Karen Kay Buckley

I attended Quilt Odyssey in Hershey this past week.  I was so excited when I entered the lobby of the convention center to find the Brandywine Valley Quilters had made their version of my Majestic Mosaic quilt for their 2016 raffle quilt.  It is impressive.  This is a ton of work for a raffle quilt.  They had asked for my permission to use my pattern and I said yes but I had not yet seen the quilt.

I hope they sell a truck load of tickets because that was a lot of work.

Once in the show there were lots of great quilts.  Here are just a few.  I liked this miniature quilt by Masnobu Miyama from Japan.  The name of the quilt is “Focus”.  I wish you could see this up close.  It has lots of detailed thread work.

And then “Consider the Lilies” by Audra Rasnake from Virginia won ‘Best Hand Quilting”.

Check out this quilting.  I’ve attended Quilt Odyssey many times and I am always impressed with the amount of hand quilted quilts.

“Joy Aviatrix” was made by Ellen Simmons and quilted by Jan Hauprich.

Check out the machine quilting.

And Claudia Pfiel from Germany won Best of Show for “Waven Journey”.

Again, it’s about the quilting.  The letters are created by quilting heavily around the lettered areas.   Very interesting concept.

“Weather the Storm” by Elizabeth Bauman was a very interesting quilt also.  I liked how she combined the Ocean Waves design in the background with the compass at the top and the wave design at the bottom.

Dana Mason sent me this photo.  She took my Fiesta Mexico-Block Three workshop.  I love the way Dana’s pillow turned out.  Thanks for sharing Dana.

Until next week…..

Last weeek I promised some photos Joe and I took of the animals we saw in the Rocky Mountain National Park during our visit to Longmont, Colorado.

We saw Big Horn Sheep, Papa sheep

and young son

A Black Bear (Boo-boo)

A momma Moose

And her shy baby moose

And so many Elk

Some even wore earrings and sang for us

And even some baby elk

As we were driving down the mountain into Boulder we spotted this deer on the side of the road. It was so, so hot, she decided to dig a spot in the cool wet dirt and have a nap in the shade

Here is a photo of Joe and me on our morning walk

We drove up to Allen Park and came upon this amazing, little church built into the rock. St. Catherine’s was built in the late 1920s and is amazing from every side.

Wow: “Upon this Rock I shall build a church”

We returned home to Carlisle and discovered our two love bird vultures (see the May Blog) had not one but two babies! Mom was teaching them how to get a drink.

I love their fuzzy little heads

Off to the quilt show in Hershey, PA, the sweetest place on earth! Chocolate and quilts, life is good!

Rocky Mountain High, ah!!!!!!

I Love, Love, Love Colorado.  I was in Longmont two years ago teaching for the Colorado State Guild and this past week I returned as the guest instructor for the Longmont Guild. To find out more or to join this fantastic group visit http://www.longmontquiltguild.org

I taught one hand and one machine applique class. Here are some of the ladies in the machine applique class.  The classes were held at a nice shop called The Presser Foot.  Isn’t this a great classroom area?  To find out more about Melanie and her shop visit http://www.thepresserfoot.com/

When I was in Longmont,  Mary Ramsey  asked me if she would be able to attach two of the 3″ Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Adjustable Rulers to make a 48″ long ruler?  I said, “I  have not tried building one that long”.  So, Mary decided to be the tester and the results were great.  Mary said in her email…

“Successfully linked 2 pkgs of the 3″ rulers together, this will be the easiest time I’ve ever had making bias binding.”

Thank you Mary for being the tester and for sharing the info.

Here are the ladies and gentlemen of the Longmont Quilt Guild.  Big guild.

Some students who had taken class with me two years ago brought their projects to my lecture for show and tell.

Here is Laurel Hoppes’ Fiesta Mexico Block Nice. Great applique!

and Von Yetzer with her Fiesta Mexico Block Nine project totally finished. Great job ladies.

It was quite warm in and around the Longmont/Boulder area (100 degrees every day). But, we did spend an afternoon visiting the many shops and eateries on Pearl Street.  Into the Wind, a kite shop, just brought a smile to my face.

There were two evenings we headed into the mountains  and saw some amazing animals which I’ll share next week. I am home sewing for the next 7 weeks. Yaahoo!

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Book Review

Shelly recommended “Mutant Message Down Under” as a book she really liked.  This is a fictional account of an American women’s journey with an Australian aboriginal tribe.  She is sort of kidnapped (you’ll understand when you read the book) but then happy to learn the customs and spiritual healing of this culture that is more than 50,000 years old.   I found the book to be interesting and very thought provoking.

Our 35th wedding anniversary is today, July 4th.  Yes, we were married on the 4th of July. There were plenty of fireworks and lots of rain.  Everyone told me rain was good luck on your wedding day and they appear to have been correct.  I have some fond memories from our wedding day…….we decided to drive around and waste a little time to allow our friends and family to get to the reception hall.  We were on some back roads and yes, we got stuck in the mud.  Joe and me all dressed in white.  I, of course, stayed in the car while Joe and Scott got us out of the mud and to the reception just in time for the first dance.  We were able to get all the mud off of Joe’s nice white suit, too.

For our anniversary this year, we talked about going some place. But, honestly, I travel so much with my job, which I love, that staying home seemed like more fun to me.  With two aging dogs….Sasha at 17 1/2 and Tillie almost 16….who knows how much longer we’ll have them.  So, we decided to stay home.  We also decided that it was crazy to purchase gifts……just to purchase gifts.  I think we made the best decision.  We really wanted to get back to doing some bicycle riding so….. we bought each other bikes!  Which bike do you think is mine?  I LOVE my new bike.  We already rode on the Rails to Trails between Newville and Shippensburg and it has been awesome.

Here is a view of the trail.  So far, we’ve seen deer, a whole racoon family, lots of bunnies, hundreds of birds and a truckload of groundhogs.  It has been fabulous weather for riding and no hills!!

I am so lucky to have married my best friend.  I am looking forward to lots of bike rides and many more memorable experiences.

By the way, I also received this beautiful bouquet of 35 white roses.  Oh, he’s a keeper.

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I have to share two new additions to my studio which I found during my recent travels. I love bugs, under glass.  Just the ones under glass.  Did I mention….only under glass?  OK, and in the garden.  Just not in my house please.

She is the world’s largest insect, about 10 inches long. She is a “jungle nymph” from Malaysia. If I were in charge of giving bugs names, I would call them what I think I’d say if I saw one in the jungle: “scaredapoopis outaus”

This little lady can be found in Guiana in South America. I’d name her “beautius hopperus”. These bugs are not alive, but professionally preserved in great display cases. Aren’t they beautiful?

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Joe went out fishing in the mountains this week and here are a few things he saw:

Mountain Laurel in bloom (it’s Pennsylvania’s State Flower)

A female Ruffed Grouse (it’s Pennsylvania’s State bird) and her chicks

and, of course, a native Brook Trout (yes, you guessed it, Pennsylvania’s State fish)

Happy Birthday America and happy quilting to all!!