Kari's Creations and Musings

  It’s been awhile, but I’m back! It was September when I last made a blog post. My apologies to those who enjoy my blog! Rest assured, I have not lost interest. I’ve just been super busy! And, a road trip to Duluth, Minnesota, put me way behind on my monthly goals. My daughter Anna and I drove my mom all the way to the cool, breezy, misty rainy and foggy city of Duluth for a family wedding. The road trip was 17 hours and 1,000 miles one way! We faced a few challenges on the trip, but the three of us enjoyed our time together. Anna flew from Houston to Huntsville to join us for the trip. Before we left, we squeezed in a visit to my mom at the lake, where we got in a late summer swim! The water was cool, but so refreshing and fun. The next day, we took off for Duluth. It was a quick trip with few stops, but Anna and I convinced my mom that we should make our lunch stop at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. We ate a picnic lunch and then spent about 45 minutes in the museum....

  Make new friends, but keep the old … that is the motto I would like to define my life. I remember singing it as a Girl Scout, both as a young girl and later as the leader of my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. With my involvement in Heritage Quilters of Huntsville and as the founder of two stitch groups through the years, it’s evident that I do live this motto every day. I love doing things and collaborating, instigating, planning and celebrating with friends (that includes my family as friends, too!).  Over the years, I’ve been involved with several block swaps with friends. The very first one was a swap where 7 of us chose our colors for a signature block or a square-in-a-square block. We made two blocks for each of the participants. I chose pinks and reds and the square-in-a-square block. My plan was to put red hearts in the middle of each of my blocks. When I received my blocks, I was dismayed because one of the participants made signature blocks for me. My first response wa...

During the first months of retirement, I have had many opportunities thrown at me! It’s been amazing to spend time with friends and family, to reconnect with my hobbies and interests (quilting, quilting, quilting!), and to especially take advantage of leadership challenges that have come my way. Right off the bat and practically timed with the beginning of my retirement year, was the opportunity to serve as co-chair of the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville Fanfare Quilt Show, set for March 15 and 16, 2024. This is a very big undertaking, but I know that co-chairing with my wonderful friend Cheryl Heeth and with an awesome committee, we will make it happen with great success! We are stepping it up this year by taking on a much bigger space at the Von Braun Center (South Hall 2), which is providing more room for the show itself along with vendors, special exhibits, and demonstrations and lectures. In August, we unveiled our show's Opportunity Quilt! Isn't it wonderful! We are hop...

  One of the very best things about quilting are the friends you make along this creative journey. Just as there are always new techniques and skills to learn, and new quilts to make, so, too are there new friends and new adventures to enrich your quilting experience. With more free time in retirement, I’ve gotten to spend more time with quilting friends both far and wide – and I’ve picked up several quilting projects along the way!   During a guild retreat in January, friends Sonya O. and Debbie L. were working on a fabulous quilt called Morningside designed by Chris Schulte of Green Light Quilts in Nashville. The bird houses and flowers, and the colors are so amazing and fun! Well I bought the pattern (but haven’t started it yet!). But, I took it one step further by reaching out to Chris about speaking at a meeting of Heritage Quilters of Huntsville (I’m the Program VP). So, now I have a pattern to start working on very soon and a contract for Chris to speak at our Octob...

  Now, it’s time to finally share with you my new sewing space. I am very fortunate to be able to go from a sewing room to a sewing studio that includes two rooms and more space for creating and sewing and quilting. Making this big move was one of the main goals of my first year of retirement.   For the past 10 years, my daughter’s old bedroom has been my sewing room (prior to that it was our tiny bedroom under the eaves). Needless to say, I had a very “cozy” sewing room with lots of stuff everywhere. For the a few years now, I’ve been wanting to expand my sewing room, taking over a small TV room over the garage and expanding the room with an addition to the house. But that’s an expensive idea!  One of my friends – Joanie – visited one day and I showed her the upstairs TV room and told her what I wanted to do. She looked at that tiny bedroom under the eaves that is adjacent to the TV room (and that was my first sewing room) and said “Why don’t you add this room to y...