A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That….

Oh My Gosh!!

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!

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