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

Catching our Breath

Personalize your own free slideshow Here are some photos from our January trip when we took a day to see the wonderful, impressive marvel of the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge. And there is a misty picture of the swans on the Snake River around Island Park, Idaho; sorry, wish it were better quality. We were trying to get close but not fall in the river. We weren't sure where the water was through all the SNOW.

The early spring shows really cause a whirlwind of activity around here..if you stopped by the booth in Hampton, in Puyallup or in Lancaster, Hello again and thanks for stopping by.  We enjoyed seeing Montanans shopping in both Virginia and in Pennsylvania; you were a long way from home!  We all had "winter roads" on all three trips and Kate and Kevin had to wait east of Snoqualmie Pass for the highway department to clear an avalanche!  There really has been a lot of snow all over the country this winter.  I don't think Kevin and Kate will soon forget the Montana and Idaho passes in the slush and John and I won't forget slipping off the road during a whiteout in eastern Montana or the 200 miles of ice across South Dakota.

Still none of the winter trips were as bad as the grandmother from Virginia I met in Lancaster who spent 11 hours in her car with her two grandchildren.  The car had gas so they could stay warm and they had some snacks, but bathroom breaks were a problem.

There are a couple of things that make these cross country driving marathons hard on my 5'4" body.  The blue Ford van that John prefers to drive is about 3" too high for me to climb in to easily.  If I'm not tired, I can hop right in and be a cheerful and helpful passenger.   (Are We There Yet?)  But if we've been driving for 10 or 12 hours or  vending, I have trouble getting in.  Thank goodness John has those long arms and nice big hands to pull me in.  I do not want to know what this looks like to folks in the parking lot. 

My other foe is the wind.  Honestly, it is almost always windy as the dickens in South Dakota and when we stop at rest areas or gas stations,  the wind wants to take that big van door away from me and sail it away to Canada.  So sometimes John has to come around and let me out, trying to give me enough room to wiggle through but not far enough to let the wind slam the door hinge; again, very entertaining  but kind of trying after about the sixth time.

We have Sirius radio for company on the road; mostly we listen to CNN and NPR programming or bluegrass but sometimes we listen to one of Martha Stewart's cooking segments.  I'm not sure it is helpful to hear delicious recipes with fresh, healthy combinations and then stop to eat in a Pennsylvania turnpike Burger King.  We almost always find good restaurants to enjoy in our final destinations, but on the way, meals are whatever is the fastest and closest to the interstate exit. 

Sometimes we pass vehicles pulling trailers or packed to capacity with baskets, boxes and other paraphernalia and guess that they are vendors too, on their way to or from the show.

Our other entertainment is the Garmin GPS; we call her Carmen (remember Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?)  John doesn't fully trust her, with some justification.  In January, we were on I-15 leaving southern California and Carmen thought we were off the interstate to the right on surface roads.  She was having trouble trying to get us back to the interstate because we kept going through all the surface road intersections at 70 mph.  I finally just turned her off and let her help us again when we got closer to Salt Lake City. 

Here is a little project that will be getting borders soon, a 6" Glorified Nine Patch design.  We have the acrylic templates for this 6" block, and the 4" and 9" also.  Our website where you can check them out.

Will the tragic news from Japan ever stop?  Here are links to sites raising money to help the earthquake and tsunami victims.  Please help if you can.   Red Cross  Heifer International  Quilt Finds   The Mancuso shows are also donating $10 to Japan relief for each quilt entered in one of their upcoming shows.  Mancuso Shows

Sunday, John flys off to teach at the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne.  He is busy packing and weighing and repacking and reweighing.  What fun to fly.  The next show is the AQS Show in Paducah, Kentucky.  Kate has new colorways for the Miniature Storm at Sea Pre-cut Kit; shop early!  The booth number is 1708 so stop by and say hello to Kevin, Kate and John; I will be the office staff while they are gone.  Maybe it will have quit snowing by then.

Brooke