Making friends, keeping friends

The International Quilt Festival/Long Beach is an interesting place.

You will find your friends, your friends' quilts, your friends' designs, your friends' patterns...

You will see friends you may not see or speak to every day.

And if you're lucky, you will even make new friends.

This is why I love quilt shows.

Walk the aisle, bump in to a friend from your Guild.

Take a class, and sit next to someone new, not the person you came with.  Share fabric, thread...ideas...

Find a pattern in a booth that you have already made, and exclaim, "Hey, I made that pattern.  I wonder if the designer is here.  Let's go look inside the booth and see what else they're up to!!  Let's show them pictures of the quilt for the grandchild!"  Here's a pic of a quilt from the book 'moondoggie & gidget' by beyond the reef - this quilt lives in Guam!!

How about these quilters in the picture below?

"I want a bag, no, I want a bag, no wait, how many are there?  I want a bag, too..." By the time they all had matching bags to go with their matching outfits, and had their photo taken, a crowd had gathered.  Once the photos were taken, and before they left, the crowd applauded them.  Now THAT's making friends!!!

We visited daily with Pat Sloan.

I purchased patterns from Heart to Hand.  And A Quilters Dream.

And I can't WAIT to start sewing.  A Jaybird Quilts pincushion - how cute for girlfriend gifts - secret pal gifts, you name it.  And the mermaid - well, look for THAT pattern in our booth at PIQF in October.  How about Stephanie's new pattern Square Root of Nine?  I can't WAIT to get the fabrics out a

nd...well, you get the picture.  I'm just never too tired to be inspired.

And how about the first pic of the blog?  

That's our Julie, from Jaybird Quilts.

Did we plan on getting together with Julie in Long Beach during the show?  Nope.  Did we plan on having her stay at the house or dip her toes in the bay after dinner?  Nosiree.  Did hULa wait and wait and wait until after the long day of the show to greet her dear friend Julie?  Nuh-uh.  That's because we had just met Julie.

But some friends are instant friends, forever friends.  

Keepers.

And that's the way you'll feel when you go to the moda precut page and make one of her patterns.

Or follow her blog, or visit her website.

That she's a forever friend, a keeper, someone you've known for a very long time.

But for now, it's time to rest up.  Get on the dog's schedule.  Nap.  And get ready for the next quilt show.  So that you can make friends, and keep friends.  We have a saying around here, it's not a new one.  It takes being a friend to have a friend.  So get out to that next quilt show and go visit your friends.  Make friends.  Find that quilt pattern designer and introduce yourself - show her what you made out of her fabrics, her pattern, tell her how she inspired you and you might make a forever friend - one scrap at a time.  

sparkle + shine

2009

thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

The Manly Man and the Quilt Show

Being a Manly-Man takes work.

It means you have a code of ethics, you (almost) never get mad, you do what is right, respect your grandmother, take her to Costco for hot dogs even tho you don't like the place, 

and you know what weekend

the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach is in town.

No, really.

(I know, you've heard this saying before, if you have asked us to email you personally)

I have a friend who is this rare breed of a Manly-Man.

He definitely has a code of ethics.  He works his butt off all week long and just wants to sit quietly (for a while) on a still body of water and fish on a good weekend away.

Or surf.

Or raft down some river rapids somewhere.

Or travel - camp mostly.

He has his own tools.  Knows about tires and how to get them on a truck. 

Don't get me wrong.  He also loves a party, appreciates beautiful women, and knows how to drink a beer.

Okay, you get the picture.

but maybe not....

He was with his mom the other day, and his mom said, 

"This week is the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach".

"No, it's not," he said.

"Yes, it starts this week - isn't Natalie attending that show," she asks?

"Mom, it's not this week," he continues.

He gets out his cellphone and goes to the calendar.

"Mom, it's next week, really, I know when the Quilt Festival is..."

"Oh, you know what, you're right.  It's the quilt run this weekend,"

she finally realizes.

Really.  I couldn't make this stuff up.

But wait...(in memory of Billy M.)

You might have seen him and one or the other of his friends 

(who also wear baseball caps and drive trucks) 

at a show, in our booth.

Carefully folding words tees or arranging tote bags or stacking bundles.

"Is this a fat quarter bundle?  Oh, no wait, these are one yard cuts, aren't they."

So you know what comes next, right?

We go to the warehouse, and he walks in, looks around, and says,

"Wow.  We really have a lot of fabric right now."

So.

I hope you'll come see us at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.

Because it takes "all kinds" to make this show a success.

It takes fork lift operators, promoters, teachers, quilters, designers, sample makers, electricians,

cousins that are printers, great girlfriends, and

manly-men

to make a great quilt show.

Hey, if it weren't for the truck driving, dog loving, beer drinking, get-it-done

manly-man friend of mine, 

his mother might have missed the show altogether!!!

I hope YOU won't miss the show.

Please come visit us Thursday 5-9pm, Fri/Sat 10-7 and Sun 10-3

at the Long Beach Convention Center

It only comes once a year...

sparkle+shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

natalie.

Booth # 1227 between Aisles 1100 and 1200 

A place to lay your head...

hULa has a new place to lay her head these days...

I had a friend come over to help sew samples for the upcoming quilt show - you know, the same show I have been talking about for the last month - the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California.  It is the same organizer as the Houston Quilt Show.  It's at the Long Beach Convention Center in downtown Long Beach - Queen Mary, Pine Street, Aquarium of the Pacific, all that...

Where was I?  Oh, yes.  Sewing with Barb.

Well, hULa has a new "auntie barb"!!  

But wait.  

When Barb left, I left the sewing machine on the dining room table, and guess what?

Yep.

hULa has a new place to lay her head.

She loves the base - a place to lay her head!!

Sorry, Barb.  I thot it was you, well, it probably was you, but now that you're gone, and she's left with me folding, pricing, sewing, ironing, packaging, writing, blogging, twittering, (I can't stand the term tweeting - I'd rather be twitter-pated than tweeted), planting, cleaning, copying, updating, shopping, applique-ing, did I say piece-ing already?  Organizing, bundling, packing...

Well, you get the picture.

hULa is tired out with all of this preparation.

She needs a place to lay her head.

I hope you'll find a place to lay your head.

I think dogs (or cats, or birds, or any animal) can teach us a thing or two about quilting.

Rest.

And your stitches will be more even.

Your needle will be easier to thread.

You might even wind some extra bobbins before you start sewing again.

You'll go right to the place in your stash where that one fabric you needed is hiding.

You'll find just the right way to get it right after a little rest, I promise.

You'll see it from a different point of view.

And that's okay.

My mother used to go in to the guest room, lay on her back, fold her hands n her lap, and close her eyes.

She would pat the place on the bed next to her and say, "Come lay down, just for 15 minutes...".

Take just a moment.

Clear your head.

hULa's right.  Take it from a quilting dog.

find a place to lay your head

just for 15 minutes

there will be time enough to play frisbee on the beach, or to just take another 20 minutes for a walk

but that's another story for another day...

sparkle + shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Deadlines and the Creative Process

There are days...

There are days when the creative process and the light and the timing all come together.

There are days when the bobbin stays full until you are done with a seam.

There are days when all the pieces are cut and trimmed the right dimension.

And on those days...

deadlines and the creative process come together.

It's tough, tho, isn't it, to work creatively towards a deadline.

Not a self imposed deadline.  Hey.  I've heard you have up to one year after a birth or marriage to present your gift, so let's not talk about those deadlines.  

But I mean the kind of deadline like

DO IT NOW

deadlines

I once heard a motivational speaker ask the question,

"what could you get done in a day if, at the end of the day, if you finished everything,

you could go on a one month vacation to (fill in your own best idea here)?"

Could you get it all done?

Could you work more efficiently?

I have a 7 month old Guide Dog Puppy coming tonite to stay for four days.

And I'm working feverishly trying to finish the samples and the patterns and the handouts and the buying

for the

International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA

My Creative Process is on high alert.

My deadline is now.

My time is now.

When is your time?

When will you get creative?

When will the light be just right, the bobbin full, the fabric selected, the time to do what you want available to you?

I gotta say - there is no time like now.

Because it's all we got.

As Rumi says,

"Don't be like the vessel full of water whose rim is dry"

Enjoy the day!

sparkle+shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Happy 4th of July!!

It's official.

The 4th of July beach celebration is done.

Sure, there are still some firecrackers here and there

and some straggling party go-ers,

but it's done.

I hope you put your own two cents in to the celebration, wherever it was, however you did it.

I hope you made it your own.

And remember.  You don't need a once a year holiday to have family and friends cross your threshold.

You don't need a day of Independence to have the independence to do what it is you wanna do with your days.

Cook 24 hot dogs for lunch and fill the trash can with root beer on August 12th!!

Oh, yea, and remember to invite some friends...

Don't wait all year to spend the day sewing, if that's your claim for independence.

Oh, and in case you're wondering?

The pic was at 7:15 am this morning...that's why the party go-ers are 'invisible'.

Happy end of the 4th of July.

sparkle & shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f