Settling In

As I sit here in Key West, I think about my friends and family up North who have been through a crazy winter. The snow is ending in the Philadelphia area this morning with an accumulation of 10-12" depending on location. This is a good year to be in Florida, especially when this is a morning view.

This week is Race Week. There are sail boats from all over the world. It is an amazing sight to see them transported down the narrow streets and then to see them race with their beautiful sails.

I find it amazing that there is always something going on here. This past weekend was the Key West Half Marathon (13.1 miles). I was a volunteer-NOT a runner. My job was to cheer them on. I got some curious looks when I broke into song, singing the Rocky theme (because I'm from Philly)!

Only in Key West will you see people running in tutus.

This coming weekend is the Arts &Crafts Festival. Last year I bought a great jacket. Maybe this year I will find something for Henry.

It doesn't take too much of an excuse for people to don a costume or what could pass for a costume. Here I am with my two friends, Ina and May Brit, heading to a pre-construction party for The Studios of Key West.

TSKW is an amazing arts center. They are moving to a new location that needs lots of renovations.

I need to apologize for my lack of blogging. We have been here for 3 weeks and I am crazy busy. Bailey and I walk the island each morning and there is a great gym where I Zumba or spin each day. I ride my bike everywhere and you can see this stay at home kind of gal has gotten into the KW scene- LOL.

I set up my sewing machine and design wall and have pretty much taken over our tiny downstairs. I am so glad that I have a patient husband who does not mind the mess. This is a peek of the project that has me completely engrossed.

I have taken lots of photos of my process and will share them soon. It is all silk dupioni and will measure 4'x6' when finished. I plan on finishing the top here and then embellishing it with beads and buttons when I return to PA. There was a limit to what I could bring, so I hope my house sitter is enjoying what I left behind in my studio!

The picking of the winner for Mary Mark's great book, "Forget Me Knot", is long overdue. I apologize for my procrastination. The winner is Maxine Oliver. You will love this book, Maxine. As soon as I get your snail mail address, the publisher will put the book in the mail.

 

 

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Choose To Fuse

I unpacked my bags from my visit to the West Milford Heritage Quilters and found my camera.  West Milford, NJ is not far from NYC but you would never know it from the beautiful countryside.  It's in the mountains and the colors of Fall were all around.  I definitely knew I was in the mountains when I woke up in the morning to a very chilly 40 degrees. 

We had a wonderful space for our workshops thanks to the connection that the Program Chairperson has with the local church. She's the pastor there!  The workshop was about machine fusible applique - all the ways that I use it in my quilts.  I use this bird sampler I designed as our pattern:

I share 7 different techniques, including binding.  I joke that it's applique bootcamp, but it really is.  By the end of the workshop each quilter knows which settings to use on their machine and which techniques they like the best. 

For the nest block, we all shared our brown scraps.  They made beautiful bird's nests. We placed all our blocks on the floor to make a "quilt".  It looked great, and it was fun.

 

Plus, I had a wonderful surprise.  One of the members, Andrea, also belongs to the Warwick Quilt Guild.  She took my workshop there called "Inspiration From Mexican Tiles" in 2011, and she brought the quilt to show me. Yay!

 

 

Finally, Wednesday's Wanderings Completed

Tonight I will be unveiling my Wednesday's Wanderings quilt for the first time, during my visit to the Moorestown Area Quilters in Mt Laurel, NJ.   

It is finally complete with sashing, borders and binding.

 It was a year long journey, chronicling my wanderings in 2012.

It is a great memory jogger for me about how wonderful the year was.  I am amazed by how busy I was and how many places I visited.

 

There are only borders to the top and bottom. I thought that was all that was needed.

 

 I used fusible machine applique to add the words.

In the background, I used chicken scratch stitching that I did by hand. 

 It's a little blurry in the photo.

 

I wish I could have found the time to repeat a similar documentation of my year for 2013.

Maybe next year.

2012, it was a very good year!