New Year, New Goals

Big Blooms pattern available from The Whimsical Workshop

We are three weeks into the new year and I am finally getting to blog about it. The past few years have been a quite crazy and I have let my life get a bit out of control. As I am sure all of you can relate to. Our business has seen great growth over the past three years and with that comes a lot more work, longer hours and lots of juggling.

After giving all my time to The Whimsical Workshop, I have decided to pause for a moment and think about how I am spending my time, how can I make life a little less crazy, how do I take time for ME and continue to move forward with our business doing the things I love!

So as I look forward to 2014, I have taken time to reflect over the past few years and thought about what I want to change moving forward and here are my pearls of wisdom I have come up with and have put into practice:

1. I have learned I will never be caught up. If I am doing things right, there will always be a new project just around the corner waiting for me. I have treated work like a sprint and it really is a marathon! I need pace myself, stop and take a break every week. Exercise, day trips and hobbies outside of quilting are needed to keep me fresh.

2. It is okay to say NO. I have realized that not every job is a good job and it is okay to turn work down. This is a very scary concept to me. Once I realized that a job that takes 10x longer than I estimated due to the stress the job causes me dread working on it, it is not really worth doing! (It is also so empowering to say no to something you really do not want to do.)

3. Spread out large tasks over a few days. Back to the sprint vs. marathon concept. I used to kill myself to complete a quilt top in a day, now I am trying to spread it out over a couple of days. My work looks better and I am not quite as sore at the end of the day. Larger projects are easier to accomplish if I break them down in smaller tasks and spread them out. I am amazed how much more productive I have been in the short time I have started doing this.

4. Write it all out- I used write down all the tasks that I needed to accomplish each week and I would hope to get to long term tasks with longer deadlines on the weekends. Well I would push off the longer tasks until they became the rush projects during the week at a later date. I also spent the whole week feeling stressed out about the number of jobs I needed to complete. So I never stopped working and never felt a sense of accomplishment.

Now I take the week's list of projects and break them down by day of the week. I make sure to include smaller tasks for the long term projects on the lists and also to leave time each day for things that pop up (They always do). This has helped me plan my workload better and I  have set a goal I can accomplish everyday. I also get to experience an empty in-box several times a week.

After three weeks of following the above, I have to say I feel calmer and have an easier time dealing with things that out of my control. I think I might have tamed some of CRAZIES in my life. I hope some of these ideas can help any of you who also have a case of the CRAZIES with no help in site.

I would also love to hear some of your ideas on added a touch of calm in your life. Leave a comment below by 1/27/14 to win a copy of our Big Blooms Pattern.

Until Next time.....
Heidi

Aurifil Designers for 2014

As many of you know, I LOVE Aurifil thread and use it all the time in our studio and this year I am excited to announce I am one of the Aurifil Designers for 2014. I am Miss June! Each month I will share with you the designer of the month. I am so excited to see what everyone comes up with this year. 

For 2014 Aurifil selected this group of fabric for the Design team challenge. The prints are all from “Wishes” by Sweetwater for Moda. Plus the Moda Bella Snow.

Each designer is going to create a 12″ finished block with a modern/clean feel using some of these fabrics and adding in ONE fabric from their stash.

January!

The first block is from Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, which will set the tone for the entire year. 

Here is the link to Pat Brovo's interview with the amazingly creative lady.http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/category/designers-of-the-month/

2014 Design Team

Scott Hansen http://bluenickelstudios.com/
Camille Roskelley http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/
Carrie Nelson http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/
Emily Herrick http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/
Heidi Pridemore http://heidipridemore.blogspot.com/
Jane Davidson http://quiltjane.blogspot.com/
Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com
Pat Wys http://www.silverthimblequilt.com/blog/
Natalia Bonner http://www.pieceandquilt.com/
Michele Foster http://quiltinggallery.com/blog-posts/
Brigitte Heitland http://www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com/
Angela Yosten http://blog.angelayosten.com/
Amy Smart http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
Amy Gibson http://www.stitcherydickorydock.com/

Until Next Time....

Heidi

This coming Market will be my 26th and I am alway amazed to see how it all comes together. I can tell you I could not be as successful as I have been without the wonderful people I work with! Kathy Norton, Sue Mitchell, Doris, Jerry and Matthew Pridemore round out our amazing design team. Everyone as an important part that has to be done for everything to work out. 

Quilt Market (Fall & Spring) is the busiest time of year for us at the Studio. We put out more quilts in the 12 weeks before the show than we will do at any other time of year. For the upcoming Quilt Market ,our studio has done about 30 quilts, several display pieces, booth items and lots of little items such as pillows. We have also designed tons and tons of FREE patterns for our various clients and I will post links to those as well as the fabric companies roll them out!

Above is what the shelves in my studio look like for 2 months straight, as soon as we finish a project another one appears to take its place. I have to say I feel very lucky that we have been so busy!

Below are some of the projects completed for the upcoming Market. I will post more photos from the show which is October 26-28 in Houston TX. 

Paris- Blank Quilting

Downton Abby's Violet's Quilt- Andover

Ladies and Gentlemen- David Textiles

Off Center- Princess Mirah Batiks

Box of Cards- Princess Mirah Baiks

Chevrons- David Textiles

Dancing Disks- P&B Fabrics

Garden Party-P&B Textiles

Drama Queen- Michael Miller

Spring is in the Air- Michael Miller

Sweet Tea- David Textiles

Rosey- Free Spirit Fabrics

 I am so excited to be included with this amazing group of designers! Make sure to follow my Blog all year long to see what everyone is up to! 

We are very excited to announce the 2014 Aurifil Design team!

This coming year we will have 12 fantastic blocks designed by this incredible group. Pat Sloan will be our host interviewing each designer and sharing their work with us! This year we have a special guest, quilter Natalia Bonner. Each month Natalia is going to share a machine quilting tip and at the end, she is going to quilt the finished piece!

2014 is going to be a super exciting year, please give our design team a warm welcome and visit their websites all year long!

Scott Hansen http://bluenickelstudios.com/

Camille Roskelley http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

Carrie Nelson http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/

Emily Herrick http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/

Heidi Pridemore http://heidipridemore.blogspot.com/

Jane Davidson http://quiltjane.blogspot.com/

Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com

Pat Wys http://www.silverthimblequilt.com/blog/

Natalia Bonner http://www.pieceandquilt.com/

Michele Foster http://quiltinggallery.com/blog-posts/

Brigitte Heitland http://www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com/

Angela Yosten http://blog.angelayosten.com/

Amy Smart http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/

Amy Gibson http://www.stitcherydickorydock.com/ 

We have a winner for the Everything Blog contest last week! It was pretty good odds 1 in 4 chance. We entered these numbers in to the number randomizer and #1 won.
Congratulations Sally King. Please email me you mailing address for your free pattern at heidi@TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com Please contact me by 10/8/13 to claim your prize.

Everything Blue Blog Hop

Welcome to The Whimsical Workshop Blog for the Everything Blue Blog Hop with Clothworks!

For this challenge, I decided to make a fusible appliquéd Rose block. I LOVE fusible appliqué and I always jump at the chance to use this technique whenever possible.

Please leave a comment below about your favorite piecing or quilting technique  for a chance to WIN my newest pattern, "Skip to Dessert" shown below! We also have a limited number of fabric kits available, just click on the name above.

Please follow us here and on Facebook to keep up with all the projects underway at The Whimsical Workshop.

Check out all our patterns and fabric kits at our
website www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com. We always have free shipping in the US and discounted shipping around the world!

Thank you for visiting my blog!
Until Next time....
Heidi

How it's Made-Skip to Dessert

Original Sketch

 I love the show "How it's Made" that is on the Science Channel. I have always wanted to draw the curtain back and see what goes into making something from a pile of materials and what tools are required. So I guess it is not a surprise that I went to school for Industrial Design.

So that being said, I would like to share with you how some of the quilts are designed at our studio.....

Our example to today is my newest quilt "Skip to Dessert"

1. Which came first the fabric or the design?????

I would have to say it varies from project to project. In the case of this quilt, I have had an idea in my head for a turkey for several years now and sometimes it takes awhile to get it to the paper. 

Pieced and Appliquéd

So when I found the border fabric at Timeless Treasures last year, I knew it was time for the turkey. So which came first the design or the fabric???? 

2. The Sketch

Nothing is scarier than a blank piece of paper. I have so many ideas rolling around in my head and wish they would just flow down my hand and onto the paper the way I see it in my mind. 

Unfortunately this rarely happens. It takes a few sketches in my sketch book to get the image to look the way I imagine it. For this quilt I spent about an hour working on the original sketch. Once I have the idea down on paper, I make some notes on the drawing about changes I would make or if I have a name in mind. Then it is off to the computer, where the image is scanned in, redrawn and I make any adjustments I wanted to make from the original design. From this drawing I make a materials and cutting list for the project. 

On the Long Arm for Quilting

3. Fabric Selection

Now that I have an idea of what the quilt will look like, I select the fabrics for the design. In this case I had the border and inner fabrics selected and I just needed the coordinates for Tom.

4. Off the the Studio

With my fabrics and design in hand, it is off to the studio and time to cut and sew. This is also another chance to make sure I love the fabrics for the project. I can sometime switch fabric 3 or 4 times before I am happy with the final selection. This is also when I check my measurements and make sure I have all the information written down for the pattern. We make the quilt top and then it off to be quilted.

5. Instructions

While the quilt is being quilted, we start on the instructions, they are written by my partner and then sent back to me to edit and  add the illustrations and templates.

6. All comes together

Once the quilt is quilted and bound, I photograph the quilt for the pattern cover. We put all the components of the pattern together and it is edited one more time. Then it is off to the printer.

Once the pattern is printed we package the patterns and we then start cutting the fabric kit. 

Now that everything on this list is finished, I add the new product to our website and share it with all of you. 

Hope you have enjoyed this peek inside "How Its Made" at The Whimsical Workshop.

Until Next Time.....