Studio Tour

Saturday my guild did a fund-raiser: an open house/studio tour.  The cost was $10 and there were 6 homes/gardens on the tour from noon-4.  Lessons learned:  fewer homes, another hour.  I had about 30 people here, of the 60 who paid to attend.  As the homes were all over the county, it was very difficult to make it to all 6 homes--one car-full did it!  And we had lots of rain the night before and all that morning--so the gardens at each home were not toured. 

I thought you might enjoy photos of my studio--it took some doing to get things looking this neat and tidy.  The closets were a big hit--18' x 9' tall, 4 rows of shelving, 3 lights.  What I really need to do is empty everything out of there and restock--I'm sure there are things in there I've "lost" that I really need to find.  But I'm just not up to that yet.  Here you go: 

 

It's 21' X 24' and it's all mine. Four sets of fluorescent lights, 2 sets of floor outlets for the sewing machine and iron station.  South and West facing windows--lots of natural light. 

Stuff accumulates to fill the space available--I really do need to empty those closets.  Several guests offered to come "shopping" when I do it.  The last time I had a sale for guild members  I was happy with the results and the shoppers were happy with their purchases.  Might have to have another sale later this year. 

Glad you could stop by--come back any time!

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Tax Season

Ok, it's tax season, and you would think that after 33 years in this business I would know I cannot do it all from January-April.  Right?  But I still try.  Tax season is half over but I'm just getting really busy and it will only increase the next 7 weeks. 

The other night at the monthly guild meeting my friends said they missed my posts and I needed to get busy!  So here is a look at what I'm working on as time permits:

The first 26 blocks of Grandmothers' Choice.  I am keeping up with this project. 

I love these Antique Rose Star blocks!  Hand piecing can get done at night, in fact, it helps keep me awake after a long day at work.  There are 72 pieces in each star--cutting them out takes time even with the lovely little template.  In the morning, before leaving for work, I can cut out a few and eventually I have the whole set of 72 in a Ziploc bag. 

And here is one of the little Abundance quilts I got done--the other is ready for the binding to be turned back, tonight's Oscar project.

So, you see, I have been busy but haven't taken time to show you.  And I didn't take time to crop the photos either--sorry, maybe next time.

This week I'm at work all day Monday, off Tuesday which means I'll take the car for servicing, get a haircut, and teach my beginning class Tuesday night, getting home about 9 p.m.  Wednesday I work 9 am-8 pm.  Thursday I'm off until 4 pm when I go to the quilt shop to teach a new class: Tumbling Blocks the Easy Way--5-9 pm.  Friday and Saturday--9-6.  Sunday is my "do everything else" day. 

How about something just for fun?  Here is a shot of my photographer son, Joshua Black Wilkins, with someone you might know.  His caption was "I win" and I said "She wins too"!

He was working a photo shoot with her this past week. 

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Design Wall Monday January 7, 2013

A big Happy New Year to all!  Life is almost back to normal, which means tax season starts for me this week.  Here's a look at what I've been doing:

I enjoy the Grandmother's Choice block of the week published by Barbara Brackman--she tells the story of the suffragist movement less than 100 years ago. Here is the current row:

A new block and history lesson appears each Saturday.   She is also starting a new Civil War block of the month project I am trying to convince myself NOT to do, but I still might: .Civil War Dixie Diary--after all, it's only 12 blocks and you decide if you'll make them 12" or 8", and there's only 12 of them--see, I'm talking myself into it.

A class I'll be teaching soon is the Trash 2 Treasure Pineapple quilt using Gyleen Fitzgerald's book and ruler.  I've got these 30 blocks sewn together--just from my stash strips.  With a project like this, I cut strips to the sizes needed from any fabric I'm working on so I keep feeding the project box.  Then when time permits, I make more blocks:

Lastly, here's my latest "new" project, a hand pieced block called Victorian Antique Star:

I got turned on to this when I happened on the blog of Barbara Chainey, a terrific English quilter I met a few years ago when she taught at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  It uses a terrific template from Matlida's Own, an Australian company.  I plan to teach this in May or June--the perfect traveling project, once your pieces are cut and marked. 

My biggest challenge since Christmas is learning Windows 8 and trying to figure out my new desktop computer--we're still trying to determine if it has "issues" or it's just "operator error".  Time will tell...

Take a look at Judy L's design wall Monday blog to see what others are doing. 

Are you a Downton Abbey fan?  I saw the DA Revisited special in early December and told my husband I was sorry I'd missed the first 2 seasons.  Bingo!  Santa provided them on DVD and I got to watch both seasons, almost back to back.  Last night was the start of the n3rd season and there was a great special before it on the actual Highclere Castle, where it is filmed--very interesting!

Have a great week and let's quilt!

 Barbara