Kristin Laura

I love a challenge and always look forward to the president's annual challenge in my quilt guild.  It's a great opportunity to try new techniques (like my 2009 challenge quilt when I added Indian shisha mirrors and my husband's reaction was "really?").  As usual, this year's challenge started with the given fabric, to which my first reaction is always "yuck".  She gave us a kind flimsy red fabric with black swirls and a black and white mottled fabric.  We were told we could add 2 more fabrics, but unfortunately I missed the caveat that one had to be a primary color.  So as the week passed by, I went out and bought various red, white and black fabrics and thought up numerous designs.  When I finally sat down to work on my quilt, I reread the challenge instructions and noticed the primary color stipulation.  That changed everything!  What primary color will look good with red, white and black? After a little research ...

I was in a meeting the other day at work, and the subject was QR codes.  I was asked to write technical guidelines on how to use them in business.  As the meeting began, I pulled out my quilted covered notebook to take notes and one of my coworkers said "you could make a QR code quilt."  We all had a good laugh, and the meeting commenced. But the thought stuck in my mind.  For years, I have been saving 2-inch squares of batik fabric.  For some reason I decided that if a scrap of batik was big enough to get one or more 2-inch squares, I'd keep it.  I don't do this with any other fabric, just batiks.  These squares would be perfect for the QR code quilt, but what would happen when the QR code quilt is scanned?  I decided to use my web site address KristinLaura.com for the QR code.  Using a QR code generator, I produced a 29x29 grid of squares...that comes out to 841 shares!  No way am I going to piece together 841 2" squares, b...

For the past 10 or so years, I've done my quilting in my kitchen/dining room.  It was great while the kids were growing up because I could be cooking dinner, helping with homework and getting in a bit of sewing.  There is a great view of the swimming pool and the kitchen island is the perfect height for cutting and pressing. Storage is a bit lacking and it would be great to have a design wall, but I still managed to get projects done. Now the kids are all grown and in college, and it looks like I will be getting a bedroom to call my own in the spring. Stephanie's bedroom - my future quilt studio At least I know it will hold tons of stuff (in a chaotic fashion) Since I have time to plan, I've started the quest for the perfect space.  I've scoured the last few issues of  Studios magazine and lots of books on organizing your space.  At the moment, I'm leaning towards wire baskets for fabric storage.  (I just visited Ikea f...