Well we have been home a few days now and I want to go back, it's too cold here. It was unseasonably cool in Mexico while we were there but it was 70 degrees warmer than here. We had a wonderful trip, while we were in Mazatlan our friends took us to some of the "other" places that tourists don't usually go to. One of the places was a fabric store. It reminded me a lot of an old JoAnn's Fabric store. Mostly inexpensive stuff, not quality quilting fabric that's for sure. I don't know if there is such a place, my friend hasn't found one in the 6 years they have been going there. A few years ago when we went to the Caribbean, on Grenada, I found a wonderful shop for batik fabric. We went whale watching in Cabo San Lucas and it was wonderful, we had 4 humpback whales playing around our boat for about an hour. It was fascinating and very beautiful to watch. I couldn't take pictures fast enough to always catch what I wanted but here is my favorite. Today I had to get back to reality and started quilting a clients top. I am waiting for some patterns from Patchalot Patterns so that I can do some piecing. I have to do a quilt for a wedding gift for August and I figure if I start now I might get it finished in time. I had my sewing machine in for it's yearly cleaning and adjusting while I was gone so it should be raring to go. I have spent the last couple evenings out wandering around other blog sites, it is so much fun, I am finding so many sites where I want to go back and visit. I will start leaving messages so hopefully some of the authors will come and visit with me. By for now and have a blessed day.

Well it is the big day - we are getting the suitcases into the car and we are out of here early tomorrow morning. This supposed to be the coldest week in many years in MN and we are heading for a cruise along the Mexican Riviera. No quilting being done this week, well maybe some hand work on my Mariner's Compass while I sit by the pool sunning. Being a machine piecer and a machine quilter it is very unusual for me to do hand work. I took a class from Cindy Blackberg last June and am now hand piecing a MC after using her "stamps" to mark the fabric. It is a very easy way to prepare your fabric for some really neat quilts. Check out her web site. She does lots of scrappy quilts. If she can recruit me a solid machine person, you know her methods have to be easy. Well must say good-bye, DH is calling that the car is loaded. I'll be back in a week with photos to share.

Well it is a quiet Sunday afternoon and I'm busy getting ready to pack. My hubby and I are going on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera next Friday. I decided that I needed a little bag for formal night, so I whipped up a cute little Lazy Girl bag. Lazy Girl patterns are so fun and quick. I should really be quilting some client's quilt but today just seems to be a "get ready for trip" day. So I also made a pair of "Island Pants", they just wrap around and tie and are great when it's hot. Lugged the suitcases upstairs and started to lay out the summer clothes that will go with us. Yesterday and Friday were busy "work" type days, looking for new pop up displays for market, new furniture for the soon to be new office for Cedar Canyon Textiles, and a guild meeting for my longarm quilters group. For "Show and Tell" Sandi Irish and I brought along the quilt we collaborated on for the Minnesota Quilters Show and Conference, it will be the raffle quilt. Sandi designed and constructed the quilt and I quilted it. This photo is of Sandi showing off the quilt. I'm hiding behind it holding up the other corner. We have a great group of quilters, that not only quilt for a business but we all are piecers too. We also have members that win top prizes at the shows, we have national teachers and a couple of our members write for some of the quilting magazines and some are pattern designers and longarm pattern designers, both for pantographs and for digitized quilting. This week will be busy again, but hopefully that will help make the time go faster. Our grandson is finally home and is now out of the Navy. He called yesterday and he'll come out to see his grandma sometime this week. Probably not until after his fiance' goes back to college. Our weather has been fairly mild the last couple weeks but it is suppose to get real cold now by Thursday. Just in time for us to be off to warmer climates. Yea!!! I have been out wandering around in blog land and have found so many fun blogs. Haven't had time to leave messages yet but plan to do so soon. So watch for me and please leave a note to say Hi.

The Start of the New Year

Well tomorrow is back to the normal routine of things, the holiday season is at an end, the Christmas decorations came down today and are packed for another year. Sounds kind of sad, but there is hope soon, we leave for our vacation on the 19th. We are taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera for a week. The weather there is in the 80s as opposed to 20s here in Minnesota. Can't wait to lay in the sun and cook for a few days. We are doing a "whale watching" excursion and are really looking forward to that. We will also spend a day with friends that winter in Mazatlan so that will be great too. So what am I going to do for my quilting this year, thinking "outside the box" I am going to try some new things, like foiling, silk fusion, different stamping, I am going to take a journaling class from Susan Stein that will teach all of these things and more. I have so many large bed quilts I am not sure what I would do with another one, (my kids say give it to them, not!) so I am going to do some wall hangings with a little more "artsy" flair to them. Susan has a new book, Fabric Art Workbook that shows a lot of fun ways to embellish your quilts. Yesterday I finished a project that I started in a class last June, Piping Hot Curves with Susan Cleveland. I tried her piping in the binding a few years ago so know how to make the piping, but using it for curves was fun. I call this Chinese Noodles, I used an oriental fabric as my focus and picked up the black, gold and orange from the print. It needs to be quilted yet and will then get more piping, in the binding. I think now I will go play with my Paintstiks. Have a great Day.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to All, I am so new to this blogging that I had to have a lesson today in how to add a link so you can see where I got my inspiration or patterns for the projects in my posts. I will attempt to add them here. The "Granduation Gift" quilt is from Marcie Patch at Patchalot Patterns The Summer Tote is from Lazy Girl, and Joan has a blog on her site too. Lots of fun and very informative. The "Meowy Christmas" cat is from Cabin Fever by Whimsicals, Teri Degankalb (?spelling). The "Snow Globe" is from Birch Creek Quilts by Deb Madir. She is also a dealer for Swarovski Crystals. The "Christmas Tree" quilt is a pattern from Ricky Tims, I am not sure it is still available but you can check his site. The little piece of the diamond quilt is from our state guild raffle quilt. To check out our show and have a look at the whole quilt you need to go to Minnesota Quilters Inc. and click on the 2008 show link. I hope I haven't forgotten anything and if I did, please let me know and I will try to fill in any blanks. Have a Blessed Day, Mary