Out from Hibernation

Happy National Quilting Day! 

Snow mountains and glaciers are receding here in Wisconsin and we are slowly but happily emerging from hibernation. It was 60 degrees yesterday and the muted sunshine felt wonderful. I haven’t been quilting over the winter so had no inspiration to write blog posts, and I realize not everyone wants to read about Oliver’s daily exploits, although gosh they are very cute.

I discovered a new display at a favorite store of tiny pet clothing, for small dogs or larger cats probably, and had to seriously resist a little shiny plaid raincoat and cap for Oliver. As if he would stoop to something so ridiculous.

This weekend I am organizing things for my upcoming trip to Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey, CA. I have a big class of 24, and hope everyone is excited about spending 5 days with me working on all sorts of free motion quilting, some easy, some challenging. I think you will learn as much from one another as from me, so it is definitely a productive week in a beautiful and peaceful setting.

The photo, above, features some lovely gifts I have received over the years from fellow quilters that I wanted to share with you. The intricate Bavarian egg was created by Carole Sturgis and is a collector’s piece in this particular art form. The lovely scissors from Sandra Leichner, tastefully blingy pin cushion by Cheryl Little, and Ming Hsu’s exquisite needle case are some of my favorites and seem to say “spring.”

And I am so happy to say that one of my past Asilomar students, Cindy Seitz-Krug, a fabulous quilter who has won many awards in quilt competition, has just received the Best of Show award at the AQS Lancaster, PA show! Her quilt, Simply Santa Fe, is beautiful and has exquisite original home sewing machine quilting and Cherrywood fabrics. Judy Robinson also won an award for her wonderful and colorful wall quilt, “Judy in the Sky With Stitches,” also done on her home sewing machine.  

Congratulations also to Sherry Reynolds for the Machine Workmanship award with her "Christmas All Around" quilt, done on her home sewing machine too.  Visit the AQS blog to see these quilts and find a link to all the winners.

The fragile egg, below, resides behind glass in a display case.  Oliver was sleeping when I took the photo........

Enjoy the spring days, and hope to see some of you soon in California.

Diane