Snow, Snow, and more Snow!!!

This week's weather here has me wondering if I should move South! We woke up to 6" of new snow, on top of at least 6" we already had. Of course, I had parked outside last night because Monte's 4-Wheeler was in my garage spot, so I had the pleasure of brushing my car off before I could leave. By the time I got to the quilt shop, and then shoveled the sidewalk off here, I'd had my fill of snow! It is still snowing today at noon, so who knows how much we'll end up with when it decides to stop. Days like today, I'm sure I was born into the wrong family. Surely I was meant for a family from Florida, Texas, or Arizona??
Even though the snow makes it impossible to do anything but stay home, I can't seem to get any quilting done! I've already told myself that I have to turn that longarm on when I get home, yet I can't get excited about it. So far this week, I've only managed to quilt a small door banner for the shop. Monte has this week off from work, and when he's home, plus all 3 kids, it's hard to get into any sort of routine. Monte was not made for vacation! He has spend all week complaining about needing something to do. I guess my to-do list isn't good enough, although it's plenty long enough!!! I can't seem to talk him into finishing the trim in the bathroom, or finally cleaning the garage!
My son is getting over Pink Eye, which he came down with Christmas Eve. Of course, everything but the ER was closed by then, and rather than pay hundreds for an ER visit, I took him to the doctor the 26th instead. Nothing like spending Christmas vacation sick!
The new year is looking exciting already. There is so much new fabric on order, it is like Christmas to me every time I get a shipment! The hardest part has been limiting myself, and not choosing fabrics that only I love, but fabrics that I love and that will sell well. It is always a challenge, and I only hope I choose wisely! The new fabrics need to sell well, so I can buy more new fabric for the Summer and Fall!
Hopefully you all are getting more quilting done than I am. As the excitement of the holidays winds down, I hope that I will find new motivation!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I thought I'd take a minute to share my triumph over finally finishing the Strawberry Faire quilt! Now, if only it could quilt itself! It was worth it, it is absolutely an adorable quilt! I can't wait to hang it in the shop. Next, on to the Shaker Ladder throw, which my husband just finished helping me spray baste the backing and batting for. He so nicely agreed to help, it is Christmas after all!
Our house has been crazier than usual this week. Today especially, with the GeoTrax train running constantly in the background, Kylee running around with her new sweat suit on and her MP3 player blasting Hannah Montana, and Bailey alternately drooling over and hugging and kissing her American Girl Doll! It's a small Christmas miracle that I've gotten any quilting done at all today, but I did manage it! I managed it so well, in fact, that Monte enjoyed some relax time without me "bugging him." (his words)
I will definately be avoiding the scale for the rest of this week. Sickeningly, my husband has been eating non-stop today, even more so than usual, and won't gain a pound over it. I feel like I won't be hungry until sometime mid-January! Can you say new year's resolution time??

Sewing Straight Seams

This week, I had a customer ask me how I keep my seams so straight. I didn't really have a great answer, I just layer the fabric and feed it to the sewing machine! I guess I've been doing it so long, I don't really know what makes a great straight seam. All I could think of was accurate cutting and careful ironing. Then, magically, I got another magazine in the mail and it had a short article about making straight seams!

It "seems" there are many techniques I use when I'm quilting that I don't even realize. One of the best points in the article talked about watching your fabric an inch or so ahead of the needle, instead of watching the needle itself. While this comes naturally to me now, it doesn't come so easily to beginning quilters and sewers. Like the article said, if you're watching your needle, it's already too late to fix the fabric! "Aha!" Of course it makes perfect sense when you think of it that way. While piecing today, I realize that I have already been doing this without even realizing it. I watch my fabric ahead of the needle, and adjust it before it gets sewn together.

Another great tip I picked up from this article is that quilting needles aren't just for the actual quilting. They work great for piecing as well. A "quilting" needle is a thinner, finer needle than just a universal needle. Since the needle is smaller, there is less pull on the fabric and less distortion as you are sewing the seam. In the past, I have used these needles when quilting on my sewing machine, but I always thought they were sort of a bother. Realy, who has time to change the needle back and forth between quilting and piecing?? However, I think now I will stick with the quilting needle for almost all my piecing as well as quilting. (Except for patching those logger pants, which I hate and avoid like the plague anyways!) It really does make a big difference and a nicer seam, especially when I was sewing those 1" strips together in my latest table topper project!

What I'm Working On Now

I thought it would be fun to share the quilting projects I am working on now. Prepare yourself, like I said earlier I usually have about 100 thing going, and quilting is no different. It has only gotten worse since I opened my shop! All of these patterns and projects are on my website if you're interested in seeing what they look like: www.crazyforquilting.com.

First, I am trying to finish my shop sample of Strawberry Faire, an awesome block of the month. I have the trunk show display until the end of January, so my goal is to finish mine before that so I can replace the display in my shop. Not only that, but I need to finish this quilt before I start anything else. Technically, I've already started about 3 other things, but this is my main one and I can't really get into anything else until it's done!

The Strawberry Faire quilt I work on at home. It is spread across my kitchen and dining room and has been for a couple weeks now! It's a small miracle that it doesn't have pb&j on it, or spaghetti sauce, or some other food my family has eaten recently. My husband informed me last night that I needed to clear the table off for Christmas, like the dining room is for eating or something??

Also on my kitchen counter, in piles, are a small table topper pattern by Tea for Two designs that I hope to finish by year end (coming soon, I know). In another pile right next to it, is a tablerunner I cut out to make from the "Classic Runners" pattern. Both of these projects I saw at Fall Quilt Market, and have wanted to make them ever since! Maybe I'll get to them soon........maybe not!

Last, while I'm at the store during the day, I am making a quilt-as-you-go project called "Shaker Ladder." This is a super fun and easy pattern using a jelly roll and charm squares.

In the midst of all this, I am still trying to recover from my quilting nightmare. My longarm machine was down for about 4 weeks, right in the midst of Christmas quilting season! I experienced my first ever panic attack when the dealer informed me I would need to send the machine back to Iowa to be repaired. Several weeks later, and several hundred dollars later as well, my machine is running better than ever. (Thanks to Dan at Nolting, for being so nice and fixing it so fast!) I managed to finish all the quilts I promised for the holiday, and now I am tackling the rest. AKA The giant pile of batting and fabric stacked under my machine. I would love to quilt my Faceted Jewels quilt for my bed soon, but trust me, it doesn't look promising!

So, I wasn't lying when I warned you, I don't do just one thing at a time! However, there are a few things I haven't done this month--Wrap presents, for one. Our tree is standing lonesome in our living room, although it does have a quilted tree skirt I made over 5 years ago! I suppose I'll be wrapping late nights this weekend. And then there's the fudge diet I've been on this week. Darn that Rachel Ray for sharing her 5 minute fudge recipe on Oprah a couple years ago! I'd share it here, but trust me, you really don't want to know, not if you value your waistline!

One last thing, I need to mention my sister and all the help she gives me and the work she does on my website. I didn't include her in the "About Me" post, but I should have! She does all the web maintenance, and she's the reason my new arrivals are posted the same day, and the website is accurate and has great pictures and accurate information! My site wouldn't run without her help!

Have a great holiday, make time to do some quilting in between the wrapping, unwrapping, and eating!

All About Me

My name is Mindi, and I own and run a quilt shop called "The Crazy Quilter" in a very small town in Northern Idaho. I am married with 3 kids, which you'll hear about often if you visit my blog! I am posting a picture from this past summer. They are part of my "crazy," most of the time in a good way. In between being a mom, I eat sleep and breathe quilting. My own mom is also a great quilter, and without her my shop would not run! My mom and I make samples, order merchandise, teach classes, ship customer orders, and do everything else necessary to make The Crazy Quilter successful. We couldn't do it without the help of a couple friends who like to quilt so much they are willing to make me samples for the shop! Thank goodness for them, or I would never sleep!

I opened the shop in April of 2007 because I love to quilt, yet I could not find the fabrics and patterns I love in any of the shops in this area. I can't seem to do nothing, quite the opposite! At the time I opened the shop we were building a new house, I was going to school for Accounting, I was working at a bank, and my family was in crazy chaos because we were working night and day on our house! We lived in a tiny little apartment while we built, and it was the most trying year of my life! Luckily, we all made it out alive, a small miracle for sure! All of this led to the shop's name, "The Crazy Quilter."

Although life has settled down since we moved into our house, is is not boring for sure! Life with my 3 kids never is, and my husband and I love to do 100 things at once, so we are always on the go. Although he is a logger, not a quilter, he did offer last night to try piecing since I am so behind. (Even if he did insist I close the blinds in case a neighbor would see him, it's the thought that counts, right?) After I explained that quilting is more than feeding the fabric through the machine and putting the pedal to the metal, he retired to the couch.

I plan to share my projects in this blog, as well as new products and fabrics I come across that I love, along with tid bits from my daily life. Hopefully some of you out there will find this entertaining and informative enough to visit often! If so, post a comment occassionally so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself!

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello Everyone, and welcome! This is my first post to my blog, which I've decided to create on a whim! After reading the articles in my McCall's Quilting magazine this month about quilting blogs, I thought I'd try my own. Why not? I have all this free time in between family, kids, quilt shop, quilting and sewing, right? Sure.......maybe not. It should be fun anyways, and hopefully I will meet a lot of new quilters! I promise to post again soon, and introduce myself properly. First though, I should pick up my daughter from school. Ah, priorities!