Do you see what that is? It's a boxing kangaroo light-up pen that was given to me by my Australian friends.  I will be there in July teaching at Quilting in the Highlands out side of Sydney. Joe was not so sure he wanted to go with me - he thinks that Australia is like Southern California but with a much cooler accent (and no in-laws).  So I had to promise (lie to) him that if he goes with me  he will see LOTS of boxing kangaroos and we will certainly meet the real Tasmanian Devil.  Now he wants to come with me.  In fact, he says I had him at LOTS of boxing kangaroos.   Welcome to my world.  I can't wait for Joe's disappointment when the Tasmanian Devil's father is not wearing a Hawaiian shirt. My life feels like a bad cartoon episode. 

Here is one of the flower quilt classes I will be teaching.  It's called the Waratah.  I have no idea how to pronounce it.  Hopefully, the Tasmanian Devil will help out.

 Today is Thread Play day and tomorrow I dye the fabrics for the kits.  I think it turned out really nice.

 But first things first - I have to find where the boxing kangaroos hang out.  Any ideas?

If it's going to rain in California, let it pour when you have a good quilting project in hand. Who cares if I am missing all the fun in the sun? The peaceful and content feeling you get with the rain tapping on the roof, snuggled up in your favorite sweater and a needle or scissors in one and working on a fun project.  Well, that's what it was like this last week while I was teaching at Empty Spools Seminars in Pacific Grove. I had 11 students in my class which I think was pretty good considering we all had to arrive on Easter Sunday.  But that didn’t stop the flow of beautiful flowers. So here are some of my girls and their beautiful flower quilts.  I won’t be teaching at Empty Spools next year - I am taking a break but I am having my retreat at Lake Tahoe in 2013 and will post more information  when I have a firm date.

Ann Shaw was the featured artist this session.

 Her table was bursting with color. 

Each day she would select the fabric of the day and they where some great fabrics. She is very talented and will be teaching there next year.

I got a little carried away with the tulip bouquet on her table.

This is Marie Brown's blue couscous. The blue/periwinkle color just took your breath way.

Above are the flower quilts that Nancy McCain made from some of my patterns last year.  This year she stepped out with her own flower photo. Her Husband, JD, is also a quilter and was there taking in another class. He likes to do pieced quilts but we love him, anyway.

This  colorful rose, made by Jo Anne Coss, just knocked our socks off.

When Trish Nicholson is not paddling her sailboat on the Potomac River, she will be finishing her beautiful Coneflowers that I suspect we will l see in a future show. I hope.

Sheila Cory made these delightful Orchids. After a few additions of the right pinks she just flew.  4 girls in class brought their iPads with beautiful color photos on them but when we tried to closely match the iPad photo we had a very hard time because of the brightness of the screen but using the iPad to enlarge was great. I know there is a way to use this great tool so stay tuned. But in the mean time we still have to print out photos.

It's fun when friends take your class. Melanie McFarland and I meet years ago in a Mary Lou Weidman class.  She and Mary Lou have written a book together called Out of the Box with Easy Blocks. She has a wonderfully creative eye for color.  She made a still life flower arrangement in a vintage green vase.   You can see her photo in the picture below.   I just love this color combination. WOW! 

Another great talent was Cheryl Malkowski. She also is an author of 5 books with C&T.  Wow - I got all the talent in my class.  Look at the photo she took.  Now look at her quilt.  It's great!  I can’t wait to see it finished.  She could easily match the colors using my ColorFinder technique. 

Jan Carte is a true Californian who loves the beach, California Poppies and the San Francisco Giants.  Her classmate, Sherie Bertelson, flew in all the way from Alaska. On a plane, of course.  She picture was of  a delicate blue flower that grows in Alaska in her backyard.  I called her Miss Alaska most of the retreat. Once we found the right colors she was off and running. I always take a field trip into town to Back Porch Fabrics.  It's a must when you visit Pacific Grove. 

It was pansies for Brigitte Red.  She was obsessed and I understood her passion.  It was like she couldn't stop.  It was so fun to watch her see more and more. I called her Miss Canada.  I love Canadians.

Last but not least, A rose by any other name is Kim McFarland, Mel's sister-in-law. This rose just flew out of her. She did her base shape in a medium hue and then added the dark shadows and, finally, the lighter shades.  That's not a plain black fabric she has laid it on. it’s a textured bark cloth with an Asian motif.  It give a very elegant look.  Check out her border fabric in the photo below. 

Mel and Kim working

Jan in the Zone. Ann Shaw quilts on stage.

Sherie,  who doesn't like her picture taken. Sorry - I got you.

Kim on her final pressing.

Brigitte with her scissors hat. Funny Canadian!

JD and Nancy with their big hearts!

Kim with the 2 Mels.

Its All About The Dress

It’s been a crazy week here in EDH town. It started out with hunting down the perfect dress for my son’s wedding in June. You know, that something special dress that makes you look 20 pounds thinner and 20 years younger.  Why is it, when you were young and hot, you had no money or man or events to go to but now, with age, we have the means but, unfortunately, a body that we are sometimes not thrilled about sharing with the public?

Finding the right dress has been daunting. So I sat down one day and combed the Nordstrom and Macy’s web sites for any dress that I thought would work with my special needs: (1) can’t show the upper arms, (2) not too much of the girls spilling out and about, and (3) it can’t, in any way, make me look like my grandmother who, just happens to be dead.

So the dresses started to arrive, 5 from Nordstrom and 4 from Macy’s.  It was time to try them on but I needed to get rid of my husband first, who now works from home.  This working from home is cramping my beauty regimen.  His office is off the master bedroom and bath and closet with the good mirrors.  I wasn’t up for a fashion show but the funny thing was that HE was.  Great!  I guess if you just jacked up a $1,000 credit card bill the least you can do is toss the man a bone. 

But I would need some help so it was time to dig deep in my underwear drawer.  You know, down at the very bottom where you keep those thong panties for that special evening once a year.  And there she was, my heavy-duty full-body Spanx, a girl’s best friend.  So I hid in my closet and started to tug and pull my Spanx up over my curvy hips and the big girls.  I hear Joe say, Don’t let me see you until you are completely in the dress.  Great!  He knows. He must have heard me whimpering as I was battling with the spandex.

So the fashion show begins and, to my surprise, I have lost some weight and I did find one really cute dress in the bunch.   A lot of them made me lose faith in fashion designers but what’s new?  Joe even said I looked hot. Wow, I should stop hiding his glasses. Then he made the comment that you should get some stilettos for that.   I think he thought I was wearing the thongs panties under the dress.  I had to remind him that it was not that time of year yet.

So I have a dress. What a relief.  I packed all the rejects up and to the UPS store we went.  Now back to work on things the really matter like, oh yeah, that new flower quilt I am designing for my Australia trip.  That story will have to be for another day, because, right now, it’s all about the dress.

New Video on YouTube!

Quilting Adventures in Texas

Howdy!  That's how I talk now, since I have been spending so much time in Texas.  Let me take my boots  off and sit a while so I can tell you about the great time I had with my posse at the T&M Bar Ranch. 

The round up started after a BBQ in the chuck wagon dining hall. Then my posse and I had a meet and greet in our room called, of course,  the Bluebonnet. I could tell right away that this was a great group of woman as they circled there sewing machines around the room.  

I studied the room.  They all looked a little scared.  I saw big eyes and tight lips with nervous smiles.  That is a normal look for the first night and I promised them that I had their back and I would help them all along the way.  I don’t think they really believed me yet.

Then we went around the room introducing ourselves, sharing where we came from and what we would like to create in class this week.  There was a big silence as we met Kathy. She and her friend Lynn drove to Texas, from Ohio.  That's a 24 hours drive if you are keeping track.

Kathy kind of did a nervous little laugh, as she informed me and the class, that she is new to sewing. In fact, she just did her first stitches, ever (!), 2 days ago, on her new sewing machine, which she doesn’t really know how to use yet!   I heard a gasp from around the room. We have a true green horn here I said to myself as I swallowed hard. This is going to be tricky.

The next morning, after some delicious and hardy vittles, we all got started. The week seemed to fly by.  The most exciting part, to me, was to watch Kathy, the green horn. She may have been scared, and I know she was, but she pushed right through it.  She assembled her flower and now it was time for the free motion thread play. How were we going to do this? The only way I know is to practice, practice, practice. So we made a quilt sandwich for her to play on. The first stitches where about 4 inches long, then 3inches, then 1. By the end of that day she was able to write her name in cursive. She stayed up late that night practicing all kinds of shapes.  

In the morning she had made another sample and was now making the veins in flower petals and leaves.  She practiced for 2 days and then felt confident to start her flower.  On that day, she left the room for a while and I didn’t know where she went.  Later,  I found out she was in the lobby outside our classroom  having a tearful moment of joy.  She was proud of herself and so was I.  We all clapped and cheered for her and each other as each student made progress in battling their fears of trying something new.  I was the proud teacher of all my girls.  Each was trying something new and harder than they would normally do and all were having great success.

  

That night at dinner, I sat with a table of new people I hadn't been with before. I like to mix it up and meet new people.  At the head of the table was a lady pontificating about how you need to have some experience as a quilter to truly enjoy this kind of venue.  I politely stopped her and pointed to Kathy across the room and asked You see that girl over there smiling from ear to ear?  The whole table turned and looked at her. She had never sewn a stitch in her life until yesterday. She came to my class full of fear, not only of sewing but of life in general. I also know she has overcome some big and difficult things in her life and now she is free motion quilting her flower and having a ball.  I looked back at my table mates and saw 2 girls had tears rolling down their cheeks.  I then said I don’t think you need to know anything to be here. You only need an open heart to want to learn.  I never saw that lady again but I know that my girls in class learned a lot and so did I.  

Here is our new star's work! You go Kathy, the sewing world is at you feet.