Blogging and Miscellaneous

One of the reasons I'm posting today is to say how grateful I am for Blogger (blogspot.com)...  the online program that started on August 23, 1999. It turned everyone in the quilting world into my next door neighbor! I can't begin to count the people I've come to know through blogging since I began my own blog in January 2009. At one time, I was following and commenting on more than 80 blogs. Sadly for me, many of those bloggers are no longer posting, likely because of the prevalence and expediency of Facebook and Instagram.

To date, I've written 876 Blogger blog posts. According to Bloglovin', I have 476 followers.

Though I have no doubt I've written 876 blog posts (Each year I have a years worth of blog posts printed into a hard cover book.), I am skeptical that I have that many followers. For one thing, I never receive the quantity of comments that come close to making me believe that's an accurate number!

But for me, the good news is that people who follow my blog and do comment, have become friends. I reply to their comments, and that often prompts a conversation.

Those I have come to know through the emails we exchange (and in some cases, with whom I Skype) are people that I would feel comfortable asking to meet-up with me sometime... when I visit their area of the country, their community, or a quilt show. Likewise, I think they'd feel as comfortable letting me know when they're in my area.

My point in mentioning all this is that I've come to depend on virtual friends when I need an opinion, or a second opinion on a project.

Over the weekend, Paige (www.QuiltedBlooms.com) and I swapped several emails about our respective MQG guilds' quilt challenges. Neither of us can publicly share because there's a big reveal at an upcoming guild meeting. At least for me it's been helpful to have another quilter's eyes on my work, especially because I was struggling. In my case, I pieced a top and then was stumped for quilting ideas! Ha! Paige came through with a drawing of her suggestions, and they were most helpful! Thank you so much, my friend!

After now admitting that I sometimes struggle to come up with quilting designs, in the next breath I'll say that it is true that I am a domestic machine quilting instructor! My forté is in implementation.

On Saturday, at the Eisenhower Rec Center here in The Villages, I taught domestic machine quilting to 20 quilters from Quilting Guild of The Villages.

This is the third full class (20 students) I've taught in the past three months! From my perspective the classes keep getting better and better. The students impress me with how savvy they are about quilting and what they want to know, and I've gotten better at sharing essential information.

My friend, Patt

My friend Becky who is also a neighbor and pattern-tester for my "Florida" quilt.

I learned something in this workshop too! Kim (formerly from Des Moines, Iowa) shared that she bought her Bernina Aurora 440 (exactly like mine), from the Quilt Block in West Des Moines. Small world. And, she showed how she improved her Bernina knee lift. She put an 8"-long pool noodle over the gray handle of the knee lift and zip-tied it in place. The extra "puff" adds stability, and makes the knee lift a little closer to her right knee. Such a genius idea!

For the Wayward Transparency Quilt-along being led by Yvonne (QuiltingJetGirl), I think I've settled on these three solids - dark, medium, and light values of orange. The test to determine if the contrast is strong enough, is changing the color photo to black and white. 

Mine barely passes the test. We're supposed to be cutting into fabrics now, but if I can work out a better combo with greater contract, I'll go for it.

Not quite two weeks ago, a Walmart Neighborhood Market - means it's a grocery store and pharmacy/personal care store only - opened about a mile from our house. It's so handy, and golf cart assessable! Our area has sure changed in the past 5-1/2 years. I took this photo because I like the Walmart bicycle rack.

I have been worshipping all summer at Lutheran Church of Hope online in West Des Moines. I miss my home church, and for the time being, had given up on finding a church in this area. Well, at Bible study last Friday morning - we're doing Priscilla Shrier's seven-week study called Armor of God - the woman who sat next to me told me about her Lutheran church. It's Missouri Synod, so it's one that never appeared on my radar. However, on Sunday morning we attended Amazing Grace and were pleased. Not only was the service nice, with an appropriate focus on "grace" as part of a sermon series on the Reformation (Martin Luther), but we were (surprisingly) welcomed at the communion table! I'm being prayerful.

Today I've also prayed for two special quilting friends who asked me to do so! Debbie (aQuiltersTable) and Paige (QuiltedBlooms) have both been invited to speak on Pat Sloan's AllPeopleQuilt podcast at 4 pm Eastern time today. They're each a little anxious about how they'll do, and want to sound coherent for the 12 minutes they speak! I hope you'll listen-in live, or catch them on the podcast. These are two very talented quilters who have good information to share. Linda