Good things from Oregon!

It’s been proving a little difficult to concentrate on the things I need to get done the past week or so but I am just keeping going, one day at a time and making the most of any “spare” time I find myself with.

I received a couple of fun packages in the mail.

The first one came in a medium sized cardboard box. I opened the box to find another box inside…

And inside that box?

It was a new Stella light. I was trying to remember the first time I met the people at Stella. Perhaps it was at the Quilt!Knit!Stitch! in Portland in 2014? But I think it was before that. Road to California? Houston? QuiltCon? I just know that the people were very friendly and I wanted one of their lights. I started with a Stella EDGE that would clip onto my desk and take the lighting on my machine to another level. Wow!

( I just looked back at my previous blog posts. I had my light by March 2014 so perhaps I met Stella in 2013?)

Then I invested in the floor standing Stella SKY for the family room. It is perfect for my hand stitching. Steve took a while to get used to me sitting in a bright pool of light but now he turns it on too… The adjustable light intensities and choice of spectrum makes it good for ambient lighting too.

So, when I received an e-mail from my friend Mary Jean at Stella asking me if I would like to try one of their new Stella TWO task lamps what do you think I said?

Well, yes PLEASE!

Here it is, out of the box on the kitchen counter.and here it is switched on!What do I like about my new light? It is even brighter than the previous models but it has ten settings to choose from. It still has the tri-spectrum technology for warm white, pure white (my favorite) and cool white, AND the base has the control built in so I can’t lose the remote… Perfect for hand work when I am sitting at the table.

I know we are going to be friends for a long time!

The Stella company is based in Coburg Oregon. I received another package from a second company out of Oregon last week. This one was from Eugene. Inside a large padded envelope were the first two editions of Quiltfolk. Quiltfolk describes itself as a keepsake quarterly. It kept coming up in my Facebook feed and when I saw a link to a coupon and a special offer to include an extra magazine in a one year subscription I knew it was time to give it a try!

I ordered a copy of issue 01, received 02 as an extra and will be looking forward to the next four editions at least.

The magazines are 100% advertisement free and just packed full of beautiful pictures and interesting stories.

Each quarter covers a different state. The first one was Oregon and the second one was Iowa. I was delighted to find some of my favorite people highlighted…
It’s always fun to read about people and places you know!

And did I mention the beautiful photographs?I have been trying to declutter my house a little but I am going to have to save my copies of this magazine, along with  Selvedge and UPPERCASE… I’ll just have to find something else to get rid of?

I’m getting ready to leave for Quilt Market in St. Louis on Wednesday. Wednesday will be a big day because Bonnie Hunter is going to have a review of my book on her blog and we are going to be hosting two give aways…

No more procrastination. Get to work Catherine.