for embroidery, and on paper as pantographs. It just doesn't get any better than that, does it? You can find these at www.digitechpatterns.com

Poor Jessica, she has 20 more of my designs to work on! Wonder how long she'll be able to stand me?

OK, it's Monday so I gotta get back to work and catching up on all the orders that came in over the weekend.

Min

2008-09-30T11:12:00.002-04:00

This is a gorgeous picture Lars took a couple of years ago. I absolutely love this pic!! This is taken from our boat on the Patuxent River. Aren't the leaves absolutely stunning?

Sooooo...... time for that first retreat! I have 4 students/guests signed up, so we have a full house! We went down last week, reopened the house and filled it with furniture, beds, kitchen utensils, new curtains, etc etc. Looks like a real home again! We've also taken it off the market for now. The market is soooo incredibly bad now and I can't plan retreats or classes or anything really with the house for sale. So, we're hoping that the retreats go well and will make the house payment for us! I don't mind working a little harder and teaching a little more!

OK, off to go finish those fabulous handouts for the retreat classes.

Min

Bunch of sickos

2008-09-20T20:46:00.006-04:00

First Naomi had strep. Had it for 2 days before the sore throat set it, so I had no clue that's what it was. The sore throat started on Saturday, of course. So on Monday we went to the Dr. On Tues, they got the test results and dished out meds. Had to be on meds for 24 hours before she could go back to school. So she went on Thurs. On Friday, the school nurse called and said Lara was sick. Same routine. I'm not feeling so great myself.

So......Lars had to go to NH by himself to do the quilt show. He's got help from Vickie, and all "my girls" have come by to bring him chocolate and cheer him up! This is a pic Vickie sent to me, taken while they were setting up the booth. I think they're doing just fine without me. Man, do I owe Vickie some favors now!!

Gotta go find some cough drops and crash on the couch.

Busy busy busy

2008-09-10T19:11:00.002-04:00

I guess I'm a little overdue for a new post and you all thought I was gonna just drop this, didn't you? Well, I fooled you! Just been busy. Very busy, but that seems to just be the way my life is.
Last week we were at the PA National Quilt Extravaganza. We've done this show several times now, so there are lots of familiar faces in the crowd and it's always fun to see everyone! We just love our customers and friends to drop by the booth and hang out for awhile, and fill us in on all they've been doing for the last year. Too much fun!!
Next week, we had up to NH again for the World Quilt Show in Manchester. Didn't have much luck with this show last year, so we're hoping for a change this time. There's also lots of our customers and friends up there. We've gotten to know so many because we also do the MQX show up there in the spring. So, again, we're looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and I'm hoping Kim will bring me more chocolate! (Hmmm....wonder if she reads my blog, or should I send her a note?)
While I'm on the subject of MQX, I have submitted my class applications and gotten all 5 on the schedule. Have a couple of new ones planned, so I'm looking forward to working on my samples for those.
OK, gotta go feed the kiddos and do a load of laundry. So much for the exciting life of a quilting celebrity! HA!

Min

New beginnings

2008-08-26T09:09:00.001-04:00

So, today I have decided to start a blog. I have enjoyed reading others' blogs, so I thought I'd try it!
I'll start off with a quick update of what we're doing now. The kids went back to school yesterday. (YIPPEE!!!!!) It's amazing how much Lars and I accomplished in one day without all the interruptions. "Mommy can I play on Daddy's computer?" "Daddy will you play with me?"
However, it was awfully quiet.
Now, to get back to filming the next DVD. The smoking machine has been repaired and we're ready to roll again. (I smoked my Pro with a power surge).
The retreats are off to a good start. The first one in Oct. is already full! Nov and Dec are halfway there, too. I'm so excited about these. If you haven't heard about these yet, you can find all the info on my website (www.atqsales.com) in the right hand box (Quilt machines).
Machine delivery to New Jersey tomorrow. I love love love seeing new owners so happy and excited and scared ~ all at once!
Off to work now. Promise to post more soon!