The Pioneer Quilter » personal drama

Episode 40 – happy holidays!

pq — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:16:26 +0000

Hey everyone! I hope you are having the merriest of holidays this 2011. Have you given or received quilty gifts? Do tell!

Show links:

Check out the new podcastThe Quilting Pot

Leah Day’s commentary on dropping your feed dogs

Leah Day’s demo of how to modify a plastic closed-toe darning foot:

Click here to play the podcast!

Merry Christmas to me!

pq — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:58:59 +0000

My bestest bud Noelle got me this for Christmas from Connecting Threads:

Actually she didn’t get it for me. She didn’t know exactly what I wanted so she provided funding. Woohoo for Noelle! I should have my table in 4 to 6 weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

pq — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:13:48 +0000

Oh, and I noticed that my link to That Perfect Stitch in the prior post didn’t show up, so if you didn’t see what book I reviewed, here it is again:

Again, FYI – this is an affiliate link.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Dress update: wad that mother up

pq — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:37:30 +0000

So the dress isn’t turning out as planned. I think it looks funny around the neckline and The Husband says it looks “poochie” around my middle. There isn’t enough time to fix it and I’m not sure I have the skills necessary to fix it anyway. Off to the dress shop for me! I love this dress from shopbop.com:

But I don’t think I have the toned & tan back necessary to pull it off.

Also – does anyone else think The Husband is saying I have a gut when he says it is “poochie”???

Question for readers

pq — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:04:54 +0000

You might have noticed a slack-off in the podcast department. I’ve been quite wrapped up in my charity challenge and projects around the house. I’m not saying I won’t be podcasting again but it will probably be awhile before another episode comes along. So this leaves me wondering: what do you like reading here? Are you here for inspiration, tutorials, just the podcasts, jokes, …? What can I put in this space that will be helpful to you? Leave a comment and let me know!

What I’ve been up to

pq — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:19:20 +0000

I’ve been rather quiet lately, probably because I took on yet another project. I know! I know! I need to not do that. Problem is, nobody asked me to do it. I just decided that this is no longer acceptable:

Our sad little couch

Another view of the sad little couch

Our dog Krypto likes to sit on that back cushion and that is why it looks so terrible. You can see the springs and everything! So unsightly. And a new couch is not in the budget. So I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to dismantle it so that I can reupholster the couch with lovely new denim fabric from fabric.com.

Of course I’ve been working on the charity quilts, too. Update on that another time, though. (Hopefully in a podcast!) So. Wish me luck!!! I’m almost done dismantling and I’ve already recovered the bottom cushions. They turned out pretty good so I’ve got my fingers crossed that it will turn out half as good as this cool couch from Pottery Barn:

Get this: I chose the denim and bought it *before* I saw this super-awesome couch in their catalog. I have a similar brain wave to someone at PB! I love PB! Wooot!

Even in my dreams!

pq — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:57:04 +0000

So how is this for weird. I woke up this morning and realized I was dreaming about meeting Amy Karol, of Angry Chicken fame. Why? I don’t know. In the dream I was at some kind of event where Amy was, and this up and comnig rock band was there too. The lead singer looked an awful lot like the guy from 30 Rock who wears hats with sayings on them all of the time…and coincidentally we did watch the episode of 30 Rock last night where that character and another character decided they were going to start a band, but I digress. Anyway. The singer wanted to meet Amy and found her so beautiful and intimidating that he couldn’t approach her. So he asked me to set it up somehow. I remember thinking two things: one, I hope he doesn’t think she’ll be his groupie ’cause I am pretty sure she is married; and two, if it helps you remember she is human dude she doesn’t wash her hair (she uses a no shampoo method). So. Just as I was about to wake up I had this epiphany where I realized I was just as intimidated to meet her if not more than the ugly band dude. She has this awesome blog, she organizes the Tie One On Apron challenge, she has written two books (Bend the Rules Sewing and Bend the Rules with Fabric), she is an artist, she does all this really cool crafty stuff with her kids…wow! She is like a freaking one-woman army. Why would she want to talk to a quilter-programmer from Ohio?

Of course I woke up then as I often do when realizing the most upsetting/scary part of a dream. Or maybe it was because the dog stepped on my head. Either way I woke up and ugly-band-guy never met Amy, and neither did I. Oh well!

I was featured on…

pq — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:47:42 +0000

Guess what! The Owl Quilt has been mentioned in some pretty awesome places…Whipup.net, Craftgossip.com, and CraftCrave.net, among others. That is so awesome!!

Episode 31 – A message to quilt shop owners

pq — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:59:55 +0000

The Husband bought me an awesome gift for Christmas – a sewing table! But he had the hardest time buying one. Why? Quilt shop employees. D’oh.

My new quilting table!

He ended up buying it at Joann’s, which isn’t bad, but a local quilt shop lost the sale because they were rude to The Husband. Sigh. Quilt shop owners, take heart! It isn’t only quilters that come into your shop to spend money. The Husband will never shop at the lqs for me again and I will probably only do so in a pinch (or until my current gift certificates run out.) How sad for them…that could be literally thousands of dollars lost over the years. I am tentatively saving for a new machine and now I know where I definitely won’t be buying it. Tsk tsk. It wasn’t like he was just buying a handful of fat quarters. He was willing to spend hundreds of dollars…and got snubbed! Though being rude to a customer spending any amount of money is inexcusable.

Have a listen…I hope you had a wonderful 2010, and that 2011 is even better!!!

Episode 30 – Thanksgiving!

pq — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:23:22 +0000

This episode I talk about things that I am grateful for. What is tops on your list? I’d love to hear what you are grateful for – quilting or otherwise.

Also – I announced a giveaway! Enter to win a quilt kit of my design!! View the fabric line that will make up the kit at Connecting Threads. When I actually have the top made I’ll post a photo – but it basically consists of strip pieced nine patches with an appliqued owl (or it might turn out to be a rabbit – I doodled two animals) in the center. The finished top will measure 36 inches by 36 inches, which isn’t very large but is a good nap size for a toddler and is acceptable to Project Linus.

You can enter in two ways:

Leave a comment here telling me what you are thankful for
Subscribe to my blog feed in a reader and leave a comment letting me know you have subscribed.

Good luck, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! I wish you many things for which to be grateful.

Have a listen!