Spring Quilt Market, 2010

Spring Quilt Market, 2010, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the right, see my friend Karen Comstock in her booth. She had a lovely booth, but was many isles away from mine.





My booth looked similar to Houston market with
the exception of 3 new patterns and samples of

them (two new quilt patterns and one new bag pattern.)

Brad went with me for the first time. I had tried to warn him it was a lot of work, and now he knows first hand! We enjoyed the trip there and back, though we were tired of sitting! Since he had to use vacation to go with me, he probably won't be back until he retires, but it was great to have such wonderful help! He was so proud when he made his first sale when I left the booth for a short time!

Kissing Nine Patch On Point

This lovely quilt was made for a friend by Lynn H. of Raleigh. It is based on the antique quilt top Lynn and I saw at the Vintage Quilt Study Group meeting in February, 2009. The top is owned by Pat Y. of Raleigh and was purchased in rural central Indiana. Pat does not know who made the original top. This quilt is based on my new pattern, Kissing Nine Patch On Point.

You can see the pattern on my website.

Lynn used Dimples tone-on-tone colors from the focus fabric and cut squares from many different colors to come up with this block setting. She then used the quicker method strip piecing to assemble each color wave of blocks. When we were on our beach retreat she made the 3 pillow shams.


Additional photos show the piecing of the blocks as well as the lovely quilting by Angela Clark of Threadwaggle Longarm Quilting. (www.threadwaggle.com)

Quilting Retreat!

This morning I leave for my third quilt retreat of the year! Yes, I do feel very lucky to have a job that allows me time to "play". My Good Intentions Bee has a day long retreat at North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene the first Wednesday of the year. (This was our third or fourth year.) At this retreat we all use the same pattern (a simple one!) and all make a quilt using our own style and fabrics. What is so amazing is how different they all are!!
My second retreat this year was with my BFF (Best Friends Forever) Bee. It is a weekend long retreat held at our regular meeting place, Karen Comstock's home. (She is a great designer.....see her great patterns at www.quiltricks.com)
This retreat is the Good Intentions Bee's annual week long trip to the beach in North Carolina. Our destination is Salvo, located on the Outer Banks.
This will be my first time to use my new portable sewing table, the SewEzi. I ordered it from the owner, Barbara on Monday and received it Fedx Ground yesterday at 5:30. If you don't have one of these tables, and you go on retreats, you will want to check them out. Her website is www.seweziusa.com. There are different acrylic inserts for the different machines you take to classes or retreats. I ordered one for my Bernina 930, one for my Juki TL98Q and one for my portable Janome Gem Gold.
I hope you will have some time to spend with friends, sewing, eating and laughing soon!

Two-Hour Tulip Easter Baskets!

With Easter just around the corner, I received a phone call last week about a store that had put together the Two-Hour Tulip Purse Petite size with bunny rabbit ears to be used as an Easter Basket. I have not received a photo yet, but one is promised!
However, when I ran into Liat of Miles of Stitches (Hemlock, MI), one of my best customers for this pattern, she told me she would send me a photo of the 42 Easter Baskets they made in 2009. Well, she did send me the photo, or Julie did, and also gave me permission to post it on my blog. Here is it! If this does not inspire you to try this easy pattern, nothing will! Are they not cute?

New pattern/old pattern

I am very excited about the new quilt pattern which will be available at Spring Market (or maybe a little before!) I have made 3 of them so far, and have much interest from friends who are currently pattern testing. I won't post a photo yet and keep you in suspense!

However, from a published pattern of mine, Circle in a Square, I was able to construct a wall hanging using the hand-dyed cotton fabrics by the lovely Lorin Fields, of Local Colour Hues. This pattern uses a set of 2-1/2 inch width strips of fabrics. Set in black, these colors just glow! I was able to get two quilts, each with 9 squares using the strips and the pattern. One is going to Lorin for her retail booth and one is going out in my trunk show, which leaves tomorrow. I have included a photo which was taken before binding. It now has a simple black binding that is not in the photo!

Puppet Costumes

What if your skin was blue and you had no neck, skinny arms and a large flat head? And what if you needed clothing? Sometimes knowing how to make people clothes is not much help when it comes to outfitting a puppet!

My husband is a puppet master. He teaches kids and adults how to make a puppet come alive in a performance. This coming weekend, his puppets will be performing the nativity at our church. He needs 5 shepherd costumes, plus a Mary and a Joseph costume. I went through my stash today to find simple plain colored fabric for the shepherds and some stripes for the sashes.





Here is our little blue friend before we started.












I cut the sleeves out of an extra large t-shirt to make the "tunic" The fact that he has no neck and will have a coat over the tunic, we don't have to worry about straps. His fuzzy "skin" keeps the t-shirt in place.











Next a draped fabric and made a pattern for the coat. The coat has an opening with rounded edges in the front, and self sleeves.
To make the sash, I used about 4 inches of cross grain fabric folded in twice, pressed and folded in half. After placing them on him, I then stitched them in place.


The head dress is cut from the bottom of the t-shirt and rounded on all edges. The top sash was made the same way and sewn in place. Because they don't have round heads, the head dresses are difficult to stay in place, so tacking is necessary in the back also.

Well, he is all finished! Does he look like a shepherd to you? Only 4 more to go!






And here is the whole group, add dressed up and ready for their big performance!
The back left is Joseph and the front right is Mary. All the rest are shepherds.
Merry Christmas!

Fall Market, 2009

With the help of friends, I was able to drive my booth to market in Houston in October, 2009. This was my first time to have a booth, though my product had been there the previous two markets. Mary C. was kind enough to ride out there with me and work in the booth the entire time. Sheri S. drove back with me. It was a real treat to visit with Sonja L. in Baton Rouge on the way there and for a weekend on the way back home. We were also able to visit several quilt stores along the way! Some were existing customers, and some became new customers! I have uploaded photos so you can see the booth. Yes, there is 18 inch long NEON green fringe at the top front of the booth! Hard to miss us!