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.

Good morning, I am busy finishing up a customer quilt, I'll put up a photo soon since it is really a fun quilt. But a friend just sent me an email and I thought the message was just too appropriate for us quilting ladies that I had to share it, so here it is.

Sunday after church, a Mom asked her very young daughter

what the lesson was about.

The daughter answered, "Don't be scared, you'll get your quilt."

Needless to say, the Mom was perplexed.

Later in the day, the pastor stopped by for tea and the Mom asked

him what that morning's Sunday school lesson was about.

He said "Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming."

Yesterday I rearranged my living room, in between quilting, and today my back is sore, this getting old is really getting old. I have not had time to be out in blog land and I really need to get my blog list over there on the side updated with more of the people I enjoy visiting. I promise I will soon. My DH will not be home this weekend so maybe that will give me time to catch up. I am not sure why my type size changed, it says it it the same but it is obvious that it is not. Today I decided I would add a photo of Lake Superior, it was taken during a walk along the shore during our retreat last week. It was so beautiful up there, so relaxing to sew as we looked out upon the lake. Have a blessed day everyone.

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.