Northern Neighbors | If These Threads Could Talk

Spring has finally sprung here in Central New York. I spent the last week in March in North Carolina with Deb Tucker and my fellow Studio 180 Design Certified Instructors (CI’s). We meet up every year to continue our Studio 180 education. It is one of my favorite gatherings. It is so good to see everyone again. We learn so much from each other. We are more like a family than CI’s.

This is Carla Alexiuk and I with Dan Perkins photo bombing us!

Some blocks from a pre-cut challenge.

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The best part was we got to play with Deb’s new tool coming out at Spring Market, it’s fabulous!

The other best part of my trip was spending time with my Sons Jason & Josh, whom I love and adore!

On the way home I stopped in Virginia Beach and taught a Northern Neighbors class. We had such a good time!

I sure miss you guys!

When I got home it was my determination to paint my quilt studio aptly named “Tuckerville”!

Painting paneling is horrible! But this room was so dark I couldn’t stand it anymore. I chose what I consider to be a happy color “Aqua Chiffon”!

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The stairwell is bright now! You can see the Joyce McCorduck (my mother) memorial Shultz & Dooley display. The girls to welcome you at the bottom of the stairs, along with one of my brooms for a fast get away! And, Grandma Bessie’s quilt watching over me!

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It is a long room, with places to sew and 2 cutting stations, a design wall, not to mention a comfortable couch and big TV. I love the new color.

I want to introduce you to the “Mayor of Tuckerville”

Her name is Tucker, Tuck for short, because she has already tucked herself in my heart. I pick her up in a few weeks, there will be more pictures to follow.

Go quilt something!

Before you reach for your dictionary, I made that word (kaleidocally) up! These Kaleidoscope/hexagon quilts are fun and addictive as you can tell by the fact I have now made 56 of them! This year Grand Central Station in New York City and Union Station in Utica New York celebrated their 100th birthday. I had wanted to make a quilt to celebrate this fact but was overcome by events. The year 2014 has been challenging for me to say the least. Needless to say I found my self facing the last week in 2014 and my goal was to get this quilt top done, and I did – in 4 days. It is News Years Eve, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

I wanted to show you some interior pictures of Union Station in Utica NY. I love this train station. When I was 12 I left from Union Station and went all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a thrill for me and I have loved trains ever since.

Isn’t the marble gorgeous?

I absolutely love the oak seats. This is a very active train station.

Below is a fabric from Timeless treasures I chose for this kaleidocally hexed quilt. It is a city scape of landmarks in New York City. I will have to make another quilt that represents the rest of New York (which is stunningly beautiful)!

Below is the top I finished in 4 days aptly named “New York – Kaleidocally Hexed”. I recorded my self making this top and shared the video’s on this blog.

I so look forward to 2015 and pushing on with other quilt projects like Studio 180 Design’s “Northern Neighbors”! Happy New year everyone and God Bless!