Oh Happy Day!

The wedding! It was Saturday, October 10, 2009, at the LDS Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It is a beautiful temple nestled in the foothills in American Fork, Utah. The bride, Rebeccah Froelich, is shown here with her beautiful mother (my daughter) and her sisters, Lisa Tsang, Kathryn and Mary.

Oh these pictures are all scrambled, so I will try to give you some details of the past week. Above is the quilt I made for Becky's wedding. I actually made it a few years ago and never had it quilted. When she announced her wedding I decided that this would be a lovely wedding quilt. Rosemary Skinner, a local quilter, did a beautiful job on the quilting. I got a lot of compliments on the quilt at the LQS, and I am happy with the way it turned out. I hope Becky loves it too. The pattern was in a magazine, I think McCall's Quilting, a few years back.

This photo shows Becky and Travis Pitcher in the center, with Becky's parents, Polly and Chris, on each side. Everyone is glowing with happiness! It was a good day!
The photo above shows Becky with her two short grandmothers! Me, and Mary Brandt of St. Michael, MN, both quilters! I know Mary made Becky a quilt also, but I haven't seen it yet.

There are more photos, but this gives you a quick view of the big event.
This photo shows my husband, and my pregnant daughter-in-law, Keira, and her husband, my son, Renn. They were married earlier this year and are expecting in December. Look at those beautiful bright mountains. That is the view from my son's backyard. I haven't pent any time in Utah in many years and it was really nice to be there. The weather was lovely--sunny and cool, but not cold. We enjoyed seeing friends and cousins that I haven't seen in a very long time. Everything was lovely and I am happy that it is over! Now I am at my son Matt's house in Mesa, AZ. It is beautiful here this time of year and I have more relatives to visit. The fun never stops!

Thank you to all you nice friends and your kind words in my last post regarding my husband's sister. I haven't had a chance to visit everyone yet, but will begin trying to do that. Michele's comment about sunshine and shadows certainly describes what life is all about. We know quilts that follow that plan, but I never applied the term to life's joys and sorrows before. It is so applicable. More later!

TOWANDA!

By an overwhelming number of comments on my squirrel adventures, it would seem more of you are interested in that than quilts. Well, too bad, cause this blog is mostly about quilts. Ha! However, it is gratifying to know that someone out there is reading my blog. I plagiarized a quote from Fried Green Tomatoes and was assaulted with cries of Towanda! Of course that was the image I was trying to portray, but I didn't realize it had become a war cry of the abused! How perfect! I haven't seen the movie in a long time and didn't remember that Towanda was the name of Kathy Bates' character. She is great! Now I want to watch that movie again.


Pam from My Creative Mind offered a suggestion of using ammonia in a spray bottle to spray around the deck where the squirrel was likely to go. I took her advice and was spraying along the edge of the deck where I saw chew marks in the wood. The deck is not free standing, but rather it sits on top of the roof of a lower floor. All of a sudden the squirrel shoots out from that area and flies into the trees! I didn't even know he was in there. I guess he didn't like the smell! Hooray!!! I don't know if he has been around since, but I continue to spray out there each day to discourage him. Nice call Pam! I tried to link to you but couldn't find your site. But thanks so much for the great advice!


I have actually been sewing over the past week, between chasing the relentless rodent. I drew up a design on EQ6 and went to work with some beautiful fabrics from the Jamestown fabric line, by Jo Morton. I found I needed to add some lighter colored fabrics to create the look I wanted, so you will recognize some of the fabric from places other than Jamestown. The 9-patch blocks are primarily from scraps. The rows are not all sewn together yet, but at least I am finally to that step. Then I get to play with a border idea. It is always a challenge to come up with a border design that contributes to the overall design in a compatible way.


My e-mail is through Google (g-mail). I really do like their whole e-mail design. Well, Karen from Sew Primitive and I have been chatting via e-mail. We were discussing toile fabric, and somehow Google picks up on bits of conversation and provides links to places that might be of interest. So this link shows up for toile fabric: http://www.fashionfabricsclub.com/catalog_items.aspx?TypID=98&Viewby=Types&Page=1&gclid=CLGUp5nU75ECFR0yFQodNW-vwg Here is a great variety of toile! I am sure it is designer weight fabric, but still, they would work for focus areas of a quilt, such as my Williamsburg Medallion, or even the Kaffe Fassett Hat Boxes quilt. Take a look at the yellow and red one with the hen and chicks. I love it! Maybe I should make another medallion quilt. I will probably not get my other quilt back from the shop until they are good and sick of it. I am really tempted.
By the way, take a look at the additional site that Karen has set up to display her new patterns. She is designing some really cute things under the name Folk Art Children! If you like the new Wizard of Oz fabric, you will love what she is doing with it!

MY FAVORITE BOOTH!

I know you are all sitting on pins and needles, and probably threads and fabric strips, waiting to hear how the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest was. Well here is a photo of me feeling very proud of the display at Nancy's Calico Patch booth with my Williamsburg Medallion quilt front and center! To the left is part of my Pioneer Trail quilt. The whole booth looked very nice with the overall theme being CW reproduction quilts and fabrics. I was happy to be a part of it. They sold a ton of my patterns, so I am really happy about that! My friends and I were there shopping and looking at quilts for the day on Thursday (2-21-08) and we had a great time.
I didn't take too many pictures, but I do want to share this one quilt that I loved! A huge variety of toiles went into the quilt, and the designer did a great job with it! I should have been better about getting the name so I could give her credit. If anyone out there knows, I will be happy to add it. Isn't it great?!
Apparently the HatBox quilt is a design by Kaffee Fassett.
Apparently the Hatbox quilt IS ACTUALLY Kaffe Fassetts!--Thanks Katie!

On another note, I heard from Nicola in Australia that she was making Bonnie's Bargello quilt, so I added her to the list on the side. I don't plan to leave the list up too much longer, so be sure and take a look at what she has done. You may want to see what progress has been made on the other blogs while you are at it. Unfortunately I, myself, have done nothing more on mine. I plan to make it bigger and have lots of strips cut, so enventually I will get it done! For me it is a good project to pick up when there is a lull in the work at hand. Again, thank you Bonnie for all the inspiration and directions.
I hope I can sew today. I am all charged up to create after going through so many inspiring vendor booths! Happy weekend!

WILLIAMSBURG TOILE

I asked my friend, Marae, to let me take a picture of her with my new quilt. She lives here in Mesa, AZ, and does most of my quilting. As always, she did a beautiful job quilting for me. I love doing my part of the designing and piecing, and she frosts the cake with her beautiful work! Thanks Marae!

I am excited about this new design. The toile is from Windham Fabrics Williamsburg Centennial Line. I probably should have bought more from that line, but I had just received the fat quarter pack from Judie Rothermel's Old Surbridge Scarlet. They go beautifully together, along with a couple pieces from Barbara Brackman.  I leave here for home on Monday and then I will get the pattern directions written, etc. It always feels so good to see each stage completed. More later from Virginia!