thursday

If this photo above wasn't enough to remind me to wait until a certain someone is asleep to take photos of fabric, then the photo below should.

And speaking of reminders, all these wrinkles should remind me not to keep an embroidery WIP rolled/folded for so long - they'll come out, right?

Tea Party Napkins

Remember this photo from a few weeks ago? Well, those tea parties are a regular occurence around here and since my 2 year old has two older sisters to help out with the planning and preparing, those tea parties are pretty involved! Anyway, guess I caught the bug because I noticed the other day that they didn't have napkins and well, look what I made! Placemats might be next.

However, I haven't yet been able to take a photo of them being used at a tea party because, of course, now that I made them, there has not been another tea party.  Instead it seems like my littlest has been spending most of her time in this corner of her room - so still using something I made!

balance on a snow day

*courtesy of my lovely husband who baked with our 2 year old while I got to sew!

picnic

I am so excited about the new weekly photo link up at Weekend Doings - A Picture . . . A Moment.  Martha takes such beautiful photos and I'm excited to see what she'll be posting each Friday.  I definitely recommend that any of you participating in the Quilt Photography Workshop join in and post your photos!  She'll be posting the link up on Fridays and it looks like this week's is open until tonight.

my quilt photography assistant

Sometimes it is frustrating but most of the time my 2 year old quilt photography assistant provides lots of laughs.  

Here are some of the outtakes from when I was trying to take photos of the most recent quilt I made for Birch Fabrics.

She is totally fake sleeping in these photos - I'm not sure why?!?

Not sure if she is resting her arms or hiding in this photo!?!

And if you are curious about what I do with the leftover fabric - we make little bags perfect for so many things!

The tutorial is on the Birch Organic Fabric blog.  You can find it by clicking here.  The fabric is adorable - seriously sea animals in love - too cute!  I hope you'll click over to their blog to see more.

The Quilt(er's) Photography Workshop 2014

{the beginnings of my next "someday soon" quilt}

I've always liked to take photos - mostly of my daughters - but since I started blogging, my interest in photography has grown tremendously.  I am constantly trying to find ways to improve my photography - both in composition and in all of the technical ways - some of which I understand and some of which I don't.  To do so, I do read photography books and photography blogs and blog posts but what works best for me is simply learning by doing.  Every time I take a photo, I am learning more about what I like, what works, and what doesn't.  I leave my camera in manual mode 100% of the time - even if that means that I sometimes have a camera card filled with photos destined for the trash.  But the more I experiment, the less that happens - yes, I always have several throwaways while I'm trying to find the right settings - but at least I feel like it is less trial and error now than it was a year ago.  

{my first but definitely not my last time using double gauze - love it!}

So, this brings me to my new idea/plan for The Quilt Photography Workshop which I'm thinking I should rename The Quilter's Photography Workshop because I think it should be about more than just taking photos of quilts.  Instead of specific assignments each month focusing on just one aspect of photography, I want to encourage you to just take photos - mindfully.  Maybe not every photo you take but at least once a month, take some photos of whatever quilt/sewing blog related projects you want and just really focus on the photos.  Experiment with different apertures and different white balance settings, try taking the photos in a variety of light conditions, concentrate on your composition, use props (or not), take photos that are related to each other (or not) - I am just basically trying to encourage you to learn by doing.  

I will still plan to have a link up once a month but you choose what type of post you want to link - a finish, a WIP, a day in the life of a quilter, or something else related to needle crafts. Just be sure that it is a post where you truly concentrated on the photos.  As part of the post, you can also write about the photography - what you learned, what you are trying to learn, what you can't figure out - totally up to you whether you want to do this or not but I wanted to leave this option open as part of the learning/workshop process. 

So, what do you think???  

the sherbert quilt

Back in December, I posted a sneak of this quilt saying that I wasn't sure what I thought of it and that I was going to wash it and see if that changed things.

Well, I've washed it and that did make a huge difference! 

I ordered these fabrics when they were on sale at Fat Quarter Shop back in November just to stash but when I was putting them in my fabric box, my 8 year old commented on how they would make a great quilt and I just went with it.  Fortunately she LOVES the finish!

For the back, I used large pieces of novelty prints from my stash.  

My daughter helped with the selection and layout and I think we both agree that we like the back better than the front.

I still wouldn't say it is my favorite or even one of my favorites and I wish I made some different choices regarding which colors I included but all question marks aside, it is big, warm, and cozy - and in this weather especially, getting lots of use!