I’m heading to Madison tomorrow to Quilt Expo. Our assistant Stacy and later Bill will be vending with me in booth #534. I’ll be giving lectures every day at 11:30 so come by and say hi! Don’t be surprised if you see legendary Nancy Zieman and some cameras in the booth Thursday morning. Nancy’s dropping by to interview me for a Sewing with Nancy segment to air in 2015. I’ll be the one pinching myself that Nancy thinks I have something interesting to say.

The publishers of a new quilt-themed romance series called Quilts of Love (great book covers, right?) have sent us three books to give away! It’s an interesting concept as each book is written by a different author and take place during different eras. You Michiganders will see that the one on top takes place at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, where we’ll be teaching in 2016. We’ll mail them out when I return from Madison. Comment below if you’d like to win these three books and we’ll announce the winner next week. I’m afraid we’ll need to limit it to US addresses. You have until Monday September 8 to enter. Good Luck!

A few weeks ago in the midst of a bunch of deadlines, our interview on the Modern Sewciety podcast aired. Click here if you’d like to have a listen.

We’ve just returned from the AQS show in Grand Rapids but will be packing the van up soon for Madison. Quilt Expo in Madison is a fundraiser for Wisconsin Public Television and (the Master of All Things Sewn) Nancy Zieman. For the past three years in Madison we’ve had a small booth where we sell our fabrics, magazines, books, calendars and patterns and it has been a wonderful and fun event for us. This year Nancy Zieman’s office called (gasp — I know — right?!) and asked if I’d be interested in doing some lectures at the Expo. Now let’s be clear about this: even if I were on my death bed, if anyone related to Nancy Zieman asked me to do anything, the answer is yes. I have no interest in celebrities. I don’t care about housewives of whatever or what the Kardashians are doing (which is probably very little I’m guessing). But I’m in awe of people like Nancy Zieman who have built themselves wonderful organizations started in her case in her dining room making videos from hard work, expertise, treating people well and being a smart business person.

So I’ll be giving a lecture every day at 11:30am. On Thursday and Saturday, I’ll be giving a lecture entitled Quilts Made Modern, describing what makes a quilt modern and taking attendees step-by-step through a typical commission. On Friday I’ll be lecturing on Improvisational Quilting and showing various improvisational piecing techniques. I’ll also discuss strategies for quilting improvisational quilts. The rest of the time I’ll be vending in booth #534.

Here’s a link to the Advance Registration Guide, which includes the list of lectures.