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As we near the end of our year of Organizing your quilting lifestyle, we too have learned a tremendous amount when it comes to organizing. Here is a Bucket List of twelve must have items for the quilting studio of our dreams.

 

To avoid the frustration of cords falling behind our desk, we love this non-stick Cord Catcher. It's small and comes in a variety of fun colors. Cord Catchers by Dotz. 


Vanishing Design walls look like decorative shelving and can be painted to match the trim in your studio. VanishingDesignWall

Table with open storage on one side with drawers on other. Alittlebitbiased

The Alex Ikea cabinet (thin white drawers to the left) sits on a table for easy access, which leaves lots of room under the table for other items. This particular cabinet does not take up a great deal of space, but the drawers are nice and long. They would make great storage for our WIP. Heartandhand

We also like the taller 7-drawer Winsome Halifafax. We could use it to hold all of our ribbons, trims and small art supplies. With the same look as the Alex Ikea cabinet, it would continue the streamlined look in our studio.

Plastic multi-drawer unit to hold various hand work needles. Feeddog

Up-cycle old CD cases for machine needles. PiecefulLiving

A wafer thin Lightpad 940 for design work that doesn't take up a great deal of space and produces no heat. Artograph


In our book, you can never have too much light when it comes to working at your machine. A large span of light is created by a flexible. Luminos work lamp. Daylight

When we want to do a bit of handwork in the evening while watching TV, the Slimline LED Floor lamp provides excellent light. We love the double flexible arm. The lamp's clean and sleek lines also don't scream 'task light' when visitors see it. Daylight

All-in-one Travel Iron Caddy and pressing mat comes in very handy for classes and retreats. Thepaintedquilt

 

No one likes making numerous trips from the car to haul class supplies. The Stanley rolling tool cart's two container system keeps things together and saves you time. Happyzombie

Click here for a list of links to other Organization blogs.

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Name:  Coloring Book Cabin
Designer: Ann Myhre
Show 1608: Creating Unique Collage Quilts & Quilts with Meaning
Begins: November 21, 2016
Price: Free to Star Members
Description:

Make a block in the manner of Sue Bleiweiss as shown in Show 1608.

You must be logged in as a Star member to download the patterns.  If you are not logged in, you will have to login and then return to the TQS Show Techniques page.

Star Members click here to get the pattern.

Become a Star member.

 

 

 

 

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Have you been reading all of the "Get Organized" blogs? Do you know where TQS mentioned Snapware® products? If you do, you have a chance to win some of your own to keep your studio organized. Just enter the week number of the Organization blog in which you found the reference.

The contest ends November 28, 2016.

Click here for a list of links to all the organization blogs.

 

  1

We caught Cheryl on the set with her daughter and asked her how she makes time for quilting when she has three young children with very busy lives.

Star Members can watch Cheryl create quick and easy quilts in Show 1911: Slabs, Curves, and Shrinking Ahead.

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TQS is starting the holiday season a bit early, enjoy Cyndi's lovely vision of Santa Claus.

Star Members can learn how Cyndi puts these wonderful "panel" quilts together. Watch Show 1910: Playing with Panels.

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 36 Pieces Non-Rotating

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 100 Pieces Non-Rotating

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 289 Pieces Non-Rotating

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 36 Pieces Rotating

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 100 Pieces Rotating

SantaandtheNorthPolebyCyndiMcChesney - 289 Pieces Rotating

Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis

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TQS is starting the holiday season a bit early, enjoy Cyndi's lovely vision of Santa Claus.

Star Members can learn how Cyndi puts these wonderful "panel" quilts together. Watch Show 1910: Playing with Panels.

Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis

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Linda Miller Nicholson makes pasta with patterns using vegetables, superfoods, eggs and flour, never an artificial ingredient. Is it time to create a quilty pasta for your next potluck or quilt meeting?
 
Click on the arrow to go to her video.
 
 
You do not have to be a member of Facebook to watch the video. Just click on the "not now" button to watch.
 
 
 
 

 

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Sharon Schamber teaches you the Basic Stipples everyone should know. For the next 2 days, "Beginning Stipple" by Sharon Schamber is open to EVERYONE. You just need to be a Basic or Star member. (Click "Join Free" in the Brown Menu above if you have not joined yet. Encourage your friends to join and watch too.) 

This is our way of making everyone aware of ALL the Featured Guest DVDs that can be accessed by our Star members for no extra cost. Star members can watch over and over or just when they need it most in finishing their quilt.

The Beginning Stipples are:

  1. Serpentine (Sharon does her special version)
  2. Pebble
  3. Echoed Teardrops
  4. Wavy grid
  5. Bubble in a Bubble
  6. Wood Grain

Click on the picture or click on "Watch>Featured Guest DVDs". Scroll to the bottom of the page for Sharon's fun, fast lessons. (It's at the top of the page now, but scroll down at some point to see the other DVDs that you can see online as a Star member.)

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Here's a fun quilt by Cyndi McChesney. This would be a great quilt for the little "animal" in your life.

Watch Cyndi work her magic with panels in Show 1910: Playing with Panels.

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 35 Pieces Non-Rotating

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 99 Pieces Non-Rotating

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 300 Pieces Non-Rotating

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 35 Pieces Rotating

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 99 Pieces Rotating

JuvenileJunglebyCyndiMcChesney - 300 Pieces Rotating

Original Photo: Mary Kay Davis

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Here's the latest from Gregory:

Well I made it—last week I passed the 6th month point of my aortic dissection event and emergency surgery. (I’ve written about my medical condition in my previous Facebook postings, so I won’t bore you with the details here.)

There were many days and weeks when I was not sure that I would make it to this date. Most days during the last 2 months I’ve felt great. I still have issues (kidney impairment and some numbness in my right shoulder and upper leg) but overall it feels minor compared to the struggles I had for almost 4 months. Again, thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, e-mails, cards, notes, visits, etc. Elena and I could not have made it through without you.

So, you might be asking yourself, what have I done with my six-month time, besides healing and feeling significantly better?

(photo: Gregory Case)

Three things have occupied my time:

1) We of course have been photographing a lot of quilts--keep them coming!

2) I’ve also been busy creating a new web site (www.gregorycase.com) which is now far more tablet and smart phone friendly. We added a lot of new images and new categories. I look forward to your comments about the site.

3) From the beginning of my professional photography career (starting 2002) I’ve been photographing travel-related images. And in the past, Elena and I have had the privilege of teaching travel classes on international cruises, guilds, and most recently a week-long class at Alegre Retreat. Thus, I’m pleased that most recently, I have been accepted as an Adobe Stock photography contributor. That means that I am now selling many of my travel photos through the website, Adobe Stock. As an Adobe Stock contributor, my travel photos can be used for online and offline advertisements, product packaging, publications, software, or digital design or for resale merchandise. Currently I have over 200 approved images for sale through Adobe Stock.

I am working my way through my travel photo archives starting with the year 2004 and have added images thus far from the years of 2004 - 2007, and some from 2015 The digital cameras I used from 2002 – 2003 were not of the quality needed for stock.

I am currently working on the years 2008 – 2014 and adding new photos regularly. Last week I added 49 new images for Adobe Stock’s review/approval.

Additionally, I have just started uploading and selling different stock photos to Dreamstime.

The interesting thing about most stock photography sites is their selection process. For stock, they want images that are clean, well-exposed, low “ISO” (no digital noise), low color saturation, and deep focus, front to back. They are less interested in “artsy” shots or “your personal vision” or those with high contrast, selective focus, etc. They want only a couple of variations on a theme before others are rejected for being similar to what you have already submitted. They seek great “every day” images that others can use to sell in advertising or for resale. It’s been an interesting learning process to understand what they are looking for with these travel images.

Perhaps what is most satisfying to me is to revisit the photos I took in the past and rescue them from my archive hard drives. Now, I can post them for others to appreciate and perhaps even buy for their own uses. I am sure many of you have had this same experience, in that you take lots of great photos, then save them to your computer, or keep in your smartphone/tablet, never to be seen again. Now, for me, not anymore!

Finally, rumor has it that some sleep labs have had great results with people viewing these stock travel images and then quickly falling deeply and soundly asleep so consider yourself advised. That said, it you can stay awake long enough, I look forward to any comments you might have of my travel portfolio at Adobe Stock and/or on my Web site.

Here is my Adobe Stock travel photography portfolio:
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/206530091/gregory

And on my Web site here are a selection of Adobe, Dreamstime, and some non-stock travel images:
http://www.gregorycase.com/?page_id=194