I have loved spending 3 days in the Columbus, Ohio area, catching up with folks I’ve met before, meeting new ones, and even hugging some surprise visitors who never let me know they were coming – Debi, all the way from Bloomington, Illinois!
I tell you what, every day is an adventure, and I do wake up in the morning just wondering what treasures each new day is going to present to me.
It’s really true, whatever you look for, you will find.
The Tropical Twist pattern found its way into Quiltmaker Magazine somewhere around 2009 I believe. And it sat in my closet until the Addicted to Scraps book came along. A cross between Star Struck and Weed Whacker, it’s a super sized very easy quilt that packs a lot of punch. And punch it up we did!
Two back to back days of the same workshop filled to overflowing with two local guilds!
My time in Ohio is being hosted by the Common Threads and Quintessential Quilters both of the Columbus area, and they have streamlined this visit to minimize my travel and optimize our time together by having me give a joint guild presentation on Tuesday evening, and giving a Tropical Twist workshop two days in a row, one for each guild.
Even better, I get to stay in one place without having to schlep from one hotel to another, and the workshop location is even the same and very close by!
Because this is two workshop days of the same quilt, I’ll be doing a big combined post of our days when I get home, so today you are just going to get a few teasers!
My “beeline” home from Virginia on Monday took a circuitous route. Or at least a bit of an adventurous one.
I was following my GPS even though I “pretty much” knew where my turns would be – but a sign I’d passed before a few times caught my eye and begged me to “GO SEE!” instead.
Cox Chapel, the sign read. And I turned.
I found myself on a winding narrow country road, not really sure if I was still in Virginia, or had crossed over into North Carolina territory. Nothing said so. It looks pretty much the same on either side of the state line, and I kept driving.
The road was so empty that I pulled to a stop right there, putting the van in park, and got out to snap this photo.
I love barns. I love barns more when they are sporting weathered barn quilts.
I got back in the car and drove some more.
I never did find Cox Chapel! I must have missed a turn off somewhere, or there was a missing road sign, but I did come across this lonely old abandoned farm house:
I’m at the airport ready to head off to Ohio this morning bright and early.
I spent yesterday in a blur – driving home from Virginia, getting 125 orders out the door (More than half were dropped at the post office yesterday, the rest will be taken in today thanks to family help.) packing up the trunk show quilts, doing some laundry, re-packing my suitcase and getting ready to go.
While I was gone to California a couple copies of Quiltmaker’s Reader Favorites arrived on my doorstep.
I didn’t get a chance to even sit down and thumb through them until last night!
This is a very quick post. I just arrived home from Quilt Villa, Virginia to a HUGE stack of boxes and mail and other goodies that have been delivered while I was away for the long weekend.
Our drawing time last night was interrupted by a raucous round of FARKLE with friends Rick & Mona after a wonderful meal, lots of visiting and catching up,
It had been MONTHS since we had been able to get together since we now live an hour apart.
Beanie and Sadie, reunited!!
“Why are we stuck out on the porch, Mom??” Because it was a beautiful day and you had all of the comforts of dogdom out there at your paw-tips.
The BBQ pot roast had been cooking all day in the crock pot. Roasted red potatoes, carrots and onions were baking in the oven, corn on the cob was being prepared, with fresh watermelon on the side. Cake had been baked to be served with sliced strawberries for dessert all while the guys were outside handling this:
4 walls up! Siding going on!
3 men, 4 walls and a bunch of power tools.
It was a happy sound on the mountain!
And there is more to share, but considering all of this activity and the fact that I skunked EVERYONE in a master round of Farkle leaving them in the dust - there is little need to explain why a drawing last night was relocated to this morning!
We’ll get that drawing done NOW!
To learn more about this box and its contents, visit the original gift-away post HERE.
Congrats, Betsy. I’ve sent you an email. Please get back to me with your snail mail address and we’ll have the folks at Quilty Box get this sweet package off to you. Thank you for participating!
There will be a July Quilty Box Gift-Away happening within the next few weeks.
About Quilty Box:
Quilty Box is a monthly subscription box of fun quilting supplies. We offer plans from $44-48/mo.
5% of the profits of multi-month subscriptions are donated to Quilts for Kids - a non-profit which donates quilts for children in need
Each month we have 4 or more products (fabric, patterns, thread, or notions)
Our retail value of the products in the box is always more than $60
July's Quilty Box Featured Artist will be Allison Harris from Cluck Cluck Sew.
The next Quilty Box will ship around July 11th. Subscribers will need to purchase before July 10th to receive this shipment.
We will be using the hashtags #QuiltyBox and #GetQuilty
Your support is appreciated. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me.
Get Quilty!
Patrick Claytor, CEO patrick@quiltybox.com QuiltyBox.com
I love knowing that part of the proceeds go to benefit kids. To me that is a win/win all the way around!
We are loving June on the Mountain. The first tie we saw this cabin was in the depths of December. Watching the surroundings change with the changing of the seasons has been a beautiful experience of awareness. Every time I come up here, things are just a bit different.
You know what else June brings? Mamas and babies! Check out the scenes caught on our trail cam:
These photos had us going "Awww!" to "Oh, my" and "WHAT?!?"
Sweet!
Wow! (in the velvet phase!)
"Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!" *Singing*
My plan was to leave here this evening, but I just can’t make myself go. One more night. I’ll go home in the morning.
Quiltville Quote of the Day!
Vintage double-knit polyester quilt shared by Sherry.
When you start believing in your own worth, what other people think really doesn't matter. You are of infinite worth, just as you are.
While I’ve been busy stitching up projects-with-deadlines, some other must-be-fixed items on the cabin to-do list have been crossed off.
Remember the tale of the haunted fans that would go on and off at will, with the fans ONLY capable of running on TURBO? We found a wonderful electrician/plumber through our realtor and he came out yesterday to help get this funny situation solved.
The fan over the living area also needed a light, so we switched the old ones out for new ones, and they are wired so we can take care of fan/light with old school pull chains to determine which speed the fan needs to be running at, and whether or not the lights will be on or off at any given moment. Easy. Effective. And best of all, DONE!
A 3rd light kit was added to the ceiling fan in the loft area which has become office space which also includes my treadle machine and a couple of comfy chairs for reading.
As the construction debris was being put away at the end of this fan-dango, son Jeff arrived!
Which is a good thing when you think about it – if you are down to the borders, you are almost done with the top, and I’m seeing progress in all 3 areas.
After leaving our last Jamestown Landing workshop with the Orange Grove Quilters, we made a quick stop on our way to LAX to visit Janet and her vintage machine collection!
In photo left to right: Janet, Alice and Debi!
Janet has been interested in vintage sewing machines LONGER than she has been a quilter. In fact, she has started quilting only just recently after meeting Debi online via a Facebook vintage machine lover’s group. After watching each other’s posts for a while, Debi discovered that they lived in the same vicinity and suggested a meet up so they could get to know each other in person.
With just a bit of quilter’s persuasion, Janet has jumped into quilting with both feet and joined the local guild. She is in good hands!
I was so happy to be invited in to share some vintage machine love with these gals! Many of the machines are ones I don’t have or haven’t seen, and they are SO beautiful.
Last night’s Quilt-Cam via Facebook Live was a wonderful way to spend some time while assembling a baby quilt “on-point.”
I’ve had questions before on how I do it, asking if it is possible to web it, but as of yet, I don’t work diagonally set quilts the same way as straight set quilts. The rows on diagonally set quilts grow in length until you reach the center row, and then decrease again, making continuous piecing a bit on the difficult side.
But I did have some hints and helps!
And we talked about pinning – or no pinning – asking readers to comment on their level of pinning compulsion.
And through it all, I got this top closer to completion!
And we got to see YOUR photos too! Before I get to those:
This was just the most beautiful moment when this quilt was unfurled at the beginning of our show & share during my visit with the Orange Grove Quilters of Garden Grove, California.
We had just stood for the Pledge of Allegiance as the meeting came to order, led by a former Marine.
Folks were wearing red, white & blue.
We weren’t on two sides of a political spectrum, at this moment we were AMERICANS. ONE NATION.
With it being Father’s Day yesterday, and NOT a post office day – and since I arrived home near mid-night on Saturday night after a long flight home from California, the decision was made to make yesterday a “TIME OUT” day. Not a lot of anything was accomplished. Just a normal Sunday at home, relaxing and enjoying steaks on the grill later in the evening. Just the way a Sunday at home should be.
When I get back from any week-long trip, there is always a pile of boxes and mail waiting to be opened, looked through, and put away.
I saw the June Quilty Box at the top of the stack in the front hallway and couldn’t resist digging in! This month’s box was curated by Masako Wakayama and Lucien Fabrics. Oh, the fabulous fabric in this box!
Happy Father's Day to the dads of our childhood, the dads of our adulthood, the fathers of our children and our hearts - and to those who have ever fathered another by example, blood related or not.
We thank you for who you are, and for what you have added to our lives! Have a wonderful day!
I’m taking today off from blog writing as we arrived home about midnight last night, my body clock is still on California time, and it IS Father’s Day.
My attention is needed elsewhere.
Have a lovely day, everyone and I’ll catch you tomorrow.
Two days of back to back Jamestown Landing means a whole lot of neutral strings in So Cal!
With the beautiful California sun shining outside the large windows of our wonderful workroom space, we came, we sewed, we laughed, we chatted, we made new friends who had traveled in from San Francisco and from Arizona and beyond!
When I was contacted with the inquiry of adding a second workshop day because the first one was already full with a long waiting list, I asked what they would like me to teach the second day. “Two days of Jamestown Landing!” was the reply, so everyone had a chance.
That made it easy for me, and I readily agreed. Jamestown Landing is one of my favorite workshops to teach. What’s not to like about string blocks and half square triangles?
Well, I guess most of you figured out by now that last night’s drawing event for theModern Machine Quiltingbook by Catherine Redford did not happen as I thought it would.
As it turns out, YES! I will choose dinner out with a fun group of guild ladies and a beeline over to Long Beach from Huntington Beach for ice cream and a chance meet up with Kevin the Quilter over writing a another give-away blog post.
Don’t get me wrong, I love doing the drawings…but when I got back after 9:30 pm just exhausted from the day, I didn’t figure it would hurt if I just wanted until tonight.
Maybe it would make the anticipation greater?
We finished our last workshop with the Orange Grove Quilters, and here I am at my LAX hotel for a quick overnight stay with easy access to the airport tomorrow morning for my long journey home.
I’m teaching two Jamestown Landing workshops fromString Fling on two back to back days, both full to the gills! How exciting that there were that many on the waiting list that it warranted running the class twice so no one felt left out.
I made the executive decision yesterday afternoon that I would combine both workshop posts TOGETHER instead of having day 2 feel like a re-run of day 1 – and it’s a good thing because that leaves me room today to share with you why I love Southern California so much.
This is me gearing up for a guild presentation to a very LARGE crowd in Garden Grove, California!
Orange, citrus, garden – I have this strange feeling I’ve had my groves all mixed up for months, but whatever the case, I’m here – and we are having a ball!
It was flag day yesterday, did you remember?
The only red/white/blue I have with me was in the form of tshirts, not what I wanted to wear for a guild meeting, so I got as close as I could get. But I was thrilled to see so many sporting red white & blue during the meeting. It reminded me of flag day growing up and planning to wear my best red white and blue to school.
They came in droves, The members of the Camarillo Quilter’s Association and visiting friends from far and near.
The more the merrier, as they say, each bringing their own energy and love of quilting to the mix!
It’s interesting to sit through various guild business meetings to just see how things are run, and these gals have it streamlined and flowing as one by one each commitee chair got up to speak their part informing members of future activities, trips, retreats and ongoing projects.
It’s a well oiled machine, this guild and I was so exited to give my presentation to them yesterday morning.
The best part by far, the icing on the cake for me, is to see the many quilts brought for show and share, and these gals didn’t disappoint!
Of course the weather is lovely – it’s Southern California! The “June Gloom” does not apply to quilters cutting and sewing, pressing and creating.
I met the most wonderful room full of women eager to learn new techniques and make great quilts all from their scraps, and the color choices were so varied!
I love to see that in a class.
My Blue Heaven has been a blog “free pattern” for over 10 years now, and we still go to it time and time again. I would love to make another one, ,using 2” strips instead of 2 1/2” strips and do it in a different color way just for fun. It’s a WONDERFUL quilt to learn the ins and outs of specialty rulers like the Essential Triangle Tool which combines both half-square and quarter-square triangles in one so two separate rulers are not necessary.
And there are days when that is “ALL” that you accomplish.
Coast to coast days are like that. I was up at 5:30 am, off to the airport.
Sleep the night before mornings like this is NEVER restful. I toss and I turn and worry and wake up and look at the clock, hoping I haven’t overslept my alarm.
I am fully aware on days like this, going this far, that one simple hiccup in the connecting flights department could have the whole day’s journey tumbling like the proverbial domino chain.
Just get me there. I just need to get to LAX and from there everything will work out fine.
This is why, when going this far that I need to arrive a day ahead of a lecture, even if my flight ios an early morning one, and the lecture wouldn’t be until that evening. One delayed or missed connection can throw everything into a tailspin, and missing trunk show luggage? I have learned to come a day ahead in certain circumstances to avoid that kind of thing.
My thanks to son Jeff for dropping me off at the airport for my early day and sending me on my way, luggage and all.
A while back I participated in a blog tour for Catherine Redford’s Modern Machine Quilting, the DVD!
It was so very well received by so many that with a push, a shove, and a gentle nudge, Catherine has listened to her readers and students alike and expanded upon the Modern Machine Quilting DVD for those who would like a BOOK on the subject!
The book has easy to follow chapters, full color photos and recipes for wonderful styles of quilting that you can easily give to your own quilts – all on your DOMESTIC SEWING MACHINE! No long-arm required!
Learn about threads, battings, machine feet and more.
You know you want to be able to do this - you just don't know where to start.
I spent yesterday getting 18 quilts ready for Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA next month.
It’s approaching faster than fast – and I needed to get this done and ready so that I have time to head up to the cabin when I get back from California.
I was asked a few weeks ago if I would consider being the guest artist and having my quilts on exhibit during the show, and let me tell you that is a daunting proposition for me.
I’m feeling very humbled over mismatched seams, points that have gone missing, wayward threads that keep popping up here and there no matter how much time I’ve spent gleaning over each one trying to tame them.
The older my eyes get, and with the Macular Telangiectasia that I deal with on a daily basis, lighting is so very important to me.
Not enough and I can’t see – but even more, glaring and too bright means I can’t see either.
I have tried many lights in my life as a quilter. So many put out heat, or were too bright, or not bright enough leaving a yellow cast.
This Stella Two lamp is amazing. The touch buttons on the base allow me to choose my level of light with a 10-step dimming up/down. There is also a mode to switch between color spectrums from warm to cool.
Because it is LED it’s got an extra long life. If used 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Stella Two light will still produce 70% of its original light output after 11 years.
If this blog is still going in another 11 years, we’ll let you know how it is still ticking!
This quilt is titled Hollyhocks and was made by my friend Mark Sherman.
It has not been seen since he finished a teaching trip to North Carolina and he is trying to locate it.
As a traveling instructor who often has a table full of quilts unattended at the front of the room at the end of a lecture while dealing with a crowd at the book signing table at the back of the room, I know his fear. It’s never been realized on my side yet. No one has loved my quilts enough to think of carrying them home.
We aren’t even saying that someone STOLE this quilt, just that it is missing, or misplaced and it wasn’t in his bags after he arrived home and unpacked the contents.
If you find yourself in the company of these two ladies – Irene and Sherry – I guarantee you will have more fun than you bargained for.
And yes, this includes activities like group mani/pedi, out for ice cream at Dairy Queen instead of a “real” dinner, and copious amounts of wandering around antique malls in search of the elusive “THING”, and being plain old silly as in trying on all of the hats!
I’m big on hats. I love hats. I never WEAR hats, but the dream is there, you know?
On Friday afternoon in between the end of our Garden Party Workshop and the evening’s scheduled event we had some time to go out and about and on the town.
We never know what we will find!
And I enjoy watching what other people find interesting – they see things that I might overlook, and exclamations of “Oh, I remember THIS!!” come from around the corner into the next booth, and I hurry over to see what the THIS is.
I’m sure the malls do better business when 3 women show up together, encouraging each other with “you should get that!” Than they do when we wander solo!
We filled Friday, Saturday and Sunday as full of gorgeous quilts as we could during my time in Kentucky.
These women are PROLIFIC in every good way possible. And they’ve got wonderful quilt shops in the area to feed their passions and imaginations.
You know, the quilt shops are not just for supplies. They become a gathering place, an inspiration fill-up station where dreams become realities.
JUST ADD THREAD!
Our evening presentation was held in the Senior Center in Mt Washington, right next door to the Busy Lady Quilt Shop. And Jennifer was kind enough to keep her doors open for us after the lecture so that quilters could pet the fabric (and take some home) after we were done! Not every shop will stay open past 9pm after a 2 hour evening event, but they did!
They also provided refreshments for our gathering, and door prizes for the evening event as well as for the workshops along with the Cozy Quilter. I threw some door prizes into the mix, too!
Thank you so much, Louisville area quilt shops!
Jennifer is shown on the right helping Pam Heyna share her “H is for Happy” (H is for Heyna!) quilt!
I adore this quilt finish! Can you see that she has even made H’s for the cornerstones? Pam does amazing work and I am always happy to see what she has to share.
How many quilters can you cram into one corner for a group photo??
I’m not sure, but the more that jumped in, the more fun it got until we were all giggling and laughing!
What a great group of ladies. My thanks to Connie who pulled the whole weekend together. I know it was a huge job with loads of prep and organization behind the scenes and it all went off like clockwork!
Scrap Crystals is one of those blocks when broken down is easy to stitch –that is if you don’t mind 96 pieces in one 12” block!
This quilt is the PERFECT quilt for using saved bonus triangles as the star points. In fact, I taught this workshop in Washington just a couple of weeks ago (Already?!) and it was on the tail of teaching Midnight Flight. Scrap Crystals can be made using all of the bonus triangles from Midnight Flight! A two for one, if you so desire!
It’s time to draw for our July/Aug 2017 Quiltmaker Magazine Super Duper Magazine Gift-Away!
And here you thought I forgot because I am on the road.
I didn’t!
But I have taken a nap after a long workshop day, enjoyed a wonderful dinner at my friend Irene’s house, sewn a bit while singing to silly musicals like Mama Mia, laughing all the way.
I’ve sewn about as far as I can so I am taking a break fo send up this little post before hitting the hay..
What a fun and full day yesterday! It’s a busy quilty weekend in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
I was teaching for a retreat in Kentucky just a year ago this time, and I am so happy to see some familiar faces in these three days of workshops we are having near Louisville.
The energy and the excitement is high as we dig into our scraps and make some simple units that combine into fabulous quilts.
I think the best part is walking around the room and catching glimpses of conversation, topics varying in every direction possible – we are solving the worlds problem’s (or at least our own) while we press and cut and stitch and press some more.
Women especially – need a community. Or most of us do. Watching friends interact with friends and meet new friends along the way just just good for my soul. I love being surrounded by kind and giving women – you add so much to my life!
Yesterday was day one of our 3 day “Day Camp” retreat sponsored by the Mt Washington Quilters and attended by folks from all over Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and every other corner!
Great classroom space at the conference center, awesome lighting, the air conditioner was blissful, and we only blipped the power once! (Hey, you have to check the parameters, right??)
It was a wonderful day, albeit too short as I was only scheduled for a half-day workshop so we could rest up in between the workshop and the evening lecture. 1pm came FAR too quickly! But the ladies got to continue sewing, working on their projects and making good use of the great space we have for this event.
It was a morning of computer work for me while Irene worked on this year’s shop Row by Row, and it was great to see her instructions for the row come together- she’s a pro with Publisher, and could I use more time to learn a trick or two or three from her?
You betcha!
But as it was, the morning flew by for both of us as we both worked on deadlines, backlogged emails, website updates, and all of those behind the scenes things that are a must-do before we can actually get any real time sewing in.
Number of blocks sewn yesterday?
THREE. That’s all. THREE!
By the time we looked up at the clock it was 2pm we hadn’t taken a break for lunch, there were errands to be run and items to be picked up from the Cozy Quilter not only for the 3 upcoming workshops that start today, but for the presentation that happens tonight. RUN RUN RUN! Get it done!
In fact, this post is being written a bit ahead because our departure time this morning is 7:45am to get to the convention center for set up, and I’m just not apt to get up at 5am for blog writing!
Boy did it pour on my way through the Charleston, West Virginia area yesterday.
It poured and it poured and I don’t think I’d seen anything like this kind of mountain rain – ever! And I’ve seen rain. (And now I’m humming “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain…..” One of myj favorite James Taylor songs of all time.) and I just kept driving.
I was in the middle of a 400 mile trip that would eventually lead me to Louisville, Kentucky and the Cozy Quilter Quilt Shop.
This photo was snapped as I approached Charleston, and by the time I was on the other side of that mountain the sky just opened up and let loose.
Once it had eased up, my knuckles needed to release and my legs needed a a bite of lunch. From that point on it was go go go go!
There comes a point when the ability to listen to an audio book becomes impossible. Tiredness takes over.
At this point it’s time to turn off the book, throw on the 1970s music and sing at the top of my lungs until I reach Louisville!
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