My entry for the Alliance for American Quilts contest is finished and was ready to send in, but I got an extension from Amy Milne in order to keep it for our first taping for Quilt Out Loud!. In each episode Mark and I open the show with a “What’s Up?” segment in which we both bring in something to show. So, I brought my quilt. I’m so pleased with how it turned out and hope it fetches a good sum in the auction!
~Jodie
Here Mark & I are sharing our Flip Videos with each other in preparation for the “What’s Up?” segment for one of the first three episodes of Quilt Out Loud. Sherry Cowley’s sunroom made for a wonderful set! At one point one of the cameramen pointed out a deer on the hill behind us.
Note the mugs Mark had made. NICE!
~Jodie
I’m about to head off for our third and final day of taping the first three episodes for Quilt Out Loud. It has gone amazingly smoothly–and on time. The photo above was taken yesreday when Mark & I were preparing for our book review segment on machine quilting books.
Here we were preparing Saturday for a segment with Debbie Kalenty, Patsy Thompson and Linda Lum DeBono.
I didn’t get any pictures with Pat Sloan or Janet-Lee Santuesanio and Mary Schilke from MQX, but others were snapping away and will share I’m sure.
Today we sew, cook, and do some designing. It’s been a tremendously fun shoot thanks to Michelle, Michael, Tom, Tony and Wally. And our hosts Tim & Sherry Cowley have been nothing short of wonderful. Yes, we are paying to have their hosue cleaned after we leave!
~Jodie
A new sewing machine is THE most exciting thing. But add to that a new iron and ironing table and I call that “Quilter’s Heaven.”
And not just any iron–a Reliable iron. Mark Lipinski, my co-host on Quilt Out Loud, and Jean Nolte, Love of Quilting’s editor, rave about the iron, so I’ve been anxious to give it a whirl.
Baby Lock and Reliable are sponsoring our new show on QNNtv.com, Quilt Out Loud, so three boxes arrived on my porch sent from the Quilting Gods.
I set the Reliable iron up on what was my ironing table and the Baby Lock perpendicular to it, so I have a handy little sewing area–and a real ironing surface. Then I got to work on stitching up the steps for the how-to’s from Easy Quilts magazine that we’ll be making in the show. What fun! The Espire sewed the flannel like butter and the Aurifil thread (another sponsor) looks great on the machine appliqued pieces I did. And the Reliable, well, I’ve never used an iron like it and I’ve had many. I just pressed a cotton bedskirt that was totally dried in the dryer and it pressed it like a pro. Finally, an iron that gets hot enough!
Back to packing for my trip to NJ. Can’t wait for you all to see the show!
~Jodie
Do you have a burning question you’d like Mark & Jodie and to answer on Quilt Out Loud? Get out your camcorder and ask us! Then post it on You Tube, send us the link, and we’ll put you on the show.
We’ll be shooting the weekend of June 27, so get your questions in! We want to hear what’s on your mind.
~Jodie
The next step in my Crazy for Quilts! project is to add in the quilts that are spinning around in my head. For them, I headed to my computer. I design in EQ6 and Corel Draw, so I pulled images from quilts in both and printed them out. Some are quilts that have come to fruition, such as the duckie quilt which was taped for a Love of Quilting episode, and others are still wanting to be made. When I was sure the size of the quilts was right I printed them onto printable fabric. Here I’m cutting them out and placing them on the quilt.
~Jodie
We arrived on Pittsburgh for Quilt Market on the afternoon of a Penguin’s game. Our hotel was right across the street from the stadium. As we headed out to dinner we came across people attired in Penguin t-shirts, sweatshirts, and caps. But this fan outdid everyone else. He kindly posed with Jayne and me for Ivan to snap a picture.
~Jodie
The Alliance for American Quilts is having a fun contest to support their very worthy mission. In fact 100% of the proceeds of the eBay auction of the quilts will go to the Alliance. Your quilt need only be 16″ square, so why not join me in making one? The deadline in June 1, so we have plenty of time.
Crazy for Quilts! entrants are encouraged to draw inspiration from one or more aspect of the crazy quilt: design, color, fabric, surface embellishment, history or some other aspect of this style that you want to celebrate. There’s room in this contest for all kinds of crazy-from traditional approaches to art quilts.
My idea is that my head is a constant whirlwind of quilts vying to be made. “Make me!”
“No,make me first!”
This is my first rough sketch:
The next step was to draw the head to size:
Then I traced the shapes onto Steam a Seam 2, cut them out, and pressed them to fabrics, then cut along my traced lines. Now I have the beginning of my design.
As you can see, my “helper” arrived on the scene about then. It was time to take the dog for a hike and think about dinner anyway. Turned off the iPod and the light. This was such a fun hour, I can’t wait to work on it some more!
~Jodie
This time of year I spend more time in the garden than quilting, thus my report.
Last year we were in a terrible drought. (The lake that was in the news in Georgia is in the next county over.) We were on total water restrictions, so we planted nothing, moved nothing… and now we’re doing double duty this spring. But we are NOT complaining. We’ve been getting at least and inch of rain each week. Happiness is!
This is the entrance from the driveway to the backyard. The path leads to the pond and the deck and porch.
Native dogwoods and azaleas in the front yard.
I should have taken a picture of the manure pile. It’s going down.
This is what you see when you pull in the driveway. Can’t guarantee Rimsky will be there each time though. Mr. Scaredy Cat. We just planted blue daze and angelonia in the bed and added another pyracnatha to match the one that you can just see to the left in front of the sundial.
Time for another trip to the nursery. (Blossom and Bloom)
~Jodie
The day after taping Love of Quilting at Iowa Public Television (see last post) I spent the day at our offices in Winterset, Iowa.
The Fons & Porter shop is the second building from the right. The editorial offices are above, and customer service is at the back of the building.
This is the Court House which is across the street from the shop. It’s in the center square of the town. Winterset truly has small town charm.
The conference room is upstairs at the front of the building. The view of the town square and Court House is delightful. What a great place to have meetings to discuss all the wonderful new things we are cooking up!
And last but not least, the shop. The APQS long arm in the back is where you just might find Marianne quilting. She’s become quite good at it!
~Jodie