Sunday, August 2, 2009

QuiltPosium Shipping September 1!

Did you get your copy of the NEW Sew Inspired News from Pine Needles? This is the first of a new copy for just tips, techniques and inspirations and online stuff . Then we have a separate mailing just for in-store events.

A few months ago my friend Jim West of Sew Many Places asked me to write an article for an online magazine he was going to offer people about quilting with articles about sewing, gardening, travelling and life in general. Wow....and in my true style, I took my time and was very late with getting my article in to Jim. But he was a good sport about it. I shipped it off and forgot about it.

Last night a couple of friends came over to our house and told me they had seen my picture in a magazine and that it was with others like Kaye England and Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson. I was VERY confused. We were celebrating my arriving at the 25th anniversary of my 25th birthday and I did as all of us in that age bracket due when faced with confusion...ignored it. (Confusion becomes a friend after a while....easily forgiven.)

Then this morning, I log into Facebook (FB for those of you new to this lingo) and learned that I AM in an article and it is featuring the release date of a new publication that you can get for FREE. On September 1, you can get your own online subscription to QuiltPosium. Just go to the web site and register yourself. You can be in the ground floor of this new publication. And. Indeed, I do have an article in the magazine. (hmmm....wonder what I wrote about.)

At any rate, QuiltPosium is featured as "Living and traveling with a Quilter's Eye". Dubbed at the most exciting, ground-breaking, online magazine quilters will ever see! It's informative, entertaining and it's FREE! You'll enjoy articles by some of today's biggest names in the quilting industry* Jinny Beyer, Kaye England, Eleanor Burns, Ricky Tims, Meg Cox, Alex Anderson, HD Wilbanks, Luana Rubin, Matt Sparrow, Jill Reicks, Rita Fishel, Pat Sloan, Tim Holtz, Charlotte Angotti, Alex Veronelli, Kathy Blank, Pam Holland, Doug Eagleson, Andrea Bishop, Vicky Tracy, Debbie Homer and many more!

You'll also read about gardening, cooking, crafts and take a journey on our Sew Many Places cruises and tours as you learn more about the fun places quilters are going around the world.

And you'll be in stitches as you view the very first centerfold to ever appear in a quilting magazine-legendary educator, designer and author Kaye England! You won't believe what she is up to in that centerfold!

Don't delay, register today! Pre-register for the Premier issue NOW!


While I realize that emails and blogs and web sites aren't as interesting as sewing and creating, I am fascinated by the way we can connect to incredible talents all over the world and have a network of friends.

If you aren't on our email list, you can go to our web site and join one or both email lists. Just REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE for our newsletters.

And if you want to catch a peek at our newest email I just sent out today...there's an article about sewing with silk, the clip about QuiltPosium, a peek at My Quilt Village and a great Block of the Month. Didn't catch the email....
Click HERE to see the today's version of our Sew Inspired email news!

All the Best to You, jill
P.S. As to the "biggest names in the quilting industry..." (EDITORIAL NOTE FROM JILL: "this is their writing not mine, but thanks for putting me among some great talents. It's nice to sit at their table a bit.")

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Tree of Life

Therese recently finished her Tree of Life quilt. This one has been a quilt she has been longing to do for quite some time. Designed by Ricky Tims, the kit is made up of hand-dyed fabrics that Ricky's team creates in their hometown of LaVeta, Colorado (Home of The Quilt Show...which he hosts with Alex Anderson). The quilt is phenomenal because it combines Ricky's techniques from Convergence Quilts combined with raw-edge applique. This was an incredibly inspiring project for her to work on and especially inviting with Ricky's hand-dyed fabrics. Therese is now going to have her grandparents sign her quilt as part of her family tree, Tree of Life.
It was so much fun to see these quilts again that we made sure we put several options for a class on Convergence Quilting for the Fall run of classes.

I celebrated what one might deem as a "big birthday" this last week. Jackie Onassis, Stevie Wonder, Rita Scott, Olivia Maharry and I all share the same birthday. While a lot of people enjoy taking shots at us old people about our age, I have never found it amusing. Don't get me wrong, I am not vain about my age. I have always thought it rather pointless....it isn't a choice after all! I do enjoy being older for a lot of reasons. I would never want to be 20 again. It was a fun age to be, but the wisdom and knowledge I have now are so much better than I thought I had then. I also love being more comfortable in my own skin. I look around my sewing room and am less annoyed with tidiness than celebrating the freedom I enjoy in creating. I have always loved being with little kids. They so get the world and how to think about it. But, I enjoy them more now as I am aging because I am past fretting about my own kids being a reflection of my parenting (another benefit of aging...my kids aren't aren't truly a reflection of us if we raised them to think for themselves).

So, after ten years of saying "I'm almost 50" (Yes, I have been saying that for ten years. Then people would go "whoa, you DON'T look 50"....even though I might have been only 41.) So now my friend Kay Shindelar is telling me that she says "I am in my fifties." I like that!

In closing, my sage advice for the day is this....eat dessert first...you might not be hungry enough to have it at the end of the meal. And, dream big and live abundantly.

All the Best to You, JILL