Event Planning

I came home from a great day of show n tell. Lots of photos if my camera people did their job properly and I'll be posting those pictures this coming week.

I'm going to get the super important event announcement out of the way first. Then you can hear about my yesterday which was incredible! And thanks so much to everyone for all the comments - I love to get comments. It gives me ideas for future posts and I love to hear what's going on with you all!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

DO NOT forget that the Cherrywood Quilt Show is happening THIS WEEKEND. 

Postcard for the CherryWood show

Of course, I didn't take a picture of the back of the card with all the important information on it!  But check out this link to get all the details. Scroll down that Facebook page to September 26 where all the information is posted.  The name of the shop that is hosting this show is Cotton Harvest Quilt Shop. The location of the show is the Seaforth Legion, 123 Main St. S in Seaforth, Ontario. That's about 1 hour west of Waterloo.  If you need more information, contact the shop at thecottonharvest@gmail.com OR call them at 519-600-1646.  The cost to get into the show is $8.00 - well worth the price. Remember that Seaforth is a very small town so don't expect Tim's and Starbuck's. There will be food, but I'd pack a snack and water!

Please, please do all you can to attend this show and support this venture. To have this show in Canada is HUGE.  Seriously HUGE!!!   This is the same show that was in Houston just a few weeks ago. It's stunning, it'll blow your socks off to see how each person interpreted the theme! And the top winning quilts are at this show!

Remember you'll be able to buy books and kits for the next challenge. The theme for the next year is Prince - the color is purple. Did I even need to say that?

For some reason, this challenge has taken off like crazy and I would even say that it's the MOST popular quilt challenge EVER! Because the color palette is so restricted, it's stunning.

 Here are the books from the two previous challenges. Wicked was in 2014 and The Lion King was 2016. The caliber of the pieces (each one is only 20 inches squares) is amazing and so many different techniques. These books are like coffee table books - eye candy and lots of it. Well worth it to have your own copy.

Books from previous challenges

A peek inside one of the books

 And in case you missed it last time I blogged about this challenge, here is my entry into the Van Gogh/Cherrywood challenge.  It didn't get picked for either show. But you know what? I'm OK with that. I love my piece. I loved the experience of making it and it helped me to grow as an artist. I also learned a LOT!

My Van Gogh/Cherrywood challenge piece

Detail of my challenge piece

So imagine the quality and caliber of the rest of the show if my piece didn't get accepted. Some of them are like paintings! The detail. Wow! 

I won't be going to this show as I've already seen it but I'm getting a kit (they were sold out in Houston in no time, so hopefully my personal shopper Shelly, will have an in and get one for me). Then when I've figured out what I'm going to do and what additional fabrics I need, I'll be making a trip to this shop because they are one of the few shops in Canada that sell Cherrywood!  Cherrywood is a beautiful line of HAND DYED fabrics. They've been around forever, but even more beautiful than before!

And now - here's the story of my day!

I got home and DH wanted to go out for dinner. I told him I needed a nap. I'd wanted/needed a nap all day. Not sure why I'm still so tired - well just sometimes. And I fell asleep for a good hour or more. I think he canceled the reservation he had made! Oops!

But then a miracle happened. I went downstairs to my studio and had the best night ever (after we ordered pizza)! There were a few things that needed to be put away so I puttered and did that. Set my laptop on the WORK tables and dug out my calendar.

All set up to work productively

I should mention that I have my work travel schedule for 2018 already organized so it was super easy to work the rest of these items into my schedule.

I checked out potential personal vacations for 2018 and they are temporarily booked in.

I checked dates for our next year-long quilting project at The Hobby Horse. I'll be providing information on those projects this week - with dates.  I'm teaching ONE extra day per month besides the year-long project. Those dates (for the entire year) have been forwarded to the shop involved and it's up to them to take the dates or not. If not, then I might just have a sewing day at my house or a class? Oh, I could have a class. That would be fun.  Anyone have a particular class they would like to take?  I'm open to offers - otherwise, I might cut up my stash and offer you a kit to sew. OH - I have tons of fabric to make into charity quilts - I can schedule the dates that the store doesn't take as charity quilting days. Any takers?  It's all beautiful fabric that I have to sew with! All you need to do is sew the top.

Retreats for 2018 are scheduled and booked - those were the FIRST thing to get scheduled - months ago!

I've been asked by a number of people about the Sit n Sew days we used to do. Haven't had them in a long time. I scheduled FIVE of them last night. I'll be letting you know about those dates. I'm going to start a brand new list for those - if you're interested in getting in on those (Sundays  - one a month from December to April), e-mail me so I can provide you with more information and cost.

Bottom line, I was happy as a clam and pretty much got all the classes and special dates booked for the YEAR!  For the year!  This is UNHEARD of at my house. Now there is one thing left to do and that is to schedule the fun things for me to do! Like bike rides, personal sewing days, etc. I'm going to do the first couple of months of the year - might be hard to schedule a bike ride! But I could schedule a weekend spin class at the gym.

Got The Task Master out and we discussed the schedule for the week. It's going to be a tight one, but it's going to work out just fine. I've made decent progress already this morning.

I browsed through a magazine last night (from 2010!). The magazine is now in the recycling bin, but I clipped a couple of articles that I'll share with you. You're going to get a laugh at one of them.

I'm loving having all this "free" space and time! The trick is going to not let the situation get out of control so I lose this flexibility.  FOCUS  FOCUS  FOCUS.  I'm going to need a HUGE sign that reminds me so I don't get off track!

On that note, I'm out of here to make The Task Master happy.  Watch the blog for dates of classes/charity sewing/sit n sew days or just e-mail me and I'll put you on the list of people to contact once it happens. We'll figure something out.

Have a wonderful day!

Ciao!