Quilt Market and What the Repair Man Said

Last weekend at Spring Quilt Market was like a whirlwind. Instead of going for the Schoolhouses, I stayed home through Saturday morning so that I could coach my daughter's soccer team in their 8am game. And then I rushed straight after the game to the airport to catch my flight just before noon. When I arrived in Salt Lake (on time!), I rushed to my hotel to drop my bags, and then I practically jogged up the hill to get from my hotel to the Salt Palace Convention Center. I made it in time to the C&T booth to host my book signing at 4. I just love it when everything goes according to plan. My sincere thanks to the 400 people last Saturday--from the ground crew at Southwest Airlines to the 73-year old shuttle driver from my hotel--who made it all happen.


I had a wonderful book signing. The C&T folks were a little worried how much I was talking to each person as they came up to get their book, but I think that most people appreciated a moment or two to share about their own organizing needs in their quilting spaces. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and I'm so glad that even the ladies at the end of the line waited so patiently for their book. Thank you.

Sunday at Quilt Market was non-stop. No time to eat. No time to sit down. I hope I made some good business contacts that may develop into future opportunities. And the highlight of my day was meeting Annie Smith in person. I have listened to Annie's podcasts for more than two years now, and it was surreal hearing her voice and seeing her face--at the same time. Annie, I am grateful for all of the hours of entertaining and educational listening.

This week, I've been following up on loose ends from Quilt Market and getting in touch with the people with whom I promised to get in touch. The quilting community is just so darn friendly and fun that this hardly feels like work.

Which brings me to what the repair man said. I called to check on the status of my sewing machine, hoping that it might be released soon from repair jail. (I hated to tell my daughter that we would have to buy a birthday present for her friend because she couldn't sew something. And, yes, that was after I suggested hand-sewing as an alternative.) Checking on my machine with its jailor, the very nice repair man and I chatted a bit. He told me that quilting is the hot, new thing. I love it. The hot, new thing. That made me feel really good.

With the sewing machine in the shop, I went for another machine instead. The bread machine is halfway through its cycle, and the house smells delicious. Anyone coming for freshly baked bread for breakfast at my house tomorrow needs to arrive early. We have to be at the soccer field by 7:30. Go Gator Girls! Win your last game of the season!

The Dollar Bin

I want to start off this post with a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the launch party for my book. I also need to thank my husband and kids and my friend Judy for making all of the food and drinks the night before. Everyone took a recipe to make while Judy, who owns a cooking school, kept us all on task. (Judy, I promise I will take your next knife skills class.) The kids did great serving the party-goers, and I'm sure the guests appreciated knowing that the food was good because they saw the kids sneaking in a few bites.

Several of my book contributors attended the event this past weekend. I was glad to be able to formally thank them for their tremendous help with the research, ideas and photos. They are the same gals as I listed in the acknowledgements page of the book. One of those gals pinged me after the party to let me know what she found in the dollar bin at her local Target store.

These metal tins come in black or white with clear lids and measure about 3-1/2
inches across. My hope is that they are also magnetic, and I'll find out for myself when I can get to Target this week. Use them in groups to hold just about anything small, from buttons to pom-pons to googly eyes to thimbles. In groups, the matching tins help those little things look harmonious, which is pleasing to the eye. The clear lids prevent you from forgetting what's inside.

Send me pics to post and share about how you used tins like these in your sewing room.

5 Must-Have Organizing Classes

I read an awesome article last week about writing story headlines. What was so brilliant was that her whole lesson in headline-writing was ripped from Cosmo's table of contents. She grabbed me right from the start with her alluring promise of 5 tips for writing the sexiest, most stimulating headlines EVER! So when I was writing up my typical class topics to submit for the Arizona Quilters Guild traveling teacher program tonight, I decided to try all 5 of her tips. We'll see what the guild says about whether or not I hit the mark.

My toughest challenge in headlining was the same top challenge for some of my clients. UFOs. Ugh. UFOs are so much more than unfinished objects. They are objects of guilt. Objects of wishful thinking. Objects that collect dust. Objects that clutter. I had to find a way to make my UFO class sound less like detention and more like...a Cosmo article. So in quintessential Cosmo style, I titled one of my classes for AQG 10 Easy Strategies for Turning UFOs into ESPs. I'm calling ESPs entirely sewn projects.

For those of you done with your blog reading for today, I'll send you off for more fun and frolic in the makeup and beauty tips section of Cosmopolitan online. Having seen the home page with today's position of the day, I'm just not sure we know each other quite well enough yet for me to send you there. And I'll hold my questions about how they find the creative inspiration for 365 of those every year.

Stumped

It was so exciting yesterday to be interviewed on Mark Lipinski's Creative Mojo show on Toginet Internet Radio. Mark's show is downloadable from iTunes, so I grabbed all of the past shows I could fit onto my iPhone. My little segment was fewer than 10 minutes long, and I didn't get a chance to talk with his psychic co-host, Silvia Rossi. I would have like to know a few things about my future.

There was one particularly awkward moment in the show yesterday that I would like to clear up. Mark stumped me with his question about the Spooler storage system from Blue Feather Products. He said the name aloud and even told me the page number on which it's featured in my book, but I was still clueless about exactly what he was referring to. I have to admit that my publisher selected that product for the book, so I had been unfamiliar with it--until now. Rats.

As soon as my interview was finished, I researched the Spooler. I came to find that I really like the idea of this little device. In fact, its inventor has applied for a patent. What I think is most useful is that the 12 spindles along this rack are repositionable, allowing you to slide the spindles into various positions to accommodate different spool diameters. The tip of each spindle has a slit into which you can press the loose end of thread from the bobbin. What I don't quite understand is exactly how the bobbins stay in place. I'm also questioning the orientation of the photo included on page 64 of my book because I think the Spooler is correctly installed when it is in a vertical position with the spindles facing outward. Nonetheless, I have included here (for grins and giggles) excerpts from the Spooler storage system patent application filed by inventor Feather W. King of Tiburon, California.

"A thread spool holding device, comprising...an elongated spindle stem extending from the head and configured and sized to compress when a thread spool is pushed over the spindle such that the spindle stem extends into a central cylindrical opening of the thread spool, so that the thread spool becomes gripped on the spindle stem...[and] wherein the thread retention feature comprises a slit in the end of the spindle, for receiving a thread pulled down into the slit, the slit being at the bottom of a notch in the end of the spindle, and wherein the spindle stem has a deformable U-shaped cross section, and including a second notch formed in one side of the U-shaped spindle stem, near the end to receive and guide the thread end on its way to the slit."

Got that? Wow, now that's a tough read. If you already own and use the Spooler storage system from Blue Feather products, please reply to this post and let us know what you think of it.

My thanks to Mark and his production team for inviting me on to Creative Mojo. May there always be a connecting tunnel from Totally Tidy to Pickle Road.

The Customers Versus The Organizer

It was probably no coincidence that yesterday was National Quilting Day, and I spent the day at 35th Avenue Sew n Vac at 35th/Northern in Phoenix for their Black Bag event. What fun Black Bag day is there. The store had cookies, games and discounts, and dozens of shoppers poured through the doors all day long.

The store gave me a prominent booth next to the front door where I had an activity for shoppers to select their top 5 organizing tools from among 10 tagged items on the table. I tallied the results and am amazed to find that no one had exactly the same top 5 selections as me. The following shoppers matched four of my five selections: Linda O., Kim U., Frances M., Cecile D., Judy O'., Marjorie, Wanda S., Ruth H., Diane M. and Roberta H.

Of the 10 items displayed, I chose:
1. My book (so that you can reference new ideas for how and when to use these products)

2. ArtBin Super Satchel Deluxe project case (although I much prefer the 12x12" size)

3. Blue Feather's BobbinSaver

4. Sewline's Gift Set with Case

5. Gypsy's Bitty Buddy Thread Catcher

My selections matched the overall top vote-getters in all but one case. The item that shoppers selected among their top five items that didn't match mine was Collins' Daisy Spool Pin Cushion. Note that Collins also makes a longer version that fits a bobbin and a king spool.

I think that the Gypsy Bitty Buddy Thread Catcher has a lot more potential than just as a mini trash can. Because it is collapsible, it's very flexible and can be used as a temporary holder for most anything.

While I was at the shop, I took a few minutes to browse and see what other organizing wonders I might find. In honor of National Quilting Day, I hereby declare this product as my National Quilting Day product-of-the-day. It is the Puzzlemat from Cottage Mills. These 12"x12" squares piece together to turn any surface into an instant cutting surface. I found the whole set of six squares to be rather heavy, but I can picture slipping one or two mats into your to-go kit and being able to create a cutting surface in a jiffy. Or keep one square next to you when you have small piecing projects.

I suspect that the Puzzlemat will still give you some uneven points at the joins, so I'm interested to know who uses this product already and can share their opinion. Select Reply to this post.

Tables for Traveling

I spent yesterday at the Arizona Quilters Guild annual quilt show at the Mesa Convention Center. The show organizers were extremely accommodating and let me stand at the literature table to show off my new book. Although I didn't sell the book as I had planned, a genuine mix-up in my participation in the show required some quick thinking. And the literature table turned out to be a good place to be after all. Quilters came by the table the whole day, so everyone got to hear from me about all of the various guild events, plus my book launch party.


Yes, the book launch party is set. It will be 4-6 pm on April 16, 2011 at The Quilted Apple at 24th/Thomas in Phoenix. The owner of The Quilted Apple has been more than accommodating in making arrangements for the party. And truth be told, it's the first book launch party for both of us. We'll be experimenting together. The party is to recognize my contributors and to take the mystery out of quilting for my friends. Regular patrons of The Quilted Apple and interested book readers alike are welcome to attend the book launch party.


It was uncanny that the two organizing ideas I walked away with yesterday from the show were both about travel tables. First, a quilter chatted with me about the wonderful "Sew EZ" travel table she bought a year ago but now needs a different acrylic insert for her new machine. I Googled twice after she left and then hit upon the exact table she was telling me about. It's at http://www.seweziusa.com/. If you use the SewEzi portable sewing table, reply to this post and tell us how you like it. The manufacturer says it weighs 23 pounds, which still sounds a little heavy to me. Perhaps that's what you pay for to get this amount of workspace, which measures 35" x 19".


The, the second idea came from my friend Verna of VJ's Creative Designs in Green Valley, Arizona. Verna sells a kit to make a heat-resistant pressing surface on top of a tv tray. Yes, the modern-ish, wooden kind of tv tray. Verna's kit is just $8 and includes a photo print (pictured), heat-resistant fabric and pattern. For an extra $7, Verna can include a fun fabric for the borders. How much more portable can you get than to have a tv tray pressing table?


Take it as a sign, gals. My underlying message is for you to sign up for a class, to go to a retreat or to sew at a friend's. Whatever you choose, get organized and equipped to take my advice and go portable.

Corraling Tools on Your Sewing Table

I saw this Handy Caddy recently, and it's one of the best tabletop caddies I have ever seen. Do you have any idea why? Take a guess.

The product is made by a entrepreneur Sharon Lee in San Mateo, California. Are you still guessing?

The caddy pictured is the smaller of the two versions Sharon is currently selling on handycaddy.com. Here's the reason why I love it.

It's SEE-THROUGH.

With six side pockets, you can keep your most essential tabletop tools close at hand without even losing sight of them. It has plenty of room for your rotary cutters, seam ripper, marking pencils, scissors and more. Just be sure not to fill it up with less useful stuff (i.e. clutter). You aren't going to lose your things at the bottom of this tote like you would inside a dark coffee can or other opaque container. The larger version has eight pockets and an extended length to accommodate knitting needles, and both versions have a matching vinyl tote bag available to help make your caddy even more portable.

Besides the center storage compartment probably needing one or two more dividers across it, the only negative I can see about this caddy is that all of the dust will show. So as this caddy gets dusty, you'll want to restore it back to its clear and shiny state for the best view.

If you own one of these Handy Caddies, reply and let us know if it's a good as I think it is.