Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!  I really appreciate all your support and look forward to all the good things the new year will bring!  ~Kristin

More Quilts for Sale

I've just added more quilts to the Quilts for Sale Page.  These are quilts that I haven't offered for sale anywhere before, including Puzzling World (above).  I have run out of room to store so many quilts and will probably be adding more.  Please feel free to share the info with anyone you think might be interested. 

Handmade Holidays Part 2 :: Artful Oven Mitts

When I did my post yesterday about handmade gifts I completely forgot about these!  I have been reading Maria Shell's blog for a while now.  If you have never seen it, go look now!  Her work is really amazing.  

Way back in November 2013 Maria posted about her Artful Oven Mitts.  I was smitten with them and as luck would have it she was offering her mitt pattern to the first 100 people to request it.  I was one of the first to do so and have had the pattern sitting here for way too long.  A few weeks ago I decided to make a pair for a dear friend of mine.  We have decided to forgo giving a holiday gift to each other starting next Christmas, but I wanted to make her one more special thing for this last time.  I had the patchwork partially sewn together in my scrap bin and it didn't take long to quilt them.  I was happy that I already had the thermal batting in the stash as well as a heavy cotton for the linings.  These were perfect and I'm sure they were well received.  Thank you again Maria for your inspiration!

Shifting Focus for 2015

Over the holiday I've had some time to reconsider what I'm doing here in the studio. I realized that I've been spending far too much time working on projects that don't further me as a quiltmaker or teacher.

So, I've decided to stop making items for my Etsy shop.  Although I will likely keep the shop front on Etsy, I will not be replenishing items there.  As it turns out, most of my sales come from folks who I know personally or who follow my blog.  It just doesn't make sense to pay the listing fees for things that won't be noticed on Etsy.  I joined Etsy in 2007 when it was a much smaller pond.  These days there's just too much competition.  

I have started to remove items from the shop (hurray for several folks on my gift list this year!) and have let listings expire.  I have also dropped the prices on everything, including the Hand-dyed Inspiration packs which I do not plan to make more of in the future.  If you knew how much time went into hand dyeing and packaging them you would see what a bargain they are at $5 a pop.  

I will also not be making more of the smaller items in the future (e.g. pillows, journal covers, fabric postcards, ornaments, etc.).  When they are gone, that's it.  I have spread myself too thinly over the past few years and it's just not sustainable.  Those items are a distraction from what I should be doing.  There will be listings expiring in January, March and April and they will not be renewed.  If an item disappears, feel free to contact me to inquire and I'll let you know if I still have it.

If I have quilts left that I want to sell, I will offer them on the blog and will take Paypal for payment for the foreseeable future (and checks from locals).  As I've mentioned before, I have too many quilts languishing here, so I may offer some for sale sporadically.  I'll start work on creating a For Sale page on the blog soon.  

So, you may ask what I will be doing in 2015 if not all of that?  I will be doing more improv work with solids as that is a great interest of mine.  I plan to make more studio time by taking fewer classes and saying "no" more often.  I feel like the past year really run me ragged.  It's not good for anyone to do that.  

In an effort to take my own advice to heart here's my list for 2015:

• I will make quilts that make me happy.
• I will continue to seek my own true voice as a quilter.
• I will continue to offer workshops locally and nationally.
• I will enter quilt shows because I enjoy it.

Have you considered how you want to go forth in 2015?  I'd love to hear about it!

A Handmade Christmas :: 2014 Edition

This Christmas was filled with handmade gifts as usual around here, but maybe not the sort you'd expect.  Above are Chloe's new earrings handmade by my sister-in-law Anna (they match her hair!).  Below is the tiny bit of sewing I did this year- a hooded scarf for Chloe.Chloe's 2014 edition hand carved Santa for me does not disappoint!  This one is so sweet, about 4 inches high.  His beard goes down and curls around the base along with the fur on the edge of his coat.  Chloe's previous hand carved Santas can be seen here.

I had Cheryl's family this year so they got several handmade's including the painted ornament above, a knitted Bandana Cowl for Cheryl, a knitted Turn-a-Square hat for her husband Mark, and a quilted zipper bag for Mark's mom, Marge.  I also made two other hats for my Mark and for Ryan.These next few things were not really handmade by me, but include handmade effort.  I got one of Ryan's old paintings custom framed for him.  He was happy to see this one again!My biggest project this Christmas was making photo books.  I used two services to create the books.  Blurb is my go-to for a fantastic family photo album.  I started with a photo album of our trip to Ecuador last Christmas.  I spent hours and hours (and hours!) organizing and editing thousands of photos.  Over 1300 photos went into this book for Mark along with text from my journal.  I used every single one of the allowed 240 pages too!  Whew!  While I worked on that I thought it would be neat to do a much smaller, simpler book for Ryan.  His is called Ryan's Galapagos and includes his favorite part of the trip, lots of animals.  Shown below is the back cover.  I use Adobe Lightroom to make the Blurb books which always requires a bit of relearning since I don't use it that often.

As if that wasn't enough, while I worked on the Blurb books I discovered another service called Artifact Uprising and wanted to try it.  They offer smaller, more intimate soft cover books that have a great price.  I decided at the last minute to make one for my sister and her husband.  Below is that result.   

First I had to get the photos, so I searched their Facebook accounts and saved the best photos of them and their animals to my computer.  I used Photoshop Elements to square the photos, then used Lightroom to change the color to sepia to unite all these different photos.  This little book is called an Instagram book.  While these photos are not all from Instagram, some of them were and were already square, but some needed to be formatted to fit the square templates in this book.  I think it came out really great and I think they were very touched to see photos of their current 2 dogs and 2 cats as well as some of their previous pets that have since passed.

Well, our family is a pretty creative one and many of you may know that my sister is a fused glass artist.  She had my brother and his family though and I haven't seen any of those gifts yet.  I'm sure they are wonderful.  So, did you have a handmade Christmas?  Tell us about it! 

I Love a (Christmas) Parade!

Free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

I know this is late, but that's how this December is going.  Enjoy!

You Win Some, You Lose Some :: QuiltCon 2015

So, these are the three that didn't make it into QuiltCon.  Stylistically, I think they differ from the other three, but to tell you the truth the only one I really thought was a long shot was the second one.  It's awfully busy and may not be some people's cup of tea.  I purposely entered a lot of quilts so I would have a better chance, but I was lucky that I had some that I thought were suitable and available to enter.  The only one that was made specifically for QuiltCon was Love in the Digital Age.  

About the word rejection:  I don't like that word in describing what happened here.  I think with over 1300 quilts entered there were some very tough decisions being made.  I really like this blog post about the word rejection.  I prefer to say that these quilts were regretfully passed up.

I haven't seen this mentioned, but the way quilts were presented in photos could have made a difference.  I have been entering juried shows for just a few years, but have taken very seriously the advice I've gotten on photographing quilts.  Here's one set of helpful tips.  Here's another good one.  In general, I would never offer a quilt photo taken with my phone for a call for entry.  If that's all you've got, it's time to find a friend with a higher quality camera.

Many folks have been talking about the Modern Quilt Guild definitions of modern.  This is the key point that has bugged me since the whole movement started.  They were obviously not the first to make "modern" quilts.  Minimalism, negative space, alternate grid, high contrast, improvisational piecing have been around for decades and even centuries.  I also am bugged when people like Gwen Marston are looked over as having contributed greatly to this movement.  However, having said that, I find myself gravitating more and more to the improvisational part of this aesthetic and the folks who work in this realm.  QuiltCon 2015 will be my first QuiltCon show and I look forward to seeing the quilts, meeting the people, and feeling the energy.

Re solids:  Patty, in the comments on this post, mentioned that mine may have been chosen because they feature solid fabrics.  I have no idea about that for sure, but I have been seeing a lot more solids being used in the modern movement than the traditional quilt guild.  As you can see here, the three that didn't make it also feature solids.  I confess that for a while there, I thought modern meant that you used modern prints.  I bought a bunch and made some quilts that are okay, but really not my favorite.  In my case, I first fell in love 30 years ago with traditional Amish quilts, which, as I'm sure you know, are mostly made with solids.  It seems I am coming back to that and I really want to play with solids for their graphic quality. They also simplify my life as a quilter.  I don't have to worry about the personality of prints playing well together when I use solids.  My print stash has shrunk quite a bit over the years and the solids are taking over.  That suits me, but it doesn't mean it has to suit everyone.  I also still love a wild and wacky scrap quilt with a little bit of everything.  

So, for those whose quilts were regretfully passed up here's my advice.  Keep on making what you love.  If you are making what you think others will love, you will not be expressing your true voice.  If you make what you love you will be making art and craft that speak to you, is an expression of yourself and your personal aesthetic and you will find that this work shines.  Also, keep on entering shows if that's important to you.  Find other local, regional and even national shows that you can enter.  I want to put in a plug for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. They take all quilts that are entered as long as they meet the requirements for size and finishing.  See more about requirements here.  The 2015 SOQS is going to be huge!  It's their 40th anniversary and I know there will be many wonderful special exhibits.  They usually show over 1200 quilts and people come from all over the world to see them.  Modern quilts are also well received here.  

So, make 2015 a year in which you keep on finding your true voice as a quilter, in which you enter quilts if that's your desire, and keep on keeping on, as they say!

A Digression :: Maple Pepper Pecans

Are you enjoying the holidays?  I love Christmas and have music playing whenever possible.  I have been busy as a bee this past week.  Thankfully, the shopping is done, cards are sent, and these lovely little packages are ready to gift to the neighbors.  I thought I'd also post the recipe here if you'd like to try making these sweet and spicy pecans (see below).  Beware, they are addictive!  They are perfect for a salad with fruit, cheese and mild greens.  They are also great cocktail party nibbles.  Enjoy!

Also, you can see my newest tablerunner on the table. While there's so much I can't show on the blog right now, I'm happy to share this little project that I made a few days ago.  I needed a new Christmas tablerunner and found a little Moda charm pack called 25th and Pine in the stash.  I backed it with a bright red reindeer print, so it's double sided.  Fun!

This is just a small selection of my Santa collection. Most of them have been hand carved.  All of the small ones here (6) were hand carved by Chloe!  I've done previous posts about them if you'd like to see more.

I haven't forgotten my promise to show photos of my quilts that didn't make it into QuiltCon.  In the meantime, go and read what some other bloggers are saying.  I'll be back with that soon.

Quilty Habit

The Silly Boodilly

Stacey in Stitches

Latifah Saafir

Kristin LaFlamme

Recipe page personalized with Smilebox

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Hello!  Popping in again for a quick post to wish you a Merry Christmas!  Thank you all for being readers of my blog. I really appreciate you being here in such a busy world.   

If you are still shopping for gifts (or yourself), please consider buying local and/or from an artist.  Here's an Etsy coupon code for my shop just for my followers (shop link above): DEARSANTA will get you 10% off a minimum order of $30 (expires 12/18).  The shop will be on hiatus from December 19-January 5 for some holiday fun.  Happy Holidays to you!

QuiltCon News!

Hi there!  I'm just popping in to say that I am so excited that three of my quilts were juried into QuiltCon 2015!  Above is Love in the Digital Age, below is Las Ventanas and the last is one I've never shown here before.  

This quilt is called The Power of Three and was made in response to Sherri Lynn Wood's call for quilts for her upcoming book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters.  I have not shown this quilt anywhere before now.  It was not included in the book, but I am so thrilled to have it show at QuiltCon!  By the way, the book is now available for pre-order at Amazon, so check the link.  It will also be available for sale at QuiltCon.  I'll post more about the making of this quilt next week. In the meantime I am in the midst of tricky gift making that doesn't even involve a sewing machine! Be back soon!