New Project....and Off to Houston!

Thank you EVERYONE for your kind congratulations on my book. It means a lot to me! I can't wait for you to see it.

Meanwhile, I am so looking forward to teaching at the Crazy Quilt Adventure being put on by Maureen Greeson and Susan Elliot next April (see sidebar of this blog).
I have completed my class sample for my 3-D Flowers class, and here it is!

We won't get this much done in a one-day class, but students will learn how to make everything that is shown here--except those wee butterflies and the cut apart lace daisies, which are made by Simplicity and were purchased. It is going to be a lot of fun.

I want this sample to be in the context of a full-blown crazy quilt wall-hanging, so have made some pieced borders for it.

This seems to be my format of choice these days, a central image with a crazy quilt border. I have a project like it in my book, too. ;-)
It was so nice to be able to dig through my lace and use a bunch of it here, including this lovely hand-crocheted motif that Monica Kowarick sent me all the way from Greece.

She is so talented.

I wanted lots of interest in the borders, but it had to be textural more than colorful as I didn't want anything to compete with the flowers in the center. The seams will be in neutral tans and whites, I think, and the inner perimeter around the center will be blue, added last.

I had to get this done today as I am leaving for Houston tomorrow!
I'll get to see my dear friend Debra...we are going to the event at Festival Tuesday night, the luncheon on Wednesday, and Preview Night that evening.
Then I'll move to a hotel with my roommates and fellow Alliance for American Quilts board members, Amy Milne and Meg Cox.

Thursday-Saturday noon I'll be at the Alliance's fabulous exhibit on the show floor, "If These Quilts Could Talk", which features a sampling of the quilts and interviews in our Save Our Stories project on the website.
They are very, very moving stories and awesome quilts. It is a terrific exhibit and I hope those of you at Festival will make sure to see it.

Meanwhile, the bidding is going on hot and heavy at the Alliance's "New from Old" contest quilts over on Ebay, so do click on over and do some shopping! This is our main fundraiser of the year. There are three more groups of quilts being auctioned over the next three weeks, too.

I plan on blogging my impressions from Festival...not sure what the policy is on photographing the show quilts--I will if allowed. Otherwise, there will be much else to share...

Next stop, Texas!