Reflections on QUILTsocial

I had a super fun day yesterday at Sew Productive. We made MONSTERS, which you'll see in a moment. 

I presented a couple of lectures on Husqvarna Viking accessories. I will give one more on Friday and a lecture on quilting at Thimble Quilts and Sewing in Lasalle, Ontario. 

I have written so much about Husqvarna Viking sewing and embroidery machines and almost all the accessories, and you have access to all that information. 

Where do you find it? Well, on QUILTsocial.com, of course. 

So here's the deal: I can't provide links to all the posts. But here are a couple of them and where you can find some of the other information.  

I started writing in June 2014, using the Husqvarna Viking H | Class 100Q. Here's the VERY FIRST blog post from QUILTsocial on June 2, 2014. 

Oh, what we didn't know when Carla asked me to write blog posts for her! And how the blog and I have evolved over the years. If my counting skills are on track this morning, I've reviewed 24 different HV machines. I've reviewed sergers, sewing machines, embroidery machines, and sit-down quilting machines. The machines have ranged from the basic machines like the H | Class 100Q to the top-of-the-line machines as they have been introduced! 

Not only have I chatted about the machines and their amazing capabilities, but I've also used many accessories in my blog posts and provided numerous tutorials. 

I can't even remember the frequency at the beginning, but I'm currently writing one set of 5 blog posts every two months, for a total of 30 blog posts per year. So let's take 9 full years at 30 posts per year - that's 270 blog posts. Then add in the ten I've already done this year, plus the ones from 2014, and some years, I wrote posts in back-to-back months, so I'm safe to say that I've written over 300 blog posts for QUILTsocial!!

Wow --- that's a wealth of information. It's like taking a brain dump and handing it off to you! And I must confess that I love to put in lots of pictures, and my posts are wordy! I hope they are not too wordy! 

All of the information is still valid today! How do you access the posts? Go to QUILTsocial.com and find this menu bar. 

Click on the MACHINES tab, and you'll find a list of all the Husqvarna Viking machines that I've reviewed. You'll also find a list of PFAFF machines that have been reviewed by other people (OH—I think I did the reviews on the sit-down quilter for PFAFF as well), and you'll find some machines by Brother. 

So, if you have a Husqvarna Viking serger, sewing or embroidery machine, or the sit-down quilter, click on the machine, and that'll take you to a list of five posts published in the same week. Sometimes, I've done multiple weeks on the same machine, so check out the "load more posts" at the bottom. Clicking on each post will bring it up, and the posts for that week should be linked to each other at the bottom. Monday will link to Tuesday, etc. However, the separate weeks do not link to each other if they involve the same machine. 

If you find that some posts within a specific week are not linked to each other, let me know, and I'll pass the information along. 

There are also tutorials written by myself and the other bloggers. Here are a couple of my tutorials for making quick gifts. You should never have to purchase a pattern for these essential projects, and you can embellish them however you wish! 

 Journal cover tutorial (follow the links at the bottom of that post to follow posts on more journal cover ideas)

Cushion Cover Tutorial (Part 1)

Cushion cover tutorial (Part 2)

Project Bag Tutorial (Part 1) Follow the links at the bottom to move to the next steps.

Tote Bag Tutorial  (I wrote this one when I was vacationing in PEI for a month in 2015!)

I tend to provide a lot of technical how-to rather than tutorials, so I'm sure I have more tutorials, but those four come to mind. 

Here's some of the technical stuff I write about. 

What's the perfect stitch length, and why? You would be surprised at how many people don't know this. Check the date on this! 

OH MY GOSH  --- You'll love the first picture in this post, which also reviews applique. I was sewing in the gazebo!!!! Oh my --- those ground cover bushes over the pond have grown significantly because the orange frog is still there, but he is now hidden, and I thought the other day about moving him. I'll get a picture today so you can see the difference.

And YES ---I harped about reading the User's Guide even way back then!

In the summer of 2015, I wrote a series of fun posts on what to do while on summer vacation. Here's the first of those! They were all quilt-related, and the pictures came from various trips that summer! 

Oh my --- I just led you down a rabbit hole, and I'm sorry! OK—I'm not! I definitely will go back and reread that series—the posts are short! It was so much fun! 

WAIT -- before I go, here's the picture of the monsters created yesterday. 

The monsters!

The ladies in the class had a blast making them, and part of the fun was choosing their eyes, nose, body shape, and mouth! There were loads of giggles, but it gave them an excellent opportunity to test out the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby 90 and the Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire 85. So thanks to you all for hosting and attending! And if you want to find out more about either of those two machines, you can simply click on the links, and it'll take you to some QUILTsocial posts I wrote. You can also contact your local Husqvarna Viking Dealer for more information. 

Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane and not what I intended to write about. Sometimes, my hands do not follow what my head says, but it was fun!

I would love a way to capture all the posts I've written. They are too huge to compile into a book, but perhaps I could come up with the best of them? I don't know, but it's loads of fun to check out the older posts. The information in even the first week is still valuable, as you can see if you check out the one with the stitch length information!

On that note, I'm out of here!! I have a "free" day today, during which I can answer some emails, do some embroidery, do more writing, and prepare for the next two days!

If you like ANY of those posts on QUILTsocial, share them with your friends, put the links in guild newsletters, or copy them to your blogs or other social media venues. We need to spread the word about the information in QUILTsocial. It's a hidden gem! 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

Is it your grandmother's quilt?

I can sometimes be my own worst enemy. My alarm went off this morning, and I felt tired, but I jumped out of bed. I came downstairs and sat at the computer to write the blog. Good grief—2:00!!! Oh shoot—when we were in Hawaii, I had to set an alarm for 2 AM so we could get up in time to see the sunrise on Haleakala! 

How many weeks ago was that? And the alarm was still on my phone for Wednesday morning? Let's say the alarm is gone now! And I went back to bed and to sleep! 

Yesterday was a long but fun day as I got to be in front of people and share my samples and knowledge with two different groups! I was so used to being on Zoom that I almost lost the ability to remember how to pack a suitcase! Hello to everyone who was there. I met people I knew from Zoom calls!

I struggled a bit to get the projector connected, but I wasn't using my projector, and the darn things are all slightly different. Anyway, we got things working, and all was good! 

I had two events, and there was a two-hour gap between them. Although the store wasn't far away, it was a long day for me, the girls, and the boy. Everyone, while very happy to see me, was just fine. They were hungry and needed to pee!

I've read a couple of disturbing books lately. These were quilt books, and yes, they were disturbing. Why? Because of the author's attitude—I may have mentioned that before. The author mentioned that she was a modern quilter and was NOT going to be one of those who learned how to quilt at the hand of her mother or grandmother; she was branching out on her own to learn. 

She was a younger quilter than I am. Hey, I did NOT learn to quilt from my mother or grandmothers! While they dabbled a little bit in quilting, none of them were quilters. 

There has been this vibe in the modern quilt world that they invented modern quilting. Yes, ageism is a thing in the quilt world. 

So, I was extremely happy to see this article in the latest issue of Quilting Arts, Spring 2024, Issue 121. 

The current issue of Quilting Arts

I checked out the author, who I don't believe is a quilter (Frances O'Roark Dowell), although she is an author and has written two novels related to quilts, as well as many non-quilt-related novels. If this is the same person, why does she understand the age (attitude) issue and these modern quilters do not? 

The article is very interesting, and let's face it—what Frances is saying is NOT new. The quilters in the know—the ones who have been around for a while and are OPEN to the YOUNG HISTORY of quilting and the OLDER HISTORY—know that what's happening in the MODERN QUILT WORLD is OLD NEWS!!! What the modern quilters are doing is perhaps reviving life into the quilt world, but they are merely regurgitating old ideas. And many of the founders of the modern movement are older! And many of those founders came from the YOUNG HISTORY side of quilting. 

Words on quilts? Bold colors? Solid fabrics? No borders? Asymmetrical designs? None of that is new, and there are many amazing examples to back it up!

I think younger, modern quilters wanted to think what they were doing was innovative, new, daring, and edgy. However, I also think they were living in an isolated world. Those quilters need to read that article! It is very enlightening. 

If you really study the "modern" quilts being released today, many of them are NOT modern. They follow traditional styles but use "modern" fabrics. It's a whole complicated world! The line between contemporary and modern is very thin! 

Now, here's something to credit those modern quilters with. We have been on a tear with technology, and how can we marry all the new technology in the quilting/sewing/crafting world? That's me—I don't care so much about the end product, but how can I use the available technology to learn something new and still make quilts? 

Many modern quilters are quite happy with a small sewing machine with basic stitches. Heck, some of them are even going back to hand quilting, which is sometimes referred to as slow stitch or big stitch. Machine embroidery? How dare! They are happy to do hand embroidery!

So, the article that I wanted to write on the ageism and "smug" feeling among modern quilters? Well, I didn't want to write it—Frances beat me to it!

The above is a bit convoluted as I haven't done much "research," and it's just ideas that popped into my head at 4:30 in the morning when I had no other topic to write about! I would still like to lay my thoughts out more logically to help me understand the "modern" world!

But here's another example that happened to me in person. I won't mention any names, but when I worked in the fabric industry a few years ago, a very senior person in a fabric company alluded to quilters as NON-techie people who wouldn't understand complicated processes. I do NOT remember the context of that statement, but that person more or less said that the quilters of the world were not smart enough to complete some technology thing that was being discussed. 

WAIT a minute—the "older" quilters are way more technologically advanced than the younger modern quilters. YES -- we know how to post on social media, we know how to make and post videos, we can set up technology to do Facebook Lives, and we learn how to use sophisticated software packages for digital cutting and machine embroidery—and we know how to marry them together! 

So, do not put an egg on your face and think the little old quilters are "dumb." We may not look as cute and pretty as the young ones, but we are SMART, and we're not afraid to show it!

On that note, I'm off to the gym. I won't have time for a full spin class as I have to drive DH to the train. I will say that our one-car arrangement is working out just fine! I drop him off at the train a couple of days a week - he insists even though there are days when I don't need the car, which is most days. But today, I'm back at Sew Productive, and we're making MONSTERS today on the embroidery machine! So I'll get on a bike by myself and then won't feel guilty as I sneak out a bit earlier than if I stayed for the entire class. 

If you've never been to Sew Productive, you should go. They are in Acton and a full Husqvarna Viking dealer with all the machines on display, so you can give them a try. They have nice selections of machine embroidery thread and notions, and it's also a quilt store, so they have loads of fabric. I shall be making a few purchases today! 

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!!

More organizing

With a little bit more focus and NO priority, this is what happened yesterday. 

Yep --- I was at the embroidery machine and trying to get as much of the border on Green Tea done as I could. OK -- I wanted to get all the two flower motifs completed. 

And while trying to achieve that goal, I emptied three spools of thread and three bobbins. Well, that happened throughout the last couple of days. 

Using up supplies!

I spotted this on the floor at one point on the Monday Sewing Zoom. Seriously? How many times have I passed the Swifter and missed this? The big question is, how long has it been on the floor? I haven't broken a needle in a long, long time! 

The tip of a broken needle

It's challenging to embroider on something significant like a quilt, but it can be done. The trick is NOT to let that quilt fall off the table. And because of how I have to hoop the quilt, that can be a challenge. Because of the embroidery arm size on the Husqvarna Viking Designer Epic 3, I now use it pushed back on the table - at least the embroidery unit, so it sits on an angle. That gives me more space at the front to hold the project. And there's another table behind it, so everything is good. That quilt is going to need a good press when it's done! 

Embroidering the border

So, did I accomplish my goal? Yes, I did! All three-flower and two-flower motifs are complete! 

The machine embroidery on the border is ALMOST complete!

That leaves eight of the single flower motifs to finish off that border. OH, the quilt is sideways in the photo, but for the border, that's OK. One single flower motif template is pinned in the bottom right-hand corner. I am going to try to finish the quilt top this week. It would be nice to get it out of the queue so I can move on to the next unfinished project!

I thought I might add a few random leaves between the motifs, but I don't think I'll have any leftovers. The big question will be: Do I have enough leaves? 

Then I dug my heels in and got all my stuff ready for today's in-person events. I'm at Sew Productive in Acton, where I'll chat about Husqvarna Viking Accessories. There are two sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If you live in Windsor, Ontario, I'll be there on Friday (Thimble Quilts and Sewing). I'm also talking about accessories and quilting, so be sure to pop into the store and get signed up. I know --- no advanced warning! If you're on the store's distribution list, you should already know about the events. 

So here's the saga of that shelving unit I purchased a while back. It was still in the garage, as I needed DH to help me bring it into the house. 

On the weekend, we got it into the house from the garage. Remember, he has a bum shoulder, so I felt guilty, but being the "tough" man, he helped. Note Bear and Murphy, who were also trying to help. 

The shelving unit is in the house

There are now a few scratches on the wood floor steps, which is OK as the wood floors in our house desperately need to be refinished. But will I do that with the girls around? Nope—we have to wait a few more years to get them refinished. Anyway, there are a few marks on the wall (more on the bulkhead of the staircase) and scratches on the steps. The shelf is in Studio B. If the unit would have had wheels? Well, we could have taken it down sideways, not height-wise. There would have been no issues with the bulkhead or the steps. Well, it's too late now!

The shelf is in Studio B

I had the perfect spot for it, and it fit exactly!! How good was I at measuring that space visually? Of course, I didn't take a real tape measure to it—I knew it would fit! This is tucked over near the long arm. YES, there were a few things sitting in that spot, and I had to find new homes for them. 

The home of the new shelf

There are two tubs and a box of memory stuff that I've carried with me since I left the farm many years ago. I think it's time I went through those boxes and likely ditched most of what's in them. 

Memory boxes to deal with

Because the unit may be uneven and the floor slopes, I had to find something to put under one leg. Off to the garage, where I found a chunk of drywall!  There are no scraps of wood at our house—they are all gone. 

A scrap of drywall to level the shelf

So, what's going on the shelf? Well, I have accessories in larger boxes for the embroidery machines. It's time to get those in the same area. So, most of what's on this table needs to go on the shelf. 

Machine embroidery accessories

Then, this is the area where I store more machine bits. Those need to be walked over to the shelf. 

More sewing machine accessories

Let's remember the cutting mats for the digital cutters—now there are three cutters and MANY mats. Some have been stored on the floor, along with some vinyl I had purchased to cut up. 

Cutting mats stored on the floor

There were mats on the long arm and more mats in a drawer. 

Mats "stored" on the long arm

I purchased such a large shelf -- it's 24" deep, 48" wide, and about 5' high because I wanted to accommodate those big cutting mats and the embroidery arms, which need a 24" deep shelf. Currently, the mats are on the top shelf, and the accessories are filling up the next two. The bottom one is reserved for all my video equipment, but I'm going to buy a couple of plastic totes to put the stuff in, and I need it for a big event in the middle of May, so it'll all stay up until then. 

I thought of hanging the mats or the embroidery hoops along the outside edge. Does anyone hang their cutting mats for their digital cutter? It would free up that top shelf! 

Did I actually clear any space? It doesn't look like I did. I need some more tidying time to get things how I want them so I can have more room to bring out even more machines (don't ask) and to get all the cutting machines set up with room to work. I'm getting there! It's hard to find time to sew and do some tidying! 

I managed quite a bit while embroidering the motifs on Green Tea. Since I had about two minutes per motif, I worked in two-minute bursts and accomplished a fair amount!

Remember that photo of the shelf with Bear and Murphy? They are like peas in a pod. Whatever Murphy does (and I mean everything), Bear copies! They are so cute together. 

HEY -- we peed like you asked, and now we want in! 

OK, so I need to get myself organized and pack the car to leave on time! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

I can FOCUS, but I can't PRIORITIZE

The title of today's post says it all! I was very productive yesterday but wasn't working on my next deadline. So why do I do that to myself? I'll work on the deadline today!

I returned to Fabricland on Saturday to get something else to work with, and I had a bit more time. I spotted the two staff members I had sort of ignored the previous day, and so while they cut for me, we had a chat—and I apologized for chatting on my phone! 

I also had time to look around, and wow, some gorgeous fabrics are out there! But I can't just buy for the sake of buying; I need to be making! 

Embroidery on cloth seems to be a big thing and HEY -- I can do that myself., although it would take a long time. It might be easier to just buy and make! 

Embroidered fabric

Embroidery on netting

But we all had a good chuckle as the staff member was cutting for someone else, and this is what they spotted when they unrolled a fabric. Good grief—what the heck happened to this? 

A manufacturing flaw? 

I've been back at work on my Green Tea and Sweet Beans for the last two days. Since I successfully completed the Heartfelt Sampler, with all the embroidery on the border, I decided I MUST complete Green Tea, which also needed machine embroidery on the borders. 

Previously, I had stitched the corner and the middle motif on each side, but I needed to add three motifs between each of those motifs. There were 32 hoopings planned, which is a lot. I had eight of the 32 complete. I made significant progress over the weekend, and only 14 remain! 

The floral motifs had to be strategically placed to hide the joins in the bias tape! 

The motifs are hiding the joins in the bias

All the supplies, including the precut shapes and thread, were together to complete the quilt. It was tucked in a corner, and it was time to clean up that spot. The leftover bits of fabric are still in their project box, and I need to tidy them up, as the box has been sitting around for a while. 

The supplies to finish Green Tea

I love working with pre-cut shapes when doing machine embroidery applique!! It saves so much time from not having to trim. But as you saw on the Heartfelt Sampler, I have some work to do to refine the process. However, these shapes worked out perfectly. 

Precut shapes for applique

And this is what the quilt is looking like. Well, this is at the end of Saturday. It looks different now, but I'll share that tomorrow. The middle motif on the top left is just the paper template. To be efficient with my time, I'm stitching all the motifs with TWO flowers. The corners and the center of each side have a three-flower motif. Then each side of that has a two flower motif and the middle of each half section has a one flower motif. 

The machine embroidery applique borders on Green Tea

While I was stitching away on that, I was busy sewing on the other machine to complete the Heartfelt Sampler. 

Sewing and embroidery 

While sewing the top together, I also managed to sew some enders and leaders, so that was good. They are pressed, and I hope to trim them during Monday's sewing. 

Enders and leaders 

I've been tidying up Studio B a bit, as I need to get things back under control. That's a whole other thing for tomorrow. The binding is cut for the Heartfelt Sampler, and the backing fabric is chosen, so I hope to complete those things today as well. Then, the Heartfelt Sampler can come off the design wall, which it has controlled for several months now. It's time for the next project to get up there!

It's sad to say, but Little Bear will be going home soon. He and Murphy are inseparable! They will miss each other very much, and I laugh when I see them together. They seem to do everything together! I will miss him terribly, but he's also very high-maintenance and requires a lot of time in the day, so I'll be glad to get that time back! 

Murphy and her sidekick, Bear

If you're looking for something to do, I spotted this event near me in May. It reminds me of the old days when there was this massive quilt show with many events in that same area, which shut down years ago. It's called WEFT FEST 2024. 

Weft Fest 2024

On that note, I'm out of here! I'm off to spin class, then Monday Sewing, and then I should be working on my next deadline, but I might sneak in a bit of embroidery to try and finish Green Tea this week, which will be a challenge since I have events this week. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Heartfelt Sampler Reveal

The Heartfelt Sampler class is done! We started it in October and completed it right on time! I had seen the quilt somewhere online. The quilt was designed by a local quilter. She originally made the quilt for herself, which was displayed at a local quilt show. So many people asked for the pattern that she put together a pattern, which you can buy on her Etsy Shop. She also designed a mini version for those who did not want to make so many blocks!

Here is Sandy's original quilt. Yes, I screen-captured that from the Etsy website! Notice the background is made up of small squares. In keeping with her name in the quilt world - Scrappy Gal Quilt Co.- she added words about "using up" in the border. The heart is soft and pretty; note there is NO outside border. 

Sandy's quilt

Now, let's see what the group did. 

Let's start with the finished quilts. And by finished, I mean quilted and bound! This monochromatic version has words (they are there, but they are subtle), a final pink border, and a striped binding. 

Sharon

I'm not sure if it's the picture's orientation, but this one looks rectangular rather than square. The quilting on this one is almost completed. It's being done by hand, but notice that she has already bound it. That makes it look done! She added words, and I believe she said she wrote the words on with some sort of writing tool. I'll have to get more details on that. 

Sharon 

This person made the edge of the heart pronounced by adding a border. It shows up very dark in the photo, but the fabric is NOT that dark. Then, to smooth the edge, she added half-square triangles. You can't tell from this photo, but the background fabric was so busy that she got away with sewing it in stripes rather than squares. 

Katheleen

In this picture, the quilt is not quilted, but the heart shows up better in this photo than the one I have of it quilted. The background of many blocks uses the same values/colors as the background, and this heart looks very lacey. It's delicate and very pretty. You cannot see it in the photo, but she had various words machine embroidered on some blocks. That is a beautiful and subtle way to add words to any quilt. 

Brenda

And there's ONE more that was quilted and bound. This is a very romantic version of the heart quilt. It's very soft and looks gorgeous. She custom quilted it so the background and the heart would stand out a bit more from each other. 

So, five participants out of 29 completed the project. That's impressive!!!

Now, let's look at the quilt tops that were completed. 

It's interesting how some people look at all the pictures and lament that they lack high contrast, too many weird colors, or whatever. But here's the thing. We should embrace our quilts, figure out why we don't like them or why we like them, and use that as a learning experience for the next project. 

Many people used scraps for the entire quilt! Some had to piece fabric together to create large enough pieces, or they changed things as they went along, as in this next quilt. She had run out of the medium-to-dark value for the last blocks, so she added in some lighter backgrounds, which I think makes the quilt much more interesting! 

Sheila

The above quilt did not have words. It was interesting to see the dilemma many faced—words or no words. And if words will be added, how will I get them on the quilt? 

The next quilter used the same background fabric for the entire quilt, although she cut it up into squares and sewed them back together again. I think that keeps with the scrappy theme. Then, a final border of green. This is a curated scrap quilt in that she chose greens, gold, and a few other colors, but it was a restricted color palette. 

Pauline

Here's another one that is soft in values. It's OK to have a quilt that doesn't have a lot of content! She initially did not plan to put words on the quilt, but after seeing what others have done, she may rethink that!

Marg

This person was absolutely not going to put words on her quilt, but then she thought outside the box and added words!! The words are pieced together, and I love the effect. Some people changed the style of the words (piecing versus applique), and they came up with their own words. 

Karen

A very bright and cheery version. Isn't it amazing how different they look depending on the value and colors chosen? She ran out of neutral backgrounds, so she added in a couple with a bit of a pattern. Hey -- that works!!!

Lorna

Here's an example of another dilemma we had to deal with. How do you deal with the bottom border when you put the words around the quilt's perimeter? There is a very soft border of grey surrounding the heart. 

Heather

This person used the same fabric for the background and sewed it in strips, which works. Once that is quilted, no one will be the wiser. 

Nancy

That freed up some time, so she also made the mini. 

Nancy

Here's one more quilt top. It was fascinating to see all the finished quilts and tops!! It's a large quilt, so getting a picture of the entire thing is hard. This person used machine embroidery applique to add the words. 

Louise

Here's another quilt. The owner was NOT going to put words on it, but after she got the top together, she said, "Why not?" It looks fantastic; the colors are curated, so it has a defined color palette. 

Donna

Here is my quilt. I went with BROWN and, for the most part, only used my scraps. I had to dig into yardage to get enough squares for the background, and some of those squares are not exactly in the brown family, but that's OK. I attached the final two borders this morning, so the top is officially done. I learned a lot while adding the lettering using machine embroidery applique. 

It's the quote that gets me excited because it's how I look at everything I do! 

Elaine

That makes TEN quilt tops that are done. Yeah!!!

Now, let's have a peek at the quilts in progress. Some of the tops are so close to being done. I think this next one needs the lettering added to the borders, and then they can be sewn on. These fabrics are the leftovers from THREE previous projects!!!

Joanne

Here's unusual coloring, but I love how the values change. When I looked at it this morning, it almost seems like we are looking into a window to see the heart. It's super creative, and there's no need for words. They will get lost in that border. 

Darlene

The blocks are all together, and assembly has begun. This is made with batiks and looks gorgeous. Well, anything with batiks is gorgeous - OK -- not everything! 

Jody

This one is made with Tilde fabrics and is very soft, but it is going to look amazing once it's together. 

Kathi

Here's a very unique coloring. It has a very modern vibe, and that added grey border makes it appear to be floating off the background. 

Nancy

That makes five tops that are very close to completion. That accounts for 20 of the 29 people in the class. 

I know four are still working on piecing their blocks, and I had five people monitor the class, so that was a pretty good turnout!

I'm thrilled with the results, and it's always super fun to see how each person interprets the same pattern—changing colors or values, adding their spin to the borders, or the lack thereof. In this case, we also had the words. 

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the class—it was great fun. And YES, there will be another one in the fall. It's called Spice Market! So watch for more details later. I'm unsure where the picture is this morning, and I'm running out of time!!

I have two presentations this morning, and both are ready to go! But the girls and the boy will howl for their walk soon. I see it's raining again. Oh, joy!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!