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Oct
23
Hearts of Joy
Filed Under Quilt shops, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
I just posted the most heartwarming story over on my Show & Tell Center. Please go see the post about Hearts of Joy.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Aug
3
Good neighbors
Filed Under Designers, Quilt shops, Quilt shows | 2 Comments
Do you know who these good-looking gentlemen are?
On the left that’s Orion Burns, son of the illustrious Eleanor Burns. On the right that’s Chris Burns, Orion’s half-brother-from-another-mother. Both of them are instrumental in running Eleanor’s Quilt in a Day store in San Marcos, California.
These guys are a hoot! Both just as friendly as can be, as cool as cucumbers, 100% knowledgeable about quilting products, and comfortable (to say the least) around the ladies. They kept me entertained all weekend. They let me take their picture once I promised to say how smart and handsome they both are.
I was right across the aisle from Eleanor this time at Festival-Long Beach.
The lady herself!
Rubbing elbows with a quilting luminary.
At one point Eleanor came over and asked if I had an extra plug so she could charge up her phone. At first I didn’t think so, but then I realized that the extension cord for my cash register had a couple extra outlets on it, so we plugged it in. Awhile later it rang. Eleanor was surrounded by her adoring public, and for a wild second I thought of picking it up and saying, “Eleanor Burns’s phone,” or “Joe’s bar, Joe ain’t here,” or something equally clever, but I was too chicken so I let it go to voicemail LOL.
After that, Orion came hustling over, handed me his cell phone, asked me to tell his wife how to get there, and fled back to their busy cash register. Thanks goodness I used to live in the area a long time ago! I directed her as best as I could. I think she still managed to go the wrong way on the 710. After a couple more calls and helpful passersby, she finally arrived with the baby.
I had such a great time this year! I felt that the energy and spirit in the quilting world was really up. And I enjoyed my neighbors very much.
Eleanor gave me a hug and made me promise to tell the cell-phone-charging story.
Back soon with a very cool book from the Lizzie B gals!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
May
16
I survived Market!
Filed Under Books, Quilt shops, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
The trip to Salt Lake City for Spring Quilt Market went “like butter.” I had a blast and a half. The good times started just as soon as the plane out of San Jose finished loading. My seat neighbor turned out to be going where I was going, so naturally we chattered like magpies the whole flight.
Julie operates an on-line boutique fabric shop, The Intrepid Thread, stocked with fresh modern fabrics. (And a whole lot of new ones coming after she saw the fabulous lines debuting at Market.)
And get this… Julie said her friend Sally, who was picking her up at the airport, would give me a ride to my hotel too! How’s that for nice? No Supershuttling! They even picked me up and took me back to the airport for the flight home!
These are the sweet gals who adopted me. Julie, left, and Sally, right.
Sally Keller’s shop is Sally’s Angelworks, offering darling mini art quilts, unique fabric camera-strap covers, and other handmade items.
Julie and Sally were there to shop, of course, and also to help out Amanda Herring at the Quilted Fish booth. All of them are part of the Riley Blake design team. Whew, these young quilter gals! Enough energy to power Salt Lake City for a week! Both of them have nice Market photos and stories on their blogs.
Thursday was Schoolhouse, which is a series of short break-out sessions geared toward the shop owner, to introduce what’s new and exciting. This is how it works. Two hours before the whole deal starts, you can get the schedule. There was a huge room full of chairs where you could sit and study the offerings, plotting and scheming on which ones you wanted to go to. There were about 20 sessions in each time slot, so if there were two at once you liked, you had to pick the one you wanted most!
When each session ended, it was that silly thing that happens when elevator doors open… people wanting to get out and people wanting to get in at the same time. There were thousands of bodies, everybody had wheelie bags, and it was one great big milling churn dash. I’ll share the first couple sessions that I went to, and I’ll put up more information later, in bites.
First on the docket I chose to go hear Dan Purcell. Dan is the boy genius son of Bob and Heather Purcell of Superior Threads. Dan, a smartywhistle techie extraordinaire, grew up in the quilting industry and is the nicest, friendliest young guy you would ever want to meet. Dan operates Websites for Quilters, a company offering a whole bunch of services for quilters who want to be on the web and need a little or a lot of help.
One of the great things that Dan told us about is his FindMyFabric.com, a fabric, quilting, and sewing supply search engine. You can search for products offered by hundreds of online stores to find exactly what you are looking for. You can also search by uploading a photo of the fabric you need more of! How cool is that?? And totally free, this one.
Dan also operates QuilterBlogs.com, a directory of quilting blogs that you can check out to see what’s out there in the blogosphere.
I bought Dan’s book so I can learn more valuable nuggets about having a quilting website.
Next I went to the presentation by Stacey Michell of Shades Textiles. Stacey’s main product is SoftFuse, a paper-backed fusible web that has become my favorite. It’s the lightest weight, and it actually works the way this type of product is supposed to work! What a concept! It fuses quickly, the paper comes off right away, and like I said it is extremely lightweight and flexible.
Stacey’s mom is Marti Michell. They were both there at the session to show us how you can use the product to do a prepared-edge type of appliqué for either hand or machine stitching. It’s fused, and the edges are turned! Very interesting! I’ll be giving this a try myself and will report the results here on the blog. I ordered some SoftFuse so I’ll be able to offer it on my website soon.
This was my favorite entry in the quilt display.
I’m Watching You by Barbara McKie of Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Much more to come,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jul
7
Just got a newsletter from Connecting Threads, the fabulous paper and on-line catalog for quilters. They’re celebrating Appliqué Month during July with lots of goodies. Check it out, here’s the link to the newsletter. There’s a free pattern and an appliqué tutorial. Thanks Connecting Threads!
I didn’t know it was Appliqué Month, but yayhoo!!!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie.
Mar
29
Animal company
Filed Under Patterns, Quilt shops, Quilt shows | 2 Comments
I was in Sacramento for three days for the Quilt, Craft, & Sewing Festival. I had so much animal company!
The show was at Cal Expo, a great big huge events and State Fair grounds. As soon as I got there I knew there had to be some horses around and I was craning my neck for stables or any other sign of equine presence. The next morning I saw the harness racers breezing around the track!
This one had his stablemate along for the jog. Either that or they were both warming up, I don’t know, but when I was a kid I read every Black Stallion book there was and sometimes the horses had friends.
I kept thinking about The Black Stallion’s Sulky Colt and it really took me back to childhood.
Now bear with me, I’m gonna get this to tie into quilting.
My first quilt teacher used to say, “A man on a fast horse would think it looked pretty good.” Now these men weren’t exactly on the horse, but they would still think that all of our quilts looked great!
As soon as you came in the door to the show you were treated to this sight.
That’s Rochelle herself from Rochelle’s Fine Fabric and Quilting, who came all the way from Port Orchard, Washington, with scissors in her head. And she didn’t even have a headache. What a gal.
My booth was directly across from The Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop from Chico, California. They had a trunk show from the Big Fork Bay Cotton Company. Look at all these splendid animals that kept me company during the show!
Little Sacramento dogs get to go with their humans lots of places. During the show, I saw a cockapoo in a European shoulder bag, a Yorkie in a sling, a poodle in a purse, but the only one I got a picture of was the pom in a pram.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
26
A lovely quasi-quilty trip
Filed Under Books, Designers, Fabrics, Quilt shops | 3 Comments
It started last Wednesday morning bright and early as Dana and I packed the car and drove an hour and a half to Pleasant Hill, California, to attend the quarterly meeting of the Northern California Quilt Council. I had been invited to participate in a panel discussion called “So You Want to Get it Published.” How very cool! Publishing nerd that I am, I can’t think of a more thrilling topic.
My fellow panel members were Cara Gulati of Doodle Press, Jill Rixman of A Designing Woman, Megan Wisniewski and Lynn Koolish of C&T Publishing, authors Judy Sisneros and Melinda Bula, Tracey Brookshier of Brookshier Design Studio, and Judy Mullen of Scaredy Cat Designs. Quite an array of different perspectives on publishing in the quilting world!
We each had five minutes to introduce ourselves, complete with red, yellow, and green flash cards to let us know when the hook was approaching LOL. Questions from the floor followed. Some of the answers shared great information about various forms of ‘getting it published,’ while others provided moving inspiration. I think we all wish the session could have gone on longer. We only scratched the surface; there was so much more to talk about!
After the meeting was over Dana and I had lunch and set off for our next destination: Shinneyboo Creek Cabins near Emigrant Gap in the Sierra Nevadas. This is a rustic vacation resort with little cabins that I found by following Google Maps up I-80.
Little cabin in the woods.
It was so much fun! A complete change of scenery from our coastal Santa Cruz. Crisp mountain air, woodsy terrain, and tons of tumbled rocks and huge boulders thanks to the work of glaciers in the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago. (Hello, I‘m married to a science writer.)
We brought our dinner and warmed it up in our cozy little cabin in the microwave, and made tea with the electric kettle. Dana immediately climbed up into the loft and turned 10 years old again, reading in the loft as happy as a clam. I read some quilting magazines and stitched three holly leaves.
The next morning we went for a walk. (Notice I said walk. I’m a good sturdy walker but don’t say the word hike.) Our destination was the Pierce Creek Wetlands Trail, ¼ mile from the path behind our cabin.
A mile or so later down a rocky road, we came to the following sign.
I swear they were in that order.
But we did find the Pierce Wetlands, er, dry creekbed. Rains this winter will undoubtedly make it wet again.
They also have a yurt.
Dana examining a fascinating rock.
Dana contemplating a sign that says nothing, with a pine cone on his head. Don't ask.
We left Shinneyboo and drove east to Bearpaws & Hollyhocks, a charming quilt shop in Sacramento well worth the detour. I found some of the double pinks that I have come to greatly appreciate.
We got back on the freeway and proceeded eastward a short hop to historic Auburn, where I stopped in at the Cabin Fever Quilt Shoppe. The first thing I saw was Susan Brubaker Knapp’s hot-off-the-presses Applique Petal Party! (A whole post about that’s comin’ up.)
As I was perusing the shop’s lovely fabrics and making my selections, the owner came in. “Oh, hello!” she said to me. She had been at the NCQC meeting that morning! It was great to chat with Patti a little bit about the experience. She gave me a copy of the 2007 Quilt Sampler magazine, which features Cabin Fever as one of the Top Ten Stores! Congratulations Patti and staff!
Just one part of the store.
Then, on to our last stop, the Sands Regency in Reno, Nevada.
From woodsy to glitzy.
Dana plays in a chess tournament at the Sands once or twice a year and I love to go along when I can. The fabulous Windy Moon Quilts has a huge selection of fabrics, lots of lights and darks and other categories too numerous to mention. I also found Sew-n-Such, a very fun shop featuring sewing machines, sergers, and a sizeable quilt fabric presence. Very nice vibe in that shop.
My haul of fabrics from the trip. Can you tell that I’m collecting backgrounds, reds, pinks, greens, and blues? Yep, I’m off to the races on another future project.
So what quilter doesn’t combine vacation time with visits to quilt shops, catching up on quilting magazines, and time spent on take-along projects? For us, all trips are quasi-quilty! I sure enjoyed mine.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jun
6
Visit to Kauai
Filed Under Designers, Hawaiian, Patterns, Quilt shops | 3 Comments
As I’ve written before, Dana and I had our 20th wedding anniversary on May 19 and we decided to go to Hawaii as our special celebration. The Starwood people sent us an offer for a cheep package at one of their 5-star resorts on Kauai, which is where we wanted to go anyway, so it was kismet!
The Westin Princeville Ocean Resort and Villas
The keiki pool
One of the first places we went was Limahuli Botanical Gardens, not far away on the North Shore.
Taro (kalo in Hawaiian). The roots are the main starch of the traditional Hawaiian diet and the source of that poi.
Dana in some hala trees.
Pineapples grow on the ground, not in trees.
Crescent-shaped koa leaves.
A most special and beautiful spot on the island was Hanalei Bay. You remember Puff the Magic Dragon, who frolicked in the autumn mists in a land called Hanalee? Well, there’s no proof that Hanalee is really Hanalei, but Hanalei has claimed Puff. In fact we heard someone say that the best sunsets are when the sun goes down behind Puff’s nose in the bay, so of course we had to see if we could make out a dragon in the cliffs. We think we can.
Here’s Dana practicing his hula on the beach at Hanalei, in front of Puff. Picture it as a dragon’s head, with his lower jaw submerged in the water. You can see the top of his head, and there’s a bare patch that looks like his eye, and then the snout goes off into the ocean.
We visited the Kilauea Lighthouse, an old lighthouse in need of restoration. Today the area is a preserve for marine birdlife and we saw many different kinds of sea birds as well as some spectacular coastal views.
Looking left from the lighthouse, back toward Princeville.
In a nearby shop I found a Jack Russell terrier who’d never met a stranger.
Everywhere on the Kauai lowlands, and I mean everywhere, you see these chickens. According to my bird book, they’re “Red Junglefowl.” Here’s a typical fancy rooster with his plainer lady friend.
Zipline! So much fun! We took the Kauai Backcountry Adventures zipline tour and loved every minute of it.
Me on the zipline. The guide said I had the most relaxed posture of anyone in the group.
Dana zipping along. His posture was likened to that of a cat about to be put in the sink for a bath. I think the red shorts and white socks really add to the effect.
Of course when you’re in Hawaii you can’t miss going to a luau. On the recommendation of some friends, we chose the Smith Family Garden Luau.
One of the great things about this luau (besides the plentiful mai tais, the delicious feast, and the multinational show) is that you get to a take a tram tour of their lovely gardens. There were gobs of tame peacocks who, I swear, loved to show off their plumage for the visitors.
You can’t miss the aloha shirt on the wall outside the Waimea Canyon General Store in Kekaha, just before you start up the road alongside Waimea Canyon. It’s a size 28XL.
Waimea Cayon, from not very far up.
And now the stop that you’ve been waiting for… the Kapaia Stitchery!
Not one step inside the front door, I saw Tracey’s Bento Box hanging up.
Happy Hula Huts by Lisa Boyer, a Kauai resident.
Another of Lisa’s patterns, Keiki Hula.
They have tons of batiks.
More batiks.
Asians.
Hawaiian prints.
Lots of bolts.
More bolts.
Kimono.
Pillow tops.
Gifts.
Lei. Check out the one made out of yoyos!
As you can see, it’s a fabulous shop, very friendly, and of course you must go there when you visit Kauai.
Right next to the Stitchery is the turnoff for Wailua Falls. About 4 miles up the road all of a sudden you’re beside a beautiful rushing waterfall.
Thanks for coming with me on my tour of Kauai.
Until next time,
Kay
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