Amazing!

Well, many of you may not believe this, but I actually finished something. Finished finished. Binding finished. I know! I'm amazed too. I was writing my newsletter a couple weeks ago and my goal this fall was to help people finish their projects, and I'll be damned if I didn't inspire myself. I haven't taken a picture yet because it's currently soaking. I used water-soluble thread to mark it for quilting (I even did feather quilting :) and I thought just a quick spray would take it out, but that just made it shrivel up, so the center of my poor runner was all scrumpled. I'm soaking it as we speak to get the marking out. Pictures will follow on Tuesday as I'm very proud of my bad bindin' self.
I'm off to take a class with Sharon Schamber (if you don't know her, look her up, she's amazing) tomorrow, so that should be exciting if my back ever stops having the fit it's having.
Happy quilting!

Finally getting back into sewing...

Hello dear quilters,
After a summer hiatus from sewing, and a thousand degree sewing room, things are cooling off enough metaphorically and literally enough that I have once again been able to sew. Since the big Quilts on the Lawn show was this previous Saturday, I spaced posting on Friday, but don't give up on me yet, I'll get my rhythm back.
I cranked out these two quilt tops last week to hang prior to the show made from a new Westminster line (mermaids, octopuses, seahorses--pure whimsy in great oranges and browns), and one of Tula Pink's new lines for Moda--Nest. Sorry for the crappy pictures. Our shop is wonderfully shaped for looking, but less so for taking decent pictures.

Then last night, I got a wild hair and decided to use a few new pieces we got in from Hoffman with great pearlescent accents and make a quick table runner for a class I'll be teaching later on this fall. It's my "Bring a Buddy" class for those of you who get my newsletter. Anyway, it was really fun, and inspired me to start making a French braid quilt in all the great metallic blues we've gotten in for Christmas and winter.

Dear husband has gone back to work, so it's back to just me maintaining the website: ho hum. He was such a great help and so cheap to! So apologies in advance for any delays in getting stuff online. Nest and Papillon (the Hoffman line) will go up tomorrow or possibly today if I get really ambitious.
Happy quilting!

Polar bears

Here are some of my favorite pics from my trip up north. I stayed at Seal River Lodge through a company called Churchill Wild. It was really awesome and I got to see lots of polar bears. Lots of belugas too, but I didn't get any good shots of them. These are all wild bears...The only thing in a cage was us humans as the lodge had a fenced in back yard that the bears were occasionally very, very curious about.

My favorite shot with the sunlight and the wildflowers. This bear was very photogenic.
I stood in a tower inside the fence watching this bear and she would just stare into my eyes and huff at me a little...just to remind me who was boss.
Then she ambled off for a sniff of the flowers...
I just love how beautiful and soft they look...The light in this one shows how white they can be, but how easily they blend in with rocks.
This big guy sat down really close to us while we were on a hike. No fences here.
They're so cute!
This bear liked to pose.
The tundra wildflowers were in their final stages when I was there, but even so, they made a beautiful background for the polar bears.
This was the first bear I got to see really close up, I came out the back door into the (fortunately) fenced yard and she was right there. I could practically feel her breath on my face when I took this shot. She hung around and took a nap on the lumber pile near the lodge, on a bright orange tarp. It was pretty cute.
This is a siksik, or an arctic ground squirrel, and this particular one is possibly the fattest siksik. And no, it's not pregnant. I think it had just discovered (and jealously guarded) the compost pile.
Here's a standing shot of the big fellow who's sitting smiling in one the shots above. He was just massive and very curious. Again, no fences here, only the brave guides, Terry and Andy, of Churchill Wild, armed with noisemakers and shotguns as a last resort.
This bear was sleeping in the water where we needed to land the boats. He tried to sneak up on us, and got too close, so Andy and Terry shot noisemakers to scare him off. Here he is realizing that maybe the noisemaker wasn't so bad, and thinking about coming back. He took another two to scare off.
This bear was just checking out some of the antlers they have out in front of the lodge as decoration.
Thanks for looking! Happy quilting.

In memory...

Well, dear quilters, I got back from my polar trip last week, and I intended to blog Friday, but was plagued by internet problems. Originally I intended to post with pics from my trip and even a few sewing pictures, but I just don't have the heart today. Yesterday morning, I woke up to find my beloved pooch of 11 wonderful years, Siri, dead in my hallway. I'd found out before I left that she had a heart condition that's always rapidly fatal in Dobermans, but the average life from onset of symptoms said 90 days and we caught it early, so I had hoped for at least a little more time with my darling. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
In any case I will be back to regular posting from here on out. I am changing my schedule to Tuesdays and Fridays however.
Rest in peace, Siri.