I'm baaaack!

It's been such a busy week for me, so I've been trying to limit my time online.

Yesterday I taught two classes at Colorz for Quilts: an applique class in the morning and an embroidery class in the afternoon. I've taught both of these classes numerous times, but not since I moved into my new quilting space. It took a lot of digging to find all my samples and handouts that I use for the classes. You know how you put something in a special place (where you will be able to find it easily) and then forget where that place could be?? Well, maybe I'm the only one that happens to, and it seems to happen to me a lot! Anyway, I finally got everything together and the classes were a lot of fun--hopefully everyone learned something. I know I always do--even when I'm the teacher.

Speaking of learning, I've also been packing up my equipment for my class on Monday with Kim Diehl. Tomorrow (Sunday)  Sandi and I will be on our way to St. Cloud for a dinner and trunk show with Kim and we will spend the night at the Gruber's retreat center with some of our friends. Sandi was nice wise to offer to drive since I am still learning how to use my new vehicle. I had to check the manual yesterday morning to remind myself how to turn it off when I got to the quilt shop. It's really weird to not have a key to turn!

Well, here it is finished! It's packed right up to the edges with happy applique.!
I machine quilted it on my HQ16 with a background filler and outlining. I only quilted in the largest
applique pieces to keep them from sagging.
I like the way the rest of the appliques pop almost like trapunto.
I finally decided on a blue binding. Red seemed to be too dominating and there was already
so much green. 

The binding has a bit of a stripe to it.
The background quilting doesn't show much in this shot, but the feather quilting in the lady's skirt shows up. 

We are expecting some sunny days next week, so I am hoping to get out to my garden before the ground freezes to dig up the dahlias I grew this year. It's the first time I've grown them, and I was really happy with how they performed. I haven't figured out where I am going to put the roots once they are dug up, but I hope they survive the winter! 

Too bad--my photos of the dahlias didn't turn out, so I will leave you with a picture of a sunflower that Mr. Moosebay's pet chipmunk planted in my garden. Shortly after this photo was taken, a squirrel bit off all of the sunflowers and ran away with them. Ahhh...the joys of nature!