Plan for Next Summer in Montana!

Come Quilt in a Mountain Paradise!

John Flynn will lead a three day quilting seminar in August 2012 in beautiful Red Lodge, Montana

Classes will be held at Rock Creek Resort, south of Red Lodge, where you will also find comfortable lodging and fine dining.

Join John, Brooke and Kate one evening for a barbeque and Show and Tell!

Beautiful and historic Yellowstone National Park is only 70 miles from Red Lodge and is a wonderful family destination.  Blue ribbon fly fishing opportunities are also only a hour or so away. 

Call 800 745 3596 to be put on the email list so you will be first to know all the details, or email flynnquilt@gmail.com

QUICK!

The next three quilters who email me their names and addresses can split this box of goodies.  I will send you 1/3 of this box of miscellany - we are cleaning the office!  U.S. addresses only please.

email  flynnquilt@gmail.com  with your name and shipping address.  I'll add some leftover fabric, too, how does that sound?

UPDATE - okay, thanks for helping me clean and the boxes are gone now.  I hope you quilters enjoy what I sent - I can now see the floor in front of the file cabinet!  Keep watching; I think this is worth doing again!

Brooke

Summer Sights and a Finished Quilt

Another free picture slideshow by Smilebox

After our weekly hand quilting group, we decided to drive up the Beartooth Highway, it was such a beautiful day.  There is still quite a bit of snow on the higher peaks and slopes.  The flowers were just beautiful and so thick; they like the extra moisture this year.  It is always fun to drive up to "the top"; the wind is usually blowing and you can see forever.

John finished his Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative challenge quilt and has sent it off.  I am not sure when these little challenge quilts, made and donated by some of the best known names in the quilt industry, will show up on the AAQI website but they will all be shown in Houston this fall.  We are sponsoring the Alzheimer's booth again this year; this is a cause near and dear to us.  Anyway, wow, the little quilt turned out great!


Our neighbor on the north called to tell us to watch outside the window, because we were about to get company!  What a beautiful animal; I know she could hear us running around finding cameras, exclaiming and admiring her.  She hung around a long time.  Then our neighbor on the south told us that she was leaning over their fence, eating apples off their trees.  With those long legs, they can really get around!







Too Sad

We are so sorry, Norway,  that another maniac has turned on his fellow human beings.  What an incredible waste.  God bless all the friends and families who have lost someone.

Brooke and John Flynn

Boarders

Summer is busy, isn't it? John has been quilting, I have been knitting and thinking about quilting and Kate is always busy cutting out kits for quilters.

If you have been to one of John's lectures, you probably heard him joke about "studios". He likes to tell about our ten acre "compound", which is larger than a studio, has a 10' high fence and lots of retired construction supplies, forms and other scary, rusty things in addition to all the fabric. And, this summer, because of all the moisture we have had here in Montana, the weeds are about 4' high.

So we now have a family of goats boarding with us and their job is to eat the weeds. I think they are doing fine but there are a lot of weeds. There are two moms, two sets of triplets and a billy goat who is very protective and has very elaborate horns and an impressive beard. John was out petting one of the babies last week, enjoying how friendly it was, but when he looked down, he saw it was eating his shoelace.

Texas Star Miniature, 15" in diameter



Close up, quilted with King Tut and So Fine threads

 Let's see, two of the quilts on the wall right now are fundraiser quilts and the third is going to a gallery showing "quilts by male artists". One of the fundraising quilts is John's entry in the latest team Challenge to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and the other will go the the IQA Silent Auction at International Quilt Festival in Houston. So he is keeping busy; the next show is the Association of Pacific West Quilters show in Tacoma, Washington, August 26 - 28, 2011.

Here is a picture of Rock Creek, about halfway between our house and the center of Red Lodge.  You don't want to fall in the creek when it like this; you will end up in North Dakota in short order!

It is hot here in Billings; stay cool, wherever you are!



Rock Creek, Red Lodge, Montana, early July, 2011



Brooke

June News

Two things - first our IPhone app is ready!  We have so many requests for John's trick for the Diagonal Pieced Back that it dawned on us, this would be a perfect app for a mobile device.  You could just stand in the fabric aisle and have the app figure out how much backing fabric you need to buy.  So now you can get in in the ITunes Store - it is called John Flynn's Calculator.  And there are two more formulas included - for the Braided Border with all its many, many combinations and for the rings of triangles in John's Feathered Sun quilts and in Pickle Dish variations.  So there is a LOT there.  Technology, fun, huh!

Second thing - we have a discount in effect right now.  The code is 38; because John and I just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary.  Does not seem possible; I think everyone says that but time really flies.  The discount is 15% off the merchandise total of $38 or more.  So, if you need a Multi-Frame, (and you really do)  you would get $22.50 off.

We just spent a very interesting week hosting some of the faculty members from the Red Lodge Music Festival.  Young people come to "camp" and have an intense learning situation with a faculty of really talented musicians from all over the country.  There are several recitals; some of the students and some of just the faculty.  I'll tell you, it is so great to be in a small audience with these great musicians, wow.  And it was so much fun to visit with our group of guests who were pianists and a cellist; we had some things in common - the travel, especially.  I may start brushing up on our old upright piano; where are John's earplugs?

The bear left pawprints in the muddy driveway this week.  Each time I go out, I wonder if I am making enough noise to scare her off.  I guess I should just make a bear bell a permanent part of my wardrobe.

Brooke

Seriously...

Seriously, I am seriously behind on posting to the blog.  Our spring trips are over; we all survived and John's next trip is to the Vermont Quilt Festival in Burlington, Vermont.  If you live close, this is always a great show and I know there are lots of great instructors scheduled.

But Kevin, who is so clever, got this little DVD from last year's AQS Show in Paducah on to YouTube.  I tried 3 or 4 times but couldn't do it.  I probably got it loose for him just like we say about the pickle jar lids.  AQS Booth Interview  I hope we are able to get a similar copy from the 2011 Show; the ambiance will be different since the whole show had to relocate due to the flooding Ohio River.

Speaking of floods, yes, there are floods all around us but, so far, both the shop and our house are out of reach.  The little town of Roundup, about 50 miles from Billings, is under 6 - 8 foot of water right now, though.  Yesterday it snowed here in Red Lodge, a lot.  About 6 wet inches.  I wish I could send it to you Texans, I know you want the moisture.  Stay safe, wherever you are.

Lots of new miniatures and new laser cut kits are on the way, so stay tuned.

Brooke