More on Market...

Who can turn the world on with her smile? Mary Tyler Moore of course!

This was Sample Spree before the set up.  This is Quilt Dad John Adams who came to help us get set up, he's chatting with Julie from Jaybird Quilts.  In case you are wondering, Julie stayed with Tina and I in our hotel room and we spent a lot of time together-- she rocks and we had so much fun over the 5 days!

Julie getting very up close and personal with the Moda Crates--- and this is my table before the crowds.Moda in the background, Robert Kaufman Fabrics in the foreground with Darlene Zimmerman-- she is so fabulous, and yes even celebrities do their part for Sample Spree helping out! Allie works for Kaufman and we love her-- she is just too sweet.This is Julie, Tina and I after our shopping at Sample Spree laughing about how ridiculous we are for buying so much that we surely do not need.John Quilt Dad and I-- He is genuinely such a great person and I loved that he and Julie, Vanessa from V and Co, and several other great people used my booth at Sample Spree and at Market as their Home Base.  I felt loved to have constant visitors.Sample Spree madness-- which really is elbow to elbow, no room to get around and if you are either claustrophobic or panic attack prone- consider staying away or being highly medicated! We actually buy at Sample Spree for LOW! LOW! prices all the new and wonderful items that are being released at Market.  Fabric Hoarders UNITE! Julie and Nancy Halvorsen-- Julie owns a lot of Nancy's cute Cider Mill fabric and many other lines Nancy designs for Benartex, she adores Nancy-- I do too but this was Julie's first time meeting Nancy-- I introduced them and Julie went a little ga-ga. Whew! We are done-- then we went to help the folks at Robert Kaufman take down their booths-- just because they are really great, they needed the help and they bribed us with some fabric!  Who turns that down?  Besides, we got my booth down and packed up in about 20 minutes.  Lizzie House and I-- she is fabulous and so is her mom Cherri House! you really need to check out Lizzie's new line with Andover called Castle Peeps-- it is very fun.  Cherrie has released a book with C&T that is wonderful and the photos are amazing.

Above is my booth at market just before the doors opened-- it was pretty cute this time and the records for my sign were a huge hit-- everyone thought I was ingenious.  *NOTE no "good" records were damaged by making this sign!

As a side note* These pictures were taken with Tina's brand new camera that she is taking back to Costco-- we didn't like it's performance for obvious reasons.  It is a digital point and shoot-- she has a very nice Nikon- but didn't want to lug it around.  

Switching gears after Market

Booth Set up Thursday.  See Lake House in the background?  And Moda and United Notions are up the aisle toward the light.  You know how it is with Moda-- just go toward the light!  

This is my little 10 x 10 home, before it got all pretty.  Lynnette Anderson was to the left in the picture and Laurie Bird of Rose Cottage was to the right.    They make great neighbors!

The following photos I cannot be held responsible for....

Tina and I sat next to Eleanor Burns on the plane to Minneapolis.  We got to be friends after two hours of chatting, napping etc.Eleanor asked Tina (my friend who is such a delight to travel with) and myself and Julie of Jaybird Quilts if we would help at her Schoolhouse session.  how bad could it be?  It's a 20 minute seminar on her new book.  That's me in the Chicken Hat, Tina is a Lamb, Orion Eleanor's son is the Farmer and Eleanor is the Pig in this little ditty.  We danced and sang Old Macdonald Had a Farm- You know the song go ahead sing with us-- that's what Eleanor said.The following quilts are from her book and are really fabulous.  They were all great.  Tina and I got roped into this by agreeing to hold up the quilts-- nothing was mentioned about the hats and the singing..... I won't hold it against Eleanor she looked silly like us, and she is so gracious.  In case you were wondering, I gave her a copy of my TidBits from Triangles book, and she asked me to autograph it-- be still my heart!  Even after all these Market's I am still awestruck by the quilting celebs that are there. 

 Did I tell you Mark Lipinski and I had a meeting?  Yeah and Darlene Zimmerman asked to meet Laurie Bird, and Tina and I so we could chat about our fabulous Clothesline Club at Quilt Etc.  We have a good time, and it has 64 members and a waiting list.  We do a full dinner for the whole group each meeting, have fabulous show and tell, and we have great projects that we do as a group beyond the Club projects.  Robert Kaufman Fabrics  and Darlene Zimmerman started this, and we ran with it-- thanks to Sandra Mack at Quilt Etc.  We gave Darlene loads of suggestions.  I think I get to call her my friend now...  Yeah a  little star struck!

I am off to relax a little and try and switch my gears after the Market wonders I got to experience.  Will tell you all more tomorrow, and more photos to come.  You still haven't seen the prettiness of the after set-up booth.  I have Sample Spree shots too-- it's nuts but so fun!

MINNEAPOLIS!!!!

I love it here!
Minneapolis is just gorgeous and I love this city. I love the combination of huge skyscrapers and old cathedrals. The architecture here is so inspiring.
This is the Government building-- it is so lovely in person, and is really magnificent.

Mt. St. Helens.... 30 years ago today...

30 years ago today.  This is what happens when Mother nature gets REALLY REALLY mad at us.

I was there, sort of. Mount St. Helens is visible from Portland but is in Washington state.  I lived 20 minutes southwest of Portland Oregon.  I was 8, and I remember it really well.  That's the crap.  Why?  Well because I can remember something that happened 30 years ago!!!  Ugh-that makes me feel kinda old.

I was outside and the ash began to fall.  I thought it was snow.  We didn't get much snow in Portland, and certainly not in May.  I quickly figured out it was something other than snow.  I went to find Mom, who was feeling unwell.  From her bedroom window I watched as it erupted and the sky turned black and stayed that way for days.  It was pretty scary watching it on TV as the mudslides washed away all the animals, all the trees like toothpicks, all the foilage was burnt to a crisp, and some reporters lost their lives up there trying to report on it.

That's the sad part, the mountain has recovered, life began anew eventually, but people forget there were 57 people up there who lost their lives over that week.  I remember one in particular.  His house got washed away at some point with him in it.  His name was Harry Truman (not the president!), and he was a surly old guy who refused to leave the only home he had ever known.  He never evacuated, the mountain took him.

So in remembrance of those who lost their lives that day and the days following, you are not forgotten.

Jolly Stockings Pictures

As promised, 
Here are the photos of my new Block of the Month pattern.

                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                            
This pattern is the culmination of over a year of work.  I began designing the blocks in December of 2008 for  a block of the month my quilt guild wanted to do.  My patterns were given out monthly, and now finally I have gotten them published in one pattern.  


This pattern will be up for sale on my website and my etsy site this afternoon.  Retail is $18.00.  In the pattern are full sized applique templates, and a lot of tips and instructions.  

This pattern can be appliqued in any style you prefer.  I used invisible machine applique, fusible applique and needle turn applique on my blocks.  I wanted this to be a user friendly applique pattern, so I tried using every method on it just to be sure it was do-able.

Did you see Cooper in the first photo?? That's my curious cat, he love to check out everything I am doing and usually tests all of my quilts before they are done by taking a nap on them.  That's his type of quality control!

Jolly Stockings Block of the Month

My newest pattern is nearly finished.
I am really excited to post the photo of it, but the weather has not been cooperating here.  I wanted to do the photo outside because the quilting is exquisite on it, and the colors are so fun and happy.  I think the natural light will make it shine so to speak.

So today it is very nice outside and I hope to get the photos of it posted later today or tomorrow.

Until then, it is called Jolly Stockings Block of the Month and it features a different appliqued Christmas Stocking every month.

You can see the quilt in Minneapolis at Market if you are going-- my booth is 2102!  Hope to see some of you there!

Blogiversary--- Webster is this a word???

My Blogiversary came and went without notice. It was April 22nd, 2 years of blogging!

I am not certain that is a real word but I do see it on other people's blogs so it must be. That is why I had to look to see when mine is.

I won this cute bag from Lenae on her blogiversary! It's a pretty darn cute bag-- and I am pretty darn excited that I won-- I don't win things very often so that makes it more fun.

So thanks to everyone who reads these little TidBits of my life and my quilting world!!! I love it when I get comments and I have made many great friends from this so I am grateful!

Until next time... more TidBits to come....

*note the play on words here. TidBits are just bits of everything I love, so there you have it. The name of my book is TidBits from Triangles because I love half square triangles in my quilts!

Giveaway winners announced

#2 Anne Ooooh I like them all but my favourite is the Zig Zaggity quilt. I have had this quilt on my to do list for a while. Thank you for sharing

April 26, 2010 11:39 PM

Anne is from Australia and she has a cute little blog-- you should check it out!

and #56 Karin I love the primrose baskets! It looks like it could be an antique pattern, love it!

April 27, 2010 11:18 AM

Karin please email me because I don't know how to reach you and I would love to send you this book.

some pretty great giveaways in blogland....

Here are a couple of great giveaways in blogland going on right now.

Just Lenae- giving away a darn cute bag for her blogiversary (is that a new word?)

Fat Quarter Shop- giving away a couple of Pretty Little books-- these are cute!

Film in the Fridge-- love her photography! Giving away some lovely fat quarter bundles from Robert Kaufman

Moonchild Studio- She is getting married in 2 weeks and is happy and giving away a doll. Her dolls are darling.

QuiltTaffy-- They have a giveaway every Thursday and are one of my favorites!

There are more Check out Julie's post every Tuesday for others-- she's fabulous, I love her, and I get to see her again in a couple of weeks in Minneapolis!