Happenings of the last couple of weeks

Ombre wall in the ombre class at Quilt Con

 Hello! Well, I've crawled back out of my hole after Quilt Con. WHAT A BLAST THAT WAS! It was entirely too fast and too quick, but man it totally tired me out! I was there a total 4 days, and I felt that I didn't even have a chance to take a breath. Two of the days were spent all day teaching classes, and interviews, and book signings and conversing with friends in the passing by. Occasionally I would be able to meet up for dinner with friends and we would talk about how fun everything was.

Triangle class at Quilt Con

 My Classes were amazing. So kind and fun. Our triangle class was first and we learned wonky, flying geese, HST, hour glass, just to name a few. It was fun if I do say so myself. I loved talking and joking and teaching and learning from my students. Such a fun give and take group of individuals.

my Ombre Flying Geese was used for both classes :)

Me in front of the Wall of Ombre. We didn't even put up all the projects up! They cranked them out like rockstars

ombre class students totally rocking the ombre fabric

The second day was spent teaching the Ombre gradient class. These ladies knocked out learning tons of techniques using my ombre gradient fabric. WE HAD A FUN TIME. we learned how to piece randomly and how to piece purposely with gradients, how to appliqué, how to pleat, and how to make rosettes jut to name a few. Much thanks to both of my classes it was so much fun getting to know you in our time together.

my favorite quilt please don't ask me who made it because it was a walk by taking picture and I didn't get the maker's name, but it was amazing, the different shades in the circles were made by the color of thread

During my classes and interviews and book signings, there was a common comment I got a lot of: "You're a lot shorter in person." and "You are very animated when you talk."

Case in point here's me at the BERNINA booth signing books. WHAT? This was a freak accident picture taken at just the right time…I don 't know what people are talking about…wait…

Okay fine. I blame the hispanic in me. So I flail my arms and make a lot of facial expressions. Sue me. I make life interesting. ;) (just kidding I know I'm animated, just as my sunday school kids in primary…half the time they just sit there staring at me with wide eyes and open mouths as I teach because I make so many faces and try to take flight half the time…)

Once I got home, I took a break of a day or so because my voice was all but gone and I was delirious from hardly any sleep and stress of the weeks prior. So I took to folding all yardage of all my fabric collections with Moda, it was relaxing for a minute. I still have just gray left to go. But i've made lots of room on my shelves so that's fantastic news. :)

This last Sunday after church I brought out my EPP from last year that I started at Camp Stitch A Lot and worked on it for a little. It was a nice little side distraction from all deadlines.
BUT, I did get one step closer to having our two new patterns for Simply Colorful RED, ORANGE, YELLOW ready for release!

My beautiful Endless Summer Quilt (pattern coming later this month) came back from being quilted by Melissa Corry. (who also pieced it for me while I was gone at Quilt Con! Thank you!!!)
Now back to reality of deadlines to be met, children to usher to activities, and dirty dishes. Life is a wonderful thing, I love my "crazy normal" and I love being home for a little bit. (HELLO SPRING MARKET COMING IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS!) One thing at a time.

We'll talk soon. 

Keep on Sewing...

Quilt Con triangle class sampler

MAN! I have been super busy.

So busy I feel like I need to schedule bathroom breaks just to make sure I know it'll be taken care of. Nope, not even kidding, I lose what day we are on on a regular basis. I went to feed the cat and instead put instant…EDITED!!! seriously? The kids came home and I hit "publish" haha…just to show I wasn't kidding about being crazy busy…OKAY: 
I went to feed the cat this morning and instead put instant oatmeal in her bowl she looked at me and was like "what the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks lady?!" I was like "dude, I'm kind of tired and frazzled, quit judging me!" That was at 5:30 am mind you. I don't drink coffee, but I should really look into natural invigorating/stimulating? type things cause yep…I'm losing my mind. Perhaps it's already been lost? Shhh, I don't know if it is... so just let me be if it is.

my view from under a tree on a snow day while the kiddos had fun sledding down our friend's hill. 

 I'm grateful that it's the snowy and freezing season because I've been huddled in the house working and working and working. Between Quilt Con prep of my classes...

Judgey cat on my ombre bloom quilt and my quilt blocks for Quilt Con ombre class. 

and almost done with my book series!!! YAY!!! Check out GREEN  
BLUE , and PURPLE , are already on Amazon too!!! Whooooot!

 Here's a sneak peek of Orange which will ship starting in March 2015. I can't express how much I am in love with how this series of color books have turned out! And I've gotten so many nice compliments of the Red book that just started shipping to those that have already ordered the series! THANK YOU!!!! There will be a blog hop later on as more of the books start shipping and we can show them off, but for now I'll just tease you with beautiful pictures here and there!

Extra fabric bundles for my Quilt Con triangle class

And well, now I must go back to finishing up my presentations for Quilt Con and then we have to go to orchestra and piano lessons…perhaps I should try to take a shower first though… :)

Follow me on Instagram to see weekly pictures of what I'm working on! 

Well Hello June- I'll be in Indiana soon!

 HELLOOOOOOOO! So I unintentionally took May off of blogging. A lot of things have come due and I had to use every single moment to get things done in-between soccer, baseball, volunteering at the kids' schools, and running around like a mad woman AKA: being a MOM. Whoever said I was going to miss my kids being little, WAS RIGHT! Holy hannah, if anything having little kids made it that we stayed home and did more things around the house. Now it seems like we have about 2 milliseconds from the time the kids start walking in through the door from school and all the great programs they are in. No, please don't tell me I over schedule my child if I'm running around nuts…REMEMBER I HAVE FOUR OF THEM. So each one being involved in 1 maybe 2 things…is what I'm talking about. It makes me happy though, I actually enjoy looking at our schedule and trying to figure out how to get who where and then listen to what they did and learned. The school system we are a part of includes music into their program so each of my kids when they reach 5th grade get to pick an instrument they will learn (if they so choose to) so far we have a trumpet player (who is playing for the High School Marching Band next year!!!), a cello player, and we have just picked up a viola player with our 3rd son. Our daughter is the only one that hasn't picked an instrument…but she's already eyeing a few…So yes, I miss my days of little kids running around my ankles giving me an excuse to complain of no time to myself…but I'm loving the teen, preteen ages we have going on and watching them turn into little adults. Each one with their own personality and own talents. Very great and fun…but busy. :)

 This last month while I have been working a lot my peonies I planted three years ago finally bloomed.

The blooms got so large they drooped down to the ground, so I cut them and placed them in a mason jar and put them in the daughter's room. She got off the bus and screamed as she walked into the house that someone had taken our pink flowers, to which I told her to go to her room and check out where the pretty flowers went. She was very impressed with how pretty they made her room, and how pretty they smelled. It was a picture perfect kind of moment…and it needed to be documented because normally we are a hot mess of a story. :) 

NOW lets talk about some of the stuff coming up! This last month I got to help teach 8th graders in Family Consumer Science at my kid's schools, and then I got to teach 4th and 5th graders how to do "Quilt Math" and create a small quilt at my other kids' schools, I also got to speak to my local quilt guild, here in Cedar Rapids, about building a bridge between modern and traditional quilters…WHAT A FANTASTIC CRAZY MONTH OF TEACHING and TALKING. So lets keep the momentum going and lets announce that yours truly will be hanging out with some big guns in the quilting world first at the Shipshewana Quilt festival:

I will be doing a Workshop on how to make this lovely lucky stars table runner. Based off my quilt pattern.

Aside from teaching the table runner class, I'll also be demo-ing twisted flowers and this double edge dresden plate.
 I'll will also be on a panel with some other fantabulous women. Ami Simms, Mary Fons, Karen Eckmeier, Penny Haren, and Kathy Brown. All these women will be teaching and doing lectures as well. I'm Very excited! Please check out how to pre-register and all the other wonderful classes.

And then second I'm also teaching at:

 And I can't even list off all the talent that will be there! Too many!

 I have two workshops at QuiltCon One of them focusing on triangles. HST, Flying Geese, 60 Degree Ruler Triangles, Paper Pieced Triangles, and Wonky Triangles.

The second work shop will be all focused on Ombre fabrics, how to work with them and how to make them work in your quilts and projects. Fun will be had by all. 

Open Enrollment for the Feb 2015 schedule is here. 

Now if you don't mind me…I have to get back to a few lose ends and then we'll be able to talk some more. :)