My Blurb Book

A little while back Amanda had shown me that Blurb now had an option to do journal-style books with your photos.  I was really excited about this, but it was the holidays and I never got around to making one.  Well, wasn’t I surprised when one arrived on my door step this week! 

Amanda made me one with some of my favorite photos for a birthday present.  I just love it!  And I am really surprised by the quality of the photo prints on the paper used.  It says the paper is 60-pound uncoated, but it feels more like a 28-pound (at most) to me. 

I especially love that she did a mix of solid and graph pages.  I love having graph paper when I’m working on quilt block ideas.  I’m not sure what I’m going to use this book for, but I love having journals to keep track of ideas and thoughts. 

My only wish for the Blurb books is that they offered a version with thicker pages.  Since I tend to write in inky pens, those would easily bleed through this thin paper, but if it were a thicker, sketchbook style paper I wouldn’t have to worry about that.  Plus it might be fun to add some watercolor with out the worry of bleeding through. 

I’m so excited for this book and hope I can bring myself to write in it.  I can’t wait to begin a new journal project with it!

Thank you so much, Amanda!

There is an update to my last post on the PoGo printer.  I figured out another way to print to it thanks to Kaye’s help!  Scroll down to the bottom of yesterdays post to read more.

Travel Printer

Something I’ve always wanted to do is journal with photos when I take road trips.  I love journaling to capture the moments in life.  And I have always wanted to have a travel journal.  But I just can’t get excited about journaling when I don’t have visuals to go along with it.  I’ve always wanted to have a little printer to capture those moments easily.  I had been thinking about buying an Epson PictureMate Charm, as they seem reasonably priced and reasonably sized to actually travel with.  I hadn’t bought it yet because I just wasn’t sure if I would actually want to tote it along on vacation.  While most of my vacationing is road trips, I like to pack as light as possible.  Then one day a few weeks ago I saw on Instagram that Karyn had a tiny little printer she was using to journal.  I knew that was what I needed.  I went online and researched and knew in just a few minutes that it would be perfect for me.  So I bought one!  I am now the proud owner of a Polaroid PoGo.  I thought I’d talk a little about it since I had so many questions about it myself and also from others when I was posting about it on Instagram. 

The number one thing I love about it is that there is no ink required.  All I need are the little sheets of 2x3” thermal paper made especially for this.  You can load 10 sheets at a time and it works out to about $0.40/sheet.  Also, the back removes from these and they are sticky.  So that combined with no ink makes it a great value to me.  And easy to travel with.  So to get started, you remove your printer from the box and plug it in to charge.  Once it has a charge you should be able to print quite a few prints from it and it has a day or so of stand-by.  I haven’t really put this to the test yet myself, but at this point it’s not a big deal to just plug it in.  It’s really easy to get going.  You just lift the lid, pop the paper in (with the special blue sheet on the bottom) and close the lid and you’re ready. 

It’s a Bluetooth device and so you will need Bluetooth to print to it.  It is not readily able to print to from the iPhones.  If you have an iPhone you know how Apple likes to lock them down.  If you do have an iPhone (like I do) and it happens to be jailbroken, you can download an app from the Cydia store for $10 that will allow you to print your photos over Bluetooth to this printer.  It’s called Celeste, and that’s what I did.  Works like a charm.  (I should note I’m not on iOS 5.0.1 yet, still 4.2.8…so not sure how it’s working with the update yet.)  If you happen to have a Droid phone, then just print to Bluetooth, no special program required.  My husband has a Droid, so we tested it out with his phone.  (FYI – jailbreaking your phone is not illegal at this time in the US.)  This screen shot is when I was in a photo via the iPhone photo app that comes preinstalled on the iPhones.  Normally the “Send via Bluetooth” is not available on the options screen.  If you happen to have a Mac or a computer with Bluetooth (or a Bluetooth dongle for your computer) then you can also print from that to the printer.  But Bluetooth is the only way you can print to this thing.  There is no hooking it up via USB to print to it.  Which of course would kind of defeat the purpose of this cute little printer.

Something I had read about and noticed was that around the 3rd print you will see some streaking on the photos sometimes.  You may also see this if you haven’t used the printer in a few days.  The suggestions I found said to just run that blue piece of paper that came with your paper pack through the printer again at start-up.  All you need to do is put it in the bottom of the print tray, turn the printer on and it will spit it out automatically for you.  I had streaking on my third print, so ran the sheet through and printed again and the print had no streaking. 

I’m printing to it about once a day, so I just put the blue sheet in when I’m ready to print and have it run through first and the prints all come out fine.

Slightly misleading on the Polaroid site about the PoGo is the quality of prints you will get.  They show this perfectly balanced color photo.  That is not what you will get.  You’re photo will have a definite Polaroid-tint to it just like the instant Polaroid images of the past.  Which personally, I love.  For journaling it’s perfect for me.  I’m always editing my photos to that vintage look anyways. 

As I said above, the sheets have a sticky back which makes it perfect for journaling on the go. 

And I’ve been having lots of fun with casual journaling of my photos everyday.  I can’t wait for a road trip!

UPDATE

So after talking with Kaye about how she prints to her printer I had to give it a go for myself.  That evening after I did this initial post I updated my phone to the iOS 5.0.1 and did the jailbreak on it…and of course Celeste is not working with the new iOS.  But it looks like they are working on the update for it…at least at last tweet.  So for the time being I thought I might be stuck not printing to my PoGo (sad day).  But, after talking with Kaye, I now have a solution!  So one of the ways she prints to her PoGo is to connect her camera directly to the printer via it’s USB cable.  I have the Canon 60D which allows for printing via the camera interface and it worked like a charm.  I’m so excited.  So as long as I have a decent print to begin with, I get a great print from the printer.  Very happy about this!  Printing directly from my camera would make me just as happy as printing from my phone on the road trip.  Either way, I don’t need a computer! 

Next on my list to try…uploading a photo from my camera to the iPad, editing on the iPad and then printing to the PoGo.  Either via Celeste (I haven’t updated the iPad in a long time, so should work on there for now) or by putting the image back on my camera’s SD card and then printing from the camera interface.  Not sure how all of that will work.  I’m guessing I’ll need to find an app that will allow me to put photos from my iPad back onto the camera’s SD card.  I’ll be sure to post about that if it works out.

No. 37

 

We have a winner for the spot in Stitched In Color’s {Premium} Curves Class with a copy of my Retro Flower’s pattern!  Congratulations to Blue Crab Quilting!  I hope if you have any fears about piecing curves you will consider taking Rachel’s class.  I think curves might be up there as the number one fear in sewing, but I will say it time and again, they don’t have to be hard!  I think as quilters we sometimes psych ourselves out about techniques we are unfamiliar with, but it just takes a little practice to master any of it.  (Remind me to give this advice to myself should I ever trying quilting a quilt on my domestic machine again.) 

It seemed like such a daunting task to sew together all the curves for the Retro Flower’s quilt, but it really went together quick and the I would piece each flower completely before moving on to the next and with each one I had the push to get another one done.  I really miss my mornings in the sewing room with my cup of coffee, sewing up the blocks.  I keep thinking I’m going to make another one, maybe a flower each week to share, as Rachel did on her blog.  I will have to see how I can work it in with everything else on my plate right now.  I’m thinking it may be just the de-stress I need each day.  I think for any curves I work, completing a block of curves is good motivation to keep me going.  Once I see a completed block, I’m always inspired to make more. 

And I can never say enough good things about my Curve Master Foot.  I love that thing!

Unsure About Curves? {Giveaway}

Photo by Stitched in Color

Well do I have just the class for you!  Rachel at Stitched in Color contacted me awhile back about her Curves class, due to start February 1st, and I was only too happy to offer her students a discount on my Retro Flowers pattern.  Speaking of, did you see all of her posts on her mini quilt using this pattern?  Just fantastic, and I especially love that she felt that sense of achievement with each flower constructed.  It’s funny to think you will be so proud of yourself, even if you’ve made curves for many years, but you just really do when you get a petal and then a flower put together. 

I knew when I released this pattern that there would be a lot of readers that thought “Curves are too hard.” but I swear to you they aren’t!  Sometimes it just takes seeing how to do it from someone else to really hit home.  Week three of Rachel’s curves class deals with precision curve piecing and will be just the information you need to make those perfect curves on the Retro Flowers pattern.  While my pattern walks you through the instructions and tips and tricks, Rachel’s class will give you that hands on information you need to make it happen if you are still unsure. 

Photo by Stitched in Color

In particular, I love that her class deals with all kinds of curves, not just drunkards path’s.  Each week is a new concept in curves as well as a project to complete so that you are keeping up and really learning.  Her class will only be available for viewing online for a short time, so that you are sure to get the most from all the information presented.  I really like this, because so many times I buy into a class that has unlimited access and then I forget about it and never seem to actually do the class.  This is a much better format for someone like me, and I’m betting a lot of you, too! 

She currently has two options available, as her first option (Curves Camp) sold out!  I’ll let you read about it in her words:

"In the past you may have been intimidated by tight little curved seams, even downright petrified by curvy quilt blocks and more than a little skeptical that a curvy outlook could be in your stitchy future.   That all ends now.  No longer shall ye be limited to the straight edge.  No longer shall ye look with fear upon that which inspires you..."

“The super affordable Curves Class includes everything you're used to seeing from me in the way of detailed, step-by-step picture-packed tutorials and access to all projects at $45.  Curves Class {Premium} adds extra helpful (and time-intensive) features like videos and a PDF eBook of the course (delivered in April) at $65.” 

Her post about the class can be read here.  She details each weeks topic and gives a sneak peek to some of the projects.

Photo by Stitched in Color

Okay, now the fun part!  I’m giving away a spot to her Curves Class {Premium} as well as a copy of my Retro Flowers Pattern!  (If you already have the Retro Flowers pattern you can choose to receive another of my patterns instead.)  Head on over to the post here and let me know which curves you would most like to learn {more} about.  I would really LOVE to know more about Improv Curves!  I’m terrible with improv, and want more precise, so this is a great topic for me to learn more about.  A random winner will be chosen on Sunday!  Good luck, everyone!

Another Year, Another Photo Folder on the Hard Drive

You’ll notice I didn’t do a “Year In Review” post.  I don’t usually.  I don’t like to see that I didn’t accomplish as much as I’d like to think I did.  And I know this last year has been minimal when it comes to crafting in any respect.  Brice is a lot more work these days, mainly requiring more of my attention.  I’ve also been in a little funk the last two years in regards to blogging.  Last year I bought myself a shiny new camera, and I haven’t really taken many photos since then.  Not my usual anyway.  I guess I was in a photography-funk last year as well. 

I love the new year.  It’s like a chance to start over and beginning anew.  A new year means another year older for me. I turned 32 yesterday.  Only, this photo was taken last week when my dad was in town.  Yesterday I went to IKEA where kid whined the whole time, then we went to Home Depot for paint and the grocery store for some much needed items.  I know how to celebrate.

I have been in so much upheaval this last week that I haven’t had that ‘it’s a new year’ feeling yet.  I don’t do well with messes, and my house is a major mess right now!  ALL of the rooms are being swapped around and the living room has become the landing ground.  But, the good news in all of this is that I will no longer be sharing my sewing space with my stepson on the weekends and my husbands {cluttered} computer space. 

The boys are getting a new, bigger room…husband is getting his own little man-cave, our bedroom moved to the warmer part of the house with beautiful southern facing light coming into my computer desk (love this part the best) and my sewing room is going back into a little bit bigger space.  I haven’t decided how everything will be laid out yet, but I’m looking forward to having it back in order and sitting down at the sewing machine again. 

If you’ve read my blog for awhile now, you know that I like to set some flexible, easily attainable goals for myself each year.  If I don’t reach them, that’s okay, but I like to know that I have something to work toward and try and not let myself down.  This year I’d like to blog more (because I really enjoy being in that groove) and get back into photography.  I’d also like to be crafting more this year.  Crafting keeps me happy and there was not enough of it this last year.  While my first passion is landscape photography, a close second is craft photography.  If I’m not crafting, I’m not photographing, so they really go hand-in-hand for me and I hope with one the other will follow.  And when I’m crafting and photographing, why not put up a blog post? 

So, to recap, for 2012: 

More crafting!  More photography!  More blogging!

Really, it’s a win-win situation for all of us!

Oh yeah!  And I’m going to start collecting the Lego Star War’s minifigs from movies IV, V and VI.  I kept trying to get Brice to want them so I could justify buying them (he’s way into the Lego Harry Potter right now).  I just decided I would collect them for myself since I wanted them so badly.

Norman loves Lego Star Wars, too.

A Field Guide To Fabric Design

I had at one point saw that this was a title due to release soon and thought to myself: I need to check that one out.  Then the holidays happened and I forgot about it.  I figured I run across it in the bookstore and take a peek to see if it was something I needed to own.  I may have even flipped through a preview online and thought: maybe.  I like knowing what I can about design and how certain elements of a design are achieved (like repeats or coloring in items on the computer), but not sure if I actually want to design fabric.  Perhaps as a hobby with screen printing (I’m still bummed about last years YuDu fail and their inability to get back to me about damaged product I contacted them about via their website’s contact form). 

We were at the beach a few weekends ago and I went into one of my favorite quilt shops, Center Diamond in Cannon Beach, when I spotted A Field Guide to Fabric Design on a shelf.  I pulled it down, did a quick flip of the pages (you know the one, where you just do a quick flip with your thumb, fanning the pages), and quickly tucked it under my arm.  Seriously, just with that quick flip of pages I knew I had to have this book.  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to want to own this book.  Not that it wouldn’t be fabulous, but I was thinking it probably covered most of what I already knew.  I was wrong.  I learned SO much from this book.

Questions I had about doing repeats and half-drop repeats on linoleum blocks for block printing…answered!  I think that alone was enough to sell me on the book.  Not only are the instructions easy to understand, but there are fantastic photographed images to get you through each step.  The layout of the book is very pleasing, and I think one of the better Stash book layouts to date.  Kimberly also walks you through the steps of creating patterns in Photoshop and Illustrator.  There were lots of techniques that were new to me.  The instructions was quick and to the point, and most likely for those that have at least a basic understanding of the programs. 

There were lots of question and answer sections, with quotes from various fabric designers.  It was nice to have honest insight and opinions from so many different designers.  I truly enjoyed reading what everyone had to say.

There are sections dedicated to block printing and screen printing.  There are very thorough instructions on screen printing and creating repeats on large pieces of fabric.  It was amazing what she explained in one chapter that whole books on the subject haven’t taught me.  There are even instructions for building a table for screen printing large runs of fabric.

There is a rather large section discussing color and the color wheel.  And lots of information throughout on color selection.  Personally, this was of less interest to me, but someone that is very interested in color and how to go about selecting it will find this very useful and informative.  There was one bit that I liked very much in this section, her idea of creating color jars and pulling from that when creating color palettes.  I could actually see using this for just quilting in general, and having it be very helpful to me when selecting fabrics for a quilt.  So even though it wasn’t my favorite section, it was still of great use.  I just kind of skimmed most of it and figure I will pull from it what I need when I need it. 

These pages give you an idea of how she explains the steps in Illustrator.  Photoshop explanations are the same.  The instruction is, as I said, quick and to the point and the images are relevant and really explain what you need to know. 

In short, awesome book!  If you have any interest in fabric design, or just design in general, I would definitely recommend this.  I’m glad I found a copy to flip through and bought it.  Well worth the investment.   

A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Knight of True Up

Kimberly’s post on her book found here.  And a post by Stash Books here.

Where I Talk About A Book On The iPad

With the holidays, I had a lot of things get put to the side.  Unfortunately one of those things was blogging about this fantastic book I contributed to.  I kept saying to myself “You need to blog about this!” and I’d sit down, edit the photos a little and then get distracted with something else.  (Not to mention I’ve been battling all kinds of infections these last three months.)  As of now it’s just an eBook, thus the photos of the iPad.  The paper version of the book will be released in August, but I wanted to be sure to talk about the eBook as a lot of the projects can be adapted for all year long.  It’s hard to convey my honest opinion when I’m actually part of the book, but I’m going to do my best.  I REALLY love Pretty in Patchwork Holidays!  Even if I didn’t have projects in it, I would still be buying it and telling you how much I love it.  It is honestly one of the best holiday craft books I’ve come across in a very, very long time.  John Adams (the books author, and Quilt Dad as many of you might know him) did such a great job of assembling crafters and all of the projects are unique and beautiful.  John himself contributed lots of patterns and the quilts are amazing.  There were quite a few that I thought “I’d make that!” 

I’ve had the iPad going on almost two years now (have they really only been out two years?!?!) and one of the main reasons I wanted it was to have an eReader.  I love reading books on the iPad (well, now I read them all on my iPhone it seems) but was resistant to the thought of magazines and craft books on it.  I still like the feel of an actual book.  Well, that point of view has changed recently with respect to magazines.  Now I want to skip the paper version and just have it delivered to the iPad.  This was my first experience with a craft book on the iPad, and I have to say that I’m really liking it!  When I buy patterns from online independent sellers I love to email myself a copy of the PDF and open it in the iBooks app and just have my iPad on a stand on my cutting table.  Turning between the pages is so easy and I’ve found it’s a great way to use the eBooks as well.  I think the other positive thing about having the books on the iPad is that I’m saving precious shelf space.  Now, the only problem with the eBooks is the printing of the patterns, but as long as you have a computer with printer that is pretty easy.  And I imagine if you are using a service like Kinko’s, it would be pretty easy to have them help you print what you need.  I haven’t explored it, but I know there are lots of apps that allow you to print from your iPad now (I think iPad2 had this built in…?).  Within the Zinio app for this book on your desktop computer, you just tell it to “Print Current Page” while on the template pages and it prints perfectly.

Okay, so on to the book.  I’ll just talk a like about it now so that when I have the physical book I can gush all about it again, especially since it will be right before the holiday season at that point.  So this is the first project I contributed – wine bags.  Or whatever kind of bottle you might be gifting (maybe sparkling cider).  There are two versions of this bag, the main version is a drawstring top and the other is with an open top and handle.  The front is customizable for the holidays or for gifting at any time of year (birthdays, weddings, showers).  There are templates for a pumpkin for the fall, a tree for the winter, a cake for celebrations like weddings or birthdays and an option to do just a W (for wine) for any occasion. The bag itself fits around a wide bottom bottle nice and snug (I used Sokol Blosser bottles as my test-bottle…one of my favorite wineries for Pinot Noir and of course their Evolution!). 

The other project I contributed was some tiny patchwork ornaments.  There are two in the winter theme (snowman and tree) and two in the Hanukah theme (Star of David and Dreidel).  Now I know that hanging of ornaments is not a Hanukah kind of thing, but maybe there is a gift that needs some adorning or there may be other ways to incorporate the tiny patchwork into other items for the holiday.  Or maybe there are some that celebrate both Christmas and Hanukah and what a great way to blend the two.  Really, who can resist tiny patchwork?!  Aside from that, the book is beautifully designed and the basic instruction chapter at the front is well presented and relevant.  To see a preview of the book (you can scroll through it all at a very small size and zoom in on 3 pages) and download a copy for yourself you can go to the Zinio website.  If you don’t have an iPad or Android, you can still view this on your computer (this isn’t viewable on the iPhones yet, not sure about the Droid phones).  Zinio has a free viewer that you will download and then sign in to your account.  Once in your account you can download what you’ve purchased (books and magazines).  And of course, because you are signing into your account, you can view on all of your devices with purchase. 

Pretty in Patchwork Holidays:  Zinio  |  Amazon – Not available yet

Zinio eReader:  iPad  | iPhone  |  Android  |  Desktop

Pretty in Patchwork Holidays:  Flickr Group  | John’s Blog Post

In short, this is absolutely a book I would buy and love to own.  I receive nothing from you following any of these links.  Yes I contributed to the book and received a free digital copy for doing so, but even if I hadn’t, I still would have bought this.  Go take a look for yourself!  (And I’ll talk more about this again in August when I have a paper copy in my hands!)  Tomorrow I’m going to have a post up about a book I bought at the beach a few weekends ago.  I casually flipped through a few pages and was like “I’m buying this!” so of course I have to share it with you.