My OCD

I have edited this post from its original form as I was trying to line up photos and that didn't go so well. I have been working on new pattern covers, and that has taken up some time. But they are coming along nicely. I have always loved this little log cabin design! Just a normal LC, but the border makes me happy. You may have noticed a trend with me and two ended borders. Don't ask, I have no answer. I just get a kick out of that.
I seem to have a touch of OCD when it comes to certain things. Quilting for sure, and then my second passion is family history, or genealogy. Like  sewing, I became involved in this at a young age and the interest has stayed with me. Since I was a child I began writing down names and dates and bits of stories. Over the years I have compiled quite a lot of family information. I have had the pleasure of interviewing people who were distantly related and ended up forming wonderful relationships. I think old people especially love to share family information and to know that someone cares. You reach an age where life spins around you and it is nice to know you still have something of value to share. I am not quite there yet, but I can see it approaching! (The old thing is chasing me down!)

Anyway, I have become reacquainted with my cousin, who became interested in family history, and she is driving down here from Buffalo, NY this week so that we can share family information. I am so excited. Thanks to the internet we re-united and have each been searching ancestry.com, etc. 

 Now to clean up my house so it is presentable for company. Too bad I am not a bit more OCD about that!

 

Dream Catcher

A nice surprise came in the mail today. McCall's Quilting magazine sent me their latest release. It is the September-October issue, and I have a quilt published in it. It is the quilt pictured above called Dream Catcher. Anyone remember when I was working on that one? See it here.

This quilt was so much fun to make because you can really have fun combining scraps. I love a quilt where I can use both old and current fabrics. Scrapdillyitious!
This one was quilted by my good friend in Arizona, Marae Harris, with lovely feathers running down the strips. 

It is such an honor for me to be in this lovely magazine with so many designers that I admire, including Pat Wys whose blog I read! Cool! Watch your mailbox or retail stores for this magazine. It will put a smile on your face!

The Season of Fun

These two cute girls have been with us for the past couple weeks, my granddaughter, Danielle, and her friend Mabry. It has been rather busy around here. Along with the girls, my son and his wife were here and also my dad. We had a great time together. Fun at the beach, riding bikes, reading, and food from the grill. After a week all the adults went home.

And then we took the girls to New York City for the weekend. Pictures of them are on my family blog, but this one is about ME! So we were walking down Broadway in the Fashion District and I had to have my picture taken with this guy at the sewing machine.

We took the girls to Soho shopping. There are some really great shops there for teens, young adults, and for those who need to be trendy (not me). The shop I loved the most was All Saints Clothing, and it was not because of the cloths. I loved the decor.

All Saints Clothing had walls of old Singer sewing machines! 

And huge spools!

I just basked in the environment that I love. And you know it is not trendy clothes!

A New Twist

Call this a new twist, if you will, on the ever popular "klosjes" that are spooling around blogland. I have had pinwheels on the brain and they seem compatible, don't you think? 

Also, newly hung on my wall is my ancestor quilt that I showed previously here  and here. I got it back from Rosie, my quilter, and it looks terrific. You really cannot see her efforts in the photo, as she straight-line stitched around each block, and then added feathers in the squares and borders. It all complements my quilt beautifully. I love this little quilt for many reasons. The simplicity of the blocks, the family names and the sentimental stitching around the border. It all makes me happy!

P.S. The Ancestor Quilt was designed by Leslie Ison and Norma Whaley of Salt Lake City, Utah. I bought the pattern at The Corn Wagon quilt shop, 801- 491-3551.

Happy Birthday America!

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

by Lee Greenwood 

 
I get chills when I hear this, or any other patriotic song! Back in the 1950's, when Ike was president, we were raised to be proud of our flag and our country and our history and we pledged our devotion to the flag, right along with our devotion to God and family. This day, July 4th, seems to bring that all back to me as we all join together and celebrate and wave our flags and feel thankful for the things that unite us. Happy Birthday America!

 I love to bring out the red, white and blue quilts this time of year. The colors always please me. I am happy to report that the quilt on the left, Homeport, will be shown in the American Quilter Magazine that is coming out this month. It is a pattern that I designed a few years ago and my friend, Kim McWherten, was asked by the magazine if they could publish the one that she made. I look forward to seeing the magazine and Kim's quilt!

This is another favorite that has adorned our deck each summer. Even in the summertime there are cool breezes and naps to be taken out in the fresh air, so we must have our quilts available.


Enjoy a wonderful weekend, whatever you are up to!

Love in Stitches

 

I adore samplers! Many years ago I did quite a bit of counted cross stitch. Recently I took it up again. I was hesitant because, let's face it, the old eyes aren't what they used to be. But the ladies at the cross stitch shop assured me that I could do it, and they showed me how. This time I am stitching on linen, which scared me, until they told me to count over two threads. Whew! So I decided to give it a try. Now I am focusing on samplers. The design above was a free design shown on Barb and Alma's blog. You may have to scroll way back to find it. They recommend that you stitch in the name of a loved one, and I thought that was a sweet idea, so this one has my grandmother's name and birth year on it.

 

 I showed this sampler in progress quite a while ago, and I finally finished it, and I love it! This one is in the Blackbird Design's book, You're Invited. I am feeling very proud of myself, and I haven't gone blind. Yet. I made this sampler in remembrance of my little baby, Mary, who died on the day she was born. The sampler gives the year, 1976, and a heart for love, as well as a butterfly, which is a symbol of eternal life, and "Forget Me Not". These items were all on the original design and all very appropriate. To me, this sampler is a reminder that she was here, though briefly.

I took my work to the cross stitch shop here in town called Dying to Stitch. They have a framing service and Patti did a beautiful job framing them for me! I am delighted! Browse around their website for a glimpse of some lovely samplers.

I know I promised my new wool pillow, etc., but that will have to wait until next time. I am way too excited to get my samplers back from the shop all framed up! I just had to share that today!

 

A Gift for the Gifted!

Say hello to the winner of my drawing! I am so happy to be able to send this package of goodies to Michele from With Heart and Hands. Michele is my hero in so many ways. When you read her blog you will find out why. Michele has devoted her life to the service of others. She works hard to see that the needs of her elderly parents are taken care of, plus she spends countless hours working in schools and in the community wherever she is able. Then there are the quilting projects that she happily donates to worthy causes. As if that were not enough, Michele has a blog that is so informative on so many subjects. I think she loves research for the pure joy of discovery, but then she shares the fruits of her labors with anyone who reads her blog. Michele is more than gifted, she is blessed. Blessed in the sense that she knows who she is and she finds peace and serenity in what she does. She has never told me that, but I can feel it about her. If I ever get to Heaven I hope to meet Michele and get to know her better. (Well, she lives in Oregon/Alaska, I probably won't meet her in my lifetime!)

After that big write-up, I want to assure you that I really did draw Michelle's name from the pile of comments submitted. Thank you all for your comments. Don't forget to come back again just for the pleasure of reading my blog...like when I have time to write something interesting. I have a cute wool pillow I want to show you next time, and I must tell you about my granddaughter who is in Africa right now!

Anyone Coming Home?

Raise your hand if you know who this is? 

If you guessed Jo Morton, you are right! By the time I met her at market I realized that I was the only one taking photos of the stars, and so I kind of restrained myself. Was I being silly? Were they flattered, or did they find me obnoxious? I don't really know, but they were all very gracious about it. I was delighted to meet Jo and was quick to tell her that I am a friend of Karen Mowery, whose patterns Jo has promoted.

This is Jo's beautiful new book, Coming Home. It is available at your local quilt shop, I am sure. And if they don't have it, they will order it for you. Yes, you can order it on line, but why not give your LQS a break and buy from them. They need our business. And we need them!

On the other hand, you might get lucky and win this book from me, because I am having a drawing! Yes I am! Just leave a comment before Thursday night and I will announce the winner over the weekend. I will also include the McCall's Quick Quilts magazine in which my quilt, American Dreamer, is featured, along with my two newest Patchalot Patterns.

Any takers???

P.S. Please don't announce this drawing on your blogs. I want it to be for people who are regular readers.

MIXED NUTS

This little granddaughter of mine always keeps us laughing. I have to share her latest remarks. I was talking to her mother on the phone the other day and she commented that there was a deer lying under the tree in her backyard, and then she saw a couple more lying there. She said to me, "I wonder where the babies are? We usually see babies by now". My little Plumpkin pipes up and says, "Maybe they grabbed their stomach and said, ugh, I have to lay down".  Plumpkin just turned five years old. Many of you have seen little bits of her on my blog over the years. Thank Heavens God invented children! They bring such joy into our lives!

After meeting so many big designers in the business, I have to say that this may have been my biggest thrill! This is Monica Patch and her mother, Karen Bennett, of Nellie's Needle. They design patterns and had a lovely booth at Market. Monica handed me a brochure as I passed her booth on the last day of market. When I saw the name Monica Patch on the flier I did a double take! When I saw her 801 area code (Utah) I knew we were related. We had a wonderful visit. Our husbands are first cousins and I have always loved her husband who is the same age as my kids. She and her mom came over to my SIL's where Joan and I were staying, and we got to know them a little. Great people, great patterns! Check them out!   

This is one of Monica's darling quilts. You have to take a close-up look at it. It has yo-yos all around the inner border! She shared her secret construction methods with me, but you need to buy her pattern for all the info. What a clever girl! (I just looked at their website and couldn't find the pattern!--Sorry. Hopefully it will be out soon).

This booth was so adorable! Riley Blake is a fabric company out of Salt Lake City. If their booth is any indication, I would say that they will be a noticeable force in the market very soon. 

If you read all the way to the bottom of this post, you deserve to know that I plan to have a give-away very soon! Come back again!

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!