Blog
What a treat-spending 4 days in Pacific Grove! I had a fabulous visit with the Monterey Peninsula Quilters Guild. They asked for a 2-day workshop which absolutely delights me. Spending 2 (or more) days with my students is heaven-we bond, we laugh and all the while free motion skills improve dramatically. It’s a tough 3 1/2 hr drive (traffic) but once I arrived the evening before the workshop, I was greeted by this scene at Lover’s Point. Blissssss. They kindly put me up at the Centrella Bed and Breakfast, (forgot to take photos), my first B&B stay. I am always grateful…
It was a beautiful day for the annual outdoor show, Quilting in the Garden at the Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, Ca. There was just enough breeze to flutter the quilts and abundant sunshine. Viewers were sheltered under huge Heritage Oak trees-such a bucolic setting! Eleanor Burns was the Featured Artist and she did not disappoint. Eleanor has enough personality to fill a room and the crowd could not get enough. This was about as close as I got and I couldn’t really tell what she was demo-ing. She had a whopping 119 quilts on display and I think all…
As a teacher at the Houston International Quilt Festival, I have the opportunity to donate a quilt no larger than 25″ square to a silent auction to raise funds for the non-profit IQA that supports the show. I am delighted to donate and it’s always fun to see how well your quilt does in bidding. There are some truly spectacular quilts auctioned off each year. I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to this as my fall is pretty booked, so I went with the tried-and-true Start With a Square technique as my inspiration. I pulled some gorgeous…
I had no idea how much fun it would be to tape for The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. I had a blast! TQS is a well-oiled machine, with 20 professionals dedicated to making the presenting artist look good. I’m pretty sure I ended up on TQS through Barbara Black‘s referral-thank you Barbara! It is an opportunity that I never expected to happen and I was grateful for the opportunity. I don’t know when my segments will air, but I will be sure to let you know when I find out! Many of these photos were taken by…
I don’t have all my photos organized from taping for The Quilt Show so I’ll post about that next week. I returned home from TQS on Wed and flew out to Austin, TX on Sat for a family wedding. I have lived in Texas for a total of 17 years, at 4 different stages of life. I attended Texas A&M and lived in College Station for 4 years, then attended/graduated from Corpus Christi State for 3 years followed by Houston for 3 years. Insert 3 years in Albuquerque and add 4 more years of Houston 2.0. Both boys were born…
I had an amazing, inspiring and fabulous few days at The Quilt Show! I didn’t sleep after the taping and yet got up at 3:30AM MT, so I am beyond beat. I’ll post next week about my crazy wonderful adventure. In my little head I keep calling it #beyondbucketlist…and it was. Who’d a thunk? I cannot even begin to describe how it felt to have 20 (guessing here) people working on my behalf to produce 3 segments about ME! And to see my work hanging on The Quilt Show walls….it was amazing. More later.
NOTE: I have a few openings in my Santa Rosa SWAS class this Saturday. If you want to learn this technique, join me-it’s a really fun, loose class! I need step-outs and lots of samples for my upcoming The Quilt Show taping. One segment will be on “Start With a Square” (SWAS). When I teach this, I bring along stitched out samples of over 30 motifs. You choose which you are interested in to use on your piece. Since I began offering this late last year, it has become very popular and the guilds are raving about it! So I…
NOTE: I am revamping my website so any comments made after Sunday Aug 12 will be blocked. I got to spend a week in the Bend/Sunriver area of Central Oregon with my family-such a treat! With grown men as sons, I don’t expect this to happen that often and it filled my Mommy heart. It’s a 7 hour drive for us and it’s pretty tedious with about 3 hours of 2-lane roads. It’s the very beginning of tomato season so I saw a few ‘mater trucks along the way. I don’t know why, but I find ‘mater trucks charming. If…
I am piecing a quilt! Yes, me, piecing! I am not the strongest piecer but I fell in love with this super cute pattern, Feathers, by Margot Lunguedoc Designs at The Pattern Basket. It has aged in my stash for a few years and it is now ripe:-) It’s so stinkin’ cute! There are 30 pieces in each 81/2″ block and some of it is a wee bit challenging. So of course I ran into….The Visible Learning Curve (VLC). A VLC happens when you are learning something new. As you progress on your project, your skills improve and it shows! I…
I love the Ca State Fair! It’s soooo cheesy and hot and fun. Each year it intrigues me in a different way. One thing I like about it is that it attracts a diverse group of attendees, seems to me like a good representation of California and its diversity. And you can’t attend the fair without being reminded, this IS a very agricultural state. Outside of the coast and the mountains, California is a top producer of almonds (pronounced amonds in the valley!), grapes, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes and walnuts. Many of the exhibits highlight farming. I usually spend a good…