Yes, I am fit(bit)…

After reading your comments, after thinking about it a little more, and after lunch, I went to Target yesterday and bought myself a new Fitbit Charge. Thank you all for your comments. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty when I bought this new gadget.

FitbitOnArm

It’s hard to take a nice picture of your own arm :-).

The color choices for this model are not great: black, gray, dull navy, and orange. Black seemed to make the most sense… it will look fine with fancy attire, right?

I had a discussion about the Fitbit over dinner with friends last night—about why some of us like wearing this sort of device. I believe that Oscar had it right when he said that it offers validation. I don’t feel the need to broadcast my daily activities, but I do like knowing how active I’ve been, compared to how active I usually am.

I have always treated my body as if it is a used car. If my car starts acting up, I take it to the mechanic because I do not want to be stranded somewhere. My body is in reasonably good shape for its age, but when parts of me act up, I go to the appropriate doctor. The Fitbit is just one part of my simple, self-monitoring system. That, and I like the mental pat on the back I give myself when I reach my daily goals :-).

Wool Applique The Piece O’ Cake Way!

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know that our newest book, Wool Applique the Piece O’ Cake Way, has arrived. I haven’t written much about this book on the blog yet because I wanted to make videos first. I had to wait until I got my nails done, yesterday, to film the videos because when your hands are going to be preserved online for all time, you want your nails to look nice :-).

If the video isn’t there, click here to see it on Youtube.

I’ll post with more wool-y news soon. Until then, happy stitching!

From Nova Scotia…

Steve and I are in Canada! We left Halifax this morning and drove mostly south. It was rainy (just like home) and gray. That made the colorful houses stand out even more. And, boy, are there a lot of colorful houses here!

This sign kept popping up. Reminded me of patchwork…

NovaScotia-PatchworkSigns

And we figured out the the key in the next sign might mean ‘museum’, but what’s up with the @ sign?

NovaScotia-Sign

The forsythia is in bloom here. It bloomed at home weeks ago. I have to say that it is much happier here, up north.

Forsythia

And when was the last time you saw a teeter totter! It is unfortunate that we no longer have them in the states. I used to love teeter-tottering. I suppose that lawsuits made them go away. Canadians know how to live on the edge, right?

TeeterTotter

Speaking of living on the edge, here’s Steve tempting fate :-).

DangerSteve

I must have taken 200 photos today. Amazingly enough, I went through them all, deleting the bad, cropping the good, adding some fixes in Photoshop. It took too long but I’m happy I did it today. I am always happy when I keep up with my photos. I know that if I don’t, I’ll have thousands that will just sit there on my hard drive taking up space.

Digital photos are cheap and easy to take, which makes it easy to let them pile up. But I have noticed that the really good shots, the ones that I go back to, the ones I add to my screensaver, the rare ones that I print—those are the keepers. It’s hard to delete the just-OK shots, but I do it. Daily.

A color tutorial and a reminder…

I just sent a newsletter with two news items. If you aren’t on my newsletter list, here’s what you missed:

First, Linda’s current quilt auction ends tomorrow, Friday, May 22, at 12:00 noon, Pacific Time. Click here to go to the auction page.

The other item in the newsletter is a video. When I was at Quilt Market, I spent a lot of time talking to quilt shop owners about my new book, The Quilter’s Practical Guide To Color. I used sets of fat quarters to illustrate one of the more important points in the book. It occurred to me that I should share this information with everyone, so here it is:

If the video isn’t showing up for you, click here.

I am hearing from people who have read the book, telling me that it really is helping them with color. In fact, here’s an excerpt from an email that came to me from Barbara B.:

Becky, I am so glad I was able to get your Color book at Market.  I read it cover to cover yesterday on my travels home from Minneapolis. It is full of great info, explained in a way that will make sense to quilters. I am excited to use it in upcoming classes.

The book is not the least bit intimidating and the concepts are easy to grasp.  The fact that the info is provided in bits, using the practical advice boxes and short paragraphs, is good…

I know that books are expensive and many of you have color books that you rarely open. This one really is different, even if I do say so myself. It is not a book on color theory, it is a book with practical advice on color. Plus, there are 10 quilt patterns included. Eight quilts are pieced, and 2 of these have some applique. There are two quilts that are primarily applique. None of the patterns are difficult and each one teaches something about color and design.

If you are interested and want to order The Quilter’s Practical Guide To Color, click here.

Ready, set, go!

Quilt market is so interesting! It’s the place where retail and wholesale come together into the big happy family that we are all a part of. It’s all new to Lorna and she is loving it. 
Market is not open yet but I can share some pictures. Here is my booth, at least one side of it. 

  

Lorna and I got to watch Tula Punk in action today. Love her, love her fabric! You are going to love it too! I should have better photos but was slow. This dot, however, is amazing. 

  

   

Some market booths have amazing displays (not mine, but that’s ok). I love the walls of silk flowers at Michael Miller. 

  

And, gotta say, Minneapolis is just full of lovely buildings. If you keep your eyes open you can see so much!

 
And you may as well go inside to see more :-). This is subtle, but lovely. 

  

Can you help this quilter?

UPDATE: Caron has found a pattern! Yay! So you can either read what I wrote or just skip down to the pretty picture :-).

I got an email from Caron who wrote:

Hi!  I bought this book (The New Applique Sampler) on Amazon.com, but did not notice until I received it, that it was a used book.  Of course, the pattern was not in it.  So disappointed.  I just watched your dvd of Teach You to Applique and wanted to start trying this!  I did check your website, but did not see the pattern for this one. Do you sell just the pattern so I can give this a try??
Thank you so much!!

Amazingly enough, I don’t have the printed copies of the patterns from that book—or from any of our out of print books. There’s only so much room in my house :-). I also don’t have the pattern in a downloadable format.

But the patterns in that book are nice and I would like to help. Caron said she would be very happy for me to post her email address along with her plea for the pattern pages. She said that even if someone has the pattern and could copy it for her, she would be happy to repay their expense.

If you can help, click to email Caron.

Important Side Note: In this case, I believe that it’s OK to make a copy of the patterns for her. She did buy the book in good faith. It is not the same as making copies of a pattern for all your friends so that they don’t have to buy a book—that would be copyright infringement.

And, because it’s pretty, I’m posting another strawberry photo. This is the one I turned in for my homework assignment—a photo on the color ‘red’.