I have decided it is time to get back to
Telling My Story!
I have so much to share about my work and my life.
I actually began this blog in 2011 but my most recent post was in 2015!
Oh, my!
Here are a few of my earliest posts to give you an idea of where I was seven years ago. You will discover in my newer posts just how far I have come since then! I am excited to share my current transition from full-time professional quilt pattern designer (starting in 2004) to laid-back designer, quilt artist, and author. (In other words, at the age of almost 73, I have decided to retire and "do my own thing".) If I manage to continue earning some money along the way, that will be icing on the cake.) I am curious to know where I will end up. I am certainly not taking this "growing older" thing lying down!
For those of you who do not know me yet, here is an interview I did for Quiltwoman.com (the publisher/distributor of my quilt book and patterns) in 2016:
This is enough to get you started catching up on my work and who I am. In future posts, I will catch you up all the way and move forward with where I am now!
Cary Flanagan
Something Sew Fine Quilt Design
Here are some excerpts from my very early blog posts:
For those of you who do not know me yet, here is an interview I did for Quiltwoman.com (the publisher/distributor of my quilt book and patterns) in 2016:
We love it that you have such a diverse and varied background. Tell us more about all the things you have done.
Yes – VERY diverse! I sometimes feel like I have lived a number of different lives, but that’s what keeps things interesting.
I have been designing and making things since I was little. I have tried about every craft imaginable. When I was in my early teens I became a designer of enamel, copper and silver jewelry. My dream was to become a famous professional jewelry designer and have my own shop. I began college as a music major and thought I wanted to become a professional musician (I played ‘cello for 12 years starting at age 9). I attended music camp for five summers in my teens. I sang in glee clubs and choirs. I was introduced to pottery making and continued my work in silver in the college art department. I joined an International Dance group on campus. I ended up majoring in Sociology and Anthropology and spent the summer before graduation working at an archeological dig in northern California. I spent the summer after graduation at the School for American Craftsmen in Rochester NY, focusing on silver-smithing and pottery. Whew – that was all before I turned 22!
I married a year after college and worked as a secretary (ugh) at MIT for several years. Then my husband lost his job as a biomedical engineer in the recession of 1970. We decided to join the “Back to the Land” movement of the early 1970 ’s and bought an antique colonial “fixer upper” in Bristol NH, doing all the renovations ourselves. We started a huge vegetable garden and planted young fruit trees. The locals thought we were hippies growing pot! (NOT) We were full-time professional potters, selling our work retail from our own shop in our barn and wholesale all over the country. We raised most of our own food, including raising pigs for several years. We did that for almost twelve years.
Eventually, the business began to take its toll on us physically (my aching back). It was a tough way to make a living, although we loved the lifestyle. After Ron was almost killed in a pile-up on black ice on the highway, we decided it was time to grow up and get “real” jobs. We sold the house and moved to our current home just east of Manchester NH. Ron got a good job as a stockbroker/financial planner and I worked various part-time jobs while going to graduate school. I received a Master’s degree in Counseling in 1987.
I worked at the Community Mental Health Center in Manchester for several years and then joined the staff at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Manchester. I was there for almost seventeen years. I loved the work but became thoroughly burnt out by the time I left in 2004. I have been running my own quilt design business ever since.
What got you started in quilt design?
I began making quilts around 1990 and joined a local quilt guild soon after (Amoskeag
Quilters Guild, Manchester NH.), where I am still a very active member. I became
Quilters Guild, Manchester NH.), where I am still a very active member. I became
Involved with making charity quilts as part of the guild’s programs. We would hold all day
workshops a couple times a year to make these quilts. Soon after leaving full-time
workshops a couple times a year to make these quilts. Soon after leaving full-time
work I designed a block cutting technique that made it possible to cut all the blocks for a quilt in very little time, ideal for charity quilts. It is what I now call a “stack,
cut and shuffle”design.I began teaching others in the guild how to make these blocks
and people started asking me to write up instructions so they could make them at
home. A light bulb went off in my head and that block became the basis for my very first commercial pattern, "Rule of Thirds”. I enjoyed the design process so much I just kept designing!
(True Confessions: I have no idea what happened to the formatting of this paragraph!)
cut and shuffle”design.I began teaching others in the guild how to make these blocks
and people started asking me to write up instructions so they could make them at
home. A light bulb went off in my head and that block became the basis for my very first commercial pattern, "Rule of Thirds”. I enjoyed the design process so much I just kept designing!
(True Confessions: I have no idea what happened to the formatting of this paragraph!)
In the past, you ran a pottery brick and mortar shop. When you started your quilting business what made you decide to work from home?
Both businesses were/are run from home. That is where my studio and office are. But I sell my patterns online through my own website and, of course, through www.quiltwoman.com. I have been with QW since the current owner, Nancy Dill bought the company, nine years ago. My designs sell all over the world because of her.
What do you wish someone had told you before you started quilting as a pastime?
Let me broaden that question. What I wish someone had told my husband and me before we became full-time potters, was how to separate our business lives from our personal lives. With the pottery studio covering most of the second floor of our house (with a morning commute of “just down the hall”), it was too easy to allow our professional and personal lives to become all one. That turned out to be a serious mistake.
Because of that experience, when I established my quilt design business I knew the importance of keeping my business and private lives separate as much as possible. You have to set some boundaries and priorities so that the business does not suck you in to the point of neglecting home and family.
Who taught you to quilt?
I am primarily self-taught but have read many quilt books and taken many classes/workshops over the past 20+ YEARS. I learned to sew very early from my mother and have made clothes, curtains, slip-covers and so on before I discovered quilt-making.
What are some of your favorite quilting tips? (our readers LOVE these)
I could easily repeat what some of the tips other featured designers have mentioned. Instead, I would like to urge anyone who does not already belong to a quilt guild, to join one. I have learned so much from my fellow quilters, not to mention making many really good friends. I have also been active in several board positions over the years, participated in many annual retreats (3-4 glorious days of no responsibilities other than to sew), and many charity programs with the guild. For the past three years, I have joined other guild members in making brightly colored and cheerful pillowcases for seriously ill children in several local and regional hospitals. Last year, as a group, we produced about 2500 pillowcases. Our goal for this year is 5,000 and we are well on our way, thanks to many individuals and quilt shops who donate fabric for the cause.
Being part of an active guild is one of the best things I ever did as a quilter. If you live in an area where there are no conveniently located guilds, start one yourself or join one or more online groups, of which there are dozens.
A lot of our readers tell us they have trouble finding more time to quilt. What advice would you give them?
This is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” responses. I am not nearly as organized or as disciplined as I would like to be. I have way too many interests and I become easily distracted. (True confessions).
So my advice is to get and stay as organized as possible (this is not to say you can’t have a messy studio – just don’t let the mess take over). Learn to stay focused. Make spending time in your studio (or wherever you sew/create) a priority, every day if possible. In my case, I am either sewing, or designing, or writing most of the day, but I also make time for my husband and mother-in-law, (who turned 100 years old in March), and, of course, my friends and family. We have two dogs that we love and both of us enjoy going on long walks or playing with them every day. I also love gardening, reading for pleasure and for research, and so much more!
I am currently working on my first novel and hope to get that published in June or July of this year (2015), so that has been my primary focus for the last few months. The story is about a quilt maker growing up in the last half of the 19th and early 20th century in a small village in NH. Not coincidentally, the protagonist, Hannah, becomes possibly the first quilt pattern designer in New England and develops a successful mail order pattern business.
I am already planning a companion book which will showcase a variety of quilts that might have been made by Hannah and members of her Quilting Bee, along with diagrams and instructions for making these quilts.
One other tip – allow yourself time to do nothing, if that is what you feel like doing. Or do something for the sheer fun of it. I highly recommend it. As I get older I am letting go of the need to “do it all”.
https://www.facebook.com/SomethingSewFine.QuiltDesign
Visit my website: www.somethingsewfine.com
This is enough to get you started catching up on my work and who I am. In future posts, I will catch you up all the way and move forward with where I am now!
Cary Flanagan
Something Sew Fine Quilt Design
Here are some excerpts from my very early blog posts:
Monday, October 31, 2011
Greetings, fellow quilters and quilt enthusiasts -
I have finally succumbed to blogging as a way to communicate with anyone interested in my evolution as a quilt designer. I plan to blog about new quilt patterns in development or ready to market, new connections and alliances with other designers, fabric companies, publishing houses and quilt magazines and any other adventurous avenues I may pursue as I move forward in my career as a quilt designer and author.
I have just returned from several days in Houston at the biennial International Quilt Market and have lots to tell. Watch for details in upcoming posts.
As I write this, we still have no electricity following a major VERY early snowstorm in the northeast. Thank goodness we have a generator! We had no connection to the Internet until about an hour ago, but that has returned, so I can indulge my passion for staying connected. (I could go into pretty serious withdrawal without the Internet!)
I hope you are doing OK. Stay in touch. Would love to hear about what you are working on.
Cary Flanagan
Golly - I am so embarrassed! I knew it had been a long time since I last posted in my blog, but I recently discovered it has actually been almost a YEAR!! So I have set a goal (I am not into resolutions - just too hard to keep) to post at least once a month to talk about my new designs and my creative process.
So here goes on January 2nd in a new year.
This past year was kind of strange for me. I had a number of "dry spells" in which I felt blocked or stuck. I know it happens to everybody sometimes but I felt like it was happening to me a lot, and it was discouraging. I have learned, however, that at such times it helps to walk away from whatever is immobilizing me and set off in a different direction for a while. It usually works pretty well. Here are some of the things I accomplished since I last wrote in between my dry spells.
During the waning months of last winter, I was going great guns on a quilt for my youngest great-nephew and was having a really good time working on it. He had explicitly asked me for very bright colors - "bright red, bright orange, bright yellow and some blue", he announced when he was nine. So I had been collecting the brightest and most fun of all those colors and started working on the quilt while it was bitter cold and snowy outside. His quilt kept me toasty warm with all that brightness! When I presented the quilt to him last summer when he came with his family to our summer place in the White Mountains, he loved it! That was the best part for me, though, to be honest, I really hated to give it up. I just LOVED that quilt!
A few months ago, I began working on a novel that I have been thinking about off and on for years. It is about a young woman growing up in rural NH in the 19th century. She becomes an accomplished quilter and tells the story of her life to one of her granddaughters. I have been interested for years in my own family's history and this story contains many elements from my own and my family's stories of the past. I have been having fun researching life in the late 1800's in the small town near where my family has been summering since way before I was born.
I love the story and the characters I have created, and whether or not the book ever gets published is kind of beside the point right now. It may take me years to finish, but meanwhile I am enjoying living with my characters and the process of creating their personalities and the events which help to shape them. The writing part is a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I enjoy that part of the process also.
I did manage to design a new placemat pattern and get it published in the spring, but I got stuck with most of my other ideas as the year progressed. November and December were the hardest time for me. I always get depressed around the holidays since my family is so scattered. My DH and I decided to give gifts to several important charities this year instead of buying into the commercialism of Christmas and that made both of us feel more of the true meaning of the holidays.
Not too surprisingly, right after Christmas my creative energy came back in full force and I am hard at work designing and making several more quilting projects that should result in at least three new patterns in just a few weeks.
Watch for several photos next time and updates on my new projects.
Have a Happy, Healthy, Creative and Prosperous New Year!
.If you read through my earlier posts you will quickly discover I am not very good at keeping to a schedule on my blog! There are so many aspects of living the Creative Life That I am easily sidetracked. Oh well - I will try to catch up here and then on to some new and exciting things in my next post.
Most of this past year has been taken up by researching and writing my novel - After The Storm. This is a story of a courageous 19th-century quilter who faces and overcomes many challenges in her life. I have really enjoyed every aspect of working on this book until the last part where I have been bogged done in the editing and finishing details. Being a complete newbie at writing a novel I had no idea what to expect, but finishing and letting go of my manuscript has proven SO much harder than I anticipated! I flip-flop back and forth between thinking it is a really interesting, well-written story AND thinking it is a piece of you know what. By holding onto my manuscript and not allowing it to continue through the publication process, I guess I am holding off on the inevitable - finding out how my book is actually received once published and distributed.
Luckily I have discovered that almost every new author (and even some that are well established), feel exactly as I do before their books reach the public. Only those who are so self-confident as to verge on arrogance do not shake in their shoes before their book is published. Knowing that makes me feel much better!
At any rate, I have been consumed for much of the year finishing writing and editing my novel. (How do you know when you have really finished writing?? Ideas keep coming, I add a new story-line or more details...) I do hope I can send it off to the publisher for the final steps soon. Will keep you posted.
I am about to embark on a new project - actually two: I am planning a companion book to my novel which will include quilt projects and complete instructions related to the novel. I am being deliberately vague since this is still in the early stages of development. Related to this - I volunteered to be in charge of Block of the Month for my guild for 2015-2016 and I am opening up this same BOM to my FaceBook friends. It should be a lot of fun - Stay tuned for more details, coming SOON!
As if all of this was not enough, my DH and I are in the midst of planning a major renovation of our house (tearing down and moving walls, a totally new bathroom, and upstairs laundry) One result will be a much larger studio for me! Hooray!
I am bursting with creative energy - just have to learn to channel it better.
I have finally succumbed to blogging as a way to communicate with anyone interested in my evolution as a quilt designer. I plan to blog about new quilt patterns in development or ready to market, new connections and alliances with other designers, fabric companies, publishing houses and quilt magazines and any other adventurous avenues I may pursue as I move forward in my career as a quilt designer and author.
I have just returned from several days in Houston at the biennial International Quilt Market and have lots to tell. Watch for details in upcoming posts.
As I write this, we still have no electricity following a major VERY early snowstorm in the northeast. Thank goodness we have a generator! We had no connection to the Internet until about an hour ago, but that has returned, so I can indulge my passion for staying connected. (I could go into pretty serious withdrawal without the Internet!)
I hope you are doing OK. Stay in touch. Would love to hear about what you are working on.
Cary Flanagan
Details, Details...
One of the things I enjoy most when I go to a big show like the International Quilt Market (and there are many), is studying the incredible quilts that are on display from all over the world. I take lots of photos and especially enjoy looking at the details - the techniques and "hidden" details that really make the design sing (or shout or cry or whisper) to the viewer.
I have posted a few details that "spoke" to me - simple background blocks or startling new ways to set a very traditional block into something totally new. I love color, texture, "surprises" - I learn so much everytime I view the work of others, especially masters such as those at Market. I could easily post hundreds of such photos but will stick with these few for now. More later.
What do you enjoy most about attending a quilt show featuring so much creative and artistic talent?
Everywhere you go, try to see everything around you with new eyes. (And bring your camera!)
Cary
I have posted a few details that "spoke" to me - simple background blocks or startling new ways to set a very traditional block into something totally new. I love color, texture, "surprises" - I learn so much everytime I view the work of others, especially masters such as those at Market. I could easily post hundreds of such photos but will stick with these few for now. More later.
What do you enjoy most about attending a quilt show featuring so much creative and artistic talent?
Everywhere you go, try to see everything around you with new eyes. (And bring your camera!)
Cary
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Golly - I am so embarrassed! I knew it had been a long time since I last posted in my blog, but I recently discovered it has actually been almost a YEAR!! So I have set a goal (I am not into resolutions - just too hard to keep) to post at least once a month to talk about my new designs and my creative process.
So here goes on January 2nd in a new year.
This past year was kind of strange for me. I had a number of "dry spells" in which I felt blocked or stuck. I know it happens to everybody sometimes but I felt like it was happening to me a lot, and it was discouraging. I have learned, however, that at such times it helps to walk away from whatever is immobilizing me and set off in a different direction for a while. It usually works pretty well. Here are some of the things I accomplished since I last wrote in between my dry spells.
During the waning months of last winter, I was going great guns on a quilt for my youngest great-nephew and was having a really good time working on it. He had explicitly asked me for very bright colors - "bright red, bright orange, bright yellow and some blue", he announced when he was nine. So I had been collecting the brightest and most fun of all those colors and started working on the quilt while it was bitter cold and snowy outside. His quilt kept me toasty warm with all that brightness! When I presented the quilt to him last summer when he came with his family to our summer place in the White Mountains, he loved it! That was the best part for me, though, to be honest, I really hated to give it up. I just LOVED that quilt!
A few months ago, I began working on a novel that I have been thinking about off and on for years. It is about a young woman growing up in rural NH in the 19th century. She becomes an accomplished quilter and tells the story of her life to one of her granddaughters. I have been interested for years in my own family's history and this story contains many elements from my own and my family's stories of the past. I have been having fun researching life in the late 1800's in the small town near where my family has been summering since way before I was born.
I love the story and the characters I have created, and whether or not the book ever gets published is kind of beside the point right now. It may take me years to finish, but meanwhile I am enjoying living with my characters and the process of creating their personalities and the events which help to shape them. The writing part is a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I enjoy that part of the process also.
I did manage to design a new placemat pattern and get it published in the spring, but I got stuck with most of my other ideas as the year progressed. November and December were the hardest time for me. I always get depressed around the holidays since my family is so scattered. My DH and I decided to give gifts to several important charities this year instead of buying into the commercialism of Christmas and that made both of us feel more of the true meaning of the holidays.
Not too surprisingly, right after Christmas my creative energy came back in full force and I am hard at work designing and making several more quilting projects that should result in at least three new patterns in just a few weeks.
Watch for several photos next time and updates on my new projects.
Have a Happy, Healthy, Creative and Prosperous New Year!
2014 One of the things I have enjoyed most this past year is visiting Pinterest and collecting images of many kinds. I also post images to share with others. I have almost 2500 pins now and it is a fabulous collection of everything that interests me, inspires me, makes me feel good or just provides eye candy! What is not to like about that?
My own quilts are posted of course, along with quilts that other people have made from my designs. I also have lots of pins of quilts that other people have made which I think are wonderful. I have inspirations for updating my home, garden and studio when I get the funds to do so, lots of images of fabulous places in the world I will most likely never visit, not to mention great recipes and food ideas! I have also been collecting photos of antique quilts and 19th century clothing as research for my book. And of course, I have photos of my canine best friends and other animals who give and receive love as if they were human (oh, go ahead and laugh! I am such a softy).
I guess my point is that inspiration and creative energy can be developed almost anywhere and it helps (at least for me) to have concrete reminders of what some of those inspirations are. Please visit me at::
hyyp//www.pinterest.com/caryflanagan/ to see what I have collected and posted.
Please Note: as of June 2018 I have 110 Boards on Pinterest, 14,507 pins and 3,147 followers! I LOVE Pinterest! I Know - lots of people laugh at Pinterest as being a major time sucker, but it is an important design resource for me.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
.If you read through my earlier posts you will quickly discover I am not very good at keeping to a schedule on my blog! There are so many aspects of living the Creative Life That I am easily sidetracked. Oh well - I will try to catch up here and then on to some new and exciting things in my next post.
Most of this past year has been taken up by researching and writing my novel - After The Storm. This is a story of a courageous 19th-century quilter who faces and overcomes many challenges in her life. I have really enjoyed every aspect of working on this book until the last part where I have been bogged done in the editing and finishing details. Being a complete newbie at writing a novel I had no idea what to expect, but finishing and letting go of my manuscript has proven SO much harder than I anticipated! I flip-flop back and forth between thinking it is a really interesting, well-written story AND thinking it is a piece of you know what. By holding onto my manuscript and not allowing it to continue through the publication process, I guess I am holding off on the inevitable - finding out how my book is actually received once published and distributed.
Luckily I have discovered that almost every new author (and even some that are well established), feel exactly as I do before their books reach the public. Only those who are so self-confident as to verge on arrogance do not shake in their shoes before their book is published. Knowing that makes me feel much better!
At any rate, I have been consumed for much of the year finishing writing and editing my novel. (How do you know when you have really finished writing?? Ideas keep coming, I add a new story-line or more details...) I do hope I can send it off to the publisher for the final steps soon. Will keep you posted.
I am about to embark on a new project - actually two: I am planning a companion book to my novel which will include quilt projects and complete instructions related to the novel. I am being deliberately vague since this is still in the early stages of development. Related to this - I volunteered to be in charge of Block of the Month for my guild for 2015-2016 and I am opening up this same BOM to my FaceBook friends. It should be a lot of fun - Stay tuned for more details, coming SOON!
As if all of this was not enough, my DH and I are in the midst of planning a major renovation of our house (tearing down and moving walls, a totally new bathroom, and upstairs laundry) One result will be a much larger studio for me! Hooray!
I am bursting with creative energy - just have to learn to channel it better.
No comments:
Post a Comment