Christa’s Soap Box – Take a Break and Have Some Fun (Memories of Hawaii)

July 15, 201513 Comments

I hope you are having a great summer! I find myself knee-deep in deadlines this summer, but it’s all in good fun! I did get a chance to travel with my family to Hawaii last month so I thought I would share highlights of that with you. This was my third trip and I have to say, it is my favorite place to go. (So if any of you out there want me to come teach a quilting class in Hawaii – the answer is YES!)

The Watsons do Hawaii

And as to why I labeled this one of my soapbox posts – I implore you to take a break every now and then and have some fun – no excuses!!

We did the obligatory ziplining through the jungle and it was SO much fun! Of course, since I was the one taking most of the pictures, I’m not actually in many of them. 🙂

I love this shot of my daughter and my husband – everything is so GREEN!

We are a pretty active family, so we like to do fun outdoorsy things like hiking, kayaking and exploring. For this trip, we stayed on the island of Kauai which is definitely my favorite of all the islands we have visited so far.

The view from our hike along the Napoli Coast. Looks like something from a movie, right?

We just couldn’t get over how green the trees were and how crystal blue the water was. Just looking at these pictures makes me long to go back.

Hawaiian Shave Ice – an island tradition!

By far, our favorite treat was Hawaiian Shave Ice, which we got nearly every day. We learned that it’s called “shave ice” not “shaved ice.” And it was pretty delicious, with a scoop of ice cream in the mix.

We had such a great time that we are already discussing when we can go again. It really is as beautiful place as it looks and I can’t wait to return.

What’s your favorite vacation spot?

WorldWide Kindness Anthem – Vote for My Friend!

July 6, 2015July 4, 20155 Comments

My friend Lacey Newbry is a talented musician, songwriter and budding quilter. She’s written a song titled “Along the Way” which she hopes will be selected as this year’s WorldWide Dance for Kindness anthem. If chosen, she will get to perform her song live in NYC Times Square and it will get played in 30 countries around the world.

Lacey is one of only eleven finalists and at last check, she’s been going back and forth between first and second place. There haven’t been a huge number of votes, so if you, my loyal blog readers would vote for her, it could put her over the top!

Click here to listen to Lacey’s song and cast your vote!

Here’s How to Vote:

Click vote
Create a new account
Click vote AGAIN!
You will get a confirmation that you voted.
The direct link is: http://www.lifevestinside.com/contestants/lacey-newbry/

Thanks so much! Voting runs through July 8th at 11:59 PM Eastern time.

If You Were Friend Shopping…

April 24, 2015April 23, 201511 Comments

Hey guys, it’s usually an Instagram thing to share and tell about someone’s work you admire for others to follow. Well, I figured, why not do that occasionally here on the blog? Meet my friends Ida, who blogs at Ida Rather be Quilting, and Vicki who blogs at Orchid Owl Quilts.

In this picture Vicki and Ida are just behind me in the back row on the left and right. We went with several other fun members of our Modern Quilt Guild to a Quilt Show in St. George, Utah.

I first met Ida last year when she moved into my neighborhood and I found out she was a quilter. We can just find each other – you know?? Vicki moved to town about a year later and she got involved right away with the local guilds. Both of them have helped me so much this year as I’ve led our local Modern Quilt Guild. I love all of my online friendships, but there’s nothing quite like having friends close by who get your obsession for all things quilting!

Ida was stocking up on solids during a recent shopping trip to Superior Threads.

Ida is a military wife so she is very good as making friends quickly and adapting to new surroundings. Be sure to visit her blog and scroll through her posts for some excellent eye candy along with musings on military life. One of my favorite tutorials is her improv zipper pouch which I followed to make a recent guild swap gift. I also adore her Plus One quilt, shown below.

Vicki and I actually met online through Instagram, and became fast friends when I learned she was moving here. We clicked right away because we both have that innate desire to show and share our quilts with as many people as possible, and we both love talking about the “industry” side of quilting. (In fact, Ida loves to refer to Vicki and I as the “quilt divas” when we are talking shop, LOL!!)

Vicki and with her quilt Me and My Shadow which won judge’s choice at a recent quilt show.

I love what Vicki wrote recently on her blog about entering quilt shows. She also shares a bit of that competitive spirit with me and it’s fun to cheer each other on as we enter our work into shows. (I told her she will always beat the pants off me any day with that luscious feather quilting!!)

Another of Vicki’s award-winning quilts.

So if you are looking for more inspiring blogs to follow, I can highly recommend Ida Rather Be Quilting and Orchid Owl Quilts. Go give them some comment love and make some new friends!

My Phrase of the Year for 2015 – Be More Present.

January 2, 2015January 1, 201510 Comments

My 2014 word of the year was Quilt, and boy did I take that to heart with my 2014 finishes. I think I made more quilts last year than I have in a long time and it felt wonderful!

For 2015 I came up with a phrase that will be my mantra for the year – Be More Present.

These 3 are my pride and joy. I want to be more present for them!

As I continue to juggle the work/life balance, I want to be more involved and invested in everything I do. If I’m hanging out with the kids, I want to really be there (not thinking about the gazillion quilts I want to design and make).

If I’m teaching a workshop, I want to be fully ready ahead of time so I can focus on my students’ needs and be prepared to adapt the class if needed. When I’m trail running with Jason, I will enjoy the ambiance, rather than thinking about how hard it is to run up hills!

Our kids joined us on a recent trail run. We love the desert where we live!

We also came up with a family phrase – “be more adventurous,” and I think the two will go hand in hand. We’ve got a lot of fun family trips planned (Disneyland, lots of skiing, Hawaii & California beaches), plus Jason and I have signed up for a few trail races (there’s nothing like deadlines to keep me motivated)!

My daughter and hubby on a recent ski trip – we want to be more adventurous!

I’ll also be doing a lot more quilting-related travel this year. I think that if I can be more present at home, I’ll be able to be more adventurous when I’m out and about. That’s the plan, anyway!!

How about you? Have you coined a word or phrase for the year?

Christmas 2015 – Viking Style

December 26, 20148 Comments

I got so many responses about my extended family’s Christmas tradition that I wanted to share this year’s fun as soon as possible. The scavenger hunt theme for 2015 was How to Train Your Dragon, so we all dressed up like vikings and went on our quest!

We started out with a large box to open, full of costumes and supplies. My mother-in-law is a madwoman with a sewing machine so she made bearskin vests for us (out of fake fur of course) and gathered plenty of props and accessories for us to look our best!

Closeup of my sister-in-law and her husband – what a perfect pair of Vikings!

We navigated some rough terrain, used our collective wisdom to solve riddles, and looked for clues on where to go next. At the conclusion of our quest, we were handsomely rewarded – with a family trip to Hawaii! We usually go on a trip with the in-laws each year, and the creative delivery is always a fun surprise!

We are looking forward to a fun and festive 2015. 🙂

Christmas Traditions

December 24, 2014December 21, 20146 Comments

We have a fun tradition on my husband’s side of the family. My mother-in-law creates a themed scavenger hunt for us each year where we dress up and solve clues to find our grand finale of a present. She really goes all out, and I can’t wait until Christmas this year to see what she has cooked up. In the meantime, please enjoy pictures of some of our past Christmas antics:

Superhero Christmas 2012

Toy Story Christmas 2010

Rockstar Christmas 2008

What are some of your family’s favorite traditions?

Thank You and Some Christmas Cheer

December 21, 201415 Comments

Thank you all so, so much for your kind thoughts, sweet comments and prayers for our family. Reading through all your uplifting comments was so special and I really appreciate all the virtual hugs and love. We fly out on Monday and the funeral for my Nana will be on Tuesday in Waynesville, NC (a small town near Asheville). We’ll get back in time on Christmas Eve to celebrate the season with our children.

You may need to plug in headphones to hear the audio.

I will share some holiday cheer with you today. It’s video of my daughter’s first piano recital, playing Angels we Have Heard on High. She started lessons this year and she was so nervous to perform in front of others. I think she nailed it and she was so proud of herself for overcoming her nervousness.

The piano teacher gave chocolate pianos to the performers. My other son got one, too!

My older son also performed, but it was a longer song so I wasn’t able to get a good video of all of it. The two of them take lessons from the same piano teacher, while my middle son takes both piano and drum lessons from a different instructor. He performed for us in the showroom after the recital. We love having musical children. 🙂

The family that plays (music) together, stays together.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Remembering My Nana

December 20, 201456 Comments

My sweet Nana passed away a couple of days ago so I’m getting ready to go to North Carolina for her funeral. I am at peace with this and was unsure whether I wanted to mention it on the blog in such a public way; but then I realized it’s very therapeutic for me to let everyone know what a fabulous and classy lady she was. She is my mom’s mom and she lived a very full and active 91 years, dedicating herself to the care of others. She was one of my most favorite people in all the world.

Bud and Helen, 1945

Nana was a nurse back in the days of WWII and she met and fell in love with her high-school sweetheart. They were married for over 50 years until he passed away almost 18 years ago, a few months after getting to see his first great-grandchild – my oldest son. Nana was one of the most kind and loving people I ever knew, and I never heard a cross word come out of her mouth.

Nana, Mom, my older sister, and me – circa 1976.

Nana was a southern belle who grew up to be the most fabulous southern cook. Growing up, I spent two weeks with her and my Grandaddy (Bud, they called him) every summer in the mountains of North Carolina. It was such a special place to be, and I knew whenever I visited, they were excited to have me and my siblings over for a visit. We also saw our grandparents each Christmas, and Nana went out of her way to make sure we all felt loved and spoiled (in a good way). Although we lived on opposite ends of the country, we were always super close.

They always made me feel loved – especially during the teenage years! 1991-92.

Nana was the one who always taught me to be kind to others, to follow the KISS principle (Keep it Short and Sweet) and to keep-on-keepin’-on even when things got tough. Although we practice different religions, she always reminded me to pray and stay close to Heavenly Father. After all, she would tell me, “we all pray to the same God: some just do it on their knees, some bow their heads, some clasp their hands, and some fold their arms, but he hears it, all the same.”

Four generations of women: Nana, my mom, me and my daughter. Christmas 2010.

I sure will miss her this Christmas, but I have such sweet memories to cherish. Although not a sewer herself, she did some needlepoint over the years, always encouraged me in my artistic efforts, and bought one of my first quilts when I used to sell them years ago. The whole family went on a cruise together over the summer, and Nana kept up with all of our shenanigans without any complaint.

Family picture from our cruise this summer – such sweet memories!

Nana left a legacy of two daughters, three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. We all miss her, but we will Keep On Keepin’ On! 🙂

Christa’s Soapbox – 2015 Goals and Some Reflection

December 1, 2014December 1, 201411 Comments

For the last two years, I’ve publicly stated my New Year’s Goals on my blog and I’m ready to it again for 2015! I love to call them goals rather than resolutions, and by writing them down, they are more apt to happen. I prefer to get a jump start on the new year by listing them a month early. (I used to be a serious procrastinator, but once I turned 40 that was finally a habit I was able to break!)

For anyone who wishes to walk down memory lane, you can take a look at my earlier goals below. I’m proud to say that I’ve actually been able to accomplish most of them!

So without further ado, here are my goals for 2015:

Have a successful book launch later in the year
Continue to work on my health and fitness
Set up a traveling schedule and obtain more teaching opportunities
Plan and propose my next book idea
Increase my circle of quilting friends

I’m pretty excited about these because they will give me the excuse I need to make a boatload of quilts! (Not that I really needed one, right?)

My view from Sewtopia – a modern quilting retreat I attended earlier this year.

Although quilting is my full-time job, I really enjoy traveling to amazing events, meeting new friends, and discovering luscious new fabrics. I’m sure I could stay home behind the scenes and be just as successful running the precut-store part of our business. But I really do need to be around people and share in their quilty excitement.

My kids are growing up and my oldest will graduate and leave home next summer. He’s planning on going on a 2-year mission for our church and then he’ll head off to college when he returns. So next year will be a huge life change for us as we set those plans in motion; we jokingly tell him we are already making plans on what to do with his bedroom when he’s gone! But in the meantime, we are going to have as much fun with him as we can and go on a few family trips before he leaves – I can’t wait!

This was during our last family trip to Mexico. I love these guys!

I have to say that for the most part, this has been a good year. It’s been super busy of course and it’s had its share of ups and downs. But I can truthfully say after years of hard work (and a few wrinkles and gray hairs), I’m excited for what comes next!

Around the World Blog Hop – My Turn!

September 1, 2014August 29, 20146 Comments

My friend Becca from Bryan House Quilts invited me to join the Around the World Blog hop. What fun! Each Monday, different bloggers answer the following questions and then pass the ball onto someone else! It’s been going on for awhile and is literally having worldwide reach. You can click the links at the beginning and end of this post to find more fun blogs to follow and get to know other fun quilters in the process!

I’ve been slaving away on the computer while work starts to pile up in the background.

1. What am I working on?

Currently I’m finishing up the manuscript for my first book, sneak peeks of which I shared previously. After that, I’m ready to launch a fall quilt along, prepare new teaching samples and even finish up a few patterns in the works. It’s never a dull moment around here!

2. How does my work differ from others?

That’s an interesting one. My work has evolved over time and probably the biggest difference I’ve seen is my preference to make my quilts completely from start to finish (including the designing). I don’t think there is anything wrong with only piecing, or only quilting, etc. (Remember there’s room for everyone in this journey!) I just enjoy every step of the process, so it’s been natural for me to always make the whole thing.

It’s definitely a slower process, (especially when one is trying to publish their work), but I’m ok with that, too. It’s been very satisfying to find like-minded souls within the online community, and to not feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t mind spending hours and hours on their quilts. 🙂

I’ve recently begun keeping track of how much thread it takes to quilt a quilt. I count by the bobbin and each of my large Bernina bobbins holds about 80-100 yards of thread.

3. Why do I do what I do?

The first answer is because quilting is my business. From nearly the first moment I took up this glorious hobby 20 years ago, I thought that if I could make money from it, I could justify the cost. (Not that I really needed to, but I was a poor starving college student back then!)

But the real answer is that it feeds my soul. Creating to me is as important as breathing, and I would be lost in a world without art. Also, I’ve found that I have nearly as much fun participating in the community of quilting as I do making the actual quilts. I enjoy it just as much when my quilting buddies receive recognition for their work as I do for my own projects.

I love working with color! Pearl Bracelet fabrics courtesy of Andover.

4. How does my creative process work?

I usually have an idea of a quilt I want to make and I sketch it out roughly in EQ7 first. At this point, I am brainstorming, so the quilt can go off in many different directions. I save all of the different versions and often use them in future projects.

I am a planner, so I have to know what the quilt looks like before I ever cut the first fabric. If I know for sure which fabrics I’m using, I’ll import them into the program and create a pattern for myself to follow. If the fabrics aren’t important and it’s more about the colors, I’ll create the design in solids, then use prints when I sew. Of course many times I end up loving the solid version and make an exact copy of that, too!

It’s hard for me to make a quilt just for the sake of making. Each quilt needs to have a purpose. Whether that purpose is learning a new technique, preparing a class sample, or making the quilt for an intended recipient, I can’t start on it until I know where it’s going to end up.

Here’s a recent sketch I came up with when I was messing around with half-square triangle layouts. I’m not sure if it will ever become a quilt, but it was fun to design!

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about what makes me tick! I’m inviting my friends Stacy from Farm Road Quilts and Cheryl the Quilter Chic to play along next week!