Something About Nothing

Another traditional pattern I love is clam shells.  I decided to give carving them a try.  I drew some designs and then tried carving them.  After carving a few I put them together. I love the pattern!  The problem with carving clam shells is that you end up with a lot of quarter circle left over pieces. I decided they needed to be carved. They are okay printed as circles, but I soon found they are even more interesting printed in ropes. These would be fun to print on fabric!

I've always had a desire to try out English Paper Piecing with hexagons. I love the look of these quilts and wanted to give it a try. I watched a few of Sue Daly's videos about how to stitch them together, bought some stuff to work with and got busy.  I'm not sure what pattern I will stitch them together. Some sort of modern pattern?  A more traditional Grandmother's flower garden? Hmmm, who knows. The best part of sewing these hexi's is that I can still do it with a cat in my lap!

The day after I got home from Calgary, my husband and I flew off to Tampa to attend the World of Quilts show and help out the Social Justice Sewing Academy there. The night before the show started we went out to dinner with Sara Trail, and Nancy Williams at Ulele , a Native-American inspired menu.   It was located next to the riverwalk and the grounds were beautiful.  The food was fabulous!  The dessert was even better.   This bacon ice cream was so good! The next morning, as I was getting ready to go to the Tampa Convention Center, the entire right side of my body went numb, so instead of the Convention Center we made our way to Tampa General Hospital. I was taken in immediately, given a CT scan, or was it an MRI? No stroke but they wanted to keep me and figure out what the problem was.  I was given the dreaded yellow socks indicating I was a fall risk.  And then hooked up to the leg squeezers, whi...

I flew off to Canada to become a Wonderfil Threaducator.   The thread wall in the long arm room. Lots of yumminess. Portrait quilt of Wonderfil owner, Andrew Ngai. Wonderfil also sells the wool for Sue Spargo's line. So many beautiful threads! I met some great women and learned a lot about some great thread. Threaducators: Me, Berndette Kent, Nina Clotfelter and Valerie Mizzoni. And of course you can't go to Canada without trying Poutine. . . . . .and Nanaimo bars!

A friend and I traded favors.  I free motion quilted a lap quilt for her and had a great time creating flowers. Keiko was very helpful.

It was another fun year at Craft Napa. This year started off with a get to know you dinner in which I met up with friends from home, as well as new friends from here and there. Making New Friends. Patti Pitts from the Utah Surface Design Group  So Many cute Postcards to raise money for the Animals misplaced by the Camp Fires in California. I donated a few, and bought quite a few as well.  I took Libby Williamson's Tea Bag Revival class. Krista Lopez is a local Napa resident who I met during my first Craft Napa. Libby photobombing Jenny Lyon and I during class.  The beginning of my tea bag art.  Libby giving us important instructions about free motion quilting. Almost finished! I need to do more hand stitching and then attach the tea bags to a backing. The Tea Bag Revival class. Two of the great postcards I purchased.  They were made by Stacy Hurt .   The luncheon featured ...