Fall 2023

Hi All,

It’s been a busy season for me.

After the Open House for The Little Pink barn I have been “on the road” ..haha!

Not really in that way…but I have been traveling WAY more than I ever have. I was in Ohio for Amish Fest and I got to meet so many great people! I attended a trunk show for Corey Yoder. That was fun!

The following week I was in SLC again for Garden of Quilts. I honestly love that show so much. Now it’s like a reunion and I get to meet up with fellow designers that I have worked with every year. Meet new ones and it’s just an AMAZING venue. Riley Blake Designs really takes good care of all of us. It’s an AMAZING company to work for.

Then I came home for a few weeks because my youngest son got married. It was such a beautiful wedding and the ceremony was one of the best I have ever attended. All I can say is that dancing with the groom is a memory I will cherish forever …but honestly –I ugly cried through the whole thing. :)  I love my new DIL. They are the first of my children who are going to start trying to conceive. (please pray for them).

A few days after the wedding I flew into Redding, CA and had a great visit with the Red Bluff guild.

I have one more guild visit in Central, WA this week. :) Then I get to be home for the rest of the year.

I have been asked several times to teach in the last few years and I have been declining the offers because I have been moving, renovating and adjusting. Traveling hasn’t been on my radar. Truthfully, I am not the best traveler…lol! I like being home. I love being with people. I love teaching. I love sharing and spending time with quilters. I get terrible anxiety with public speaking (some have noticed…but once I get my groove I will find my way…after all I am talking about something I love), I love meeting new people. In fact after leaving some of these places I feel like a piece of my heart has been left there. I get to know people…I genuinely love people and I think I find friends everywhere. But leaving my cocoon is hard sometimes. It’s safe there and I don’t have to be vulnerable. Do any of you feel that way? I think Covid made it worse for me, honestly.

So Anyway…I had booked all of these events in a short amount of time because all of these people were either willing to wait for my schedule to open or it was good timing on their part when they approached me.

It has been eye-opening and a little humbling to be asked to teach in all of these places. I never take any of this for granted. I get emotional thinking about it all. Honestly, who would have thought that any of this could happen to a person like me? I wanted to grow up and have a normal family. I dreamed of being an artist. Just painting in my studio full of windows in the trees. I have the normal family. I have the studio in the trees…I just paint with thread and fabric. :)

I feel like I am a miracle to have survived my life.TO be as normal as I am….it’s unbelievable.  I feel such a deep sense of gratitude…I don’t even know how to express it all.

My heart is so full. **along with my eyes**

I am blessed.

This weekend I am going to be photographing my Rejoice quilt. My friend, Karen pieced it for me because I have been traveling.  I was able to custom quilt it. It’s the first quilt to celebrate my new line of fabric called, Live Boldly. It’s going to hang in the Timeless Treasures booth at Quilt Market.

I am over the moon excited. I haven’t gotten all of my sample yardage for my designs yet. They did a rush on this one only for the show. I will share pics on my social media sites this weekend when I get the opportunity.

I started this business in 2010 as a longarm quilter. Became a pattern design in Dec 2018 and now I get to add Fabric Designer. WOW!! just WOW!!

I am also caught up on all of my edge to edge quilting. It’s crazy!! Once I got into my studio I have been able to accomplish so much! I feel like I am getting back to myself. My machines were broken down for a few weeks..that killed me. But we finally got that situation resolved…(several thousands of dollars and terrible customer service calls).

Since the move I haven’t been caught up on anything. E2E quilting is back to a 2 week turn around time. I am almost caught up on custom quilts. I am sure by the end of October I will be able to ring that bell! I have been working really hard at getting them done and shipped out. In all of my years of quilting this last 18 months has been terrible for me. A new year –a new start and so many good things are happening.

I love that I have my studio now. I spend long days and nights in here. I get to be surrounded by my stash. I love playing with my fabric. I haven’t been able to start a new project, really. But I have made a few fabric pulls just to dream of having time to play in my stash. I know I don’t have time for any of that just yet. But maybe soon.

Rob is still working on finishing the porch and cover for the heating/cooling unit. He has not been feeling well. He injured his back. Then the last 2 weeks there has been something going around his work. I am getting anxious because snow is coming. We still have so much to get accomplished. This winter he will work on our staircase. Then start finishing the basement of our house.

It will be nice to have that done so that we can have more space when our kids come over in the cold months. We need the space. Our house isn’t very big and it’s a bit cozy when everyone is here.

I have been asked if I am going to teach local classes in the barn. I really can’t because there isn’t room. I could have arranged things differently and given up my seating area. But I really wanted that area. I wanted a beautiful, useful space that I could also spend some time enjoying a good talk with my friends and visitors. If you had seen my last studio you might understand why. LOL. It was standing room only. But I have been entertaining the idea of a hand stitching “club” ….or group? I really want to spend some time doing some hand stitching and if I schedule the time -> I will stick to it. Just a group of quilters that want to bring their hand projects. Sit, stitch and visit over a cuppa. When I was in Ephrata my daughter and I were in a pottery class that I loved. We went weekly and it was just a break from everyday life. Spending time with friends creating beautiful things. I think I kind of need that kind of time in my life again.

I am entertaining a group or club like that ….just because it would be good for me to open my cocoon and make friends. Plus I would like to stitch something for enjoyment rather than work. But even as I type this I feel some kind of guilt…that is the problem with working in my hobby. I work so much–> ALL OF THE TIME. I have to convince myself that I deserve to have a break. It’s really a difficult thing for me.  I think some of it is my OCD. Part of it is that I feel like I have to earn my worth (It’s hard to fight that demon sometimes). There are certain things that I can’t have unfinished. Trust me I have plenty of UFO’s. But having unfinished parts of my house causes me real anxiety. Having the majority of the studio finished helps ease some of that anxiety for me because I can walk across the yard and forget about the chaos in the house. But I know that won’t work forever. I have to keep working at getting all of that finished so I can get relief. I think of that famous house in San Fransisco and how it was under construction for decades…they would have had to commit me if I lived there. LOL!

Anyway, If you are local and might be interested in joining me for some hand stitching …reach out. I am thinking Thursday nights might be the night that I can swing that.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Blessings

Charisma