Of Paisleys and Positive Thinking

In the midst of this busy shop-owning life with kids and all, I was able to get some sanity stitching done on this paisley piece.

I shot a video and loaded it to YouTube as well. I didn't notice it until after I shot the video that I had left the ruler foot on it which makes it hard for you to see the stitching as I'm making it. I have no trouble seeing it, despite the bulk of the foot, but the camera can't see exactly what I do.

I also got a long overdue newsletter sent out this weekend to those of you who have signed up to receive them (over there on the right of the blog is a sign up widget). I wrote of teaching and being a student. I'm doing quite a lot of both these days. I got some wonderful responses to it as well. Thank you so much. If you haven't seen it, read Amy's Quilting Adventures Newsletter here.

One of the things I'm learning (OK, truth: learning, forgetting, relearning) is the power of a positive attitude. Yesterday was an absolutely amazing day and I'll tell you about it soon. Some was rather mundane, but it was just good. I want to remember it, so I'll share here.

One of the good things was this little cutie coming into my life. I'm in love. I've got a baby again and she's the sweetest little thing. I promise my new social media strategy is not going to be cute cat pics.

But she's cute enough for it isn't she? This is our first pet since the death of my beloved pug nearly 9 years ago. (Not counting a brief fostering of my mom's cats that didn't work out too well. They are happily back with my mother.)

Now, back to work in my shop. I've got fabric to unbox!

Quilting with Rulers: Diamond in a Block

Managed to stitch out one of my favorite ruler work designs for in a block the other day and shot video while doing it. It's kind of funny quilting away while talking to the camera. It's become sort of natural and makes me wonder....how long until I find myself quilting while giving a running commentary even when there is no camera? LOL!

This a great design for larger blocks even when you don't have a large/long ruler. It can be dressed up with additional quilting inside and outside the diamond. I'll have to show that some other time.

This week, my hubby tells me that I had blog followers come to the shop before I arrived in the morning on two separate occasions. I am so sorry to have missed you, whoever you were!

Rip It!

Have you ever sat there, pick, pick, picking away at a seam that needs to be "unsewn" and wondered why your seam ripper isn't called a picker? It's because you can actually rip those stitches out, if you know how to use that little red ball that you find on many seam rippers. Some of you may know this, but those who don't have been tickled by my little video below.

This was part of a Facebook Live video I did on my shop's page, so the intro and outro are a little choppy.

Have you checked out Craftsy's new look? It's been a bit of a difficult transition, but it looks great! They are doing a scavenger hunt on the site so you can learn more about how it's laid out. Navigation is different, but once you get used to it, it's meant to be much more user friendly and laid out better.

To make it worth your while, find all the treasure and you'll be entered to win 5 classes of your choice! Click here to get started: craftsy.me/scavengerhunt