Library Quilt Project

Our local library has undergone an expansion. It's in a heritage building in town here, and the reno committee has done an amazing job of respecting and continuing the heritage theme. I'm working right now with one of the board members to make a signature quilt as a fundraiser for furnishings for the family area. For $10, a community member can sign his/her name or message on a 4" block. Once all the blocks have been 'sold', I'll be putting the quilt together and quilting it. It'll be hung in the library when it is completed.

Working on quilts

I've spent the last couple of days working on customer quilts. Once the one I'm currently working on is completed, I'll ask the owner if I can post a photo here. The pattern is from the new Kona Bay fabrics magazine - Asian Fabric - and is absolutely gorgeous. I'm particularly enjoying that I get to use some of my own published quilting patterns (Kamon Pack 1 and2) on it, and it is all coming together so well! My patterns are available at www.willowleafstudio.com under the names Threadsongs and Homelines, and these particular ones are available under pattern packs.
Jodi (of Willow Leaf Studio) has recently rebuilt her site, and it is wonderful. There are so many patterns available!
I'm still working on a Fall pattern packet, including Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving patterns. I hope to expand that to include a Winter, Spring and Summer pack as well.

Back to work!


:)
L

Fall Fair

Today was pretty neat. We had our Fall Fair here in Nakusp, and I put a table in for my shop, Threads in Motion. It was awesome! I love being in the community like that! I travel to many, many quilt shows throughout the year and have to say that, much as I love that, it's such a treat to do what I love with my family around. Our oldest helped me out in the booth, and our youngest enjoyed playing with his friends (AND watching the zucchini races!). My DH was around off and on all day too, and it was just so nice to see them all throughout the day.
We had people come from all over the place: from Barriere, Vancouver, Kelowna, Nelson...and that's just to name a few. So nice to see all the familiar and new faces. Thanks to everyone who came by the booth to say hi!

L

My studio

I thought I'd better get these pictures up. Because I do so much mail order, I have many customers who have not been in my shop space (yes, it is a home based business, but I do have many local customers come in). My DH recently helped me rearrange things to help make it all more 'customer friendly'. The toughie in all this is that it still has to function really well as a working studio space.

We did find, however, that once the rearrangeing was done that there is actually MORE ROOM in here than there was before! Not only can I navagate around the machine without difficulty, but the customers don't end up pushed up against it all the time! It's now under a nice, bright light, and the sun does not come in the window in my eyes while I'm working anymore.


Here are a few of the shelves of merchandise I have now, too. Things are easier to see, and easier to reach. The other shelves are over on the other side of the room, with all the Kona Bay, print fabrics and Modas. I have to say, I know just how lucky I am to get to work in such a bright, colourful space.

Speaking of work, I should get back to it...


:)
L

Back to school!

Unbelievably, the kids are back at school again already. They seem to be having fun (at least most of the time) and are settling in to their new classrooms really well. I've talked to so many happy Moms in the last little while...happy to be able to spend more time quilting!

Myself, I've been revisiting that big scrap bucket I have here trying to make sense of all these funny bits of fabric that haven't been hacked up into nice, orderly squares and strips. Slowly but surely, I'm beating back the bucket, but I do swear these things multiply when the lid is on!
The best part of going through the scraps is revisiting old fabrics that I've used and loved for many years. There are so many memories of projects and people contained in those colours, textures and prints!

As mentioned in the previous post, my current pet project is a hexagon quilt (1"finished hexagons - yes, I am crazy). I've been using all the lovely little odd shaped bits from my scrap bucket to make hexagons - and I have to say, I'm loving it! I didn't think it would be fun to put together, but it really is.

English paper piecing is tremendously satisfying. All the bits fit together perfectly! I have about 5 1/2 blocks made right now, and am looking forward to taming more of those little hex's; in to long diamonds. Any ideas you'd like to share about what colour I should consider as the 'pathway' between them would be welcome. That's where I tend to get a bit stumped.

Okey dokey. The time has come (the walrus said) to post a picture. I'll try for one of my own smiling mug: Voila!

What you can't tell from the photo (which was taken by our youngest son) is that I'm hand basting 1" finished hexagons...one of these days I hope to have a modified Grandmother's Flower Garden. So far, I have 5 blocks and about 450 basted hexagons. Ah, well, something to keep my hands busy in front of the TV, right?

Here we go...

So, this will be the first one. I hope that to get the feel for this interface reasonably quickly - I've been a journaler all my life and am looking forward to this new way to chronicle everything! Bear with me...I hope to get some pictures up soon.