Do you have people in your quilting journey that have totally changed the way you look at things? I have a few:
- Donna, a late coworker who convinced me to use pretty fabric on the back of quilts (I had always used muslin previously.)
- anonymous person from the internet who showed me a better way to hand-stitch binding (their website is gone now and I don't remember their name)
- Denise from A Quiltery, who made me more successful at paper piecing
- Teresa Silva, who helped me get over my fear of ruining quilts when quilting by hand
- Kelly Young, who helped me look at my fabric scraps and improv quilting in a favorable way
Last week I got to spend the day with Kelly and it was so fun! We made the Churn, Churn, Churn mini from her Scrappy Improv Quilting book. If you are looking for a guild speaker, please consider Kelly. Her trunk show was fabulous and the class was perfect. She's booking 2025 right now, I believe.
Wednesday was a bit odd because we'd had a tornado warning overnight which interrupted our sleep. (No actual tornados occurred.) I felt bad because I knew Kelly was staying in a hotel and I thought about how that must be scary, especially since you aren't familiar with an area.
Then I was driving in to class and got a text from my son that a teacher had died and the kids had been evacuated to the football field due to a gas leak. About three hours and around 35 phone calls, texts, emails, and automated voicemail messages later, we determined that they didn't know the cause of the smell, but the building was cleared as safe, the teacher died in hospice care, not at school, and the kids were all sent home early as a precaution. I wish I were joking about the number of messages. I had to have my ringer off because it was going non-stop for a while.
Anyway, once the phone situation calmed down, I was able to relax and enjoy sewing. I didn't have quite enough time to finish during class, but got it done the next day. It's now awaiting quilting and binding.
Of course I've been working away at my quilting queue too. First up is a baby quilt by Sara. We picked Moon and Stars for the quilting.
Next is Barbara's quilt, quilted with Songbird.
Then Charles', quilted with Spaceman. This quilt is made using fabrics from Karen Nyberg, an astronaut.
Finally, another of Barbara's, quilted with Cobwebs.
I admire all of her perfectly spun seams. This is something that I know how to do in theory, but really struggle with in practice. 
I also got all three quilts that needed binding done over the weekend and shipped back to their owners.
Out in the vegetable garden, I cleared out the weeds from the garden tanks (again) and got almost everything planted. I decided to hold off a bit on the bell pepper seedlings to let them get a bit bigger before transplanting. I also dug the walnut saplings out of the upper flower gardens. The lower garden needs a lot of help still.
My son took this photo the other evening. I'm glad you can't really tell that this garden is full of unwanted trees that nature planted.
Were you able to see the northern lights over the weekend? We tried the second night, but were unsuccessful. Good thing people like to share their photos on social media. Here's the picture I took. Clearly no northern lights. I thought it was interesting that the moon looks full in the picture, but was more of a crescent shape in reality.
A friend who lives nearby really wanted to see them and spent much more time outdoors looking than we did. She was so disappointed that she wasn't seeing anything. She finally posted a picture of the sky near her house where she had drawn pink and purple lines over the sky to create her own. I thought that was cute.
Oh, my sponsor prize from the Villa Rosa blog hop arrived. I received two charm packs.
Finally, I have an update about this month's OMG--making my dress form. I was planning to get started over the weekend. I went to YouTube to pull up the step-by-step video I'd found helpful previously. It was GONE! 😫😫 The person seems to have wiped their channel and their social media. This is what happens when you procrastinate. Ugh! So I've been pouting and haven't started yet. Maybe this weekend. Especially since I'm now down to about a week and a half before I need to post the OMG finish link up. Yikes!
Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.
It's scary to have a child in school and an emergency! I love springtime but I don't like the tornado warnings. Fortunately we have sirens in our area to alert us during the night. I hope you can finish your dress form, happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteI hate tornado warnings but have never been in a motel at the time that would make it worse. Sorry about the stuff going on at your kids school that must be scary.
ReplyDeleteMy son was visiting but spent time out at a nearby lake camping with friends. They saw the lights and got some amazing pics so we tried the next night...nope. But he said they didn't see anything until about 2 am. About midnight was as long as we could go, esp with an early morning ahead.
ReplyDeleteMy gardens are a constant battle but I'm getting better about not panicking. I figure if I can just get to any weed before it goes to seed, I'm good! Sometimes I wish I could hire a college kid with a horticulture route of study or something. Certainly someone out there could help out for a bit, right? Because JUST ONCE I'd love for everything to be weeded, if even for a few days!
Congrats on the prizes!
I like your churn dash. It's fresh and bright. Emergencies at school can be frightening. I missed the lights also. Curious about the moon. Hmm. Thanks for the interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteKelly came to Minnesota Quilters in August, 2022, so I know how good she is in person, as well as I love her books!!! Good job on client quilts and bindings! Your clematis is gorgeous!!! We couldn't see the northern lights from our deck, either. The FOMO is real!!!
ReplyDeleteOh Oh Oh - I love your Churn quilt!!! what fun to take a class from someone who has inspired you over your quilting journey!! and tornados - No... not allowed - sounds like a kind of stressful time - that you deserved that quilting time!
ReplyDeleteAwe, you are so kind. First, I love the fabrics for your churn dash, it's wonderful. I love Charles' quilt, that fabric is awesome. Weather, grr. We've had some of the worst weather this year. I don't recall so many actual tornado's within a 50 mile radius, ever. Actually, some of them were a first in my lifetime. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down and so happy my fpp methods made things easier.
ReplyDelete