Traveling Is Not Being Kind To Me

It is 2:00 pm on Saturday August 2nd, and I have two hours until I give my first lecture in 8 years. When the Festival of Quilts asked me to speak at their annual quilt show I jumped at the chance. But getting here has been more of a struggle than I thought. 

First my online lecture had to be reconfigured to be in front of an audience. The slides had to be rearranged a bit and the slide deck ended up tripling in size. 

Next, I had to get there. I actually made it to Birmingham via Dublin on Sunday but my luggage just arrived last night. Day after day, I was hopeful that my bag would be at my hotel and more importantly the items inside it, including my chargers. Instead, each day I found myself visiting charity shops to buy more and more items to replace the ones that were missing. The worst was my medicine. Normally I pack all this in my carry-on, but I was trying to have a smaller footprint as I was meeting up with friends and there was limited space in the car. So I carried half and I packed half. Lesson learned the hard way. 

I did have an absolutely lovely trip with Jennie Smith and Kay Walsh to the Welsh Quilt Centre. You might remember them as I had them on my podcast earlier this year. The Quilt Centre was amazing, not only full of stories and photogenic quilts but also lovely people around it that made it all quite special. Leslie Levy was also in our car, who is the Executive Director of the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska (who I have also interviewed in 2023). We even met Jen Jones, who is the owner of the centre. So I had several days of great conversations. 

Photos from Welsh Quilt Centre

The Festival of Quilts is one amazing show. If it’s not on your bucket list, put it there now. Every quilt that enters is hung so there is a wonderful diversity of skills and styles to enjoy. There are also wonderful exhibitions. Not only is there a WW2 exhibit with one of the Canadian WW2 quilts, the International Quilt Museum is here with a selection of Mountain Mist batting company quilts made from the patterns that were included with the batting. Also here, are many quilt artists that are showing their skills that would leave you in awe. 

Photos from International Quilt Museum

Live Q&A

Ask me Anything!! This one could be interesting since I'll have jet lag!

Karen's Quilt Crew

Saturday, August 23rd is the next installment of our Block of the Month (BOM) program for Crew Members. We'll meet from 12-2 pm (zoom link in the membership page on my YouTube channel). It's never too late to join the BOM and all previous classes were recorded and are available on our group membership page. I hope to see you then!

The rest of the Crew will join us for a Stitch and Chat from 2-4 pm. If you don't know how to join, go to my YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/justgetitdonequilts/join and follow the prompts for joining.

Karen's Quilt Circle

A couple of months ago, Quilt Canada was held here in Toronto and I saw so many amazing quilts. Not just in the juried show but in the exhibitions and in the vendor booths. That is where I saw this wonderful quilt called "Amsterdam on the Canal". And not only did I fall in love with the pattern, I was delighted by the amazing woman behind it. Not only is Edith Choiniere a talented designer, she has served with the Canadian armed forces and worked in many parts of Canada. You can watch my interview here.

Listen to any of my Karen's Quilt Circle podcasts on the YouTube Music app here. 

Travel with Karen

Here is your best opportunity to signup (with absolutely no pressure from me!) for my next cruising adventure. We are advertising the 2026 cruise early. For information on the trip, click here: www.justgetitdonequilts.com/events

I am trying to take as many photo’s as possible to share when I get back.

Take care.