WHEW... WHAT A CONTRAST!

 Just in case you thought Mother Nature 

had forgotten about us in the Pacific Northwest...

after months of blue skies and sunshine...

Leaves are falling, 

wind is blowing, 

and two inches of rain has fallen... 

just this Saturday!

Gratitude to Mother Nature

as she created 

a perfect day 

to hunker down

and sew and sew and sew... 

at Calico Creations in Mount Vernon.

Here's my packed up car, with 

more samosa pouches in heart fabric,

cute tote bags filled with ideas and chocolate,

my juki baby,

AND

a bottle of JOY 

(just in case anyone needs help

remembering that quilting is a joyFULL process). 

Today was my Summer Solstice class

a pattern/style of piecing from Karla Alexander.

I made the quilt above as a sample to hang...

and started this quilt as a teaching example.

This is the blue and purple quilt in 

black and white to help show contrast.

The ladies did a great job!

I piece in a very relaxed,

enjoyment as my first objective

style...

which can be very different and

intimidating for some ladies.

Here's a few pics of their work

with a few black and whites

to explore the idea

of making a quilt pop with light/dark contrast.

Just as I am working on 

being in the moments

of my day

and

realizing there is peace in each moment...

I am teaching/leading fellow quilters

into a style of quilting

that rejoices in what the moments,

IN THE PROCESS of quilting,

are offering...

Opportunities to...

discard "rules",

play,

experiment,

jump in/out/through/around "the" box,

get in touch with your own quilting muse,

(yes, we all have one!),

and have fun!

Fun? Fun! 

It can be quite different,

almost revolutionary,

from what they are used to!

What a contrast...all in a day!

FAVORITE QUILT

I just love getting lost in blogland

and feeling soooo very inspired

by all the creativity!

It seems that I have been struck

twice this week

by http://niftyquilts.blogspot.com/!

I had so much fun looking at other quilter's favorites

that I just had to link up and share my favorite.

(Must be that I have Freddy on my mind! hee-hee!)

It's

all Freddy fabric!

An original liberated design! 

(it gets a lot of use in the tree house!)

Nothing but LOVE!

Check out all the other lovely favorites...

http://mollyflanders.blogspot.com/2013/09/geesh-i-want-to-see-them.html

SUNSHINE DAYDREAM

Ahhh....

with encouragement and help from son #2,

I rushed outside yesterday,

after a full day of mom duties,

and captured a delightful hour in the last rays

of our soon to be sparse sunshine!

(notice dog Fred enjoyed frolicing under the table!)

In that plastic tub is the last

of my way-too-many-yards

of Freddy Moran's line of fabric

that she did many years ago.

It was called "pure color" by Quilter's Only.

I finished making a bunch of baskets 

to try to make a dent in this part of my stash.

It felt sooooo good to be 

outside

in the sun

listening to the birds and squirrels

gratefully sewing

All this happiness compelled me to make a littlebit.

I pulled out some Terrie Mangat fabric!

It's a shrine to the art of trusting!

Trusting that the universe has our back.

Terrie Mangat is another quilting super hero of mine!

Here's some pics of my way-too-many-yards

of Terrie Mangat fabric!

OOHHH LA LA...Terrie's "fiesta" line...LOVE IT!

There's a lot to love about 

quilting...

like this new book...

I had a lot of fun sifting through my stash 

to make this lattice quilt 

in hopes of teaching it in the spring.

I leave you with a quote from 

Emily Cier in her book, Scrap Republic,

"Be eccentric. Be crazy. And most important, have fun! It's very liberating!"

WINNER!

YELLOW...

according to 

http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-yellow.html

YELLOW IS...

uplifting

illuminating

hope 

cheerfulness

fun

"the best color to create enthusiasm for life and can awaken greater confidence and optimism."

I had already been playing in a littlebit of yellow...

Then,

the stars and planets must have alligned because...

last night,

all the men in my house went to the Mariner's game

and left the computer free for...

me!

So, I spent a rare hour (or two!)

getting lost in blogland 

enjoying all the creativity out there.

After reading the latest posting from a favorite blog

http://niftyquilts.blogspot.com/

I discovered

http://www.quilt-it.blogspot.com/

and loved every project I saw!

I was immediately inspired by her

YELLOW scap buster quilt

and went leaping off the computer

and into the sewing zone!

Then I added a touch of green...

and that's where I left it before bed.

Ahhh....

enjoying YELLOW

and feeling the happy possibilities...

my husband picked 

#1 for the chunks giveaway...

Congrats Sharon!

and...

#5 for the yummy scrap bag

Congrats Gill!

Please send me your address!

Thanks for reading and for commenting!!!

AHHHH...FEELS LIKE FALL! (AND A GIVEAWAY!)

This is how I am feeling. 

 Deep, 

                                                 vibrant, 
                                     and coming to a close. 

                                   Our fabulous summer  
                        has ended with school starting today and
                         noticeably shorter amounts of sunshine 
                         including our first rainy day in forever.

                               Here's what I've been up to -

                  I made it to the APNQ show in Tacoma, WA.
                              Here are a few of my favorites.

    I did a little shopping and fell in love with the "Collage" line!

Do I need more fabric? Ha!

NOT!

Especially because his is what I have been working on

obsessed with. 

"Magnificent Madness"

It measures 64x69 and is mostly 1 1/4 inch strips!

I can't seem to stop, and so am finishing up the leftovers...

The scrappy look seems to be a theme.

I have two classes coming up!

Scraptastic! at Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop - 

inspired by the book Scrap Republic

Sunday, September 22, 10-3.

I just finished putting the binding on this scrappy guy!

Gosh, I did/do love that line by Desise Schmidt!

AND...

Karla Alexander's Summer Solstice 

from the book Stack the Deck Revisted

is a fun, simple, and stunning quilt!

Calico Creations, Saturday September 28, 10-4.

I like to make little somethings to give away in my classes.

Here's tissue pouches...

and Samosa pouches

from the great tutorial here:

http://www.sewmamasew.com/2013/01/samosa-pouch-tutorial/

Besides sewing, 

I have made a point to do some reading in the hammock, 

while the outdoor reading time was good.

 I enjoyed the silly 

Where'd You Go Bernadette 

by Maria Semple, 

and 

A State of Wonder 

by Ann Patchett.

I really enjoyed 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce. 

SIGH....

it is just so very beautiful AND

Harold is working on the same stuff we all are working on!

I just have to share my two favorite quotes...

"Harold was so tired he could barely lift his feet, and yet he felt such hope, he was giddy with it. If he kept looking at the things that were bigger than himself, he knew he would make it..."

and

"He had learned that it was the smallness of people that filled him with wonder and tenderness and the lonliness of that too. The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time. Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that was the dilemma of being human."

lovely!

Here's a "littlebit" - me happily riding the wave of life. NOT attaching a negative or positve value to what is happening.

Ahhhh!

I am also reading Flow 

by Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi,

a book I have had for a while,

and have picked up several different times,

each time getting something different from it.

This time,

what I am really hearing,

is...

"Each of us has this freedom to control our subjective reality."

really?!

and he has two quotes I love -

"Men are not afraid of things, but how they view them." - Epictetus

"If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is your power to wipe out that judgement now." - Marcus Aurelius

HOPE!!!!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

It's time for a fall feeling giveaway!

I noticed this morning that Halloween stores have popped up

and decorations are displayed!

So...

20 chunks of Halloween fabric!

(I am guessing at least 6 yards) 

or large bag of all kinds of yummy Halloween scraps!

Anyone can play. 

Leave a comment sharing something that makes you happy

and which prize you would prefer

and/or

become a follower.

(PLEASE make sure I can get a hold of you!)

My husband (who has been traveling for a very long time 

and is happy to be home for a bit

probably will need something to do to stay out of trouble

(and take his mind of all the fabric his darling wife has...

so much that she is compelled to give some away! hee-hee))

will pick a number on next Sunday morning!

Good Luck! 

Tell your friends!