Erin Underwood Quilts

Just had a great day at the AQS Show in Lancaster, PA. Spent the time with good friends and saw lots of people I know, learned a little, shopped a little, walked a lot and left extremely humbled and inspired! My favorite in the show was “Maynard” by David Taylor. Click on this link and scroll down just a bit to see it! It was very intricate yet simplistic. The subtle quilting defined the immense white space and drew you into the scene with Maynard and his enormously rump! Even the barbed wire on the fence was mesmerizing! Its a large quilt and makes a large impression on the viewer! I hope you get the chance to see it in person.  I remain mystified as to why there were no ribbons hanging on it…

Since I don’t seem to be growing these things myself yet – I have appliqued a few just to keep the spirit of Spring in the house!

This is a new sample for my Hand Applique by Machine being offered at The Lil Country Shoppe in Middletown, Delaware. And by the way, this shop has got a whole lot (if not the whole line)  of Amy Butler Fabrics too!

P.S. This pattern is available on my website – will work for any method of applique and finishes 12″ square – perfect for a small decorative quilt hanger!

What a great feeling to actually finish something and check it off my list! Got a couple of new patterns back from the printer and ready to sell on the website! The Amish Star and the Diamond Chain. I’ve also finished a new Hand Applique by Machine pattern for a spring class – just need the last couple of stitches in the binding, then it too can be checked off my list! Its so exciting!

And since I’m finishing all that, I am sure to get new inspiration by attending two quilt shows this week in Lancaster, PA. The AQS show (I actually have a quilt in that show!) and a new one I just learned about – The Lancaster Spring Quilt Show. This is the first year for this  show and I am eager to see what’s its all about! Hope you get a chance to check them out too!

My pen is itching to make some more check marks so I’m off to plug in a chick flick on the TV and bind away!!

I spent a great deal of yesterday outside. It actually reached 60 degrees here! Cleaned the chicken coup, drained water from the pool cover now that the ice is melting, pulled the old morning glory vines off the fence, planned a garden layout, chatted with a neighbor and even contemplating letting the dog go for a swim in the river – ended up crashing on the couch instead!  Don’t feel bad about the dog – she went swimming in the water-logged pool cover so she got her dip in the water! It was an absolutely beautiful and rejuvenating day – don’t you just love those?!

So now that my energy is renewed from a busy month of teaching and and creating and grown children coming and going on top of the snow and dreariness, I have set goals for myself this week. Got to finish another Amish Star!!! Absolutely have to get the pattern completed! Just finished this one! Its in my gallery now – check out the daisy fill in the background there!

Meanwhile, back to my to-do list – another sample for Hand Applique by Machine, then perhaps  another quilt waiting in the queue  will get loaded on the long arm too! I’m not sure I can do it all by Friday but am going to try!

Got to work on getting plumbers in the house this week and I think I need another sample for my Machine Quilting class…. my husband says I need to get the oil changed in  my car before the $10 coupon expires…And then there’s the big sale at Sauder’s Fabrics in Denver, Pa. It starts on Thursday…and I have money in my checking account.  The week’s goals are growing exponentially as I sit here and contemplate them. I’m am probably better off just not thinking about it. I think I’ll go sew now.

I sit here procrastinating. I have made a list of everything I really need to get done today and beyond – none of which includes sewing. It all appears to be paperwork.  Oh wait – there is one item, Rip out Quilting.  That will stay at the bottom of the list, for sure. However, the lower that gets to the bottom of the list, the lower the Re-quilt Cats item goes too since its the quilt that requires the ripping. It always annoys me how it takes five hours to rip out 10 minutes of machine quilting but I digress…

Back to procrastination – I have even managed to take a break between paragraphs here and call the dog out of the neighbor’s yard, contemplate vacuuming up dog hair and once again, wander through the kitchen under the guise of trying to figure out where that smell was coming from.

I spent the last few days finishing up another version of my Amish Card Trick which now means I am ready to write the pattern – hence paperwork hence procrastination. Having taken copious notes as I constructed the third incarnation of this quilt, and even bought fabric for a fourth, I am pretty sure I can cruise through this technical writing task quickly if  I would only get started. Perhaps, a cup of tea will help keep me on track…. I’ll be right back.

Okay – got a cup of tea and have taken the time to snap a picture of my latest quilt top – note how it is casually draped over the long arm to inadvertantly hide the “ripping” task lurking underneath. How convenient that it will need to remain displayed there as I write the directions for its construction. I will use the old Out of Sight, Out of Mind tactic to avoid that other item on my list for a while!

I know that the sooner I start all this paperwork stuff, the sooner I can get back to sewing and quilting – And I do have a backlog of quilts to quilt and tops to piece and projects to get out of my head and down into fabric…and then there is that whole Rip Out Quilting thing…

Got the camera out today to take some pictures of some quilts. Since its is snowing/raining/ icy/ windy outside, I decided to rearrange the kitchen and set up the quilt standard in there. The delemma was deciding where the best place to set up was based on lighting and avoiding the dogs.  Originally, I thought I would back it up to the counters but it proved to be too long to fit there so I moved the table and chairs out and set up between the kitchen and the living room – good for light, bad for dogs.

I pulled out the white drape and knew immediately that I should have vacuumed up all the dog hair before I got started – I decided the camera wasn’t really going to be able to see it so I put that task off for later and hung up the white drape complete with a dusting of dog hair on its lower extremities.  The first quilt was pinned up and pictures snapped. But wait, the battery on the camera is dangerously low! It figures…

Not to be undone, I charged the battery between quilt hangings and got a lot of pictures snapped.

These three new ones are in my gallery, Chinese Fans, Starry Night in Neutrals and The Ultimate Exchange!. Look closely I’ll bet you can see any dog hair!

P.S. I did vacuum in the end – and even cleaned a bathroom while I was at it!

So, in keeping with my rules, I have emptied a project box! The quilt top is finished and waiting in line for the long arm. Technically, the box shouldn’t be emptied until the binding goes on but I’ve set aside binding fabric so I think I’m safe to merge the rest of the unused fabric back into my stash. Meanwhile, I have finished another quilt complete WITH binding – only this one didn’t have a box, just a file folder! See the Pastel Chains below or click on the link to see more detail in my gallery.

So even though I have finished two quilts this week but only one had a box, I can only start one new project, according to my own rules… hmmm, I don’t think I’m being fair to myself.

I say this in all honesty as my brain churns up a myriad of  new ideas. My biggest delemma, if one would call it that, is that Bear’s Paw in Towson (where I teach a lot of classes) has graciously arranged for me to use a Bernina 830 for a couple of months. Now my time is limited with this grand machine and I want to put everything else on hold and just spend my days creating with all the fantastic things this machine had to offer. I’ve been coveting one for a long time because it has ONE stitch that I really need. I know, one stitch, really… all that money for one stitch… can’t I compromise and find another stitch on a machine I already own? Well, maybe – but meanwhile, I’ve got the stitch available to me at the push of a button right now and since I’m not going to be able to afford this machine any time soon (soon being defined in terms of years!), I feel the pressure to get all my ideas down in fabric with that particular stitch ASAP. And when you think about it, the main goal for Bear’s Paw to lend me this machine is so I can learn it inside and out and help my students when I teach at their store. SoI really should  sit and sew all week long.

Alas, I will instead sit and type all week long as I have a few class agendas to work up and a few patterns to write… Perhaps, I can skip the nighly ritual of TV watching with my adoring hubby and sew all evening… hmmm. If I think about it hard enough, I’m sure I will figure out a way to have my cake and eat it too!! Times a-wasting!

I find that my creativity is stifled sometimes by my own rules for self-control. I have this one little rule that I can’t start a new project until I have a box to put it in. Now, my boxes are just plastic bins with lids. Lids are important for keeping the dog hair and dust out of the projects that linger longer than others!. Everything related to the project lives in that box until it is bound. And it is especially important to note that I am not allowed to raid a box for fabric, no matter how perfect that fabric would be in another project.

Originally, there were only 8 boxes allowed in my sewing room. Over the last few years, I have commandeered several other types of boxes that were just hanging around empty as well as a few file cabinet drawers that were really not being used to their full potential. Most recently, many of the left over boxes from Christmas were quickly filled up in an effort to clean up my sewing room. Yet, there still remains a few projects floating around with just a bulging file folder trying to contain all the bits and pieces of its creation. And lets not mention the projects that were put on the fast track, worked on furiously with parts and pieces spread chaotically all around the sewing room and until the binding stage – there’s a few of those just sitting in piles too!

Since we’ve moved, the clutter keeps collecting in this new space of mine and I have blamed it on shrinking pains brought on by trying to fit it all into a smaller space. But an epiphany occurred to me the other day! As I perused my shelves filled with boxes, many of them labeled,  I realize that most of my boxes are class lessons and not really “projects” any more – What a relief!! Here I thought I was getting out of control but its not a bad as I think! I have officially given myself permission to buy more boxes now and perhaps another shelf or two to house the boxes. After all, I could really use those file cabinet drawers for other things. You see, I keep my thread in plastic boxes….

Through out our years of marriage, my husband and I have always had our other loves. Now – its not what you’re thinking!  Sewing and quilting for me and music for him.  On our third date, he serenaded me for hours and I went home that night and told my mother that this was the man I was going to marry.

Of course it turned out to be an excellent decision and to this day, he continues to serenade me on a regular basis. Often in our earlier years, after the kids had been put to bed, he’d pull up a chair beside my sewing machine and entertain me as I stitched away.  Now that the children are mostly off on their own and I get to stitch away all day long, he had more time to serenade others too! Just to see what I mean, click here then press PLAY! Enjoy

As I sit here writing checks for membership renewal to three different guilds, all due this month, I wonder… Do I belong to too many guilds? I frequently get them confused and have been known to furiously scribble down who’s who with what guild and what that guild does while a dear friend – also a member of many of the guilds I belong to – dictates the facts to me! I’m not sure what that says about my ability to organize my brain  but I blame it on all the similar names of all the organizations – they all have the word “Quilt” in them, some have “Professional” in the title. Some are “networks” and some are “guilds”. You see where I’m coming from here, right?

Now, these three guilds that are renewing this month are not the only ones I can claim membership in. There may be four or five more. I’m not sure but I may have let one national guild lapse because the dues were due the same time as fall tuition – yep, that does sound like a familiar story- and I probably thought I would just re-up later but conveniently forgot. And I know for sure that I did not renew with one guild last fall since we  have moved a bit further north and the drive to meetings was going to be an hour or more.

I firmly believe that I get something out of each and very membership in my vast variety of guilds. But since I’m always confused as to who’s who and what’s what, I may be getting more from one guild and attributing it to another. And with all that being said, I have seriously contemplated joining another one or two local guilds. Because our new home is just at the top of the bay, going up north or down either side of the bay opens up a myriad of opportunities for quilting camaraderie – all less than an hour’s drive in any direction.  I think before I do, I will set up a payment schedule first and limit renewal deadlines to only three a month!

Well, I’ll get to that later – time to sign off. Got a guild meeting to go to!!