I’ve been working like crazy, getting ready for Market and my upcoming trips in June. This afternoon, I decided to take a break and sit on our front porch.

 The weather was perfect, some sun, some clouds and 75 degrees. We just had rain, so everything was green and the air was crystal clear. As I looked into the distance, it view was beautiful.

While sitting and reading, I snapped this photo of the ferns. I love the play of light and dark in the palm fronds.

This week, I planted some lavender in our front flower boxes. They smell great. They must be happy, I see some flowers.

Again, I love the play of color lavender and green with the white fence and the play of shapes; lavender against the straight fence.

 On the back porch, I have pots of herbs; sage, thyme, basal, dill and rosemary. Two tomato plants are waiting to be planted in our small garden on the hill.  After 5″ of rain two days ago, the ground is still a bit muddy. . .perhaps in a day or so.

I love having these herbs right off the kitchen. There is nothing like fresh basal with garden tomatoes, fresh rosemary with salmon, baby carrots with a hint of dill. . .yum!

Interesting where a cold, gray day can lead! 

I started this quilt several months ago when it was cold, wet and dreary outside. I wished for summer and let that inspiration lead me. The quilt, Summer Dream was the result. (Posted in “gloomy outside, cheery inside“  and  “the quilt glows“)

I just got the quilt back from my Terry, my Long-Arm quilter and she did a fantastic job!  (Terry Dramstad from Quilts, Ink. in Cooperstown, North Dakota)

I used my Shade Cascade fabrics for perfect shading from light to dark. The shading gives the quilt a beautiful illusion of depth and movement. The colors I used are Sky, Glow and Pansy.

The pattern is now on my website. . . You never know where inspiration will lead. I wonder what is next?

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day in Tennessee. We decided to spend Sunday afternoon riding with friends. Who could resist the call of the road, the sunny weather and the Tennessee landscape!

Rick and our friend Ross, getting ready to roll!

We took off, Rick and I are at the back of the pack. Perfect for seeing the open road, taking pictures and seeing our friends in front of us!

Our part of Tennessee is filled with rolling hills with beautiful overlooks,

hidden lakes,

fields ready to be planted (you can see the some of our hills in the distance)

and lovely creeks.

Yesterday was just the break we needed. . .now it is back to work!

It has been an interesting few days.

My computer started acting funny.  This is unusual, since this workhorse has not given me a moment of trouble for the past 3 years I owned it.

Long story, short, I turned it off, waited 5 minutes and turned it back on. The instant power hit the computer, a fireball shot out of the back of it!

Okay, it was not this bad, but I thought it was!

My husband, Rick is a computer technician. He diagnosed it as a “dead shot” and guessed the power supply took the hit. We spent the morning driving to the computer store and purchased a new power supply.

Of course, my biggest fear was my information on the computer. Since this computer runs my business, this information needs to be backed up constantly.

Rick has solved that problem. He remotely backs up all our computers to a separate server. This happens several times a day and during the night. The server is also backed up on a separate hard drive. All in all, our information is backed up on three separate places every day.

Is this excessive? No way! I have lost information in a hard drive crash in the past and I never want that to happen again. Rick has solved that. Once we got home, Rick opened up my computer tower  and replaced the power supply.

After a few tense moments, we powered up the computer and all was well. All information was intact and the computer is fine.  Whew!

Now I’m off to back up my laptop!

As a traveling teacher, packing and unpacking are part of my job. As soon as one trip is over, another is upcoming. For the few weeks, I’ve been making lists and packing for Spring Market. Everything has to be shipped tomorrow, so I’m getting down to the wire.

This year Spring Market will be held in Portland, Oregon. It is a beautiful city.  It has a population of over 2 million residents. The city covers 130 miles and is listed as the cleanest city in the U.S. Companies such as Nike, Adidas and Intel fuel the local economy.  Portland is located an hour from the Pacific Ocean and is close to Mount Hood. (Check out the link for the Mount Hood web cam!)

There is always lots to do, to prepare for Market. I’ll be doing two Schoolhouse Sessions for Blank Quilting: Secrets of the Selvage and Creating Quilts of Illusion.

I will debut new colors in my Gilded Greenery collection.

And my new collection called Nami will also debut.

Often I am asked, “How do you design fabric?” Sometimes I am inspired by a concept, sometimes a texture, sometimes by a need I see as a quilter. Many different things inspire my fabric and quilt designs.

For Nami, I was inspired by antique and traditional Asian textures. To give the collection a clean, yet traditional feel, I used the combinations of indigo/white, black/white, red/white and red/black.

In order to have designs that worked well together, I selected curvilinear designs and geometric designs. These play well off each other and can be used together in a quilt.

The three curvilinear designs are:

The floral designs are inspired from traditional Asian textures. The wave design is inspired from an antique kimono texture.

The three linear designs are:

Each of these designs were directly inspired by traditional Sashiko quilting patterns. In the third design, the stitching lines show.

What is Sashiko?
Early 18th Century, the wives of Japanese farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks made warm garments by stitching     two pieces of heavy fabric together. They used fine running stitches throughout the entire garment. At first, the    stitching was used for reinforcing and repairing damaged fabrics but later became more decorative. The cotton fabric was dyed very dark blue with the root of a native plant. We know this color as indigo.

By the end of the century, this particular style of stitchery was known as “SASHIKO”. Around the late 19th Century, sashiko appeared in cities. The style was adopted for warmth but the stitching designs became more elaborate.

I created this kimono quilt as a free project giveaway for this collection. Be sure to ask for your shops to order Nami and ask for the free project sheet.

 I also played with Nami and Gilded Greenery in this quilt, Celtic Vision from my book, Celtic Pieced Illusions.

 I used the Cinnamon and Saffron colorways from Gilded Greenery and three textures Nami in this quilt. I think it is an amazing combination!