Productive Weekend!

What a productive weekend -- finally!  I spent most of Saturday working on the computer getting two more patterns ready for my publisher.  I've got to make a couple more changes and then they're ready to be sent off.  I'm trying to get ahead of things a little bit because I know the edits on my table runner book are coming back to me shortly and I'd like to have some of these other things done before I have to dive into that.  Spending most of Saturday on the computer is not the way I'd LIKE to spend my time -- but it sure feels good to be able to check two more patterns off my list.  Besides -- it was beastly hot and humid so I told myself that I wouldn't enjoy being out in the garden anyway. 

A friend gave us some sweet corn so after church on Sunday I spent some time getting it ready for the freezer.  I always think it's so pretty when it's cut off the ears!  It wasn't much -- only about 3 dozen ears but it'll taste good this winter. 

When I finished up in the kitchen I headed for my sewing room.  I've been working on my Dinah's Delight for way too long and I just haven't been able to sit down at the sewing machine long enough to get it finished.  There's certainly nothing hard about the quilt -- I just haven't been able to get to it.  I made up my mind on Friday that I was going to finish it over the weekend or else!  I put the corners on at about 9 p.m.. last night.  It still needs to have the corners trimmed and squared and it needs a good pressing -- but it's finished!

It feels good to actually get something done!  I've got about a dozen other projects that I need to get moving on but I wanted to get this one done first so that I could put all those fabrics away.  Maybe it's time to clean my sewing room!............  or maybe not.  (Just the THOUGHT of it scares me  but I KNOW I'm going to have to tackle that job some day!)

A couple of weekends ago I helped my friend Linda with her booth at Sturgis Days, which is a yearly music festival in Cedar Falls.  Linda makes and sells purses.  She's designed them all herself and I can attest to the fact that they're wonderfully constructed, wear like iron (because mine sure need to!), they're washable and they're just plain pretty!  Linda's done a couple of things that I really like..... the first is that she doesn't use dark fabrics for the purse linings.  When I look inside -- I can actually see what's there!  I can find my phone!  Another nice feature is that she's incorporated lots of pockets inside.  There are places to put things and they'll stay there!  The fact that they're all washable is really nice too!

I took a couple of photos of her booth and thought you all might like to see. 

Here's a photo of part of the booth.  The day was hot and humid -- but I sure enjoyed myself.  It's always fun to meet new people and get reacquainted with old friends at shows like this.

That's Linda above on the left.  See what I mean about pretty purses?  The quilts aren't bad either!  Linda's website is here. 

Well, so far things are working well. Keep your fingers crossed!

When I was in Paducah I met a wonderful group of ladies from Louisiana who were all members of the North Louisiana Quilter's Guild. They stopped by my booth to visit and it was truly a treat! They wanted to tell me that they'd used one of my quilt designs as a mystery quilt for their guild. Ginger promised that when she got home she'd send me photos -- and she did! So here are four versions of my Farm Scraps quilt.

These photos were taken at their quilt show.

Aren't these wonderful quilts??!! Unfortunately, Ginger didn't send me the names of the people who made these quilts -- but THANK YOU to all of them! I truly appreciate them sharing their quilts!

I've been quilting and designing for years and I can never get over how two (or four!) quilts made from the same pattern can become such different quilts and take on such different personalities (and yes! quilts have personalities!!) For me that's one of the most intriquing things about quilting. It always surprises and pleases me when I see my quilts through other people's eyes. It also helps to broaden my perspective and make me think outside the box (or quilt!) because they come up with ideas that I never dreamed of!

Thank you so much to Ginger and her friends from the NLQG for sharing these photos!

Okay. The last couple of times that I tried to update and add photos to this blog I got so frustrated that I threw up my hands and walked away. I suspect my frustration stemmed from using a very old computer, having a lousy internet connection and my own minimally functioning brain cells. (Some days my brains works better than others............!) Anyway -- I'm ready to try again because people have sent me some wonderful photos of their quilts and I think they deserve to be shared!

Sunna, who lives in Iceland, has made several different quilts from the patterns that I've provided on my website. She sent me photos of her version of Fractured Star and before I could do anything with them they were lost in one of my computer crashes. When I contacted her she was gracious enough to send the photos again. It's long past time for me to get those photos posted so people can see them.

At left is Sunna's Fractured Star quit top. She added a border to make it larger and I think it looks great.

Here's a second photo of the quilt after it's been quilted. That's Sunna's husband and her oldest daughter holding the quilt. It was given as a wedding gift shortly after this photo was taken. Sunna, thank you so much! I love to see how my designs "grow up" after they leave home!

For whatever reason (probably my own ignorance!) I'm having trouble loading the other photos. It just drives me crazy! Why do some work and others not when they're all the same? I don't like to think of myself as technologically challenged -- but I guess I am (damn it!) I'll work on it some more. I had the same problem with the photos from the Mariner's Compass class I taught. Hmmm.

We had a sewing weekend last weekend and had a great time. We held it in the basement of our church which has lots of tables and a wonderful kitchen -- so we had all the comforts of home. I didn't actually take a count (because I was having too much fun!) but I think we had about 8 or 9 people on Friday and another 8 or 9 on Saturday.

I have to laugh because I think our sewing weekend pretty much baffled Pastor Rick. I don't think he quite understood why we would pack up so much stuff, haul it somewhere else, set it all up again and then sit and sew! As he passed through our area every now and again he seemed to smile and just shake his head.

There were all sorts of projects being worked on........ Sarah was sewing on flannel, Terry was working on (what's going to be) a 60" Mariner's compass medallion, Linda worked on several new handbags and then spent some time practicing her machine quilting, Denise worked on a block-of-the-month project, Elaine was working on a black/green/white quilt that's going to be a knockout, Lucille and Marian did hand work, Paula was working on her rag quilt and Darlene worked on a double wedding ring. We sue had enough variety! I was supposed to be finishing up my latest mystery quilt but you can about guess how much I got done!

I did take a few photos but I was having so much fun that I forgot about the camera until almost too late!

Well, I'm finally starting to feel better and I once again have a computer that can actually "compute" so it's time I got back in the swing of things and started catching up with everyone.
Pat (from SC) wrote to me today and included a photo of the Fractured Star quilt that she made from the Mystery Quilt pattern on my website. BRAVO!! .......and look! It's actually quilted an bound! Good job! Pat, I think the quilt looks wonderful and I'm anxious to see your BOM when it's completed.