A Whole Lot of Grace!

 They say that when God closes one door, He opens another.  This week, He kicked down a door in my life!

As you may know, I recently started teaching kids' sewing classes at Urban Spools in Dallas, TX. I have loved passing on a love of sewing to the next generation! However, Urban Spools is undergoing a major change and that means that my kids' sewing classes are being put on hold for the rest of 2024. They will continue operating out of a temporary location, so the majority of their business will carry on, just in a warehouse they have. Most of the classes will continue to be held at the new location.  Unfortunately the temporary location is not a place that is suitable for kids to attend classes.  I'm looking forward to bigger and better things in 2025 when Urban Spools moves into a larger location in East Dallas, mostly because I'll be back to teaching then!

Now, God has closed that door in my life for the time being, but yesterday, he started opening other doors. As you well know, I am a huge Tula Pink fan.  The majority of my tumblers feature Tula Pink fabrics.  I love how bright and colorful all of her fabrics are!  They speak to my inner 80s child.  I'm sure you've seen the Roar tumblers I've been sharing, which are looking amazing!  

Yesterday, Tula Pink shared one of my Roar tumblers and tagged my page!!! 

She shared this on both Instagram and Facebook, and it led to multiple new fans!!!  Some of those new fans have turned into custom orders!  I have spent today adding new listings to my Etsy shop and getting to work on my new orders.  

Also, I was asked by a quilt shop that I frequent to please put together a wholesale pricing quote, as they are interested in carrying my tumblers in their shop!  Hopefully I'll have some big news on that front in the coming months!  

God is good, y'all!  And I couldn't do any of this without His grace!

Stay Creative, my friends!

~Krista

Roar! and Other Happenings

 It's been a fun weekend, playing with the new ROAR fabrics from Tula Pink!  My next show currently isn't until August, so I'm spending the next few months building inventory and working on the Etsy shop.  And quilting.  Can't forget quilting!

Currently, I have 4 different styles of ROAR tumblers available, my favorite being the 40oz Traveler w/handle.  I also made a couple 20oz skinnies, wine glasses, and a new style of cup, 12oz Duo Kids Tumblers!  The kids tumblers will come with two lid options, one regular slide closure lid AND a sippy cup-style lid with handles, for littles who are learning to use a cup!  The dinosaurs are perfect for the kids cups!  

I've been playing around in the sewing room with some quilts, a few I can't share yet, and a few I might be listing for sale soon.  I picked up a couple more TenSisters grids to continue my progress on the Galaga quilt, hopefully I'll have a post up next week with the second panel!  

I recently took over organizing the Block of the Month for one of my quilt guilds and have been playing around with ideas for how I want to run it.  I saw an idea that I fell in love with from another guild where they use their BOM to create charity quilts, so I'll be running with that idea and I'm looking forward to making charity quilts each month that have been made by multiple members of our guild!  I've already picked our first block and made two blocks for the May meeting!  One block will go towards the charity quilt and one will be put in the BOM Raffle.  

The pattern is called Grandma's Puzzle and I found it in some old quilt supplies a friend gave me last year when his mother was cleaning her sewing room out.  I was able to use up some Kaffe scraps I had, paired with half of a fat quarter of Tula Pink Fairy Flake in white.  

That's all for my Monday Musings this week!  

Stay creative, y'all!

~Krista

April Updates

 It's been a relatively quiet week around here, sewing-wise.  I have been working on tumblers for upcoming shows and have been busy making some really awesome iron-on patches and dice pouches to add to the shop!  

So, what shows are coming up?  First, in just under one week, I'll be set up at a pop-up show in Rowlett at the bowling alley.  I signed up on a whim, but I'm looking forward to it.  I'll have my fabric wrapped tumblers, some stainless steel shot glasses, plus some small items that I've sewn, like jewelry/dice pouches, purses, wallets, and other goodies!  

Now for the big news! I will be at TWO quilt shows in the fall!!!  I'm really excited to showcase my fabric wrapped tumblers in a place where they're sure to be a hit, among quilters!  I'll be at the Plano Quilt Show in August and the Canton Quilt Show in October.  I'm looking forward to both events and am staying busy getting tumblers prepped!  I'll have quite a few Tula Pink tumblers, as well as Kaffe, Ruby Star Society, Tim Holtz and more!  

I do have a few quilt projects in the works right now.  First is the on-going Galaga Quilt, which I'll be turning into a whole series on the blog.  I picked up the grid panels for my next two blocks and will be starting on those in the next week.  I also have a couple Judy Niemeyer projects in the works, one is a partially completed Cactus Flower Tablerunner kit that I picked up at a local quilt shop in South Texas, I'll be starting Rainbow Crystals soon, and I got the pattern for Haystack Cookies to play with.

One thing I'd like to do is start making some quilts to sell at some of the events I have coming up.  I might start with some small throw quilts and baby quilts, just to see how they do.  I may even do some simple JN throw quilts to sell, like the Haystack Cookies!  

That's all the updates for today, I'll be sure to post more updates this week on IG and FB, so make sure you're following me!  And I hope to see y'all out at the pop-up market next weekend!

Stay Crafty, y'all!

Krista

A New Vintage Project!

 I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I agreed to make a quilt for my husband.  Ok, so the 80's kid/90s teen in me did get really excited about this one...  My husband's favorite arcade game is Galaga.  We have a retro arcade less than a mile from our house and they have Galaga, and yes, he has spent hours there playing it and setting the high score.  Unfortunately, they randomly reset the scoreboard, so Hubby has to go back every so often and reclaim his title.  I have agreed to make him a Galaga quilt. 

This is the overall inspiration for the quilt.  It will be all 8-bit and done in 1/2" squares.  The ONLY reason I agreed to do this is because TenSisters has a fusible grid for quilting that makes this a lot easier than it really should be.  

The first step is figuring out the art for the all of the ships in the game.  I stole a graph paper notebook from Hubs for this.  

Then, I spent some time on EQ8, designing the first custom block.  Each TenSisters grid panel is 18x28, so I 

Then, it was time to lay out 504 1" squares of fabric on the grid!

I used a washable glue stick to place all of my squares before pressing.  It was nice to not have to worry about them shifting or moving around while i was working. 

I started with the white parts of the ship, then filled in the red and blue, and lastly I placed the black background.

I started sewing the panel yesterday and will hopefully have it completely sewn by the end of the weekend.  It's not difficult to do this part, but it's not the easiest when working with such small squares!  

I will definitely be posting lots of updates as I continue!  I am estimating that I'll make 45 total panels, which will result in a grand total of 22,680 1/2" squares when this quilt is done!  And it's going to be awesome!!!

Stay Creative, my friends!

~Krista

Dallas Quilt Show! Rock On!

 

This weekend is the Dallas Quilt Show and I checked it out with my mom and our friend, Dennis.  The quilts on display were simply amazing!  I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but I did capture some of my favorite quilts that were on display. I also picked up some new fabrics to make more tumblers!  I'll be a vendor at a couple quilt shows this fall and I'm already starting to build up my inventory!  

I decided that I would like to enter a quilt in a show soon, and I have the perfect quilt in mind!  It's one I'm starting to work on for my wonderful hubby, a personal request of his based on his favorite arcade game.  Also, one of my new business goals is to have a vendor booth at the Dallas Quilt Show.  It won't happen next year (I'll be on a quilting cruise next March) but I would love to be there in 2026!  

Stay creative, y'all!

~Krista

Quilting, Quilting, and more Quilting!!!

 The last month has been full of quilting around here!  I have finished a few quilt tops and am about to start getting busy quilting them!

The first one I finished up (which I'm really excited about) is Tossed at Sea, a quilt I designed using triangle cutoffs from a chevron quilt my mom made about 10 years ago, which is shown above.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I love Tula Pink!  When Mom was cleaning out some sewing stuff in her sewing room a couple years ago, she asked if I wanted the tringles from her flying geese.  Of course!!!  In May of 2022, we hosted our first Friends of Judy quilt retreat and I decided to start playing with the little triangles.  I found some really pretty navy fabric at Stitchin' Heaven and started making a ton of HST blocks.  251 to be exact.  At the time, I had no idea what I would do with them.  In January of this year, I got my hands on EQ8 and decided to make this HST quilt a reality.  I ended up turning the HST blocks into flying geese and I love how it all came together.  Currently, it's waiting to be quilted, but once that's done, I'll be able to get some really good pictures of it and write the pattern for it to share with y'all!  It will be my first venture into pattern writing and I'm excited about it!  

***Updated to add the link for the Tossed at Sea pattern, now posted!!!

Next up, I've been making some adorable small quilts that are perfect as baby gifts! I'm a huge fan of Villa Rosa pattern cards and I found a super cute one that goes together really quick, Silver Star. I'm currently toying with the idea of selling finished quilts, starting with baby quilts.  If so, this will likely be among the ones offered.

One thing that I am really enjoying right now if playing with designing my own quilts with EQ8 and in doing so, my husband has put in a request.  His favorite arcade game is Galaga and he's asked if I can make an 8-bit Galaga quilt for him.  I started working on the layout this week and it's going to be a fun one to do!  I'll be sure to keep posting my progress on Instagram and Facebook!

Lastly, I have been working on a special secret project and I cannot wait to share later this year!  

What has been on y'all's cutting tables lately?  

Stay Creative, my friends!

~Krista

Friday Recap-February 23

 It's been a busy week over here and I'm excited about so much of it!  I've been in a slump at the start of the year when it came to Grunge+Grace and it's been driving me crazy!  

However!!!  

The slump is over and I'm back at 100%!  

Earlier this week, I did some out of the box thinking and fell in love with how my newest tumbler style is coming out!  How awesome are these 40oz handle tumblers???

Of course I started playing with Tula Pink fabrics for my samples and I love how they're coming out!  I'll be placing an order for a whole case of these soon!  Also, WINE GLASSES!!!

How cute are these???  The 12oz stainless steel wine glasses come with a spill-proof lid, making them perfect for taking to quilting retreats, where they'll keep your quilts safe from spills!  I'll also be ordering a case of these soon to add to the stock!

Speaking of stock, I spent yesterday taking fresh pictures and getting the Etsy shop active again! I have both in-stock items and custom orders available. And if there's a certain fabric you would like on a tumbler, please don't hesitate to reach out! And don't forget to use code SAVE10 to get 10% off of your order until February 29, 2024!

Make sure you're following me on Instagram and Facebook to see what else I've got in store! 

Happy Crafting, y'all!!!

~Krista