Quilt Show Preparations

Hello Everyone,

 

I've been pretty quiet on social media this week.  I have a very busy stretch beginning next week with one lecture in Petaluma, a quilt show in Concord, two classes in Livermore at In Between Stitches, and three minutes of terror at NCQC (Northern California Quilt Council). 

 

I put the bed risers on the dining room table and cut fabric bundles for a couple of days.  Mr. Joe even got in on the action of folding fabrics.  However, he doesn't enjoy petting all of the fabrics the way I do!

 

Once I get everything folded, then it's time to make the fat 1/8 and fat 1/4 bundles, price, then enter them in the accounting spreadsheet.

It's never too early to start those kits for Christmas!

 

 Plaids, glorious plaids!!!!

This is just a small sampling of what is going to be in my booth at the Contra Costa County Guild quilt show in Concord on April 7th and 8th.  I would love to have a lot of you come by and see us!

I have my design wall up with the blocks for the Alaskan quilt on it.  I glanced over and saw the sun coming through my version of a Midnight Sun block.  Perfect timing.  I fudged and moved the block just a bit for maximum rays.

 

Now to explain my three minutes of terror at NCQC that I mentioned at the top of the post.  I will be presenting myself, my work, my lecture and workshop topics in 3 minutes at the Northern California Quilt Council in Pleasant Hill.  Three measly minutes to talk about a body of work spanning a decade.  A person in the front row will hold up a yellow card which signifies only 30 more seconds remain.  When the red card comes out, so does the hook just like The Gong Show from the 1970's.
The purpose of this talk is to book lectures and workshops at quilt guilds for 2019.  My 2019 is already starting to fill, so I'm wondering if I should subject myself to the 3 minutes stress test.  Too late to back out now.

More printing and stuffing patterns today.  I pretty much keep the printer running whenever I'm quilting.  Multi-tasking to the max!

Soon,
Lynn

 

Patchwork Math Class Was In Session

 

Hello Everyone,

 

It is always a good day when it is spent in the company of quilters.  I was with my home guild, the Independence Hall Quilters of Arnold, teaching Patchwork Math.

 

 

The group was delightfully fun and creative.

 



The classroom is bright, and airy. In a past life the building was a former school.

 Creativity at work.

 

When I said I was going to take pictures, Kathy grabbed her purse to find her lipstick.....then she struck a pose for me! 

I don't have pictures of everyone and their precise and beautiful blocks.  I was one busy person yesterday!

I'll be one busy person this entire week.  I'm preparing for a lecture on April 3rd for the Petaluma Quilt Guild.  I'll also be preparing for the Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County show on April 7th and 8th.  Lots of work ahead for me this week.  I'll be printing, cutting fabric, packaging, and kit making.  I hope Mr. Joe feels like doing the cooking!

Soon,
Lynn

 

My Week

Hello Everyone,

 

I had the pleasure of spending another day in the classroom teaching Grammy Squares at Quail's Nest Quilt Company in Sonora on Wednesday.  The girls were so pleasant and made some beautiful blocks.

 



It all begins with the center, and you build on it strip by strip, round by round.

We had bugs, and butterflies in the room!

 

You girls did a great job and I thoroughly enjoyed all of you.

 



I've been working on one of my quilts for the quilting cruise to Alaska.  I put my Aurora blocks on point.

I'm also making flocks of geese.  Since Canada geese mate for life, I have them traveling together in mated pairs.  They will make their journey through my quilt two by two.

This box of 120 yards of Fresh Cut Flowers by Kansas Troubles arrived from Cloth and Quilts on Wednesday.  This box weighs 55 pounds!

I'll be cutting up this fabrics to make kits for my Country Sampler quilt.  I'll be teaching this quilt on the cruise to Alaska as part of my Finessing the Figures class on the journey up to Alaska.

This quilt is made from the components in my Patchwork Math book.  The blocks are nine inches.....very doable.  I'm contemplating making a block layout sheet for each block.  As you make the components, they are placed on the sheet.  Whoever fills in their block layout sheet first, shouts "Bingo"!  This quilt may look difficult, but it really isn't.  Yes, it takes time, but all good things take a certain level of effort and creativity.  I like to enjoy the process.

 

It is supposed to snow again today and tomorrow.  During our last round of power outages, generator start ups and shut downs, our TV became deader than a doornail.  The repairman said our Smart TV wasn't smart enough to re-boot itself.  Since when did TVs have to reboot?  Who knew?

As a child, I remember our father replacing tubes in our TV.  He would have us sit in front of the TV and tell him what was happening while he was at the back of the TV tapping the tubes with a wooden dowel.  (It looked very much like the perch from our parakeet's cage.)  With our feedback, he would know which tube was the culprit.  If our input wasn't good enough, he would put a mirror in front of the TV to see for himself.  (I still have that big mirror.  Maybe I should put it in front of our un-booted TV, and knock it around a little bit to see what happens!)  We would then take the offending tube down to Harrison's Market, plug it in to the TV tube tester at the front of the store to see if it was indeed bad.....and buy another one for a couple of bucks.  Oh, the simplicity of the good old days.

Without a TV for several days, we were much better able to listen to the rain pounding on the roof.  We had 6" of rain in one day.  At one point in time, Mr. Joe thought it was time to commence building an ark.  It was intense, so intense that it melted most of our 40" of snow.  The runoff was really something to watch and hear.  Folsom Lake, a LARGE lake by Sacramento, rose 20 feet!  Now that's a lot of rain and runoff.

More quilting and pattern writing for me this weekend.  Hope you have a good one too.

Soon,
Lynn

Sew'n Wild Oaks Class Was In Session

Hello Everyone,

 

I have just fifteen minutes to post this morning, then I have to get ready to get over to Sonora for another Grammy Squares class.  I'm still getting caught up on emails, orders, and life, after our days without power and Internet.

 

The following pictures are from my two Sew'n Wild Oaks classes at In Between Stitches last week.  I don't think this is a complete set of pictures, so I'm apologizing now to those who were left out.

 

I'm beginning the morning show with Evelynne's amazing quilt.  This is entirely paper-pieced! She has been working diligently on it for months.  She will finish it too!

 

Now we have a parade of Country Sunshine blocks in all stages of the making.

Here are some Grammy Squares with a western theme.

Isn't this creation gorgeous!  All beautifully machine appliqued.

Shelley diligently worked on her Moda quilt along.  The little blocks are beautiful.

Carol is working on her applique and borders.

While Barbara was having some work done in her home, she sequestered herself away in her sewing room for four days and finished this beauty!  I guess I need to have a complete home makeover and lock myself away too!

Diana's Toyland Tree is getting all decked out in trim and bling.

 

 Look at Judy's little kitty and can of cat food in her flower.

We will be able to make another snowman this weekend!

Isabelle's pile is growing and she keeps working away on it.  Stayed tuned for what this pile is going to make.

 

Laurie finished her Buttonwood quilt.  This was a kit from In Between Stitches.

 



Laurie may never want to see a half-square triangle again!  Wonderful detail in the machine quilting.

 

I'm off to Sonora this morning to teach Grammy Squares again.  It's a smaller class this time, but everyone on the waiting list is now in the class.

 

Another snowstorm is predicted for this weekend.  We still haven't completely dug our way out from the last storm.  Gotta run!

 

Soon,

Lynn

 

P.S.  Patterns for Buttonwood, Toyland Tree, and Country Sunshine are all available HERE in my Etsy shop.



Where to Begin?

Hello Everyone,

 

After three days of living with snow, day.....

 

 



 ....and night, we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Power is back on and we are now connected to the Internet, and our phone works.  The little red thing is the bird feeder.  I should really call it the squirrel feeder.

Never one to back down from a challenge, our son said a real mountain woman would be drinking a glass of wine (whine) on the deck......so I did.  I was blanketed with snow in no time at all.

And then, Susan in Kentucky said if we got bored, we should make imprints of our faces in the snow.
It works!  Here's Mr. Joe.

 

Here's me.  Instead of saying "Shiver me timbers", I was saying "shrivel me wrinkles!"  Maybe this is a new face lift technique!  But, it's not good to have your double chin resting in the snow for very long.....but then again if it decides to roll up like a window shade, why not?

I trudged through the knee-deep snow one morning and took a picture of the back of the cabin.

Yesterday the temperatures started to warm, and the snow was falling in big clumps off of the trees.
It was beautiful.

You would have thought I would have a bunch of quilt blocks to show you....not.  We turned the generator on sparingly as we were running low on propane.  I didn't do much quilting at all, but I did cut fabric towers for my next show.  I also prepared some blocks and got them ready for sewing.

Mazey is ready to play some football.  She is loving the snow even though it sticks to her fur and she walks around with dingleberries hanging off of her "feathers".

 

Friends came for a visit yesterday with their 8-year-old grandson to do some sledding.  Evelynne brought a pot of delicious homemade chili and chocolate cake.  It was nice seeing someone from the outside world.

 

All you can see is the garage that sits at the top of our lot.  The house is down the hill in the back.  Mr. Joe cleans off the driveway with the snow blower, while I shovel from the back of the garage down to the house.  That shovel is making blisters that may interfere with my sewing.

 



We are pretty much back to normal today.  The only glitch in the system is our TV.  We have sound but no picture.  While I'm at my quilt guild meeting, Mr. Joe will futz with the TV.  After the guild meeting I have to get caught up with many emails and Etsy orders.  Everything has been on hold until our services returned. 

Back to the real world today.

Soon,
Lynn