Tuesday, January 31, 2012

An Interview with DI of Random Thoughts... Do or Di



A while back, I was asked by Jill of Creating My Way to Success to host the American leg of the Creating Success Around the World Bloghop! Of course I said "YES!" and the day has finally come where I get to share with all of you some fantastic talents America has to offer!

This is a blog hop tour that will introduce you to some wonderfully creative people from all around the world. Every Wednesday (Wednesday Australia time, Tuesday USA time), the hosts around the world will be sharing creativity from their corner of the globe. I will be hosting for the month of February, so, without further ado, I bring you a lady I am constantly amazed by. Her sewing skills and eye for color are marvelous and her quilts are to die for! Meet Di, from Yorba Linda, California!


1. Who you are? Tell us about yourself, where you blog, what you like, about your hobbies, etc.


My name is Diane Stanley and I have been blogging  at www.randomthoughtsdoordi.blogspot.com, for about 18 months. I started my blog as a way for our children, friends and family to follow my husband and I on our trip through the Brittany region of France in 2010. After returning home, I began searching for other blogs that might spark my interest and when I found quilting blogs my love of all things sewing bloomed. I blog mostly about sewing but include bits about family, photography, gardening, travel and cooking in my blog, thus the word "random" is a part of the name of my blog.


I have been sewing since I was a child and only quilting for about 9 years. Some of the hobbies I have enjoyed in the past and present are traveling, cross stitch, gardening, photography, baking, and scrap book making. I have recently switched to digital scrapbooking but find that my love of sewing occupies most of my time.


I have been married to Mr. Romance for nearly 40 years and we love traveling together, wine tasting and trying new restaurants. We have 4 sons, all grown. Two are married and those two have blessed us with 8 grandchildren, 4 boys and 4 girls. My greatest joy is when we can all be together. Until this past August, my mom lived with us. She had a hip fracture and decided she really liked living in a senior environment, so now we are empty nesters.




My family, my pride and joy!





2. What do you create?


I really enjoy sewing quilts and small gift items. Last year I discovered bag making and I am hooked. I have made many market bags, fancy purses, but my favorites are the clutch style purse.




a few of the quilts I made in 2011






some of the small items I made in 2011





3. Why do you create?


I create mostly for self-satisfaction. I love the feeling I get when I complete a project. I'll admit it, I am a compliment junkie, too. I just love it when someone says, "wow, you made that? It's beautiful". I enjoy giving handmade gifts but have realized that you must only give handmade to people who will appreciate what you have made for them. Some people think because it is handmade you are giving them an inexpensive gift. This is so not true. Sewing is an expensive hobby...especially if you love collecting fabric like I do.



4. Do you sell your creations? If so, how? Where? And is it profitable?


I do not sell the things I make because I really don't think someone could afford to pay me for my time. So instead I choose to gift the things I make to friends and family who I know will appreciate them.



5. What mistakes have you made or lessons have you learned?


I have made a lot of mistakes in my 50 years of sewing. They mostly stem back to not reading the instructions all the way through before I start making the item. I always think I know more than the pattern writer, but that is so not true. I can always learn more and continue to try to slow down and learn a new thing every year. This year I am re-learning to knit. I learned to knit a long time ago and made several things over 30 years ago but then never picked up the needles again. This is a fun hobby and it is transportable, so I like that I can always have a project to work on while traveling or even watching TV.



6. What, to you, is success? Have you achieved it yet, or are you on your way towards success?


I have always told my boys that success is not measured by how popular you are or how much money you make. Instead, I have told them to find something they love and to do it well. So if I am going to practice what I preach I would say that success, for me, is finding a craft, hobby, passion that I have and learning all I can about it and doing it well. So yes, I would say I am a success. But my greatest success has not been a craft or hobby, it has been my marriage (40 years this June) and raising 4 sons who have become incredibly bright, helpful, loving and caring men.



7. So what's next?

I want to learn to Free Motion Quilt. I have given it a try and I am really bad at it. Since I started quilting I have only quilted a few of my own quilts, and that is just with straight lines. The long arm quilter is so expensive that I am determined to learn. I received a new Bernina 820 for Christmas. This machine has a longer arm and wider throat, so it will make the quilting a lot less cumbersome.





I also want to become a better paper piecer. I have recently started to learn English Paper Piecing and I love it.










Thanks to Danny for allowing me this opportunity to give you a little peak into my crafty life.




"di"






A huge thank you to Di for taking the time to be interviewed for this hop. To see who the other hosts are interviewing on their continent, click on the buttons below!










If you are interested in being interviewed for Creating Success Around the World, leave me a comment on this post. Feel free to link up your blog or a creation you are especially proud of and meet some other crafters from around the globe!





Danny

Monday, January 30, 2012

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend felt fairly productive.

I was able to FINALLY make a siggy block for Sunni/Stash Bee. We decided to make these after I had already sent in my block, so mine is coming in a tad late.



I caught up on my blocks for Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL! Thank goodness! I hate getting behind!




I got all my charms cut for the I Spy Charm Swap.




And I reached 100 followers! Can I get a WHAT! WHAT!? So, I may have been doing a little planning and sketching for the giveaway. :) I have to make a zipper pouch for Mouthy Stitches, so why not make an extra one?



Ok, I know some of you don' care about what goes on in my personal life, so you can stop reading now. If you want to see what else I did this weekend (besides laundry. I spared you the pictures of that!), read on!

We started out with a nice walk. Brent has Fridays off work which means every weekend is a three day weekend! It gives us time to do those fun family things that a lot of people don't have time for with only two days off.



Brent and I went on our first date SANS baby! We met up with a couple of our close friends for some super duper yummy Olive Garden. I ate WAY too much then got dessert. :)





This is my friend Christi. She just started a creative writing blog. Psh. English majors.



Brent and I are the directors for the Saturday Night Gathering at our church. I love going on Saturday night because it's finished in time for us to still go out afterwards AND I get to sleep in on Sunday mornings! Normally, Brent is on stage, rocking out with his electric guitar, but this week he got to be with us for worship so he stole my baby and danced and sang with her. It was really sweet. I wanted to share.



And that about wraps it up. We got a lot done! The only bad things about this weekend was little Miss Mazer's teeth hurting. Poor baby. I think she may have an ear infection too, so I am taking her to the doctor today. Cross your fingers for us that she doesn't!!

I also want to share with you this awesome new contest that's going on over at Ellison Lane. She has officially launched a modern mini quilt/mug rug contest with lots of great prizes for winners from Fat Quarter Shop. You should pop over and check it out. I, unfortunately, will not be participating since I need to learn to say 'no' occasionally, but you should! It looks like lots of fun!

Modern Mini Challenge


Danny

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Craft Gossip

Okay, so I'm super excited! Before I started blogging, I got turned onto Craft Gossip. It was my obsession before Pinterest and now I have been featured at Craft Gossip!! Go check it out!



Danny

Friday, January 27, 2012

Things I Loved This Week



Walking around town.



Dunkin Donuts coffee.

Brent Cook

Brent cooking dinner. This is Honey Glazed Chicken with steamed veggies and rice. Yum!

First eat

Miss Maze's first attempt at eating rice cereal.

Friends

Spending time with friends. This is Maya. She's a doll.

Mommy and Maze

Being silly.



The Proposal.

miss maze diva

Diva-tude.



Fly A Kite in Teal. How flipping sweet is this bundle? Thank you Poppy Seed Fabrics. If only I had a coupon!

And she wouldn't let me get in to take a picture, but did I mention the cute little lady who lives with us got her first tooth?? It's still inching it's way up, but it's there in all it's pearly, serrated glory!

How was your week?

Danny

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Erika's Bridal Shower

Erika's bridal shower was this weekend and it turned out fabulous!

Kina and Danny

We played a game where she had to answer questions we asked her fiance. If their answers didn't match, she had to chew a stick of gum. This is her trying to hide the fact that she has an entire pack of gum in her mouth!

Cake

Ashley bought the cake from Costco, but they wouldn't personalize it. I had never written on a cake before. At least it was still edible!

Sunni's giraffe

Sunni won the toilet paper game with her giraffe.

More of the crowdFood spreadGift tableGift tableThe crowd

We had a great time and she got some pretty awesome gifts! And, lucky you! You get a glimpse at my house!

And, because the picture yesterday was bust, here's a better picture of the burp cloths I made:



You can pick up your own mustache fabric at Poppy Seed Fabrics.

Danny

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

W.I.P. Wednesday

I have been a mess lately! The Bridal Shower is over so I'm hoping life will calm down a bit now (it was lovely, btw. I'll share more about it tomorrow). In case you haven't noticed, I've been M.I.A. for the past few days. I didn't really have anything to share since all I did was clean this past weekend, so I took a couple days off to spend with friends, walk, and play with Maze. It's been nice, but I'm ready now to get back into the swing of things! SO here's what I'm up to:

I have a couple colorful stacks. I have plans for some and not for others, but I can't tell you which! :)

Set
Set

Also, I am almost to 100 followers!! I was thinking I should have a giveaway as a thank you to al of you who follow me. What do you like to see in giveaways?

Completed:
-Two burp cloths for Venetia (She's having a boy. Naming him Lennon. :) So cute!)

Burp cloths

-Quilting one quilt for Comfort Quilters.

New Projects:
-One that we shall call "Mystery Project" just in case the person I am making it for reads my blog.

To Do List:
-Stalk my partner for Mouthy Stitches (and add the button, I'm noticing... whoops!)
-Quilt second quilt for Comfort Quilters
-Bind both quilts for Comfort Quilters
-Kindle cover

Kindle Case

-Catch up on last week's block and this week's block for Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL
-Make a siggy block for Sunni as soon as my Kona White arrives in the mail
-Speaking of mail... I need to mail my block for the Beejeebers Bee
-Make a few other tid bits for Little Mister Lennon
-Something special for my sister's birthday (in progress)
-I Like To Learn flannel quilt
-1001 Peeps quilt

1001 Peeps

-Folksy Flannel Plus Quilt
-Brent's T-Shirt Quilt (yeck! Not looking forward to that one)
-Maya's Echo quilt

Maya's Echo Quilt

-Make at least one more Japanese x and + for the swap
-Finish knit maxi skirt
-Purse for Erika
-Purse for Ira
-Pillows for my mom's front room

Pillows

-Scrabble pot holders for my grandpa

Pot Holders

I think that rounds it out nicely. As you can see, lots to do and this list doesn't even include the quilt I'm making for Erika's wedding!!! Yeah. I already told her she'll be lucky to get it by Christmas!

I'm linking up.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Danny
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