A Quick Visit

My sister came to visit overnight this week, as my local quilt guild had a speaker she was dying to hear: Jane Sassaman. We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed Jane's talk, seeing her quilts and even speaking with her during the break. I had to get this pattern, which is the "short" version of Jane's famous quilt "Willow", which you can see here. I love that quilt! This pattern is done with a fusible, and finishes at 18 inches. That sounds pretty do-able.

And, I also had to buy a packet of her fabrics! These are half-yard cuts of big, bold fabrics and I don't have a clue how I'm going to use them yet! But they just had to come home with me. There's only one quilt store in WA that carries her fabric, and it's about an hour or so away from me. I think that's pretty good justification!

If you're interested is seeing some of Jane's work, you can visit her web site by clicking here. You can view Jane's quilts, her fabric collections and even get some free patterns. I love her work, it's so bright and uninhibited. She's very influenced by nature, which is a big factor for me.

My sister wasn't here even 24 hours, but we had a good time. Lots of talking and laughing going on. A nice break for both of us!

I haven't been in the quilt studio all week. No excuse, just been doing "fun" stuff like laundry and grocery shopping and bill-paying. I did get 8 boxes of quilt studio stuff unpacked and sorted. Now I have 2 boxes of stuff to find places for! I don't want to put it away, I just want to sew! Maybe tomorrow. I think I'm done with urgent chores for the moment.

I found some interesting quilt sites on the internet:

* If you weren't lucky enough to go this year, you can see a virtual tour of the Houston Quilt Festival on-line, with the winning quilts and photos from the floor. Click here.

* At The International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Nebraska, you can search the Collections database and view the exhibitions . You can also see their Quilt of the Month, where they feature one of the quilts in their collection. You can also subscribe to the Quilt of the Month and they will email you with a link to see each month's quilt. Check it out here.

* The Smithsonian Museum has a page devoted to Quilts, Counterpanes and Throws, where you can view selected items from their collection.

* The Library of Congress has "Quilts and Quiltmaking in America 1978-1996", which showcases materials from two American Folklife Center collections, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (1978) and the "All-American Quilt Contest" sponsored by Coming Home, a division of Lands' End, and Good Housekeeping.

* Are you interested in making a Mystery Quilt? Judy Hopkins has 3 FREE downloadable mystery patterns on Marsha McCloskey's website. Take a look!

* And lastly, another silly but fun computer game to waste your time on: Penguin baseball. To play, you swat the penguin with a baseball bat and see how far you can get him to fly/slide. You're trying to beat your best score. It's all a matter of timing, like so much in life.