California Dreams

Last week, I spent a couple of days in California, teaching at Road to California in Ontario.

Road to California is a huge quilt show with tons of amazing quilts and tempting vendors. My classes were early in the week, and I had to get back home even before the show opened. I was sorry to leave without seeing the displays, but was thrilled with the two workshops I taught. Everyone seemed to have a great time, including me, especially after my luggage finally caught up with me. And it was wonderful to have a little break from the cold weather we've been experiencing here in upstate New York.

You know you are in the right spot when the name of the event logo is projected on the convention center wall!

For someone who lives in California, this is probably an average, run-of-the-mill flower bed. But when you live someplace where the predominant flower bed color in January is white, it warms the soul to see all this color!

Happy Poppy!

The Sweet Revenge quilt was the class project for Monday. It's an ambitious, but easy quilt. Even so, several blocks in a variety of scrappy colors made their way to the finish line.

On Tuesday, the workshop project was Stained Glass. A cool quilt with a great technique that makes the super-sized block easier than you'd think to assemble. After one day of sewing, several quilts were well on their way to completion!

A bird's eye view of the main entry way. This is before you even get into the show.

Back at the hotel, the lobby looked like a tropical paradise. More color. . .

. . . and orchids too.

With my internal body clock set to east coast time, it's easy to rise in time for the sun's grand entrance. I bet a summer sunrise looks similar from my own New York State window. . . . well, maybe without the palm tree! But I'm not so much an early riser in the summer.

Back at home, the cold reality sets in. This plow operator, at least, has a sense of humor. Check out the message on the plow blade!

Speaking of Spring, right after that comes Summer. And in July, I'm going on a cruise to Alaska. This week I've been working on the cruise project. I have to tell, you the Hoffman batik precuts are just fabulous and the quilt is going to be amazing! I'm very excited! Here's a sneaky peek for you. Are you coming along on the cruise? There are still a few spaces left, but one of these days, I'm going to announce that the cruise is all booked, and won't you be disappointed to know someone else took your spot? Make your reservation! Call Michelle at Quilt Retreat at Sea (210-858-6399). Packages for quilters and non-quilters, too!

"Think Spring!" and  . . .


Happy Stitching!
joan

January Thaw

Cold, warm, snow, rain, wind, ice. The thermometer was all over the place this weekend, but that didn't keep me from enjoying some time with 22 like-minded quilty-types.

It's an annual quilt retreat weekend at the Minnowbrook Conference Center in Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks. You know the drill, you pack up way more projects than you can ever finish in a weekend, throw in a sewing machine, and all kinds of supplies. Add a few friends, and a well-lit place to set everything up. Throw in lots of colorful fabric and friendly conversation. And let the quilting begin!

With freezing cold temperatures just prior to our arrival, and an abrupt switch to warmer temperatures and rain upon our arrival, the ice-covered lake looked a little mushy.

With the thawing temperatures, ice formations over the stream that empties into the lake look like brittle glass sculptures.

Inside, a plan was brewing to make some pillowcases to donate to the Jefferson County Hospice. Part of the 1,000,000 pillowcase challenge.

Seemed like everyone got into pillowcase production as the weekend advanced.

Hey, where'd everyone go? It's pretty embarrassing when you get so engrossed in what you are working on that you don't even notice that the room is suddenly empty. . .

There they are! A brief visit by the Ruby Scissors Quilt Shop, formerly known as Patti's Quilting and Fabric, from (sorta) nearby Glens Falls, NY shifted the attention from making quilts to fabric acquisition mode.

Jessica, shop owner, knows how to clear a room!

Color! Tempting! There's a quilt in here somewhere, just waiting to be stitched!

Temptation satisfied. . .

Sunday morning, and nature provided a fresh dusting of snow. Can't you just smell the pine?

A reminder that we are intruders in the natural landscape.

Oh, and about that pillowcase project. 71 pillowcases was the grand tally for the weekend. . . . Not bad!

Don't you just love to get away on a quilty holiday?

Happy Stitching!

Lights. . . Camera . . . Action!

From time to time, I've been asked if I've done any videos outlining the ScrapTherapy process. Well, thanks to the wonderful folks at Taunton Workshops, now I can say, 'Yes!'

Scrap Quilting, The ScrapThearpy Way walks you through the entire process that I use to cut, store, and use my scrap fabrics. I take one of the projects, Everything Nice, from ScrapTherapy, Cut the Scraps! and turn it into a table topper. And you can make one too, right along with me, at your own pace in your own sewing studio.

With each section of the video, we'll walk through the entire process of making the quilt from start to finish. Once you purchase the video, you own it forever. And you don't have to use your computer space to store it! The video is broken into segments so if you want to review any of the steps, you don't have to go hunting through the whole thing to find the tips that you need!

Go take a look! Click here for a sample or to buy the video.

Back in September, I spent a week 'in the studio' at The Taunton Press headquarters in Newtown, Connecticut with some real experts in the video production world.

A lot of effort is made to make what you see seamless (pun intended!). But what happens behind the scenes is so very interesting, too.

The studio is set to perfection with lots of attention paid to color, lights, and background.

It's a small room, a lot like my sewing room at home . . . except for the big camera! The room wasn't completely sound proof. From time to time a motorcycle or the noise from a big truck passing on a main road nearby would stop production--usually on the rare occasion that yours truly didn't flub her lines!

Bright lights! And there's Bruce way in the back, the camera expert extraordinaire! He's the silent partner in the project. You never see him in the video, but he's there behind the camera in every single shot.

I'm really excited about connecting with you through these workshops. And there's more to come, so stay tuned!


Speaking of 'big news' . . . Looking at my calendar, I see that it's January 9th already. That means that there have already been EIGHT winners in the Schmetz Needles Prize-A-Day Sweepstakes! Are you one of the Elite 8? Do you want to be one of the Fantastically Terrific Thirty-One?!? Well, you'd better get over to the Schmetz Needles website, click on the contest information in the center of the page and submit your entry. Better still, jump over to the Schmetz Needles Facebook page and click 'like!' And you could be one of the Fantastically Terrific Thirty-one. And yes, you guessed it, there are TWO (not one, but TWO!!) autographed ScrapTherapy books in the mix of daily prizes!! Who wants to win?!?

Happy Stitching!

An Ornament for the Tree

If you've followed this blog for a while, you know that every year, I include a hand-made Christmas ornament with my mailed holiday greeting cards. Nothing too fancy, something colorful and fun for the tree. Last year, it was elf mittens. This year, the ornament is an ornament! Scroll down to get the tute.

Start out with a simple shape, printed on freezer paper. The circle is 2-inches in diameter. You can download a sheet-full of shapes here.

Fuse the freezer paper to some yummy felted wool. I like this stuff from Purl Soho--the bright colors and texture of the wool felt are fabulous! For the base, I used white, but you can use any color. With the freezer paper fused to the wool, I cut out the ornament shapes.

Remove the freezer paper from the ornament base, and add some colorful strips. I rotary cut strips--some 1/4-inch. Some 3/8-in. Some 1/2-inch. Rough-cut the strips to fit across the ornament and give it a couple of whacks with a needle felting tool and mat to hold things together. . .

. . . and add a few decorative stitches with pearl cotton.

Make matching pairs.

Different colors, too! Place two matched ornament sides, wrong sides together, and button-hole-stitch them together around the edge. Stop when you've gone about three-quarters of the way around. . .

 . . . and stuff in some batting scraps. I used wool batting bits, you can use batting scraps or fiberfil.

Rotary cut ornament tops--3/4-inch by 1-inch rectangles. Fold the rectangle in half . . .

 . . . With a color-coordinated piece of pearl cotton, come up from the 'inside' of the fold in the middle, then pull the thread back down to the inside a couple of thread-widths way, leaving a loop, 2 or 3-inches long . . .

 . . . put a knot in the loop.

Pull the knot even with the felt, and square knot the short tail with the long thread end. Trim the short thread tail. Keep the long thread end on the needle to complete the ornament top.

Re-fold the rectangle and secure it to the top of the ornament with a running stitch around the edge. Bury the thread end in the ornament middle-fluff.

Ta-done!

Repeat . . . Repeatedly . . . Mix it up with different stitches and playful color combinations.

Happy Holiday Stitching!
Merry Christmas!
joan

One year ago . . .

On the morning of December 14, 2012, I punched a couple items off my to-do list on the computer and was heading to the car dealership for a routine annual inspection and oil change. I had a moment to check the weather forecast so I opened my internet browser and saw the headlines. Something about a shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, many details were still pending. Newtown?! I immediately fired off an email to my editor, Renee at The Taunton Press expressing positive thoughts for the staff with whom I have worked over the past few years. Taunton is located in Newtown. Mine is a business relationship. But the people who are The Taunton Press are also my friends.

At the car dealership, the television in the waiting room aired non-stop coverage. And the news kept getting worse. The world stood still as horrible details emerged. By the next morning I was back in touch with my friends at Taunton, and the details were put in place. A call for quilts. Email communications and social media spread the word. And quilters responded.

Overall 120 quilts were received during a three week time frame. Each quilt--enough for family members and first responders--was specially selected for the person receiving it. Members of local community organizations like Women Involved in Newtown helped distribute each quilt personally along with a note from me:

What is a quilt? It seems simple enough: pieces of colorful fabric sewn together, with a simple fabric backing, and batting in the middle to make it warm and cozy. The stitches that run through all the layers are what hold it together and add to its beauty.

Newtown is like that quilt—held together by so many beautiful stitches. And The Taunton Press, my publisher, is one of the largest employers in Newtown. Many of its employees are residents of the town. Some have children that attend Sandy Hook Elementary, and many others are friends with the teachers, students, parents, and first responders who were there that day. After hearing about what happened, I, along with many other quilters, had the desire to help—to make something positive, something meaningful that would honor those we lost, thank those who were the first to respond, and help the community move forward.

Through the years, many problems have been discussed and solved with needle and thread in hand. When something terrible happens in the world, quilters get stitching. And so we did for Newtown.

This quilt was handmade, finished, and selected so that it might bring comfort and hope to a community in distress. Hang it on a wall. Store it for a needy time. Wrap yourself in warmth. Feel the gentle embrace from someone who cares very deeply. Because, a quilt is so much more than the fabric, batting and stitching it is made of—it’s a reusable hug.

And that's the end of the story . . . so I thought.

The good news is that no one in the Taunton family was directly affected that day. The bad news is that everyone in the Taunton family was directly affected that day. I received touching personal messages of gratitude--hand delivered, heart-felt thank-you notes, emails, personal conversations--from parents whose children received quilts--children who were at the school that day. The quilts were from us. The thanks are for you. . .

In September, I was back in Newtown, working on a new project. The town seems to be back to 'normal.' The balloons and make-shift memorials have been moved away. Traffic whizzes down the main road at a speedy clip just like before. But there are differences. You can see it when a police siren is heard in the distance. In any other town, it's normal to hear a siren from time to time. In Newtown, people stop and catch their breath for a moment and remember.

And I thought you should know, too. I'm writing this message to pass along the sincerest thanks to those who participated in this project from those who received the quilts you made. Whether you sent a quilt or said a prayer . . . message received. Thank you.

What's next? For more information on some of the grass roots efforts in Newtown, these websites offer some additional information.

 - The Sandy Hook Promise. Upon entering the site, you are immediately invited to join, but you can close down the prompt window and have a look around the site first. If you like what you see and want to be a part, then join. If not, that's okay.
 - The Newtown Action Alliance. Lots of information here. Learn more about the Newtown Foundation, a non-legislative not-for-profit organization. Purchase ornaments and cards in the shop.
 - Learn more about each of the victims and the individual memorial funds set up in their honor at My Sandy Hook Family.
 - Participate in the National Vigil for Gun Violence Survivors, live streamed from the Washington National Cathedral today, Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 3:40 pm (eastern).
 - I bet you have an unfinished quilt that could make someone smile or help them heal. Look around your own community and offer a quilty hug. Women's shelters, refugee organizations, hospitals, veterans' groups.

Quilters know that a quilt is more than fabric, batting and thread.

A quilt is love.

Happy Stitching!
joan

Three Weeks Left

If you celebrate the Christmas holiday, then you probably don't need me to point out that there are less than three weeks to go before the big celebration!

I don't know about you, but I still have a few things to get done before I can really relax and enjoy.

There's quilting. . .

 . . . and binding. . .

and piecing . . .

and ornament-making and greeting-card stuffing . . .

And baking . . .

Not to mention shopping, wrapping, and taking in some holiday shows and concerts.

*Phew!* I'm getting tired just thinking about everything on my to-do list! I think I need a nap!

I'd better put it on the list!


Happy Stitching!


joan

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy the hoilday and be sure to set aside some quiet time for stitching! - joan