Catch Up

Sorry for the gap in time. Today I am speaking to you from Portland, OR, having just found my way to the computer desk for hotel guests. And although I am leaving for home today, I have time right now for an update. I have been here since last Wednesday for International Quilt Market. Each day has been quite packed, leaving me uninterested in sitting down at a keyboard until now. I'm here with Debbie as we seek out great new products for Bear Patch Quilting Co., and we have a load to go home! Actually much more than will fit in our suitcases, but luckily our friend and designer, Mary H., drove here so was more than willing to take some of our bags home with her. Our stay here in Portland at the Paramount Hotel has been great, even though it was unseasonably warm (upper 80's-90) some of the time, at least it hasn't rained! I will be adding some photos here once I get home and sort things out. We purchased and ordered so many great new patterns, some from totally new names and many that we already know and love. We have great plans, but just like at a great buffet, I am afraid our ideas are bigger than our actual resources, so we will be needing help from our store staff for sample making. Given that many of the patterns are irresistable, that shouldn't be too hard to arrange! We look hard to find patterns that we think will make pleasing store samples or excellent class material over the upcoming months. So stay tuned!

Think Pink

Getting an early start on the day, that's the upside. The downside is too little sleep! But I wanted to post this information about a charitable project you might be interested in. At Cotton Spice they have organized downloadable block designs by contributing designers with instructions to send them in to be made into quilts which will benefit breast cancer awareness/treatment. It's a very good thing, as Martha would say!

Broken promise

So, I swore to myself that I would have to give up knitting except for socks which just wouldn't work, I mean, what is life without hand-knit socks? But when visiting Borealis Yarns I was drawn into a very nice lacey scarf that seemed like it needed my attention, so when I found out it only needed one skein of yarn, the pattern was free, and I already had the right needles, it was a done deal. And now I can rationalize the fact that I broke my promise by the fact that it is made of sock yarn! How good is that!

I have loaded up a new quilt to work on, it is the Lucky Stars pattern by Atkinson Designs, made of very pretty pastel batiks and the workmanship is very good so it is a keeper, too bad it doesn't belong to me! I have been tossing around ideas of what designs I want to do, that takes me a bit. I have been watching some instructional videos on-line by Sharon Schamber, she does some amazing quilting that is pictured on her site. She is very big into feather designs, and I have been practicing with pen and paper and my sketches are starting to look somewhat graceful and lovely, no longer ugly mutants! Practice makes perfect!

Had such a good morning with Brita today, we worked on the yard at her house trying to clean up the rubble left after a sewer excavation. Picture this pile of dirt without the snow and grass now trying to grow and rain. It's kind of a mess. (Ever wonder why the sewer draining out of a house is spelled the same as what you would call me at my sewing machine?) Anyway, it's going to take some more work to deal with some collapsed cement, so we couldn't finish the job today. Plus then the rains came. They say Sunday is going to be a good day, so we will tackle it then. The plumber came to give the sewer line an exam, and we got a good report, no more nasty growths or obstructions!