Month: September 2010

Do you think if one existed you would want to be a competitor?  I think I could do it…as I was quilting away tonight finishing the trip around the world nine patch…this is the smallest pantograph I have ever done…it is tiny…it looks deceiving here..but those are 3″ squares…you can see how small it is on the whole quilt….I also noticed I have lost the tension spring on my machine…wonder how long I have been quilting without it?   It’s only 10:05 and I have the binding done too!  I am ready for the nut hut…can’t you tell?  I will be bringing Jason the quilts tomorrow…hopefully he can shoot them and I can get them back to write my directions…Carole has hers all done…she has quilted and bound one of my little wool applique nine patches…she brought it over today and showed it to me….that girl sure can quilt!  I will show it  tomorrow…I think I am going to watch our Netfix movie we have had for 3 weeks now…aaahh…hey…one more thing…I think I am going to have a giveaway….I will show you this tomorrow too!

I am going to sit down a minute and blog…this is my break…I need to write about 3 patterns and all the instructions for my 6 nine patch quilts before the end of this week…I need to get this last quilt, quilted so we can get them to Jason…our photographer…I love visiting Jason…he totally understands me and what I want…a straight, creative guy with taste…hmmm, now isn’t that a new finding…my fingers are sore from all the binding I have been doing…but hey it’s part of the job and my calluses are shaping up nicely…I wanted so bad on Saturday to visit Octoberfest in downtown Appleton…boy, that was a mistake…I did by a cool rain barrel for my garden and a little stone birdhouse.. but I swear it went on for miles…I snapped a photo of the street…you cannot see the end…I didn’t want to stand in line for miles to get any of the great foods…the crowd was too hard to walk in…and  I don’t drink to excess, so it really lost all of it’s appeal real fast…

Here is the quilt that I just took off the machine to put on the last nine patch…It has 1″ half square triangles and 6″ blocks…I  finished loading and quilting 2 rows of this quilt for our nine patch book 10 minutes ago that is why I need a break…I will show you the rest of the little quilts as soon as Jason shoots them…all the quilts are made from a great method using 5″ charms or 3 1/2″ charms…you use a dark and light, right sides together and when you are done sewing you get 1 positive ( 5 darks/4 lights) and 1 negative (5 lights/4 darks) nine patch from the two squares…we will have 14 little quilts in this book…the nine patches we used finish 3″ or 1 1/2″, so if you love little quilts- you will want this book!  I am sure you will be hearing more about it in the next couple of weeks…it won’t be ready until mid October…

On Monday I taught 10 lovely ladies how to make a pumpkin table mat….They were very good students…except for the one who is trying to hide from my photo….lol….there is always one…

Nancy Dey made this awesome bag (from an Indigo Junction pattern called the Victory Bag) with an great plaid wool.  She couldn’t find buttons that didn’t look too contemporary so I added the wool applique flower for her…I love this bag…It feels very nice on your shoulder too!  We will have a limited number of kits for this purse as we only have so much of the plaid wool she used.  So if you want one, send us an email- or be sure to get one as soon as it hits the site…Speaking of Nancy…she is finishing up the information that is being added to “The Gathering” tab on our site.  Some of the info might be there already…if not, soon I promise…she is freaking out because there is so much information and she is trying to anticipate all of the questions that people are going to ask…I was playing with the calendar yesterday and it is going to be way too cool…you will be able to see what dates are available and see all the info before you decide when you are going to come!  Thanks for being so excited about this…they called me yesterday and the beds are ready and will be delivered on Friday!  The first 12 anyway…well my break is over time to eat some kashi with raspberries and quilt another couple of rows…

One more thing…our Menasha Bluejays are 5-0….they will play their toughest opponent on Friday-  at Kimberly, which is where  Nick went to high school…they are scared, you can tell by what they say in the paper…they call us Matrasha….very  classy kids, huh… Someone said they tried to have t-shirts printed that said taking out the trash, with a bluejay symbol on the can…don’t know if this is just a rumor or what, but it is only fuel for our boys….we will never be playing them again as the WIAA is taking the smaller(menasha) schools out of the FVA conference…so It will be sweet if we beat them….GO BLUE JAYS–WORK HARD EXPECT TO WIN!

LB

Well I am home from Minnesota and had a wonderful time teaching and lecturing about my life and quilts…I had 11 wonderful students in my workshop and met several quilters that have been customers for a long time…It is always nice to visit and talk about what they are working on…here are my students from Friday’s workshop working on their Christmas Time wool table mats.  While I am making a pot of Chili I thought I would quick upload them.  Good Job Girls!

You know I love going to teach and meeting new quilters, but I have to admit that it is a lot of work to get ready…not only do I have to pack all the stuff, quilts kits, threads and teaching materials…I have to get myself ready and being away from home another 4 days, is very hard..I miss another 3 more football games…Menasha is 3-0, girls!  I did get to watch the game i missed last week on the television it was the game of the week…this week we play our long time rival/neighbors Neehah…who are 0-3, so it should be a win for us…if the guys don’t  take it too lightly…we had some problems last week holding onto the ball and some little issues that will matter in big games later on…back to my issues…I need to get all the bills payed for personal and business and make sure things are going well and everybody is on task with the shop, warehouse and now the retreat house…boy…not very many hours left…so last night  I realized I did not have any hand sewing ready to take along…so I was fusing a wool block, settler’s pride,  into the night when I should have been packing my suitcase.  Well enough whinning for me…now I have to switch the laundy loads…maybe I can get one more done before I leave at 8am today….Her are the last two blocks I stitched from this Settler’s Pride…love this quilt…. LB