The other night I happened to glance out the door and sitting on the bird watering dish was a little bird.  Now this isn’t unusual because my folks are avid bird watchers.  Finches in all shades of yellow are always visiting the deck to feed from the finch feeders.  Every spring the purple martins are anxiously awaited to see if they, or the sparrows, will nest in the special house that towers in the backyard sky. 

So, seeing a bird isn’t anything out of the ordinary but this little bird was different.  You could still see the tufts of baby bird ‘fur’ and the red was just starting to show up on its breast.  A baby robin, venturing out into the world for the first time (we’d like to think).  Momma Robin has built a nest under the deck for many years and now we got to see one of her fledgings. 

He drank a little water and hopped along the rail.  Now, this deck sits two stories high so it must have seemed miles from the ground.  Here came Momma Robin encouraging him to fly away but he wasn’t ready.  She would take off in flight and then come back, showing him how it was done.  He would hop along, and even fly from one part of the deck rail to the other.  He would peer over the edge.  She even brought him a little snack while he was sitting there. 

We would look out the door and there he sat, still working up the courage to fly back to the nest.  Finally, when it was almost dark, we looked out and he was gone.  He’d found the bravery to use his wings and sail off  into the world, at least until he got the the lower deck and the safety of his nest.  It’s not often we get to see the young ones as they learn. 

I’m not sure there’s a quilting lesson in all of this.  Maybe it’s that we all need try a new technique, use a color combination that we aren’t comfortable with.  Then we, too, will ‘tackle the world and take off in flight’.  Is there an aspect of quilting that you haven’t tried yet? 

Have a great quilting day everyone!
Margie

We walked our way through Spring Quilt Market looking for new tools that we thought would help our customers in their quilting adventure.  Here are a couple of them that we ordered for both the Omaha and the O’Neill shop.  The first machine is the Big Shot.  You will be able to cut strips, squares, and half-square triangles with it.  The demo we watched showed cutting through 6 layers of cotton.  Think how fast you can cut up the pieces needed for your next quilt.

This next machine is a larger version.  It’s called the Big Shot Pro.  It will handle larger dies.  We checked and you could put in two dies at the same time so you could be cutting the strips and the squares you need for your quilt project. 

We’ll let you know as soon as these goodies arrive in our shops.  We’ll be demoing them.  We’re starting with the most popular dies but we do plan to add more as we go along.  Don’t worry if you’re in a hurry – we can place a special order for you and have other dies in stock very shortly.  Also, the company says that they will be releasing many new dies as the summer progresses. 

Tell us what you think of this new tool.  Do you think it would be of help to you?  We really want to hear your opinion.

Today we spent our day attending mini-presentations – I think there were 15 sessions, each was 15 to 30 minutes long.  We saw new patterns, new fabric lines, new notions and ways to use the notions we already have.   This is a chance for designers to get our undivided attention, even it it’s only for 15 minutes.    They hold up quilts so that we can ooh and ahh and make a note of the pattern.  Then we know who to visit on the market floor .  This picture is one of Terry Atkinson’s new patterns called Popsicle Sticks.  I think it’s a winner so we’ll definitely be bringing home that pattern. 

Stay tuned for news from the market floor tomorrow night.  In the meantime, I think I’ll go soak my poor, aching feet!

Margie

We made it to Minneapolis this evening and can’t wait for the fun to begin.  Tomorrow we will spend the day in schoolhouse sessions.  Vendors, designers, authors, and fabric companies will be presenting informative sessions throughout the day.  They are all geared to entice us to come to their booth during market and make a purchase. 

We’ll be snapping a few pictures and will share them with you each evening.

Thank you for spending a few minutes of your evening with us. 

Margie

P.S. If there is something in particular that you would like for us to look for.  Leave us a comment and we’ll do our best.

Here is a block from the book ‘When a Cold Wind Blows’  – I just love the size of these blocks – 30″ square

Welcome to the ‘maiden’ posting on the new Log Cabin Quilt Shop blog.  We hope you’ll visit often. 

 We will be sharing what is happening around the shop.  Please feel free to comment and let us know what you are up to.

It’s going to be a fun blog, so let’s get posting!

Margie