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Welcome to episode 030 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

In this episode I talk to Charise Randell of Charise Creates. You need to check out her website – her paper pieced patterns are stunning!

I found Charise because of the Vintage Block Along. This is a set of 12 paper pieced patterns she created and posted for free on her website. Thanks again for being on the show Charise!

Charise started sewing when she was just six years old. She started with designing and sewing clothes for Barbie dolls, which led to a career as a women’s wear apparel designer that lasted 20 years. Charise shares a lot of free patterns that include paper pieced blocks and projects as well as clothing patterns. She also has her apparel design portfolio on her website. I think it is so great that she is now designing for herself and is starting a company that is focused on her designs.

The paper pieced patterns that she creates are a bit more complicated than other patterns you might see, but the results are so great. She uses some really great fabrics to aid in the design and creation of the blogs. The use of various text prints look so good when they are on the handle of something. She mentioned a few favorite shops which include Sew Me A Song, and Sew Deerly Loved. The fun part about making something with a paper pieced pattern is that you sometimes don’t need a large piece of fabric so you can feature a beautiful print or a few words.

I am looking forward to seeing what Charise creates this year! She is focusing on clothing patterns for her own company so keep and eye out for what she publishes.

Where you can find Charise – Charise Creates on facebook – Charise on instagram – Charise Creates Patterns on Craftsy – Charise Creates patterns on etsy – Charise Creates Etsy shop

Listen to episode 030 and let me know your experience with paper pieced patterns.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m sewing quilt blocks for my swaps.

Head over to iTunes and subscribe to Me Being Crafty so you don’t miss an episode! You can also subscribe on stitcher.

Welcome to episode 029 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

In this episode I talk to Angela Pingel of Cut to Pieces about sewing curves, filming a Quilting Arts DVD, and taking time off.

I may have found Angela’s website when she did the Super Mario Quilt Along a few years ago. I love the design and remember all of the questions people had with trying to figure out the stabilizer to use. It’s true that there are a lot of tutorials available now with using stabilizer to create pixel quilt blocks, but at that time there were not.

Angela’s book, A Quilter’s Mixology, was released in July 2014 and it is fantastic. The quilts featured in the book look complicated, but they are not. The DVD she filmed was recently released by Interweave, it’s titled Sewing Techniques for Accurate Curved Piecing, and is an hour long instructional DVD. Listen to the podcast to hear what Angela has to say about filming in a room with just the camera guys. And when you watch the DVD, you can play a fun game with the word lovely.

She also talked about taking time off this year. Other than a vacation she has planned, Angela mentioned she will be attending Sewtopia Chicago and that is such a great way to recharge yourself and take time for yourself. You might go home tired, but it is so fun to spend time with people who love the same things you love and they are creative in the same way that you are creative. It’s fantastic to be around your community in person. I am hopeful to be able to do that this year at some point.

Where you can find Angela – Cut to Pieces on facebook – Cut to Pieces on instagram – Cut to Pieces on pinterest

Listen to episode 029 and let me know a sewing technique that you were afraid of but tried anyway.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m working on finishing some beadwork.

Head over to iTunes and subscribe to Me Being Crafty so you don’t miss an episode! You can also subscribe on stitcher.

Welcome to episode 028 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

In this episode I talk to Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew about her business, her support of other small businesses, her experiences at Quilt Market, and upcoming plans.

I have been reading Allison’s blog for years and love her patterns. Be sure to stop by to see if there is one (or more!) that you just have to make! Thanks again for being on the show Allison!

Allison is running her small business and she allows items made from her tutorials and patterns to be sold with credit to her as the designer. I think that is awesome – it allows other people that are just starting out to offer something that was designed by someone who is designing patterns and quilts for a living. Sometimes people feel like they don’t have the design skills, but they have the sewing skills. Allison allowing her patterns and tutorials to be used in such a way is a good move because it also gets her name out there to a larger audience.

We also talked about her personal life and her quilting business. She said it almost feels like two separate lives when it comes to the two parts, which I think is easily true for a lot of people. She is a quiet person and likes to be in her garden or hanging out with her family, so putting herself out there for events such as Quilt Market is a step outside of her comfort zone.

I’ve only been to a few quilting specific things over the years, but I have walked away thinking that someone was a lot quieter then I imagined them to be. It can be also intimidating to be around all of these people that are quilting and sewing and showing off amazing looking things, but trust me when I say people are in general very nice. Allison took her husband to her first few Quilt Markets and she said that helped her a lot. I attended sewing summit alone but quickly made friends.

Allison and I also talked about that thing everyone is looking for – time to do everything. I have certainly felt overwhelmed at various times in my life. We are all the way through January now and into the start of February so I looked at the swaps I signed up for and the quilt bees I am in. I don’t think I am in that many, but when I took stock and made a list I realize I definitely need to stay organized so I don’t fall behind on anything.

Allison talked about how many too many plans overwhelmed her and she ended up taking a lot of time off instead. If you are a person that can look at a plan for the entire year and you are excited and work toward that, fantastic – use your year long plan to accomplish everything you have on your list. But if you are someone that doesn’t like to see concrete numbers written down, make your plans fit what works for you. You should have some sort of plan though – a few things that can help are the Evernote program and app which helps keep a wide variety of notes such as text, a website or webpage, or a photo, you can also use a planner, or multiple planners. My website is self hosted and uses WordPress and I use a plugin editorial calendar that allows me to see a month of posts at a time so I can drag and drop posts or start a draft. I really love that editorial calendar and as much as I love using the bullet jorunal for my list making and to do list, I haven’t started using a planner for my blog’s editorial calendar just yet.

Where you can find Allison – Cluck Cluck Sew on facebook – Allison on instagram – Allison on pinterest – Cluck Cluck Sew Pattern Shop – Cluck Cluck Sew Wholesale Site

Listen to episode 028 and let me know the latest pattern you are working on!

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m finally getting somewhere with a lanyard I am beading! I took the beadwork apart once and restarted over the weekend.

Head over to iTunes and subscribe to Me Being Crafty so you don’t miss an episode! You can also subscribe on stitcher.

Welcome to episode 027 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

In this episode I am recapping a few of the early episodes. I look at who I have interviewed on the show so far and I am so glad that my friends have said yes to agreeing to be on the show! I have really enjoyed having these conversations with such creative people and I hope you have been able to learn something new about them and from each show.

We are often alone when we create – I sew and quilt alone in my home and I miss sewing with other people and having that interaction. But being alone when you are creative doesn’t mean you have to always be alone, and it doesn’t mean that it is a bad thing. I talked with Anne Sullivan (Play Crafts) about her work to build a community of people to be creative with. I love that she went out of her way to find like-minded people, even if it was a big step away from what made her feel comfortable in terms of looking for those people.

The first interview I did for this podcast was with my kids, normally super chatty people who had a bit of a rough time being interviewed. Since that interview the older kids have both paid more attention to what they make and what they do. It’s been fun to watch them try new things and get an idea and work on it.

One of my favorite things is to hear the behind the scenes information about something. I love hearing about how something is planned and organized. Julie Dueck (The Intrepid Thread) and Rachael Gander (Imagine Gnats) both shared their stories of getting started with their shops and what they offer. Julie’s shop has great block of the month programs and classes if you are local to her, and Rachael has some really great garment patterns available.

Even if you are being creative alone in your house, sometimes you need to schedule time into your day to be creative. Being busy isn’t a bad thing, working takes time, taking care of your family takes time, maintaining your friendships takes time. And so if you have a hard time finding that time for yourself to sew, to quilt, to do beadwork, to crochet – schedule that time into your day like my friend Andrea Rennick (Quilti). Andrea puts it in her calendar so she is sure to have time for herself.

I had a fantastic conversation with Rebecca Roach and what it means to put yourself into what you are designing. She started out making Hawaiian quilts and quickly felt that it wasn’t ‘her’ because the symbols didn’t mean to her what they meant to Native Hawaiians. It’s important to recognize the culture that is inspiring you and knowing that there are artists within that community already designing things, but maybe they aren’t getting national attention for whatever reason. I am a firm believer in not taking something important to a culture and using it in fabric design because you thought it was pretty. There are a couple of lines out that make me cringe because I think people just weren’t able to see the bigger picture.

Heather Mann (Dollar Store Crafts) shared what her website is all about and gave me a good reminder that we don’t have to spend a lot of money to be creative. Her website is full of projects and tutorials that are made using various supplies from any local dollar store. Some hobbies are expensive so being able to save money on various supplies is always a good thing.

I look back on the episodes I did for my podcast in 2007-2008 and realize I didn’t interview many people. Podcasting wasn’t hip and cool back then like it seems to be now. It may be a resurgence to some people, but this form has been around for quite a while. I hope you enjoy these interviews and I’ll be back next week with more! I am looking forward to talking with creative people and sharing what they have to offer with you.

A reminder of where you can find me – Me Being Crafty facebook page – Tsoniki on Instagram – Tsoniki on Twitter 

Listen to episode 027 today! This is a short episode and I will be back soon with more thoughts on other interviews.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m on a roll with finishing some baby quilts and so I continue with that!

Head over to iTunes and subscribe to Me Being Crafty so you don’t miss an episode! You can also subscribe on stitcher.

Welcome to episode 026 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

In this episode I talk to Alyce Blyth of Blossom Heart Quilts about the first thing she made, co-hosting a very popular quilt bee, and having a blog sponsor. She is currently living in Japan and enjoying the wonderful fabric that is available there.

Alyce has great tutorials on her site such as the Bee Hive block series, and the Sew the Rainbow series that just started. She also designed an alphabet quilt and I really like these blocks because they are rotary cut instead of paper pieced. So if you are nervous about paper piecing, definitely look at these blocks. I love paper piecing but having another option is always nice.

If you are interested in having a blog sponsor, you need to read the series of posts on Alyce’s website that start with a discussion on valuing yourself as a creative blogger. Alyce writes about her own story with blog sponsors, she gives tips on what a blog sponsor is looking for, and even what it is like when the time comes to end a relationship with a sponsor. I appreciate that she tackled the sometimes difficult subject of what happens when the relationship is over.

Every experience of looking for and having a blog sponsor is unique, but it helps to see what other people have done. It’s helpful to see that you aren’t the only one out there nervous to ask for a sponsor, or excited when your favorite shops say yes. And it’s also nice to see that others also struggle with the realization that it just isn’t working out. When you want to make the switch from having a hobby to running a business, there are certain things you need to do and to become comfortable with, okay maybe it always makes someone a little nervous to end a working relationship, but knowing how to handle that transition is a good thing.

Where you can find Alyce – Blossom Heart Quilts on facebook – Blossom Heart Quilts on instagram – Alyce on flickr

Listen to episode 026 and let me know what your experience with sponsors has been, do you have sponsors, do you want sponsors?

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m finishing a baby quilt and my baby quilt patterns!