Last night's lecture and a suprise today

I was so busy with setting up, talking, and then tearing down I never took one picture of the wonderful group of ladies that at the meeting last night. There must have been at least 50 women there! Everything went well thanks to Dawn who helped show quilts, fold them up, and helped me unpack and pack the car. Darla also helped carry stuff for me too. The quilts that drew the most ohs and ahs were the two gray and yellow quilts - the multi layer baby quilt and the big one I made for my guest room.

I sold lots of fat quarters and bundles. Look - I now have emptied one full container!

Remember how I had shown that picture of all my samples organized into a nice pile? This is what the pile looked like after I go home. There is no time to be neat when you are moving from one example to the next. I just took them off the design board and dumped them in a bag.

I needed to get the brick fixed around a window. There use to be a little bay window at this location and when I replaced all the windows in the house the new window didn't fill the space the bay left. So my brick guy called me this morning after I had already gone to work and wanted to do the window today. I went home quick - it is only a mile away from work - and got the hose out for him. You can sort of see the issue with the window here.

Here it is all done! It is amazing he was able to find a match for 55 year old brick!

I just need to caulk between the window and the brick and this will be a good job done!

Samples and has spring sprung?

I worked on getting my sample blocks and pieces organized last night. Here they are piled up in the order that they will presented. This pile is actually upside down. I need to cut a piece of cardboard to sandwich the pieces to the board I have underneath for transporting them to the lecture. I made some notes in my copy of the program so I have stuff to talk about while I change the pieces on the design board.

I went for a 45 minute walk last evening just to get out and enjoy the weather. The sun was shinning, but the air is still cool. I took a look around the yard to see what was happening. There was a cute group of crocus that the squirrels had transplanted for me and the deer hadn't eaten the flower yet

The Lenten roses are blooming - these are poison to deer

Where it is warmer next to the house because of the brick facing south, I saw my first glimpse of yellow from the daffodils.

There was frost on the roof this morning and the temp is only 43 right now. The sun is shinning, but 43 is still cold!

A behind the scenes look

I spent time gathering quilts and items I need to take with me for my lecture tomorrow evening. There is a fair amount of prep work that takes place so hopefully I don't look like a goof!

The place I am going to does not have a projector so I need to take my portable design wall I made in February for the art museum workshop. I decided to modify it and put an easel back on it. After thinking about this for the past couple of day I had a plan. I had a cardboard shipping box from some shoes I bought a couple of months ago and never got around to throwing out the box - thank goodness! I cut the whole width of the front off leaving on the end flaps. I positioned the piece on the back and taped one of the flaps to the back of the wall. I then got some fabric and taped to the other flap. The fabric goes under the design wall and I used small binder clips to hold the fabric in place. To give the design wall some stability I will place one of my covered bricks inside the easel back. I did the fabric at the bottom so I can unclip the fabric and the easel back will be flat for transporting and storage.

I have my quilts and quilt tops gathered.

My boxes of FQs to vend

The handouts (already in the car)

All that is left is to sort thru this pile of pieces and parts that I have used in previous lectures and the workshop. I will not be cutting or sewing so I need to have step by step examples ready to put on the design wall. Gosh, I am going to have to be super organized!

7th finish of 2014

I spent most of my weekend working on this quilt. I am glad to have this one done. I will add it to my baby quilt stash, but I wanted to get it done for my lecture on Wednesday. It is 44" X 59". I used Warm & Natural 80/20 for the batting and Mettler 40 wt. cotton quilting thread in natural for both the bobbin and top thread.

Look how my canna is growing!

The weather was cool again this weekend. Sunday morning there was frost on the cars and it was only 30 degrees. It warmed up in the afternoon to the low 50's so I went for a nice long walk. Today and tomorrow rain is predicted. The ground is still very wet so we really don't need a lot more rain right now.

Seond top done

I had the second top done Thursday, I just didn't have time to post it.

All three of my pieces I submitted for the project I can't talk about were rejected. Now I don't have to spend the next week and a half trying to get them done and I can work on getting ready for my lecture next Wednesday for the Medina quilt group. I am going to try and get one of the two tops just made done for that lecture and then I will just take the other top.

I think I will be spending a lot of hours in the studio this weekend since we have a constant stream of rain coming down.

Have a great weekend!

Progress on the quilt tops and yard work

I got the borders on one of the quilt tops.

I have the borders laid out for the second top and I plan on finishing this one tonight.

Despite wind guts up to 39 mpg, I decided with the temp being 74 degrees I needed to go and do some yardwork. I gave my ornamental grass a haircut

Then I cleaned up the dead coneflowers.

It took 4 trips with the wheelbarrow and an hour and 15 minutes to haul all the material to the back compost pile. The daffodils are growing fast!

More border ready to sew and is spring finally here?

I cut more border for the two quilts I pieced this past weekend. I will work on getting them sewn together at lunch time today and maybe get them on the pieced blocks tonight.

Last night I went for a walk since it was finally in the low 50's and not raining or snowing. I am making a real effort this month to spend more time working on myself. I feel like a ball of mush! I will be working at the quilt shop in Charm, Ohio May 2 and 3 for their anniversary sale and I need to get some stamina built up or I just won't have the energy to enjoy two days of cutting fabric and hanging out with the Amish ladies that I have not seen since October. I have noticed that my stamina is pitiful! Besides this summer The Michael Weber Show is booking shows so I need to have lots more energy to help out. I may not get as much quilting done for awhile, but in the long run I know I will feel better. I did notice that I had a couple of crocus in the front yard the deer missed eating. I brought these bulbs from my house in Dover. It is nice to see them again!

My canna is growing nicely! Here is what it looks like now. The green leaf is over a foot tall now!