Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Day 4: Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party



On the fourth day of blog hop, my true love gave to me...don't you just love this wonderful stitchery for the 12 days of Christmas?  If so, your in for a special treat today because you'll be visiting with it's designer, Annie Downs.  Also you'll be seeing Barbara Jones; I still have Barbara's project from last year sitting on my work table to make!  Can't wait to see what she has in store this year!  Hope you all are having a great time gettting to know all these great designers from Henry Glass and getting losts of fun ideas!  Talk to you soon!


12 Days of Christmas



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Day 3: Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party


Claus & Co
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.....yes indeed, we have the first snowfall of the season!  Hope you all are feeling Merry N Bright after visiting with Jill, Kari, Jacquelynne, and the LizzieB girls!  But we're just getting started! 


Today we get to visit with:




AND


Hope you all are having a great time!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Day 1: Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party



It's that time again for the Henry Glass Designers Blog Hop!  It'll be great fun getting to know a bit more about each of us plus you get lots of chances to win!!  Each designer will post a secret word, which you will collect and then post all of the secret words on the Henry Glass blog between November 20-26 to be entered to win the grand prize fabric giveaway!  In addition, each designer will be giving away goodies and will have a holiday project for you to download, with plenty of time to finish the projects (or win your own!!) for holiday gift giving!  Sounds like fun to me!  let's get started!  Up first are:




Have a great time! 

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Crazy Camp


Heidi and mom Dorthy with "Convoy"

We had a great time at Crazy Camp yesterday.  Everybody got lots done and we had great show and tell as you can see.  Be sure and sign up next time so you don't miss the fun!











Connie with "Go Fish"


What a great group!  Come join the fun next time!


Monday, November 7, 2011

Snow Day

No, we haven't actually had any snow yet, but I do have a bad case of cabin fever!  I've been sick and it's taken a bit to figure out why but they took my gallbladder out and now I'm feeling much better!  While I've been sitting around recuperating, I started my "Snowflake" quilt.  It's a combination of cotton and wool and I love it!  I don't do much embroidery work and wasn't exactly looking forward to that part of it, but I actually really enjoyed embroidering with the yarn. It adds another dimension and I really think it's cool the way it's turned out.  This was also the first time I've tried the wool thread that Sue Spargo recommends for wool applique and it's also very nice to work with.  As usual, I didn't exactly follow the directions....the pattern called for making "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" blocks and I was feeling too lazy to do all that piecing so I just cut a large square of background and appliqued an entire circle on it and went on my merry way!  Another great notion for wool is the "Quilter's Choice" glue.  It holds really well; I was a little concerned as ran a line of glue down the arm of the snowflake knowing I was going to have to embroider over it, but I didn't even notice the glue.  One last notion that I think you need for this project is what Mom use to call her "crowbar" needle threader; it's really handy when trying to thread the yarn.  I think this is one of those projects you are just going to have to have- I know I do!

I've also been doing a bit of reading while I've been in and out of doctor's offices or languishing on the couch!  It was another of those "that looks like our Buggy Wheels quilt" in American Patchwork and Quilting's  "Sew Scrappy Volume 2" and guess what?  It was! I am just so UN-informed! Anyway, they've remade it in reproduction blues and creams and call it "'round the Stars".  It looks great! 








Then there's a fabulous article about our quilt show in the December issue of Mary Janes Farm magazine.  How nice of them to include us!



And finally, our newest book, "Crazy for Applique" has been delivered!  I was a tad tardy getting it to the printer.....really, I'm very lucky that it's even done right now!  If not for the help of Sandi and Val who appliqued nonstop for several days (I'm sure their fingers must have been bleeding!), it still wouldn't be done!  Then at the zero hour, Gloria and Pam pitched in to help finish the applique so Karen could quilt all weekend for picture day on Monday- yes, they are naked without their bindings! I'm blest to have all these great people that willing step into my nightmare to "get 'er done!"  I'm thankful indeed!  
Crazy Rambling Rose
Garden Party
All this hurry, hurry, stress, and worry and I didn't even get to go to Market!  It's the first one in 32 markets that I've missed but Pam found lots to bring home!  And just so you can be informed, I put a dark red binding on "Garden Party" and dark gray on "Rambling Rose"!  So now it's back to work for me.....uunfortunately, it all didn't magically disappear while I wasn't looking.....darn!  Oh, and be on the look out!  The Henry Glass Designers will be starting a blog hop on Sunday, November 13.  Yes, that's this coming Sunday!  More details to follow, once I located those details on my desk!  Will be talking to you soon!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Guilty as charged....


"Life is Beautiful" Block of the Month
 Guilt is an interesting thing....it nags at me, my constant companion, until finally I say enough already and finally take care of  whatever it is that needs taking care of!  I seem to have a lot of "whatevers" and, as you know, I'm fond of crossing things off my list, so getting a blog post done is one of my whatevers. Now I'll be able to quit feeling guilty about not speaking to any of you! 






And poor Riley, my dog, hasn't been on a walk all of August and September.  She absolutely had my guilt meter over in the red especially if I happened to walk out the back door with my tennis shoes on, as she starts leaping for joy, turning circles, and dancing thinking we finally get to go only to be sadly disappointed as my guilt quadraples, because if I'm not walking the dog, that also means I'm not excersicing! So, Riley has been a happy camper this week and I get to dump some stress as well as some guilt! 

Star Light Star Bright was beautiful hanging at the show!

Our 15th Quilt Show has come and gone and it was great fun and beautiful weather.  Have been wanting to post pictures of the show and have found that so many of you already have, that I will redirect you to give you great places to go, see, read.  Sue Spargo has a great blog posting about her time here (see Buggy Barn Quilt Show and Teaching at the Buggy Barn).  We so enjoyed having her, as did all of her students!  My only regret was that I didn't get to take the class also!  We also enjoyed Lynn from Kansas Troubles, Gloria from Old Green Cupboard, and Sean from Threads That Bind.  It really was a fabulous slate of teachers. 


Jennifer Keltner speaking for the first time from the bed of a trailer!

The Garden Party went off on Thurdsay night with only a slight hitch to our plans as Todd decided to harvest the morning of the party right up against the yard so we had to stop and re-clean tables, chairs, the pool and decks-UGH! I'm almost over it! We had great food made by our life long friend Ann, and our gal Lorri made all the chocolate covered strawberries and cut all that watermelon into stars! Jennifer Keltner, editor of American Patchwork and Quilting spoke, regaling us with all manner of tales and making us laugh!  She is a gem! We love her dearly! It was the highlight of the party. 

Jennifer & Sue take a ride with Ron on the combine

Friday was quilt sorting day for Pam and me.  We never know how many quilts we will have and spend Friday sorting by size and putting them in pile for each building, fence, or line.  It's amazing to us that our people always come through, bringing their quilts to display making the show "show-stopping".  Take a look at this video from Connecting Threads and see if you don't agree!  We truly have the best group of quilters that choose to share their quilts with all of us. We owe it all to you- you make the show what it is, so thank you! Saturday morning it's up at 4 am to hang quilts by the lights of our high beams on our vehicles! It always takes longer on the first day to hang them since we are still figuring out where they all will fit; that's the part the makes my husband crazy- try this one-oops too big/too small so, no let's try this one-sorry still not quite right!  After 15 years, I am way better judging where they will fit than I use to be!  We do eventually get them hung then it's off to the shower to officially start the day!  Cherly Wall from Country Quilts was here during the show signing copies of her new book and she also has a blog posting of her time at the barn.  She is another one of our favorites-we love her scrappy (and plaid!) approach to quilting and her directions are good which I always appreciate! 


Since quilt show, I have been madly trying to get a book ready for Market.  Here are current pictures of my sewing room.  I think this is really why my husband went out of town this week because he can't stand to live with me right now!  More guilt piles on as I hand out a ton of applique to good friends Sandi & Valerie and welcome them to my nightmare!





Bramble Berries and Put Your Heart in It yardage is overflowing!
















Friday is my drop dead day to get quilts to our quilter in time for picture day on Monday.  As my mom use to say, "this, too, shall pass" so I best get back to my applique.  But, darn, that pesky FedEx man just brought me another overnite package from our fabric people.....that makes a stack of four sitting there staring at me adding to all that guilt because I know I'm delaying them also, so I best deal with them first then I'll be guilt free and ready to stitch like crazy!