Creative Mojo With Mark Lipinski

I must have OD'ed on Thanksgiving dinner.  That was 4 days ago and I think I have finally recovered.  It was an especially great meal because I didn't make it.  I didn't have to clean my house for company, I didn't have to cook a whole meal nor did I have to clean up after company.  My new DIL was the hostess with the mostest.  Watch out Martha Stewart. 

But the day before Thanksgiving was a day I will never forget.  I was invited to be the co-host on Mark Lipinski's show called Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski  that is broadcast on the internet.  I had met Mark previously while filming an episode of his Quilt Out Loud show.  So I was thrilled to be asked to participate in another of his wonderful happenings.

My husband and I drove 2 hours north to Mark's place - 13 Pickle Road Studios, his house.  He met us at the door and invited us into his living room where there was a delicious tray of cookies and cupcakes.  He went over the agenda for the 2 hour show. 

Don't be fooled by his fun, easy going demeanor.  He handed me paperwork that went over each segment in great detail, complete with extensive questions.  This man is no slouch.  It was obvious that he had put in a lot of time and did a lot of homework, researching each guest. 

About 15 minutes before the broadcast was to start - it is a live show - we went upstairs to his office where there were microphones, headphones and a sound board.  During the 1-2-3 testing thing, I thought I was going to get whiplash. 

His office is filled with hundreds of books and lots of other cool stuff. ( A complete selection of Aurifil thread in a see through container really made me drool.)

I loved the carved wooden sign that is Mark's logo.  The farmer with a needle! Mark's partner designed it.

At 3PM it was time to start.  I really hoped that I could keep up with his wit and humor.  He really threw me for a loop when he asked me if I had ever smoked pot. Whoa!  Where did that come from? After chatting for a while, we  moved on to the guests who were interviewed via telephone.  The most fascinating was Franck de Las Mercedes, an artist who initiated a project sending out painted cardboard boxes filled with peace and hope to anyone. Mark had one of his boxes and it was really a work of art.  So far Franck has sent out over 9000 boxes.

One of the other guests were Kevin Hansen, who has a website where you can post your regrets:http://www.secretregrets.com/.     So far over 10,000 people have posted their regrets.  It's not something I dwell on, but I was intrigued enough to check it out as soon as I got home.  Another guest, Josh Fraught, talked about the Sloppy Crafts movement.   His final guest was a good friend of his, Annie Smith, a quilter, who just published a book on applique and is the original  quilting podcaster.

The 2 hours just flew by.  I would do this weekly!  I could be my Robin to his Howard, my Kelly to his Regis, my Hoda to his Kathie Lee.  I'm in!

After the broadcast was over,  we  chatted for a while in his living room. He has many wonderful collections.  My favorite are his ceramic houses - all are quilt shops. 







He is really the nicest guy.  My husband and he reminisced about growing up in Pittsburgh.  I kept thinking to myself that I AM IN MARK LIPINSKI'S LIVINGROOM, just chatting away.  Pinch, pinch, pinch. I didn't care at all that we had to drive home in the Thanksgiving traffic. 


You can listen to the broadcast anytime.  Just go to http://toginet.com/shows/creativemojo/.

And The Winner Is:

I am so happy to share these calendars.  The winners are:

Nancy H and Woolen Sails

Congratulations!

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  Other than having a wonderful family, I have met so many wonderful people all over the world thanks to Quilt Fiesta and my blog, and have made lots of  new friends while traveling to speak to many quilt guilds.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about my visit to Mark Lipinski's house for my stint as a co-host on Creative Mojo.  If you haven't heard it, click on the logo on my sidebar.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers and to anyone else that would like to take a couple of minutes and give thanks!

Bridal Shower

I have a love/hate affair with the embroidery component of my sewing machine.  I love my Bernina as a sewing machine, but not so much for doing embroidery.  Actually I practically have to relearn how to use it all over every time I want to embroider.  I have to hook it up to my computer and right now the only computer with which it can communicate is my ancient desktop which is located a floor away upstairs in our guest room.  So I have to schlep everything upstairs.  This is probably why I only use it about every 3-4 months which also explains why I have to reteach myself each time  I use it. 

But I do love to give personalized gifts.  People love stuff with their names on it and it makes quite a special gift.  Saturday was my son's girlfriend's sister's bridal shower.  I love being included in their family events because I have very little family.  I ordered robes from the internet from Cotton Age and kept my fingers crossed.  I ordered spa robes since the bride to be lives in Florida.

The robes turned out to be gorgeous and I embroidered one for the bride and one for the groom.   It was a great present. 

I also found a great bag for the gift.  The groom's family is part French and the soon to be bride is a francophile.  I have been trying to use reusable bags for gifts instead of disposable wrapping paper, so I was thrilled when I saw this bag.  Can't beat 99 cents.  Thank you TJ Maxx.

Here's to a happy and long marriage Katie and Jean Baptiste!

Give Thanks - Calendar Giveaway

Let's share.
That Patchwork Place sends me books to review and then I get to give them away.  I could keep them, but my shelves are running out of space and I just enjoy sharing.  These two 2011 quilt calendars are just beautiful.  One features award winning quilts from the International Quilt Association.  The other features 12 traditional style quilts with instructions.

There will be 2 winners, chosen on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25th, at 7AM EST.
To enter:

• *Leave a comment
• *Become a Follower (or let me know that you are already a follower)
• *Put my giveaway on your blog

 
Receive one entry for each action.  Make sure your e-mail address is available somewhere either in your comment or on your profile.

Good luck everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

Foto Friday

I thought there were a lot of farms and barns in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Then we did a road trip to see the hex signs in Berks County.   Wow!  Check them out.  They are truly Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.

 Quilt anyone?

Thread Dyeing Made Easy

Whenever I have my dyes made up for fabric dyeng, I like to dye some thread.  It doesn't require much dye and it gives me an opportunity to experiment.  I usually wrap my thread around an elongated object like the lid to a plastic shoebox, but then it gets all tangled as I go through the process. 

So I had a brainstorm and scrounged around for some cardboard toilet paper rolls.

I wrapped a bunch of DMC floss around the tube.  I have a cone of it.  Believe it or not, I found it on Overstock.com for a really good price.

 I secured the end with a staple.

The next step was to soak it in the soda ash solution. 

I dissolve 1/2 cup of soda ash in 1 quart of warm water.  Soda ash is essential in making sure that the dye is permanent.

 To get a variegated thread, first I dipped one end in a blue dye and then the other end in a red dye.  In the middle where the dyes overlapped, I got purple.

I repeated this with  two other colors of dye.

 And then the whole thing gets wrapped and put aside to set overnight. 

After washout, look at those beautiful colors. 

And just in case you wonder what I use them for, I do hand stitched fusible applique.  The variegated colors add another layer of interest and texture.

Have you heard that they are going to eliminate that cardboard roll inside of toilet paper to save a few cents? Actually it does make sense in terms of saving trees - lots of trees.  But we better start saving them for future thread dyeing!

A Great Day

Look what came today!

I am a lucky girl!

Not only did Martingale do a wonderful, fabulous job publishing my book, they sent me flowers too along with my advance copy!  And how did they know how much I love rick-rack?  You will have to check out the inside pages to see what I mean.

Coming in January.  Stay tuned.