A busy week

One of my brothers, my sister in law and a friend traveling with them were here from New York for a week long visit. This was the first time in 43 years that my brother has been here, first time ever for the other two. The last time my brother was in the west was when he got out of the Navy and stopped in Reno on his way home to NY, my youngest was 3 weeks old, that's how I know it was that long ago.

Don and I have been married 26 years and this is the first time any of my three brothers have come west to visit, I usually go east. It was great to have them here for a week.

Last Sunday the second episode of the filming I did for Quilting Arts TV was aired here in Idaho. My good friend Barb had a viewing party at her house and my creative friends, yoga friends and bowling friends all showed up. We had a great time and it made me realize what a wonderful, supportive group of friends I have.

About a month ago I complained about the piles and lack of usable space on the makeshift table in my sewing studio. My husband has built a new table for me and he and my brother installed it. But first my job was to empty out the file cabinets that were the former base of the table, clear off the old table and make room. I did it! I now have three bags of "stuff" to send to the thrift store, I recycled a large box of papers, threw out a garbage bag full and found storage for most of the items I'm keeping. Here are 2 views of what I now have, the chair can be rolled to either side and I can access all my machines.

I will probably get a rolling storage cart that has at least one drawer big enough to hang files and it will go under the left end of the table.

Daily stitching updates, multiple pictures because I honestly did plan on blogging a few times, but it didn't happen.

365 Red Circles #261 - #272

Indigo and Rust #189 - #200

Weekly stitching

#39  & #40

Monthly Notions 

September

Now linked to "Off the Wall Friday".

Home sweet home

I'm back home after wonderful week at Diamond Lake. We explored, shopped, ate well and thoroughly enjoyed floating on the lake, but it seems no matter how much I enjoy my time away it sure feels good to be back home. I will miss looking at this view everyday.

I also did a bit of sewing and kept up with my daily projects.

365 Red circles #218 - #224

Indigo and rust #146 - #152

Weekly #32

The new season of Quilting Arts TV has started and in the area that gets Boise's PBS station I'm on next Sunday (Aug. 19) and if I counted right Sept. 22 at 2pm. I do know that each PBS station sets their own schedule so if you want to see me I'm on shows #1204 "It's all in the technique" where I do screen printing with masks and show #1209 "Functional Quilting" where I talk about my daily projects.
I've received my copy of the dvd shortly before our trip, we brought it along and had a viewing night. The dvd or individual shows are also available on quiltingartstv.com

Part 2, Quilting Arts TV Taping

We have been having unseasonably warm weather, in the 70's, since I've come home from Cleveland. In contrast the weather there was unseasonably cold and snowy. It was snowing when I arrived, there was snow on the ground and on my rental car every morning and was snowing when I left at 4 am to return the car and fly away.

This was the view from my hotel room window on Wednesday morning, at least there was some sunshine that day. Since the weather has been so wonderful I've been spending a lot of time outside. I've done a bit of yard cleanup but mainly I've just been sitting enjoying the warm and contemplating life.

I've been thinking a lot about my recent new experience and have been trying to put it into words, more than just saying it was awesome. First of all the people I met; Kathy and Kathleen from KS Productions, a wonderful team that produces the show. The Quilting Arts crew, Kristine Lundblad  and Helen Gregory, it was so nice to meet them after emailing back and forth, and of course Pokey Bolton. Then there were the other artists that were taping the same day; Judy Coates Perez a veteran of many QATV shows and soon heading to Australia to teach. Sue Bleiweiss a first timer like me. Just before I left home I had finished reading her book Sketchbook Challenge ,which I had gotten as a birthday gift.
Lynn Krawczyk arrived with her carload of stuff to tape the following day. I'm taking her online class, The Written Sketchbook, so it was great meeting her. Both Sue and Lynn were not only taping show segments, they both were filming dvd's. The four of us had a great dinner together.

I really love living in my rural community but there are some things that I enjoy in a urban setting. I had some free time on Tuesday so I drove downtown to The Cleveland Museum of Art. What a terrific decision, I saw work that previously I had only seen in photographs in books, and to see it in person was the best. Especially some of the Abstract Expressionist work, oh my - to see the globs of paint, the layers, bare canvas in spots, the textures, the size, the colors - I could go on and on. Can you tell I loved it?? I even had a tasty lunch there in the Provence Cafe. Then that evening I stuffed myself with sushi - I love sushi, but it doesn't exist in my small town.

Three and half years ago I "retired" from vending at quilt shows and it's a decision I'm glad I made. I realized after taping the shows that I miss doing the demo's, some of the teaching and being around other very creative women. This trip allowed me to experience the best parts of what I was missing.

My only little glitch in the trip was I returned the rental car to the wrong company. All the rental agencies are in one location and at 4:30 am there is no one there to help you out. I turned into the wrong spot and once in you can't get out, so I left the car and turned my keys in with a note explaining where the car was.

Since returning I finished and entered a piece for the SDA's member show.

Indigo Four Patch

2013

Linda McLaughlin

Daily stitching #90 - #92

#18 - #20

This post is now linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Quilting Arts TV taping

I spent a good part of this week in Cleveland, OH where I was one of the guest artists taping next seasons shows. It was an amazing experience, I loved every bit of it. The photo above was taken just before the taping of my first segment, I forgot to have my camera around for the second segment. I'll be on episode #1204 doing masks for deconstructive screen printing and on episode #1209 talking about my daily stitching projects.

Just before I left I got my SAQA donation entry in, Don mailed it for me while I was gone. I ended up sending in a tree piece I had done last year, it was the right size and finished.

I'm very proud of my friends Lisa Flowers Ross and Kathleen Probst  , both have articles in Quilting Arts latest "In Stitches" e magazine. 

The only thing else I've done is my daily and weekly stitching projects.

Week #13 and close up.

#81 - #82

#9 - #17

and a close up

This post will be linked to "Off the Wall Fridays"