JDP: Toe in the Water

I will confess, I don't know how to quilt. No idea really. Yes, theoretically, you cut out some pieces, you sew them together, you put some \ fluff in between the top bottom fabrics, then sew it all together (quilt it), and lastly bind off the edges. But....I don't feel like I know.

Well, I've started my first quilting project, ready or not. I've got a sketch, some rough dimensions, and I cut out the border. There is nothing like laying scissors to fabric to commit yourself to a project; cutting out the pieces sort of freaks me out, not going to lie. I'm pretty sure I've got all the fabric I need to complete this project, but I need to pick up some more thread. I have a feeling this could get interesting.

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Looms: A Review

Technically, I've been loom knitting since I was about 7. With a little googling around, I found the original Lisa Frank set that included a weaving loom and two knitting looms: a French-styled knitter and what LF dubbed a sock loom. I could never figure out how to make anything other than really long tubes using the basic instructions, but little did I know then that this formative experience would set me off on a long journey, leading me to finally open a side business and to teach others how to loom knit.
As such, I wanted to introduce you to my looms, and give my two cents worth of opinion on your options, in case you'd like to start looming! All opinions are my own, and I purchased all of the looms below.
Basic Looms for the Beginner
#1 choice for beginners: On the left, my first set of Knifty Knitter brand looms, bought at Wal-Mart many years ago. In the middle, the modern equivalent, Loops and Threads brand, bought at Michael's in 2015. On the right, the Hobby Lobb…

Life Organization: Arc vs. Erin Condren Planners

I have yet to find the perfect planner organization system. I want my planner systems to be paper-based, flexible, and very mobile. In the last year, I've tried an Arc system (from Staples.com) and an Erin Condren life planner.

I fell in love with the Arc system because it is highly customizable. The hole punch is an expensive one-time purchase, but the notebook cover was very reasonable. It uses a series of discs to bind the pages together, so I can move pages and sections around and replace covers. I decided on the full-sized poly-plastic cover. This was great because I simply printed the pages I needed weekly or monthly. Crazy week? Different planning guide. While using this notebook, I had a monthly plan, daily plan, and a reference section.
One negative I found with the Arc system is that regular printer paper tended to curl, as above. Most of the pages, such as the weekly pages, could be tossed at the end of the week. However, I like to keep at least the monthly pages as a …

How I Organize Digital Patterns

This is probably a really dorky post, but one of my all time pet peeves is disorganized files. One of my favorite organization systems I've created is my ststem for keeping all of the patterns orderly. I don't think this is a finished system, but maybe it will give someone an idea!

I keep all of my downloaded files in .pdf format. If there is a blog post or non-.pdf file, I use printfriendly.com to clean up any advertisements or fluff that isn't relevent.

I first created a general "Patterns" folder on my flashdrive. You can see from the screenshot (left), that I use a common naming convention. Basically, type of craft/thing being made/title of pattern.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD: If you are in charge of organizing a lot of documents for yourself or others, please come up with a naming convention. See how everything stays in alphabetical order? BEAUTIFUL.

As this folder got...well, a little long, I noticed there was some natural groupings that needed folder.…

Inkling Spot

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