The reorganizing is still in progress. Since I retired from doing Market, I was able to eliminate a few boxes. Consolidating ready to ship patterns with inventory when possible eliminated a few more. We even moved out an old computer and table that is no longer used, so things are coming along. I found some pattern bags I didn’t know I had just in time, as I was ready to order more! I also found some pieced blocks, samples for “Sunshine Flowers” and sewed them into a table runner. I hope I actually layer and quilt it so I can use it on the deck and not just let it continue to be another UFO ( Unfinished object).

I’m back! Houston was fun as usual; Rose and I visited favorite places and found new ones to enjoy. Our list gets longer every year and time does not allow us to do it all. This year, quite by accident we found a little cafe that had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, that didn’t look like much on the outside but was packed with customers and famous for amazing hamburgers. Lankford Grocery, go there!

I took lots of pictures but this morning when I tried to download them there was only one and it was not worth keeping! I’m not sure what is going on with my camera! It’s hard to see in the bright light if I am getting anything and apparently I wasn’t.

There were SO many quilts in the various exhibits at the show that I could not see them all. I concentrated on seeing the art quilts and missed most of the traditional ones. There were so many vendors at Festival, and I made the rounds; bought some fabric and some thread but not as much as usual. Truth be told, I didn’t need any more of either but there were a few things I couldn’t pass up, like some hand dyes from Ghana and a few well priced batiks.

Market seemed slow with attendance down judging by the fact that I was only able to give out nearly 500 handouts compared to 1000 when I started going in ’97. Sales were fair but, again, not what they used to be–you can’t sell to empty isles! My new “Threadâ€� pattern was the favorite, by far, appealing to both the traditional and the contemporary quilters.

I’m unpacked but that is about all.  I have everything to put away and organize and lots of catching up to do!

I have been working on getting the patterns ready for Market and I seem to be more behind than usual this year! Hopefully today will wrap it up and I can get them to the printer.

I took a day off Saturday and went to a workshop sponsored by the Kansas Art Quilters. It was on transfers and I hoped to find a way to make fabrics that would work into some of my pieced work as it said that we would learn to transfer images to fabric. We did, but mainly we did Gel Medium transfers which are very plastic-y and not at all something that I would want to use. Disappointing, but at least it was a day out!

There was a nice note from my hostess, Maxine in Ft Collins, CO where I went in July and did a Coneflowers class. She sent me some photos from the class that I can share with you. It’s always fun to see what other folks do.

Maxine wanted her Coneflowers to be very pale like the White Swan variety that has a greenish cast. She chose rich darks to set them off and I like the wall effect in the foreground and the shadings in the centers. Her stem and leaf really stand out against it and her quilting gives nice dimension.

Julie chose a very interesting complimentary color scheme and it looks like her coneflowers are growing at the water’s edge. Her fabric choices for the flowers really emphasize the light and shadow on the petals and centers. Nice choice of accent strip and the piping in the binding is a nice touch!

This one is fun! Kay’s choice of black and whites to set off her hot pink flowers really works, and she used so many different ones! I like how it is darker at the bottom, grounding the piece and shades up to light at the top. The accent strip is just dark enough to stand out. I LOVE the flower centers! And the free form edge sets everything off perfectly.

Nancy’s coneflowers make me feel like I just discovered them growing out in a field on one of my walks! They are surrounded by wonderful nature fabrics – even some songbirds! I think she got all of her petals from one wonderful batik fabric and did it masterfully, utilizing the subtle purple shadings. The dark centers set them off nicely. This is going to improve even more with quilting!

That was such a fun workshop! Good job, everyone!!  I invite anyone from any of the workshops to send your pictures to me to share…

After having previewed over 150 cat quits The folks at Quilt Inspiration chose their 15 favorites and my KITTY CORNER CATS pattern was among them! You can see the quilts and the article here. Be sure to click on ‘older post’ to see the cats in the first two installments, or use the link below for the whole site.

I knew cats were popular with quilters, but who knew there were so many patterns available?! Quilt Inspirations is a cool place where I could spend way too much time!

I have been super busy the last few weeks producing four 12 x 12 pieces for my Artist of the Month show in September at The Topeka Art Guild Gallery. I wanted to do six, but I waited just too long! They are all finished except for the hand sewing on the back. Well, this one is all finished.

Inspired by the wren baby photo that I took earlier this summer, combined with one of the feeding parent.

During this time period I got word that the photo deadline for new pattern Market ads was Aug 27, so over the weekend I whipped out a larger version that will become a new picture piecing patten for fall. This will finish at about 24″square like the others in the series.

Yesterday I layered and basted it and got started on the quilting, there’s no time to waste!

I’ve been quilting off and on all week and have the piece less than half finished. As usual I am putting an insane amount of quilting on it.

It is still in the machine so I had to get close to snap this photo which seemed a little washed out so I adjusted the intensity and don’t know how accurate it will look on other monitors.

The dishwasher decided to die and the repair man said it would be cheaper to buy a new one than to repair it so that entailed a couple of trips to town. My appliances are Bisque – decisions, decisions – upgrade to Stainless? Our kitchen is small and dark so we decided to stay with Bisque. The salesman said some companies are phasing out Bisque, so we decided to go ahead and get a new refrigerator too while we still could. Probably should replace the stove soon as well! Then we should be good to go for another 10 years which unfortunately seems to be the predicted life span of new appliances these days.

I’m running out of Coneflowers patterns, so had to take the time to update that and get it to the printer – that’s a couple of hours trip – and today we have to go and pick them up. So it’s been a crazy week and again today I will not get to quilt very much.

Mon Grand Pere is showing at Denver National and won second place in the wall hangings! The two quilts arrived home yesterday in good shape from AQS along with the ribbon from Lancaster. No judge’s comments, which may come separately.

I’ve been busily packaging the new Bluebird pattern and it’s ready to go! Third in the series of Picture Piecing patterns, these have proven to be very popular! Straight seam piecing with color and numerical sewing order listed makes it easy for anyone to create a lovely wall hanging.

I first offered “Bluebird” for sale in Oklahoma and it went well – I’m so glad people are finding them fun to do! Check out the Pattern section of the website to see all of the patterns available!

What’s been happening? Well, on the quilting front, I finished the pattern for “BLUEBIRD”, sent the cover copy off to Ohio to the printer and took the pattern to the local printer. I hope to have that ready to sell soon.

Two quilts have returned home, “Just Dandy” with a nice First Place check from AQS and “Nasturtiums” from IQA where it has toured for the past year with “In Full Bloom”. It was nice to see it again – it’s bigger than I remembered!

The acceptance letters for “Packrat Palace” to go to the PA National Mancuso Show, and for “Watermelon Wine” and “A Promise Of Springtime” to go to the SAQA Tactile Fluency exhibit in St Louis this fall have arrived.

The Topeka Art Guild Gallery’s new show includes two of my pieces. “Lady Godiva” and “Myth In The Mist”. I spent all day Thursday there fulfilling my obligation to give them 6 hours a month manning the Gallery. During the non busy times I worked on my book keeping and then finished up at home so I would be caught up before my upcoming trips. So much to do, so little time!

I’m in the process of sorting and packing for my trip later this week to Wichita for two lectures and a “Coneflowers” workshop. Pulling fabrics to demonstrate yet one more Coneflowers piece is always fun. There are SO many options!

The Bluebird piece is underway! I want to enter this in the Aullwood Audubon Center’s exhibit with a May 15 deadline.

Thursday I had to do some shipping so while I was in town, I visited the exhibits at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and at the Warehouse 414 which both had art quilts on display. the pieces at the warehouse, by Leslie Jenison of Texas were very nice and I enjoyed seeing them in the setting of Mid Century Modern furniture, architectural salvage and antiques. One of my pieces at the TAG, Bathsheba, received a first place ribbon!

Yesterday we drove out to collect a printing of 2000 more Third Weekend In October patterns – that was sure a good decision to go ahead and write a pattern for that quilt! It is my best seller with nearly 30,000 copies sold!

It was nice to see that the redbud trees are starting to bloom and recent rains have really greened things up – time to look for morels!

But today I sew!

Another week passed–where did it go? IQF Spring Festival is going on without me this year. I guess I am glad not to be in the mess that is air travel right now!

“Just Dandy” was not deemed dandy enough to be amongst the winners this year. If you want to see what DID win, go here . Congratulations to the winners!
Most of the week was spent trying to get the taxes done; for many years now, I have done them myself with the help of TurboTax, but it gets harder every year! This year it was impossible to download the updates and state forms and of course the fact that I am running late didn’t help! I had panicked Wed when the recorded voice said it would take two weeks to get the CDs and I was unable to talk to a “real person”. An email to HELP resulted in an offer to send them overnight but by the time I got that, I had already made arrangements for a tax professional to do them. A good thing, too, because when the CDs finally did come I was apparently unable to load them correctly and everything I had done prior was lost. It has been a trying week to say the least, but one good thing has come from it. From now on the taxes will be done by the professional and I feel like a very heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders!!

The new pattern quilt is still on the design wall and I am making slow progress on it between other things. It’s scrappy and I had not bought any new fabric for it, but yesterday I realized that none of my white with black prints were large enough so I did have to go out and shop for more fabric. That’s always fun!