Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia

I've been watching the Olympics over the last couple days.  Have you?  I must say that I thought the Opening Ceremonies were quite amazing.  I really loved the way that Russia touched on  its very long history and showed its hope for the future.  I've also really enjoyed seeing the scenery surrounding Sochi.  What a lovely place.

Of course, as I watch the Olympics, I can't help but think about Nicholas and Nina Filatoff, the people featured in my latest quilt book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  They lived in Southern Russian for a time, and although it wasn't Sochi, I can't help but wonder about their life while they lived there before fleeing to Constantinople and later immigrating to the United States.

I am also thrilled to see the "patchwork" theme of the Olympics.  It's on the flags and banners, it's features on the boards of the skating rink, you can see it at the top of the number vests worn by the skiiers and snowboards.  It's so exciting to see "quilts" everywhere!

Here's the link to a great article which was actually written in 2011 by my publisher, Doug Weaver, of Kansas City Star Quilts.  What's really fun is that this article inpsired me to submit my book proposal to Kansas City Star to begin with!

From Russia Quilts With Love

I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I did!

Oh!  Before I forget......if you've been enjoying the Olympics, why don't you check out a copy of my book, A Russian Journey in Quilts? 

To purchase a signed copy, please visit my website:  www.orphanquilter.com.

Check This Out!

Hope that you can tune it -- it's going to be fun!

Schoolhouse Lecture From Houston for A Russian Jounrey in Quilts

The other day I finally posted my schoolhouse lecture from International Quilt Market on youtube. 

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ41J94rIxw

Please check it out and share with your quilting friends! 

MEA CUPLA

Okay, it seems like I am forever making excuses for not blogging.  But the truth is, the last three or four months have really flown by.  It seems like just yesterday I was at Quilt Market and ZAP! now it's January!  How did that happen?

I know I made five or six quilts between the end of October and Christmas.  I created four sample fabric collections to submit to a fabric company.  I participated in my Local Artisan Holday Shop.  And a host of other things that kept me busy enough that whenever I was on my computer or iPad, I just didn't take the time to blog.

I guess I just need to make blogging more of a priority....

Anyway, I have some GREAT NEWS to share! 

Tune into Creative Mojo Internet Radio with Mark Lipinski on January 29th at 3 PM (EST) to hear me talk about my new book, A Russian Journey in Quilts!  What fun!

 

 

Do you have a copy of A Russian Journey yet?????

 

If not, you can visit any of these fine places to get your own:

 

www.orphanquilter.com

www.amazon.com

www.pickledish.com

 

Of course, you should definitely check at your local quilt shop too!

 

 



International Quilt Market

Well, here I am at Quilt Market having a fantastic time.  On Friday, I had a schoolhouse lecture to introduce my new book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  Although the room wasn't packed, there was a nice comfortable number of attendees who seemed really interested.  A friend of mine kindly recorded my lecture and I watched it later that night.  I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable I was and how much energy I showed.  My schoolhouse was actually only 15 minutes and although I ran out of time, I told those attending that they had to get the book to find out the rest of the story.

Yesterday (Saturday) I had a book signing at the Kansas City Star booth.  All of my tickets were gone and more people showed up than there were tickets, but by the end of the signing I had several left over copies because not everyone came to claim their copies.  Apparently there were a lot of signing all around the same time.  Guess they had a better offer.  LOL!

Took some time to visit the antique quilt booths, of course, and marvel over the amazing treasures there.

I also made some great contacts that will hopefully help.

Well,  time to hop in the shower and get started on the day.  Talk to you later.

International Quilt Market

I know I know, I've been away from blogging for quite a while, but I do actually have a legitimate excues, or rather many legitimate excuses.  First, I've been doing a lot of events to promote my new book, A Russian Jounry in Quilts.  Second, I've been doing a lot of events to promote mt new book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  :)

Back in September, I attended Quilting Around Chautauqua for I believe the eighth year in a row.  It was marvelous.  In the evenings, my friends and I had a Dwnton Abbey marathon because two of the four of us weren't really familiar with it at all, while the third hadn't seen the first two seasons.  Well, was I surprised at how great it was, although there were some historical glitches, but boy, were my eyes opened.  I'm looking forward to the next season starting in January.  Did you know that Downton Abbey quilt fabric will soon be available?  I've seen some of the ads in my quilting magazines and it looks very nice.  While at Chautauqua, I also did some book signings at my friend, Melanie's booth.  It started out rather slowly, but then a lot of people seemed interested.  Sold quite a few books AND met a lot of really great quilters!

One thing about Downton Abbey that really struck me was the overlapping of it with my new book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  Downton Abbey focuses quite a few episodes about WWI in Britain and my book focuses on WWI in Russia.  Interesting connection between the two, I think.

Tomorrow I'm headed to my third International Quilt Market in Houston, TX where I will be promoting my book to the world, so to speak.  Looking forward to it, but nervous of course.  I'm also going to try to get connected to a fabric company again.  So we'll see how that goes.  Stay tuned.....if all goes well during the next five days, I might even have some time to blog about Market while I'm there and show you some of the cool things to see.

  I have a Schoolhouse lecture on Friday at 2:05 PM and a book signing at the Kansas City Star book at 2:45 PM.  Wish me luck.....maybe I'll see you there.

BLOG GIVEAWAY WINNER

With the help of a random number generator online, commenter shout4joy won a copy of my new book, A RUSSIAN JOURNEY IN QUILTS!

Congratulations, Joy!


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Watch for my upcoming project, Russian Chain, in the Oct/Nov issue of THE QUILTER magazine.  There is even a nice review of the book, too!