The queen of the Newbee Quilters Hive 3 wanted X + blocks in bright colors paired with neutrals. I hope she likes it! It was really a snap to make. I might just have to make a few for myself!
Here's the confession. I have been absolutely moping the past almost 2 weeks since my last post. I have been looking at all the pretty picture posts linked up to Plum and June's new photography workshop linky and have been really down on myself. I just don't have any good place to stage photos. My house is super dark. I don't have patio furniture or nice pretty grass (it's Arizona!) to use as a backdrop. So I moped, thinking of how horrible all my photos were and how everyone must just hate me for taking bad pictures.
I know, stupid, right? Part of this funk has been stemming from other things in my life being stressful, I know. It has been a rough couple of weeks at work and at home and I can't tell you how glad I am that it's Friday and I only have one more day of work before a nice, long weekend. But today I'm feeling like what I really need to do is leave behind the negativity. Yes, my house is dark, but that doesn't mean I can't do the best I can. Or find a cute little patio table on Craigslist to use for outdoor photos. There are solutions to this and the other stressful things that seem to be cropping up everywhere in my life lately. It's all about attitude, right? So I have decided to work on always having a positive attitude toward sewing and blogging. I love sewing and blogging about it and reading blogs and all the other wonderful things that come with it! I shouldn't let the stress monster that follows me around everywhere else taint my happy place!
So that's my confession. I stayed away from my blog for almost two weeks because of this nonsense! How ridiculous is that?
I have been working on all sorts of things, though. I am almost done quilting the wonky triangle quilt! I was really struggling at first, but then I found this post by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh! Fransson fame and it helped A LOT. I started quilting in quadrants instead of rows and it was sooo much easier. Mario also brought me some Kevlar gloves from work that are AWESOME. I had shown him some quilting gloves when we were at Joann and he remembered and thought maybe these would work. And they do! Soon I will have a finished quilt to show you! Isn't that exciting??
I also starting cutting scraps for a new quilt:
Happy little piles of color! It's going to be a scrappy chevron quilt using rectangles instead of triangles. I have seen them around the internet, but haven't found a pattern/tutorial really, so I sketched it out myself and am crossing my fingers that everything goes well!
Well. It is time to get to work. I will be seeing you more often- no more stress monster keeping me away from my favorite destressing activity! Hope you have a great weekend!
The reason why I held off on starting a blog at all was photography, and it's one thing that keeps me from posting as often as I'd like. Our house has only a couple decent places for sunlight, and only at very certain times of day. I finally started just laying out a large cut of white fabric where ever had the most sunlight, took the best pic I could, then edited it until the colors looked decent. It's not great, I'm using a phone camera (from a phone that's 3 years old, btw...), but I feel like it's passable, especially since I'm ok at fiddling with photoshop. It's enough that people won't be like, horrified by the photos, but they can tell what's going on and everything. It's hard to justify a ton of money on a really nice camera for a blog when it's not something that I necessarily do everyday, when my blog is still really small, when it's not providing any income or balance to offset the costs...the sole reason I'd buy a camera is for blog photography, so I'm holding out until there seems to be a good reason to get one. Until then, my new phone comes in soon and I'll still have photoshop :)
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the moping. Went through some of it myself earlier this month. And photos are tough! I would love to be able to take great photos inside but I just don't have any ideal spot in my house for them. And the weather rarely cooperates LOL. But I do the best I can and keep trying to get better. That's all we can do right!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you found some "quilting" gloves. I really cannot believe how much easier it is with them. I put off spending the money thinking it surely wouldn't make that big a difference. WRONG!!
I make chevron quilts with rectangles and got my tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts. But I think I remember saying that the blog it was a guest post for is no longer around. Maybe google her site to see if she archived it anywhere? If not, I remember the gist of it and could probably send it to you :)
Yep if you need the rectangle-chevron tutorial for a step or two, you can find it on her blog under tutorials. I hate hearing that these things kept you away from blogging, unhappy, but I am SO happy that you decided to not let it disturb you most happy hobby :) I really hope to see the finished triangle quilt soon!
ReplyDeleteDon't sweat the photos - just enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI made rectangle chevron cushion covers this year using a tutorial which I just went to retrieve for you. It seems to have been taken down but these are the pics of my version - you'll be able to see how it was done: http://notetofollowsew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/cushion-cover-done.html
I think the rectangles are 5.5 inches by 3 inches.
There's a ton of little things you do can do to improve photography with out spending a lot of money or having fancy equipment. One good thing is getting some daylight light bulbs. You can find them at the hardware store. They are labeled "daylight" and have the spiral shape. You dont want to use them full concentration. You can DIY a light tent (google it) or pick up a starter kit like this one with lights and all http://www.cowboystudio.com/product_p/square%20tent%20kit.htm
ReplyDeleteJust keep making and keep writing. The expertise will come with time. :)
My house is dark too and even our daylight is grim for more than half the year. And I definitely find trying to take good photos the most stressful and depressing part of blogging. But I've always thought your photos were great. I guess we are all over-critical of ourselves! You make such lovely things they definitely shine out on your blog :)
ReplyDeleteWhy are we so hard on ourselves when it's supposed to be fun? :/ Hang in there and know that we ALL feel this way at times.
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