A whole lot of shipping and a little round robin sewing......

Hey everyone...I hope you have been having a great loooooong weekend....I spent the weekend in my studio cutting, gluing and folding patterns....and then filling quilt market orders....This morning I charged them out and then Gene and I took all 24 packages and envelopes and made great use of the mail-in-the -box machine at the local post office and got all of them sent off. Now tomorrow I just have to send off the out-of-country ones and I am DONE!!!! Here are some of the packages waiting by the front door to be loaded in the car.....


Next I cut out a pumpkin and a black cat to add to Brenda's pincushion because it is time to add to our round robins. I had been wanting to get to it, but I was on a mission to finish all the mailing first.... and I just couldn't let myself play!!!!!
We were headed off to our son Andy's house for dinner and I knew that Alana, my 7 year old granddaughter would love to help me figure out how to stitch it. She LOVES to sew!!! So, I packed it in my sewing bag to work on while we all visited!

I was so busy baking cookies to take for desert that I forgot to take a photo of the cut outs before I stitched them. Here is my cat and pumpkin and you can also see the join stitches that I added. A feather stitch and some french knots to one and a herringbone with straight lines on the cross pieces to the other (it is hidden somewhat by the cat)

....and this is what her pincushion top looks like now....with the boot and candy corn it is definitely becoming a halloween treat! Brenda will think about trick or treating when she uses it.....

I am off to pack it up now and it will be in the mail to Roseann in the morning.....Be sure to check out Pat's, Roseann's and Brenda's blogs in the next few days and see what they have been up to.....

Have you been working on one for yourself???? It is not too late to start....just grab a few friends and start stitching......

Happy Memorial Day.....Jo Ann

JAM's booth in Minneapolis

Quilt Market in Minneapolis has come and gone and it is all a blur. I was telling someone there that it is like Christmas....you spend months getting ready and then it is over in a blink of an eye.

Here is my booth in it's starting phase. I always think that I will remember to take of picture of how it looks when we get there....plain white curtains and a blank six foot table and 2 chairs....but I am always in such a hurry to hang my curtains I forget! This shot is after our first few hours in the booth....we wanted to get the curtains hung at least that first night....


....and here are some of the props waiting to find a home....We brought these in huge duffle bags that weighed a TON! How they didn't break the scales I don't know. I expected to see a great big "TILT" sign....:)))

I got so involved in hanging stuff, I forgot to take very many pictures. I always semi-plan everything before I come...but we seem to like changing things around....Kathy (my sister) has a great eye and tweaks it just the right way.....

We had the whole booth organized by 11 am on Thursday (the show opened on Friday)...but it still needed a few more props....So Kathy and I hopped into a taxi and off we went to Hunt and Gather...an absolutely wonderful shop. ....We got the great red stand you see below and three more suitcases, some buckets and another chair. What a haul!

It was just what we needed to finish it off!!!! I was even able to bring most of it to San Diego.......The red stand has found a new home with Debbie Busby of Wooden Spool, but everything else is back in my studio!

Here is the booth waiting for the first customer. My good friend Lynn also went with us....It was her first Market. She LOVED it!!!!! ....but I don't think she ever imagined how big it would be..... it was HUGE!!!!!

I'll be back with more to share soon.....but maybe not until I get all my orders shipped!

Hope you are having a relaxing weekend....Jo Ann

All packed up and ready to go....

The bags are packed....here is a peek in one of them with my product flyer and some of my props and patterns......

.....and that is just a small bit of what I am taking.. I feel like one of those Victorian women that travelled with trunks! Luckily my sister Kathy and my friend Lynn are packing lightly and are ready to check some in for me....:))) ....2 bags fly free for each of us...and I will still have to pay...

but of course I want the booth to look "cute" and all of these are things I NEED to do that.....:)))) I'll take lots of pictures and post them next week when we get back!

Until then ....Happy Stitching...Jo Ann

Pat Sloan's Crazy Pincushion

Here it is....Round Robin...round two!!!

About a week and a half ago I got Pat's pincushion base in the mail. Of course I opened it immediately and had to touch and look at all the goodies in her bag! She included a note that said she was thinking flowers, birds, garden love.....Can't you just see flowers with these colors!

Of course, I did not jump in right away. After all, we had until the 15th to blog and since I was frantically trying to figure out my booth at Quilt Market, I decided that I could wait a few days....:)))

Tuesday evening, May 11th and I still hadn't touched the block....but I knew that I had one of my on-going Wool Crazy classes the next night and I might get a chance to stitch....and so I cut out this heart and flower....and looked through my pearl cotton to find some brighter colors to use for Pat....(since she is not one of us dark primitive folk....:)))

I am such a bad blogger that I forgot to take a photo of my design without stitching....Luckily, one of the women in my class used her trusty phone to take this and then she e-mailed it to me right on the spot (isn't technology amazing) and saved the day.....

and here it is ...all cut out and ready to go............

Before I show you how I sewed it down though I want to show how I had some fun on the joins....I found this great variegated Valdani pearl cotton that brought in lots of Pat's colors and I stitched a simple fern stitch and some lazy daisies....

I added a cretan stitch on another join and topped it off with some french knots ........and the little rectangle of wool with my intials is for Pat to use somewhere on the base of her pincushion....so she can think of us when she uses it :)))

.......and finally here is the finished heart/flower (garden love right?)....

.......and now it is off to Roseann...... It will be such fun to see what she adds!

Have you started your own pincushion? Grab a few friends and get going!

Be sure to check out how Pat, Roseann and Brenda are doing on their pincushions!

More crazies from The Country Loft

Hey everyone....I have been going crazy trying to get things ready for my booth at Quilt Market in Minneapolis. I am not sure why my list is getting longer the more that I work...but it is! If you are planning on going come by and see me. My booth number is 3705 and right next door to me will be my good friend Kathy Cardiff doing her first market....The Cottage at Cardiff Farms...#3707. She is very excited and very scared, so come say Hi to her...:))))

Several week ago I shot photos of another crazy quilt in one of my on-going classes. This one is by Mary Lopez. She does beautiful work and I knew that you would like to see it. She is actually working on her 4th block, but I only have 2 of them to show...She has a great way of adding stitches to her appliques.. Don't you love them?



...and she loves to fill in almost every inch of it....

Here are some close ups of her stitching....

...I love the detail she added to her fence..

...and look at this great combination of stitches on her joins...

I know that Mary's work will give you lots of ideas to add to your own quilts.

Be sure to check in this weekend for our continuing Round Robin Crazy Pincushion....I know what I am putting on Pat's but it is still on that never ending to-do list!!!! Rest assured it will be ready for Saturday's post!!!!

Hope you can take some time to stitch today ......Jo Ann