Well I just spent 4 days with 12 other absolutely fantastic quilters. It was so much fun and so very educational. The quilters that attended were women that came from varied backgrounds of experience and artistic ability. The sharing that went on over the 4 days was not surprising since I've never known quilters to be any other way. Quilters are generous with their time and talents, always ready to help and encourage another quilter whether beginner or experienced, a friend or a stranger. I took many photos and am willing to share and I told all the ladies at the retreat that I would put them on my blog so they are all fine with it. Although one said she felt her picture should be deleted, but oh well it was not a fashion retreat, we worked, we ate, we enjoyed, we ate, we talked, we walked and we slept and ate some more. I am going to put one photo here, when I got there I didn't feel like working on anything I brought along, our hostess also dyes fabric, Primrose Gradations, and of course had a wonderful selection at the house. I picked out some, borrowed a pattern from Lori and away I went. I got this far, it still needs an outer border, and I decided I am going to paint on it before I quilt it. I'll put up another photo when it is totally finished. Well must go take care of DH who just got home. Will right more later.

A Blessed Sunday Morning to you all! Today I am packing up to go on a retreat. There will 14 wonderful quilters at this retreat, some of whom you know. But I will let the photos next week show you. Anyway I am very excited and can't decide what to take along to work on. There are so many things I want to do, one of Marcie's patterns, some things out of Susan Stein's book, play with paint out of Sherrill Kahn's book, isn't this a great dilemma? But onto "old business" here is a photo of the 1st Sat. blocks and the fabric I picked for sashing and border. I think it will need another small strip of something darker before the 4 1/2" border. But you will get the idea. I know it's bright but it is still very scrappy. And then speaking of scrappy here is a photo of one of my favorite quilts. It is from "Log Cabin Fever" by Evelyn Sloppy. I just love her patterns and wish she taught classes. I contacted her a year ago to ask if she would teach at the Minnesota Quilters Show and Convention and she informed me that she is so involved with writing and designing she doesn't have time to teach. It is too bad, but then again her designs are so well planned in the books that they are easy to do. Anyway, this quilt was why I bought the book, but because I personally do not like a square quilt, I added the extra row of bear paws and made a pillow tuck. The log cabin is one of my favorite blocks, this is the 3rd quilt I finished using that block. One of the blogs I have visited recently has a couple quilts shown from Evelyn's other book, "40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts" now say that one fast 3 times. I can't remember this moment who, I'll check it out and let you know later. Then as promised, here are some photos of my space. Neither one is really terrible right this minute, and I am lucky that I finally spread out a bit. Everything used to be crammed into the room with my long arm and then I didn't have room to turn around. The 1st picture is what should be a closet in my studio room. Notice there are no doors. The second one is my book shelves with patterns and books, there is a second shelf going the other way at the corner with more. The little cubby shelves are ones my DH built for my fat quarters, he needs to make more. The sewing area is now out at the end of our family room. The stash wall looks a little bare right now, but if you remember, I just cleaned it out, giving a lot of fabric to guilds that make quilts for Quilts of Valor. Well I really need to get back to my packing, updates during the week I hope.

Ok, I have been tagged to say 7 things about me that are not widely known. That's hard for me cause I tell anybody anything they want to know. So here goes, first I am supposed to list the rules: THE RULES: 1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you. 2. Post THE RULES on your blog. 3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog. 4. Tag 7 people and link to them. 5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

So here are a few things about me: 1. I am a secret appliquer, (yea, how would you spell it?) 2. I really, really, really want an embroidery machine. 3. I have only been on 1 quilting retreat, and I have been quilting for 20 years 4. I am no good at curved piecing, can't ever make the ends meet 5. I like spinach 6. I want to sing opera, but I'm no good, can't quite reach those high notes, well the low one either 7. As much as I love quilting, I would rather be outside, so tell me, how can I move my sewing room to the back yard? and not get wet. Now I am supposed to tag 7 other people, this is going to be hard. I am still at the stage where I am just exploring all the wonderful quilters I am finding skipping from blog to blog. I have left a note or two here and there and then as I go along, I check out other sites listed and pretty soon I can't get back to where I started. This whole blogging thing is so much fun, I am finding so many wonderful people. Well here are a few that have caught my eye. 1. Finn loves scraps and I really would like to do a rug out of scraps like she is doing. 2. Jen has some lovely quilts to show us. 3. Julaine does some fun things with a flair for Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper Scissors 4. Shirley in New Zealand is a fiber artist, check it out and maybe do something "outside your box" 5. Frieda has been a teacher at our Minnesota Quilt show and is sooooo much fun. If you get a chance take a class from her 6. Jenclair enjoys many different hobbies, quilting being one of them, her spot is fun 7. Marcie and for those of you that came from one of the above blogs, my friend Marcie is the one that started this

My tastes run the gamut of styles of quilting, I love the traditional as well as the art quilts, I like to try different things outside of my comfort zone. But I have learned in my travels that no matter where I go, or how busy quilters are, they will always have time to stop and talk about quilts, fabric, techniques or just the weather. They are the friendliest most comforting people I have ever had the privilege of meeting and working with. I love you all.

Today I am working on putting together a quilt that is the result of a "1st Saturday" All the blocks were designed to use EZ Companion Angle and EZ Easy Angle rulers. The fabric choices were reproductions or batiks, and of course I chose batik. I love it when I can make a quilt for $5.00 plus sashing fabric. It is a fun and inexpensive way to get a big lap size. As we worked I always made 2 blocks from the pattern, one using the fabric the shop supplied and one out of my scrap pile, that way I have 24 blocks instead of just 12 and it still only cost $5.00. I have been noticing many of you that show photos of your messy work space, mine depends on whether I have just finished looking for the perfect fabric for something or if company is coming. Maybe later I'll take some photos and show off my mess. Because I was in charge of choosing the faculty for the MQ Quilt Show this year I had many teachers send/give me their books or patterns along with their class synopsis. One of the books I got was from Lois L. Hallock, "Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space". She has some wonderful suggestions on how to get your sewing space organized. She has a web site you should check out if you are a complete disaster area. On Wednesday I went to my first "Journal" class and we did silk fusion in class and our bonus was about discharge. So during the class Susan shows samples and explains all about one technique and then she demonstrates and explains a technique we then actually do in the class. For the first class she also showed many ways of putting the finished journal together. I really liked the idea of putting it together as a book, but it might end up as a wall hanging. I have 10 months to decide. I will post photos as I go along. Well company is coming so I should go clear a path. Have a blessed day.

The weather is finally warming up, it will be about 10 degrees here today. The weather person says the temp will be up and down all week with a bit of snow. I am happy not to live in Utah where they have had record snowfall this year. So my idea today is help for bloggers. Now you realize I am very new to this but someone commented that they wished they could see the wedding quilt up close. So, for those of you that don't know this yet, all you need to do is double left click on any photo and you get it to blow up to full screen. It is a wonderful way to get a close up look at the quilts or photos that bloggers put on their sites. I was at Patchalotmore blog today and she talks about "thinking about quilting" How much time during the day, or night, do you spend thinking about a pattern, how to make it look better, how to make it a different size, what fabric to use? Yeah, lots of time, that's what being a quilter is about right? So, Happy Thinking!!

Good morning, it's been a few days but I do have an excuse. My granddaughter was brought home unexpectedly from college in Utah to have surgery on an injured foot. I was need to babysit a bit and haul people around and also needed to work a bit. Becky made it through her surgery just fine, a bit of pain for a day or two but after a few weeks of therapy she will be back in school. I want you to know that I do spend a bit of time in the late evenings perusing blog sites and I finally have been leaving a few messages. There are so many out there and I enjoy them all. I have not had a lot of time to do any piecing so I thought today I would share a quilt that I made to display at Spring Market last year (in Salt Lake City) and there were lots of wonderful comments. Most would look and then say something like "why is there an applique quilt in a booth about painting?" We would then inform them that it was painted with Paintstiks and most would then get up close and personal to check it out. The pattern was a BOM by Linda Yantis of Chandler, AZ. I sent photos to Linda and she was impressed. One of the other applique designers saw this and asked if I would do one of hers, it is a butterfly that I finished for Houston Market. While looking for this photo I found another quilt that I want to share. This one is from Coffee Time Quilts by Cathy Wierzbicki. I fell in love with this pattern and went to my stash and started to pull fabric. I swear, I did not have to buy anything, I found the focus print first and then was happy to discover that I could pull all the rest together using stash fabric. I was so proud of myself. When I was at the point of having it up on the design wall to figure out what kind of border to use another granddaughter and her future husband came to visit and when they saw the quilt decided that was the one they wanted for a wedding present. Well what to do? Not much choice so this quilt was then finished up and given away. One of these days maybe I will make another one for me. I love making big quilts but soon I will need to do more wall hangings as I am running out of room in my house for the big ones. But then again my kids and grandkids are always will to take them off my hands. For some reason my computer isn't letting me do links from here so I will add Linda and Cathy to my favorite designers on the side so you can go and look at their other work. Enjoy. See you soon.

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

Getting ready

Well our trip is getting closer, and you know, I just had to have a fun new tote to use. One that looked like warm weather and sunshine. It is snowing here today, it looks like a snow globe, big, soft, fat flakes. Anyway I just finished my new tote, it is a LazyGirl bag (Summer Tote) made with fabric from Sew Batik and Bold Over Batiks, and out of the scraps I made a little Wonder Wallet. The bag is great, lots of room and pockets inside and out with a zipper closure. I know I have work waiting but this is so much more fun.

New projects

Well my hubby didn't make it home this weekend so I'm doing some projects for me, not customers. Although I have plenty of work in the studio to do. But here are a couple things I just finished, not quilted yet, but ready for the machine. The one is a project out of a book called "Cabin Fever" from Whimsicals (Terri D). It is supposed to be done with felt, fused and then just framed. I chose to paint it with my Paintstiks and make a frame from fabric. It will be a late Christmas gift to Shelly. In the book the cat is brown, but Shelly's cat is white with orange markings. The "Snow Globe" is a pattern by Deb Madir of Birch Creek Quilts. It is a fusible, very quick and fun. It needs quilting and then all the glitter and glitz. Deb sells iron on crystals. I also decided to add a second globe under the first, only instead of a mailbox and bird I'm going to add a snowman. And then I'll border it together. I am also working on some clothes, yuk, but need somethings to wear when we go on our cruise in 3 weeks. Can't stand paying the prices in stores.

Well all the celebrating is over, I feel like all we did for 3 days was eat. But the food and company was wonderful. On Sunday we were with our children, grand children and the 2 little great grand children. Our family keeps growing, there are now 29 of us. Monday was quiet, spent with one son and his family, and Christmas Day we spent with Roger's family, 22 of 27 were present. Lots of laughter on all 3 days. The photo on the left is some of the table on Christmas Day. The one on the right is some of the family unwrapping presents on Sunday. It is such a wonderful time of year to have lots of family.

Back to Work

Well today it was back to work. My family laughs when I say that, I'm supposed to be retired, but there is not many quiet moments around this house. I am diligently working at my job as Faculty Co-chair for the Minnesota Quilter's Show and Conference. Next week is our "preview" meeting where we showcase the teachers and their classes that are being offered. Check our the web site - www.mnquilt.org then click on the 2008 show link. If there is anyway you can make it to MN in June it is well worth the trip. I'll attach a "little" bit of the raffle quilt, I just finished quilting it. The designer is Sandi Irish of Irish Chain Patterns, she used Timeless Treasures Batiks, and I used all Superior Threads. It really turned out stunning.

Almost Christmas

Well it is almost the "big" day, I am baking today, I was asked to bring desserts for our family get together on Sunday and what doesn't get finished on Sunday I will take to Roger's family celebration on Christmas Day. I want to first wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Then I want to share this photo with you from Tori's graduation. There were lots of happy tears, can you tell the family is very proud of her? Our family will be together on Sunday, there are 29 of us, minus 3. Our oldest grandson is in the Navy, he's in Japan and won't be home until shortly after the first of the year, one granddaughter is in college in Utah and will be home late Sunday evening as will Tony's Jenny, who works in DC. The house will be full, and so will our stomachs from what I hear about the food being served.

My Christmas Tree

This new photo is of a quilt I did from a pattern by Ricky Tims. I know this does not look like something Ricky would design but it is and I just fell in love with it. He made a gift of the pattern to me 2 years ago at the International Quilt Market in Houston. We were both there working, but we always manage to find time to visit others we know and do a little shopping. Anyway, this is the only "tree" we put up this year, we are spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with other members of our families so we only put up some of our decorations. This little photo is a close up of the quilting and the crystals I put on the quilt.

Merry Christmas

Hello and Merry Christmas. I have added a photo of my youngest granddaughter, all ready to attend church yesterday. She looks like such an angel, but believe me there is a little devil in her eye too. I am so lucky that most of my 13 grandchildren and my 2 great grandchildren live close by. At this time of year it is so fun to watch them learn about Christmas.

Graduation Gift

The quilt in the photo is a graduation gift for my daughter-in-law Tori who graduates Dec. 18 from nursing school with her RN. We are all so proud of her accomplishments, she is at the top of her class and is graduating with honors. Tori has worked very hard the last 4 years, and her family has too. She couldn't have done it without their support and cooperation. She is married to my son John and they have 3 very active children, Alison (14), Aaron (11) and Maggie (8). I choose this quilt, pattern and fabrics, because Tori likes the "country" look in her home. The pattern is from a collection of patterns offered by Marcie Patch at www.patchalotpatterns.com. Marcie is very special to me as she is the mother of one of my other daughters-in-law. Check out her web site and blog, you will see a photo of the cutest little girl, that is the youngest of my 13 grandchildren.

my first post

Hello, today is my first try at this blog craze. As I learn how to do this I will add photos of my family and some of my quilts. I'll let you know how I keep busy while I am suppose to be retired. I haven't really figured out this retirement thing, I'm busier now than ever. I have a few friends that have blogs and many of my grandchildren do, as well as "my space" places where they share information. It is really amazing how we communicate today. Well time to go figure out the rest of this process. Have a wonderful, blessed day