New patterns on Website

Thanks to lots of hard work by Jean Boyd, my new patterns are finally up on our website. Check them out at http://www.fairfieldroaddesigns.com/ . The "Seasonal Selections" patterns can be found on the Punchneedle page, "Home Sweet Home" and "Autumn Star" are on the Fusible Applique page and "Country Garden Bouquet" is on the Wool Applique page.

Summer is here - and so are my kids!!

So, school is finally over and Aidan and Carson are excited for their summer vacation. And so am I, to a certain extent. I have to admit, I was counting down the days until the end of school, because I was officially sick of making lunches, enforcing homework time and the rush of getting them out the door each morning, but now they are home ALL the time. I love my children and love spending time with them BUT they make a mess everywhere they go, they are already "bored" AND we all have to fight over computer time. As I write this post, Aidan has already been in twice to ask if it is "his turn" yet. I just informed him that the next hour is mine, so he'd better find something else to do - hopefully the Lego will catch his eye!

Designing Fabric

While we were in Portland, our good friends at Camelot Cottons came to our booth for a visit. I had never actually met Cheryl or Elana in person as Nellie met them when she was in Salt Lake City at the last Spring Market. It was so nice to put faces to their names - now I know who I'm emailing to!! While they were in our booth, we discussed what kind of projects we wanted to work on next. At one point in the discussion, Elana asked if we had ever thought about designing fabric - and honestly, what quilt pattern designer hasn't???? So they asked if we would design a line of fabric for them and of course we said "yes" then we said "but we don't know how to do that!" - personally I always think honesty is the best policy. But they were still interested, so now we need to figure it out - but first Nellie and I need to actually see each other for more than 10 minutes in between all of our other obligations. That is our biggest challenge - I think. We are both so busy that it is hard to find a time when we are both free for a good block of time but this week, Thursday afternoon is the day - so wish us luck!

Finally re-connected!!!!

Well, I never knew I was so Internet-dependant until our Internet went out for 9 days. Apparently our beautiful Linden tree in our back yard has grown since our wireless radio receiver was mounted on the roof last year, because once those big beautiful leaves came out, our Internet signal went down the drain. Mike and I were at our wits end not being able to access our email, was funny videos, write my blog, access Facebook and just generally search for things we needed information on. It really made me think- what did I do BEFORE I was connected to the World Wide Web??? How did I pay my bills (which I just paid now and noticed that four were overdue)?? How did I look up vacation destinations?? How did I keep in touch with my friends?? How did I know what was going on in the world??
I was so desperate to check my email, that Monday morning I actually went and sat on our neighbours back step with my laptop to borrow her wireless signal just long enough to download the 264 email messages in my mailbox - six of which were "real" messages. I'm sure all of my spam friends were starting to get worried that I hadn't read their messages yet!! I decided to keep a list of things that I needed to do once the Internet was back up - people I needed to email, websites I needed to look at, bills that needed to be paid. So today, that's what I'm trying to do.
But you know after the first couple days of feeling disconnected I actually spent some time in my SEWING ROOM!!! Just to remind myself - that's the room where I keep my SEWING MACHINES - which I hadn't even turned on since weeks before I went to Portland. I actually designed and made two table runners - one for me and one for our Guild's small quilt action in November. I actually had some HANDWORK to do as I actually watched MOVIES with my husband. Sitting in front of the computer screen, it is very easy to lose track of time, so I guess it's not a "bad" thing to get disconnected once in a while.

More Pictures From Portland Quilt Market

Saturday morning, I got up early and again headed into "school". This time I was taking a class on using Shiva Paintsticks, being taught by Betty Blais from Embellishment Village. Boy, was that fun!!! Friday morning, Dyane and I had taken the "Angelina Fibers" class with Betty and that day had both headed to her booth to buy her book and all the other "necessities". So, after spending another hour with her on Saturday, I ended up in her booth AGAIN to buy a book, paintsticks, rubbing plates, and stencils AND Marilee and I got her foiling supplies!!! We have decided that our Fibre Friends group is going to have a "play day" to experiment with all of these new goodies!!

Saturday night, we took a bus to the E.E.Schenck warehouse - boy that was overwhelming!! Here is Dyane (with the 5000 other customers all armed with loaded down shopping carts). We did get some great deals - but we were starting to worry about having enough room in our suitcases!!!

Here are Jean, Nellie and I manning our tables at Sample Spree on Thursday night.

Touring the Market Floor - Part 2

Here are a few great "Canadian" booths.

Daphne Greig from Patchworks Studio in her booth.

Lori Albertson from "Gotta Love It".

Janet Rice-Bredin - "Botanical Art Quilts" - with her "Booth Babe", her hubby, Syd.

Jean Boyd - our booth mate.

Touring the Market Floor - Part 1

One of the fun things to do when you get a moment to step out of the booth is to go for a walk through Market to check out the other booths. We bring everything for our booth in our suitcase (Booth-in-a-Bag according to Daphne and Susan from Patchworks Studio), so we don't get too carried away with decorating. But some of the booths are really well put together (the people who do them obviously drive, pulling trailers full of stuff, or they ship their booths down), so it's fun to walk around to see some of these great booths.

Barb and her helper at the "Wild Thymes" booth right across from us.

The Camelot Cottons booth with our "Dreamsicle" quilt hanging right out front.