Loads of fun!

I'm so not good at letting you know where I am and what I'm doing. I'm not sure why - I must try to be more open about that in the future.

Last night, I was the guest speaker at the Paris Bee Quilters in Paris, Ontario. As I drove through the downtown, I remembered that I'd had lunch with my friend Robin years ago and we shopped in the little shops along the street. Last night, the downtown area was decorated to the nines for Christmas.

What a FUN night. The topic was modern quilts and I had filled my giant suitcase (not the traveling by plane suitcase - this one is even bigger!) with modern quilts that I had made. Hmm - as I did the presentation, I realized that almost all the modern quilts are my own design. Funny - I have tons of patterns and while I do make quilts from patterns, it appears that most or none of them are finished.

Doing a guild presentation can be a bit scary although I don't let that bother me anymore. But you never know the crowd. Well, this group is a FUN group. They asked tons of questions which made me go way over the time limit, but we were having fun.

Then they did their own show n tell. OH MY. It was amazing and they had a challenge which I didn't catch all the rules, but it sounds like they were to take a panel and do something with it. What a totally creative idea. I swear - even though the guild members think they walked away from the meeting as the winners (in terms of learning something new), I walk away with way more than they do! So THANKS for the lessons.

I was on the opposite side of the room to take some decent pictures, but I think they'll get posted on their Facebook page. Then the class results from a recent workshop were presented. They had used the Sew Kind of Wonderful Ruler - the mini one. I was totally blown away by the number of finished projects. I was holding someone's project so they could get a picture. I wanted to count how many finished projects there were, but it was a LOT. Way to go ladies - that's awesome. Thye made the tree pattern which is a free giveaway at that link above.

Speaking of links - I goofed yesterday when I added in the link to the Catalog Living blog. I changed the blog post yesterday (thanks to Torry for alerting me to that) and here's the link again.

I did manage to take a picture of the quilts that came in for their Community Projects. Holy - there were a lot of quilts and I think more were placed on the table after the show n tell. This is a great way for quilters to give back to the community. And it's a great way to DESTASH. It's a great way to finish UFOs in your house and get rid of a quilt. All around, it's a WIN-WIN-WIN.

Quilts for Community Projects

The other thing I noticed was the little zippered pouches. Those were also being donated to the Community Projects. Imagine getting a colorful little pouch when you have nothing. You can put toys in it, toiletries or any number of other things.

On top of that, I got this beautiful thank-you card. Not sure who made it, but it's a handmade card and I love it.

Handmade card

So a HUGE welcome to anyone from the Paris Bee Quilters who decided to stop by and see what my blog is all about. OH - I should mention that there'll be a quilt show next year, so we need to watch for those details.

I also committed to the group something - I won't share it with you at this point, but let's just say that all that extra time in December? I just filled it!!

Before packing and leaving, I had work to do. I had a small make-up class for someone who missed one of my classes two weeks ago. We got everything squared away and that was good.

I finished this drawstring gift bag. Isn't it just the best? Seriously - these are so simple to make, but if you don't know how - well, I'll be teaching a class at Oh Look Fabric TOMORROW evening. Get yourself signed up. I've decided to take my serger along - maybe - as it's even faster with the serger and all the edges in the bag are finished and they look beautiful.

Reuseable gift bag

This is a great way to use up fabric - HUGE amounts of fabric. If you can't make the class, here's a link to the free pattern.    Hmmm - this pattern was written by ME, but I see that Northcott took my name off it. Pretty cheeky if you ask me. I know that they did add one paragraph and a picture, but the rest of the words are mine. Heck - the format is mine. They've been good to me, so I'm going to let it go, but seriously????

NO - I decided to not let it go. I wrote a letter to the culprit and the President. I know they will just roll their eyes and call me an idiot and nothing will happen, but there is way too much copyright violation going on and for a company to be the culprit - I can't accept that.

I'm happy to say that the picture above is the RIGHT picture if you follow the instructions. The picture on the pattern isn't even the right picture. It's complicated, but I made the sample in the picture (from gray fabric so any new fabric could be mapped in place) and I was pressed for time. Have a look at the cording - it's not the same as above. Oh well - there are other things to worry about than this. But this makes me even more determined to follow through on what I talked to the quilting group last night.

I wonder how many other patterns on that website were changed ever so slightly so they could take my name off. I don't have time to check, but it irks me.

I got one more quilt quilted for Quilts of Valour. Well, not completed, but the quilting is done.

Quilts of Valour quilt - done

So here's a very important lesson. I was running around trying to get things accomplished yesterday. I had two gift bags to make. I threaded the serger - super easy. On my other serger, I would never dream of changing thread color on the fly, but the air threading is a dream. Should I do a test? No need. So I just serged up the edges of that gift bag. Oh shoot - this isn't looking right. What's the matter? This is supposed to be super easy. Well, after a bit of puttering around, I decided to rethread. OH - the lower looper thread was behind the bar, not in front of it. Totally my mistake. But I'm very excited that that happened. Why?

Well, if I did it when I was in a hurry, guess what? A customer will do it as well. Now I can tell them very quickly how to fix the problem. I love mistakes!!!  One more piece of knowledge in my brain that's almost filled to capacity.

Speaking of learning, I was chatting with my parents yesterday. Oh god - I'm just like my mother.

"Hey, Mom - what are you working on these days?" My Mom almost always has some craft thing on the go.
"Oh, I don't have time to make things these days."
"Why is that, Mom?"
 "I've got my nose in a book and I can't put it down".

My Mom was never a huge reader, but she did read. I said she's going to need a library card. Oh - they could never do that. They are so afraid of anything they don't know about.

In chatting to my Dad, he arrived home early from "work". He volunteers at the local Museum. Five days a week, from 8 - 4:30. EVERY DAY!!!  He's 86. He'd work at the museum 7 days a week if they'd let him, so he has to taken Monday to Friday. He plays in the machine shop making stuff like missing tractor parts that they can no longer buy and fixing stuff for the museum as well as making stuff for himself.

Last night, he was going to continue his learning about CNC (and CAD/CAM)  technology which is used in 3-D printing, routers, embroidery machines, plasma cutters, long arm quilting machines, etc. And he was also trying to find a new security camera that operates through the internet. Don't ask!

So you see why I'm like I am?? It's all my parents' fault. So even though I "hated" living at home as a child, I have pretty cool parents that instilled the love of reading, learning, and high levels of curiosity. I'm grateful to them for that.

Here's one more picture that I took at the guild last night. This caught my eye as the owner walked in the door. This is the Mondo bag pattern. Some people call it a schlep bag. But she had collected bits and pieces of wool (from items she purchased at the thrift store) and made her winter bag. Then she used bright pieces of cotton and made the summer version. I thought that was a brilliant idea! See how easy it is to customize a pattern and make it your own???

Summer and winter versions of the Mondo bag

Today is going to be another crazy day. It's Sit n Sew at my house. We'll be seven if everyone comes. I can't wait. I don't have anything urgent to sew and I hope to finish that community project quilt that was on the wall. You don't want to see the corner of Studio B. It's a bit piled up with stuff - there are quilts to trim and bind and a few other things that I was working on. It appears that I need a total confined area for "dumping". But then I need to keep things moving through that area so it doesn't get too crazy. I'm working on how I can make that happen. Things have a home, but not the immediate working on them right now projects.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!