It’s been an entire year since I last posted on this blog.
I had such good intentions of sticking with my plan of regularly posting and sharing the quilty happenings of my world. But ya know, life kinda had a few other plans for my day-to-day routine.
They say a picture tells a thousand words. And the occurrences over the past year have brought lots and lots of pictures. So rather than try to catch you up with lots of words, I thought some strategically placed pictures would do a lot of the talking for me.
Most of the past 12 months had really good things happening in them, but a few had some stinky moments too. I’m happy to say all the stinky stuff is resolved, and the really good things are still happening. So, let’s go for a tour and you can see the highlights of what I’ve been doing!
Lots of classes happened over the year in my home classroom. Here is Jean as she is working on her “Grandma’s Wedding Ring”. We put a couple tables together then laid a sheet over them. As she placed each section in the proper place, she would pin it to the sheet. At the end of the day, she gently rolled and folded up the sheet to take home. Once there, she could unfold the sheet and continue working without loosing anything or have anything out of place. Works really well when there isn’t a design wall handy, and placing things on the floor isn’t an option for laying things out.Whenever I get a chance to do some piecing, I like to use my folder system. I call it “Power Quilting”. Each folder is a layer, and is a specific section of a quilt. 8 layers shown, representing 3 different patterns being worked on at the same time.One of several T-shirt quilts I was commissioned to make over the past year. These are always so much fun to make and always a delight to see the recipient’s face upon the “reveal”. I even hid for a weekend. Well…not really. I turned off all my devices and just sewed at my desk and put this together. It was so therapeutic for me. Sewing is my happy place. The top is all completed now and waiting to be long arm quilted. Mine are always last in the queue, which is why there are so many waiting. This sweet quilt is a Moda Bake Shop quilt. Recipe card # 5, named Ganache.I also was able to do a bit of thread painting on a quilt made by a very special friend for her father. Just a couple long threads to clip to finish. It was such an honor to work on this beautiful tribute.What a happy moment this was! Our son and his beautiful bride on their wedding day!I was able to do a couple of trunk shows as well. The guild meeting for Sunset Slope Quilt Guild is about to start so there are a few ladies buttoning up a couple things. While I’m not in the photo, all the quilts you see are mine. The topic was “Vintage Linens” where I talked about how to take vintage, hand embellished linens and turn them into a quilt. They got to see my Quiltworx portfolio as well.These cute little gnome girls are waiting for their hats to be embellished. These, and about 35 more, were fairy gifts for the ladies at one of the two retreats I held over the last 12 months. They were so adorable and such a lot of fun to make!And here is the evidence of the retreats I hosted. 37 women at this retreat! We filled the Ball Room of the Wine Country Inn located in Palisade, CO for an entire weekend. 31 ladies attended the next one held 5 months later. SO MUCH FUN!This is such a special gift I received from one of the ladies attending my November retreat. It goes where ever I am working…always within eye sight so I can keep things in the proper perspective all the time. Such a comfort!Here we are at retreat about to play one of the two games we always enjoy. CLR — Center, Left, Right. Everyone starts with 3 FQ’s (fat quarters of fabric) and the winner takes all. HUGE amount of laughing and carrying on was done by all.Here is a Vintage Linen quilt in the “puzzling” stage. It’s now a finished top…or maybe I’ll put another border around it. Still in progress.And you know…there were MOUNTAINS of laundry to do over the past year…mountains and mountains of it. And dishes too. But I won’t show you those. Eeewwww…..no, just the mention of them is enough. But regular housework happened a lot too.Thought you’d like a peek at my long arm queue. Most are for customers, waiting their turn to go on the frame. And a few of my own at the end of the line. It’s a never ending stream of them of which I’m always grateful to have cross my threshold.And this happened! THIS is the culmination of nearly 5 years of hard work and persistence. I did it! It felt like I graduated from college. I’m still pinching myself. It’s now in a frame and sitting close to my desk where I can look at it every time I sit down. Classes – both in-person and via Zoom at my home classroom and at various quilt shops, trunk shows, guild presentations, long-arm quilting and blogging ALL circle around this piece of paper and what it represents…my absolute love of quilting and teaching. I Have Arrived!These sweet ladies “arrived” with me!! Donna, Cynthy, and I are the newest Quiltworx Certified Instructors. We had an amazing week together as we finished our certification training and all it entailed. In the background you can see my Dinner Plate Dahlia on the left, and two of Donna’s beauties…Glacier Star and Mariner’s Compass. In front of us is Alchemists Crystals playing peek-a-boo. It is a stunner and I can’t wait to make it so I can teach it!!
Thanks for taking a whirlwind tour through the past 12 months of my day-to-day life. Are you tired yet?? I am! Maybe I’ll take a nap before I start on the next 12 months. Eeehhhh…maybe not. I’m having too much fun!
But until next time, may your bobbin never be empty!
Ever wonder what it looks like around people that wear more than one hat? Here’s my desk today. It’s a paperwork kind of day.
Paperwork and writing…writing letters and making lists and menus and blog content and…. you get my drift.
I don’t mind it so much. In fact, I like it. And I’m liking it more and more the longer I blog. You see, I’ve always wanted to write a blog. And even more than that…I’ve always wanted to write a book. Crazy, huh? Maybe so, but why not?! Lol…as if I didn’t already have more hats to wear than the average bear. This crazy idea of writing a book started when I was in high-school and the theme always stemmed around my love of the old west. Now, quilts are a big part of that theme…and mining…Colorado’s old west has a huge amount of mining history and I basically live in the middle of this amazing history that was lived by real, everyday people.
Let’s talk about my hats, cause I’ve got several, and not everyone knows about them all.
I wear the hat of: A Judy Niemeyer Certified Instruction in-training. This has been an on-going endeavor and truly what has inspired me to sit down and begin my blog in a serious manner. I’m enjoying this aspect of growing my social media presence very much as I also begin to fulfill a dream that I’ve had for more than 45 years.
I wear the hat of: A quilting instructor. This goes hand in hand with the previous hat. But I enjoy teaching at many, many different levels. I studied to be a music teacher and much to my parents’ chagrin, did not quite finish. But! My love of teaching has stayed with me through home-schooling our children; teaching 4-H students about quilting; holding an adult quilting class for 3+ years which met once a week; and now I’m teaching Quiltworx patterns as I work towards my certification. It’s also a long standing and well established hat on my head.
I wear the hat of: A professional long arm quilter. A skill that I have been honing for the past 8 years and will continue to do.
I wear the hat of: Quilt restoration and repair professional. This is a skill that I’ve been growing since I was a little girl and owe a debt of gratitude to my great-grandmother who first introduce me to needle and thread. It was a crochet hook and yarn, but from there I progressed over the last 50+ years to the skills I have today. I spoke at length with another restoration professional several years back about how to find a way to gain some sort of certification for this skill set, and she graciously giggled and said there is none. The best who do this have spent their lifetime acquiring their skills and there aren’t any programs to equal their knowledge. We’re all self-taught. Now that’s food for thought!
I wear the hat of: Director of the Great Escape Quilt Camp, which today looked like a big messy desk as I wrote letters, compared notes from my last off-site retreat, made lists and began to plan menus. This hat is relatively new…maybe 6-7 years old or so. But it is something I absolutely and completely love to do. You see…I firmly believe that everyone has several gifts—or skills—they are innately good at without a lot of effort. It’s something they just do naturally. And without trying to toot my own horn too loudly…I’m pretty good at organizing events and being the hostess with the most-ess. And when I combine quilting and teaching and hosting all under the same hat…or rather all on the same head…well, life just sings away and I’m a pretty happy camper.
Other hats that I wear are the hats of: Being a wife…Being a mother…Being a daughter and sister…Being a home-maker…Being a farmer’s wife….and the list continues on and on.
But suffice it to say, I like my hats. I’m going to keep wearing them. I think I’ve finally found the right combination and don’t really need to add too many more. There will be some that come naturally from others, but they’ll get here when the time is right.
Now…where was that Director’s hat again…. it’s here somewhere!
What a fun day I had today. Just as much fun as I had yesterday. I love working with my students to help them create the living version of what they envision in their minds eye.
Today I helped another student layout her blocks for the quilt she’s making as a gift. Kenda is also working on a wedding ring pattern by Quiltworx, titled “Flowers for My Wedding Ring”. She selected the “Taffy” strip set byTimeless Treasures to create her arcs, and this is how they turned out.
Here is Kenda with the first rendition for setting her arcs. It’s looking really good so far!
There are several things to consider when setting the arcs for this pattern. Things like color placement and sequence across the quilt, corner stone placement for where the arcs connect to the next block…not to mention number of completed circles that go across and then down the piece to complete the layout of the body of the quilt.
Here’s the finished version of how Kenda set her blocks. She decided to add another column in order to have 5 circles, or rings across and 5 down. Now to sew them all together.
Once all this is sewn together, it will create the center of the quilt. After this comes a “Flying Geese” border, followed by a large outer border where she will place appliqué flowers. Every step of the way, her work becomes more and more of what she envisions of the end product.
We also spent a little time working on the turned edge method of appliqué that she will use for the flowers, leaves and stems needed to finish this beauty. I couldn’t be more proud of her progress!
Like everything in our lives these past several months, it’s been a struggle to find a way to continue moving forward. I’m so pleased that between us, Kenda and I have found a way to stay connected and continue making progress on her project. It’s been a struggle at times, but completely worth the effort. It’s definitely no small thing to be able to have a face to face class like we did today.
If you would have told me a year ago that some of the most important tools in my teaching arsenal would be my phone, iPad and laptop, I would have humored you and given a nonchalant nod. Now…they are vital tools.
Today, I use text messages and pictures to pinpoint a question area for a student. Phone calls and coaching happens several times through a project. And for those who either live too far away, or just plain feel more comfortable at home, services like Zoom and Google Meet have become necessary and common place to stay in touch and in front of each other. This is a skill set that I never expected to acquire. But in all honesty, it’s a good one to have and be comfortable with. I’m not really a “techie”, but Praise Be that I’m married to one who knows how to interpret my questions and help me fulfill the needs of both my students and myself. I’m grateful and appreciative these avenues are available for the everyday person to utilize in order to do the things we love.
Someone once said that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life.
I whole heartedly agree with this sentiment. And these past two days have been evidence of that…because I call this playtime…..at MY office!!
