Thursday, January 17, 2019

A Merry Pace

Life is tumbling along at a merry pace, as I've been preparing quilts to ship to Austin, Texas, to be delivered for February 21-24 QuiltCon in Nashville, Tennessee.

Also, Quilting Guild of The Villages local show called "Showcase" is coming up January 25-26. That too has required quilt preparations and planning, as I submitted two quilts into the modern category. This is a new category to the show, and two is the maximum number of quilts any member can enter. Quilts were judged last week.

During a slot of time, quilts had to be delivered to a specific rec center, in their own fabric bag, labeled with personal information and a quilt number, and then three days later be picked up.

I entered these two quilts.
Urban Trek, 59" X 71"
"Always Add Orange," 15" X 15"
When we picked up our quilts, each quilter learned if her quilt was a "winner," though not what the award might be - first, second, third, or honorable mention. I'm happy to say that both my quilts are winners. It will be when the show opens next Friday that we'll learn what ribbons were earned. If you're in Central Florida and interested in attending the show, here's where you can get more information.

Also, I've been prepping quilts to sell in the show's "Boutique." QGOTV has a shop where members' items can be sold. The guild gets 10 percent of each sale; the buyer pays Florida's 7% sales tax. I've gone through nearly all my quilts, and came up with (only) 33 to sell! I've photographed, measured, and written brief descriptions for each, as well as prep sales tags with assigned numbers, dimensions, and prices.

The pricing... that's so difficult to do! While I want (most) of the quilts out of my house, to free-up closet storage space, I need to price them to sell. But I also don't want to undervalue the cost of making a quilt - both the expense of materials, and the time put into making. It's tough to decide what to charge for each quilt, especially as sentiment tends to play into my decisions too. So, I'm pricing higher those quilts that I'm having a hard time parting with, some of which I made as recently as last year! But I also don't want to return 33 quilts to the closet where they've been stored. What good is that? In my opinion, it's a no-win situation. This topic is also a conversation trigger for every quilter I've ever met.

Yet I keep making quilts anyway! Ha, ha. What can I say? Makers gotta make. Besides, I need to justify the cost of that Bernina 770QE!

Here's a picture of it with its latest embellishments. I saw this on the Bernina blog. A sewist used small, hooked, suction cups to keep handy items like scissors, and tweezers. I'd like to hang a few more gadgets here, like a seam ripper and 1" X 6" ruler, but those don't have hanging holes.

These 4" triangle-in-a-square blocks, pieced with solids and cut using Bloc Loc rulers, have seen several iterations on my design wall. I still can't decide what arrangement I like best.

When I ask, everyone has a different opinion. As if I expect otherwise. 

Orange circles? Or no circles?


I like all of them! These may be on the design wall for a while longer.

A finish this week is this Double Zip Gear Bag, a pattern from ByAnnie.

I made it at our son-in-law's request. He saw the cosmetic bags I made as Christmas gifts for our girls, and commented that he'd like a bag. I thought to make him something more masculine, with shale-colored Essex linen.

I like that it looks like a bonafide shaving kit.

Mesh pockets are on the outside and inside. Inside, I also added a layer of vinyl, not called for in the pattern. The vinyl definitely made the whole thing harder to work with at the sewing machine, but the Bernina handled the thickness extremely well. 

I love using the dual feed zipper foot (#4D) to install four, purse-type 14" zippers.

Of course, I had to use the alphabet, to personalize the bag for him. See how I even figured out how to make the design on the right side mirror the design on the left?!

Coming up next week... the anniversary of my 10th year of continuous blogging. How time flies! Linda

14 comments:

  1. I think I'd be leaving the triangles and circles up on the design wall longer too- its just too difficult to decide on which is nicer! Great bag for your son in law too! Congratulations on your wins, whatever they are! And good luck selling the quilts! I'm sure they will be loved!

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  2. Congratulations on your wins! I can't even imagine having 33 quilts to sell, guess I'm just a very slow sewist. You may be very surprised at what your quilts will bring, especially if shown in a fairly affluent area. Good luck with both the sale and those you have at QuiltCon.

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  3. What a dilema with those 31 quilts. I hope at least a few sell for you! And love the bag you made your son-in-law. Very nice and professional looking.

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  4. Congrats on the wins Linda!!! I'm happy for you. I'll be curious to hear how the quilt sale goes. It can certainly be a hot topic. I've never sold any quilts but it's in the back of my mind. Then I see ads from Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel with furniture for several hundred or even thousands of dollars and 'quilts' for only 150. Ugggg.

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  5. Well done on the Double Gear bag. Annie gives such good instructions, but the detailed steps take time don't they! You've got so much going on in your busy quilting life, but you still make time for blogging which is great. Thank you for linking up to the Peacock Party.

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  6. WOW! You're selling 33 quilts! THAT is a big deal! I remember our conversation about wanting your quilts to go to someone who will truly appreciate them and amount of time and effort that went into making them. By the way, once you've priced them, will you be sharing that on your blog? Maybe somebody out here in blog land will want to buy one of them!

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  7. Congrats on the wins. I like the version with the circles. And, since the ripper and ruler can't be hooked what about 2 suction hooks side by side to lay them across.

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  8. I love that bag.
    Congratulations on the quilts that won. They are marvelous

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  9. So exciting about your wins, cannot wait to hear where you placed!!! Well done :^) I understand about selling your quilts and how difficult it can be. So far I haven't done that because I have mine hanging in three different doctors offices. One office has around 26 quilts. But someday I shall face the task of selling many of them. Congratulations again on your wins!!!!

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  10. Linda, what an honor to have 2 winners on your quilts. Your masculine bag is fantastic looking. Leave it to you to improve on the pattern. That new Bernina did an awesome job on the personalizing of name and mirrored design.

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  11. So much quilty fun here. I loved everything, and so glad you have so many quilts going in all different places! Quite an honor for you. My vote on your triangles would be version 2, but with only three, and one of the orange circles a different size. I'll look forward to seeing that one evolve!

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  12. Congratulations! I like the triangles better without the orange circles.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Char! You are a "no-reply commenter," so I'm unable to respond to you directly by email. But thank you for your congratulations! I'm looking forward to learning Friday morning what ribbons I received. As for the triangles-in-a-square... they've already gone through changes. I'm actually adding more of the orange curved blocks, but instead of circles, I'm making them actuals paths of drunkard path blocks. I kinda like it, so will see where it goes. Thanks for your input though! I always like to read comments from my blog-readers.

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  13. Wow! I love that triangles design of yours - it will make a phantastic quilt, I knoww that already. I like the layout with orange circles best, not so much the diamonds. Please keep us updated on your progress, I am very interested to see how you continue!

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