Gail from Ontario sent me a photo of the little quilt she finished from a block started in my class at the London Friendship Quilter’s Guild in Sept 2013. She added some button flowers and embroidery and hand quilted the block into a little wall hanging. It’s way cute!
I am always happy to see the projects that you all make from our patterns. Happy stitching!
Although my husband tells me that time passes by exactly the same way, minute by minute, day by day, I swear that time moves faster as I get older. It makes him sigh, deeply. At any rate, I can hardly believe it has been a week since I last wrote. (FYI: the new bras are amazing! I hope you found time to shop as well.)
I’ve been working on a new quilt for the revised edition of our Piecing book. I can only show you a snippet of it, otherwise it would spoil the surprise for when the book comes out…
This is the pile of scraps that were left from cutting strips. It’s a very happy quilt!
I enjoy piecing and am finding it fun to crank out some quilts… as long as I still have applique to do at night :-).
I am learning to really appreciate the camera in my iPhone. It is usually with me and so I can stop and take quick pics even on my morning walk. Use your imagination and these salvias could instead be green-tipped purple trees in a Dr. Seuss landscape!
Wouldn’t the colors in this feather, used with the grays in the concrete, be perfect in a quilt?
On the same morning walk, I noticed this water meter cover. You can’t really tell from the photo, but it was tall, the center part stuck up several inches, which is unusual. I love the mix of colors and textures. It struck me that the bright turquoise on the worn iron cover is the same as the turquoise in my shoes.
There are just too many cool things that a person can take a picture of!
I just returned from Midway, UT, where the very first Small Town Quilt Show – In a big way! was held. Midway is a lovely place; it is only 10 minutes from Park Cities if that helps you to get a fix on it. The event was held at the Zermatt Resort and it’s a place I would happily return to.
I didn’t take pictures of the usual quilt show things because I was too busy either teaching, or shopping, to do that. There was, however, one vendor who had some really fun things made from wool. Yes, I could make these coasters but it was so much nicer to buy them!
There were some exceedingly cute sock monkeys hanging on the front of the booth (and I wasn’t the only one who thought so). As it turns out they were made by Andrew, the grandson of the lady in charge. Did I get her name? Sigh, I did not. However, the receipt is from Winnie Press. This is Andrew’s very first sock monkey, made when he was 8 or 9…
He follows his own monkey-making muse, rather than a strict pattern…
The monster was my favorite :-).
Andrew is older by a couple of years or so now, and still making monkeys. Honestly, he could go into business… there were a lot of us who would have happily bought one of his creations. Instead, I bought a kit for Jack. He’s 6, and probably a bit young for this. Or not!
I always thought that sitting quietly composed would leave a better impression than if I were seen sitting chewing gum. Apparently, not so much…
I am currently wearing a dental device that prevents me from chewing gum, not that I chew gum that often. But now I’m more sorry that I can’t chew gum when I’m sitting in an airport, among strangers.
How often have you heard that change is good? I have heard it often, and I believe that change really is good. However, no matter how good change may be, it can also be hard because it requires that we do something new.
Doing something new is not as comfortable as doing what you always do and I’m as bad as everyone else in that I like to be comfortable. (It makes you wonder how the phrase “change is good” came to be so widely embraced, doesn’t it?)
It’s probably more accurate to say that “Change is.” Every day presents us with new choices; things do not remain the same and we do have to make choices. The TED talk below by Ruth Chang is about making hard choices. It’s about 15 minutes long and interesting.
I posted another TED talk about choices on June 10. These two talks complement each other: one is about how we handle (or are overwhelmed by) too many choices and the other is about how we decide between tough options.
In my own life, what I have found helpful is the recognition that too many choices are often overwhelming and that limiting options can work for me. I am also happy to be reminded that hard choices are hard specifically because they are not black and white. Deep down, we all know that this is true, but it is easy to get sucked into the notion that we ought to be able to always choose the best option. Sometimes it’s a coin-toss and you are either lucky in your choice, or not.
There is a Harry Nilsson song that I have always loved, The Lottery Song. (You can hear it here.) The refrain is:
“If life is just gamble
Gamble if you want to win
Life can be so easy
Let the wheel of fortune spin”
As I thought about Ruth Chang’s talk, that was the soundtrack playing in my head…
Piece O Cake Blog 