About PIQF and Texas Here We Come!

This nice article with great photos is kindly shared by CraftHappy, one of John's students at the PIQF.  The blog is "Told You Sew".  It looks like John was having a good time in class!

John Flynn’s Double Wedding Ring Class « Told You Sew!

Here are a few photos from the quilt show in Santa Clara.  PIQF is a really nice show with great quilts; hope you can attend sometime. 

We are packing madly for Houston; John leaves tomorrow, Kate and I are flying so still some time.  Hope you can come by the booth; we have LOTS of miniature pre-cut kits and even some miniature templates this year.



"Heart of the Storm" by John Flynn

Kate and I bought T-Shirts from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative website to wear in Houston; we will be very stylish!  Kate chose one with all four quilts from John's team.  I decided on one with just John's contribution "Heart of the Storm".  Oh, and you can vote for John's quilt while you are on the Alzheimer's Art Quilt website, I know he will appreciate it! 

Please, please support this ongoing effort for Alzheimer's research.  Thanks!

Back to packing.  I'm thinking winter will arrive while we are gone.

Brooke

YouTube for You

Watch this cute and ambitious video which shows some of the 1,000 little quilts that will be auctioned off in Houston in two weeks.  This is part of Ami Simm's ongoing and dedicated effort to raise money for Alzheimer's research.  Watch for a little purple quilt in the first few seconds; John's contribution!

Brooke

Ninth Most Extreme

Kate and I are busy this week cutting pre-cut kits for John's next two teaching engagements and for the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara and for the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  John is teaching at both shows, so be sure to check for class availability if you are interested in his classes.  It will be a quick turnaround next week when John gets back from Utah and we pack the van to head out for Northern California. 

We got to "dog sit" last weekend.  What gentle, trusting creatures dogs are.  Kate's smaller dog knew that I knew where Kate was and when she would return, so she just kept close to me, hoping I would beam Kate down soon.  Moon, the bigger dog, is John's buddy.  We have a doll elinor peace bailey painted for John years ago displayed on our hearth.  Moon recognized it as John, and gave it a big kiss.

Home repairs are still on the agenda - I spent part of Sunday and Monday carefully moving around on a scaffold, painting window trim a bright red!  John cut grass all around the house and moved a brush pile so the roofers can work - they are supposed to come Monday.  We have another million daffodil bulbs to plant, or maybe it is only 500.  Have to try to fit that in between shows.

Speaking of shows, here is the Ninth Most Extreme thing we forgot for a show.  Our children were still in high school when John and I drove all the way to the Vermont Quilt Festival leaving my prescription medicine behind.  I guess we were in Minnesota when I discovered it was missing. That was an expensive Fed Ex delivery.

Enjoy a beautiful Fall, wherever you are.

Brooke

Ten Most Extreme

First, here is a picture of the class sample John just finished from Civil War Reproductions and shirtings. He will teach Glorified Nine Patch soon to the Utah State Guild and this is one of the pre-cut kits they can choose from in class. It is such a warm, pretty quilt and it was pretty quick to piece. Today is John's birthday, he looks pretty happy, doesn't he!



We are packing for a show in Colorado. We have a checklist of things we need for the booth, of course and I was thinking about other shows as I went through the check list. Sometimes, even with the check list, we forget stuff. So I thought it would be funny to list the 10 Most Extreme Things We Have Forgotten - like on the History Channel or is it on Discovery?

So, for this post, the 10th Most Extreme Thing is something someone else forgot, not me.  I got to the show, ready to unload and pack in, with my assigned booth number and a map of the show floor. All the booth numbers and outlines were chalked on the concrete floor; all except mine. It skipped right over me. I went to find the show coordinator and, with a Big Sigh, he said he would help me find my booth (poor old dumb woman) and, surprise, he couldn't "find" it either. They made room for me and it was all fine, but I got a chuckle out of his attitude - I was probably doing quilt shows before he was born.

Well, better get back to packing - what will we forget this time??

Brooke

Words to the Wise

I usually write the company's newsletter and blog, but I don't want quilters to think John doesn't write...just yesterday we got our copy of Joe Cunningham's new book "Men and the Art of Quiltmaking" published by the American Quilters Society.  John's interview is included and we were tickled to notice that one of his quilts has been used on the dedication page.  There are some really beautiful quilts in this book and the quilters' stories are fascinating; this will make good reading this fall.


Another recent article is in the October issue of "The Quilt Life" magazine, also published by the American Quilters Society.  They have a feature called "If you could ask one question", and quilters sent in questions for John to answer.  He had fun writing his answers and then we looked through boxes of snapshots looking for bridge construction and quilt pictures.  I don't think I want to scrapbook, but I like looking at the old pictures; well, that's another story.

So, John does write, it takes a back seat to quilting, of course.  But today he is mechanicing on our old John Deere forklift; life at a small company is so glamorous sometimes.

Brooke

In Stitches

 It's finished; my little contribution to the 2010 IQA Silent Auction.  Kate is almost done too and then we can ship them off.  The center two plates are 6" and Kate custom made me the little 3" plates for the corners.  I had fun, especially with the blanket stitching which I enjoy more each time I do it.  The machine quilting is done with So Fine from Superior Threads; I used a pale blue (called Venice) so I could see what I was doing.  So that's done; what's next?



Every other Monday, I knit with friends at the Art Guild which is in the old Depot Building.  This time, the building was closed, so we sat outside under the gazebo to knit.  It was just the most beautiful Montana fall day, with a light breeze.  We really had fun, visiting and enjoying each other's yarns and projects.

In January, 2011, John will be the "Featured Artist" at the 16th Annual Road to California Quilters' Conference.    in Ontario, California.  He is working on new quilts for the show; one of them is a beautiful white on white whole cloth quilt that gets prettier every time I study it.  So that will be his weekend project for quite a while into the future.  I heard the noises of a football game coming from the room where he was quilting on Sunday - football and hand quilting - quite a combination!

Brooke

Rainbows

It has been a hard week; we just got back from the funeral of a favorite friend.  Changes are inevitable but still hard.

So I appreciated the spectacular treat of a double rainbow two mornings ago. 

I don't have much quilting left to do on my IQA Silent Auction quilt; it is a little past due...  Should be able to get that done this weekend. Kate also has a few more stitches to put in; I just saw her leave with the quilt tucked under her arm.  John has a hand quilting project to keep him going if the weather is too cold to work outside.  Oh, and Ocktoberfest is this weekend!

We have an upcoming show in Longmont, Colorado.  They always have nice quilts and, because it isn't a huge show, it is easy to see all the vendors and quilts and the demonstrations!  It is at the Boulder County Fairgrounds September 23 - 25.  Let's hope they have that bad wildfire out by then.  Have a great weekend!

Brooke