Still creating

  It may not seem like it but I have been in my sewing room a lot lately. I finished up this sample for the Stitchin Heaven Perse-Anality club. Using Oasis charm packs to create a large carry all bag. I may add a zipper to this one, but I love it's size for going to the park, groceries, or as an overnight bag- for multiple people lol.

 I've also been working on quilts for patterns and trying to figure out exactly where I'm going. I'm starting to have a bit of an identity crisis, at least an online one. Who is CaraQuilts and where does she fit in exactly in this online quilting world? Where the heck do I want to wind up and is it really possible?

I have a chronic illness, and for the last while far worse then the pain is the exhaustion. An exhaustion so deep and overwhelming the idea of getting up, moving, even thinking is sometimes too much. Going to the grocery store is makes me feel like I've been up for 36 hours.
I'm barely able to keep up with the basics of being a mom and wife. Trying to make something of myself in the quilting world takes an immense amount of energy and I just don't know if I have that in me. The desire is there, and I've even come to accept I probably have the talent, but I don't know if I have the energy. I sure don't have the money. Like almost every start up, you need money to make money, and I just don't have it.
And let's face it, the quilting world, especially pattern design, is a crowded field. It's hard to get noticed enough to make any kind of living.

But you don't really need to hear about everything going on in my head. You want to hear about creating! Which is what I love to. I have so many ideas floating in my head.
With Little Bit starting back school tomorrow I'm hoping a routine will be developed that lets me get some of them out of my head, or off the computer and into fabric.

 Here's a sneak peek at two of the patterns coming out soon. The top one is also coming out in a yardage version, this one having been made with precuts.

I'm having to bit the bullet and wash them without Colour Catchers. I can't find them anywhere. I've heard from a lot of people they can't find the in Ontario so maybe it was a fluke I found them last year when I did.

Wildlife Adventures

Ok that may be overstating it more then a bit but Little Bit and her little friends probably don't think so.

A little after dinner we get a frantic child running in looking for a box. There is a bird. After a little wrangling we come to understand this is a real bird. And it's alive. But injured.
If you've ever tried to get a story out of a 7 year old you know this can be difficult, when that 7 year old has serious language delays, cognitive delay and autism, it is just plain ridiculous.

Shane went out to help the girls once he saw they had no idea what they were doing and got it into their little shoe box filled with an old nest, grass and some seed.



I was sent in to do the internet thing to discover what we needed to do.
Luckily I have a wonderful friend on twitter, SewShine, who is a vet in her real life, as well as being an excellent machine embroiderer. We were able to back and forth and discover that if the wing was broken it needed to go to a wildlife sanctuary, which for us is about 45 minute drive.
So I go back out to tell everyone and I find the bird if now perched itself in Shane's hand!

I go to touch it's wings to see if it actually is broken, or if we're dealing with a bird who just hasn't learned to fly yet. Shane has the brilliant idea to get a picture of the girls with the bird first, this bird has been taking being photographed very well, so quickly get the girls in a line, he bends over to put it in front and WOOSH! Away goes birdie to the top of our roof! Only picture is of the faces as they see it fly! I didn't have permission from the parents so can't share it yet. But trust me. It's hilarious.

After again consulting SewShine I was able to comfort the kids that the bird will be fine if he was able to fly to our roof he'll be able to survive fine on his own now.

So happy ending to all! And after about an hour search I think I've figured out that birdie is a Cedar Waxwing. Being a baby he hasn't fully expressed all his features but the yellow tips on his tail feathers and the mask around his eyes are what I'm going on.

 Having seen all the pictures the girls where drawing of birdie, as that's what they called him, I was not surprisingly asked why I didn't have a quilt for or with a bird on it. I was told I should make one.
This has some how been added to the never ending list of overcommitment that I currently have going. Any patterns or ideas?

Summer madness

 Ever have one of those summers where you seem to do both nothing and everything?
It's been a really weird summer here, both for weather and activity. We've not done much, no great trips or vacations. No big outdoor projects, yet I feel like I've been on the go the entire time.

I've done some sewing. Ok a LOT of sewing, to the point I've killed yet another iron.
Good thing I long ago discovered I should only every own cheap ones as they seem to die on me rather frequently.

I have 3 new patterns coming very soon, to be added to the ones already up on Fat Quarter Shop.
I just need to get them washed and photographed. I've been to 3 stores trying to find the Shout Colour Catchers I use whenever I wash my quilts, especially new ones, with no luck. I'm really not willing to try and wash these without them because of the dark colours and the material I've used on the back of two of them is a purple marble and it just seems like something that will bleed.

I'm also still working on the patterns for Stitchin Heaven and their Charm School and Perse-Anality Club, though I hear they won't be continuing with them after the end of the year.

 I've signed on to do some Quilt Alongs this fall, as well as design a Modern Block of the Month for Lola Pink Fabrics

In all this I feel like I've abandoned my blog a bit and it makes me sad. I miss writing and sharing with all of you, and getting your comments and stories in return.
So I'm going to make a stronger effort to update more. I also hope this will help me do some none work sewing as I really feel if I let it get too much more I won't be able to sew just for the heck of it anymore.
On the other hand whenever I come up with something new I want to make it into a pattern, which is probably a dumb thing to do but multitasking is in my bones lol.
Part of living with any kind of disability is knowing your limits, but also trying to get around them. And for me that means doing as much as I can when I can, and combining things together. I find myself very impatient with my health, especially the exhaustion I've been dealing with, it's so much harder to push through/ignore then the pain. And they don't seem to have any drugs for it but caffeine!
I'm really hoping that Little Bit going back to school will help me recapture some level of normalcy. Allowing me to go back to schedule that physically works for me instead of just trying to stay awake and present for her.
My sewing room hasn't even been unpacked from when we moved in December. I've just been grabbing things out of boxes as I go, which had made one heck of a mess.

More chances at an AccuQuilt

AccuQuilt just wants to givieaway more of these things! They have another contest going on Facebook.
AccuQuilt has asked that I pass the word on to you so here it is.



Camp Quiltalong Prize Giveaway

Join in some campfire fun for a chance to win great prizes totaling over $1500!  Fons & Porter, Fabric.com, and AccuQuilt have teamed up to provide us all with a huge giveaway on Facebook.  Simply “Like” these Facebook pages and gain access to all three sections of a secret code that unlock your chance to win!  Follow the camp trail on the bottom of each sponsor’s page and it will take you to the next campground to retrieve the next section of code.  Once you’ve captured all three pieces of the secret code, go to www.accuquilt.com/indianblocks and enter the full code to register to win! 

Your summer camping trip begins at AccuQuilt, so get GO!-ing at http://www.facebook.com/accuquilt?sk=wall#!/accuquilt?sk=app_10467688569


And remember to sign up for the AccuQuilt newsletter! You can get 22 free patterns!

Desperate Housewives Quilt Block

Quilt Jane is running the Desperate Housewives Quilt Along, or as Jane puts it, the quilt-as-you-wish-along, with a new block being posted every week for 50 weeks. She was short a person so asked me to make up a block!
So here is "Rolling Divide". The block finishes at 8". Like most of what I do it's easier then it looks, and don't worry about those itty bitty pieces, we don't actually touch them. You can do this scrappy if you like, I just used the fabrics Little Bit chose. I used the AccuQuilt Baby Go! to cut out my pieces, using the Alex Anderson Baskets Die, using the 2" squares, and 1 1/2" finished half square triangle parts of the die.

Cutting
(12) green 2" squares
(9) blue 2" squares
(2) green 2 3/8 squares
(2) blue  2 3/8" squares
 (2) pink 4" x 1 1/2" strip
(1) pink 8 1/2" x 1 1/2" strip

Sewing
Draw a line on the back of the blue 2 3/8" squares, diagonally corner to corner. Layer right sides together with the green squares and stitch 1/4" on either side of the line. Cut along the line and press to the green. Trim to 2".

Lay the patches out according to the diagram.

     

Stitch into rows and press rows in opposing directions so that when you stitch the rows together they "snap" into place. This will help you match your points.
Stitch into rows and press.






At this point your block measures 8".
Cut it into quarters, each measuring 4" x 4" square.

Sew the 4" 1 1/2" strip lengthwise along one of the cut edges.  Stitch another of the 4" unit to the other long side of the strip.  Repeat with the other 2 units.  Press towards the strip.

 

Stitch the 8 1/2" strip to the half units. Press to the strip.

Your block should measure 8 1/2", which will be 8" finished.

Baby Go! Winner is...

Patti from Saskatoon! Congratulations! E-mail me, caraquilts @ gmail.com with your choice of three dies and address and I will forward it on to the awesome people at AccuQuilt who made this possible!

Congratulation! I know you're going to love the Baby Go! Especially for applique and other shapes that take forever to cut.

Two weeks??

How in the world has it been almost 2 weeks since I last posted?? This summer is getting away from me way too fast!!
The AccuQuilt Baby Go! giveaway is open until Sunday so make sure you've entered!! I can't wait to be able to give someone one of these!

So by now I'm sure you've all seen the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along that pretty much everyone in blog land seems to be doing? Well way back in June, actually I think it was the end of May, anyways over on twitter it was being discussed and Pat Sloan and I decided we wanted to join in but really didn't want to commit to 2 blocks a week for a year. Just not going to happen. So we decided we were going to be the Farmer's Mistresses!
All the fun, none of the commitment!
Now someone got upset on the flickr group over the term so I think we're going by Farmer's girlfriends now but still.
Anyways, I'm doing mine completely from Fig Tree fabrics, 75% of which will come from my stash most likely.I'm hoping to have a bit from every on of Joanna's lines in the quilt.

I hate templates so right now am only doing the ones I can figure out the math on, and one of the yahoo groups has the designs as paper piecing patterns so will probably do some of them that way.
I'm ok with a few templates but this is kind of silly to me.
So here are a few of the blocks I've gotten finished. Several more have decided to hide in the wasteland that is my sewing room. It's getting kind of scary in there so I will have to clean it out soon. I'm losing way to much.


I have 3 more patterns coming out soon, including this one, so I've been working crazy hard to get them finished up. I'm very excited about these ones and hope you will be too.

Remember you can buy my patterns that are already out at Fat Quarter Shop now!