ABCs of Quilting Blog

"What do you mean, get down?????"

Yesterday, I spent some time surfing on the web and checked out some blogs.  I noticed that most of them have photos of their pets.  Hmmmm…..I didn’t want any of you to feel like ABC’s doesn’t give you all of the ‘perks’ associated with a blog, so here is a photo of my dog, Chloe.  And, yes, she thinks she is a princess.

I have long loved Miniature Schnauzers and she is the 4th one that has joined our family.  She is probably the cutest one, the most stubborn, and least social — that is, unless we have friends over and then she is suddenly  a ‘family’ dog!

I have a variety of dog beds throughout the house.  Chloe, however, prefers to sleep on my bed, the sofa in my office, the chair in the family room (the one with the flannel quilt on it) and will occasionally sleep on the (heaven forbid) dog pillow in my sewing room.  That only happens if I SHUT the door and keep her trapped in there with me!!  Remember the social part????

She does have one quality that has ranked her at the top of Doug’s list of favorite dogs:  She loves to go fishing!!  Yup, she pouts if Doug doesn’t take her out on the boat, gets mad if the guys can’t catch anything and prances proudly back to the house when they bring home dinner.  What a hoot!

Okay, now you are up to date with MY pet.  The blog is officially valid, right?

Making PERFECT Flying Geese!

Remember that old adage:  you should learn at least one new thing each day?  Well, I believe it is good for us — keeps us young! 

This year at ABC’s, I decided that each month (always the 2nd Friday and Saturday) we would teach a new technique.  And, the best part????  It is FREE — you gotta love that, right?   

Last weekend, Shannon (left) taught the technique of Perfect Flying Geese using Quilt In A Day rulers by Eleanor Burns.  This was a WIN-WIN-WIN situation!

She got most of the geese done for a quilt she is making (gee….I hope it is for me….) and the quilters who stopped by learned  an easy way to make them, and I got to chat with all of you!  Worked for me!!!!

The schedule for the entire year can be viewed at http://www.abcsofquilting.com/classes.html .  Hop over there and take a peek.  Then mark your calendar so you remember to come in that weekend.  The Demos are an all day activity which makes it more convenient for you. 

Now you can mark off your ‘learn a new thing’ for today since you now know about the upcoming technique days!  See????   Learning new things is a piece of cake….er…..quilt!

Edna doing the custom quitling on her Wizard of Oz Quilt.

A couple of years ago, our rep for Quilting Treasures brought us the first showing of the Wizard of Oz fabrics.  Since Grand Rapids, MN is the birthplace of Judy Garland, we had to have it!

Edna decided to make a quilt using all of the scenes from the fabrics to recreate the movie in one quilt.  She had been very faithfully using fabrics from each of the fabric lines — there are six of them! 

Of course, we have all laughed with her, gave our opinions, and watched her creation come to life.

It is done now and she has been working on the custom quilting in our design studio!  It is just too beautiful for words.  And, even if you don’t particularily like the Wizard of Oz, this quilt is just awesome!