Monthly Archive

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!

From time to time, I thought I would mention some of my favorite quilt shops, new quilt shops or shops that would make a good “mini shop hop.”

I don’t know about you, but I love finding a new quilt shop! I just heard about one in Cullman, Alabama:

Simple Pleasures Florist and Quilt Shop

1605 3rd St Ne
Cullman, AL 35055
(256) 734-5016

This is a photo of their beautiful display of Splash and Lava from Blank Quilting.

Cullman is a fun little town in northern Alabama. It has a large flea market, weekly farmer’s market and on May 17th, is Strawberry Day.  Yum!

While in Cullman, don’t miss the Sewing Gallery, another great quilt shop!

 

 Road trip anyone??

I enjoyed my time in the Denver area. While there, I drove from Denver to Boulder to visit the Celestial Seasonings plant. The view as I drove towards Boulder was beautiful.

As I took this photo, I noticed the ground in front of me was “moving.” As I looked closer, I saw dozens, if not scores of prairie dogs!

I love tea, so I was excited to visit Celestial Seasonings.

They offer a factory tour, so I was off to the Tour Center to book my place in line. The tour was fascinating! We saw how the tea was mixed and packaged. It all happens at this plant. The entire factory smelled wonderful!

After the tour, I visited the Tea Shop and bought lots of tea.  My favorites: Sleepytime, Mandarin Orange Spice and Goji Berry Pomegranate.  Yum!

Denver is a beautiful town. We took some amazing photos!

We were getting hungry, so we decided to have High Tea and the famous Brown Palace Hotel.

It is a beautiful building, built in the 1880’s.

The stained glass ceiling was amazing. Looks like a quilt!

We have a lovely tea, just look at this beautiful plate.

Last stop, the Molly Brown House.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown movie was my favorite as a child. I just had to visit her home.

 The house was closed, but we took lots of photos.

The house is a Queen Ann style and the gingerbread was amazing!

I played with my camera and was able to take a photo of the house in sepia. Looks like the photo was taken 100 years ago! (Can you see me on the stairs?)

While in Denver, I spent some time with my friend, Barbie and her daughter, Courtney. I’ve known Barbie for years and recently she and Courtney have moved to the Denver area.  I was exited to see them! We had a wonderful time, visiting some sights in and around Denver.

I fully believe in “filling the well”, or in other words, take time for yourself and fill your mind with inspiring people, places and things.  We decided to spend time time at the Denver Art Museum. Our first stop, the gift shop:

We found these cool woven place mats.

Some beautiful glass coasters.

I loved the light coming through these vases.

We viewed the new Gee’s Bend Quilts exhibit, an Impressionist exhibit and a small Amish quilt exhibit.

Next, off to walk through downtown Denver. At the capital building, we spotted this engraving, “One Mile Above Sea Level.” Well, we had to get a photo together, a mile high.

There are many sculptures around the city. We found this giant bear peering into the convention center.

More on our visit in my next post!

I’m in Denver, Colorado, having a wonderful time with the Arapaho County Quilters and the Columbine Quilters Guild.

The landscape is beautiful.

Travel is always interesting, you never know what you will see. When I pulled into the hotel parking lot after class, this is what I saw!

Just can’t wait to get on the road again!

All the electronics are charges, quilts are packed, workshop supplies have been shipped, clothes are washed and waiting to be packed and I’m headed back on the road. For the next 11 days, I’ll travel across the country, teaching and lecturing.

My first visit is with the Arapahoe County Quilters and the Columbine Quilt Guild, both in the Denver area.  Thursday night, my lecture at the Arapahoe guild is on  “Quilts of Illusion.”

On Friday, my class is a “Patchwork Illusions”, an easy way to create amazing 3-D quilts.

Next, a visit to the Columbine Quilt Guild. On Saturday, the hands-on workshop will be on the illusion of transparency. This is a fun illusion that uses color to create the illusion of transparency.  

My lecture will also be on Transparency. I’ll show different ways to put this illusion into quilts and will show many different quilts of illusion.

If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and say hello!

My next stop is a cross country flight home, hop in my car and drive to Johnson City, Tennessee for two classes at the Somewhere Sewing quilt shop.

The first class is Celtic Illusions is based on my book, Celtic Pieced Illusions. A fun way to create pieced Celtic quilts.

Christmas Cube is a beautiful 3-D cube and is so fun to create!

While I’m traveling, I will also be starting my “Combing Through Your Scraps”, online class at Quilt University.  For complete information, visit Quilt University.com.

What a wonderful time we had in Virginia! We loved seeing Jamestown and Williamsburg.

My visit to the Colonial Piecemakers was fantastic! We had a wonderful time at the workshops and lecture! What a fun group.

Here they are, hard at work, piecing cubes.

While everyone was working, I noticed Mary’s jacket. She had a beautiful mola on the back of it and had used batiks with it. The jacket was stunning and what a clever way to use the Mola she received from Panama.

The class was held in a beautiful church building. The rafters were open. With the sun shining in, I noticed a lovely design. Hmm, maybe a new quilt or quilting design??

Here are the cubes made in class, all together on a design wall. Pretty cool!

We have a fantastic time!

Williamsburg has always appealed to me on many levels. I love the historical nature of Colonial Williamsburg. I love the quaintness of the restored town. Everywhere I look is a charming scene.

As a quilter, this also appeals to me. I love the geometrical nature of Williamsburg. The fence along  this garden.

As I travel, I am always looking for inspiration for my quilt and fabric designs.

The lines of a gazebo and color play of a bright yellow against the white of the gazebo and the fence show me color and line combinations.

The straight line of a chimney, the angle of a roof and the perspective inspire me.

The repeating line of a fence against the octagon building intrigue me.

In this close-up, I find inspiration for a quilting design.

Everything where I look is inspiration for a quilt. This design along the edge of the roof would be another amazing quilting pattern.

This lamp has an interesting design that wraps around the lamp. I also enjoy seeing the play of light against dark in this photo.

I love taking photos through windows. This photo has an interesting grid pattern and a beautiful scene beyond the window.

In this courtyard, I noticed the shape of the buildings.

At the end of the building was a shed. At closer look, I noticed the patina of the roof.

At even closer look, I noticed the shape of the roof shakes as they covered the roof.

Yesterday, we woke up before 3am, left the house at 4am and caught a 6am flight to Virginia. I’m looking forward to teaching at the Colonial Piecemakers on Friday and Saturday. However, Rick and I decided to go a few days early and do some touring before my classes.

Our first stop was the Jamestown Settlement, first permanent settlement on America, 1608. It is on the banks of the James River.

While there, we watched some of the archaeological digs and met the “Chicken Lady.”

Here is a recreated barrack. Rick was interested in the construction.

Late in the afternoon, we went to Colonial Williamsburg. As we arrived, a fife and drum corp was marching down the street.

We also saw a new-born lamb.

All in all, Colonial Williamsburg is a magical place.

More in a bit.  .  .

We live south of Nashville, near the city of Columbia, Tennessee. This is a beautiful part of Tennessee with its rolling hills and beautiful scenery.

Columbia is the “home town” of our 11th president, James K. Polk.

This area is home to many antebellum mansions and historical sites.

Columbia is also known for “Mule Day.” During the 1st week in April, our town swells in size with the addition of 200,000 visitors from around the world.

What is Mule Day?

“Mule Day” in Columbia, Tennessee has been a tradition since around 1840, when the first Monday in April brought huge crowds to the animal livestock show and Mule Day Market (originally called ‘Breeder’s Day’).

Mules were such a big business in Maury County, that at one time, the Columbia Mule Day had the distinction of being one of the largest livestock markets in the world.

Mule Day, with its festive air eventually evolved into what is now an almost week-long celebration of the mule. Thousands of visitors come to Columbia to take part in the numerous activities ranging from working mule and best of breed events, to horse shows, arts and crafts booths, and a flea market. The smell of barbecue specialties and homemade pies blends with the smoky aroma of roasted corn and funnel cake sweetness.

It’s springtime in Tennessee.  .  . love it!