Return to Teaching

Since going to Kansas City I've had a respite, but the pace for the next few weeks starts picking up tomorrow. That's when I begin teaching again.

All day Saturday, August 12 I'll teach Domestic Machine Quilting to quilters from Quilting Guild of The Villages. I haven't been told how many signed up for this workshop, but my max is 20. I'm ready, and excited to teach again!

On August 21 and 22 I'll lead two Domestic Machine Quilting workshops for York County Quilters in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I'm also looking forward to sharing my Domestic Machine Quilting program at their regular monthly guild meeting on the 21st.

Then on September 5 I'll give the same program to Quilting Guild of The Villages, followed by two more workshops on September 6 and October 14. I already know that both of those workshops are maxed out at 20 students. Makes me very happy to know there are that many quilters who want to learn how to quilt their own quilts!

My blogger-friend Elizabeth in California, recently posted information about the upcoming, August 21 solar eclipse, so I thought I would too. This map of the eclipse path is from nasa.gov.

This link to www.vox provides information about the path of the eclipse, including how close you are to it, based on your zip code.

Here in Florida, I hadn't thought much about viewing the eclipse. However, I'll be in South Carolina teaching that quilting workshop! Turns out I'll be only 27 miles from the apex of the path of the eclipse! Ideally - if the sky is clear and cloudless - I'd like to step out of the workshop at 2:41 pm Eastern time, to take a look, wearing special glasses of course.

I'm still mending from carpal tunnel syndrome, but last weekend decided to try some rotary cutting. It went pretty well. No pain. I cut out fabrics to make five 10-1/2" unfinished half-square triangle blocks for the QuiltCon charity quilt that five of us are making for the upcoming February 2018 show.

I pieced these blocks on my Featherweight while my Bernina was at the LQS for three weeks, getting it's annual tune-up.

Then I decided to try English paper piecing. With occasional stops to do wrist stretches, it went fairly well until I had a twinge up my left arm. I stopped for the evening, and the next day returned to complete it to this point. This is my Linda Nova project, based on the Tula Nova pattern. I'm using light gray-colored Bottom Line, 60-weight polyester thread for the piecing. It's downright invisible!

These are the makin's of the dozen star shapes that will be the next round. 

I'm glue-basting with Fons & Porter glue stick, and it's working nicely. I do love the neatness of English paper piecing.

Back to the charity quilt... On Wednesday, my friend Karen came over so we could arrange the half-square triangle blocks pieced by four of us. That evening I pieced the quilt top. It's about 70" X 90".

Karen's piecing some of the backing now, using up every bit of the Painter's Palette solids that were donated to us by Paintbrush Studios, a division of Fabri-Quilt in North Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you, Fabri-Quilt!

Now I've emailed Aurifil to ask if that company will donate three colors of 50-weight thread for domestic machine quilting. We hope they contribute too. Our plan is to quilt mostly with a walking foot - three of us will do that - and fill in with just a little FMQ. 

No FMQ has happened around here though. My #summerofFMQ is totally blown now due to carpal tunnel syndrome. Nor have I played the ukulele. I'm just singin' the same old tune (HA!)... my wrist is still swollen, and occasionally tender. I'm hesitant to do anything more than machine sewing and EPP. Maybe that's all I can/should do for a while. Boo! 

For the past month I've been making coffee using a French press rather than the Keurig single-cup machine. Something about it tastes better. Well, part of it is that I've discovered a to-die-for decaf coffee! I brought it back from H.E.B. grocery store in Austin, Texas. The brand is Cafe Olé, and the flavor is "San Antonio." It has a hint of vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon. Smooth, and simply divine. I drink it with a splash of Half-and-Half.

After making a press pot of it, I pour the coffee into my new Fiestaware teapot for an easy warm-up later.

All this talk about coffee, mostly on Instagram, opened my eyes to the fact that coffee can be made "cold brewed," meaning that grounds and cold water left to sit for 18-24 hours steeps a milder, less acidic coffee. An Internet search led me to this information by Jamie Oliver and now I'm making cold brew too. I do believe it's gentler on my stomach. Have you tried it?

When I saw Hogan sitting on the window bench while I was sewing, I couldn't resist taking a picture of him. Doesn't he look good?! After being diagnosed with cancer in January 2016 - and the vet was pretty dire about it - we just marvel at how he's doing. He'll be 14 years old in October, and though he's slowing down, is missing an eye (since 2014), and can no longer hear (not even the doorbell), he still has his frisky moments. And that dog loves his green beans! Goodness! We now buy three quarts of fresh green beans at the Farmer's Market every Saturday and keep a back-up stash of frozen green beans, from Sam's Club, so you know that's a big bag! Hogan barks at us to tell us when it's time to feed him... dog food and green beans!

There are worse things he could be eating, so we indulge him. He is a sweetheart after all.

Now I'm off to double-check that I have everything ready to take to teach tomorrow. Did I mention that I'm excited about it?! Linda