Part 4 of the me series.  If you missed the first posts, check out the “about me” page for a link to all the posts.

In the fall of 2012, my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia.  I temporarily moved to be with her that fall.  My family stayed in LA while we figured out what we were going to do.  At this time, my company was based out of my garage and I had employees coming every day.  I took my computer to my mom’s house and worked from there.  It was amazing and crazy but completely doable.  I was lonely and took my sewing machine with me.  That’s when I discovered podcasts and all the online resources.  That’s when I discovered the modern movement.  While I don’t consider myself a modern quilter, I love the online community and what’s going on with the movement.  I spent every moment when I wasn’t working or helping my mom, quilting.  I went back to LA and started the process of moving my family from LA to Northern California.  We let go of our house and moved the company into a real office space.  For the next year I ran it from my mom’s living room.  In 2013, I started this blog as a way to connect with other bloggers and the online quilting community.  It also was a way for me to keep track of all my projects and for each quilt to tell their story.  Over the last 3 years, it’s been extremely helpful in keeping my going on my various projects.

Happy 1st Birthday
Ammabel!

~ that’s all I have time for now, I’ll have to continue at another time.

~ Melanie

Part 3 of the me series.  If you missed the first couple, check out the first and then the second.

After I got the Bernina in August, 2011, it took a while before I got the guts to actually FMQ Kayla’s Thirties Quilt.  I took a bit of time to get accustomed to the machine.  I started Raining Cats and Dogs at this time.  I didn’t get much done.  It was a BOM offered through my LQS and I couldn’t keep up.  I didn’t have much experience appliqueing before so it was a steep learning curve.  As you may know if you’ve been following me, I recently just finished the blocks for this.

Raining Cats and Dogs
All blocks
laid out on the design floor
1/24/2016

In January 2012, I joined the next BOM and I got half of the blocks done before I set them aside.  They’re sitting in my kit bin.  Also in 2012, I discovered the Southern California Quilt Run.  The kids and I went to every shop in 4 days.  It was amazing and fun.  In that year, they were doing mystery quilts and you had to get the block from each shop in the area and the final shop would give you the final instructions.  I still have my bundles waiting for me to pull them out and start working on them.  It’s in my kit bin too.  I also discovered the Long Beach Quilt Show and purchased kits at the show.  They are in the kit bin too.  2012 and 2013 were both years of the kits and I just accumulated projects.  I hope that this year I’ll be able to start working on those projects.  Every time I’ve got a FINISH I get to add a project from these bins into my project rotation.

~ that’s all I have time for now, I’ll have to continue at another time.

~ Melanie

So part 2 of the me series.  If you missed the first one, check it out here.

In the fall of 2006, I was driving home from a client meeting and out of the corner of my eye the word Quilt whizzed by.  A few days prior I was thinking about wanting to learn how to quilt.  I had these quilt books from somewhere and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.  I didn’t know how to get started.  So I decided to take a class.  Originally, I figured I would go to Joann’s and take a quilty class there because I knew Joann’s had classes like that.  But when I saw that word, I went back a day or so later and found my LQS.  It’s still the same quilt shop I go to when I need something.  I signed up for the traditional hand quilting class.  At this time, I didn’t have a sewing machine and I didn’t want to buy one.  So I learned how to do everything the traditional way.  It was fun.  I can’t remember how long the classes were but it felt like there were a lot of classes.  The first set of classes were made up of learning 12 blocks and we would have a quilt top.  We cut templates, we marked lines, and we sat and hand pieced everything.  I learned to applique and use freezer paper.  When that class was over I signed up for the second part and we learned how to hand quilt.  It took me 8 years to finish hand quilting this quilt.  You can see more of that story here.

My Hand Quilt
Finally Finished
4/2/2014

While I was hand quilting this quilt, I borrowed my mom’s sewing machine.  I wanted to learn how to quilt with a sewing machine.  But I didn’t have the money to take the class so I read the quilt books that I had and they actually started making sense.  I bought all my fabric from Joann’s because it was affordable and that’s what I could afford.  I started my first project, Month by Month.

Month by Month
Finished!
5/31/2015

You can read more of that story here.  I did a bit here and there but in those days I quilted when I had time which was probably once a month or even less.  So things didn’t get done fast.  Finally I decided enough was enough and in 2008, decided to take a class again to learn how to machine quilt.  I started with my LQS’ “My First Quilt” class and since it was a crib quilt, made it for my baby boy.  You can’t see it but the blue patches have little stars and moons on it, the neutral has little music notes on it, and the red fabric has compasses on it.  I picked the fabric with my baby boy in mind.

Jacob’s First Quilt

It was a quick finish but I didn’t get the label on it until 2013.  Then after his quilt, in 2009, I took the next class in the series and that was for Kayla.  The quilt is Kayla’s Thirties Quilt.  The top finished pretty quickly and by this point I’m hooked on quilting.

Kayla’s Thirties Quilt

I get to the part where I need to quilt it and I want to try to FMQ.  Remember I’m still using my mom’s sewing machine which was a regular $150 Singer machine from Costco.  I took the FMQ class offered by my LQS with Sue Rasmussen.  I didn’t know who she was at the time.  In fact, I don’t think I was doing much online in regards to quilt stuff.  Anyway, it was a great class.  I learned a lot about thread and needles and my mind was blown away!  But the main thing I discovered was that my machine was skipping stitches when I went in certain directions.  This was not a machine I could FMQ with.  So, I set Kayla’s quilt aside until I figured something out.  I didn’t buy my Bernina 330 until August of 2011 so I’m not sure what I did from when I finished Kayla’s top and when I bought the Bernina.  I know I was engrossed in my business and was working a lot during that time so I may just not have quilted as much.  I know I bought fabric here and there and I probably worked on the Month by Month quilt but I can’t remember doing more than that. I was probably hand quilting.  These were difficult times for our family and I was on survival mode.

~ that’s all I have time for now, I’ll have to continue at another time.

~ Melanie

I was going through my blog and noticed that my about me page was a few years old.  I’ve updated a bit here and there but didn’t give it an overhaul and so there are things that are incorrect now.  So I thought I’d do a short series about me while I figure out what I want to update the about me page to say.

Age: 39

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Married with 2 kids (14, daughter and 10, son) who I talk about quite a bit.

The hubby and I have our own business doing non-quilty or crafty stuff.  I talk about it once in awhile.

I’ve been crafting all my life in some form or another.  I cross stitched, then I scrapbooked, dabbled in jewelry making and card making, then in Oct, 2006, I started quilting.  I was 30 and decided that I wanted to learn how to quilt and despite having many other hobbies didn’t want to wait until I had more time to do it.  My grandmother was the seamstress in the family and I remember many times sitting in our patio doing homework while she put stuff together on her sewing machine.  Usually she did home dec projects like curtains, couch pillows, etc.  But my sister, cousins and I all took hula classes and she sewed all of our hula outfits together.  She sat me in front of that machine when I was about 9 or 10 years old and showed me how to thread it and how to use it.  I remember sewing some doll clothes with it before she moved on to the next house.  I have the sewing machine now.  It’s an old (1970’s) Industrial Juki.  My grandmother at some point in the 70’s worked for Northface and was able to purchase this.  At least that was what someone told me.  I haven’t used it but it travels with me from house to house.  The hubby hates it because its all metal and very heavy.  I’m afraid to use it as it hasn’t been used in 20+ years or so and I need to get someone to come and look at it.  I’m sure I can probably clean it up and get it going.  But it’s probably better to have a pro look at it first.

~ that’s all I have time for now, I’ll have to continue at another time.

~ Melanie