Corner to Corner Curve Strip Ruler

Last week I was in Chattanooga for the AQS show, working with my friend and mentor, Rita Fishels, in her Creations Sew Clever booth.  Rita, is not only a  quilt shop owner, author, speaker and teacher...but she also designs, consults and National Demo Goddess for Creative Grids USA. 

Laura (Rita's SIL), Myself & Rita in Chattanooga

So many people walked into our booth and said "Creative Grid Rulers are my absolute favorite rulers to use!!!".  A few suggested they would be selling all of their other rulers (one woman said for fifty cents a piece) and replacing them with  Creative Grid brands.  They've got these great little "grippy" (that's a word) circles on the back of the ruler so they stay in place while you cut your fabrics.  No sliding around!    One of the most popular rulers was the Corner to Corner Curve Strip Ruler.  Say that three times fast!

Corner to Corner Curve Strip Ruler

Now, I'd say the reason that ruler is so popular is because of a quilt that hangs in the booth and attracts people because it's such a stunner!  May I introduce to you....

 

Curvaliscious

 

Well, after watching Rita demo this ruler last week, I came home and decided I just had to give it a try myself.  The ruler not only comes with an instruction sheet but if you go to the Creative Grids USA website, you can watch a video of Rita giving an actual demo.  It's like having Rita right there with you to guide you along the way!  I'll attach the link here so you can go and take a look.

 

Corner to Corner Curved Strip Ruler

 

 

In that instruction sheet are also some  variations that you can create with the blocks that you make!

 

 

 

  I pulled out some purple Halloween print and a couple other coordinating pieces today and put this ruler to the test!  I can't believe how easy it was to sew these curved seams.  Once I finished sewing the seams and pressing each block, I used the 3.5" Square Creative Grids ruler to square up my blocks before sewing them together.

 

Here's the block I made today!

 

 

Sew much fun!!!

 

I'll be helping Rita again in her booth at the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines, Oct 1-4th!  If you're coming to the show stop by and see us...you're going to want one of these rulers!  You can also order the rulers, or the Curvaliscious pattern at Rita's website at the link below.

 

Creations Sew Clever

 

My Brack Tour Family

After my first trip to Ireland with a tour company that was kind of a mess, I knew when I was searching for a new company to work with that they had to meet the following criteria....

 1) They simply had to be Irish
 2) They had to follow through with the promises made to travelers
 3) They had to be Fun! 

I made so many lifelong friends on that first trip, one of which was our driver.  He is the one who said "You were made to do these tours and you need to contact Peter at Brack Tours".    So I wrote to Peter and told him what I wanted to do and literally had a reply in my inbox within the hour inviting me to lunch the next week.  Surely he'd misunderstood that my location was I-O-W-A.  As I replied how much I would love that but that we were geographically challenged, I was thrilled to discover he was traveling the Midwest and was only one state away!  We did indeed schedule lunch for that next week and I knew within the first five minutes that I had found the perfect travel company for our tours.  I get chills every time I tell that story....so meant to be.

Peter took in everything we said about the experience that we wanted to provide to our travelers and together we put the finishing touches on a tour that allows us to give our travelers a unique Irish adventure.  From that moment on, we became a part of the Brack Tours family and it has been absolutely wonderful.

Don, Peter & I traveling in Ireland

 

Peter has been in the tour industry for many years and has established relationships with everyone in the industry.  Every hotel we book knew Peter and his staff by name and has great respect for the Brack Tours company.  But more importantly, he understands that providing the best Irish experience is a top priority.


I thought it would be fun to introduce you to more members of my Brack Tours family who've come to mean so very much to me.

  Maura, works here in the US processing your information when you sign up for our tour!



Maura and I at Milwaukee Irish Fest 2013

Nuala, a natural Irish redhead and all around fun gal, lives in Ireland.  

Nuala and I at Milwaukee Irish Fest 2013



 

This is Mary Ann, our sales director here in the US.  Mary Ann has been to Ireland 37 times.  She can answer any question anyone would ever have about traveling there! 



Mary Ann and I and Milwaukee Irish Fest 2014

And this is Sinead!  If you are signing up for my tour, you'll get to chat with her.  She has worked so hard on the details of the tour and put together another amazing adventure!

 

Sinead & I in Galway
 

  

Having some fun on a local Ghost Tour.

 

And so there you have it....my Brack Tours family!  A great team that works hard to provide you the best Irish adventure! 

 

If you're interested in more information about our Spring 2015 tour, just click on the link in the top right hand corner.

 

 



Milwaukee Irish Fest

So excited to be heading out this week to Milwaukee for their annual Irish Fest celebration!  Looks like we'll have great weather again to enjoy some amazing music and  Irish dancers all while promoting our 2015 tour to Ireland. 

This year I'll be bringing along a few quilts to share with those who visit the Brack Tours booth.
First there's this quilt designed by Nikki Foley.  Cead Mile Failte means "One Hundred Thousand Welcomes".  I have to say, in my travels to Ireland, I've felt every single one of those welcomes.

 

and this one....my "Anam Cara" wall hanging.

Anam Cara - means Soul Friend.

 

And I'm really excited about this quilt.  I created it in EQ7 using two blocks I just love.  One is called Garden Patch and the other is called Summer Winds.  I changed up the coloring on the blocks and shared that photo with Nikki and the first thing she said was "That looks like Summer on my mountain", so of course, that seemed like the perfect name.

Summer on the Mountain

 

This quilt will be a giveaway this weekend at the Irish Fest.  Some lucky attendee will get to take this quilt home with them! 

 

 

 

Beyond excited to see the Red Hot Chili Pipers too!

#bagrockrules

 

 

 

 

Whispers of the Past - A Quilt Between Friends

Last October, I had the chance to spend some time in Ireland with my friend, Nikki Foley.  Some of my most favorite moments of that trip were the opportunities we had to explore together.  We spent an entire day taking in the Slea Head Drive to Dingle, stopping a long the way to photograph some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. 

One of those stops was at the Kilmakader Church, the ruins of a Romanesque Church dated back to the twelve century.  Step inside with us, won't you....

 

 

 

 

It's absolutely impossible to enter the church and not feel the spiritual energy that surrounds the area. If you close your eyes and are quiet, you can hear the whispers of the past as the breeze blows from the sea. 

I feel so incredibly blessed that I got to share this experience with Nikki.  It was one of those moments in time that you just know, you'll never forget...forever etched in your mind and heart like the carvings in the archways inside the church. 

 

Well, as quilters, right then we decided the best thing we could do was to create a quilt to commemorate our experience.  We took extra photos and here are the two that ended up as our inspiration for the quilt we would make.

This is one of the gravestones in front of the church.

 

These carvings are in the archways inside the church

 

 We decided our quilt would have a center scene surrounded by blocks to represent the blocks in the archways within the church.   Nikki got to work and created her amazing hand dyed fabrics.

 

These colors are perfect!

Look at this amazing blue!

 

Gorgeous

Imagine my squeal of delight when these showed up in my mailbox!

 

 We decided we needed 30 blocks to surround our center panel, so we each created 15 blocks... get this....without telling or showing each other what we were creating.  Talk about exciting the day her blocks arrived in the mail!  Then it was up to me to add the blocks and do the machine quilting and binding and I needed to get it done quickly...because we decided we would enter the quilt in Festival of Quilt show in Birmingham England!!

I've often said that when you add the "quilting" to a quilt, it brings it to life.  Never more have I felt that then when I quilted this piece.  I had to stop quilting several times to wipe away the tears as the emotions of that day at Kilmakader Church came to the surface once again....my heart felt it in every stitch.


So are you on the edge of your seat to see this quilt?   I know I am and I made the quilt!  I already know what it looks like but Nikki and I are so excited to share it with all of you. 

Drumroll please...............................................

Whispers of the Past

 

I love it so much!  This pic doesn't really show the quilting so I will add a few pics that highlight what I did on this quilt!

 

Cross

Inside of quilt/headstones

Our outer blocks with quilting

label

 

Back of quilt

 

Two quilty girls....who made a quilt together...even though they live 3800 miles apart.

 

 

 

Cliff's of Moher

One of the most amazing places we will visit on our tour to Ireland in May is the Cliff's of Moher.  Considering we have quite a few photographers signed up to come along, I'm thinking I may have a hard time getting them back on the bus. 

 

Now, my first trip to the Cliff's looked a bit more like the photos below.

I was afraid to put up my umbrella for fear I'd become Mary Poppins.

 

Oh my it was rainy that day!  But it in no way took away from just how magical a place the cliffs are to visit.  Here's a few photos from our trip this past October when gorgeous sunshine was the weather of the day!

 

 

 

I'm so excited to take our tour group to the cliffs and share this amazing place with them!

 

 

 I'm also hoping for another meal at McGann's Pub...omg...the food there was out of this world good!

 

 

Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  I had the vegetarian option which was this mushroom dish in a pastry shell.  So good!  Although the fish & chips was amazing as well!

 

We've got a few spots left if you'd like to join us.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness...

A little follow up on the precious post about my quilt project with the second graders.  Our quilt arrived to our deployed soldier, Mike.  He sent us this great photo so of course, I just had to share with all of you!

 

Here's what Mike had to say about his quilt.

 

"I opened a package sent from you yesterday, literally the sweetest most thoughtful gift I have ever received. I cannot say thank you enough for this beautiful piece of art that I will no doubt keep for the rest of my life."

 

  Our story was shared in the District Newsletter as well as the local newspaper...and even though that was exciting for us....there's nothing better than knowing that our Soldier Mike loves his quilt and felt our love and thankfulness.