An Eclectic Life

Being a quilter and a designer is pretty much a solitary life. Don't get me wrong, I have friends, but most of the time I'm in my studio. I'm either at my sewing machine or on my computer. I love to go out and visit quilt guilds to share what I know with other quilters and I try to make lunch/coffee dates with friends to get out of the house. My daily walk is so important to me.
This all changes when I head to Key West. We live in a small place around a plant filled courtyard with a eleven other units. I create and sew while I'm here, but there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not socializing. Just taking Bailey out to do her business, results in multiple conversations. My weekly painting class immerses me in the art community. The quilt shop, The Seam Shoppe, is a 20 minute walk. I'm there at least 3 times a week. We eat out a bunch and my favorite places to eat are located on the water. Here we are at Geiger Key Marina, with my favorite company and a food I only eat down here, blackened fish tacos.

How about Bingo at The Green Parrot, the southernmost bar, to benefit The Studios of Key West?

And instead of walking, Bailey and I head out on a bicycle ride, where we often circumnavigate the island. That sounds far, but it's about 10 miles! This is one of my favorite sights on our ride.

The bicycle becomes my means of transportation. Riding my bike to buy drawing supplies, or groceries or miscellaneous items at the dollar store makes it a very healthy lifestyle.

I'm still sewing and designing and staying active on social media. I'll be vending at QuiltCon in February and need to add some new items to my booth. I found this cute little toddler sundress DIY on a blog called Blooms and Bugs. I added a cute scalloped border using fabric from The Seam Shoppe. Isn't it adorable?

I'm hoping to include a video of how I add scalloped hems with Curvalicious, which will work for skirts, dresses and even pillowcases in my next monthly newsletter. If you haven't received one yet, you can sign up for my newsletter HERE, so you don't miss it.
I was asked to review a Craftsy class presented by Christa Watson on machine quilting. It's called The Quilter's Path: Plan It, Stitch It, Quilt It. It's a basic class packed with a lot of information. Christa talks about thread, walking foot and free motion quilting. I like her attitude that her "quilting is perfectly imperfect!"

While watching the video, I thought about this little paper pieced mini quilt I had just designed and made called "Philly Love".

It was inspired by a Philadelphia iconic sculpture.

I'm in a pink mini swap on Instagram (@CherylLynchQuilts) and this will go to my swapmate. I had some ideas about how I was going to quilt it. It's only 12" square. In the Craftsy class, Christa shared how she quilted a spiral circle with her walking foot. I decided to try her technique. It was easy peasy and I just loved the result.

Here's the good news. You can get Christa Watson's machine quilting Craftsy class for half price by clicking on this link, CRAFTSY.
It's certainly nice to be living outside of my comfort zone, and the beautiful weather sure does help. When you spend a morning videoing roosters walking about town, to send to your grandson, you know it's not Pennsylvania.

Posted with Blogsy