Inspiration along the way

Lazy days of summer. Goodness where has the month gone?

I really haven't been lazy, have had lots going on but I've managed to take some time out to enjoy life too.

After all, life is a journey not a destination right? Time to enjoy the simple pleasures and to laugh along the way.

Take this kitty for example. Driving through the neighborhood to go check on the bay and this caught my eye. I just had to share the laugh with you.

That's what I enjoy about this journey, sharing the laughter.

Earlier this month I shared lots of laughter and the joy of quilting with some very special ladies. I held an "A-1 Reunion" where my A1 quilting machine customers were invited to join me on Friday for a piecing class using the Square in a Square technique ... along with piecing we enjoyed lunch outside under the Tiki hut.

On Saturday others joined us as we had a A1 Maintenance Class and some hands on demos on the longarm.

It's always inspiring to be around others that share your same passion. Following the reunion we set up machines for new A1 customers. That's always a joy to share the excitement of a new quilter seeing her dreams come true by owning her own longarm.

Along the way I find that I have to stop and regroup, do a little something for myself to keep my creative juices flowing. This past weekend I did just that, a little home decorating so to speak...added a pillow to better enjoy my hammock...

And covered the lawn chair cushions to add a little color to the deck, and made pillows to help with the comfort of the love seat/bench.

I also managed to FINALLY make the curtains for my bathroom that was repainted almost two years ago. Yep, I'm a procrastinator, but when I get inspired then I really push that peddle on the old sewing machine and crank out the projects!

Earlier in the month I found a really neat pattern in a magazine that I wanted to make. It's called Summer Breeze by Karen DuMont published in Quilt magazine Jun/July 2010 #112 issue. What I liked about it was that it used 32 fat quarters and I'm the queen of fat quarters. I thought it would be fun to do an exchange with two of my friends...the pattern called for 4.5 inch strips and you could get 3 out of the fat quarter, 1 strip equaled one block. So instead of using the same color three times I figured we could each contribute 30+ strips in an exchange...yielding 60 or more colors. The girls readily agreed and we made our exchange.

The original pattern calls for 72 blocks with the remaining 4.5 squares to be used as a border. I got so carried away piecing the four patch that I forgot to save extras for the border. Instead I just enlarged the quilt by about 26 blocks! I'm debating on adding the border, it's already a large queen and with a border would be a king... still thinking on that one. by the way, this is the quilt top folded in half, so you can get a better picture of the size if you understand that.

For the past 5+ years I've tried to make a quilt on or around my birthday. The girls thought this block looked like presents so I've called this my 2010 birthday quilt...and since it's made with fabrics from my friends I think I'm going to rename it from Summer Breeze to Hen Party (grin). The hardest part about this quilt was not using a design wall to lay out the blocks. I just randomly picked them up and pieced row by row. Sometimes colors didn't end up where I would have normally put them, and I'm trying to get over that (grin).

Yes, I'm trying to be more spontaneous with my fabrics. I love color. I love bright fun fabrics. Sometimes they don't seem to go together, at least in the traditional way of lights/darks, you know, all that value stuff that seems to be the 'right way' of doing things. The way I figure it, if I like this fabric and that fabric why can't they play nicely together? So I'm experimenting....

I just purchased the AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter and have had a wild wonderful weekend working through my stash. I've cut up 2.5 inch strips which I've sewn in sets of 3 with plans on subcutting and making 9 patches. Then I've cut the components for flying geese. My idea is to make a star block with these parts. My goal is for the black and white fabric to be the calming fabric is this pool of fabric splash. We'll see how it works out. May be a while as I've taken my mini vacation and need to get back to work (grin)

Sometimes all we need is a little inspiration, a little detour off the beaten path, to jump start the day/week/month. Just like a little rain brings refreshment so does a little time of reflection bring me back to center. Whether it's taking time to be with friends, time to play in my fabric, or time to just sit by the water and be in awe of God's handiwork...

May your day be joyful and inspiring. Thanks for sharing my journey

Catching Up - Friends & Family

The past few weeks has been a wonderful whirlwind! I haven't truly had time to post.

Just needed to share (grin) and thought ya'll like to see a quilt sale, a quilt class and my momma -- so read on!

These lovely ladies were the morning shift for one of the largest sales I can remember -- or at least it's been a long time since I worked one!

In the center with the bright turquoise blouse is Patricia Stephenson of Quilt By The Bay, the quilt shop where I had my "beginnings" - as a worker, a teacher, and later one of the longarm quilters for the shop samples. Her shop was damaged by Hurricane Ike last September and she's been operating primarily through the internet....well, Thurs 7/30/09 was THE SALE as she relocated her warehouse to one of the ballrooms at Moody Gardens Hotel and I didn't want to miss out so I went to help!

This was our pre-sale prep talk, discussing prices and assigning work stations.

These photos are the calm before the storm of shoppers invaded - the view was beautiful but wrecked havoc on the lighting for the photo.



Patricia had dubbed this a reunion - many of her customers had not seen her since the storm, so she stood at the door and welcomed each one.


Within moments the ballroom was filled with the frenzy of quiltaholics shopping for the deal of the century!


The lines soon formed at the cutting tables, and folks learned how much fun it was to 'shop the line' -- in other words if the gal in front of you didn't take the full bolt and it was fabric you liked then you asked for the bolt to be passed back... fabulous way to shop if you ask me!

Some of the ladies really had a "plan" for their shopping spree.

Waiting in line can be whatever you make of it, you can be impatient and complain or you can turn it into a reunion - which most folks did. When quilters gather you are always bound to run into friends you haven't seen in a while!

I initially was the official photographer of our gala event, then was asked if I would mind tearing fabric.....the cutting stations were all manned and the lines were long, so off to a little corner I go with just a rotary blade, no cutting mat, no ruler, the only measuring devise were little marks on the table showing zero, half yard, and yard...so away we went, doing my best to measure and tear while trying to entertain the folks in line as they waited for their turn.

The sale began at 10 and before noon this was the pile of empty bolts behind my station. I have found that by working I am less tempted to shop -- but I have to confess, I did "shop the line" and brought home a yard of beach umbrella print, 4 yards of flip flop fabric and 4 yards of bright yellow tone on tone tropical print. I was a tired but happy quilter at the end of the afternoon!


That was last Thursday. On Friday I had to get back to quilting and finished up a customer quilt that had been on the frame for a day or so -- my push -- had to teach a Square in a Square class at Cactus Quilts on Sat 8/1/09


I love teaching. Especially with the Square in a Square process, it's so much fun and the results are amazing.


I do a lot of demos and then graze around the room to make sure everyone is understanding the process. Since there is usually a smokin' needle in the room and a slow but steady Betty I find that it's best to demo to the whole class and then work one on one with my students at whatever step they are on. No pressure in my class. And you aren't allowed to 'unsew' -- I consider myself an expert frogger (rip it rip it) and it's my job to operate the seam ripper for the day if anyone finds that need - my students are there to sew, not unsew!


By the end of the day everyone had several blocks done from our Waterwheel pattern, and all had high hopes of going home to make more!

That evening I had a mission of my own....needed to make another fabric bowl using my new found skills from "Mrs. King's Gallery Baskets" DVD. This one was for my grandmother. She's 96 and recently broke her leg. I had plans to head north about 250 miles on Sunday after church to go visit her....


So last Sunday through this Tuesday I was visiting with my mom and my grandmother....mom and I decided to be goofy and take photos of ourselves -- kinda like we were in a photo booth -- it's not easy taking photos of yourself holding the camera away from you. Some are really funny, but thought I'd just share one...


The remainder of my week has been trying to play catch up. It's a fun game, but I don't think I win it very often. Catch up on laundry. Catch up on email. Catch up on bills. Catch up on housework. Catch up on customer quilts. Catch up on guild meetings. Catch up on my favorite TV show (Burn Notice) that hubby and I tape to watch at a more convenient time. And now, Catch up on my blog. So that's what I've been up to -- that and I discovered a new addiction called Facebook....oh my....and now that I'm caught up on the blog, have eaten my lunch, it's time to punch back in and finished a darling quilt on my frame.

More later! Afterall, a self-professed rambler has to ramble ya'know!