Becka’s Project Journal

These turned out so gorgeous I had to share!  My friend Karen and I just finished up a school residency with 2 kindergarten classes; I designed the class, she taught it.  The teachers wanted to do a Native American project so I suggested making these little star quilts and reading the book “Shota and the Star Quilt”.  The diamonds are cut and stiffened fabric that the kids glue-sticked to a card stock backing.  Each kid made a little quilt and then they made a bigger one all together and had a “quilting bee”.

I had a lovely evening with Kim from trueUp.net last night.  She was here for the Quilt Market (national fabric trade show) and spoke at the Textile Center about blogging and the fabric world.  After the talk I went to dinner with Kim, Faye, Jen, Caroline and Shaerie, a bunch of cool and crafty ladies.  (I hope everyone got a lot of sleep last night, because they were all back at Quilt Market today for another exhausting day!)

Kim had some interesting things to say about blogging.  It is nice to hear someone else speak and confirm things that you have been thinking.  Some of her tips:

• Share your process – People love to see “behind the scenes”.  I love doing these kinds of posts that’s why I do my Wednesday works in progress.
• Share research – If you have done a bunch of reading up about a new sewing machine, share.  I don’t do this often on my blog, but I know I always google to see if anyone else has reviewed a thing (especially a new expensive thing)
• Make tutorials – Yep.  Tutorials are hot. I know from looking at Google analytics that those how to pages get the most hits on my blog.
• Talk about your favorite local shops - Yes!  I know how excited I was to find the Stitch London blog with a list of fabric shops in London.  Going there in June and I want a souvenir!  I should do a guide to Minneapolis.
• Answer comments – I love getting questions and answering those in another blog post, too.
• End with call to action – This one is my favorite.  Ask a question at the end of your post to encourage discussion.  My friend Donna does this often and it has made me want to comment on her posts. Why didn’t I think of that?
  

Kim also talked about having a topic for each day on her blog and how that gives her a fall back for what to talk about.  I started doing Works in Progress Wednesdays here recently and it is great!  Sometimes that’s the only thing I post in a week, but it means I always have something to talk about.  Kim also talked about selling advertising space on your blog and ways to be part of the blog community and build audience.

Most interesting for me was listening to the questions that the audience was asking Kim.  I am perpetually a teacher and I think I got some great ideas for future “Tech Tuesdays” sessions I can teach.  (I already do a series on etsy, digital fabric printing, blogging, and so on.)  It is easy to assume that everyone knows about Flickr or Google Reader, but this crowd was really interested and would have liked to hear more.

Kim gave away a bunch of door prizes.  I got this cute little fat quarter pack of organic cotton from Clothworks.  Since Andy scored a door prize too, I am going to donate mine to the Volunteer Appreciation Party door prizes at the Textile Center next week.

I can’t show you.

The works in progress this week are a surprise.  I can tell you the words “One Yard Wonders” and “book 2″ are involved.  I can say that I am involved.  I can say that I am making multi-sized pattern pieces and I am almost done, which is good because they are due in two days.  (Yipes!)

Today was pretty much exhausting.  I did four tours of the Textile Center classrooms and Library and the Weavers Guild.  The Quilt Market national fabric convention is in town and they brought us 100+ people from all over the world – Russia, New Zealand, Belgium, Norway.  My usual dumb jokes seem to lose something in translation, but they were all so sweet and we had a great time.

An interesting week in nostalgia land.

STS 132 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is on its final mission right now.  It is at the International Space Station today.  The astronauts are doing space walks and installing new equipment.  When it lands on May 26, it will be retired and earthbound.  Discovery and Endeavor each have one last mission in the fall and then the space shuttle program is complete.  Wow.  I don’t know what to think about that.  For me there have always been space shuttle coming and going.  I remember counting down as they lifted off and holding my breath as they touched down, I remember the Teacher in Space program, both the excitement and tragedy.  I didn’t pay attention much once I was in highschool and college and afterwards, but I knew they were still out there doing their thing.   I know there will be future missions and new rockets, but I don’t think I will ever love them as much as that charming white space shuttle.  Safe Landings Atlantis!

My second bit of nostalgia – May 16, 1990 Jim Henson passed away.  I vividly remember seeing this Life magazine cover and having to walk away or embarrass my 16 year old self by crying in the grocery store.  How could that possibly have been 20 years ago?  I just saw a tribute on the Wired blog and spent the last hour watching YouTube clips of Jim’s memorial service and blowing my nose. ( I was ok until Frank Oz choked up and then I lost it.  Don’t watch Big Bird singing unless you have kleenex, seriously.)  I never even have to think about that question “What famous person would you like to have lunch with?”, my answer is always Jim Henson and I don’t care who else is at the table.  He embodies everything I aspire to be as an artist and a person – creative, generous, clever and kind.  I am not a rabid fan, I haven’t seen everything that Jim ever created or every episode of the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock because I don’t need to.  I know it’s out there and someday I will encounter it and it will be new and amazing.  I want to savor that feeling as long as I can.

Garden Gnome poppy, “Picky” yellow rose, snapdragons

Vote for my finger puppets in the Spoonflower fabric contest!

Spoonflower is doing a design contest this week featuring puppets.  It was a great excuse to draw up the set that was next on my list – The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  This is the middle size billy goat.  More about the contest soon.  I have entered, and I will tell you how you can vote!

Here’s the beginning of my self portrait for Stitch Yourself.  I am thinking about giving myself a knitting project rather than the tote bag.  (I will also take some better pictures when it isn’t totally dark and overcast.)  I knitted the little sweater while telling Andy about how that little tiny sweater was the very first thing I learned how to knit.  Rather than start me out with a scarf or a dishcloth, my friend Berit just jumped in and showed me how to make a hoodie sweater for my tiny teddy bear, using what must have been fingering weight yarn and about size 4 needles.

You can see Andy’s “Mr Reed” here and my friend Donna is sending off her other self to visit London as well.