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It’s a review, a blog hop and a give-away! I got my hands on Cindy Grisdela‘s brand new book, Adventures in Improv Quilts and I’ve got a review for you below. If you’d like a free e-copy of Cindy’s book, comment below and I’ll do a random number drawing on Oct 21st. I’ll announce the winner here, so be sure to check back. First, I want to give a little background. Cindy and I have met in person a number of times at Studio Art Quilt Associates Conferences as well as at the Houston show. For the last few…
I’m baaack- what an adventure my trip to Montana was! I do miss travel and teaching in-person and I was happy to do both for 9 days. Today I’ll post about my classes and the travel in between Bozeman and Havre. Bozeman is gorgeous right now! It is a college town, home to Montana State, with enrollment around 17,000 students. I enjoyed my brief stay and I ate very well! Bozeman is a foodie town and I enjoyed excellent cuisine while there. Our classroom was held at the Eagle Mount facility which has a variety of outdoor and indoor activities.…
NOTE: No blog or newsletter next week as I will be traveling and teaching. This will be a short post as I am getting ready for my 10-day trip to Montana. This is trickier than I thought to pack for 2 different teaching venues – one south and one north, 4 different places to stay, fabulous hiking in Glacier Nat’l Park (“Crown of the Continent”), a train ride and of course, plane rides. Here’s the packing pile so far: That is 90% hiking, 10% teaching. I weighed it and just my tech cords weigh 6 lbs. As I pack, I know…
I have long wanted to hold a multi-day seminar and last week it finally happened. I do feel that this is what I’d like to focus on in the future, it just felt so good, so right. I don’t know if there will be demand for such a thing, but if there is, I’m there! I love the 3-day format. My students were fantastic and in many ways the experience exceeded my expectations. For one, no one’s machine malfunctioned – can you believe that? Out of 15 students, everyone not only knew their machine well, but they had excellent machines…
Last minute post here – I almost completely forgot to create a post for this week! So here it is, hastily prepared. I walk in the wee hours and that is when it occurred to me that no post had been prepared. Eerie photo taken on my walk. The street lights give an odd color to the grasses. The world is different and refreshing in the wee hours of the morning. I’ve been prepping for my first 3-day free motion quilting seminar at Cali Quilts: There’s a lot more work than meets the eye here. I’m still packing! Teaching a…
I’m writing this at the last minute; that usually means there will be some edits that I missed. My jury duty was dismissed early so I started the week with a clear schedule – HAH! That did not last long. I am prepping this week for next week’s 3-day seminar at Cali Quilts. The shop is huuuuge, with a great selection of fabrics and a mind-boggling inventory of Cuddle. I’m contacting my students now, asking what they will be working on as well as discovering their interests, skills and experience. I have designed the seminar to be tailored to each…
That may be a confusing title – I got a chance to observe two dyeing pros play with marbling and the results were spectacular. Hanging around expert dyers and fabric painters makes me want to try. But it’s not exactly convenient for me to dye or paint. I have a house I love but there is no basement or walk-out room, covered patio, etc so I’d be doing it on the driveway, backyard or garage (that does not have a sink). I know, #firstworldproblems. I have dyed before, on the driveway, in half yard increments and the results were fabulous.…
hat fun to have a week with lots of sewing and art! Not necessarily in chronological order: I got to attend the Quilt, Craft, Sewing and Needle-Art Supply Show in nearby Roseville last Thursday and in real life met a Facebook friend – Kari Kurley, a BERNINA Rep. Among many other things, Kari heads up a private BERNINA Yahoo group that I belong to. I get to learn about all things BERNINA through the questions and posts. Kari wrote that she was going to be at the show and I was hoping to meet her while there. She was…
I’ve got two short posts this week. I separated them because they are on two different subjects. You can find the other post here. I had an odd week of in between-ness; I just made that up. I was in between projects, a little lost as to what to do. Both of the following projects are in Time Out until I figure out what I want to do with them: This needs a better fit before I cut up a precious quilt to make a fabulous quilted coat. And this trapunto piece, sigh. It has taken so long to complete…
I’ve got two short posts this week. I separated them because they are on two different subjects. You can find the other post here. I made a discovery this week – I unwittingly did a Consumer Reports type of test to find the best rotary cutter and I have a clear winner. Background first: I wrote last week about making kits for my Houston students. Every student will have a kit of quilt sandwiches to work with at the Houston Int’l Quilt Festival. By the way, you can still sign up for my classes. See my summary at the end of…