MORE FROM MARKET

To market, to market, to buy a fat quarter,

Home again, home again, with more than I ought'r

Yes, that seemed to be the theme for me at Market. I know my bag weighed 40 lbs. after the first day! (Please allow me a little room for exaggeration, just a little.) As usual my eyes are bigger than... well, they are NOT bigger than my stomach, as the saying goes, however, they were very big!

 This beautiful creation was made from a new line of fabric created by Gloria Parsons from The Olde Green Cupboard. The whole line is designed around an antique wedding certificate. It is called Honeymoon Cottage and is distributed by Blue Hill Fabrics. Check it out!

 My sister-in-law, Kati, and Gloria displaying all the fabric in her line. It is lovely and romantic! And she is already working on a new line! Isn't that just the ultimate thrill--to have your name on the selvage edge of a line of fabric!!!

I feel so cool hanging with this group! The photo shows me,(and what is with that hair of mine?) Gloria, Paula Barnes and Mary Ellen from Bonnie Blue Designs. What a nice group of ladies! Oh, and I see that Bonnie Blue designs has a 25% off sale going on at their website!

That is all for now. Have a great Memorial Day weekend and don't forget to put your flag out!

Quilts of Valor

Check it out!

STAR STRUCK

 

 This should catch your eye, it sure caught mine! 

My friend, Joan and I were at Market in Minneapolis last week and we had an absolute blast! To say we were star struck is an understatement! Once we found Lori Smith's booth, above, I realized that this must be what heaven looks like--for me at least! Lori is so sweet and so genuine, and as you can see, more than a little prolific in her quiltmaking. I do not know how she does it!

Joan could not wipe that grin off her face when we came to Robyn Pandolph's beautiful booth. I think Joan has every fabric Robyn ever designed. And just look how Joan's outfit blends in with Robyn's fabrics. How sweet is that!

And we had the pleasure of meeting the Wool Crazy lady, Jo Ann Mullaly. I told her I was following the round robin that she is doing with Brenda at the Pumpkin Patch. You should check it out--really adorable project! I promised myself I would not get caught in the wool crazy world, but alas, I fear it is too late. Joan and I each came home with Jo Ann's book and more wool!

At lunch I had the pleasure of sitting next to Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl fame! In the photo she is holding one of her wonderful bags that she designs. She has an amazing business and was so nice about sharing tips and information with us. Lunch on the first day was one of the best things! We sat at a big round table and met a few shop owners with whom we traded cards. One couple came from Norway! Any of you Norway bloggers know Kaktus Quilts ?

We ran into the girls from What's Your Stitch n Stuff over and over again! Sandra and Sue! It was so fun to see familiar faces! We are standing at the Marcus Fabrics booth here.

I have more to add, but I think I will just let this settle for a while. I came home so excited to create! Now I must go do it!

AMERICAN DREAMER

My darling granddaughters sent me this photo of themselves with the McCall's Quick Quilts magazine that my quilt is in. They must have taken the photo on the laptop because the cover is reversed, as in a mirror image. They are very proud of me, and apparently the youngest stuck stickers on the magazine that said, "Good job!", "WOW!". and "You did it!"  Usually it is me who is proud of them, so this is a very nice reversal of roles! Thanks girls!

Here am I, all wrapped up in my American Dreamer quilt and the McCall's Quick Quilts magazine. Do you have your copy yet?  

Tomorrow I am off to Minneapolis to Quilt Market. I have never been before, but it is in Minneapolis this time, and since I lived there for many years and have family there, I figured it was the time to go. I will be in familiar surroundings and get to see family as well. I don't have a booth or any of that, I am just going to check it all out. Next week I will be back and let you know what all the fuss is about!

FIBRE JUNCTION

As I was blog hopping today I stopped at Carole's blog, Quilting Adventures. I followed a link on her blog to read an article about the shop she owns in Rouses Point, NY, called Fibre Junction. It was a very nice article, and on top of that I spied my quilt hanging on the wall in her shop! What a sweet surprise! Carole bought some of my patterns for her shop and I sent this quilt along for display. Carole's blog is always filled with sweet surprises and it appears as though her shop is as well! Stop by and say hello!

If you have been visiting my blog for a while you probably have seen this quilt. It is an alternate version of my Williamsburg Medallion pattern. You can follow that link to see how many of my friends have had fun changing the design to suit their own taste. I do love medallion quilts!

Baskets of Scraps and Bushels of Fun!

It is the middle of May and I am thinking about long ago when I was in grade school and we made May Baskets out of colored construction paper and thick white paste. I can still smell that paste and feel the thickness of it as I tried to smooth out the big lumps. I would squish it between my fingers, anything to flatten it! Sometimes we wove baskets and sometimes we made cone shapes from the paper. We also made paper flowers that went into the baskets. Handles were stapled in place and we took them home to give our mother or perhaps to hang on the door of a neighbor, and then we would ring the doorbell and run. We thought we were being very clever and that our neighbor would surely be as excited as we were to receive such a treasure. Do children still make May Baskets? I don't know, but every May I think of baskets and get the urge to make them! 

Today I make my baskets from fabric scraps! Most of my sewing has taken a back seat to other things going on in our home right now, but here is a basket quilt I made a few years ago that I thought I could share. You can find the pattern on my website.  Maybe you will feel the urge to make some baskets. Most basket patterns are designed to set on point. This one however, is not. It was fun to design and make. I would love to start making baskets right now!

Remember these stamp baskets from many years ago? Wow, 13 cents for a first class postage stamp! That was a few years ago! I have always loved these little baskets. I wish the scanned photo came out better. But just look at how darling the baskets are in those old fabrics! Love it!

On another note, if you haven't been to Brenda's blog in a while, you must check out the wonderful pincushion round robin she is involved in. She is at Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe. Scroll down to see her posts about this, and then check out the links. Really cute stuff going on! And Brenda has the cutest stuff at her shop as well! She will link you to it. 

Wishing you baskets of scraps and bushels of fun!

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

The past few weeks I have been watching as my living room has been transformed. We took out old sliding doors and windows and replaced them with french doors and more attractive and more efficient windows. The man doing the work also added wider trim around two doors and another set of windows in the living room. The painters came in and everything became whiter and brighter! We haven't got the furniture and decor all back in place yet, but what an improvement! We actually thought we would rebuild the fireplace at a different time, but a couple coats of white paint and it is a huge improvement there also. Oh, and I painted the front door red! I love that too! (I forgot to put a grid between the photos so they kind of blennnd...but you know!)

We have more work ahead of us. Now we are dealing with the issue of wood floors. There are so many types that we are overwhelmed. We want really dark floors, kind of distressed or handscraped wide planks. Any advice from someone who has done this with happy results? I want brands and colors! Solid, or engineered? I am grabbing for a life-line here! Too many choices!

In the course of cleaning and refreshing my surroundings I decided to hang these wonderful old photos of my grandparents in my bedroom. I wish I could get a photo of the effect of how they look in the room, but that didn't work so well. I had to take quilts of the wall to make room, but I am pleased with the results. My mother always had both of these hanging together and I loved that, but space would not permit in this case. Above is my grandfather, Celo Chambers, and his little brother. They lived in Punxsutawney, PA. 

This photo is of my grandmother, Mary Payne (Chambers), and her brothers, John and Billy Payne from Mt. View, Alberta, Canada. Aren't they delightful! These three have their names on my Ancestor Quilt that I have discussed in previous blogs. It is difficult trying to get a picture of a photo behind glass. these are both large photos and I didn't want to remove them from the ancient frames. I was able to get good shots by taking the picture from a bit of an angle so the flash didn't glare off the glass.

Thanks for stopping by, and come back again for something quilty, if that is what you are after!