Happy New Year everyone! Today is was very quiet around this house, DH is off in his big truck so no big party for us. So this is not to say I haven't been busy. On Sunday DH and I decided to redecorate our bathroom. After 7 years it was time, and we really changed it, much darker paint on the walls, no wallpaper, and new shower curtain, towels and rugs, the whole bit. When I finished putting it all together the walls looked really bare. Nothing I currently had matched, well I did find that a small collage done last Feb. fit in very well so that went up. Then the search for fabric and a pattern for more things. I actually found a number of fabrics that will work, but one in particular pleased me, it was a fat quarter I dyed a few years ago, it turned out an odd color so hadn't found a use, and guess what, it matched almost perfectly. So then, what to do with it, I take pictures at every quilt show I go to and also have a huge library of magazines and books. Well looking through some of the photos taken, I passed over a bunch my DS#4 took on a trip up to Glacier Nat'l Park. One he took of pebbles in water caught my eye, the colors were perfect, so it was printed out on Iron On Transfer, transferred onto white fabric, and low and behold, it came out just right. The print got trimmed, 1st border was dark brown to go with the other new things, and then I used the dyed fat quarter for a larger border. I am so pleased with the way it turned out, I named it "The Pebble Beach Pine" and you will see why in the photo. My next post will show you a scrap quilt I made for DS#3. The top is finished, the back needs piecing and it needs quilting, that is all for next week. Until then, have a Happy New Year, stay safe and have a Blessed Day.

Okay, it's been a long time, but there is so much to do at this time of year. I finally finished all my client's quilts and have been working feverishly on finishing some of my own. Boy is it ever fun to work on my own things. So here are some photos of what got finished. The first one is of my newly organized stash. Doesn't it look great, I'm not quite done, I had to order more of these neat little inventions from The Fabric Organizer. They are the coolest idea in a long time. Anyway before I did this I quilted my Christmas Sparkler from Patchalot Patterns, the Merry Christmas wall hanging from Whimsicals, the SnowGlobes from Birch Creek Quilts (along with an addition of my own) and yesterday I finished fusing, but not quilted, O Christmas Tree from Quilt Poetry, and painted a sweatshirt using a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop. Following are the photos of each. While I was taking photos I decided to add a few of my other Christmas decorations, why is this underlining? So here they are, all the little stocking are for my 13 grandchildren

Well I finally finished something of my own, although I might donate this to a silent auction to help raise money for the home for challenged adults my granddaughter works at. Anyway the pattern is free on the blog and web of Marcie Patch of Patchalot Patterns. It was fun and quick, I used TaDa Triangles when I made mine. The fabrics were left overs from my Christmas Bosa Nova Gift Bags and out of my stash so it didn't cost a thing but time. One of the fun thing with Marcie and I is that we share some grandchildren, I think I have mentioned this in the past but when you go look at her blog watch for photos of our loved ones. We both live very far away from them and miss them a lot. Well Houston was interesting this year. Market was a little quieter than in the past, some of the vendor booths were smaller and there just didn't seem to be as many people in the hall. Talking to friends that were at Festival said it was also a bit quieter. I haven't heard numbers yet but I guess this economy is effecting quilters too. But I know a lot of my clients say if they can't afford to go out and do things they will still stay home and quilt, they just might start cleaning out the stash piles instead of shopping for new all the time. But lets keep up our spirits and keep our needles stitching. Have a Blessed Day.

Well life goes on and aren't we all too busy? Times just flies by and it seems not much gets done no matter how hard we try to finish all those projects. Especially when family comes first. DH and I spent most of last Saturday visiting our granddaughter and her newest addition, he really is a precious bundle of love. This week has been spent doing last minute quilts for clients and the final prep for market in Houston. I have to tell you, these little gift bags are so much fun to make, you just have to see what I did with some great fabric. The green is a new Moda Christmas line and the great blue/purple print is a Blank, I am doing the whole set but the other two aren't finished yet. I am in the process of doing a black/gold set and it is sooooo rich looking. On the black set I am using a curvey blade in my rotary so that the seam allowance that shows will be wavey instead of straight. They will be great just as a gift for a friend or to put a gift into or to just sit around with "things" in them like a small storage box. They have Steam-A-Seam 2 between the fabrics so they are stiff enough to sit up nicely. The tall bag is perfect to hold a bottle of wine. I thought I had photos of the quilts I finished this week but I can't seem to find them, oh well next time. Last week our youngest granddaughter started pre-school and just loves it, she said she wanted to go to school to learn how to read. She was tired of having to have someone else read to her, she is 3 1/2 and she will probably be reading before the end of the year. She is amazing, here is the latest photo of her, her dad took this when they visited a hot springs near their new home. Two of our older granddaughters just got their driving permits, watch out Monticello and Eau Claire. All of our students are getting great grades, our pharmacist-to-be is at the top of his class and working hard at staying there, he wants to be invited to the Honor Society and he'll make that goal I'm sure. Well enough for now, have a Blessed Day.

Yea!!!! it's a baby!!!! On Oct. 8, our granddaughter presented us with a beautiful new great grandson, Gabriel Michael was born at 7:59 a.m., weighing in at 7lb. 6oz, 20 3/4" long with quite a bit of hair. You can't see it cuz he has a hat on, but it is darker than his siblings, who are both blonds. All is well with both Mom and baby. As you can see he loves his new quilt. Big (?) sister and brother think he is pretty neat, at least so far.

Hello all, I know but I've been a busy little worker. So here are a couple things I've done, not much to show but I've been busy getting new booth table covers etc. ready for market. But Cedar Canyon is coming out with a neat pattern and I've made a couple trial runs and then with a new great grandbaby due next week I needed to do a quilt. Sorry about the sideways view of the quilt, I forgot to flip it in my album. It is so cute, I got the fabric in Missoula when we were out there moving DS and family. Now the pattern for the gift bag, it will be introduced at Fall Market so look for it in your local quilt shop later this year. The bags are shown on the back cover of Quilting Arts magazine, Oct. issue, and shops are already asking the distributors when the pattern is available. So I have also been quilting for clients so my days are full. I hope to write again soon, probably with photos of the new baby.

Hi all, I am preparing to teach a class and have made a new sample, and of course I needed to have it match our new car. This is such a fun bag, I have made 5 or 6 of them already, need to match outfits you know. Anyway, the pattern is from The Quilt Company, The 3 Pocket Tote, a painted it with Painstik paints and quilted it on my longarm. The arrow shaped design on the flap is just part of a new design/pattern by Laura Murray Designs called The StarBuilder. It is a really neat new way to make absolutely gorgeous stars. The bag takes just 3 fat quarters and less than 3 hours to make. You saw a few more of them in an earlier post. Also in an earlier blog I told you about moving one of my sons and his family to Missoula, MT. Well it turns out that it takes fewer credits for a high schooler to graduate out there, 22 instead of the 30 it takes here. So my dear granddaughter found out she would be skipping her junior year and is now a senior. So one of the first things that needed to be done was senior photos, so here she is in all of her beauty. And I'm here to tell you she is just as wonderful on the inside as she is on the outside. My DH and I are so blessed, we have 13 absolutely fabulous grandchildren, most of them live close by and this makes us very happy. It will be very different having one of the families so far away. One of our granddaughters is married and will present us with our 3rd Great Grandchild on Oct. 8. So needless to say, there is a new baby quilt in the process. I'll have photos soon. Well must close for now, have a Blessed Day.

Well here is some fun stuff, DH and I just returned from car shopping with a new "toy". Oh what fun! I have been searching Craig's List and Car Soup and some others and we finally found just what we wanted. This is me sitting in the driveway. And as promised I am also adding some photos of a quilt I made to go with our new furniture. I had my painted floral one and it just wasn't the right colors. So this quilt was so fun, I started it on Tuesday morning had it pieced by that evening and had it quilted, bound and on the wall by Wed. night. It still needs to be blocked but I love it. The pattern is by Deb Madir of Birch Creek Quilts and is called Moon Dancers. But I didn't put on the "moons" And of course I had to do a little painting with Paintstiks and make it a little bigger to fit the space. Deb also sells iron on crystals. Check out her other patterns, they are lots of fun and easy to do. Well I'm going to go and drive my new toy for a while and then tomorrow we go to our niece's wedding. Pray for nice weather and have a Blessed Day.

Well I'm back from vacation and ready to work -NOT!!!! It is so hard to get back to this everyday grind. But we had a good time, even though it was sad and hard to leave part of the family so far away. We moved son #4 and his family to Missoula, MT so DS could attend pharmacy school out there. I have gotten so used to having all of my children and grandchildren close that it won't be easy having some 1200 miles away. I don't know how other women handle having all of their family far away. But it will also give us a wonderful place to visit. Missoula is a quirky little town of about 65,000 people, with another 40,000 or so in the "suburbs". It is a college town with a "hippie" feel. You can get from one side of town to the other in about 15 minutes if not in rush hour traffic. Everything is close, Polly says she didn't use a tank full of gas in the first week they were there. While we were there we went to Lolo Pass and Glacier Park, both beautiful places. Here are a few photos. This is enough for this posting, too many photos make it hard to look so I am going to do another posting tomorrow with some quilting stuff. Have a Blessed Day!

Hello to all on a beautiful summer morning. I have been busy as I'm sure you all are. This weekend we went to visit DS in Wisconsin to watch more baseball and to visit the "new" house. DS and family seem to be settling in nicely, the grandkids have found lots of new friends in the neighborhood which is very nice as there were no children their ages in the old one. All my clients seem to have waited until after the MQ Show to call with their summer projects so there are lots of quilts on the "to do" racks in the studio. I finished one last week that was fun, the colors are super, it is going to be a table cloth. I tried something that one of the gals in my Longarm Guild brought for show and tell a while ago, with a busy pattern and fabric in the center but a plain boarder it worked great. I used a pantograph in the center and then did a free hand floral boarder, doubling all the stitching. What do you think? This week I am going to be working on quilts going to a client in Hilo, Hawaii. Needless to say her fabric choices are always so much fun. They have a quilt show there in July and she keeps trying to get me to come over for it, maybe someday. I hope to be able to work on some fun stuff of my own soon, maybe some handwork while we drive to Montana in a couple weeks. But for now it's off to the studio to work, have a Blessed Day.

What a busy weekend, and it is only half over. Thursday I had a little eyelid lift, it was to correct an error on an earlier surgury and now I'm suppose to "take it easy" for a few days. Well I quilted all day Friday, and EARLY Saturday, like 6:30 a.m. I left the house to go watch GD Nichole play in the State Fastpitch Tourney. What fun! Boo they lost their first game in a tie breaker, then went on the win their 2nd, 3rd and 4th games. So today they start again at 8:00 a.m. but I can't go to watch, but DH is going at least to the first game. They need to go on and win 4 today in order to come out on top. Here is a photo of the girls from an earlier game. They are in the 14and Under bracket and always do quite well. And in between games I went to my longarm guild meeting. We of course have show and tell just like every other quilting guild and sometimes I wonder why I am in this business. There is soooooo much talent in our group it is amazing. We have 2 or 3 national teachers in our group and many others that teach at the local level. A few of our ladies have books, patterns or cds out there for sale. Many of their quilting ideas can be used on your domestic machines as well as on the longarm machines out there. I will soon add their web links to the side bar over there so you can check them out. The next photo is just a sampling of what is available to our local people who want a longarm quilter to do their quilt. This was done free hand by a gal who teaches and designs pantograph patterns and is now working on some digitized patterns for the computer quilter. Today I am going to a bridal shower for a niece so must dress up and act lady like instead of yelling my head off for our girls to play defense or to hit the ball hard. I made my son promise to call with updates all day long. Well must close for now, have a Blessed Day.

Hello everyone. Today I am going to show off a quilt I just finished for a customer, well she's my daughter-in-law too, and the daughter of one of my favorite pattern designers, Marcie Patch of Patchalot Patterns. The pattern is Chesapeake Star and I quilted the one that is on the front of the pattern too. Polly hasn't seen this yet as she is out visiting her Mom in Virginia so I thought I'd surprise her with a photo. The close up shows that I used an all over freehand feather in the center and also a feathered border. Polly, my son Chris and their family are moving to Missoula, Montana in August. She asked if it would be possible to get this finished before they moved so today it went on the machine and hooray, it's done. I have only had it for about 9 months. I am really going to miss all of them, it will be so hard not to be able to just pop over and visit, but Chris says the train goes out there pretty close to them and I can just hop on for a quick visit whenever I want. On another note, I am finally getting my wind back after working so hard at the Minnesota Quilt Show. What fun, there were over 600 quilts on display with 223 of them being judged. I think our show is the one of the few large shows that has a non-judged exhibit and it is so wonderful to see so many quilters, men, women and children that want to display their quilts even if they don't want them judged. We also had over 100 vendors and national 21 teachers. Next year we are in Duluth, you should check it out it is worth the trip. This was definitely proven when we had 5 quilters from France come to the show this year and one of our scholarship applicants was from Malaysia. Just goes to show the power of the internet. I have some photos of a few quilts and the banquet on my photo album if you want to go look. Just click here . Soon there will be photos of all the prize winners on the MQ website. The link is on my list. Well enough for today, Keep Quilting and have a Blessed Day.

I really do remember how to do this, but life has been a little crazy around here getting ready for the MN quilt show. But tonight I am relaxing, my teachers are all here and teaching, students taking classes seem happy with their choices and the ribbons have been put on the quilts. There will soon be photos on the MQ web site of all the winners but I want to share one with you tonight. You might remember this quilt from an earlier blog, but thought I would crow a little, but not too much since the ribbon was awarded by the Mayor of Rochester and not the quilt judges. But hey, it is a ribbon and it is one of my favorites. I promise I will be better at keeping my blog up to date as soon as I recover from this week. LOL to all

Well last Friday I took one granddaughter to the airport to go back to school and had lunch with another. At lunch I learned DH and I will become Great Grandparents again next Oct. How exciting, baby will be little sister or brother to the one pictured last time. The weather here in MN was so awful this weekend I did nothing but paint and sew. I am now beading the bag with the yellow painted flap and finished a shopping bag pattern I got from Windham Fabric web site (The 5-6-7 Tote). Then center strip was discharged then painted. It is a very easy pattern, big too. Today I received 3 quilts from a friend that lives in Hilo, HI, they are bright fun colors. Her quilts are always such fun to quilt. I'll put up photos when they are finished. But here is a photo of the new bag.After the discharge and painting were done it only took a few hours to make. Try one out in your favorite fabric, it is a great way to "go green", use it for all your shopping. Have a Blessed Day.

Well I am so bad, it has been so long since I posted anything, busy, busy, busy. Getting ready for the Minnesota Quilt show and for Spring Quilt Market in Portland plus many family things just keep getting in the way of the more fun stuff. I haven't had time to do too many quilting or even artsy things with doing things like color charts in Paintstik and also quilting for clients. But one of the little things I did was another of the 3 pocket bags using a rubbing plate and foiling. So I will show a few photos of my latest work, including some fun discharge work. I am having so much fun in my Journal class with Susan Stein. And here is what my color charts for Paintsiks looks like, they still need to be sewn together for display but it was fun and now everyone will be able to tell what the color will look like on fabric. And last but certainly not least here is our newest little angel, Aurora, she was born last June on my birthday which of course gives her a special place in her great grandma's heart. This pix was taken at the end of the day on Easter Sunday. I will try to do better from now on.

Yesterday I worked with my friend and boss Shelly Stokes. We are making plans for Spring Market in Portland, OR in May. Shelly is the distributor of Shiva Paintstiks into the quilting world. She has a web site which is listed on the right and there is now a blog. I have added her to my "Stitching Sisters" list so please go check it out. She is a very creative lady, using her talents in the business world, the quilting world and in the fiber arts world. She (as the president and chief bottle washer of Cedar Canyon Textile) is one of the sponsors of the new and great public TV series from Quilting Arts. Above I said that Paintstiks are in the quilting world but they can be used in so many other ways too, you can use them on any porous surface, like walls, floors, leather and any other surface your creative mind can think of. So if you work with scrapbooking as well as quilting this may be something you might want to look into. I plan on being creative tomorrow, after my journal class last week I have so many more new ideas to play with. We did foiling and were told how to dye with rust which sounds like an interesting project to try. These two photos are of foiling, the first is my class trial, and the second is one I did at home. I used the foiling medium, brushing it on a rubbing plate, pressed it onto the fabric, let it dry and then added the foil. It was easy and fun. I hope the next one turns out a little clearer. In the class sample the top left was foil on glue from a glue gun, the top right was the foiling medium, the bottom left was wonder under applied and then foiled and the bottom right is Bo Nash 077 which is the consistence of salt but when ironed under a teflon sheet becomes an adhesive, then we foiled on top of it. Anyway it's lot of fun to try these new things. So until another time, have a Blessed Day.

Well it's been a few days, but it tourney time and we have been away watching our grandson play basketball. It was lots of fun, we stayed in a hotel with a pool and the grandkids and grandpa did lots of swimming. We didn't get much sleep with extra little people in our room but it was fun anyway. I thought I'd share photos of two of my recent projects. This first one I started during our retreat a few weeks ago. Norma Riehm gave a little tutorial on how to do a collage. I started with the yellow form in the lower left corner and then added the flower petals, ribbons and yarn and a little angelina, put organza over the top then quilted it. At that point I added some buttons and crystals and presto, it's done. It is only 8x10 but I'm happy with it for my first attempt. I think I might do some more, it was fun and quick. This next item is called "The 3 Pocket Bag" and was a free pattern from a shop in Brainerd, MN. It measures about 6" x 8 1/2" and went together in about 2 hours. It takes 3 fat quarters, you quilt 2 of them together with thin batting and use the 3rd for binding. Then it's like doing origami, you fold and sew, adding velcro and you end up with this great little bag. It has 3 pockets, see the one in the middle with the velcro, and then one on each side. I have now figured out how to add a little handle and even an inside cell phone pocket. It is perfect to put your money, credit card and things into then carry in your project bag to class. I used one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to do the quilting but you could do just straight stitches on the diagonal. If you then make a Lazy Girl Wonder Wallet you got it made. Have a Blessed Day.

Well I have been busy today, I made up a few of the Lazy Girl patterns, used a few Paintstiks and some torn paper and look, a matching set, Sassy Bag, Wonder Wallet and a Checkbook Cover. Joan's patterns are so fun and easy, I did all 3 pieces in less than a day. I also had a meeting with a fellow board member and we talked about strategic planning for MQ. I also promised pictures of my clients quilt, so I will add that here so you can see what I do on the days I am not blogging away. Ok this goofy thing doesn't want to let me add another photo. Not sure why but I guess it will have to wait. This evening I am going out to dinner with one of my sons and a granddaughter, the Rotary Club always has a fish fry this time of year and it is a tradition to go and eat fish. I can't believe it is daylight savings already on Sunday. It is also #2 sons birthday. I can't imagine him reading this so I guess it will just be a card in the mail. Hey I finally made it work. So here is her quilt, it is bright and scrappy. I have done many of this particular quilt, it is a favorite as it is easy and you can use up lots of fabric. One guild did it as a challenge and 4 of the ladies brought their quilts here, I did each one differently. It was fun and they loved it. They do one every year and then I get them and they all want them back in time for their retreat. I was over at Patchalotmore today and poor Marcie is fighting with squirrels and I can sympathize. I have some here that manage to get into my bird feeder even with a guard on the post. Well this is getting long so I will close for today. Have a Blessed Day.