Muppin

I used to work in the theatre. Like for real, a paying job in the theatre industry! This , of course, was WELL before my career in the comic book industry, which started in 1997.

I used to work for a children’s theatre company called Soupstone Productions. I was a little bit of everything to this company, and one of my jobs during the show was to run the lights.

Did I mention this was an old movie and vaudeville theatre built in 1919? It even had a Wurlitzer organ. But it’s lighting system has not changed since then and the old light board was hand cranked! I loved working here.

Charlie and I went to see a Christmas movie at the theatre and it brought back all the memories. I still remember climbing up in the rafters to that dome and adjusting those lights. And running the spotlight from the projection booth. And the basement dressing rooms. I still have dreams of this place and the shows there. (and this Christmas song makes me CRY every time…)

I rarely make a bed quilt. I mean it. It’s SUPER RARE. It’s not that I don’t have the ability. It’s just that my inclination for quilts is for art quilts. For the wall.

That’s why when I went on my retreat with Amy, I was super STOKED to be able to sleep under a quilt I made. The Skull Flake quilt is just at a twin size, so I was able to take it with me and sleep under it. My friend tells me that sleeping under your own quilt is good luck. I hope that it works!

So in October, when it looked like Quilt Market would not be going ahead, Charlie and I found ourselves freaking out.

We had a lot of new merchandise this year we wanted to get into the hands of quilt stores and others, but with no Market, we would not be in the same place as those shops. What were we gonna do?

The thing was, we had been compiling this great big list of stores across the USA by hand, and we thought we could just start reaching out to them ourselves and letting them know about our products and my classes.

But then we thought, what if we put together a virtual wholesale show to get a bunch of us in the same place, so shops could get a lot out of it. And when we started to do the research on it, we found a perfect platform.

That’s how we launched QuiltProConnection so quickly, and now we are telling all the shops about it! It is for those in the trade ONLY, and it’s only $10 to attend! Hurry and sign up if you are a shop!

It’s hard to explain, but this year the holiday seems EXTRA hard. Like expert level on the video game of life HARD.

That must be why decorating for the holiday just seems…. off?

So during the really warm days we have had this December (which just means January is going to be insanely cold), Charlie and I put up the wreaths that we put on each of our 11 front windows. Yes, we have 11, front windows.

These are the two outside my ironing station in my sewing studio.

I had sew much fun in 2021 designing and creating for our Heirloom Sewing Technique of the Month box. Twelve patterns in 12 months is a lot of work, and prepping the ideas and the merchandise for each box was a big project for us.

In the final installment, I made a bunch of holiday themed projects using the Yo yo!

I really enjoyed making these and getting the pattern done for this box!

If you are wondering when we are dropping the info for the 2022 series, stay tuned. We are changing it up a bit, and coordinating it with something new and exciting. My Heirloom followers will not want to miss it!