Karen Kay Buckley

So, here we are…back at Quilt Festival in Houston.  One of the most impressive quilt shows in the world! For the next month or two, I will share lots of my photographs from the show.  There is so much to share it would be impossible to put it into one blog.  I will simply share in the order I took the photographs.  So, there is no rhyme or reason for the order.

This first quilt is by Noriko Nazawa from Japan.  The name of her quilt is “Photographer Darling” and it received one of the top awards: the Fairfield Master Award for Machine Artistry.

“Fanciful Flora” was made by Lois Podolny from Tucson, Arizona.

Maria Elkins from Beavercreek, OH made “Cabin Window”.  To find out more about Maria checkout her website http://mariaelkins.com

Suzanne Marshall created “The Birders”.  Suzanne is from Clayton, Missouri.  She won second place in the Art-Whimsical category. For more information about Suzanne and her amazing quilts visit http://www.suzannequilts.com/suzannequilts.com/Welcome.html

Suzanne outlines all of her applique with hand embroidery stitches.  Impressive and effective.

“Alice’s Kitchen” was made by Miki Murakami from Japan.  It won first place in the Art-Whimsical category.

Thelma Beardon made “Very Berries”.  She is from Tullahoma, TN.  Thelma won second place in the Art-Abstract Small category.

Kathy York from Austin, Texas made “You Are What You Eat”.  She won an honorable mention in the Art-Whimisical category.

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After returning from Houston, I unpacked and quickly repacked for a short drive to the Lancaster, PA area.  I taught for a group called the Willow Valley Quilt Guild.  I think they said they have around 50 members.  They are part of the Willow Valley retirement communities.  I had no idea there was such a large complex like this in Lancaster.  It is impressive as were the ladies who hosted me.  Jean and Flora took great care of me and made sure everything flowed smoothly.

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Ami Simms has worked tirelessly for the past eight years raising awareness and funding for Alzheimer’s research.  The big news…….while in Houston, with the sales of the “Priority Quilts”, Ami and her team hit 1 million $ in funds raised!  Way to go team-Ami.  What an incredible accomplishment.  There is still time for you to be part of this project.  There is an online auction which ends Sunday evening, November 10th.  It is called the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI).  There were 15 quilt artists who were asked to participate in this auction.  My quilting buddy, Renae Haddadin, and myself were lucky enough to be part of this group.  Go to the link below to see the quilts and consider bidding.

http://www.benefitbidding.com/auctions/listings/index.cfm?auction=123

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And last but as they say, not least, I wanted to share the Austin Quilt Guild’s raffle quilt with you.  OMG!  They reproduced “Fiesta Mexico”.  It is magnificent.  I will get to see it in person when I visit the guild next year.

I just got back from teaching in the Buffalo, New York area.  I was actually just outside of Buffalo, in Clarence, New York at the Clarence Log Cabin Quilters.  This is a guild of about 150 members.  When I was at the guild I got to visit two of their local quilt shops.  The first stop was Patchwork Garden.

Very nice shop.

If you happen to be in this area it is definitely worth the stop.

And then we went to Pine Grove Quilt Shop.

The quilters in this area are so lucky to have such nice quilt shops.  A whole wall of batiks.  What’s not to like?

And the shop owners were really, really nice.  Which to me is such an important part of the shop.

One of the ladies who took the Monday machine applique workshop, Cathy Schmieder, had her block finished and brought it to the Tuesday night meeting!  Impressive for a new quilter.

This week I am off to Houston.  I’ll have lots to share when I return.

I often think how fortunate I am to have so many members from the guilds I visit who are willing not only to give their time to prepare for me to come to the guild, but also to give of their time after classes. This guild really went above and beyond when it came to sharing outside of the classroom.  To find out more about the Gone to Pieces Quilt Guild in Alpena, Michigan go to http://www.quiltguilds.com/michigan.htm

When I arrived on Thursday, Kay, who is the guild president, took me to meet two of her friends and we had a nice wine tasting and dinner.  Kay drove me along a section of town that borders Lake Heron.  A lot of the boats are already dry-docked for winter.

On Friday evening after the workshop I was lucky enough to spend time with Monica, the treasurer of the guild. She took me to her ranch and we went horse back riding!  I had not ridden a horse since I was in high school.  Hello….that was a very, very long time ago.  I got to ride Eve.  We had such a great ride on Monica’s property.  Yes, here I am on Eve.  It was lots of fun and the fall foliage was amazing.  I did not take my hands off the reigns to take any photos for fear I would fall off of my horse.  Eve is a beautiful Tennessee Walking Horse.  And I did not fall off!  I did however get wacked by some branches.  Do you think Eve did that on purpose?  I think she knew I was a very inexperienced rider.  But, I still had fun.

Monica had lots of fun critters including Odie, the peacock.

Here are some of the ladies working hard in the Saturday workshop.

Saturday evening Kathy took me to the Alpena Civic Theatre.  We saw “Church Basement Ladies”.  If you ever get a chance to see this play you must go.  It is a musical comedy.  It was a very cute play and had lots of good laughs.  Thanks Kathy for allowing me to spend an very enjoyable evening dining with you and then the play.

Since Alpena has a rather small airport (smallest I have ever been to and that is saying something) there was one, yes, just one, flight out on Sunday at 1:45pm.  So, Kay was willing to come pick me up and take me to see some of the lighthouses in the area the morning before I departed.  We could not have picked a more beautiful day.

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On some of our recent long car rides we listened to the new Nicholas Sparks’ book “The Longest Ride”.  Yes, every once in a while I like a nice romantic story.  I have to admit that I thought some parts of the book were a little slow going but I still enjoyed the book.  There are two story lines in this book.  Ira Levinson is inside his car which has crashed down a ravine and there is a very slim chance anyone will ever find him.  Ira is remembering times with his now deceased wife, Ruth.  The other story line involves Sophia and Luke.  Sophia is a college student and Luke works on his mother’s farm and is a professional bull rider.  The lives of all of the main characters are interesting and the book takes come good turns.

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I got an email from Sherry Thompson from the guild in Spokane where I taught recently.  She has her Oriental Flower project totally finished…quilted and bound!  Great job Sherry!!  Love the quilting around the circle and on the corners.  Great compliment to the design.

When I was in Alpena one of my students in the Saturday workshop, Lenore, brought her finished “Heard It Through The Grapevine” project.  Lenore had taken the workshop from me a while ago when I taught in Chicago.  I know it does not always show well in the photo but the workmanship on the block is excellent.

This week I am off to Clarence, New York.

This past weekend, we (Joe and I) were lucky enough to drive to Connecticut and work with the Stafford Mill Town Quilters in Stafford, CT.  This rather small guild of 38 were in charge of hosting the Greater Hartford Quilt Guild’s Annual Gathering.  They brought in two teachers, myself and Marilyn Doheny.  Marilyn and I were each asked to present a lecture to the group on Saturday and then we each did a workshop on Sunday.  I was truly impressed with how organized this group was and how efficient they were.  It made my job very easy.  Here are some of the ladies from the group waiting for me to start my lecture.

When Joe asked one of the ladies in the group what we should see in the area she said that we really should go see the Frog Bridge.  I thought, what on earth is a “Frog Bridge”.  Joe and I were both intrigued and on Saturday afternoon after my lecture we drove to the bridge in Willmantic.

And yes, there are frogs on all four corners of the bridge.  Each frog sits on a spool of thread.  Interesting.  By 1828 there were six cotton thread factories in town and it became known as “Thread City”. From the end of the Civil War to the outbreak of World War II, Willimantic was a center for the production of silk and cotton thread.  Therefore, the spools.

But, why the frogs?  Willimantic is also known as being home of the infamous “Battle of the Frogs” in 1754. To paraphrase the legend: One hot summer night, the good people of Windham (which Willimantic is now part of) were roused from their sleep by “a shrieking, clattering thunderous roar” unlike anything they had ever heard before. Fearing that it was either an Indian attack or Judgement Day, the townsfolk freaked out and began to panic — some ran through the streets brandishing muskets and firing in the direction of the noise, others fell to their knees in frantic prayer. Some cooler heads finally prevailed and went in search of the ungodly noises, but to no avail. Only the next morning when the sun came up, did they find the source of the horrendous cacophony — a nearby pond, down to no more than a puddle thanks to the dry summer, was ringed with scores of dead bullfrogs. Apparently, some sort of frog turf war had broken out and the carnage was excessive . . . but not as excessive as the embarrassment the citizens of Windham were to endure over the next few decades. (This exert was taken from the Damned Connecticut paper article written by Ray Bendici.)

As we were driving between Stafford and our hotel in Enfield, we could not help but stop and take a photograph of this business advertisement.

How cute is that?  If I lived there I would take my dogs for their baths.

We were lucky that during our trip to Connecticut the leaves were changing colors.  It was not yet peak but close.  Here are some views as we drove around the area.

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BOOK REVIEW:

If you read my blog you know how much I love the character, Jack Reacher, in Lee Child’s books.  I love him.  I think this is the 18th book with this character.  Jack is a retired Army MP.  He does not own a home nor does he have a residence.  He simply hitch hikes around the United States and seems to find lots of people who need his help.  In this book, Never Go Back, Jack makes his way from South Dakota to Virgina.  In the previous book Jack spoke with Major Susan Turner on the phone and liked her voice and decided he would try to find her.  She now holds Reacher’s previous job, commanding officer of the Washington D.C. Military Police Brigade.  When he arrives in Virginia he finds that Turner has been fired, is under arrest and that he is in big trouble, accused of a 16 year old homicide.  Never a dull moment when Reacher is involved.

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I was invited to be part of the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.  You can find out more at http://www.alzquilts.org/ciqa.html

Fifteen quilters were invited to make pieces that will be auctioned in November.  I believe the auction will be between November 1 through November 10th. But, you’ll want to double check me on the dates.  Ami Simms has been on a mission for I’d say about the last ten years raising funds for Alzheimer’s research.  She will have raised over 1 million dollars for research by the end of the year…that is with your help.  Check out the link below for more information on the great little quilt Renae Haddadin and I made together.  And as my friend Barb says…..”Charge!”.

This week my journeys will take me to Alpena, Michigan.  I am anxious for another adventure.

This past week I had a wonderful trip to the Washington State Quilters Guild in Spokane, Washington, http://www.wsqspokane.org  Other than flight delays going and coming due to mechanical problems things went very well.  And honestly, I don’t want to be on a plane that has mechanical problems so delays in that case are OK.  My original contact with the guild, Ginger, who was so looking forward to my visit, was unable to attend due to health issues and I felt really bad for her.  What a bummer.  Get well Ginger!  But my new contacts, Judy and Cindy, did a great job.  This guild only meets 4 times a year and boasts a membership of 500!!  When I snuck out to the restroom during the business meeting I snapped this photo from the back of the room.

On the first day of classes Terry Engleman and Sherry Thompson both brought their Magical Medallions quilts to share with me.  AWESOME!

I thought making a pillow of one of the blocks was a great idea.

Here is a photo of the students working in the classroom.  The classes were held at the Hampton, where I was lodging.  That was very, very nice…just rolled my stuff to the classroom.

On the third day of class this buck came strolling up along the side of the Hampton, just outside of the classroom.  We all got up and looked…..like we had never seen a beautiful buck before.

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On my flights to and from Spokane I finished reading “Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum.  Very good read.  It was another one of those “hard to put down” books.  Trudy and her mother, Anna, lived in Germany during World War II.  At the end of the war Anna marries an American soldier, he adopts Trudy and they move to Minnesota.  Trudy was only three years old at the time.  Trudy has vague memories of the time in Germany and her mother refuses to talk about it.  The book begins with the death of Trudy’s adopted father.  Trudy is now a college professor teaching German history and her mother is a very quiet women.  They do not have a close relationship.  Trudy becomes involved with a school project that has her interviewing German survivors of the war.  The book goes back and forth between Trudy and Anna’s current life and past life.  Anna encountered some very difficult times during the war in Germany.  Very well written.

I am off to Connecticut, until next week …  .

A few weeks ago, I taught for a group on the Northern Shore of Long Island and it was wonderful. Except the drive through New York City. I was asked to teach for the Great South Bay Quilters. A fantastic group of ladies who scheduled me for a workshop on Sunday morning and afternoon and a lecture Monday evening. Joe and I decided to drive to Long Island on Saturday morning for two reasons: no work traffic and an afternoon to explore. What a great trip.

The southern shore of Long Island has some wonderful communities beginning with Islip, Sayville, South Hampton, and more.

And some great, fresh donuts…

Every time you turned south within a few blocks you were on the water and there were museums

beautiful beaches

cottages

many marinas

and even a church right on the beach!

We saw Fire Island in the distance and were told we had to drive over to the Island.

And it was worth it to visit the lighthouse!

What a wonderful day. The next morning I met with Joan and JoAnn from the Great South Bay Quilters and if you live in this area and don’t belong to this guild you are really missing a great opportunity. I have been so fortunate to meet so, so many wonderful people through quilting and all the guilds I have visited have been so nice, but these ladies are some of the best I have ever met. Here they are hard at work:

Two members brought in projects they had completed from classes I had taught many years ago.

I am so, so happy to see these finished pieces.

On Monday before the lecture, Joe and I drove up through the vineyards on the northeastern section of Long Island and it was awesome. Here are a few things we saw.

I am just so thankful to be able to share time with so many wonderful people and also am blessed to visit so many wonderful places. Joe has been traveling more with me which is also great as it is nice to share memories with those you love. Plus, he can lift the heavy bags! A great thanks to the Great South Bay Quilters and you can contact them at P.O. Box 5, Islip, NY 11751.

Next week Spokane, Washington!!

On my flights to Tennessee I finished reading Tami Hoag’s new book “The 9th Girl”.  I believe this is the 4th in the series with Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska who are investigators in Minneapolis.  On New Year’s Eve the body of a young girl is found.  The body has fallen from the trunk of a car.  The case becomes know as Zombie Doe.  The victim in unidentified and unidentifiable.  They believe this death may be related to the “Doc Holiday” murders.  “Doc Holiday” is the name the police have given to a serial killer still on the loose who kills his victims in one city and dumps them in another, always on a holiday.  Liska’s son was friends with the victim and saw her the night before she was killed.  This book definitely  kept my interest from beginning to end.

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This past weekend I visited The Village Quilter’s in Loudon, Tennessee.  You can find out more about this guild by going to their website http://www.villagequilters.com
If you live within 400 miles of this guild you want to become a member!  They have around 300 members and it is a very active group.  They bring in national teachers on a very regular basis.  When the members had their show and tell it was fantastic.   But, the best part for me was when the members showed all of the charity quilts that were brought in this month.  All I can say is….well done ladies!!  I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again….I am always so impressed with the amount of charity work being done by all of the quilting guilds.  You all deserve a pat on the back. My guild contact, Mary, was wonderful and she took very good care of me. Thank you Mary!  The guild meets at the Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church and the church has a dog greeter!  Boots, the dog, who’s owner lives close by, comes to the church whenever anyone is entering the church to greet each and every person.  I loved Boots.  I love dogs period.

I snapped just a couple of photos while I was in the area.  There is a lake system and many of the homes sit on the lake and many of the home owners have a boat.

This week I am off to Long Island again and then to Spokane, Washington.  Should be a fun week.  Until next week……

I still have more photos from Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA that I wanted to share with you.

“Behind Bars” was made by B. J. Titus from Coatesville, PA.  It took a 2nd place in Wall Quilts Predominately Pieced.  You can find out more about B.J. on her website at http://www.bjtitus.com/

Claudia Clark Myers and Marilyn Badger took a 2nd place in the 2 Person category.  The name of the quilt is
Magnolia.

“A Slice of Life” was made by B. J. Titus from Coatesville, PA.  (Website listed above.)

“Magnolia” was made by Barbara Persing from Frederick, PA.  To find out more about Barbara go to http://www.barbarapersing.com

“Chihuly’s Gondola” was made by Melissa Sobotka from Richardson, TX.

“Shades” was made by Pat LaPierre from Bass Harbor, ME.  It took 2nd place in the Wall Quilt Mixed category.  No photograph of this quilt will ever do it justice.  Check out the photo below this one.

The black area you see is the black curtain that was hanging behind the quilt.  The light squares are dimensional, sitting on the surface, as are the round buttons.  Very interesting quilt.  I liked it a lot. To find out more about Pat and her quilting products go to http://www.freemotionslider.com/about.htm

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The two photos below are of student projects.  I took the photos when I was teaching at Quilt Odyssey.  I had the names of the students and have misplaced them.  I am putting the photos in the blog hoping that they will contact me so I can add their names to the blog.  In both cases, their work was fantastic.

This block was made in my “Japanese Garden” machine applique workshop.

And this incredible quilt was made from my “Magical Medallions” pattern.  Impressive.  The makers name is Audrey Collins.

This week, I am off to Tennessee.  Until next week………….

I taught a new class at Quilt Odyssey in July.  It is one of the blocks from a new/upcoming bigger quilt that is in the works.  I told Missy, the show organizer, that I really needed this to be a two day workshop.  The class filled very quickly.  Two day workshops do not always fill that quickly so Missy and I were thankful for such a good response.  Day one of the workshop went very, very well.  Day two…not so much.  After the students got to the second part of the block (second pattern page) I found out that Staples printed two different sizes of patterns.  Some students had one size and some another.  This created problems.  We also discovered that the transfer paper I like and sell on my site, disappeared when ironed.  That had never happened to me when I used it!  I have been teaching for a long time and most of my students will tell you how organized I am.  Well, day two left me feeling like I could cry.  But, my students were real troopers.  And I really mean that.  They understood the printing problem came when two different people at Staples printed the patterns.  (Staples did refund me for the mistake.)  And my wonderful husband, Joe, came walking into my classroom very soon after the printing problem was found and he drove right over to Staples and had patterns printed for the students and was back within minutes. Fortunately, the blocks that were created from this class thus far have been worth all of the troubles.  I have seen several of the finished projects.  Look how fantastic Anne Flynn’s  block looks.  I am so proud that even after all the issues the outcome is fabulous.  Thanks to all of my students who were flexible and forgiving.  It meant a lot to me.

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I always think I am lucky to be asked to teach anywhere.  I love to teach.  This past week I was invited to teach for the Huntington Quilters in Long Island.  You can find out more about this guild at http://huntingtonquilters.com/. Here are a couple of photos of the students hard at work.

I can honestly tell you that if I did not like these ladies so much I would never drive to Long Island.  I hate driving around New York City.  Joe agreed to be my driver on this trip.  We were laughing as it took us over 2 hours to get 30 miles in traffic on the expressway around New York City.  I looked up the definition of “expressway” in Wikipedia and here is was it said, Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane dividers, etc., for high-speed traffic.  Honestly, high-speed traffic.  You cannot go more than 10 miles per hour as you stop and go, stop and go, stop and go.  Crazy.  They should consider renaming this stretch of the “expressway”.  I think maybe “depressing way”,  or maybe ” this gives me a headway way”… I could go on.  I think you get the idea.  Did I mention I hate driving around New York City??  The program co-chairs, Laura and Wilma, could not have been nicer.  The ladies in my class were so wonderful to be with and showed much kindness.  That made the agonizing drive in traffic all worth while.

Here are some sights around the Northport-Centerport area.  This is also why it is worth the trip.  The North Shore of Long Island is  so quaint and beautiful. The houses on Main Street-Northport were wonderful.

The town’s gazebo hosts musical events every Thursday evening.

Sitting on the dock in the bay is so relaxing.

And the small downtown is a step back in time.

Centerport is on the opposite side of the Bay

The magnificent Vanderbilt Mansion, aptly named “Eagle’s Nest”, is the centerpiece of this little peninsula. What a perfect spot to build a summer home!

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BOOK REVIEW

Right before I left for my trip to Long Island, New York I was able to get my hands on a new quilting book written by none other than my quilting partner….Renae Haddadin.

Of course I might be a little biased but I’m telling you the book is simply incredible!  The layout is fabulous and  the close-up photography of Renae’s exquisite work is impressive.  For those of you who enjoyed looking at “Fiesta Mexico” up close and studying Renae’s amazing quilting, you will find many, many photographs of the quilting she did on our quilt.  Of course, many of her other quilts are shown with lots and lots of close-up photography of her quilting skills, as well.  After looking at this book you will be loaded with more quilting ideas than you know what to do with.  You can find a copy of the book at Renae’s website http://www.quiltsonthecorner.com

I just finished listening to David Baldacci’s book “Zero Day”.  I am a fan of David Baldacci.  I like his style of writing and Puller is a good character.

John Puller,a combat veteran, is now one of the best military investigators.  He works for the Army Criminal Investigative Division.  (Reminded me of Gibbs on NCIS).  Puller is asked to investigate the death of a family in a rural area of West Virginia.  The father of the family was in the military.  Puller has to work with, Sam Cole, a local female police officer.  The story takes some nice twists and held my interest.  Made for a good read on our long drive to and from Ohio.

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Every summer I give you an update on the critters in the yard.  Or as we now call it, after our niece’s children recently named it…..”The Valley of the Butterflies”.  Good name Parker.

I am so, so happy Joe planted the butterfly bushes.  They remind me of my childhood and the butterfly bush outside the bathroom window.

And the butterflies are joined by their buddies for some sweet treats.

Every summer I give you an update on the vultures.  I know…some of you think they are ugly.  As I always say….they might have a face only their mother could love…but they are fascinating to see and observe.  Below is one of the youngsters.

The mother, as always, is teaching her kids to use the bird bath.

Thankfully she teaches them to first drink……

and then bathe.  These big birds in the little bird bath will always bring a smile to my face.

And of course my groundhog buddy.  I can see him right now as I am typing.  He peeks out at me from the corner of the porch.

I am so happy we have critters in the yard and that I can find some time to enjoy them.  _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Beaver Valley guild asked me to pass on the following information about their upcoming show.  If you live in the area…please check it out.

Beaver Valley Piecemakers 19th Annual Quilt Show
Location – Holy Family Parish
1851 3rd Ave.
New Brighton, Pa 15066
Dates and Time – Oct. 11th and 12th 10-5
Oct. 13th 11-4
Approximately 100 quilts judged by a National Quilt Association Judge. The theme this year is two color quilts. Also, quilt and sewing machine raffles, vendors, cafe with homemade food, and a boutique. Admission is $7 and children 12 and under free.
http://www.bvpiecemakers.com/