Good thing I am not easily deterred!

Lately I feel like all I do is dwell on this impending move and how much work is left and blah blah blah. I am boring even myself.  So I have started to think ahead to all of the cool stuff I am going to look forward to — and one of those things is looking for a place to live with more space.  And – are you catching on? — some of these banned activities!  Oh yes.

I think many people long for a big house with a garage and spacious backyard because they want kids or a dog or barbecues.  In fact, I think many people are hoping for all three.  My big dreams are a little more… shall we say, whimsical?  Here are my real-life aspirations:

#1 – Turn My Backyard into the Set of Edward Scissorhands

Sure, I have never successfully kept a house plant alive for more than a week, but should that really stop me from pursuing my dream of trimming all of the plants into topiaries?  My parents gave me an instructional book for Christmas, so I’m pretty much all set.  I also watched a 2 minute clip explaining how the gardeners at Disneyland do it as well as the excellent documentary, A Man Named Pearl.  What additional education is necessary?

I just need an electric hedge trimmer and a really tall ladder.  That’s cool, right?

Husband Acceptance Factor: Medium.  He says I can trim the plants if I use safety scissors and wear protective chain mail.

True story: One home we looked at had a 28,000 square foot lot.  (Ridiculous.)  There was totally enough room to make a life-sized tyrannosaurus rex out of box hedge.  I promise to take pictures.

#2 – Set up Acrobatic Studio in Spare Room

[Image credit: OneFlameintheFire via Flickr]

Several years ago.  Ok, more like 10, I took a class on aerial arts.  (Think circus.)  Sure, it was just one class and I wasn’t able to do most of the moves, but that has not stopped me from wanting to have my own acrobatics studio in my home.  I loved the tissu — you know, the long flowing fabric that people wrap themselves in and hang from.  I figure we can just hire a pro to fasten that stuff to the ceiling and then I’ll practice — starting out very low to the ground.

I know some of you are worried, but that’s what the mats are for.  Heck, maybe we can get one of those big foam pits like they have in gymnastics studios.  We weren’t really going to use the guest room anyway.

Husband Acceptance Factor: Low.  He claims that this poses structural risks to the home.  (I know.  He’s trying to trick me using physics.)

#3 – Buy a Scroll Saw

[Image credit: Popular Mechanics]

This was the first year that I did not even bother putting “scroll saw” on my Christmas list.  I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  My husband and parents have ganged up against me on this one.  But how else am I going to cut out all of the gingerbread fretwork for our windows and the two story guest house I am building out of Popsicle sticks in the backyard?  Clearly, I need this.

Did you know with the right blade, you can also cut shapes out of metal and acrylic?!  I will make Christmas ornaments for everyone on the block.

Husband Acceptance Factor: Lower than the electric hedge clippers.  Claims I will be even slower to fold laundry when I have 9 fingers.  Also, husband does not want to share the garage with me.  Something about getting wood dust on his car.

Ok, so what about you?  If money, space, and rules were no object — what would you do? I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Hi everyone!  Thank you so much for all of the nice comments about the gift tags and the move.  In the midst of this big transition, I have been trying to be very diligent about writing down 5 things I am thankful for each day.  Without fail, each week I find myself writing down a thoughtful email or funny thing that you have said here.  Thanks for that.  It means a lot.

We got home late last night from our trip to Seattle.  It was exhausting, but successful!  We found an apartment and turned in our application.  The new place is in walking distance to (drum roll, please)… the library.  That sort of sealed the deal for me.  I’ll have a nice place to work during the transition while we wait for our stuff to arrive.

We realized on this trip that we have some fairly large furniture, so it’s going to take some creativity to fit everything in the new place.  I am relieved that we decided to go for the sensible option with the most storage.  I am already thinking about how to cozy it up a bit.  We will finally have a use for our hardly-ever-used flannel sheets and all of those soup recipes I have been saving up for the cold weather which never seems to arrive in LA.

We stopped by Lake Washington on our way to the airport yesterday and snapped a few photos.  The water, the trees, they are all calling to me now — making it ever so slightly easier to unwind the cords that are tethering us here.  We are one foot in each location now, doing that funny in-between dance.  Now we gather our strength for our next big number.  January is going to be gone in a flash.  I can tell.

I hope you will indulge me in a Christmas post even if that was “so last year.”  If I don’t write it all down now, I will forget — and I thought this year was kind of cute.

Each Christmas, my husband and I have made our own gift tags.  Some years, they were fancy.  Some years, silly.  Some years I don’t think we could even remember why we started this, but now it’s a tradition — and (usually) fun.  The amount of fun seems to be directly correlated to the amount of holiday “to do’s” left when we start cutting them out.

This year we decided to do a photo booth tag.  I never know how these things are going to go.  Sometimes it’s all fun and games, and other years it’s more like negotiating a peace treaty.

2011 was a good Christmas tag year thanks to my husband.  He set up a mini photo studio on the floor of the living room (really just a roll of wrapping paper hanging down from the mantle in front of the camera/tripod).  We held up a blank piece of paper in each photo.  After we picked our favorites, he laid them out in a strip in Photoshop to get that photo booth look, and added in all of the words.

My husband is really big on conserving paper and ink so he likes to wait until we know exactly how many presents each person has before we print them out.  So on Christmas Eve, while I finished up the holiday baking, he printed the tags out on glossy paper with our Canon photo printer, cut them all down to size, and hole punched each one.

The best part (aside from the fact that I did not have to cut them out) is that I have a big collection of holiday photos of us (which almost never happens) — including a lot of pretty ridiculous outtakes.  Quite a few of our friends and family said “we should do this next year!” so I hope it catches on, and I can have a little collection of photos.  Having a real, live printed photo feels like such a luxury these days.  I think this would be really fun for people to do with their kids or pets.  Maybe by next year we’ll have a cat, and she can be in the pictures in my place.  I won’t even have to comb my hair.

Well, 2012 is off to a rapid start!  I had one nice day where I stayed in my pajamas until noon, reading blogs over a cup of coffee that I nursed for so long I had to keep going back to the kitchen to warm it back up.  I am trying to curb my jealousy of everyone who had a whole week of that flannel-wrapped down time.  Next year, I tell myself.  Next year, I am going to be the laziest, most decadent girl ever.  They will have to pry me off of the couch with a crow bar and tear the chocolate bonbons from my hands!  There will be no deadlines and no packing!

This year, I’ll be good and do my work and get ready for the move.

A man came to our apartment to tally up our things for the moving truck.  We have a date and a schedule now.  I put a calendar on the refrigerator which makes it feel very official.  (I’m old school like that.)  In a few days, we are going to fly up to Seattle and look for a place to live.  I am excited to have some time to explore our new home.  (And I think we’ll both be much more excited once we have a place for all of that furniture and boxes to land.)  We are planning to stay in a temporary apartment in Downtown Bellevue for awhile, and as much as I’m ready to get out of city-living, I look forward to being able to walk to restaurants, shopping, coffee shops, and the library while we get settled.

I dragged my poor husband to the after Christmas sales so I could buy some sweaters which brings my warm shirts tally up to 4.  That should do, right?  I don’t know anyone there yet, so no one will know that I’m going to wear the black sweater with the buttons on Mondays AND Fridays.  Well, either that or someone is going to have to take me back to the mall.  At least it’s close enough I can walk there, right?

Did you get to relax?  I want to hear about it.  I am living vicariously through my well-rested friends.  Especially warm ones who have sweaters.

[All images courtesy of Thomas Knauer.  Patterns for these projects are available for purchase from Thomas' shop]

Hi everyone.  I have one more designer interview to share from Quilt Market — and today, it is the incredibly awesome Thomas Knauer.

Thomas is celebrating his debut with Andover Fabrics.  I had the good fortune to be sitting next to him at the Andover sales meeting, and he made me feel instantly at home.  Thomas is one of the most enthusiastic and generous people I’ve met to date.  (Not just in the fabric/quilting industry, but in life — so if you haven’t connected with Thomas yet, I encourage you to head over to his site now.)  Pear Tree, his first line, is in stores now, and Thomas is on a roll with two more lines, Flock and Savanna Bop, coming up next.

I really enjoyed his answers (especially to question #3) and hope that you do as well.

What are you most excited to be showing off at this show?

Phew!  That’s a questions and a half.  Since this is my first Market with anything to actually show off to the world I kinda want to say everything!!!  But I’ll be good and will narrow things down.  While I love Pear Tree (how could I not love my first line) and all the quilts and pillows I’ve made from it, I think I am most excited to be debuting Flock.  I really feel like I am getting close to the fabric I see in my head with this one.  I know, one might think that if I see fabric in my head it should be easy to get it down on paper, but it isn’t for me.  The thing about the way I see things in my head is that it is rarely visual; it is more often a description accompanied by a feeling.  Perhaps I shouldn’t call it seeing things in my head, but calling my designs the things I read or hear in my head just sounds crazy.  Anyway, Flock feel so personal to me for some reason, and I am so happy with how it has turned out.  It really feels like bits of me on cloth.

What keeps you inspired?

Oi! Another tough one.  Inspiration is a tough concept for me.  I rarely think of myself as being inspired; I think of myself more as a grinder.  My entire career I’ve had to work at being creative.  It is more a mental effort than a visual one.  Ideas rarely come to me; I feel around in the dark corners of my brain for them and eventually find the kernels of ideas in the mess.  Then I work them over again and again.  If anything I’d say that process is what keeps me inspired.  Oh, and of course my amazing daughter.  So much of what I design is so I can make stuff for her out of it.

What advice would you give to someone else who wants to pursue their own creative dream?

Make more.  Seriously, that’s it.  That was how I taught design back in my professorial days, and that is how I continue my practice now.  I have enough designs in reserve right now to do at least four more lines (if I added a few new ones for continuity within each collection).  When I first sent designs off to Andover I had three complete collections, two of which are thankfully on the trash pile.  I’m pretty sure I could rework those two lines into good collections, but my interests have already shifted.  Pear Tree just shipped and I am already finalizing my fourth and fifth collections.  And working on sketches for numbers six and seven.  Make more; you can always hold them back in reserve for those times when the ideas aren’t clicking, or let them sit for further revision (revision is always good, even if you end up going with the original version).  But the main reason to make more is that it will help you get better.  Between gallery, museum, academic, and now textiles I’ve been doing this for twenty years and I still see myself getting better every month.  So, make more.

What has been the biggest surprise you’ve encountered when designing fabric and patterns?

The fact that people like what I’m doing.  I’m not kidding.