Hello everyone,

hope you are having a good Tuesday – as rainy as it is. You know, ever since I became a quilter I learned to love rainy day – it really is my favorite time to sew! Something in the sound of raindrops on the small roof right bellow my sewing room window…the rhythm? Not sure, but I just love it! And right now – there is about half a dozen projects on the pile by my sewing machine – so bring on the rain! 🙂

I wish I could be in my sewing room right now (yes, this in yet another lunch-time break post from work), for nothing like sewing puts my mind to ease…and today I am holding my breath until our daughter lands safely in Kathmandu, Nepal. She travels the world for her work and you would think I am used to it by now – NOT! I am so very proud of our girl, but my irrational, emotional,  mother’s mind is killing me during times like this! 🙂 Oh well, at least I can chat with all of you and then go back to my experiments here at work and then go to my sewing room tonight and sew ’till my mind slows down a bit and my heart stops missing her so much already (she will only be away for 6 weeks – calm down Marija!).

Ok, sorry about that little rant – let’s get back to quilting now. 🙂

My question for you – do you have a Seminar Let-Down or are you Sew Inspired after it?

I am definitely the second one! There is something about the good teacher, a room full of quilters sewing, learning, chatting a bit and a great mingle during lunch time that just fills my heart with joy and my mind with inspiration. How about you?

This year, I took a class from both Beth Ferrier (Hand Applique by Machine), and Anita Grosman-Solomon (Two-color Pineapple) and I am sooooo glad I did!  Both Beth and Anita are teachers that fall into that MOST EXCELLENT category in my book now.  Beth’s machine applique technique is now becoming my favorite way of doing it! (and I did try quite a few, trust me!). Look at all of us happy “flower girls” !

And Anita’s genius, so-well-thought-through process of cutting and sewing some of the classic (and not always easy!) blocks just blew me away! Her book, Rotary Cutting Revolution is so choke-full of amazing information, so detailed in instruction and so inspirational in color-play of her scrap quilts that it will be on my work table for a long time! Here are we all working in Anita’s class:

And when I say AMAZING method – I mean it, because ladies, all the pieces for not one, but TWO of these Pineapple blocks were cut in about 10 minutes time! Can you believe it?

In addition, both ladies are just wonderful to meet and talk to.

I really feel so grateful for the amazing treasure of our Seminar that brings these great teachers to our doorstep. How about you?

Tell us your Seminar experience!

But first – I need to use this venue to again thank our wonderful Seminar co-chairs, Mary Ellen Cannon and Jan Reiley and the entire Seminar committee for all their hard work! We all know, in theory, that it takes a lot of work to put together an event like this, but you only see really how much if you get involved. But here it the catch – it is also gratifying, learning and fun experience! So to all of you new and recent members – do jump in and get involved! I promise you will not be sorry and you will make new friends along the way – is there a better return for your effort? 🙂

OK, I think I typed all this in some record time and I hope you don’t mind my ramblings…But to end, here are some of my quick internet finds to send you off on exploration:

-First, some of you may know that I was so lucky to win two tickets to a fabulous event called Quilters Take Manhattan – a fundraiser for the wonderful Quilt Alliance.  So Martha and I did go – woo-hoo!! It was a fabulous day with my best friend and I will tell you all about our own experience in some next post, but in the meantime, here is a great re-cap with lots of photos from one of the event organizers, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, on her blog. Yes, we did meet wonderful Jennifer Chiaverini, yay!! Now I love her books even more.

Important note here – Quilt Alliance is a great organization with a very important set of projects focused on preserving and documenting what we all love so much – our quilts and stories that come with them! If you didn’t already, check it out and become a member if you can!

-Second – did you know about a Ten Minute Table Runner? I didn’t ’till few days ago! (I hope I didn’t miss it if ME already posted this! 🙂  ).

What a fabulous idea! I will be making some of these for gift giving for sure! So here you have the video on how to make it (including a variation for a bag- just too cool!), and here is a written pattern to print . Picture above is from this blog, where there is yet another tutorial for it!

-And third – since it is a lunch time now, I will leave you with this easy and great recipe for savory version of monkey bread, together with the blog it comes from that is a sheer treasure of recipes/tutorials for yummy stuff !!

Have a wonderful Tuesday and week ahead,

Marija