iPhone-o-Gram! Hello, Atlanta!!

We've made it this far! Next stop--Anchorage!

I am deep into hexagon mode--we've got movies on the iPad for the long flight--grabbed a bite to eat here in the airport, I'll stitch and snooze my way to Alaska.

How many hexies can one girl stitch between Greensboro and Atlanta? Nine!! How many more between Atlanta and Anchorage??!! A lot!!

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Show & Share in Hershey, Day 2!

We are loading up the car with baggage and quilts here in North Carolina this morning. 

There is a rumble and a grumble as The Hubster announced that two exit rows were available, and we should both get online and get them so we could sit together with the comfort of a bit more leg room from Atlanta to Anchorage.

I got MY seat – and at the last second, someone sniped him out of his…LOL!

So now we are sitting in opposite exit rows both with middle seats and he is not a happy camper…hehehe. Maybe someone will take pity on him and switch – but no one who PAYS for an exit seat wants the middle one.  There are window people, and there are aisle people, and neither would be happy with trading for a middle seat in the row across….so we will see how it goes.

Here is the show & share from our second day at Quilt Odyssey – I was so tickled to see this gorgeous BowDacious quilt!  There is a ton of piecing in this one ---and I am teaching this one up in Alaska this week, so how great is this?

I wasn’t in a great position to get the whole quilt straight on, but isn’t it lovely?

Bowdacious is found in Adventures with Leaders & Enders.

I previously taught a crumbs workshop here ---and this one is done and ready!

All of the crumby tutorials are up there under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.

Another Smith Mountain Morning makes an appearance!

This is such a fun quilt to make – it all came directly out of my Scrap User’s System….1.5” strips, 2” strips, 3.5” strips ---and a whole lot of yummy fabrics!  Smith Mountain Morning is found in Scraps & Shirttails II.

We will be heading out to the airport shortly ---let the fun begin ((an aisle apart with two middle seats..lol!))  I’ve got my hexies, my audio books, I’m loading a couple of movies onto my kindle fire…and I’ll be blissfully sewing my way to AK!

Tomorrow morning I’ve already written a post ahead as I’ll be 4 hours behind on the time zone scale ---come back and check, it’s a GIVEAWAY, folks!

This video is for DH who has been humming this song all morning!  MUSH, Y’all!

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Quilt Cam Rain Check!

You guys pegged it before I did.   I honestly thought I could get it ALL DONE today and still have the energy to do Quilt Cam tonight at 9pm.
I really wanted to.  I'm aching to sew...but I'm still not ready to leave for Alaska in the morning, and I'm going to have to get to bed early so that I can get UP in the morning.
It's going to be one of those days tomorrow...we don't get into Anchorage until after 7:30pm Anchorage time...which will be about 1:00 am North Carolina time.
I hope you will understand that though the mind is willing for Quilt-Cam, the body still has much to do to be ready and it just can't fit in with my life today.   I am happy to report that all the book orders that came in while I was away in Pennsylvania have been filled and dropped at the post office.  I've taken care of bank stuff, I've been to Fedex, I've washed clothes and taken care of much email and internet stuff dealing with my online calendar.  I am out of gas!
I get home on Tuesday morning, Aug 6th...taking a Red Eye flight home Monday night.  Mickey Depre arrives on Thursday Aug 8th and Collaboration Celebration will be in full swing.
If I can fight back the jet lag -- let's shoot for Wednesday night, August 7th after I've had 24 hours home from Alaskan August Adventure #1.
I wish I could do better ---but I can only do what I can only do!

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Hello, Husqvarna!

I swear – I didn’t mean to do this…but I mean, really – could you?

I didn’t have a Husqvarna in my collection, and I Have heard such good things about them ----so when I got a message back on a machine I had inquired about weeks ago as still being available, and would I like to come and see it ---I grabbed my purse and off I went!

So much for not coming home with any machines during the trip to Pennsylvania – turns out this one was waiting for me near home :c)

This is before they were called “Viking/Husqvarna” and as you can see, it was made in Sweden, and sold through Canadian distributors in Montreal.

This baby had a long way to go before ending up in North Carolina!

Here she is!  She needs a Nordic Princess name, don’t you think?

I haven’t looked up the serial number, but by the case, the matte finish, the chrome and body style, I’m guessing 1950s.

She weighs half a ton, all sold metal.  She takes a regular class 15 bobbin and bobbin case which are present, and you can tell by the badge plate at the top of this post that she takes a standard 15X1 needle.  These are GREAT features since I don’t like to have to search for specialty needles and expensive parts..I want her up and ready to sew!

She needs a new belt – we will take care of that shortly ---but probably not until after Alaska #1 and Alaska #2 with Collaboration Celebration in between.

I also took 5 minutes while the laundry was drying in between today’s other errands to take care of THIS thanks to parts that arrived in the mail while I was gone:

Thread guides make a difference!

Ugly Betty is now sewing perfectly!!  YAY BETTY!!!

I am off to run to Fedex, the bank, the post office and fill the car with gas ---I’ll come home and start packing the trunk show and luggage for Alaska.  If I make good use of my time we may be having Quilt-Cam tonight – check back at 6pm eastern and I’ll let you know for sure, and don’t hang me if it doesn’t work out that way, I’m really trying to get it all done…

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Show & Share in Hershey -Day 1

We had such great show & share after lunch during my classes in Hershey –these quilters KNOW I love to see what they've been up to, either on quilts from previous classes they have taken with me, or projects they've worked on from books or mysteries –we all found ourselves re-energized and ready to create and sew after viewing the lovely quilts these ladies made.

I may be good with faces, and remembering where people are from, but I am completely bad with names and I can’t help it when I had over 100 students during the course of the show, so they will just have to forgive me –there is not time to document and take notes while snapping pictures as furiously as I could so we could get sewing again!

These photos are a compilation of all the show and share from Day 1.  There are so many wonderful quilts it will take me a few posts to share them all.

Isn’t this Smith Mountain Morning great?  I taught this here last year,  and we had such a great time.  The two sweet gals here are from Maryland, and they were insane enough to take classes with me again this year!

Smith Mountain Morning is found in Scraps & Shirttails II HERE.

Amish Crab Apples!

Another Marylander!  She used Amish solids to recreate Crab Apples from Adventures with Leaders & Enders, another class taught here in Hershey. I love how her checkerboard tree tops and border just sparkle!  A really great quilt with a lot of eye-appeal!

Pineapple Blossom variation….this is so graphic!

The gold and brown fabrics just radiate –and her use of one fabric as the sashings gives a window pane effect.  Pineapple Blossom is found under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.  Have you made one?

Tumalo Trail!  GREAT colors!  Also found in Scraps & Shirttails II.

Star Struck #1  love the pale blue and brown fabrics….YUMMY!

Star Struck #2!  Those Maryland girls are dynamos!

Star Struck is also found under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.

Blue Ridge Beauty GORGEOUS!

Any quilt set ‘Barn Raising” captures my heart…I love this one!  Blue Ridge Beauty is also from Adventures With Leaders & Enders.

Dancing Nine-Patch is a new addition to our free patterns tab! 

This will be a sweet baby quilt when it is finished – the fabrics are really fun and scrappy, and the yellow sashing and borders perfectly cheery!

We had several easy streets over the course of the weekend ---all of them beautiful!

Easy Street was last year’s mystery and has been retired for inclusion in my next book, More Adventures with Leaders & Enders is due out this coming spring 2014.  Can’t wait!

Easy Street in different colors!  Wow!

It’s an honor and a treat to have these ladies bring their quilts and tops to share with me and the others in the class.  They all did such a terrific job and it inspires me so much!

Okay, this is a crazy run around day – leaving tomorrow morning for Alaska, and there are a 101 must-do’s on my list.

IF –and this is a BIG IF.  IF I can get them all done by a decent hour, I will try to do Quilt-Cam tonight at 9pm Eastern.

I will post this evening at 6pm Eastern IF this is definitely going to be a go or not….I hope you understand why.   I’d love to do it, but first things first ---so check back with me later!

Busy Busy!

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Slim Pickin’s!

I’m home…..but man am I brain dead!

I left Hershey about 7:30am this morning, and rolled in to my own driveway in Winston Salem, NC at 3:30pm – the only stops I made were for gas, restroom, and a quick pick me up of a caramel sundae and a large unsweet iced tea with lemon from a Mc Donalds on the way home….

I was a girl on a mission!  Get here as quickly as possible, don’t dawdle, there is so much stuff to do to get ready for Alaska!

First priority on the agenda?  A three hour nap so I had the energy to WANT to unload Shamu who contained all of the pieces parts and detritus of 10 days on the road.

All of which is now piled in my living room for sorting, putting away, washing and repacking for Alaska on Wednesday morning.

I spent last night making sure my traveling hexi busy bag is stocked with the colors of hexies I need for two nearly back to back trips to Alaska.  There will be plenty of airplane stitching and sleeping time there.

This was the WEIRDEST road trip of all times in the antiquing department.  Talk about SLIM PICKIN’S!  There were no really outstanding antique quilts, and the machines were few and hard to find….and PRICY!

NO machines came home with me this trip – ((I’m rather proud of myself over this fact – even though it was not due to my own restraint, but lack of candidates in the machine-adoption department!))

But there were some heart warming well loved and used examples of ordinary every day quilts that have stood the test of time, their softness and sweet fabrics beckoning to be touched and petted, reminiscent of the time period when they were created….imagine this quilter putting in the last stitches in the binding on this sweet large 9 patch quilt out of dress fabrics:

The lovely soft 1930s prints from the scrap bag, the painstaking cross hatch quilting design being the one thing that has helped this quilt to survive over the past 80 or so years.  I love the simplicity of it!  Who’s bed did it grace?  Who’s dreams did it keep secret watch over?

A very rather offset Grandmother’s Flower Garden….

Several different pinks were used to surround each hexie rosette. Was this intentional?  I can see at least 3 different pinks on this quilt….was it what she had on hand?  Did she get so tired of this quilt that she decided just to NOT put a path in…and assembled them as is?

Sweet 1930s fabrics again, prints and solids with stripes that go any which way they desire!

Red and white Log Cabin!

While photographing the quilt, I noticed there was more than one red…..but I didn’t even notice until inserting the photo into this post that those lighter reds are strategically placed down the center panel!  Wouldn’t you like to pick this quilter’s brain?

Borders on just the long sides only make this quilt wide enough to fit wherever it was going to live…….isn’t it fun to speculate?

Humble Shoo-flies and stars over a cupboard door.

Every day ordinary quilts meant to keep those the quilter loved warm and wrapped in love.  Not all quilts need to be destined for Houston or Paducah --- Some receive a more valuable prize for the comfort they bring.

1930’s –1940s Poppy Applique…

This was a large medallion quilt, with no where to spread it out.  I looked to see if there were the infamous “blue dots” that would show that this was a “kit quilt” from that time period, but the lighting wasn’t good enough …..Very skilled stitches, and delicate embroidered details:

Someone loved sitting and executing very delicate details on on this beauty…see the little stitches on the leaves, the stems, the flower centers?

Graphic 9 patch on point, with a periwinkle star alternate block.

The blue in this one is the only print – everything else is a solid, and I’m guessing 1950s…..it’s all cotton, and just didn’t ring 1960s or later to me..but I could be wrong.  It’s hard with solid fabrics, especially red to know.  But how great this would look in a boys room in that time period!

The pickin’s may have been slim, but it was still worth it to wander and wonder and appreciate all the hours that went into these….I do believe there is real beauty in simplicity!

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Pfeffernüsse, Round Two!

Yesterday our second group of Pfeffernüssers joined together for a day of sewing up the strips, strings and quarter square triangles.

This is Charlotte’s block – and I absolutely love the colors she’s chosen! turquoises and limes and my favorite – ORANGE!!  And those fabulous black and whites that I can’t get enough of lately – all create a beautiful mosaic of FUN!

It’s so satisfying to watch quilter’s own personalities come through in the fabrics and colors they choose for their quilts.

I heard a lady say “I wanted to take this class, but I don’t like brown.”

AND?!?  What’s to stop you from doing it any OTHER color under the rainbow?

To me a quilt pattern is like a recipe – how many of us make chocolate chip cookies ---many.  But I bet you do yours slightly different than mine – maybe you add walnuts, or some add cinnamon or something else.  Do it your way!  Just use the pattern as the recipe to give you the guidelines for the design – but do it your way!

I just love how the triangles dance on this one….such a fun quilt!  You can find it in my book String Fling, and you can order a signed copy from me directly HERE.

My time at Hershey was good to the last drop.  In fact Missy came by to talk to me about coming back, and we checked my calendar to book it…..the soonest I have available is July 2018!  But we are putting it on the calendar ---hard to believe that’s 5 years from now.

And, oh, yeah!!

If any of your pins have gone missing….I know where they’ve run away to!!  This pin cushion may be the reason for the global pin shortage we seem to be experiencing! LOL!

Click the image below if you can’t view the slide show on your mobile device.  It will take you directly to the photo album.

Pfeffernusse #2, Hershey PA 2013

I'm packing up the car and heading home this morning. A long drive home to Winston-Salem, NC -- Tomorrow I pack for Alaska, get caught up on the book orders that have come in while I've been in Pennsylvania, and Wednesdasy -- Alaska, Here I Come!


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iPhone-o-Gram! Stringing again!!

It's the second go round of the pfeffernusse class at quilt odyssey in Hershey Pennsylvania!

The demand was so great, we had to offer it a second time :-)

Which means – there are a whole lot of Quilters with a lot of scraps to sew up :-)

Take a look at a couple of vintage beauties in class today – we have a black 1951 singer 301A, and a 1949 singer 201 -2!

Both of these beauties are keeping up the pace, right alongside their more modern contemporaries.

Hard to believe that quilt odyssey is almost over, it's been a great year and the time has flown by so quickly :-)

Check out the block with the Hershey Kisses--perfect memory of a weekend spent at "The Sweetest Place on Earth!"

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Jamestown Landing Day in Hershey PA!

Troopers, everyone!

There was not a slacker in the bunch as we spent the morning working on the alternate string blocks and went full force into the afternoon session of working on half square triangles using the Easy Angle ruler!

Of course, if someone has another favorite method they are welcome to use it.

What matters is that your units measure the size they are supposed to measure before they are sewn into the block.

And get those dog ears trimmed off of there!

Do you check your unit size after sewing a seam?  Try it.  It might surprise you.  If it is too small, your seam allowance has got to skinny down a bit.  If your units are too big and you are constantly sliver trimming down….fatten that seam up just a hair.  Do whatever it is you need to do to save yourself valuable time – and headaches along the way.

Jamestown landing has 840 half square triangles.  ((But who’s counting?!?)) Do you REALLY want to sew big and sliver trim down 840 units?

People always ask me how I get so much done….not  having to spend hours sliver trimming is one of those helps that means more productivity for me.

As a special treat, a former student from my visit in April brought her completed Jamestown Landing top to share, and let us borrow it during class time as inspiration on a different color way…take a look at this:

Red Background!

Close up!

This became a bit of a design wall project, as some red/blue half square triangles were required along with blue/white units to make the red string path continuous….what a neat effect!

Jamestown Landing in blue/neutral

((Okay, this looks really boring to me now! LOL!))

Of course, Jamestown Landing is featured in my book String Fling, and you can order a signed copy from me HERE.

Great fun slide show of student activity – it was a really nice day ---if you can’t view the slide show on your mobile device, click the image below to be taken directly to the photo album.

Jamestown Landing, Hershey, PA 2013

Day Four is about to begin -- and it's POUNDING RAIN outside!  And -- guess where my display quilt is? IN MY CAR!  I put it there after Show and Tell last night because I didn't have the key to unlock my class room on me....thinking I would just pick it up on the way to class.

Guess who is about to get drenched?!

It's only water -- I won't melt ---and we will wrap up Quilt Odyssey 2013 with a bang...


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