eQuilter Blog

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For many years I have traveled every January to the Tokyo Quilt Festival, but this year I am skipping Japan to check of a big bucket list item: I am spending 2 weeks in New Zealand!

For those of you going to the quilt festival in Palmerston North, be sure to get tickets to my presentation Friday Jan 16 at 2:30 pm – "International Quilt Trends".

(I'll be giving the same presentation in Mexico City in March.)

I am leaving this Tuesday and will arrive Thursday in Christchurch on the South Island, where I will tour for a week. Then I arrive in Palmerston North on the 15th.

If you are coming to the festival please say hello if our paths cross! I am going to hang ou t in Sue Benner's Master Class for 4 days, so I can make some Southern Hemisphere art. I wonder what that will look like?

As always, I will be enthusiastically sharing my travels Down Under with you all on Facebook, on my photo page, and on my blog. I am sure the landscape of Lord of the Rings will be a great inspiration for my creative work in the coming year, and I look forward to sharing that with you.

My last trip Down Under was to Australia in 2012, when I attended the Australasian Quilt Conference in Melbourne, then went on a "Thelma & Louise" roadtrip on the Great Ocean Road with Pam Holland. (minus the final cliff scene!) I look forward to see ing many of our Australian friends at the festival as well.

Our Free Pattern newsletter (Thursday night/Friday morning) continues to be a Smash Hit with our customers! (If you don't get all 3 of our weekly newsletters, you can update your subscriptions HERE.)

Check out our 137 videos from international quilt festivals, Quilting Arts TV and Quilters Newsletter TV on our eQuilter Video Page.

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Travel Calendar:
Jan 16 2015 – Presenter at Quilt Symposium in Manawatu, New Zealand
Feb 26 – Quilt Festival in Mexico City

This weekend I am writing to you from the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston Texas. (Don't be jealous – it is cloudy, chilly and windy.)

I am seeing our NASA/Engineers Without Borders friends tonight – rocket scientists and maybe an astronaut or two? (Sounds like a scene from I Dream of Jeannie, right?) We have partnered with them on an orphanage/school project in Rwanda for many years, and now a new African project is in development.

I had enough hotel points to pay for a few free hotel nights at the end of the year, and I needed one more quick trip to clinch my Gold flier status, so here I am for 48 hours!

When I updated my Christmas card address list, I had to take off 7 names, including Paul's dad. I don't remember taking so many names off my list before, so I guess it is just another sign that we are all getting older, and it is the season to think about what is most important in life. My brother and his kids are visiting this week, and it will be fun to share our new puppy with them. Paul and our kids will travel to Hawaii for his dad's military funeral next week. (He was a WWII veteran.)

I am sitting in the lobby of a 100 year old hotel that has withstood many hurricanes, and I am watching a bridal party pass by. I watch as families with children tumble past, some tenderly holding snuggling babies, and a smiling Grandma slowly follows with her walker and red Christmas sweater.

I am thinking about all the celebrations and circles of Life that have passed through this big old lobby, and I smile as the young father tosses his giggling daughter in the air. It is the season for love, for memories, for giving from the heart, and for graciously opening up to receive the gifts of the season.

May the beauty of the season bring many blessings of the heart to you and your loved ones.

What is it about castles, princesses, unicorns and dragons?

We just can't get enough of them…. in movies, books, fairytales…and fabric!

The image above is a photo I took last year while visiting Glamis Castle in Scotland, where the Queen Mother grew up. I've included a collage of fantasy fabrics to go with the fairytale castle.

When I was a kid, the stories about princesses were about waiting for Prince Charming to come and save the day. These days little girls have better princess role models – brave girls who don't necessarily wait for a prince to complete the story or their happiness.

The archetype of a princess endures, but now she is more willing to "let it go" and be true to herself. She will catch and tame her own Unicorn or Dragon, thank you very much! I am thinking of the strong young women of Frozen, Brave, Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon. Little girls can have such adventurous fairytale fantasies these days… compared to when I was a girl. Is there a little girl in your life who dreams of taming the elements, or being a Dragon-Whisperer?