Jean has dropped my FQ HQ today to tell us a little about her store and more!
FQ: Tell us a little about how 'Clever Quilter' came to open its virtual doors.CQ: Before I become “one of us” I was “one of them”. My life involved cubicles, “business attire”, financial reports, board meetings, and worse yet, a bunch of “suits” with little imagination! When the company I was with merged, I had the opportunity to re-prioritize my life goals and really think about what I truly enjoyed. It took about a year for me to transition to “one of us”. Business, computers and fabric: I just added a bit of chocolate and voila! CleverQuilter.com was born.
FQ : Do you have a team of helpers at your store who are clever quilters?
CQ: I believe *everyone* is a Clever Quilter. Our goal is to help quilters realize their “Clever” potential through offering easy but lovely patterns, kits and ideas. The projects are fast, portable and totally doable. You can stop in our shop here or read about various projects I’ve got going on at the Clever Quilter blog. We also gab a lot on facebook – look for us and friend us as at Clever Quilter.
FQ: You are also the creator of the intriguing & interactive site, “Quilting Is Murder”. Can you describe to us what it’s all about?
CQ: Certainly. Imagine a fun murder mystery mini-series for quilters complete with prizes and a search for clues. That’s the general idea of the project. Readers can simply enjoy the story a it unfolds over an 8 week period or join in the fun by registering as a “Quilt Detective”. We’re working with Killer Shops (quilt shops) and Deadly Sponsors who provide specials and prizes our detectives learn about throughout the promotion. Quilting Is Murder runs through 3/4/2011 with two new stories planned later in 2011. Come & join in the fun here! Catch up on our blog for updates! We’ve lined up a half dozen *real life* mystery authors to blog as the mystery unfolds. Cool!!
FQ: With 2 busy websites to maintain and all this mystery solving, do you find time to sew for yourself? If so, what’s your favorite item to sew?
CQ: I’ve been doing a lot of fusible appliqué work recently. The Last Rose and Guy the Giraffe are two projects you can read about on our blog. Fusible appliqué is fun, fast and oh so satisfying! I can start and finish a project (except final quilting) in a few evenings. Creating art quilts like this, is my chocolate fix: I grab one, work on it and am instantly gratified. We’ve been focusing on kitting more art quilts in the shop so I’ve been in heaven lately!! Oh and I can’t forget to mention these kits usually involve BATIKS. Lovely BATIKS. I purr when boxes of them arrive in the shop…..
FQ: Do you plan to start more interactive websites in the future? Can you give us any clues as to what those plans might entail…?
CQ: Yes, I can tell you but then I’d have to kill you… My uncle was an intelligence officer in the army and I remember he’d use that line all the time when he didn’t want to answer a question. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized, hey, he might just be serous… LOLOL!! Anyway, you’ll just have to sit tight and wait and see. Keep on eye on Quilting Is Murder’s Facebook page, CleverQuilter.com and QuiltingIsMurder.com are keeping me on my toes right now. What’s up next is a ….mystery!
Thanks so much Jean for joining us today!
Jean has generously offered to give away a fat quarter pack of Thimbleberries fabric in Dark to one lucky reader! For a chance to win tell us about a sewing mystery you've experienced (missing fabric, ufo's that mysteriously pile up in the corner of your sewing room, baffling techniques you just can't work out.......you get the idea ;) ) & please go and like Clever Quilter on facebook!
We'll randomly select a winner & announce them here on 5th Feb. Good luck!
Quilting is Murder looks interesting! I would love some fabric please put me in on this give away.
ReplyDeleteKaren
http://karensquilting.com/blog/
The mystery I am wondering.. is why my sewing machine tension is never going to be right.. I want my machine to work.. yet.. nope. I will keep trying. I am religated to working by hand.. but won't stop quilting.
ReplyDeleteLovely to meet Jean. My mystery is why oh why did I wait so long to buy a decent sewing machine - too many years of toil and trouble. Thanks for a chance. Off to check out Jean's blog.
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is why didn't someone tell me before I got into my 50s how much I would love quilting...all those wasted years....thanks for the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteOh what fun! I love a good mystery, and combine it with quilting?! Woohooo! My current mystery is how do I attach the walking foot to my machine? I have a 10 yr old White and the booklet doesn't mention this foot and I'm new to quilting, so I'm trying to figure out this big interesting foot and how to use it!
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is where did the screw to my button hole adjustment go? I saw it fall down inside the machine but alas, upon closer inspection (and many curses later) it is still missing!
ReplyDeleteI am loving QIM ! Also, was wondering about QIM Facebook - I cannot access it - through search or links, seems like another mystery, can anyone help?
ReplyDeleteMassive mystery I had today was why I couldn't get my tension to work..battled for 2 hours and turned out that my gran had added in some AWFUl (as in, super cheap) thread so my machine didn't like it..quick change was all I needed !!
Oh how generous! My sewing mystery? Well - right now everything is a mystery because we just moved and I can't find anything!
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of the quilting muderder site, will definitely check out those links, my mystery is where do my unpickers go when I need them. I have about 5 but when I'm in a stitching crisis I can't find them and end up using scissors or pins.
ReplyDeleteMy mystery has to do with a project I have been working on for some time. I took a class at a LQS on Ricky Tim's "Quilting Caveman Style." When I came home, I wasn't too thrilled with the project, so I set it aside. Months later, I decided to finish it, but couldn't find it. I have a space for UFOs in my sewing room and it was nowhere to be found. So I moved on to other things. Six months later, looking for another project, there it was, right on the shelf where I originally put it! It still is unfinished, by the way! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and I like both the Mystery site and the Clever Quilter on FB.
Thanks!
Sandy A
scotty4me39 @ yahoo.com
My scissors are always going missing. I start a project with them on my cutting table, ironing board. sewing machine table, bedside table, and somehow they disappear. Kathie L in Allentown
ReplyDeleteThe first quilt I made was an "over night mystery quilt". You didn't know what the final look would be until you finished!
ReplyDeleteI find it a mystery why I can't get my machine to do free-motion quilting. I get big loops of the spool thread underneath. Serviced not long ago. ?
ReplyDeleteMy mystery? Where did all of those quilt/sewing/craft books come from? It couldn't have been me who bought them! And why are they taking up so much room in my sewing space? I like Clever Quilter on facebook.
ReplyDeleterecently I pulled my zipper foot out of the case in the front of my machine, and it was broken! The little bar to attach it just fell out. I have no idea what happened, and the shop keeper remarked that it was an odd foot to request (since they often come with a machine and no one ever breaks them I guess)
ReplyDeleteGOOD DAY!
ReplyDeleteMY MYSTERY IS THAT I WAITED SO DARN LONG TO START QUILTING! THANKS FOR SHARING!
jldouglas@wispwest.net
My mystery is still an ongoing one. I won a giveaway and have received the fabric but can NOT remember the name of the blog where I won it from. And the envelope or contents were of no help.
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is ongoing, too. I can never find specific things in my sewing room...it's always something different. I think it might just have to do with how much crap is in my sewing room, unfortunately!
ReplyDeleteOne mystery happened just yesterday. I wanted to sew on block 2 from bloggers' block-a-palooza. I couldn't find the section I'd pinned. I searched everywhere. I was getting frantic. Then, decided to go ahead and take my shower - there it was - next to a clean change of clothes I had laid out. Cost me 20 minutes of sewing time!
ReplyDeleteBoth of my grandmothers were quilters. As early as 8 years old I was into crafting and making things. It is a complete mystery how I was never shown how to piece a quilt block or quilt by hand until I was grown. Well actually I still don't know how to quilt by hand. Luckily I can do some wonky free motion quilting on my machine.
ReplyDeleteI always end up missing blocks on my floor layouts. I end up redoing it several times. However, the mystery isn't hard to solve, my 1 year old likes to "help" me design :)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to win some fabric! Please enter me. My mystery is probably not figure-out-able! It's why-oh-why do I keep adding more quilt-alongs, fabric, projects, etc., to my life when I have so many UFOs to work on already??!! It's a mystery to my family for sure--they say I'm badly addicted!
ReplyDeleteMy mystery? When will my sewing studio ever get finished so I can sew again?
ReplyDeleteOMG, I totally had a mystery the other day! I was pulling fabrics for a Fresh Quilting-inspired pillow, and knew that the finished piece would be framed in Kona Medium Grey (this was a huge deal that I actually bought a SOLID fabric). Anyway, I pick fabrics, and cut the pieces for the squares, all while the baby plays with my scraps piles. Clean everything up at the end of the night, so we can wake up to a clean living room.
ReplyDeleteThe next day, I canNOT find that Medium Grey for the life of me! And, I bought a good 3 yards, so it wasn't a tiny piece lost somewhere. We looked (yes, I made the 13mo old help) EVERYWHERE for a good hour, before I found it up in our linen closet, stashed away with the sheets.
How it got up there, I have no clue. Thats what I get for working until I'm falling asleep on the cutting mat, I guess!
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ReplyDeleteJust finished up Wk 5 of the Mystery. What a creative and fun idea! It is a mystery to me how I can measure twice, cut once and still not get a straight line. ??? ;) Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention that I have 'Liked' Clever Quilter on FB.
I mystery is how everyone else can make free motion quilting look so easy and yet I struggle with it over and over again.
ReplyDeleteEverything and anything is a mystery in my tiny jam-packed sewing room. No matter how I arrange it, I can never find anything!
ReplyDeleteMy mystery, and one I wish I could solve, is how to put fabrics together. Thank goodness for all the coordinating fabric lines out there! It makes things so much easier. Now to go check out Quilting is Murder...
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is how to get my color selection to look as nice as everyone else. I always like their choices better than mine. I am really enjoying Quilting is Murder. It has been a lot of fun. Thanks for a chance to win.
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is why I waited so long to quilt with designer fabrics. No more store brands for me! :)
ReplyDeleteMy mystery is that I've misplaced or lost 2 pairs of 'good' scissors in the last month. Is this the work of a scissor burglar? or just the kids using them on paper? I hope I win, maybe the good scissors will magically appear again!
ReplyDeleteThe mystery I have going on is how I can put off a new project or trying a technique thinking it just isn't going to go right, then I finally jump in and do it. Turns out way cuter than I expected, didnt' take as long and I could have been done with it ages ago! What is with that?
ReplyDeleteMy current mystery, after finally unpacking my (ahem, large) fabric/quilting stash after seven moves... is, where are all those cute appliqued squares with rhinos and elephants on them? I finally have the space and machine to DO something with them (after 18 years). Where the heck are they?
ReplyDeletethe mystery is, why can't I get up to my sewing room to quilt once in a while? But I think I figured that out and the reasons are aged 6, 5, and almost 2
ReplyDeletethe mystery is how my ufo stack seems to multiply? pick me please for fabric
ReplyDeleteI have made a number of dolls over the past few years. I always sew up the body pieces all at once, then work on the rest (costume, details, etc). Recently I discovered a pair of sewn, stuffed doll arms in one of my craft storage boxes. I have NO idea where they came from as none of my dolls are limbless. I do not recall sewing up a second set of arms - but they are in the same fabric that I use (alova suede).
ReplyDeleteWeird.
heidig@gmail.com
My quilting mystery is how do I get anything accomplished with two boys running wild in the house?
ReplyDeleteIt's a mystery how I can get any sewing done whilst also having a 3-month-old. But I do! (A tiny bit.)
ReplyDeleteThe mystery for me is how to start/stop straight line quilting in the middle of the quilt. I've tried a few things I've read online but I can't seem to make itnot noticable.
ReplyDeleteOh my, which mystery to choose... it took me a few hours of studying a pattern and the instructions and an actual piece of clothing to figure out how to put sleeves on a dress I made for my daughter. Finally it clicked, and the end result was fabulous, if I do say so myself.
ReplyDeletehe he he! loving all these mysteries!
ReplyDelete