To Start with...

This is the first quilt I made. I wanted to share it with you because it says so much about me. First, I love hearts, and that theme runs in most of my work. I love red, pinks, and how those colors contrast to black. Bold designs, bright colors, and hearts--love, love, love. Not everything I do has all these elements in it but my first project did. Second thing is I dive right in. I had no idea what I was doing, and if you look closely at the picture you can see it's not perfect. (I am a slight perfectionist, but that comes out a little later) I used a pattern from the first magazine I picked up and flipped thru. I followed the pattern to the letter, I cut each piece of fabric just right, pinned each piece together before I sewed it, and sewed each piece one at a time (I had no idea that there were shortcuts and bias cutting, or that you can stack the fabric to cut the same shape etc...) When I got the top done I didn't know what to do next. I consulted Mimi (my mother-in-law) and she told me that you have to get batting and backing. I went right away and got both. I read how to make the sandwich and pinned it and selected a 'fun' pattern on my machine. (It happened to be the zig-zag as you can see in the picture) 

Third and fourth thing it says about me:

It's not done and I learned a lot from this project. Probably the most important thing I learned was that you need more fabric and batting on the back than the top and it is a tricky thing to fix when you don't know what your are doing! As to it not being done, I have many, many, many projects 'in the works' (Mimi says that happens with everyone, but I'm still not convinced) I go back and forth-- Should I just take the quilting out, expand the backing and re-quilt it? or should I just leave it, imperfections and all? I have debated for five years, and even as I type this I am split.

I love looking back on this quilt. I keep it at my sewing station as a reminder of where I have come from. I highly encourage diving right into any project- you might not have the courage later on. Right after 'finishing' this quilt I jumped right into a log cabin. Any quilters out there know how tedious and time consuming these can be! Imagine trying to cut each piece, one side at at time (instead of fabric into strips and then strips into pieces) and then to start putting all the pieces together. I abandoned the project pretty quickly, frustrated that my squares were not coming out square and some of the pieces I had cut were too short, or too fat. I put everything I had done in a box and stuck it in the back of the closet.

Two years later I became pregnant and couldn't climb down the stairs to my sewing space. So Ben and I moved my whole quilting station upstairs. In the move I found the box with the scraps I had cut and became inspired to try again. I had learned so much and I was ready. I ironed out each piece, resorted the piles, and let my perfectionist intentions go. What I ended up with was an amazing step forward in my quilting skills. (There will be more on this quilt later but here is what I ended up with)

Let me leave you with this, try something new, if you get frustrated--put it away for a while. It may take a day, a week, a year, or even five years but when it speaks to you again, be ready to listen. I know for me it took two years for my hands to make what my mind was seeing and wanting. 

New Beginnings and a little bit about me.

Today is the start of something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am not really sure how to start, but I am trying not to over-think it and make it sound stupid or contrived. I am a 28 year old retail manager, but I LOVE making stuff. When I was younger it was whatever I could make with crayons, pipe cleaners and glitter. My first year in middle school I had an art teacher tell me that I was a terrible 'artist' and that I should quit art club and find something better to do with my time. I have to admit that I struggle in the 2D world of art. (Drawing, painting, sketching, etc...) I was heartbroken, but I found other was to express my creative side. I dove into photography, ceramics, and printmaking but I had that nagging teacher in the back of my mind that I was wasting my time.

 Fast forward a few years and I end up in high school. We were required to take an art class or two and I dreaded it. I was going to wait until my junior and senior year to take the required classes, but when I was signing up for my freshman year I was looking at the class list and one of the new art teachers had the same last name as me. (It wasn't a name like Smith or Anderson, I have never come accross anyone like that before). So I changed my schedule around on a whim and decided to get it out of the way sooner. I was petrified, but during the first week we worked with wire, then the second we worked on paper mache, then the third we made balsa sculptures. I was working after school one day and my teacher came up to me and said 'You are doing a great job, have you considered taking an advanced class?' I was floored. I told him that I wasn't good at art and I was just taking this to meet the requirements. It was his turn to be floored. We sat and talked in that art room for a couple of hours, and it changed my life. He decided that I needed more challenging assignments and I would help teach his class and work with students who were struggling. That was the best thing he could have done for me. I learned basic techniques for ceramics, scupture, and other media besides just drawing and painting. He also started my education on basic art history. I thrived! I was excited about creating again, and I was learning how to be better. Over the rest of my highschool career I became more and more involved in the art program, and by my senior year the art teachers had to come up with new art classes because I had taken all the ones that were offered.

When I graduated from high school I wanted to be an artist. I had other interests and I was involved in more than just art, but I knew that art was in my future. I went and lived in France for a year after I graduated and when I came home I was lost. (Totally different story, maybe some other time) and I ended up going to the community college in my town. I took basic classes, but I was mainly going so I could play golf for the school. I also took a bunch of art classes and the art progam teacher was amazing. She taught me so much about modern art, and new mediums (We had to bring in an old eletronic something and take it apart to make something out of it-- Very cool-- I bought in my old alarm clock). She also offered classes with the criminology, environment, and other department teachers and how everything was connected to art. I also took a class on color and it ended up being one of the most important classes I had. (For ANYONE out there who has any crafty bone in their body I would HIGHLY reccomend a color class. More on that later)

After two years I was coming to the end of my community college career and I got recruited to play golf at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. The school had just built a new art building and it was glorious. I was walking around the new building when I ran into a woman named Acker. She was the department head, and she was off the wall. She was quirky, thoughtful, and weird. All the students I talked with had said she was brilliant. We talked and she ended up hiring me as her student teacher and I got to work with her a lot. She was a genious, and she truely helped me become a great artist. The most important thing she taught me was that anything and everything can be art if thats what you want. I graduated in 2007 with a BA in art (emphasis in ceramics and sculpture) and entered the real world to find a job.

I moved to Sioux Falls South Dakota, and looked for a way to get into the art world. What a joke, if I wanted to be part of the art community it was going to cost me $500, if I wanted to use any art facilities it would cost me $50 a session plus supplies, and if I showed any art (oh yeah and you had to pay for each piece you entered) and if it sold I would get 20% of the commission. Yeah right! Like I had $50 bucks, let alone $500. I worked retail jobs (3 at one time) to make the rent. It was about six months before I had worked enough to move into a real appartment and only work two jobs. All of my art ended up in storage, or at my parent's house. In 2008 I was offered a promotion at one of my jobs and was relocated to Sioux City IA.

It was a great job, but it was retail and it was hard work. All art (and even golf) got lost in the move. I worked all the time, and I didn't have time to do what I was really passionate about. In October 2008 I got married. (My husband is amazing and supports me in all my endeavors!) That Christmas my mother-in-law gave me a sewing machine. She thought I would use it to make clothes. At the time, little did she know, she started my next phase of creativity. A little about my mother-in-law, she has a whole room devoted to quilting, and has been doing it for almost her whole life. Her mother quilted, and her grandmother quilted, and so on.

I dove right into quilt making. The first year I made six quilts. I read every book I could and found patterns that were appealing to me. (Some of them were way way out of my beginners hands) That was four years ago, earlier this year and my mom (Mama Caruso Cooks) suggested that I maybe start a blog and make customized quilts.  I love making quilts, but in the past two years or so I have expanded to purses, wall hangings, key chains, placemats, etc... (I am currently working on a storage wall hanger).

So, all that to say, I want to share my work, help others to find their inner creator, and build a community that is not exclusive or judgemental. Welcome to my new beginnings in the next phase of my art evolution.