No Time to Catch Up!

This is how I left things when I headed to Texas 2 weeks ago.

I need to piece a back for Jewel Box Stars.  That’s why it is hanging over the rail of the long arm.

Before I left I had been kitting up basket blocks, and the strips that need to be put back into the Scrap User’s System are hanging on the rail just waiting for me to get down to it.

I have fabric folded and ready to put away, some stacks of things, some trays for sorting, it all happens here on the table side.

That white board?  I use it for photography as in yesterday’s detail shot of the items that are found in yesterday’s Quilty Box Gift-Away.

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Home for a Quilty Box Gift-Away!

This was supposed to happen in February.

But the travel faeries were not in sync and the sample box didn’t arrive on my doorstep until AFTER I had already left for San Antonio!

Well, that’s okay by me – because we can do it on this first Sunday home!

The February Quilty Box contains a whole 2 1/2’’ strip pack of Christa Watson’s Abstract Garden line – full of bright and splashy prints and summer colors just ready to chase the remaining winter blahs away.

What can I say? I love purple mixed with orange and red and green!  Throw in some summer yellow and cool greens and turquoise and I am one happy girl!

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Straits of Mackinac in Denton TX!

I’ll not soon forget these happy faces and the crazy antics

that come with a heavy dose of scrap over load!

These ladies don’t even know how much they have added to MY life!

I love talking to folks, finding out a bit about them, their family, their former jobs if they are retirees, family life if they are still raising kids, or supporting kids through college – listening to the discussions of every day life with jobs, plans, grandkids, upcoming weddings, babies on the way – and usually there is a quilt in the planning or sewing stages for each of these occasions. 

Quilting is how we mark the momentous events that dot the timelines of our lives, isn’t it?

This was also the maiden voyage for Straits of Mackinac as a workshop – and starting out with 53 in class?  HOLY MOLY!!

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“It Can Be Daybreak....” *Singing*

I’m blaming the earworm all on Sherry -

Second chair on the right -

To be honest, I never thought of the Barry Manilow song Daybreak when I was naming this quilt, but once she mentioned that is what the title brought to mind for her – I just can NOT get it out of my head!

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Building Sand Castles, Texas Style!

From fine-tuning strip cutting -

To speedy four-patch consistency -

To string piecing our way to block completion -

We did it ALL yesterday!

My thanks to Deb for the candid shots of me doing what I do – hands always a blur in motion as I teach – It’s fun to see what things are like from a watcher’s perspective!

Each day we’ve had new faces – just as I learn someone’s name one day, there is someone else in their seat the next!  It keeps my head spinning, but so much fun to think of all the new faces as friends I haven’t met yet, coming to spend the day playing in the scraps with me.

It’s also not often that I get a soothing water feature behind me to add some ambiance to my demo table- LOL!

I’ve been doing our demo time in the lobby, breaking the group up into smaller sections so that everyone has a chance to see what I’m doing – it’s the only way to manage this group of 40+

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Xing Debut in Denton!

Yesterday’s Xing Workshop In Denton!

What do you get when you mix the sounds T with SH with CH and add a bit of Z??  XING!  Chinese is one of those things that is difficult for English speakers to pronounce because they use sounds that are not our norm.  Our tongues don’t know how to mix that all together.  You can call it TZING, ZING, SCHING or CHING and it will be half-way right each time.  

But that’s okay with me!  Just don’t call it EX-ING!  LOL!

We had an amazing day yesterday with a group of quilters ready and willing to mix crumb piecing with the strip cutting of triangle pairs for star points with my Essential Triangle Tool – and throw in a mix of string piecing for alternate blocks to the mix.  They did SO GREAT!

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From Brazos to Denton -

My rear view as I drove through the gate and hit the road yesterday.

It was a morning of packing up, of enjoying a last hearty breakfast, saying tear filled goodbyes and hitting the road -

One at a time we heard car doors shut, engines start up and tires roll down the dirt road toward the gate – each person pointing their GPS toward wherever home was.

Before we knew it – there were only a handful of us left:

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Monday Morning Check Out!

73 blocks in the pile.

One still in the machine.

Not that many left to last me the rest of the trip!

This is what I call a successful round of retreating fun!  I’m so glad and grateful for the invite 2 years ago to spend time with this wonderful group of ladies who have welcomed me in with open arms. 

As an instructor, I am usually there to enjoy the ladies during the day and the class room time, but then I’m off to take care of other things and rest up for the next day while the fun continues without me.  This was just balm to my soul!

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A day to just BREATHE!

There is a whole lot of sewing going on!

Glenda has been busy!

I have met several of the ladies retreating at Brazos House before – either in workshops I’ve taught in Texas, or through friends of friends – and I was pleasantly surprised, and really, very touched to see so many Quiltville projects in progress, or on beds – oh my goodness!

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