Make a mini - make a friend

Today is the day! I'm excited. Seriously? Perhaps, I need some counseling. Today is the day I've scheduled to do some major tidying up. I can tidy up the sewing room if I want or I can finish off the stuff from M's room or I can tackle the office or I can do all three. But today is a tidy up day ONLY.

Why haven't I scheduled days like this before? I know that some people are very good at scheduling their time. I'm not. I say I'll do something and then I'll forget or something else will come up. If I don't write things down - my brain is so full of great ideas for the future that I don't retain things, especially the things I'm procrastinating on.

I made good progress yesterday on a couple of things. Not as much as I would like, but I made progress. The big problem is that paperwork takes up time! Has to be done, but I hate doing it.

Today though I have a fun story to share with you. One of the best parts about Quiltcon was called Make a Mini - Make a Friend. You signed up with the coordinator, gave them a list of your likes and you got paired up with a "friend" who had similar interests.

For those attending Quiltcon, there was an exchange on Saturday evening. My new friend is Katherine from North Carolina. Neither of us was staying until Saturday so we met on Friday afternoon to exchange our minis.

It was easy to pick her out of the crowd! What a fun person! 

Me and Katherine with our new mini quilts

She has a store in North Carolina so if you're ever down that way, you need to stop in and say HI. The store is called Mountain Thread Company, in Blowing Rock.  OK -- I want to visit. The shop looks amazing.

Here are our minis so you can have a better look at them.

My "modern" landscape of the North Carolina mountains. It was made with improv applique and I absolutely love how it turned out.

Blue Mountains

And this is what Katherine made for me. It definitely fits in my parameters of bikes and orange. I love it!!!

My new mini from Quiltcon

It would appear that one of the products manufactured in North Caroline is cotton rope. And what does one make with cotton rope?? Why rope baskets and bowls of course!!!  Look at the cute little rope tray that Katherine made for me in addition to the mini. She used up the excess fabrics from the mini in the tray. How brilliant is that???  I love it!!!!!

My new rope tray

I think there were 576 participants in the exchange. From all over the world - well 15 countries I think, but still all over the world. It was a fun project to participate in. I'm not usually good at deadlines for stuff like this, but I wanted to get it done so we could exchange in person. What fun and I would definitely do it again. Those that could not meet up with their swap partner shipped them to each other.

Seriously - check out her web site to see all the cool stuff that they do at the shop. Now, this is a shop that I'd like to live close to!!! Blowing Rock is in the mountains, near a big park - oh yes - I think I could live there. Imagine cycling, imagine the quilting, imagine the quiet. Blowing Rock has a population of 1,263 (2017).

Here's what I can show you that I accomplished yesterday.

A couple of trimmed half square triangles

Yes - it's pretty sad - but I did get lots of other stuff done. You just have to wait for it.

I have a lot of classes this weekend and there's a lot of prep work. Here's a quick list. Sorry - I should get better at posting these much earlier.


Oh Look, Fabric  -- Know Your Sewing Machine  - for people who have no idea how to wind bobbins, tension and all the other fun dials on the machine. That's TONIGHT from 7 - 9 PM.

There's a rope bowl class next week - if you want to sign up to learn how to make those rope bowls. Super fun and so easy. Check out the class listing on the Oh Look, Fabric web page.

At the Hobby Horse, I have a 3-yard mystery this Friday. All you need are 3 - one-yard pieces of fabric and your sewing machine. It's going to be fun!!!  Check out the newsletter for more class options. 

Then there are a couple of on-going classes in there as well as a private class. Busy!!!!

Here's something that I saw yesterday and I think it's got a pretty important message. It's about choosing our goals and learning to focus. I admire Heather for all that she's accomplished in her life - cycled across Canada, attempted to summit Everest on a couple of occasions and doing a lot of work that she truly believes in - all while she holds a full-time consulting job. I'm not sure how she does it -but she does. Here's a link to her blog post from yesterday.

It's a bit long but well worth the read. One of the things that I don't think she makes quite as clear as she could have is that the dreams, the hopes, and the focus are NOT based on what everyone else is doing. Those dreams, hopes, and focus are hers and hers alone!!!!!  You can easily translate this to quilting. It's not the latest fad, it's not what your fellow quilter is doing - it's doing what YOU WANT TO DO!!!!!   That's so very important. I know we all get crazy and try to do EVERYTHING. I want to make one of those quilts and one or those quilts and one of those quilts and then nothing ever gets finished.

How do some of the top designers get known? They choose a direction that interests them as an artist. Then they explored that design in great depth, playing "what if" scenarios at all steps. Many happy accidents happened.

How do we make this happen? Well - if you're like me and have a lot of stuff to finish off - it means making a choice.

1. Continue starting and abandoning projects
2. Start finishing projects to allow room to explore
3. Give those projects away and start working on what you want to do!!!!

 I stuck between number 2 and 3 at the moment. I'll make the switch, but I'm not quite there. It'll require a change in what and how I teach. Baby steps - the big thing is to identify your goals, dreams in the quilting world, clear out the junk and then move forward.

Anyway - I thought it was an interesting read. It's not just what you want to do with your life or your quilting. It's with everything. It's the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome. Why do we want to be like and do everything that others do? Do your own thing!!!!!!   That's how you grow - well that's how I grow.

On that note, I have about a half hour of paperwork that has to be done today and then I get to tackle the piles of junk.  Let's dive in!!!!!


Have a great day!!!!!


Ciao!!!