NYC Day One

 Hello Everyone,

My sister Gail and I are back from our whirlwind trip to New York City where our main purpose was meeting everyone at Marcus Fabrics.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss future fabric collections and brainstorm ideas.  Over the next few days, I'll be posting about our trip.

We left San Francisco on June 11th.  Everything you've heard on the news about airline travel during the summer months is absolutely true.  The airport was packed with people shoulder to shoulder.

After an uneventful flight, we landed in Newark and took a cab to Manhattan.  There were more cars and people heading to and through the Holland Tunnel than all of the people in my small mountain community.

We arrived at our hotel, the Sohotel which is on the national register of historic places as George Washington slept there.  This guy really got around!  The hotel was centrally located, and we were able to walk to most of our destinations.  One day I logged 20,000 on my Fitbit.  I wore tennis shoes that I've been wearing for months, and my feet still hurt!

We dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked just a couple doors down to an Italian restaurant for dinner and a glass of wine.  My daughter said she couldn't believe I would give my phone to a perfect stranger to snap a picture of us.  Well, a family of tourists walked by and offered, so I felt completely confident they weren't going to run off with my phone.

Now fast forward to last Saturday.  I arrived back home just in time to watch my grandson participate in a junior rodeo in Livermore, CA. The rodeo life is not the career Jess is going to pursue in life.  He's on the FFA welding team too, which is a much better and safer profession to pursue!

This is the entire Chute Doggin' team.  They are such a nice group of young men. Jess is the one in the black hat.   

With the luck of the draw, Jess drew an absolute beast of a steer and didn't place in the top ten for this rodeo. He was bummed, but he held on for dear life and brought the steer down and finished the job.

Our son and daughter-in-law threw a big swimming party and barbeque at the house after the rodeo for the boys and their families.  I loved all of the boots by the front door!

I also loved all of the hats on the table out back.  The saying on the flowerpot applied to their day.....they all survived!

Stay tuned for a lot more photos of our NYC trip.  I came home so inspired with ideas for two future fabric collections.  I also came home filled to the brim with patriotism and a huge history lesson from our tours. 

The Marcus staff is dedicated to excellence and the delivery of a top-quality product. I'm so proud and honored to be associated with them.

Soon,

Lynn

 

Calico Cottages on Steroids

 Hello Everyone,

In between making pumpkins, I've been working on a large Calico Cottage quilt which has been on my design wall for a few weeks now.

Originally used a dark teal for the posts.

I went back and forth between plaid posts and teal posts.  Then I decided to audition a strip of plaid in the border between the red setting triangle and another border.  The plaid posts won.  When I looked at the overall look with the teal posts, all I saw was teal popping out at me.  The plaid is muted, and it tied the quilt together when I added a touch of it in the border.

All of the sudden the quilt transformed from a brighter quilt to an old-fashioned look and feel.....which I love.  My houses are all made, and most of the sashings, so it's time to stitch the rows together.  I will have to wait for my large fabric order of Hearthstone to arrive from Marcus Fabrics before I can put on the border.  Hopefully, my bolts and bolts will arrive by the end of July.  As soon as get the borders in place, I'm going to fill them with plate feathers. 

This is an example of the plate feathers that I quilted on Country Sunshine.  I LOVE these feathers; however, it requires my brain to really THINK while I'm quilting.  My long arm has a stitch regulator, but it is not computerized, so I have to drive it around the quilt to create this pattern. Sometimes when I drive, I end up in the gutter!

I can't wait to finish this quilt and put it on our log bed at the cabin.  That touch of plaid just tugs at my heartstrings.

Here is a picture of the house blocks that I was working on at the retreat in Lake Tahoe.  

By slowing pecking away at this quilt every day, it is now all coming together.  I prepare everything in the late afternoon that I want to work on the following day.  When I get up, I can go straight to my machine and get a few hours of quilting done before Mr. Joe starts to stir.  I get more done in those hours than I do for the rest of the day.

Breakdown those big projects into daily, doable amounts and before you know it, you have a quilt.

Soon,

Lynn

I Heard It Through the Pumpkin Vine

 Hello Everyone,

I've been growing more pumpkins over the past couple of days using my Hearthstone fabric collection combined with Lanacot Wool, both by Marcus Fabrics.

I think I may be dreaming that I'm going to take pumpkins with me to New York and get some stitching done in the downtime....if there is going to be a spare minute.

I finished stitching this cutie the other day.  I LOVE working on wool applique!

I have to get serious about packing for the trip. There is just so much to think about and do, and all I want to do is create pumpkins!

I've pretty much decided that my pumpkins will be used in a table runner.  I would love to make an entire wall hanging of pumpkins; however, I don't think that is going to happen.

Our weather has been very interesting this week.  Every afternoon thunderclouds roll in and thunder tumbles and rolls down along the spine of the Sierras.  It's been warm enough to leave the doors open so we can listen to the thunder and smell the occasional drops of rain.  I love the smell of an afternoon shower.  The name for the scent of rain is "petrichor".  Who knew?  I think today our senses will be on overload.

Soon,

Lynn