Bye Bye Gallbladder!

First, I must apologize for being AWOL for so long from my blog. 

I do have a good reason, though.  Through July and August I had some ongoing health issues which was finally diagnosed as a bad gallbladder.  UGH! 

Finally on August 29th, I had my gallbladder out.

So, now I'm gallbladder free.  I wonder if there's a special club for people sans gallbladder?  We could get matching t shirts or something, right?

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that an organ that has been with me since the womb is now gone.  It's a weird feeling.

 I'm now three weeks post op, but still dealing with one or two minor complications. I'm thinking of making a quilt to honor my gallbladder.  What are your thoughts on this?

I'm hopeful in another week or two to finally be over all of it so I can get back to my life again.

MY FAVORITE NEW PARTY GAME

Do you like to play games?  I do.  When I was growing up, my family had game nights and we'd play games like Operation, Don't Break the Ice, Payday, The Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Uno, and a bunch of other games that I've forgotten the names of.

As I got older, I discovered Scattergories, Triominoes, Outburst, and later Apples to Apples.

Now I have a NEW FAVORITE GAME!

 

Bring your Own Book!

 

Have you tried this game yet????

Here is the game description from Amazon:  "Your old favorite book is now your new favorite game! Draw a category card, grab a book, and then quickly skim to satisfy the chosen prompt (and the judge!) with the most entertaining phrase. Can you find "a ridiculous tabloid headline" in that best-selling novel? How about "dating advice" in your well-worn cookbook? Since you can use any book, you can play with any group and find limitless potential on every page! Where will you discover "the title of the next hit party game?" Find out when you Bring Your Own Book!."

I first heard about this book in a Facebook post by a quilter friend of mine.  I thought it sounded like fun so I ordered one.  Then I took the game to the library where I work.  OH MY!  What a crazy time we had and we just grabbed a random book off the shelf, mind you.  In fact, several times when I've played at the library, people have ended up checking the book out that they were playing with -- definitely a boon for libraries!  I have played this game with teenagers in my teen summer reading group and they LOVE it.  I have played this game with my book club and they LOVED it.  

So, you're probably wondering what this has to do with quilting, aren't you?

Well, I even played this game with my Saturday Quilt Group using quilt books off the rack in the quilt shop where we meet AND IT WORKED!  Who knew that quilting books could be so racy when the words and phrases were taken out of context.  LOL!!!!  You've got to try this with your quilt books!

You can use just about any book that words.  I have even tried a local phone book, although children's picture books don't work quite as well and the nonfiction book about some clinical medical topic didn't work out very well either. 

So, if you're looking for something fun to do with a group of people this summer or anytime, get this game.  You won't regret it and you'll end up as the best host ever.

Bring Your Own Book on Amazon

P.S.  Today my teen group decided we were having a BYOB game rematch next Saturday!!!

It's SUMMERTIME! Tutorials and FREE Quilt Patterns Just for You

Summer Greetings to One and All!

Time has just been flying by and suddenly it's July.  How did that happen?  It's been so crazy around here since I returned from Quilt Market in St. Louis back in May.  I haven't even had much time to quilt or work on any new projects -- it's just been a challenge to get through each day, mostly.

I do have a lovely little surprise or two for everyone, though --

Tutorials for blocks featured in my quilt book, I Love Precut Quilts! as well as free patterns for you to try out the blocks.  F -U -N! 

Who isn't looking for a fun little project to play with during those busy summer months?

You can find the tutorials and free patterns on my website.  Here's the link:

Tutorials and Free Patterns

I hope you enjoy the blocks -- Half and Half Block and Turned Snowball Block and the small quilt projects that go along with the tutorials -- Checkmate and Moonlight.

 Checkmate

 Moonlight

If you make the projects, email  me a photo of your finished piece -- I'd love to show them off on my blog.

Here's hoping that we all find a little time this summer for quilting and sewing!

Spring Market -- Day Number 4 -- what I saw and what I did

Saturday is here!  Hooray!  This afternoon is my book signing at the C&T Booth so that gave me the morning to explore once again.  This time, I decided to take special note of the things that I saw.  I also wanted to take pictures of the things that inspired me.

Here are the things that I noticed:

1)  Bags are back -- totes, purses, and more.
2)  Kids' stuff is still strong -- clothing, toys, etc.
3)  Home Dec is here -- lots and lots of pillows.
4)  Mini quilts -- sometimes just a single quilt block finished as a mini wall quilt.
5)  Taupe is coming back (darn....I've really loved grey as a neutral and accent)
6)  Rainbow everyting is hot, hot, hot
7)  Although modern and contemporary are in, traditional and folk art are still strong in the market.
8)  Apparel is where it's at -- dresses, tops, scarves, accessories...
9) Foxes and woodland creatures are still hot and everyone's wild for llamas.

Well, that sums up what I saw trending at Market.

Here are some of the inspirational  photos I took on the show floor:

My book signing was scheduled for 1:30 PM in the C&T Booth.  Here I am, happily signing away!

Saturday night, I tried toasted raviolis -- a St. Louis speciality!  YUM YUM YUMMY!

On Sunday, it was time to say good bye to St. Louis and Spring Quilt Market as I headed to the airport to fly back to good ol' Pennsylvania.

Of course, my flight was delayed for 4 hours, but I did finally get home.

Now it's time to put all of these new inspirations and ideas to work!  Stay tuned......

Spring Market Friday -- Day 3

After surviving my Schoolhouse presentation yesterday, I was sew sew ready to take on the world today!  Or at least the Quilt Market show floor.

Here are a couple photos of the floor.  You'll have to use your imagination to see how big it really was.  Close your eyes and picture this gigantic room, bigger than a football field.  Can you see the aisles numbered from 200 (row 1) all the way to 3200 (row 32)? Okay, now try to imagine over 900 vendors all under the same roof!

THAT'S QUILT MARKET!

I did not have anything planned for Friday so it was a good day to just walk and look around.  Of course, I checked in with my publisher, C&T, and was delighted to see my book quilt, Breeze -- the blue and white quilt on the left, on display in the booth.  Yay!

I stopped to visit with other friends I've made along the way and somehow, I actually made it through the entire show floor!  Boy, were my feet killing me later.  LOL!


Friday night was the much-anticipated Moda Party and I was lucky enough to get to go the the event.  It was a lot of fun with food, friends, and even some dancing.  I was in for the dancing when they played "Cha Cha Slide" -- really, I know all the moves for this song.  (wink, wink...)

Spring Quilt Market WEDNESDAY -- Day 1

My brilliant idea was to blog everyday during Spring Market, but several thingsmade that a bit more difficult than I had envisioned:

1)  I was just too dang worn out by the end of the day
and
2)  The wifi was pretty spotty at the hotel so trying to blog was a painful process

So, instead I decided to wait until I got home to tell more about my experiences.

Wednesday afternoon after settling in at my hotel, I took the opportunity to wander around a bit and find the Gateway Arch.  Thank goodness for Google Maps or who knows where I would have ended up???

WOW!  It was utterly breath-taking!

There was a lot of construction going on around the Arch and I wasn't entirely sure how to get across the street and to the park, so I actually just admired it from across the street.  Here are a few photos for you to enjoy.

 

Here I am trying to take a selfie with the Arch!  It was really windy and I'm not a great selfie-taker anyway.

Ahh!  Here's the Arch all by itself.

On my way back, I stopped at a wonderful Irish Pub and Restaurant for a quick early dinner -- I was starving.

Loved the dark wood very masculine interior!

Had the Shepherd's Pie -- delish!

As I ambled back to the hotel after my lovely meal, I stopped to admire the architecture of the buildings.  What lovely details and decorations.  Lots of Art Deco and Art Nouveau.

 Lewis and Clark!

Then it was back to the hotel to chill out and get ready for Thursday's Schoolhouse Sessions!

Read about Schoolhouse HERE. (Sorry, I wrote the first 2 blogs out of order....)

Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis Thursday -- Day 2 -- updated!

Today was Schoolhouse day at Quilt Market.

If you've never been to Market, then you're probably wondering what that is.  Well, think of it as 8 hours of constantly changing mini workshops and lectures.  During that time you are constantly running between classrooms, hoping that you actually find the ones that you are interested in.  Here in St. Louis, the classes were even on 2 different floors and you only have about five minutes between sessions unless a presenter ends early.  Talk about doing the hustle!  LOL!

My session to present my book, I Love Precut Quilts!, was scheduled for 3:30 pm this afternoon.  There were 2 of us presenting -- our session was called "Precut Party."  My partner in crime today was Vanessa Goertzen, author of Charm School, also by C&T.

Vanessa is also a Moda designer and isn't it ironic that one of the quilts in my book, Around and Round, featured her first fabric line, Into the Woods?????  What a small world it really is!

  Click HERE to see our Schoolhouse presentations!

Tomorrow is the first day of the actual Show with something like 900 vendors.  OMG!  Can't wait -- it will be like getting locked in a candy shop........