A blogger is obliged to recap. So recap I must.

I can already look back at it reminiscently.  Fondly.  Wistfully even.  I scroll through the pictures that are physical proof of how the summer of 2014 was spent and think it was just as summer is supposed to be.  Outside.  With friends and family. On the water.  Doing things we love.

"I love the river Mom."  She said.  "Me too." I said.  "I'd swim in a lake over a swimming pool any day of the week." She said.  "Me too."  I said.

Good stuff happens on a bike trail. When you are hot and sweaty and breathing hard in the late June heat.  Kids talk.  And I really try to be present to listen.

 I made things this summer.  Most of them involved food.  Or jokes.

And I crawled through caves.  Not these caves, however, as this was a small trip Razor, our girls and their cousins took. Camping, rivers, water slides, caves and s'mores.  Those girls will remember that trip for the rest of their lives.

I started teaching my oldest how to drive.

And I spent a few days in Oklahoma City teaching and sewing with friends.  My favorite were the late night pow-wows with these two.

Snap. Flash. Boom.

Summer's over.

-dana

On a jet plane

I'm headed out for a few days with friends.  We've been planning it for months and the day is finally here.  I'm bringing projects to work on but even if I never sew a stitch, just being with crafty friends and solving all of the world's problems together will be all the productivity my soul needs.

-dana

Sew-OK

Have you heard the buzz about Sew OK?  Sew OK is a sewing retreat founded by Susannah Kate Rodgers and Jemellia Hilfiger.  Both share a love of sewing, fabric, quilting and the community that this passion creates.  They met by chance and it was fate that they would collaborate to create Sew OK a year later.  Without knowing, Susannah Kate and Jemellia were both dreaming and scheming of creating a retreat near their home, they had even chosen the same name.

And I'm thrilled to say that I will be teaching quarter circle/curved piecing at Sew OK.  Carolyn Friedlander will also be teaching so you know it's going to be good.

I hope you say you'll come.  Cause I'd love the chance to meet you!

-dana

Sew South was . . .

Trying to recap all that Sew South was is like trying to nail jelly to the wall.  Like frantically trying to describe a dream as it floats away like a whisper before all the details are firmly cemented in my brain for an accurate retelling.  The words well up in my chest but before they make it to my mouth my body defies me and renders me unable to speak.

From the first tentative glimpses at one another in the hotel lobby to the collective sigh of relief when we made it to We're Sew Creative and knew that we could totally hang with the 49 other fabric crazed ladies, Sew South created a community.  Reading name tags hung from lanyards around necks and then putting a face to the name I've known so long online.  Clinking glasses at dinner.  Plugging in sewing machines and letting the fabric and thread fly.  Hearing needles break besides just my own.   Standing at the cutting tables.  Or the irons.  Or around a new friend's station as we talked about anything and everything.  And feeling my soul fill up. 

I made things.  Learned new tricks.  And am now finding a home for a truck load of new supplies, fabric, patterns, and finished goods from amazingly generous sponsors (Pellon, Dritz, Oliso, We're Sew Creative, Fabricworm, Ellison Lane Quilts, Westminster, Studio Cherie, While Baby Naps, Art Gallery, Fat Quarter Shop, GenQ, Windham Fabrics, Michael Miller Fabrics, Allison Glass, Brandy Lynn's, Spoonflower, Andover, The Warm Company, Coats & Clark, Aurifil, Downtown Tape, Kati Cupcake, Stash Books, Green Bee Design & Patterns, Oliver & S, Havel's Sewing, Pen and Paint, Moda, Martingale, Rachel Gresham Designs, The Intrepid Thread and Swatch Buddies) and friends. 

But it's that feeling of community that I take with me everywhere I go now.  It's intangible.  Irreplaceable.  Indescribable.

And unstoppable.

Sew South rocked it out of the park.  Thank you to Jennifer for making it happen and the sponsors that provided supplies to make our workstations so efficient.

And thank you to each and every one of you beautiful souls that attended and shared so freely with me.

-dana

Sewing Summit Recap -- WINNER ANNOUNCED

I've mentioned several times (especially if you follow me on Twitter . . . uh.  . . sorry about that) that I attended and taught at the first annual Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City.   I lugged my big ole camera around with me everywhere I went and barely managed to take any photos.  This was due largely in part to terrible indoor lighting and I was just too busy flapping my lips to stop and take a photograph.

Apparently I spent the entire weekend making goofy faces.

Nice.

Here's a normal-ish one with Amy and I. 

Never mind the preceding one.

Wow.  That is a scary one I'm sporting with Summer.  Luckily she's just as wacky and joins along.

I've spent more than a week trying to summarize in my head just what Sewing Summit was like.  To say it was a giant meet up of folks I've "known" online is too simplistic because it was much more than that. 

To be surrounded by women that have the same passion that I do for quilting and/or sewing was like wearing thick cushy socks on a cold winter morning.  Stick with me here on this one.  The socks are so soft and cozy and warm and truly make your winter day a better one.  Right?  That is exactly what getting to meet and spend time with women that exist beyond the computer screen was like for me.  It sort of legitimized the whole blogging thing for me in a way.  I've made real friendships with so many amazingly talented women over the years and to know that that friendship transcends the Internet affirms in my mind those bonds.  Makes them more real.  More legitimate.  And even more amazing.

And, the new friends too.  Oh.  The new friends.

Wish I had some photos of all of the women to which I refer.

Anyway.

I put together a dinner for 40 attendees on Friday night during Sewing Summit.  I gave them each a necklace and I've got one to give away here as well.

photo totally hijacked from Erica at Sew Much to Do!

Leave a comment here before Friday at 6:00pm EST for your chance to win.  One comment per person.  International entries welcome.  Winner will be chosen by random draw and notified by me. . . so make sure I am able to contact you.

-dana

ETA:  I bought these specially designed necklaces from Cinnamon Sticks Designs.  I love all of Canela's designs and was especially pleased with what she came up with for this special necklace.  I do believe she is planning to offer them for sale in her shop . . . you'll have to drop her a line letting her know I sent ya!

ETA #2:  You can read lots of Sewing Summit recaps by following the links here.  Also, this one was nice!

ETA #3:  Contest is now closed.  Random Number Generator Dude selected number 16 Kendascrafts as the winner.  I'll be contacting her directly.  Thanks for stopping by and entering.  Hoping to resume regular blogging next week!

It was a real life blog meet up and I was scared.

A few weeks ago a friend from blogland contacted me and said she was headed through my part of the world. And she wanted to get together.  

And like meet.  In person.

I've never had the opportunity to meet a bloggie friend in real life.  Well, I did meet Wesley a few years ago but that was just by chance.  I didn't have to worry, er uh . . . plan in advance for it.  I remember thinking it was extraordinary to meet a total and complete stranger and they not be a total and complete stranger.

Well, Saturday was the day that Dee and her husband planned to drive to my house.  And I spent much of the week prior to and the morning of kind of fretting.  A woman was coming to my house that only knew me through my blog and the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along group on Flickr.  What if the real life version of me was a disappointment to her?

What if she noticed the baseboards were missing in the hallway?

What if she saw the bleak pile of dead ladybugs surrounding the entire perimeter of my house? (Sheesh.  Do you guys get these things trying to enter your house in the fall by the thousands?)

What if the endless barking of my dogs bugged her?

What if she noticed how badly my hair needs cut?

Or that my hair was still wet because I had only showered moments before she arrived?  Due mainly in part to the fact that I was scrubbing and vacuuming and tidying as fast as I could.  

Or what if my kids let it slip that I threatened to not take them trick-or-treating unless they dusted for me? (I jest.  Surely I jest.  I mean, cause what kind of mother would threaten such a thing!)

And what if she and her husband were offended that I take them to the local bakery for lunch rather than prepare some gourmet concoction?

Oh dear.  She was no in my driveway.  MY DRIVEWAY!!  There was no turning back now.

And after she was here for only moments I wondered what I ever fretted for in the first place.  After all, this was Dee and I kinda sorta already "knew" Dee.  And she was kind, thoughtful (she made us a beautiful table runner and coasters), funny, interesting, and totally down to earth.  What's more is she was also interested in what I had to say.  And what the girls had to say too. And had Razor been here he would have loved her every bit as much as I did and would have totally hit it off with her husband.

It's kind of crazy how I worried.  Having Dee in my home was like inviting an old dear friend over for the day.  After she left I found myself thinking how wonderful it would have been had she brought her sewing machine along too!

-dana