I am such a lucky person. I spent today with the fantastic Louisa Smith. What a giving and fun person she is. Tonight my son, Mark, arrived with birthday booty, and we went out for a fantastic meal at the Kenwood Restaurant.

Here is the strata and focus fabric for the piece I am doing in Louisa’s class. I stayed up until 1 am cutting strips and sewing them so that I could take this class. I ended up spending all morning sewing the strata because we decided to bag the orange and do purples.

Using templates to cut the strata and focus fabric, this is my layout!!

Everyone thought it was going to be a wacky Gerrie quilt. The Louisa got involved and, with what I had cut to this point, we arranged this:

I have to do a lot more cutting to get the look that I want. Here is some other student work:

Here is the birthday gift from Mark:

A beautiful bag for my new I book. It is so styling – has a detachable shoulder strap. I love it!!

PamDora has tagged me so tomorrow I must bore you with twenty things about myself. Thinking about this is sure to put me to sleep tonight!!

Oh, I love my quilting retreats at Bishop’s Ranch so much!! It is located north of here in the Dry Creek Valley wine country. Here are some photos to give you a flavor of the place:

View from the ranch house in the morning:

another view:

An arbor where grapes and kiwi grow.

Kiwis:

Persimmons:

A covey of California quail

A view of the room where we work:

Some show and tell:

Diane did this in a class with Velda Newman at Art Quilt Tahoe last year. She said she almost got in trouble because she did not bring a "nature" photo. Isn’t this grand?

This is my friend, Patsy’s, sister Mary Lou who comes out from Massachusetts every October to retreat with us.

What did I do, you ask?

I did the final row on a guild project called add a row. This started with the kangaroos in Australian fabric. I added the aboriginal turtles.

I finished my crazy blocks for the Marilyn Felber class. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The Pointless Sisters meets next Tuesday and it is time to turn in our brown bag challenge. I received 3 clothespins in my bag. Here is my inspiration. My daughter, Steph, had this photo on her blog last June, after a camping trip:

I printed it on fabric and did my own version of the blended photo quilt – I fused the background and did extensive thread painting. I still have to couch the clothesline.

That’s all folks. Gotta get some food in the house and work on my strata for a Louisa Smith class tomorrow.

I made it home about 5:30 yesterday – threw on a new outfit and went to the Harvest Hoedown – a big event for my church. The food was great and we had a good time. I have managed to was and dry my undies and will re-pack to go to a retreat with lots of quilty friends – no wireless so no blogging!!

I had a great time in Robbi Eklow’s Free Expression fusing class. She had 25 women from Japan with one interpreter. She did a great job explaining her techniques. They used some cool Japanese textiles in their work. Here is Robbi explaining something.

Here is the still life of vases that I did. I learned a lot about fusing with a pattern – not my usual way!!

Tata until Thursday!

I spent a frenetic morning practicing machine quilting Melody style. I learned a lot and want to practice on my comfie set-up at home. OK, I have to tell you all this, being on the Artful Quilter’s blog means that you will encounter people in workshops, etc, who have been to your blog and feel as if they know you. I met some really neat quilters who said they visit my blog and were happy to meet me in person.

First of all, here is some fabric for my dd’s to share. I think they will like these:

On with the show:

Ann Pugh of the QA list with Lonnie Rossie fabrics

Two quilts by Aussie quilt artist, Gloria Loughman. She gave a lecture tonight which was so inspiring and funny.

Birds on a wire by Jean Dunn

More work by the prolific Pam in Can

Full view if a quilt with gorgeous quilting – see below:

How can you go wrong with lime green & red.

Another Liz Berg beauty in silk.

Love this by Marcia Stein done from a photo she took in Venice.

Two quilts by QAer Sue Reno.

Tomorrow, Diane and I are taking a class with Robbi Joy Eklow. I stopped in and visited her class today and she said she is going to have 25 Japanese women in the class. She is worried that they won’t get her jokes, not that they won’t get the instruction. It will be fun!!

I just found out from one of the jurors of the O’Hanlon show that I am the only one to have sold a quilt so far. Yee Ha!! Granted it was the smallest and least expensive, but I’m thrilled.

Today, I did graduate work in Mrs. Mel’s class. I did a version of one of Ton Schulten’s simpler landscapes.

Here it is:

Looks better in person!!

Mrs. Mel in charge:

Here are some quilts from the International show:

This was a whole cloth quilt with these wonderful painted motifs with an embellished center.

It is not always about the color!!

I just love Pam in Can’s quilts. (Pamela Allen)

This was not in the international show – I think she is from CA. That shimmery sunset is all done with metallic thread – really nice,

Here are Diane and Mrs. Mel enjoying a Margarita at El Torito.

Tomorrow I am taking machine quilting with Mrs. Mel and she says I will see a different person – she really cracks the whip!!