Spaz McGee

October in Maine is the bestest. I may be the teensy, tiniest little bit biased, but it's hard to drag me away during this month, so you'll have to excuse me if the blogging mojo has been a bit sparse lately.

I shall return, and I shall return with a vengeance!

The good news is, I have been getting lots of stuff done at the store.

Also have been getting a lot done away from the store: camping with Ollie, cleaning the bejesus out of my house, organizing my sewing room, drinking buckets of tea with my Grandma, getting ready for that woodstove, decorating a giant pumpkin yet again, taking lots of walks during this Indian summer and even getting a lil' sewing done.

Time management will probably never be my thang, or at the very least there will always be room for me to improve that aspect of my life, but sometimes I get it right. Or I give myself permission to let go of the whole "being organized" thing. Not sure which.

Tomorrow when I am fresh I'm starting my first quilt in a long time: I'll be sure to share it with you.

My intentions with this new quilt are good: I'd love to make a sample for the shop and then hopefully sell a few books and some fabric and teach a class after Christmas. It's been a while since I sewed-up something for the shop myself or taught a quilting class myself, so we shall see. Gotta make sure I still got it. And you know what they say about good intentions!

In the meantime, I can show you the fabric I am using:
























(This is a dyed-in-the-wool, honest-to-goodness fat quarter bundle. Straight from the manufacturer, one fat quarter of each design from the "October Skies" collection by Verna Mosquera for Free Spirit Fabrics. If you read this blog regularly you know that I don't usually use a collection straight up, but every once in a while there is a collection that really snags me. This one hit the spot. I'm really inspired to use it and can't wait to cut into these lovelies tomorrow morning.)

And the book I am using:
















(The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman, AKA OhFransson. Now that the book has been out for a while and the hype has died down a bit I'm pleased to report back to you that this book is fabulous. There are minimal corrections to the book {a feat in and of itself!} and the tips Ms. Hartman shares are absolute pearls. I'm a strict non-believer in pressing seams open, but she's got me rethinking my policy. I'll report my findings back to you. But, keeping in mind that I have been quilting for well over a decade and sometimes like to think I have seen it all, this book is an excellent resource. Well done, Ms. Hartman.)

Can you guess which pattern from the book I am using? I'll keep you in suspense for a bit.

In the meantime, I am sure you are wondering where the Slow Sewing Retreat pictures are, and I will share them with you, I promise! It's just that uploading pictures to blogger takes so. durn. long. I cannot bear the thought of uploading all those images when I know I could be wasting time some other way, but I will upload them one of these days when you least expect it, so watch out!

Also in the meantime, I want to thank you if you are one of the people who came into the shop and/or otherwise encouraged me to keep writing this blog, reminding me that you are reading. I sometimes forget these things! I probably won't ever be able to update this blog as much as I would like to, but please know that in between posts, I am having a helluva time.

And also, also in the meantime, don't forget to check the events page: our customers have some sales coming up to look forward to! If you are local, please spread the word about the food drive... There are people out there who fall through the cracks in the system, so this cause is always going to be very important to me.

Whoa. I apologize for a spazzy post, but man that felt good!

I'll be back again soon(ish)!

XO,

Rhea