Customers?

It turns out that I am not very good at remembering to take pictures…  In the last week I have completed two customer quilts and I made two really cute nightgowns too.  I gave one to my daughter Yellow EM …

Phat Bobbin Girl is OPEN!

It’s official!  I’m official!  This week I registered my business with the secretary of state.  I am now open for business!  I am offering long arm quilting services and if you are interested just send me a message and I’ll get back to you.  Here are a few pictures of projects finished and some in progress.  Enjoy your weekend.

Wyoming Winter Retreat

Last week I got to go on a wonderfully relaxing and fulfilling retreat in Wyoming.  I got to sew with my mom (my best sewing buddy) and all of the ladies who have been so supportive of me.  There were 38 women at this retreat and I didn’t do a very good job of getting photos, I spent my time actually sewing!  I also may or may not have forgotten my camera… good thing my mom had a Kindle that takes photos (kinda).  I mean, thanks mom for having my back, again.  Aren’t mom’s the greatest?!?

Kandie, Me, Pam

There are quiet a few mom and daughter pairs there, but I didn’t get a picture of all of them (I didn’t think to until just now).

Lyn Marie and Lyn

Lyn Marie finished piecing her first quilt top!  She doesn’t quilt except for at this retreat and she thinks this quilt took her forever to do (3yrs) but when you think about it, it only took her 3 weekends.  Congratulations to Lynie!

It is a pattern using layers cakes with sashing, she made it BIG she wants it to hang to the floor on her bed.

There was another girl there for the first time and she not only finished piecing her first quilt top she also had a birthday.  She turned a whopping 19 years old thereby dethroning me as the youngest participant at the retreat.  I was very happy to see someone younger than me there and I wasn’t the only one.  I overheard some other ladies say that they were thrilled to see “young kids doing something worth their time and not playing computer games”.  I was happy to hear that the ladies liked having some young folks around, that is not always what I have experienced in the past.  That is why I keep going back to Wyoming to the best group of gals out there. So… back to the ‘first quilt’ that I was originally talking about.

Andie is telling us all a little about her first quilt and the fabric choices she made.

the whole quilt top in all it’s glory

I also had the pleasure of meeting another new girl to the group.  She is also a part of a mother daughter team (no picture, sorry).  The younger of this dynamic duo started quilting first and actually got her mom into the lifestyle of fabric collecting and petting.  It turns out she is a fellow blogger in Florida of all places!  She got so cold on her weekend in Wyoming she was borrowing winter clothes to stay warm.  AND her mom also celebrated a birthday while we were all out there.  Whew, what a weekend for these gals.  This is Melissa and she can be found at Loblolly Quilts.

Selfie with a Kindle

Melissa’s improv quilt top, she went around gathering scraps from people when she was done with this one so she could work on her next one. Way to repurpose Melissa!

This is my model for the most awesome invention ever, by me.

During the retreat I was asked to do a short demonstration about something quilting related and I chose to demonstrate machine binding.  I blew some of those ladies’ minds!  I am a bit of a rule breaker and walking into a traditionalists room and saying that machine binding is ok was more than some of them could handle.  In order to keep the peace I used a distraction technique by showing them the most awesome invention ever, by me.  First, you start by collecting an empty toilet paper roll (if you have kids like mine, you have TONS of those).  Then you roll your prepared binding onto the roll.  Next depending on your preference for over or under you string a piece of selvage through that roll and tie it in a knot.  You can now wear your binding as a necklace and it just rolls off the paper roll while you attach it to your quilt.  I am a genius!

Whew, this has been a bit of a long-winded post so I think that I will cut myself off here and make a second installment later this week.  I will talk more about the retreat and show some photos of what I got done and also I will chat a little more about the machine binding demonstration that I taught.  I hope you all are finding some time to quilt and/or sew.  I am starting to feel spring coming on so I feel like it is crunch time to get all of my winter quilting done.  How about all of you, do you quilt/sew more in the winter or summer months?

Pantone Quilt Challenge

I have spoken in the past about a few of my friends that have inspired me.  One such friend goes by the name Gail and she is one of those women that has it all together (in my eyes).

She seems to find time to do it all.  She is a creative quilter that seems to turn out a quilt top each week on top of being a work at home mom and runner.  Her sheer productivity is inspiring to me as I try to stay caught up with her.  She is current in her designs and fabric choices.  Gail introduced me to a great local fabric and yarn shop here in Denver.  It is called Wooden Spools and we had such a good time shopping that day.  We also went to another local quilt shop Snappy Quilts and I knew we would be friends when she bought 8 yards of a fabric that she fell i love with simply because it called to her.

Now for the reason that I am writing about my new friend Gail.  She introduced me to a great blog On the Windy Side.  This blog is hosting a quilt challenge.  It is based upon the Pantone Color of the Year 2014 choice.  For more information on the Pantone color of the year Click Here.  The rules are pretty open and the deadline is fast approaching.  When I read this I was instantly inspired and knew what I wanted to make.

It is not my normal color palette but I seem to be redefining ‘my colors’ all the time so I have decided to just not have a go to color.  I love all color.  And since this year for me seems to be about challenging myself I decided to go for it.  Here is a bit of a sneak peek of the fabrics that I chose and be on the lookout for a tutorial after I submit the quilt for the challenge.

Please feel free to share a challenge that you are working on.  It can be any sort of challenge, organized or personal.

Inspiration

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on”  ~Albert Einstein It has been passed on to me. I think it started with my Grandma Hope.  She had her hands in a little bit of everything when it came to creativity and craftiness. …

Here I Go

Well folks, here I am.  I am jumping into the blogosphere.  I have recently been motivated by some good friends of mine to focus my quilting skills and start offering my skills as a business.  This project is in the very starting stages and I have only set up this blog so far to get started.

Setting up a blog turns out to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  It makes me feel a little behind in technology and like I am learning a second language.  There will be a lot of changes to the blog as I learn how to navigate the blog world so go ahead and follow this blog to see all that is in store for you.  My goal is to post at least once a week and I might need some reminders from my followers, but I have to have some followers first…

This post will be very short as I just want to see how the blog will look with a post on it.  I will have photos for you all next time.  I will leave you with a quilt quote though, “A bed without a quilt is like a night without stars.”

Go make the quilting world go ’round,

Phat Bobbin Girl ~Katie