Archive of Marcia's Musings April 25-May 1, 2005Continued Organization
As expected, I spent the entire day photographing and organizing my fabrics. I've still got more to do today but I am getting closer to being finished with the project. Once I'm finished with it, I can get on with the enjoyable task of sewing some of this fabric! That, I am definitely looking forward to doing.
Dinner Out
As a late birthday celebration, Brian and I went out to a different restaurant-- not our usual Mexican place-- for his birthday: Sly Horse Tavern in Crofton. We've got a new bonus card at this restaurant (that doesn't have a website) and we used it last night having a very pleasant dinner with enjoyable conversation.
More Of The Same
After finishing the errands and shopping this morning, today, as I said, will be more of the same photographing and organization. Linda Rose is coming over to sew with me and oohhh-n-aahhh over my new fabric as well as my organization of existing fabric.
Should be lots of fun-- hope yours is too!
Saturday, April 30, 2005Organization
Any time that I've had "free" over the past two days has been spent organizing my fabrics and photographing them. With EQ5, I can input the pictures in .bmp format so that when I go to design a quilt, I can use the fabric that I have "in stock" to create a quilt. By the end of this process, I will have an extremely organized fabric room and all of my fabric "on line"-- both are excellent goals!
Disgust
I haven't said too much about the place that I used to work. It was a lousy place to work with no inspiration for the little guy-- it was intended to make the "top" few and far betweens rich. I didn't get a raise for 4 years and I still didn't say anything negative when I was there or when I left.
I just ran the numbers on the general counsel's sale of stock and stock options for 2004. She made $2,765,000 . . . roughly; its actually more since some of the stock sales did not show the dollar amount made on the sale. No wonder we didn't get a raise for 4 years-- she didn't need one!
And people wonder why I left after 5 years, 2 months and 27 days-- yes, that was the only prison sentence I am ever going to serve.
On a happier note, I'm back to photographing and organizing my fabric. Brian and I are going out for dinner tonight-- a date night sort of-- since we haven't had a weekend alone together in a long time.
Take care and have a good one yourself!
Friday, April 29, 2005First Up:
More Pictures!!!
Nancy Zieman, who teaches sewing and quilting classes on PBS and at the AQS show, created this quilt aptly named "Out on a Limb".
You can almost SEE the forest for the trees, can't you?
For whatever reason, I tend to LOVE "picture quilts"-- quilts that look like pictures lend a special challenge to the quilting process. I hope to create one this year, at some point. This is a contestant quilt-- picturing puffins! It is beautiful in person as you can see the type of bird it is very clearly. This is the backside of the same quilt! There are two sides to every store and/or migration!
All kinds of quilts are entered-- even miniatures! This is the first place winner and, yes, that is stipling inside of the design! Extremely intricate work!! This is just a picture of a beautiful quilt-- the coloring and quilt work were exquisite! The volunteer working near this quilt commented that she felt that this quilt would win the "Viewer's Choice" choice award since everyone "ooh'd" and "aah'd" over it! 
Just a gorgeous example of what you can do with stained glass designs.When I first saw this one, I immediately thought of Eric Clapton's son. Then, the volunteer working the area pointed out the hands that are quilted-- someone is catching him, thankfully! Talk about painting a picture!! Just another example of the beautiful work on display at the show. Oh? You thought quilts had to be square or rectangular? Nooooo, not to this artist! Next Up:
Pictures of Leon and Barb and, of course, Jasper, their miniature pinscher! What a cutie!!!
I took over 300 photos-- I'm not going to begin to put them all here-- I'd be here for days working up this trip report. Suffice it to say, I had a good time and am already looking forward to next year!
That's it for today-- have a good one!
Thursday, April 28, 2005Quilt Pictures!!
Okay, first up: The Gammill Longarm Quilting Award
This is the "real" picture of it as it is displayed-- when you first walk up to it. There are four quilts displayed in the center of the first floor of the exposition center-- the top award winners. I started at this one, drawn by the colors of the fabrics and quilting and then walked to my left, visiting each of the next two quilts.
When I came around the corner to see the third quilt, the picture to the right is what "struck" me! This is the back-side of the same quilt!!! It is fabulous!!! My photography doesn't do it justice but it is positively the most gorgeous quilt I believe I've seen when it comes to detail!! The quilter has used metallic threads in the bobbin and then "enhanced" it with 7,000 crystals on the bobbin threads!!!! Yeesh!!! (Click here to see the photo on the AQS website.)
[I've purposely left the above photos larger than those below so that they were more visible to detail.]
Instructor Quilts
On Wednesday, I took pictures of some of the instructors' quilts. The AQS offers classes in techniques, styles and concepts throughout the four day show. The instructors are usually well known within the quilting industry and are, of course, exceedingly talented. Below are some of the photos from that section of the displays:
So now you're getting a smattering of the beautiful quilts that I saw and beheld last week! What a fabulous experience!! I can't wait for next year!!!
That should hold you for awhile. Have a good day
Wednesday, April 27, 2005Fabric Buzz
Okay, so beside the fact that GOING to Hancock's of Paducah is cool, the fabric that I bought last week was just delivered!!! I'm excited all over again!!!
As it turns out, today in my free time, I'm trying to organize my fabrics by style and/or intent, in the case where I know what I'm going to do with the fabric already. I am SOOO excited!! The reason that I'm doing this is that I can photograph the fabric, turn it into .bmp thumbnails and use it in my EQ5!!! Life doesn't get technologically better than this, let me tell ya!!!
The bad news is that I haven't had time to work on the photos from my trip. I'll get to them but there's a lot to do around here with all the new toys arriving every day!!
Somber Work Atmosphere
Yesterday, one of our sales engineers died-- very suddenly. I just met the man the week before in Atlanta-- he's 45 years old and gone so young. The CEO/President of the company sent out an email this morning that expressed the grief felt by the company. Its almost unbelievable.
Other than that, I did the laundry from my trip yesterday and generally caught up on stuff around the office. I have yet to clean up my office but I'm more organized, even if you can't tell by looking at it!
Hope you're having a good day!
Tuesday, April 26, 2005A Little More About the Quilt Show
Okay so there is going to be fabric trickling in over the next week or so, as my hubby has stated. There are also going to be a few other things but I wanted to tell you about a fun thing that happened: I turned the corner on the end of a row of vendors and there was a quilt shop that had employed the services of Jennifer Chiaverini. Jennifer wrote the quilt camp series about Elm Creek Camp and I love the series! I was thrilled to meet her and have her sign a copy of her new book for me. If I would've known that she was coming, I'd've hauled ALLLLL of my books there so she could sign them. It was really fun to meet her and talk with her a bit!
Of course, as is required of any decent quilter, you have to make a trip to Hancock's of Paducah. Welllll, being a really good apprentice quilter (remember I've only been quilting for 3-1/2 years), I made my mark on their individual economy: I made two trips to Hancock's!! What a fabulous store!! I've bought from them online for years so it was fun to see the warehouse and everything. Tons of fun for all, let me tell ya!
One thing that I've been interested in buying was a quilt frame that allows me to use the sewing machines I have-- I canNOT afford one of the BIG sewing machines that are used by professional quilters!! I was walking around the vendors and there was John Flynn and his quilt frame. I spoke with his wife, Brooke, to ask the questions that I'd been wanting to ask and finally decided that I would buy it. I'll be able to quilt up to a king-sized bed quilt on this frame so it is a good purchase. I'll be able to learn how to extend it, etc., once I watch the video but, that won't happen until I get the frame which should arrive sometime later this week or next.
Well, that's it for now-- still no pictures since I haven't had time to get them organized-- soon, though, I promise!
Take care and have a great day!
Monday, April 25, 2005I'm Back!!!
Shopped too much, spent too much money, had too much fun, and enjoyed myself toooooooo much!!
I'm not organized yet and feel groggy (only a 1 hour time difference so this shouldn't be) so once I get my you-know-what together, I'll be able to post something here of substance. There's a lot of pictures that I could post (one day I took over 200 photos!) but I won't-- you'd have to experience it for yourself! I will make up some kind of trip report but not right now.
I'm home, I'm happy to be home and life is good.
Have a good day!
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