Thursday, March 11, 2010

Project: Interview with Kim of True Up

Kim took this photo while buying fabric at the Fall Quilt Market

I'm so excited to have fellow writer Kim of the amazing True Up blog here for the Project: Project interview series, "Not the Same Five Questions." Kim is a fine enabler, crafter, and mom with a fabric stash to envy.

doesn't this look delicious?

You know a lot about fabrics and design. What is your background?

Thanks! I am self-taught in all the fabric stuff. My background is in linguistics and publishing -- right now I'm a contract speech pathologist. But I have always had something creative going on -- it was photography and then web design for a long time. I got into sewing about 10 years ago.

quilt project

You manage to strike a good balance between enabling and educating fabric addicts readers. Is that one of the goals of the blog?

Definitely! I'm glad you noticed. When I started out I not only wanted to spread the word about great new fabrics I came across, I also wanted to educate myself about the design process and about different types of fabrics.

great ebay fabric haul

One of my favorite posts was “The Great eBay Fabric Haul.” I even read all the comments. What projects came out of that stash?

Ahhh ... that was a great eBay win! That doesn't happen much any more -- too many collectors are clued in now. It was mostly scraps -- some of them found a way in to quilts, some I traded in swaps, but most of them are still hanging out in the stash!

vintage button find

Like many of your readers, you’re a mom. Does the blog allow you to work at home or do you have a day job?

It does allow me to stay home part-time. As I mentioned above I'm also a speech-language pathologist. I do that a few days a week while my mom and husband take turns caring for my 2 1/2 year old son.

beautiful decluttered stash

You mentioned something about surface design on your blog. Any secrets you care to spill?

I have secrets, but none I can spill! I have found that one of the biggest hurdles in creative life is option paralysis -- but I am thankful I have those options. I'll let you know when I figure it all out!

Thanks again to Kim for the honest and interesting answers. True Up is really important. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look especially at her Digital Fabric Printing Experiment. It's incredibly helpful. And I think I need a storage system like that for my fabric. It's so much better than my ugly plastic 3-drawer system.