Doin's and Random Stuff

Though I'm finally at home for a while - the four-day Central Florida MQG/Gainesville MQG Mod Retreat was last weekend - I find I'm not spending much time at home. This week was:

• Monday evening's Central Florida MQG meeting
• Four line dance classes where I monitor the status of the critical PAD (peripheral artery disease) in my legs. Right now, the symptom of burning in my left calf when dancing briskly, is a clear indication that once again blood isn't flowing very well. I see my cardio-vascular doc next Tuesday about that.
• Tuesday's weekly Big Cypress quilters meeting.
• Wednesday's weekly Happy Stitchers group.
• Thursday's appointment with my oncologist where I learned I'm tolerating the Arimidex drug well - my bone density test confirms that - and after two years of being breast cancer-free, I'm going from every three month appointments to every six month appointments. Yay!
• Next week I will teach "No Tails Binding" again, twice, making it six times I've taught the class since March 8!

For those of you in the know, this week/weekend is quilt market in Minneapolis. While I'm not in the business, I have attended several quilt markets in Kansas City. Market is a good place to connect with designers and manufacturers, and for me, find topics to write about for quilt magazines.

One of my favorite companies, MassDrop, is at market and has created a promo for their business. If you don't know about this company, let me tell you what a good business concept this is - getting lots of consumers (quilters) to purchase one item, and obtaining a reduced price for the "mass" purchase. And shipping is free! I know because I've made numerous purchases.

Here's a sample of some of their current discounted products:

Here's what I did with some of the multi-colored Wonder Clips I received in a recent drop. Using the aqua ones, I hung family photos in my sewing room.

If you haven't already subscribed to MassDrop, I recommend it. There's no obligation to make a purchase, but if you find something in the quilting community that interests you, it's certain you'll get one of the lowest prices available. Saving money on quilting fabric and notions - even sewing machines! - is appealing, so use this link to register yourself.

About writing for quilt magazines... my favorite magazine editor, Michele, at American Quilter, lost her job in February, leaving me in limbo as to whether I will be doing any freelance writing for that magazine again. So, to keep myself "out there," I took the plunge and submitted an original design to Modern Patchwork magazine. You can imagine how pleased I was to receive an email this week, letting me know that my submission has been accepted! I'll have a project in the October issue of Modern Patchwork! I'm more than thrilled, and having fun too. With my previous experiences as an editor at American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, pattern-writing is what I enjoy. Wish I could show you what I made. When I do share my project, look for a giveaway here!

The magazine's acceptance of my design has motivated me to work on another submission, but daily FMQ has my attention! Too many tops are waiting for quilting for me to ignore them for long. Here's a little of this week's progress on "Strawberry Fizz and Lime Pop," a BOM project begun in September 2011. Shameful that it's been unfinished for so long, isn't it? I vow that in 2015 it will no longer be a UFO.

Thanks to two thoughtful quilting friends who in March gave me birthday gift certificates to Hawthorne Threads, I now have the latest Lizzy House Mini Pearl Bracelets. They're so pretty!

As I do with every new fabric, I washed and ironed these pieces before putting them into my cupboard. Even when I aligned the fabric selvages, I was surprised to see how off-kilter the print is. Since it was consistently like this on every piece, it's meant to be. 

Another new bundle of fabrics came from Hancock's of Paducah, where I found the best price on AMB (American Made Brand) solids. These colors and that "Improvising Tradition" book will be the inspiration for the 15" X 15" design I plan to make for the AMB Tiny Quilt Challenge, due September 15. I won't be sharing pictures of this until the contest deadline because photos of in-progress or finished projects are not permitted in social media until then. 

Ad Libbing

"Ad Libbing," the quilt I made with Lora that won a blue ribbon in Jacksonville last fall, and was juried into QuiltCon, didn't win anything at the Machine Quilter's Expo in New Hampshire. At this weekend's Machine Quilter's Showcase in Iowa, it received a Teacher's Award, a ribbon. No prize money.

Shapes

My "Shapes" quilt, made for the Panasonic Bias Tape Appliqué Challenge, did not receive anything at last week's Home Machine Quilter's Showcase in Utah either.

Receiving no awards is disappointing it's cost hundreds of dollars for entry fees, shipping, and insurance. As much as I desire recognition for domestic machine quilting, the competition is so stiff that it's not worth the money or effort for me to enter. Perhaps if I was in business as a longarm quilter I'd have a different perspective.

My lesson learned is: "Quilt for me, not for anyone else." Linda