Well I've been quite busy lately. I took a break from sewing after the summer workshop ended, but now I'm gearing up for class which is starting soon. The preview is on Monday, September 10 at 6 pm. The classes start the following week at the usual 6 - 9 pm time. The Redwood City rec book has the times listed backwards, with the preview showing at 3 hours long and the classes at 1 hour long. However, rest assured, the times are as usual, it was a mis-print in the book.
My mother-in-law, Marlene, is turning 75 this month, and she is throwing herself a party! Lance and I, and Lance's brother Steve are helping, and last weekend I made a picture collage to have out on a table. First it was just going to be some pictures on a poster board, but five trips to Michael's later, it is a little more fancy. I actually scrapped some plans to make it fancier due to time constraints. Here is a picture of the result. We got a bunch of old pictures and scanned them for the board (no actual pictures were harmed in the making of this project...).
The other big thing going on is that we are going on vacation in a couple of weeks!!! I am SO excited. We are driving up to southern Oregon for a week. Two days in Grant's Pass, two days at the Oregon Caves, and two days in Ashland to see some plays. My goal is to blog from the road every day, but we'll see how that goes.
But for now, keep quilting!!
Well we made it to Oregon! We left a bit later than we intended, and we got to our hotel at about 8:00 tonight. We only stopped once in Redding for a short break. Unfortunately, Lance has a cold, but we are carrying on anyway. I snapped this shot of Mt. Shasta from the car window as we drove.
Each day last week I would come home from work and the pieces of the block that I've been working on were askew. How can this be? No one is home during the day. The windows are all closed, so it's not the wind. Hmmmm.........
I've made some pretty big quilts in the past. King- and queen-sized quilts are a bugger to work on. However, I have no room to complain anymore. Behold the world's largest quilt. It's called the Quilt of Belonging, and it was assembled as a project to recognize Canada's diversity. Each of the 263 blocks represent a different nationality or aboriginal group found in Canada. The blocks are 11 inches and it stretches 120 feet long and 10.5 feet high.
The quilt took over 8 years to make. It will finally be making its first appearance in the United States at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in November of this year. Check out their website for much more information, including a Photo Gallery, Tour Dates, and if you are really interested, you can view each block individually.
Okay, I know that I was mostly going to post quilting items, but I ran across this tutorial for a miniature magnetic flower box and I thought it was great!! I want to make one RIGHT NOW!
Are you wondering what I'll be teaching this summer? (I'm looking your way, Lori...) Here's a sneak peek!
Above is the 2007 Best of Show winner at the AQS show that just concluded in Paducah. It is called "Flower of Life" and was made by Sharon Shamber. She is the only person ever to have won the Best of Show title for two consecutive years. I LOVE THIS QUILT. I have been trying to find a really good picture of it, but not many are out there yet, as the winner was just announced last week. I "borrowed" this pic from The Quilt Show's blog. In my search for a good picture, I stumbled across a blog called Patsy's Ponderings, published by Patsy Terrell. Not only was she at the show, but apparently she was able to interview Sharon Shamber as well. She has a very in depth post regarding this quilt and quilter with lots of photos of both. Please take a look -- the back of the quilt is as gorgeous as the front. Oh, and check out the edging!
