Back to Work

Hi!  Remember me?  I write this blog. 

 

It's been many weeks since my last post and the days have been whizzing by with good intensions, but very little productivity.  Not that I have been laying around doing nothing.  Far from it! 

Mid June we participated in the Western Pennsylvania Shop Hop.  Smack in the middle of that we hosted Alex Anderson for a wonderful event co-sponsored by BERNINA.  Mixing those two events was quite the experience!  The theme for the Shop Hop was "Into the Forest".  As part of our decorations to create the "forest" theme our front porch was turned into a campsite, complete with tent, sleeping bag, campfire and coffee pot.  When Alex arrived she played right along, making herself at home!  What a good sport, sharing the spotlight with all of the hop activity.  Alex and almost 600 traveling hoppers in 4 days makes for long busy days!

 

Immediately after the hop my husband and I headed for Shipshewana Indiana to vend at the annual Quilt Festival.  I would like to think of it as a relaxing 5 days in Amish country, but the truth is it is a very busy show and I spend all 4 of the show days demonstrating.  This year the featured product was my new Scrap Crazy Template Set from Creative Grids.  I'm sure that I did that demo more than 500 times and I am looking forward to seeing what all of those happy customers create!  That doesn't mean that I didn't find time to sneak away and get a good look at the amazing quilts on display.  These photos are of the quilt show - but not the grand prize winners.  Those were in the Hudson Museum and I forgot to take my camera with me when I went to view those.

After Shipshewana we head to Cincinnati to pick up our grandkids and bring them home for the week.  Having twin two year olds in your house without their parents for 5 days is exhausting, but I wouldn't miss a minute of it!  After they left yesterday I sat down to a quiet cup of tea.  My tea bags have words of wisdom on the tag and mine read "Children tend to make their parents feel old and their grandparents feel young".  That and the joy of random, sticky, unsolicited kisses, pretty much sums up my last week.

 

With absolutely no rest in between we jumped right into the Pennsylvania Row-by-Row Shop Hop that started July 1st.  You can stop by any of the participating Pennsylvania or New York shops and simply ask for a FREE pattern.  No participation fees, no passports to keep track of.  Just collect the patterns, make a quilt and win prizes.  Many of us have kits available to purchase for our rows to make your job even easier.  Ours retails for only $8! Follow the fun on the Facebook page by clicking here:

https://www.facebook.com/PARowbyRow?ref=ts&fref=ts

If that isn't enough excitement for you, starting July 15th we are also participating in Major League Quilting!  Just like Major League Baseball, two quilts will compete against each other.  Your votes determine the winner.  There is nothing to buy, no fee to play along.  Kits for the featured quilts are available, but all you have to do is vote for your favorite on the Major League Quilting website to keep it moving along.  I know you will all want to support the Pittsburgh Buccaneers and their Gone Scrap Crazy entry.  So vote early and vote often to keep us in the game!!!!!

Does it sound like I need a rest?  Thankfully I have one planned for Thursday and Friday in the form of a 1 day cruise!  MJ our Travel Agent that is making the arrangements for our Quilting Cruise next May has invited me to spend the night on the very ship we will be sailing on, leaving out of Baltimore.  This is the perfect chance to check out the ships facilities, see our sewing room, make plans and arrangements so that everything goes smoothly.  It is only one night onboard, but it is still a cruise, there will still be a deck chair available and possibly a dip in the hot tub after a nice glass of wine..... ahhhh.  I know you can't join me Thursday but there are still some spaces available for next May.  The new prices are even lower than we first announced and if you book this weekend MJ is offering a special onboard gift!  If you are in the area, stop by the shop on Saturday morning to meet MJ and allow her to answer any questions you might have.

Right after that I will be getting ready for Christmas in July.... but let's not get ahead of ourselves!