This past spring, Park City Girl had a great idea:  since we can’t all go to the Quilt Festival in Chicago (spring) or Houston (fall), why not have our OWN show online!  I participated in the spring show, and am thrilled to help sponsor the fall version.  Click on the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival button in the sidebar (below left, just scroll down) or the one just below this paragraph at any time to go see what’s new.  My donation:  a copy of my book, hot of the press!  (More about that in my next post!)

Go visit the blog and join the fun…. think about what is your favorite quilt, share a link (when the fun begins on October 9th), and let’s all enjoy ANOTHER quilt festival…one we can all reach online! Great idea!

Last Thursday (just in time for the long weekend with kids at home to be loud and distracting) the page layout version of the book (printed off the office printer at AQS) arrived on the midday FedEx truck for my review!  Basically, I get three big whacks at the book:  when I write it, once the text is edited (that was a few weeks ago), and then a page-layout version that is what the book will look like in print.  I had to have the entire thing reviewed, edited, and back to FedEx by Tuesday for arrival in Paducah by Wednesday!  EEEEK!  Time to work FAST!!!!   Here is what came in the envelope:

I caught a number of small typos–the sort of thing that you never see if you are looking at something you’ve worked on but that jumps out at fresh eyes (in this case mine), two larger “OOPS!!!!” things that became evident only when the pictures were added and are being fixed.  The good news is the OOPS moments provided the opportunity to sneak in one more quilt (yeah!), a few minor word-fiddles on my part, and a last-minute change to one of the patterns — an improvement that needed minor changes in text.

I was surprised at how SMALL the envelope was…. after three YEARS of work!   But I really like the font of the text, captions and headers…nice and clean.  The layout is good…easy to read and not fussy or cluttered.  Plus, I am thrilled that I’ve been able to include so many wonderful quilts from other artists!   I was absolutely giddy that both Jane Sassaman and Hollis Chatelain, who is one of my quilting idols, were kind and generous enough to allow me to include their work in the book…can you imagine?!!! WOWIE ZOWIE!   And many other artists famous and not so…. I’ll tell you more when the time comes (how’s that for a tease?!).

And the last fun bit…. you see that green mini-quilt/classroom sample on the title page…. that’s THE BACK of the sample!  The front has the lime green on half and a busy batik on the other half…. so they used the plain back…. can you imagine the BOBBIN side on the title page?  Thank heavens the one stray thread tail on it is covered by the title…. I’m so glad it looks good enough for them to use…still chuckling!

Goodness….. how time flies!   I can’t believe I have been so busy I’ve only had two posts in how long?????

Well the thing that went bump was me…yesterday…. I was printing out a photo for my younger son for his Social Studies homework, and it fell on the floor–this was up in my studio, the printer is up there and I was sitting on chair I use at the sewing machine.  I bent over to pick  up the photo and before I knew it, I was slamming my head into the corner of the fourposter bed,  and the chair pictured in this photo:  

was in TWO parts….base (still stable on the floor) and top!  Usually when the screws come loose (yes, this provided great mirth in my family, once they realized I was OK–I kept insisting it was the CHAIR that had loose screws…..I failed to convince them it was the ONLY thing that rattled), I can tell, the chair wobbles, and I get out the screwdriver.

Here’s a picture of the studio… you can see the lovely 200+ year old bed behind my worktable.  That tall post…the one with the SHARP corner…was the one that put the little cut in my head.

Basically, I’m fine, have a doozy of a bruise on the back of my leg from banging onto the front corner of the chair, and promptly returned to photo-printing and working on a sample for a “tester” workshop I’m offering to Coastal Quilters tomorrow.  I actually have photos ready to go for at least seven blogposts, and just haven’t had time to write.

One reason for my absence…I’m prepping kits and supplies for teaching in Houston.  The other main one:  my book has received its FINAL edits!     All in all, I am THRILLED!   Stay tuned… I’ve got more to share……now, back to prepping for tomorrow’s workshop.

Wow!   A few weeks ago there was a discussion on the QuiltDesigners Group over on Yahoo, and  internet friend Diane Harman-Hoog of Quilters Keep Learning was prompted to do a quick search on me on the internet.  Diane, you see, is a maven of family genealogy (spelling?).  In just a few days, she had traced my dad’s family back to the Patrick who immigrated from Ireland in 1857, and my mother’s family back to Switzerland and Germany to 1590!!!!!!!!  She incredibly generously sent me a TON of information (and discovered that we have a common ancestor in Edward Plantagenet!) and did this extensive family tree:

Dad’s family is the little cluster on the upper left portion.  All the rest of it is my mom’s family, which has been in the US since the late 1600s.  I had NO idea I had family ties to the Netherlands, Switzerland or Alsace-Lorraine (now France, previously Germany)!  Here’s that corner of the chart:

And here:

And then there were tons of records including my dad’s 1921 passport application.  I printed out over 100 pages of history into a binder (photo at top).

THANK YOU DIANE!

We were a small group this time, what with Deborah in Texas and Hannah home with kids (end-of-school stuff), but we had a wonderful time!

One of the first things to greet us besides Kate (we were at her house this time), was this glorious bouquet of flowers, including a lupine which are now blooming with riotous abandon across the state:

As usual, I forgot to take a picture of lunch, but you know it was good when your friends have such wonderful smiles:

Kath and I had a good chuckle at first when we saw this:

It turns out it wasn’t (as I figured, like it would be at my house), a frazzled mom grabbing something that was knocked awry and putting it up wrong, but in fact Kate’s son’s deliberate take on art.

Kate shared with us her new chicken coop:

And we got to see her still-growing chickens…just think, your OWN fresh eggs!

Her house also happens to have an outdoor shower… wonderful for our summers.  Of course you know an artist lives here when there is  a lovely-colored drop cloth drying on the fence:

Given that it is summer and three of us here in Maine have kids, we’re likely (SOB) not to get together again until August, but finally THIS year we are going to have our dyeing fabric day in my back yard…I can’t wait!