Really Great Inspiration

I love reading Seth Godin and so of course I downloaded his (free!) new ebook as soon as I could. It’s called What Matters Now.

Since I am sharing things I love, this video really speaks to me. It is on TED and it is William Kamkwamba talking about how he Harnessed The Wind. I want to do what he has done.

Meanwhile, I am quilting away, writing and thinking of new projects I can create for Crazy Shortcut Quilters; helping a few friends with their blogs (do you need help? Just email me….) and of course, taking videos! I hope to have another ready for you soon. Meanwhile, I put one up about the adjustment of Pressure on the sewing machine Presser foot. What a tongue twister!!

First Place!

Our dear friend Kathy Harte mentors young girls in their sewing. Here’s her email to me from just a few minutes ago:

Hi Marguerita and Sarah – I’m so excited about some great – exciting fantastic news ! ! ! I had 5 students last school year who completed their wildly beautiful “Crazy Shortcut Quilts.” Two of my girls just called to let me know….

Tyanna Baker took First Place, and Grand Champion in her age group (12 years old) for the king size quilt she made ! ! ! ! !

Christina Baker took 2nd place in the 9 year old category for her lap size quilt ! ! ! !

The girls’ Mom will e-mail pictures of the girls with their masterpieces, and I’ll forward those on to you….

AND….. I’ve got everything documented from start to finish on my computer… if you like, I’ll burn CDs for you so you can see what all the girls did using your book as our guide.

I’m soooooo proud of them and am doing the happy dance ! Just thought you’d like to know YAY YAY YAY

Love to you both,
Kath

I am so excited for these girls – to have won recognition for their hard work really is so wonderful and for Kathy to see their success, well, that is the highest reward for a wonderful teacher!

Happiest Mother’s Day to Everyone :)

On a long drive home from Anchorage yesterday Tom and I had an interesting conversation. I will admit that being fifty has changed my perspective a bit. We talked about our “bucket list” and I challenged him to make a list (I will too) and we will compare them next weekend. That should be an interesting conversation! I’ll keep you posted

This morning we had a quiet breakfast and then he went to bring flowers from the garden to his mom and I went and cleaned off his grandmother’s grave.

I love graveyards, I always have. I like quiet. There’s not much quieter than a graveyard. It takes me about an hour to clean her grave and it is contemplation time that I enjoy. Although I live almost every moment being grateful for what I have, right now, and making the very best of it, I become extra grateful when I clean off her grave once or twice a year.

It’s a very nice grave, with a marble headstone and full white pebble rock covering (this is what takes so long to clean). I hope she accomplished all the things in life she wished, and was happy with what she’d made of her life and the impression she’s left on people. I never met her but I hear great things about her from Tom because she lived with their family as Tom was growing up.

Meet Judy

My friend Judy Wedemeyer is a quilt artist. She’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I was a newbie to quilt pattern designing, about fifteen years ago, and she went out of her way to give me tips, business contacts, advice and encouragement when I thought I’d created “the next hot thing” in quilting. How nice is that!?

I want to be like her.

I also want to be a quilt artist someday and so I follow her around like a puppy, soaking up her art and her enthusiasm and pulling out my old attempts at quilt art and wondering if maybe I can do something really unique like she is.

Take a peek at her Art Cards, her studio, and her techniques on her blog and pull out your scraps and doo-dads and let’s follow her inspiration!

Would you consider teaching?

Today I went to my local library, after posting notices at the grocery stores, library bulletin board and on my local online newspaper, to teach anyone who showed up the basics of a sewing machine – for free.

I’ve given lectures about quilting before and was surprised at how many of the attendees had never threaded a sewing machine and were afraid to! Yikes! We can’t let these gals be afraid of sewing!!

I set aside 2 hours, wrote up some notes (which I would be happy to share with you) and made arrangements to use the meeting room at the library (also free to non-profits!).

I had several people tell me that they were excited to attend, but who turned up was two young girls, sisters, who’s mom had seen the posting and suggested that they attend. What a treat!! I LOVE teaching kids! We had the whole room to ourselves and they felt free to ask any question that they thought of – and boy did they!

I explained and then demonstrated: how a needle and bobbin work together to make a stitch; how to test bobbin tension; how to clean the bobbin and race area and what the parts are and how they are used; how to thread the machine and the major differences between the three machines that I carted down there.

They were enthralled! And then they got to sew! Straight stitch, decorative stitch and free motion! They had a great time. They enjoyed the quilts I brought along and the handled all the parts, checked out the machines with a flashlight and watched the gears in motion – - these two will never be afraid to change their bobbin tension!

I talked about threads (my favorite subject) and had them touch and then break many samples so that the understood how different threads can be. All in all, a great time was had by we three, and I am SO glad that I did this and that they patiently and then eagerly listened, learned and then tried for themselves.

Would you consider doing the same? For your local Girl Scout troup? Your after school program? Anyone who shows up for a Library gig? I can and will do all I can to help, you only have to ask – - and the reward of a new sewing enthusiast’s smile is payment in full.

Applique Quilt Book Winners!

Sarah Vanderburgh and Delys are the two lucky winners of Kay’s Book Easy Applique Blocks. Don’t give up if you didn’t win, just hop over to Kay’s blog and follow her Book Tour because today she’s with quilter extraordinaire Gina Halliday and Gina is giving away a book too!

Thank you for signing up for this great book giveaway and stay tuned for more!

Book Giveaway for Easy Applique Blocks

My pal Kay Mackenzie asked if I would like to be included in her internet Book Tour and I jumped at the chance!

What is so cool about going to Quilt Market and meeting other designers and authors is learning that they are just nice quilters, like every other quilter

Kay sent me a peek inside and an autographed book to give away! All you have to do to enter is [Contest ended April 4th - check back soon for the next one] I’ll announce the winner here on April 4th and I will email the winner too {you won’t be getting spam from me, I promise!}

Her book has the wonderful applique designs that you see here and also has a CD! As I flipped through her book the first thing that came to my mind was “homey”. Her designs and her quilts have that comforting feel that just says “home”. You’ll love this book

You. Can. Do. It.

You. You know who you are!

Can. Able, capable, willing, knowledgeable.

Do. Accomplish, achieve, attain, succeed.

It. Everything, anything, exactly what you want.

Great Stash Quilt and Tutorial

I want to make this quilt! Made by Liz Harvatine, she calls it “Confetti” and I *love* it! Here’s her tutorial, which I found very understandable and I have TONS of scraps. This is right up my alley! Thank you Liz for my next project

Today I am putting the sashing on my funky, fuzzy quilt. I hope to have it finished by tonight.

Do you Play Pool or Billiards?

We decided, on the spur of the moment, to go to Anchorage for the weekend so that Tom could play in the Fur Rondy Pool Tournament. First, for anyone not in Alaska, Fur Rondy has its traditions in the old fur trade (furs are still traded today) and as a break in the monotony of the tremendously long arctic winters.

When Sarah and her cousins were growing up, it was the highlight of our winters. I’d bundle up the kids and we would go to the carnivals (outdoors rides like ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl) then go see the snow sculptures, maybe stay late enough for the fireworks. Then we would do the indoor stuff. Craft fairs, face painting for the kids, whatever sounded interesting

That kind of stuff waned as they became teenagers, so I haven’t really participated in any of the Rondy events in years. In the past I had visited one of the local pool halls, in the basement of a popular bar, just to see what it looked like, but you could cut the cigarrette smoke with a knife and I can’t stand the smell of it, so I quickly left (besides it was intimidating with all the guys concentrating on their shots and games).

Anchorage banned smoking in restaurants and bars a few years ago and the pool hall moved to a new location so I was in for quite the surprise.

Anchorage Billiard Palace was an exceptional treat. So much so that I gave up the chance to shop for fabric, poke around for a few antiques and all the other errands that I put on my list when I heard “two whole days in Anchorage”.

Tom taught me to play pool and he’s very, very good at both playing and teaching. He placed on both Saturday and Sunday, in 8 Ball and 9 Ball, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him and the other players in the tourney. Most of all, the staff at the Billiard Palace was outstanding. Polite, friendly, warmly meeting the needs of all the players and spectators, allowing me to take video of the room, they are the reason I’d go again. I am shy by nature and a hermit in my old age, so it takes a *lot* to get me out of the house, but I’m thinking about putting in the practice hours on the table so that I don’t embarrass myself if I ever play at the Billiard Palace. I put up a poll on the right hand side of the blog, at the top, because I am curious – do you play?

Some of the things I loved the best: 12 nine foot tables, good lighting, great staff, dress code for men and women, no children allowed, central location in Anchorage and the nicest, most interesting people I’ve chatted with since I came back from Quilt Market.

I did get to see Sarah and Audrey for breakfast and some fabric shopping, but afterward I couldn’t wait to get back to the games! If you have never been inside, here’s what it looked like for most of Saturday and Sunday:

Next Page »