On the road again

On the road again, this time Nut's and I left home on the 28th April for the US of A.

The plan was for me to go to the HMQS show in Salt Lake City.

Well, I have already been there and it was amazing. But first, we arrived in New York on Wednesday morning and all I can remember of that time is that I managed to get hold of my cousin Val who lives in Toronto, we had a lovely chat and I sent her some pictures from Russell and Anna's wedding.

Also had a wonderful meeting with my friend Anita again, she has just come out with her new book and I bought from her 5 signed copies for 4 of my lucky friends.

Friday I left to spend shabbat with Keren in Chicago and left Nuts in NY.

I arrived at her home at exactly the same time as she, well timed.

As always we had a great time together, did manage to get to Joannes for a bit, bought a couple of new books. Just nice to explore familiar places again. and spend time with my friend just "being" together.

Monday I was off to SLC, the flight coming in was spectacular over the snow tipped mountains, but surprisingly the weather on the ground was very warm, after settling in to the hotel, I walked across the way to get some grocery supplies and it was pleasantly hot.

Tuesday morning bright and (too) early I was eagerly off to the show,I was the very first one there. I thought I would have to stand in the queue to get my package. but it was nice to meet the ladies as they arrived.

All in all the classes were great, I had a wonderful time and met wonderful people.

Nuts arrived on Thursday afternoon, just in time to pick me up from the show with all my shopping bags full, and I didn't even have time to see the quilts, so, we went back the next morning to see the exhibit of which I have posted the pictures on my facebook page.

Can you believe it, I needed a nail repair and it was right across the road from the hotel, what luck.

we had a wonderful weekend with Anna's family, they came flying in at the nth hour before shabbat came in, just enough time to get everything ready. Corinne outdid herself with all the wonderful food that she had so lovingly prepared for us all, what a treat it was.

On Sunday we hit the road and made our way South through Utah towards the town of Moab Close by there we took a drive through the Canyonlands Nature reserve and again these wonderful pictures are on my facebook pages.

We slept over in Moab, a very pretty town and on Monday morning we toured the Arches National park with spectacular rock formation sites to see.

Thereafter we drove along a the Colorado river for most of the way towards Grand junction and the I-70. where we turned off at Glenwood springs, we thought to go through the Rockies and Aspen on our way to Salida, but, fortunately and timously we had to turn back as we saw signs that the Independence Pass was closed. so we backtracked and went around on another road, but that too was a very pretty drive. Unfortunately we had to travel at night and it was getting late, but we made it to our hotel by about 9pm

Today Tuesday we were in a more leisurely mode and with less mileage to drive and made our way towards Colorado Springs along a charming scenic route and the Arkansas River for the first part of the journey, then the clouds started to roll in and it became cold, so, we decided to give the "Royal Gorge" a miss. I am sure if you google it you will see what it is all about, mostly a re-creation of days gone by, western style, and a drive or walk or train ride over the bridge. Had the weather been bright and sunny we would certainly have done it. but I was not warmly enough dressed.

Never mind.

Instead we continued and stopped of at quilt shops, perfect weather for this, two of the places we stopped at were closed down altogether, sign of the times I guess. the others were well worth the stops.

We arrived in Denver in good time this afternoon and have settled into our hotel nice and early. and it being cold and rainy outside serves it's purpose for an early night for us.

We went to a Kosher Deli/restaurant/grocer store for a nice meaty dinner, and hot cuppa soup.

It started to snow as we returned to the hotel, maybe it will snow more tomorrow it is expected to.

Tomorrow is another exciting day for quilt shop hopping and the quilt museum and whatever else the day will bring and this weather is perfect for it, we will stock up with fresh sandwiches from the kosher Deli around the corner, and return for another delicious hot meal tomorrow night.

I am sure I will have some more pictures to post by then, so.

Till then,

Bye for now.

Terry

Whatever happened to 2008 and 2009

Wow, whatever happened to 2008 and 2009, certainly in my blogosphere I have been away for a helleva long time, too busy quilting, traveling, quilting, traveling marrying off our son, quilting, getting ready to marry off our daughter, traveling, quilting, you get the picture.
I have been away from blogging for a long time now, and I think it is time to get back to it.
The TV here is awful so I am spending more time on my MacBook Pro learning new things all the time.
Of course this is over and above my days spent in my studio.
Now that I am back from our 2009/10 vacation in South Africa and a short stop over in Australia to meet the new arrivals Gabi and Mia Mowszowski (sisters to Dan) born on the 18th January to Raffy and Mandy,and have started to re-settle back into the routine of home and into my studio again, there is quite a lot happening in there.
Zvia and Carol both have had a few quilts they have been working on and have been doing amazing stuff.
I need to get back into some piecing and quilting again but, it is forever the weekend and getting ready for another Shabbat and time just seems to be running away and I am having a hard time trying to catch up with it these days.
OK, enough grouching, time to move forward.
After a wonderful 2 months away from home, but still at home from home. some thing I have been working on.
While we were in Wilderness I managed to complete quite a lot of stuff.
I started by making these round jewelery travel pouches, and got quite carried away, I think I made at least a dozen of them. My friend Pam came to visit and took 6 back with her for her family, so I made some more. Gave one to my sister in law, and took some with when we went to Cape Town for the weekend. I was left with only two. which I gave one to Anna(new daughter in law) when we got back.
Also on the table was a lovely Aleph Bet quilt wall hanging in blues and golds,and a large fun scrappy quilt for the floor, took some pictures but for some reason the camera just did not flash, so whatever pictures I took then just did not come out great.
While still in Wilderness I needed a couple more baby quilts for some close friends having grandchildren, So I made a few more. I also managed another tote bag from some pale yellow japanese fabrics.
A fun quilt from a roll of fabrics I took with me to make from the book "Happy Hour" and at the moment I am putting together the quilt that comes about from the leftovers that is on my worktable at the moment. They will make great batmitzvah gifts. Also a Raffle quilt project I started last year. I took it with me in the hope of working on it , but it just seemed to get pushed further back with every other thing I was working on. It is actually working out better here at home as I have the design wall to put it on instead of crawling around the floor. It is all ready in a tray next to the sewing machine and the first 4 rows have been completed. At the same time as the strippy quilt which I hope to complete the top before I get to bed tonight.
I have to re-learn a few things here like how to post the pictures again then we will be fully back on track with a lot of catching up to do.
So till next time
Bye for now
Terry

Quinglish 2007

I recently held our Quinglish day at my home again during the festival of Succoth.
Here are some pictures of the quilts hanging on the fence.
The first and third quilts are mine, both for gifts for Barmitzvahs.

The quilt in the middle is Zvia's. These are yet unfinished.
The quilts in this picture are mostly the quilts made by Carol Smith for charity.
Here are more quilts from my quilting friends hanging on the fence.















Here is Zvia with a charming, recently completed quilt.















Hope you enjoy these.

Well,

I am off again on some more travels, this time to Boston, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire with DH. I am looking forward to showing him around some of the places I went to before with Keren in 2005. But now my focus has shifted from mostly quilting fabrics, to longarm machine quilting, doesn't mean I wont buy more fabics, possibly more threads and things for the machine. I am also looking forward to meeting new quilters along the way and catching up with some friends from previous travels.

At this point in time we are still very much practising on Sadie so there's nothing to show yet. We disconnected the belts and are trying our hand a some freemotion quilting in the constant speed mode, we tried the regulated mode and found it very difficult to do smoothe work.

We are all three of us used to the constant fast speed of quilting from our regular machines, now if we could only get to make some really nice smooth feather like linda V Taylor who always says

"If she can do it, so can we" well that will take us a lot more practise, practise practise.

So I have only a few days left to get on with it. One of these days I will post something that looks half way decent that we will make on the machine.

So, till we met again after this trip whe we get back in November,

Bye for now.

Terry

It has been a while

It has been a while since my last post, notwithstanding we have been travelling again.
We were in Potomac Maryland for the wedding of the daughter of special longstanding friends, that was a delightful wedding. We stayed with other wonderful new friends, and were made very welcome and comfortable in their home.
I managed to spend a day with Marty from Dogwood studios in Baltimore learning some more about how to use Sadie. I think, just by watching a pro. at work, one can learn a lot, sorry I am very lax with the camera, and forgot to take pics.
Since coming home We - (Zvia, Carol and myself) have managed to spend a few days working with Sadie and trying to get a baby quilt done, lets hope we can produce something not to disasterous, we will only really know when the quilt comes off the machine.
Oh, how I wish we were beyond this awful learning stage already, yes, I know we have to go through it, but I just wish we were well into knowing more, and I know we will get there EVENTUALLY.
I limit myself from playing with the machine till the times we are together, that frees me to still keep up with and do other things, lately I have been playing with my embroidery machine, making some hand towels with pretty baby animal pictures on for gifts for some new babies.
As well as teaching a dear friend how to quilt. she is 12 years old and is learning on all the equipment, tools and fabrics from her late grandmother, this is something special for her, and me to do together.
As well, I have two VIP barmitzvah quilts to make, one is in the process and need only the borders put on before the top is complete, and the other hasn't even been formed yet in my mind, stuggling to come up with something new, I guess I need to have a chat with the chap and get a feel from him, maybe that will help.
Other works in progress of course is the Chuppah, time for me to continue with it.

Oh I nearly forgot. I have recently had the pleasure of having friends over from the States. Susan came to visit her son who came to play professional baseball here in Israel for the summer, she joined him for the last two matches and a couple of weeks touring around the country. I took her one day to Tel Aviv and the charm of Old Jaffa, and then to lunch at my favourite vegetarian restaurant, before we walked Nachalat Benjamin, the textile center next to the market, where we ambled along as well, this was like being a tourist again. This was good for Susan ,who happens to be my friend who has been supplying me, for the last nine years or so with the most delicious collection of Japanese fabrics, one day PG we will manage to go with her to Japan as she takes tours there every year to coinside with the Japanese quilt festivals, as well as giving her groups an insight into their lifestyle, culture and more. Maybe one of these days I will even venture into actually using some of my collection, till I pass the stage of taking them out every now and then looking at them, stroking and sorting them and dreaming of what I would like to do with them one day.
Then also on Sunday I took them for a drive up north to Tiberius for lunch and a toe in the Sea of Galillee, then on to the charming and mystical city of Zfat. A friend took us around the artists quarters and even into her home for refreshements (always needed). We then walked around the artists quarters and along Trinket Ally before we felt absolutely wiped out, I think more from the heat than anything else, pity, it is always a delight to go up there, but will have to wait till it is cooler I'm afraid.
So now you know what's been keeping me busy over the last few weeks or so.
Till next time
Bye for now
Terry

Sadie my quilting lady is home

The "birthing" of Sadie n Statie,
Sadie has been safely delived into the studio, Russell enjoyed putting her together under Paul's instruction, I think he was just keen to get "Statie" the computer set up and eager to get that going to play with, he thoroughly enjoys playing with it now from time to time, I think I have a budding quilter in the making.
Natan enjoyed watching her grow up and is a very proud 'papa'. Paul Statler, was such a charming gentleman with endless patience even into the wee hours of the morning, when we were all ready to drop on our feet, with scrambled brains and aching muscles he was still ready to continue for another couple of hours, or so he said, it must have been the Jet lag.
Here are just a few pictures to show you all. Watching her grow up to her full size was quite awesome, she is no small baby and takes up most of the studio now, I have quite a lot of re-organizing to do to feel comfortable in here again.
I am please that I have invited 3 of my friends to come and learn with me, I don't feel so alone and it is great to have company while we learn together. She is the one and only quilting machine of her kind in the country, so I needed to start a group of my own here.
Zvia my friend and I are taking instructions from Paul during his very short but intense visit.
Now slowly we are starting to try everything again on our own and it's slow going, but we are making progress, working our way though it step by baby step and enjoy the moments when we figure things out and it works.



I have finally managed to get some order into the studio and yesterday sat down and actually managed to do some sewing. I have some quilts I really need to complete, a few more in my head that I need to make, no time to be bored.

I have a number of baby quilts we are making for charity that we can practise on, so far we have managed one that looks half way decent, and one that was a disaster as we tried to do it with a fleece backing the normal way, The quilting was great, it just all puckered up when it came off the machine and we had a good laugh, it's all part of the learning curve.
So, I guess you now know where to find me, I am either with Sadie n Statie or Bernie and friends, in the 'Movibear studio'.
Very seldom will you find me in the kitchen, TG my kids can cook and there are plenty of take away deli's close by.
Bye for now,
Till next time

Terry

My "baby" has arrived

Our "baby" has arrived finally at last, it took a couple of tries to get here and unpacked.

The shippers originally said they would send it on Tuesday, but the van they packed it in was too short for the 12 foot length of one of the crates to fit. then they said it was coming on Wedensday morning which it did, great excitements, only thing was there was nobody around to unpack it, they thought it was going to a factory where there would be other people to take it off the truck, so, back to Ashdod it went. then they called to say it was on it's way back on Wednesday afternoon with a couple of fellas to help off load. Now she sits on the floor taking up all the space in my studio awaiting to be assembled wich will be PG on Monday.

This baby now has a name from now on she will be called "SADIE" as she is my quilting lady. Hopefully our Rabbi will come and give her a bracha when she is up and ready to sew. Yes that's right, just like that scene in Fiddler on the Roof, but just in modern times, and she is the first of her kind here in Israel, a pioneer.

In the meantime, I can't get to my sewing machine to do anything so, what does a good Jewish mother do when she can't do anthing else, that's right - cook. Just as well, as it is my beloved son's 26th birthday today, so a good shabbat dinner is planned for all the family together.

Till next time.

Bye for now

Terry

I am back

Yes I know it has been a while since I last sat down to write, not that I have not tried, but I seem to now have managedto get some pictures uploaded and I am finally geetting it right, I think, I still need to learn a thing or two. I will direct you all to my webshots pages where all my pictures are anyway. Info at the end of this blog.

We have been very busy travelling lately, especially to Australia for simcha's. In May we were there for the batmizvah of a niece. and came home again for 3 weeks. In June we went again this time with all the family for a wedding and a special birthday. all the family get togethers were just great and we had an amazing time all round.
My two quilt gifts were a great success. beautifully quilted for me by my new friend and quilter Lyndall woods in Sydney at Norwest quilting. It was fun to go and collect the quilts and I enjoyed feeding the birds of which there were many of those funny white parrots with their yellow plume feathers on top of their heads, quite cheeky they were when it comes to food, there were some other lovely birds in her back yard that day.

All round the time we spent with family in Sydney was very special, and we look forward to hosting them here soon when it will be the 2 nephews barmitzvah's here in October and November. (of which I am busy making quilts for). So many quilts to make...... not enough time to quilt, but soon hopefully that will be fixed, that is, if we don't stop travelling around so much.

We are counting the hours now till the "new baby" arrives. She has docked and is busy with the customs at the moment. I seem to be holding my breath that she will arrive on time (by Friday the latest) The Statlers are coming here next week for a week, arriving on Sunday morning to help with the setting up and training, Still trying to come up with a name for the Gammill Supreme and Statler stitcher.
I have been mooching around in my studio lately feeling very unsettled, I have to start moving things around and changing and re-arranging a lot of things in order for her to fit in here comfortably.

So, pop into my webshots pages at http://www.webshots.com/ and go to "community" "search" and look for me terrymow100. There are a number of albums, my quilts will be in Terrys quilting pages. my friends quilts, exhibitions and "quinglish days" quilts will be in my"Terry's friends" albums, family and friends and other will have their own albums so do pop in and browse.

I will probbably only pop in and write again after the "new baby" has arrived and settled in, so, till then.
Bye for now
Love
Terry