Springtime

Today's feature is this gorgeous hand-quilted wallhanging or lap quilt, inspired by nature...

Spring in the Woods!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/234779167/green-modern-lap-quilt-hand-quilted

Website is Finally set up for Rose Tree Quilts!

I finally got my website set up today, so excited! 

Virb allows integration of my Etsy shop into the main website, which I love; I was also able to set up a simple gallery showcasing a few of the many, many quilts that I've made over the years.

Go check it out, please share via Facebook, Pinterest, etc:

http://rosetreequilts.virb.com/

My quilts are now carried by Liz Daly Designs in DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE!

In case you can't tell from the title, yes, I'm super, over-the-moon excited that my quilts were chosen to be carried in the wonderful Liz Daly Designs Art Gallery/Gift Shop/Working Studio in DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE on MAIN ST!!! Right next the famous Reedy River and near the Falls Park, Peace Center, Poinsett Hotel, and many other highly-visited landmarks.

My quilts for sale at Liz Daly Designs!

When you walk in the front door, they are in the back right corner.

I am, again, very honored to have my quilts carried by such a wonderful place. Even if you don't buy one of my quilts, please take the time to stop in the shop, they have every kind of unique, handmade gift items, jewelry, unique home decor, paintings, etc, etc. And don't forget the incredible glass art of Liz Daly herself!

Liz Daly Designs

If you live anywhere in the SC/NC area, please go check them out and see if one of my wonderful, handmade, heirloom quilts is for you! Currently priced between $55 and $200, so get them while the prices are still low!

Photography for Selling

I've received compliments on my quilt photography, and been asked how to do it... I've spent a lot of time experimenting; here's a little of what I've learned and can think of:

***Use natural light if possible, take it outdoors if you can. If not, turn every light in the room on and spotlight with lamps... flash can do funny things but is sometimes unavoidable. I almost always take the same shot both with and without flash-some of the photos I'm putting here illustrate the difference.

***Take multiple photos in different poses, from various angles, different lighting, etc. For the 5 that get put on Etsy, I usually take anywhere between 15 minimum to sometimes 50 or more.

***For photos without flash, my camera anyway, takes longer to process and take the photo, so if I just hold the camera, the photo turns out fuzzy. So what I've been doing is steadying the camera against a solid object or setting it on a counter, chair, etc, to keep it still.

***Something I've been working more on is showing the item in use, with appropriate props. For example, a quilt on a bed with coordinating pillows, the fall table runner I just listed, I went all out and set the table like for Thanksgiving, with all the good dishes, centerpiece, serving dishes, etc.

I saw one hint somewhere from an Etsy seller... she tries to find unusual props for her jewelry (her current one is a teacup/saucer set on a table) and photographs her entire line on that prop to make her whole shop consistent for that season. The quilts I make are way too varied to do that with... but maybe I should start traveling around with them and find pretty mountains and old barns for a background, with a old fence, lol!

***Edit the photo afterwards till it looks right-if you start off with a decent photo, it usually only takes a little tweaking with color, focus, and brightness to get it right. It doesn't take a fancy program, I use  the basic one on Windows and then put the copyright text and maybe 1 more "auto-tweak" in Picasa-Google's free program. When editing, use your undo button as much as the others.... it makes it less fearsome to try something out and see what it looks like.

***And take odd ones... sometimes they are just for fun, like the one here of my quilt top with the sun shining through, and sometimes that one shot turns out to be the clincher that catches people's eyes.

There are also some wonderful hints and tips out there, here are a few good ones:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=161

http://content.photojojo.com/tips/product-photo-tips-for-ebay-etsy-instructables/

http://handmademarketing.org/best-etsy-photography-how-to-take-online-photos/
http://www.handmadeology.com/jewelry-photography-tips-for-etsy-sellers/

~Andrea Harper Kuznicki, BSN, RN

Red & Cream Quilt... 1st big quilt I machine quilted :)

I finished machine quilting this lovely red and cream quilt on Friday.... it is truly one of my favorite quilts ever. I've never quilted this closely together on so large a project; this is also the largest quilt I've done on my home sewing machine yet.

The quilt top, before quilting, isn't it lovely with all the light shining through the colors??

I absolutely am thrilled with how this quilt turned out

"The Path Less Traveled Through the Corn Fields", approx. 60" square

It is loosely based on a pattern called "Times Square", by Pam Lintott & Nicky Lintott.

UPDATE: Not available anymore, sold and in a private collection in the Atlanta area.

Etsy Treasury Time!

I found the cutest little crocheted purse, and thought of putting this together:

Latest Fall Trends for Your Little Fashionista

Also... I know it won't make it to the front page because I featured my own item on there, but I would dearly love for some sweet little girl to get to enjoy the little dress I had so much fun making with my vintage pattern :)

And I have a RN job interview tomorrow... we need the income but I don't plan to stop quilting if I get it! That's for sure...  I've let too much stand in the way of doing what I love to do the most, and I'll quilt around a job again happily-at least it would mean I'd have the money to invest in materials, which I'm quickly running out of (money AND materials!), lol!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day... drop me a comment if you're reading this, it makes my day :)

Quilting Away here in SC!

I've been busily putting all the finishing touches (labels, machine quilting my last of my "Campbell Ridge" wallhangings, the hand quilting on another lap quilt) on my next batch of quilts for The Dark Corner.

And, trying to catch up on computer stuff and networking... so good to have internet again! I am resolving to try to post something, no matter how short, each day.

For today's enjoyment, here is a photo of this darling little girl's dress, made of 1930's reproduction fabrics, an upcycled girls shirt, and the sweetest little 1930's kitty cat applique design:

Isn't she cute? I love how the little hand embroidered details and decorative machine stitching really accented the dress... this is one of my favorites of children's clothes I've made.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day, leave me a comment if you feel like it-they make me smile :)

I'm rebelling with B.Michelle Pippin! Makes me proud of a very little thing I did today... stopped in at a local artisan center that I live 10 minutes from, to see about consigning my quilts there. And they want me to teach a quilting class too!! Because I swallowed my FEAR, my "I don't have time", all those excuses...
Also, the most wonderful opportunity for my quilting and sewing business has taken place because I finally rebelled against the "what if" fear and emailed the sales and marketing director of the first legal Moonshine distillery in South Carolina; I'd read a newspaper article and there was a short mention in there of locally made crafts, and I immediately thought "MY QUILTS!!".  Now, the place is opening next week, and is on the best street in town, with foot traffic of an estimated 1200 people a day walking by... and they are exclusively carrying my quilts!!

So, go read her article, and keep at it, you never know what direction your business can go in if you don't let FEAR sabotage it!!!

One of my quilts was featured in a Treasury!

My "Coffee, Cream and a Country Morning" quilt was featured in a wonderful treasury, here: "A Chill is in the Air" by my dear fellow Etsy member, PrimroseTranquility! And what an appropriate name... it was chilly here in SC when I got up this morning, around 57 degrees!

I'm very busy putting the finishing touches (labels, etc) onto several small quilts to take to The Dark Corner, which is opening NEXT WEEK!!!

My goal today is to finish machine quilting #4 out of 4 Limited Edition "Campbell Ridge" wallhangings. There are 4, each very individual in fabrics and quilting designs. Design and pattern are my original work, based on an antique quilt block pattern:

Have a wonderful day... I FINALLY have internet again, after about a month of having to go to the library to use it! I don't know if anyone even noticed I was gone, but I'm happy to have this outlet to journal in!

Sewing away...

I've been SO busy sewing I haven't had time to post lately... I'm machine quilting the inaugural "Moonshine Memories" quilt for the Dark Corner Distillery, which I blogged about a week or so ago.
Also, working on some new ones; hoping against hope

Thoughts....

This is not another quilt. This post is not more photos of my latest home redecorating project.

Here are some thoughts I had today, in church of all places. Our pastor was talking about how God doesn't open doors for us until we have the character to use the gifts He gave us and keep at it in that room that He opens the door to...

I'm stoked about this!!

I am so super excited... I have a (once-in-a-lifetime opening for any artist) opportunity to sell my work through a new retail/historical storefront ON MAIN STREET IN DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE!!!! This place celebrates the local history of our Upstate SC area, and they are going to carry exclusively my line of quilts made exclusively for them, of course along with several other local, traditional artists.

This one is a stunner!! My latest quilt...

I started with this absolutely gorgeous "Hanemai" fabric, by Yuko Hasegawa for RJR Fabrics... I fell in love with the details, the gracefulness of the birds, the depths and shades of the reds-I knew this HAD to be a quilt! 

Here is the fabric laid out, with a cream border...

Isn't it beautiful???

Photos of the "new" bedroom!!

Walking in...

Finishing up painting master bedroom, woo hoo!!

Have to get back to it... all is finished painting and ready to start putting back together.

Before... a blah room, with WAY too much clutter... only good thing is the dresser. I knew this quilt wouldn't go at ALL in the new decor so it got moved to another room:

All the clutter out, dusted, and prepping for painting:

About to paint!!

Prepping my bedroom for painting, so excited; my lovely, wonderful sister bought the 2 gallons of paint in trade for my help with her remodeling project, woo-hoo!!

Are you ready??

Ready to learn how to quilt?? I'm starting a beginner's quilt class on Monday, July 18th! It will be a 6 week course, held at my home in Duncan, from July 18-August 22, and will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday evenings.

The cost for course is $120 plus fabric and supplies, and will include lessons on buying fabric and supplies, rotary cutting, machine piecing, pressing for accuracy, planning and attaching borders, and different quilting techniques.

Finally found inspiration to make a rug!!

I’ve been searching for a larger, inexpensive but pretty & colorful rug for the guest room, and haven’t found one I liked yet.
The painted ones intimidate me… I know fabric a whole lot better than paint, lol! So this  fabric-covered vinyl rug is perfect… now to get a scrap of vinyl and the perfect fabric!

Curves of Green quilt

This is a very modern, different quilt... I started it in December and just finished the binding today.

It's a completely different quilt than others I've made, the curved pieces are actually appliqued on instead of pieced. This is where I was playing with the layout of the colors:

How about quilting classes??

I'm seriously thinking about starting a beginner quilting class... I've had at least 10 ladies in the past several months ask me about teaching quilting, or tell me they wish they knew how, but don't even know how to use their sewing machine.
So... I came to ask you, my wonderful blog readers, what do you think? If there was a beginner quilting class in your area, would you take it?


Also, for a 6-week course of 1 night per week, with lessons on rotary cutting, machine piecing, pressing seams, simple borders, etc, how much would you be willing to pay? And would you, in this theoretical exercise, rather pay extra for me to include the fabrics so you don't have to shop for them?



If you have ANY suggestions or helpful comments, please let me know, and THANK YOU!!