WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Oh the wonder of it all!

Joan and I actually stayed in Hershey for two nights and visited other places from there. And of course we visited Hershey World! We loved it! And yes, I was like a kid in a candy store! Only with more money! Heh, heh, heh.

Anyone care for a little ice cream to go with all that syrup?

Listen to this: they actually had Hershey bath products! And I have to tell you, as much as I love chocolate, the image of bathing in all that brown stuff doesn't do much for me. Hershey Kisses however--now there is creative genius behind that idea!

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA

Beautiful Lancaster County, with the rolling hills of farmland and forests. We did see Amish buggies traveling on the roads. This photo is exactly like what we saw, but I refused to take photos of them. I got this one on line. Apparently the Amish own most of the farms and farmland in this area, in spite of the fact that they only comprise about 8% of the population. They obviously know what they are doing! I wonder if they have any idea how much they are admired by most of us?

This beautiful stone barn was on the property to the left of Sauder Fabrics. Across the street were fields of standing. dried corn, ready to be chopped up for silage, I imagine.

This is another store from the first group in my previous post in Bird-in-Hand, PA. Joan and I were totally charmed by the whole town.

And here is their display of "edible squash". I imagine it is labeled for the tourists in case they confuse it with the gourds. Let me tell you, their gourds were amazing also!

BIRD-IN-HAND

We left Wednesday morning, October 28th, on a wonderful adventure. My friend Joan has a new car and we had to break it in on a road trip. We have been wanting to do this for such a long time, and we finally made it happen. We drove north with the help of Suzie, Joan's GPS navigator, named after the Susan B. Constant, the ship that sailed to America and into Jamestown. We love our history! Destination: Lancaster County, Gettysburg and Hershey, Pennsylvania.
We drove north from Virginia Beach and gloried in the beautiful fall colors as we got into Pennsylvania. Wow, what a beautiful state! The colors of fall accented everything to perfection.

We arrived in Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania in the afternoon. We wanted to stop at every door on the way into town, but Joan said, "NO". Of course we thought we might have time to go back later to a few shops, but that never happened. This beautiful shop above sold fabric, quilts and gift items.

There is glare on the glass windows, but this one has a great looking quilt displayed. This window was so darling I couldn't stand it! The quilt is wonderful and the accessory items are perfect!

This was the first place we stopped when we arrived in town.

Next door we found lots of pumpkins, gourd, flowers, etc. We both bought bouquets of dried flowers.

My favorite stop in Lancaster County was Sauder Fabrics. It is run by the Amish and it is in the basement of a home out in the country. We were glad for the GPS to find it! Yes, that is me with a bolt of Jo Morton fabric that was so cheap it would make you cry. You had to buy the whole bolt to get the price, so darn it, I HAD to do it! I bought about a dozen half yards that were at least $3 cheaper per yard than what you find in the shops. Now that I am reading the sign I am thinking I should have looked at the spices. I bet they were in bulk, and cheaper also!

I have lots more great pictures, so this is just the first entry for our trip. Please come back for more!

A GAGGLE PERHAPS?

I am back, tho not so much "in action" as I would like. Once again I finished up my trip with a flu bug. Fortunately it didn't hit me until after the wedding. Unfortunately I was in Arizona at my son's house and never left the house the whole week I was there. Now I am home trying to generate some enthusiasm for anything! I seem to be very fond of my bed, but even that has grown old.
All that aside, and even in my weakened condition, I was able to complete a plethora of Flying Geese for two different quilts I am working on. I took scraps with me and just sort of sat slumped at the sewing machine making one after another without having to use any of my groggy brain. Are you feeling sorry for me yet? I didn't think so.

When I became weakened to the point of not being able to sew any longer, I went into the yard and lay prone before the Arizona Sun God, praying for deliverance. Then back into the house for a Diet Coke and that was as good as it got. Seriously, I am not that sick, just tired and have that old nagging cough that lasts forever.

Today is my last day of taking it easy. I am catching up on my blog and then will catch up on my TV shows that are recorded on my DVD. Tomorrow I WILL get moving!
Let me share this final wedding shot with any interested parties. Becky and Travis ride bikes all over, and so his parents arranged to have a bicycle built for two at the wedding reception all decorated! Becky's dad found this darling clip-art that he reproduced on water bottles and candy covers. After the reception the bride and groom rode off on the bike while everyone waved and blew bubbles! It was very cute!

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!

FLYING INTO THE WESTERN SUN

Joy and sorrow have taken their measure this week. First our sorrow at the passing of my husband's 51 year old sister, Liz Armbruster, of Simpsonville, SC. It was a shock to all of us. She suffered a brain aneurysm and quickly left us. She and her husband had six children, two are seniors in high school, two in college, two working and not living at home. We are suffering from the shock of it, as she seemed to be in perfect health. You just never know, and that is the truth. I won't dwell on this, as you don't know her, but there is no shortage of reminders to cherish each day and love those around you. When this type of shock comes into my life I am like a mother hen and I want to gather my chicks around me, for their sake or my own I do not know.

Now for our regularly scheduled program before I share the good news.
Saturday night I took a class for this quilt, Western Sun. I signed up for it three weeks ago, and at the time I thought, "what are you thinking?" (Do you ever think, "what are you thinking?"?) The class was from 6:00 to midnight. I figured I would leave early, but wouldn't you know it, there was a magnetic pull to my sewing machine, perhaps brought on by the Western Sun as it dropped out of sight. I stayed till midnight and really enjoyed working of this project, as well as visiting with everyone.

I first saw this design in Barbara Brackman's book, Butternut and Blue. I loved it! I always hoped to make it one day. That is why, when it was offered as a class, I jumped at the chance. Well I ask you, could you have resisted?
Above is our delightful teacher, Sue Troyan. Sue teaches lots of different classes and is always a hit. She works magic with reproduction fabrics, and this quilt surely demonstrates that. Sue also has unlimited skills and techniques up her sleeve and energetically shares them in class.

So now you see I have succumbed once again to diving into another project. If you ask how many I have in the works I could not honestly tell you. But this one I could not resist, and if I could I would sew madly on it for a couple weeks, BUT, I have other news!

My darling granddaughter Becky, (remember Becky who stayed with us last summer?) is getting married Saturday, October 10, in the L.D.S. Mt. Timpanogos Temple in
American Fork, Utah. I am leaving tomorrow, flying into the Western Sun, for Utah! We are all in a tizzy getting everything lined up for the big event.

So I am ending this post on a happy note. We live, we love and hopefully we find happiness and share it with those we encounter along the way. I will be back in a week or so with photos!

SOMETHING BLUE

Thanks to Dot at Rantala Rags I have something to show and tell today. Dot is the first one to send me a pic of her completed Christmas Punch quilt. As you can see, Dot opted to change the colors, and doesn't it look great?!

My EQ6 project folder is over flowing with ideas and never enough time to complete them all. I am currently working on something strippy. Maybe by the end of the week I will have a picture to share.

Last Thursday and again this Thursday I am teaching a lovely class for Indian Paintbrush. I enjoy making new friends, and especially when they are making one of my patterns! Ha! Plus it is fun to see what fresh eyes and a different interpretation does to a pattern. One of the gals mentioned that she is doing a BOM where they send you a few fabrics, but with a black and white photo so you have to depend on your own imagination to create each block coloring. I like this idea of stretching your own vision. Sometimes we depend too much on the interpretaion of others.

But not Dot! She did it her way! Thanks for sharing with us Dot!

FREE CHRISTMAS PATTERN

Computers make me crazy. I can't prove that is what did it, but it is just my guess. So here is the deal, I usually work on a PC desktop. But my husband has an Apple Laptop. I actually prefer working on my own PC, never mind what the commercials on TV say. But that is another story. What I want to explain is that while looking at my blog on my husband's MAC I clicked on the free quilt image on my sidebar. It links to my website. Well my whole website shows up as a goofy mess on the MAC. I can't explain it, but it is just awful. If you have a MAC and find my website to be a mess (or any other computer) I just don't have any advice. I think it displays better on Internet Explorer. But who really knows.

So far no one has complained that they are having problems. However, if you are trying to read the directions for the free quilt pattern and are unable, and if you want to make the pattern, please e-mail me and I will e-mail the directions to you. It shouldn't be this difficult. Honestly.

Thank you for all your kind words about the pattern. I am glad you like it!

YOU MAKE ME SMILE

Yes, you make me smile! I can't tell you how many times I sit here all alone at my computer and read your comments and laugh out loud. Or I read your blogs with a big grin on my face! When my husband and I moved to Virginia nine years ago I didn't know anyone. I was barely literate on the computer. We had never had the Internet before, and so I began looking around for quilt stuff. I managed to find some quilt blogs that were great fun, and so I began winding my way into Blogland. To my great joy, I found a whole new way to interact with quilters. I found a format for sharing my projects, and I found inspiration through other quilt bloggers. I found quilt bloggers to be open and unafraid, generous with their comments, and helpful to me as I struggled to learn new computer skills. In short, I found new friends! Most of you I will probably never meet face to face, but I do enjoy dropping in for the occasional visit. There are so many bloggers out there now that I don't know everyone, and can't always keep everyone straight. I recently found myself making a comment on a blog and as I scanned thru the other comments I found that I had already been there and done that. Haha! That made me smile too!

So my friends, as this year has literally flown by, I once again offer up my little token of friendship in the form of a free Christmas pattern. It is a simple little design that I hope you will find attractive and maybe you will have a chance to make it this year. In light of all that is going on in our family, I put forth my best effort to get this out early this year. You can find the link to the free pattern by going to my website at PatchalotPatterns.com. Free patterns from years past are there as well. Feel free to share this picture and the link to my website and blog.
If you are in this area you might join me at What's Your Stitch 'N Stuff where I am doing this as a class on November 3rd.

Best Wishes and Happy Stitches!

SUMMER SUCCESS STORIES

Summer has come and gone, but for once I can say that I actually got a few things done. The photo above shows my version of the little Orange Peel quilt that I made from Kathleen Tracy's book, Remembering Adelia. It was a delight to make and it gave me an opportunity to display some of my Civil War fabrics that I love so much. I even used a few 5 inch charm squares because they were so easy to find and use. I got two little segments from each square. It added a few samples of fabrics that I only had in those charm packs. As I dug through my fabric I found this Thimbleberries fabric from years ago that was just the perfect color for the border, and the corner squares are from an old Smithsonian print that I have also had for many years. I love this little quilt, and it was made even more special by Mary Flynn at Quilt Hollow who quilted it for me. She did a lovely job and I certainly recommend her if you are looking for a quilter. Mary also quilted my red, white, and blue Prairie Paisley quilt for my grandson. It is in the collage below, and guess what---McCall's Quilting is going to publish it in their Quick Quilts magazine, July 2010 issue! I thought I was really organized to have gotten the quilt completed for a baby that is not coming until December. Now the dear child will have to wait for his quilt for a while. But I made it plenty big and he won't know the difference, and I am psyched!

The collage above shows the several things that I have completed this summer. Along with my little Orange Peel, I have completed five full size UFOs this summer to the point where they are quilted, bound, labeled and delivered to new homes. Also I designed and completed two Honor Guard quilts with the four eagles; the red, white and blue American Dreamer quilt; and two Christmas Punch quilts. I feel good!

As always, more awaits me, including the directions for the Christmas Punch quilt, which I will try to complete this week. Our LQS What's Your Stitch N Stuff had Open House this past Saturday and that was very nice. Lots of browsers looking for classes to sign up for, and lots of classes to choose from, including mine. I will be teaching Indian Paintbrush again, and then Christmas Punch in November. If you are looking for a cute little Christmas quilt to teach you might consider Christmas Punch. It is fun to make and the pattern will be free! (And you can intoduce my patterns to your quilt shop owner!) Also keep in mind that there are other free patterns at my website, PatchalotPatterns.com Also, if you have trouble on my website with overlaying words or links that don't seem to work, re-open the site in Internet Explorer. For some reason the site has issues with other internet browsers. I try, I really do. I wish these various browsers would play nice.

Today is Monday and Friday will be here in a flash! Enjoy your week everyone!

MY LOVELY PADDED CELL

Today I come to you from the confines of my padded cell. Some of you refer to your sewing space as "the sweat shop", or "the studio", or even "the kitchen". As for me, it will always be My Happy Place, where my walls are padded with layers of fabric. Some in the form of finished quilts, some on a soft wall in the process of design, and some walls are padded with stacks of my fabulous stash of mish-mashed fabrics.

I sadly have no real plan when I buy fabric, and I often chastise myself for my random purchases. But at the time of the purchase I am quite sure I felt I needed it desperately. Thus the title, Marcie Patch, Quilt Designer, Quiltmaker, and Compulsive Collector of Fine Fabrics. Sounds so much better than "Fabric Psycho!"

Oh, I actually do have a bit of a plan when I purchase. I love reproduction fabrics from the Civil War era. And that is about all it takes for me to cross the line from "shopper" to "psycho". My fabric stash is not really as mish-mashed as it would seem to the casual eye. Ninety percent of it is Civil War era, and the rest is about to be removed from my presence to a more accommodating home.

My favorite creations are those that combine newly purchased fabrics along side the old ones. It is such a thrill to me to pull out a piece of fabric that I have had for years and see it blend perfectly with something I just purchased. And I am rarely content to make a quilt from a kit or from a certain line of beautifully coordinated fabrics. What fun is that? A quilt like that contains nothing of myself in it. I need wiggle room. Even on the rare occasion when I buy a kit, I end up changing something. Actually, that is how I ended up designing quilts. I always needed to change something to make it my own.

I am not so pious as to think that my way is the only way. It is a big wide wonderful world of quilts, and each of us is free to decide where we fit in. We are all blessed with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Scrappiness! (Oh my gosh, that is the perfect name for a quilt! Don't steal that, I am hereby copyrighting it!)

New topic. With all that is going on in our family this year, I started having nightmares in early August about not getting my Christmas projects done. For the past couple of years I have offered a free little Christmas quilt pattern, or, with a change of fabric, Hanuka if you prefer. We all recognize this traditional quilt pattern. Nothing too out of the box here. But just look at how cute it is with these fabrics! Don't fabrics just make all the difference?! It measures 22.5 inches square. I am working on the instructions for this quilt and it will be available for you soon. I will post a link on the top of my blog when that happens.

Hope you get some sewing in today!

THE AGING PROCESS

We had another big storm last night. Our deck, which is covered by a roof, was totally soaked. All our wicker furniture and cushions was covered, fortunately. But sitting on the table was my cute little red, white and blue quilt with a plant on it. Last summer this little quilt sat on the table all summer and when fall rolled around, I took the plant off it to bring it in the house and noticed that the center was rotted! I had the plant sitting in a clay saucer, but apparently they are more porous than I realized. Oh, my poor little quilt! I had planned to do some sort of repair job this past winter, but that never happened. Summer came and I put it out on the table again, with the rotted center covered by a plant. How ingenious.

Well, my poor little quilt took another hit. It was dripping wet from the rain when I brought it in the house, and the red fabric was bleeding. Sigh! Now I will try to save it once again. Spray n Wash all the red stains and throw it in the wash with a load of darks and a dye catcher sheet. Hope for the best. The worst that can happen is that it will come out looking like an old quilt. How bad is that? I love old quilts!

HOW DO YOU DO BABY IN BLUE?

Have you been waiting with bated breath? OK, probably not, but here it is just the same. The completed top for the new baby boy that is joining our family! It measures 50 inches square, plenty big for a boy to grow into. I have it all packed up to go see a very nice quilter.

This was a fun quilt to construct. I fussed with the dimensions to get the stars and nine patch blocks a good size for cutting and construction. I try to avoid measurements that include "3/16ths" or "1/8th". I would much rather cut an eighth inch larger and trim to perfection.

This is the end of my Prairie Paisley, except for small pieces which I will now feel free to cut into with wild abandon.

Hope your day is filled with smiles!

BE COOL

How are you keeping cool this summer? Way back in the 1950's there was no air conditioning that I ever heard of. We would run under the sprinkler, or lay in a plastic blow up pool. Fans would be running inside, and we would be outside as much as possible. Find some shade and play in the cool grass. In the evenings I would swing high on my swingset and sing my heart out as my hair flew back and forth in the breeze.

A few times in the summer heat our family would pack the station wagon and we would head over the Peace Bridge that took us from New York into Canada to Crystal Beach on Lake Erie. This was the ultimate summer treat!

The photo above shows my grandmother, on the right, relaxing with friends in the water. She has the cute hair thingy on. I have been wondering how old these ladies are? I am guessing they are in their fifties. My grandmother was born in 1898, and this photo must have been taken in the early 1950's. Here is hoping that Grandma doesn't find out about me sharing this picture or there may be a haunting taking place. 

Grandma is the one who taught me to stop and smell the flowers, literally. When I was 18 months old I escaped from my crib during nap time and walked to my Grandmother's house. She lived  around the block from us. My mother never knew I was missing. After that Mother always walked me to the top of the street and I walked the rest of the block alone, with Grandma waiting at the bottom of the block. And I actually remember this! While walking with me Grandma taught me to look at the flowers and smell them, but don't pick! I also remember her leaning over me as I examined bugs and she would identify them by name. 

Now I am the grandma, and  I sometimes wonder if my grandchildren feel linked to me at all in the same way that I was to my grandmother? It would  be a great honor if they did, but in the hectic lives that everyone seems to live these day would they even notice that I tried to teach them to smell the flowers?  

I think my grandchildren don't worry so much about the flowers. They think "Life's a Beach"! I think my grandma could have told them a thing or two about that as well!