As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m a part of a special group of new bloggers who have a passion for quilting! Today marks the 2nd week of our Blog Hop hosted by:
Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
Stephanie @Late Night Quilter
Terri Ann @Childlike Fascination
All of the New Quilt Bloggers have been divided into “Hives” and my group is called the “New Bees” led by Cheryl. Below are my fellow hive members on the block this week. Stop by their blogs and you also get the chance to win some awesome sewing prizes! (Check out the hosts blogs above for more information.)
*Edited to include all weeks of the Blog Hop
Week 1 – Monday June 15th
Ashley @ www.craftyashleyb.com
Gayle @ pedalsewlightly.blogspot.com
Sarah @ http://123quilt.blogspot.com/
Hayley @ Www.moobird.blogspot.com.au
Week 2 – Monday June 22nd
Cristy @ www.iloveyousew.com
Patty @ www.walnutstreetquilts.com
Sarah @ www.goer.org/sarah
Eileen @ eileeninstitches.blogspot.com/
Week 3 – Monday July 13th
Abby @ https://hashtagquilt.wordpress.com/
Shelley @ http://thecarpentersdaughterwhoquilts.com/
Mary @ http://quiltingisinmyblood.com
Week 4 – Monday July 22nd
Kim @ lelandavestudios.com
Cassandra @ http://thenotsodramaticlife.com
Kathryn @ Ourplacequilts.wordpress.com
Colleen @ https://colleenscustomquilting.com/
Deb @ newcreativestate.wordpress.com
Megan @ www.sewstitchingcutequilts.com
>>>
A little about me….I used to work in Finance and Accounting so I love numbers and Excel. I’m a complete geek when it comes to understanding my sewing costs, margins and of course, profit! This information helps me tremendously with my shop, craft shows and pricing custom orders for clients. I have plans for a few templates (you know I will share) to help you understand your costs. Is there anything you would like to see or understand when it comes to pricing your sewing projects?
Fun Fact – I was named after Cristy Lane, the country singer. My parents are Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants to the United States. A sweet woman who helped my family with the assimilation process, thought the song “One Day at a Time” spoke to their journey. My parents wanted to give me a “Western” name to honor their first American baby, and thus, I received Cristy (without the “H.”)
Below is the first quilt I made for my first-born with my husband’s old T-Shirts. Can you tell it has the most minimal quilting I could do?!? It’s just about all “stitch-in-the-ditch.” As you can see, we’re an Irish loving family and it was fun to pull this all together. This quilt by no means is elaborate, but it was for my son…so I can’t help but love it and be reminded of where I started…
Admittedly, I love more of my recent work as I’ve improved some skills and increased my fabric stash 😉 Quilted Sunset has the rich deep orange-red-mustard tones I just adore. The Quilted Hoops have been my newest obsession and I can’t get enough of their compact cuteness. Spectrum of Gingham is a rainbow of love and helped my dear friend raise money to fight Cancer.
With all of this quilting and sewing, I’ve found the best advice it to go slow and steady. It’s so easy to take short-cuts…thinking you don’t need pins or you can just sew at the fastest speed allowed. But it will pay-off when you don’t have to rip out stitches when your fabrics don’t align or your stitches become noticeably uneven…TRUST ME…
I’ve been sewing heavily for about 5 years, have had my Etsy shop for about 2 years and have participated in about half a dozen craft shows, but am juuust starting with blogging. Without formal teaching (beside junior high Home Ec) I’ve learned a lot of my sewing techniques through other bloggers and wanted to give back to the community through my own experience and spin.
So far, I’ve learned to use my WordPress app as my on-the-go tool to help me capture ideas, make edits and upload pictures. Since I’m a stay-at-home mom, my family always takes precedence. I don’t always have time to sit in front of my laptop between life and sewing items from my shop. The app allows me to work on posts whenever I do have a few minutes…any free time I have is precious!
I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me 🙂 Don’t forget to visit my fellow 2015 New Quilt Bloggers to get to know them as well!
Happy Stitching,
Cristy
Hi Cristy, it’s lovely to know more about you. Your Quilted Sunset quilt is just gorgeous! I am learning also that slow and steady is the way to go. Ripping out stitches is NOT fun!
Yes, I just get sloppy if I move too quickly and think that it will “all just work out.” Usually, my OCD kicks in later and I have to re-do everything! Have you ever had that happen?
Oh yeah…just happened now!
I apologize if this is a repeat comment. I commented a few minutes ago, and it seems to gone off into cyberspace. I really like your Spectrum of Gingham quilt and think it is especially wonderful that it helped a friend raise money to fight cancer. I can totally relate to having to grab snippets of time for blogging and participating in our new quilt bloggers group.
I’m still getting familiar with WordPress, so I apologize for your comment’s short detour around cyberspace! My friend is a fundraising maniac and raised over $10K….it feels so good to be a part of that!
Slow and steady definitely wins the race! I find if I let myself get into a big hurry I make so many more mistakes. How big is your mini quilt? I absolutely love it! Putting it in a hoop is genius.
The mini-quilt finishes at 4″ x 4″ and the hoop is only 2.2″. I fell in love with these mini-hoops at first sight and am addicted! Please share pics if you make any!
It is so nice to get to know you better, Cristy! I was named after a girl my dad went to high school with but who was a year older than him. My mom jokes that no one knows who my brother is named after (ha, ha). I really love having my first quilt around as a memory and reminder of how far on the quilting journey I have come, too. 🙂
My parents didn’t know a lick of English when I was born, so I feel incredibly lucky to have “Cristy” versus the many other terrible options out there!
Hi Crisy! Very nice to meet you! I didn’t even quilt my first quilt. I didn’t know you were supposed to!
Initially, I didn’t want to either…but then thought the border would be enough. The stitching in the ditch came all after-the-fact once a friend told me I needed to do something!
Love your needlebook!!!Glad you are blogging along!!!
I’m so happy to hear you like the needle book, Allison! If you make it, I would really appreciate honest feedback and can tweak instructions, if needed.
I most certainly enjoyed learning a little more about you. I like your statement “increased my fabric stash”, I might just have the same done the same thing. At least when I open my sewing room door it certainly looks like it.
It just “magically” happens, right Cindy!
It is wonderful to learn more about you Cristy! I am also a numbers geek so it is always nice to meet another one. I enjoyed seeing your first quilt and some of your more recent finishes.
I get a kick out of translating patterns into different sizes…quilty math is tough, but fun!
Great post, Cristy! It was fun to learn more about you, and I am super impressed with your ability to keep track of your business expenses with your spreadsheets and charts. I think that is one reason I’m afraid to even contemplate selling my work, because I feel like I would never be able to keep track of my time or resources! Lovely site and beautiful work!
Sometimes I just don’t want to go over the numbers to see what I really spent…oy! But it’s always good to stay on top of it. As a stay at home mom, I have to make the monthly budget work while trying to have a little left over for me 🙂
Hi Cristy,
It’s nice to get to know you better. Your work is lovely. I especially love the sunset quilt and the quilted hoops. I have a business background too. I don’t have a shop, but it does help to understand what generates business cycles and all things related. Enjoy the blog hop!!
Hi Christy: I also enjoyed getting to know you. Your blog is beautiful great pictures and your quilts are beautiful as well. You have a great colour sense. I hope you share your business tips i your blog as well.
hello Cristy, nice to meet you! Your quilts are beautiful and I’m in love with your quilted hoops!
Cristy, it was great to read and learn about you. I would love some help to price my projects. My dad is in Finance and Accounting also with his own business, so my High School was an Accounting program. After graduating HS I worked as an junior accountant at my dad’s office (this was in Brazil), but then I did something totally different for my undergrad, because accounting wasn’t my thing. — I love your use of color, great work!
I feel very fortunate to have a chance to do something creative outside of business. Accounting was my thing either! I quickly moved to project management and sales. But I do credit the background for keeping me disciplined financially!
Great to read about Cristy. I was named after a nun my mum liked and also it was short and very hard to make into a nickname!
Love your story! Your Sunset photo is amazing and I need to make one of your little mini hoops when I move my sewing room in July. I’ll finally be able to hang things on my walls once I move out of my dining room and that hoop is just too cute!
Hi Cristy! Great to get to know you a little better. I love your work. I’m such a fan of loads of color.
If we’re talking naming stories, turns out, my original name was James. I was the fourth daughter, and Mum was very set that they weren’t having any more, so Dad thought he’d just try and raise me as boy (or something along those lines). After a day or two, Mum told him he was being cruel and I needed a girls’ name. From that point forward they were really original on that one, weren’t they? But Mum also wanted something that couldn’t be shortened (kind of funny for a woman called Deborah who refused to go by anything but Deb) or nicknamed.
I’m curious as to why it took you so long to get in to blogging. Since you’ve started your page, has it increased sales in your Etsy store?
– Jane
I’m wondering why I waited so long too, Jane! 🙂 Honestly, it’s been because of time. I have young children and now that they are starting preschool, I have more time to give my blog the attention it and readers deserve.
For Etsy, I’ve definitely seen an increase in traffic driven from the blog. I can’t tell if they have translated into sales yet… Do you have an Etsy shop or maybe thinking of it?
Nice to meet you Cristy! So glad you’ve joined us in the hop. Your first quilt is wonderful. I love looking at my first quilt and thinking about how much I’ve learned and grown creatively since then! I’m a WordPress user too but never really took to the app; I really like editing and writing from my computer but I also am not quite as on-the-go as it sounds you are, glad you shared that you have a positive experiences with it though, gives me something to think about in the future!
Ha! We’re alike in the Finance/Accounting and loving numbers and excel! They are like my life when it comes to my Mon-Fri job! Haha. I used to get so stuck on the cost of a quilt that it made me insane and I now have to force myself NOT to think about it or work it up. It made me depressed… I found I enjoy it personally myself more when I “just don’t know”. The geek in me helps when someone wants a specific price though… so you are right there! It also helps them I think, as I don’t believe they realize how much goes into quilt making! LOVE the story about your name, super fun and love that it has a real meaning behind it, too! My very first quilt was a tshirt quilt as well, not nearly as fancy as yours but I certainly remember only doing stitch in the ditch. It’s amazing how far we come, right? I NEED more quilted hoops in my life! Like NEED! – That triangle quilt and all those colors are making my eyes swoon! I am loving that I got to know more about you and look forward to learning even more about you!
*Stopping by from the 2015 New Blogger Blog Hop – New Bee’s
Hi Cristy, I’m so glad my comment two days ago didn’t disappear into Cyberspace. I wanted to add that I plan to make a t-shirt quilt down the road. The partner of a friend of mine died unexpectedly two years ago at age 54, and I’ve been asked to make a memorial quilt from this woman’s large t-shirt collection. I want to get a lot better at quilting before I take on such an important endeavor. I liked how you off-set the blocks and inserted other fabric in between the blocks. In my humble opinion, it’s so much more appealing to the eye than most t-shirts quilt I have seen online.
So sorry to hear about your friend’s partner. A quilt will be such a wonderful gift. This T-shirt quilt was more than I could handle at the time…sewing with knits was tough! I had to account for some “lost” fabric with those extra blocks! Thank you for liking my improv 🙂
Finding time to blog can be so difficult when you are a stay at home mom. I admire your dedication to both! I am struggling to find more balance so I can help with a little extra income for our family since at this time, it does make more financial sense for me to stay home with our two very small children. I LOVE your quilts! You are extremely talented!
Your Quilted Sunset is great…I love orange. Thanks for sharing about yourself. The blog hop has been so much fun.
I’m drawn to oranges too…especially the deep tones! It’s great getting to know all of these great quilters on the hop 🙂
There is never enough time to do it all, especially when you have little children! My children are grown and I still have a hard time balancing everything! Your quilting is wonderful and its all about learning along the way!
Agreed! This will definitely be a life-long balancing act 🙂
Hi Cristy,
I really like your bright projects! That quilted sunset does have the best colours. It’s a goal of mine to sew with some deep orange 🙂
Thanks Brianna! I have a bunch of those deep oranges stowed away for a future (yet to be determined) project 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with the hue!
Hi Cristy – Just getting around to reading the blogs from week two within your hive. Very nice to learn a bit about you. I look forward to hearing more on the quilt/price math. I do have an etsy shop and sell a fair amount of the less expensive product but have only sold one quilt – it’s been open nearly a year now.
Thanks!
You are one up on me, Bernie! I sell the smaller stuff to feed the quilting 😉
Hi Christy!
I really enjoyed learning more about you. I love that you use an app as an on-the-go tool for blogging. I might have to get one!
There’s always an “app for that,” right?!? Of course I use it all the time in bed, when I’m suppose to be sleeping! ‘Hope it works out for you, Sarah!
Hey Cristy, enjoyed reading your blog, sorry so late but have been out of the country and out of communication zone. I like your tip, and I have to constantly remind myself of it, too. I get so anxious to see how things are going to turn out…sometimes I rush and I always regret it! See you around cyber space…
It is so lovely to get to know you a bit better, Cristy! It is so nice to be able to look back at early projects and see how far we have come. I really like your pattern and fabric choices-such wonderful color palettes!
Hi Cristy, it’s nice to meet you. I really like your Spectrum of Gingham quilt. I have a four foot stack pile of embroidered tshirts that I inherited when my Mom passed away that I need to design memory quilts from. It is supposed to be a joint project with my sister. The tshirts have been waiting 2 years now. I am thinking we will need to piece in alot of plain solid knit from the leftovers to spread out our available designs amongst the number of tops we need to make. Go Irish! I think I used to own one of the same Tees. I look forward to reading more of your blog. Thanks for visiting mine and commenting as well.