Miscellaneous Monday

It's the usual variety of doin's around here.

After teaching a selvages workshop last week, I am on a selvages kick again. Another small bag pattern I've been wanting to make seemed like just the right selvages project. I've gotten no further than sewing selvages to the foundation bag shapes. The large piece is the bag body. The two small pieces are outside pockets. When it's finished, it will be fun to use because if I've learned anything about carrying a selvage bag (I already have two of them), they're a sure-fire conversation-starter.

I have four new LED lights in my sewing room. Since there was no overhead light, and the kind of light kit that could be added to the fan couldn't provide adequate illumination, this was the way to go. I was pleased that the electrician knew enough about the subject to understand my request for lighting that would let me to see the true colors of fabrics in my stash cabinet. These LEDs are 3500 kelvin; not the typical 3000 kelvin used elsewhere in a home. It means they emit a more natural, bluer color (less yellow). An added bonus is that LEDs don't produce heat (important in a west-facing room in Florida!) and because LEDs don't have bulbs, they're expected to last 30 years.

I know, I know. The room looks almost too clean. I had to give it a thorough cleaning after the electrician drilled holes in the ceiling, layering everything with drywall dust. The design wall is empty, awaiting my next great project. Ha!

This is a picture I took a few evenings ago from the front of our house. We face west, so it's the same view I have through the bay windows of my sewing room. We're blessed with some pretty spectacular sunsets. This one was exceptional.

On Wednesday I'm welcoming a house guest! Edith is a special quilter-friend, from Switzerland. She's coming to stay for ten days. We're old friends. She visited me three times before, the last time being in 2008 when we still lived in Iowa.

How Edith and I met is a pretty cool story, if I do say so. We met through the Internet, back in its early years - 1994. At the time I was working at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Internet first blossomed in colleges, and employees were encouraged to use this new technology. I found a quilting chat room called Kaffee Klatch, and while sharing brief conversations with quilters I "met" Edith, thinking I'd found someone with whom I could practice my rusty French. Instead, I learned she was from the German-speaking part of Switzerland (east), but with a common interest in quilting, we became fast friends. When I graduated in 2000 from Drake University (as an employee, I took advantage of the opportunity for a free education) with a journalism degree, my May celebration included a visit from Edith. I'll admit that we were both nervous about our first face-to-face meeting. After all, we were committed to her spending ten days with me! But we very quickly learned our fears were ungrounded.

2000 - R: Edith; L: me

Since our first meeting, I visited her in 2002. This is us in Ste Marie-Aux-Mines, France, attending the European Patchwork Meeting.

2002

Edith also visited in 2004 and 2008 with the last visit planned so we could attend the AQS show in Des Moines, where both of us had quilts juried into that show!

So for the next couple of weeks, the little sewing I expect to do will be on my Riley Blake Challenge piece. I'm hand appliquéing.

Speaking of hand appliqué... I regularly follow my Instagram feed, and I was excited to see pictures from quilters attending quilt market. Several of them were impressed with the hand-appliqué of one particular modern quilter who is doing what she calls "slow sewing" - Carolyn Friedlander. This is her modern hand appliqué piece.

I'm really interested to see what she's introducing to younger quilters. Is the latest trend heading toward hand appliqué? I'm also hoping my LQS will be stocking Carolyn's latest fabric line from Robert Kaufman: Botanics. Love it!

Also, as an admirer of Emma Jansen's designs, I'm hoping her new fabric line, the pretty Terra Australis, makes its way here too. I will always have special feelings for that country, having been able to visit and spend a total of four months there. Love the country; love Emma's patterns and fabric designs.

How nice to have so many quilty things, and a quilty person's visit, to anticipate! Linda