Spring in Montana

Well, it is early for spring. Today it will be 80, they tell us but tomorrow only up to 50. Typical spring weather. I took this picture of a pasque flower (some people call them crocus) at Red Lodge on April 19, just before Kate and I flew to Nashville for the AQS show in Paducah. This very modest little wildflower doesn't compare to the spectacular red bud and dogwood trees that are blooming right now in Kentucky and Tennessee but I am always so glad to see the pasque flowers struggle back when the snow has melted.

We enjoyed the show in Paducah and met lots of old and new friends. Quilters are one big family, after all. Even though we were so busy, we did have a chance to visit from time to time. The Best of Show quilt was done by a teacher friend of John's and also won a prize at the IQA show in Houston last fall. There is a very special story about the inspiration for Ted Storm's quilt and I'm sure if you subscribe to the American Quilter magazine, they will have it there later this year.

John is off to teach in Denver this weekend and then we both vend at a machine quilting show in Salt Lake City. Hope your spring is beautiful.

Brooke

Ticking Away

John is driving home from teaching in Chicago at the Spring International Quilt Fesitval. He liked his students - some in his class had been coming since the very first Chicago show. He left his cell phone in a motel last night so I haven't heard from him much today. (The motel was very nice and is sending it back to us tomorrow.)

I finished quilting a little project this weekend, it needs to be bound still. I also worked on my substitute headboard which is three of those old fashioned rose botanical prints framed with a red ticking. Sometimes I am all thumbs but I got one done and here is the effect. That is a picture of Kate when she was 7 in the upper right, she made that frame in pre-school. And it didn't take her all day either.

Brooke

Spring Brunch

This young deer and his mother have been wintering here next to our shop in Billings. There really isn't a whole lot deer food around; leftovers from the garden and there are apple trees out in the back. This guy was looking for some greenery today and I hope he found enough to eat. I know John will be fencing him and his buddies out of the garden soon.

He is really shaggy and will be glad to be rid of that winter coat.

Brooke

Show and Tell

A very nice student in John's Machine Quilting class in Lancaster brought in a wall hanging she started in a Dresden Plate class John taught last year at Lancaster. She really did a great job of choosing fabrics as well as all her piecing, applique and quilting. We really appreciate her letting us take a picture, and I'm sorry I didn't get her name!

John's next classes are in Chicago at the Spring Quilt Festival; we are helping him get ready. I have a little quilt to machine quilt this weekend and John will be putting together the sample for a new colorway of the 10" Wheel of Mystery pre-cut kit, it is very pretty!

Hope you are enjoying early spring!

Brooke

Fly Away

I'm writing this while I am still mad. Kate and I missed our 5:30 p.m. flight out of Denver back in to Billings by literally 45 seconds and the two fellows who were running behind us missed it by 60 and 62 seconds. We were late getting in to Denver from Washington DC and then were 60, yes, sixty gates away from our Denver to Billings gate. You know the airline knew we were on the late flight and that we were 60 gates away - the obvious question is, Why couldn't you wait for us?

So we got home to Billings at 12:30 last night. To compound the irritation, we waited on the ground in the Denver/Billings flight for 5 more passengers who were on a flight that was coming in late.

I'm not saying that all the gate people and customer service people weren't nice and helpful, it's just that common sense and logic don't seem to fit in anywhere in the equation anymore.

Tomorrow I will post a photo of a very pretty Dresden Plate wallhanging that a student brought to John's class in Lancaster, wow!

Do the Canadian Geese sit in trees where you live?? For several years, there has been a pair of geese who fly up in to the cottonwood trees across the road from us and perch there like they know what they are doing. It's forty five feet off the ground and they sit up there and peck at the dead branch instead of flying another 200 yards north and eating leftover wheat and corn from the fields like the other geese. To each his own, I guess.

We are finally done packing for our next show which is Lancaster, Pennsylvania next weekend. Unfortunately, John will miss Easter dinner because he will be on the road. We will think of him while we watch the grand nieces hunt for eggs! Kate and I leave Tuesday so the office will be closed until the following Tuesday, April 1.

Hope you have a wonderful Easter, if that is a holiday you celebrate. We can all celebrate the arrival of spring!

Brooke

Catching Up

Wow, almost a month since my last post. In the interim, John and I have been to Virginia for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and the next weekend Kate and I vended at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup, Washington. With all the plane travel, van travel, packing and unpacking, and catching up with orders, phone messages and email, well, it has taxed my poor old brain.

We had Fun at both shows. Well, having one of the vendors conk out with a seizure right in front of our booth in Puyallup wasn't much fun, but much, much worse for him and his wife. Last we heard, he was okay but had 5 staples in his head.

Things have calmed down some and we were able to go to Red Lodge last weekend. John pieced on a sample of our newest template, Drunkard's Path, in the 4" size. I plan to quilt it this weekend. Kate just finished putting the borders on her 6" sample of the Drunkard's Path, it is 46" square with the border and has been named "Outside the Puzzle Box". Drunkard's Path is always fun to plan - sort of like Log Cabin in that the setting's orientation really makes a difference in how the quilt looks.

Daylight savings time threw me for a loop for a few days this week. I am really enjoying the extra light in the evenings. I don't think I have that SAD condition, but it really is nice to have the daylight; I get a little more work done if it isn't dark outside.

John is working on a new template set for our next show which is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It will be a larger version of "Supernova" which is an original variation of the Wheel of Mystery block. He'll have a sample soon. Enjoy your early spring days!

Brooke