Life is Simple T-shirt

Well… back in November I designed a new t-shirt.  I started with the idea that I wanted color and I wanted a shirt that both men and women could wear.  Also, I love the name of our blog and wanted to work it into the design idea… Wala!  The Life is Simple t-shirt design was born! It even has a Quilty Pleasures top 10 list on the back.  (Go to www.mikidiane.com/catalog.html to view and purchase the shirt.)

Shirt front:

Shirt Back:

Every Quilty Pleasure listed on the t-shirt has a story. I’ll share the one about Life’s Quilty Pleasure #3 - Getting “permission” from a friend to abandon a UFO.

Well, I won’t name names, but the person who inspired this is my business partner (and fellow designer).  We will just call her “D” for short…  “D” was working on a project and kept saying that it wasn’t fun and she couldn’t wait to get finished with it so she could work on something else.  After hearing her say this three or four times, I asked “D” if she liked the project?  Did she think it was something she would love when she finished it.  Guess what.  Her answer was NO!  I said, “Good grief woman, then get rid of it and don’t worry about finishing it!”  The look she gave me was priceless.  It was like she had a light bulb moment.  She never thought abandoning the UFO was an option.

Needless to say, she ”gifted” her project to a beginning quilter who was thrilled to have a project to work on and I think “D” even gave her a little lesson to get her going.  Talk about a win-win situation!

I’m sharing this story because I think we forget that our sewing time is precious and must not be wasted on a project that we really dislike.  I’m not talking about a difficult project that requires you to struggle through a tough part, I’m talking about the one that fills us with dread each time we take it out. 

So… get rid of the UFO you don’t want to finish.  It’s OK.  I give you permission.  Oh, yea - go ahead and post a comment and tell us about your UFOs.  We can’t wait to hear about what you are working on. 

Heartland Gathering Picture - Procrastinating as Usual

Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures posted!  Here is a picture of the quilt Diane and I designed to be used for the Quilt the Quilt 2 Exhibit.  This quilt is the cover quilt for our pattern and shows our suggested quilting design included in the pattern (except for the curly-q McTavishing… that isn’t included in the suggested quilting design - didn’t want to freak out any new quilters).  This quilt is also my entry in the QTQ2 exhibit.  We have a few more of the blue fabric kits that are pre-cut and well labeled.  They will be offered for sale with the pattern on our website as soon as I get my fanny into gear and get some M&D website work done.  The image is a thumbnail, so click on it to see a larger image.

Here is a picture of my entry in the original QTQ exhibit.  The actual quilt is a pretty green, but my photo isn’t a good one.  This is also a thumbnail image.

Heartland Gathering Pattern Release

After photography and cover finishing, our  Heartland Gathering pattern will be ready for release!  Yippee!!!  This pattern came about after my longarm quilting group, the Heartland Longarm Quilting Association, decided to produce a new Quilt the Quilt exhibit. 

We did this about 4 years ago and we have 11 (I think) quilts with that exhibit that have travelled around to shows that have requested the display.  The exhibit is free, but we do ask the requesting group to pay for the shipping.  Every quilt is the same pattern, and the same colors, measuring less than 40″ square.  The only difference is the quilting design.  Each participant interprets and quilts whatever they want on the quilt.  This exhibit is still available to book for your event.

The Quilt the Quilt 2 project needed a design that would give the quilters plenty of quilting space and have permission from the copyright holder (designer) to be used for the project.  Diane and I offered to design a quilt just for the project and we do have a limited number of pre-cut kits in the same fabrics as the cover quilt.  These kits include the binding.  Later today I’ll post pictures of my entry into the project, which is the same quilt we will be using for the pattern cover.

Website Updates and Pattern Writing

I spent some time yesterday working on the Miki & Diane  website.  I was getting ready to post an ad on my new favorite longarm list - www.mqresource.com - when I realized I never added one of our new pieced patterns to our online catalog.  Duh! 

 The pattern is called Gotcha’ Covered and it is a fun quilt that pieces really fast.  Diane and I designed it for Suzanne Earley to use as the cover quilt for her newest book, More Meandering Magic.  You can see the book at www.saltcreekquiltco.com.  Her techniques are really great and very well explained.  Great for longarmers or domestic machine quilters. (Shameless plug for my friend, Suzanne!)

I also worked some more on one of our upcoming patterns.  Sometimes I feel like it won’t ever get done.  But then, one day, a finished pattern results.  It is one of the coolest feelings ever!  Diane and I have a couple of Trunk Shows scheduled for October, so we want to make sure we have these two patterns ready to go.  More to come…