Portable Quilt Shows

I posted a while back about discovering the fun of podcasts, and I'm writing again about it because I've been having SUCH fun with them. It makes me love my Ipod even more, and you all know that I love love LOVE my Ipod!

I've been enjoying listening to Annie Smith's Quilting Stash podcasts. From what I gather from the ones I've listened to, she's a quiltmaker and teacher more in the traditional style. But despite the lack of focus on contemporary art quilting, her podcasts are chatty bits of information about all areas of quilting. Annie has such a pleasant, melodious voice, and sounds like she's smiling the whole time. I've said before that her podcasts are like a one-sided telephone conversation with a quilt-obsessed friend. She talks about what she's working on, quilt shows or shops she's visited, books or tools she's found, all sorts of things. She interviews interesting people she encounters along the way, and gives lots of links to websites.

Yesterday, when I had 90 minutes to wait while Caroline was at her drama class, I sat at Starbucks sipping coffee, sewing binding on a quilt, and listening to a Quilting Stash podcast. It was really enjoyable.

Also, a few weeks ago, I went to visit my parents which is a 2 hour drive each way. On the way there and back, I listened to Alex Anderson's and Annie Smith's podcasts... lots of quilting info and it made the drive go really fast!

I'm also hooked on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the funny NPR news quiz show. (My favorites are the ones where Paula Poundstone is a guest--I just LOVE her comedy.) So I've subscribed to that podcast and get them downloaded to my computer, too.

I've just found a whole slew of knitting podcasts. Gee, they'd be good to knit to! The only one I've listened to so far is one called "Cast On" by Brenda Dayne, and it was entertaining.

If you have Itunes on your computer (if you don't, you can download it for FREE here and it works whether you have a Mac or a PC) you can open the Itunes Music Store, go to Podcasts, and then search by any key word to find what podcasts are out there. And, via Itunes, you can subscribe to the podcasts you like so they're automatically downloaded when new issues are available. You don't have to go hunting for them.

And most of them are FREE! Totally FREE!