I’m delighted to tell you that the Stars In My Hand quilt was awarded 3rd place in the Traditional Large Pieced Quilt category at the Road to California Quilt Show this last weekend. How exciting! I spent some time this morning on the Road to California website looking at all the winning quilts, and there are some simply stunning quilts there! I don’t envy the judges their job (well, maybe a little, since they do get to see each and every quilt up close and personal!), since it must be so difficult to choose just a few quilts as winners from so many entries. I can’t wait to get the quilt back so I can see what the judges comments were about it. It’s always interesting to see what they liked (or didn’t like) about your quilts when you send them off to shows. I do wish I’d been able to go, but California is a long way from here. They even offer a cd with pictures of every quilt and wearable entry to the show. I might just have to order that!

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I spent Saturday morning at the Gussy Goose teaching six great ladies to machine quilt. It’s so inspiring to teach, really, because it’s just so great to see the light go on in people’s minds when they learn something new, or pick up new tips and tricks, and you can almost see their thoughts beginning to turn when they start thinking about all the things they want to do with their new skills. This week was just the beginning with machine guided quilting and stitch in the ditch, and next week we’ll meet again for the free motion quilting part of the class.

I’m always energized after a class, and if I didn’t have the flu I’d be quilting right now, instead of sitting at my computer. Yes, that was the not so good part of the day yesterday: having the flu, and teaching the class anyway. I do hope I didn’t infect anyone else! Infecting people with the machine quilting bug is one thing, but the flu bug is something else entirely!

I’ve been asked to teach the Machine Quilting—Beyond the Basics class for Quilt Campus…

So, I spent part of last week reviewing class material in preparation to teach, but also preparing that same class material for delivery in another format: an online machine quilting class for Quilt Campus. Quilt Campus is a completely new web community, where you can take online quilting classes, participate in live chat sessions, view the gallery, read the newsletter, and much more. When you take a class online, classes are usually 3-4 weeks, and a new lesson is available on the website once a week. You’ll view the material, do the exercises, and visit the class forum to interact with your fellow students and the instructor (that’s me!) daily! If you have questions during the class, they are easily answered in the forum. I’ve been asked to teach the Machine Quilting—Beyond the Basics class for Quilt Campus, so stay tuned for dates and more info!

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I spent part of the morning yesterday trying to figure out what to do with the sashing on the UFO Dresden Plate quilt, with no success. I finally started thinking about other projects that I need to do shortly here, and reluctantly put the big quilt aside for a bit. This is why UFO’s are what they are, obviously. I don’t think the UFO will be finished in time for its 11th birthday. No guilt, though, that’s just the way it goes.

Convergence Quilts,
by Ricky Tims

I needed to pitch something together (or decide to finish some other UFO) for a demo that I’m supposed to give at the Black Forest Quilt Guild meeting in February. I’m supposed to show everyone how to embellish with the Swarovski crystals, but at the moment I don’t have anything around that needs crystalizing! I spent some time thinking and digging through other projects in progress, and didn’t really see any that I thought needed crystals in the end (or that I could finish quickly enough to matter), so I grabbed Convergence Quilts by Ricky Tims, and decided to see how quick and easy that process is. I’ve had the book for at least a year, and haven’t gotten around to doing anything with it. Read the rest of this entry »

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