Autumn Blooms & A Little Porch Time!

I was beginning to despair that we skipped right through summer and into fall!  It was sure feeling like Fall as I stitched this Autumn Blooms kit!  This fabulous pattern is designed by one of our favorites, Maggie Bonanomi and the kits are available at the Barn, along with three other new designs, each one cuter than the next.  If you love Maggie, like we love Maggie, you, too will have to have them all!  I love these colors any time of the year! 



Two Birds



Americana



Garden Basket



Thankfully, it's beginning to feel slightly more like summer; we had our first 80 degree day of the year so Dudley and I are ready for a little porch time! 

And just in case it continues to stay chilly, my "A Little Porch Time" quilt just returned from the quilter to keep me warm out there on the porch!  Once again, Karen, our machine quilter, has outdone herself!  She added butterflies, dragonflies, and ladybugs in the quilting.  I tried to get a detail shot but I don't have the where-with-all!  I'm not much of a photographer!  But, I will have to try and get a photo of Dudley's new hairdo; his hair mats so every spring he has to go in for a shave. It's been so cold that he just went in. This year he's looking especially cute!  Just like a miniature lion, but he's still a little embarrassed so I haven't been able to get a picture! 




My two




This past weekend, Spokane hosted Hoopfest, the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the world.  My kids have been participating ever since they were old enough; it's great fun.  So this weekend, we had two mens teams and one womens team plus all their friends for a total of 17 kids staying with us.  It was fun to have the house full again:  I've washed 4 loads of towels, restocked the frig and cupboards, but still haven't gotten all the quilts put away that they prefer to sleep under!  Did I just call this "fun"?  Good thing I have quilting to keep me sane!  Happy Quilting!

Fresh Picked Posies

Since Summer took it's own sweet time arriving, I just couldn't resist these bright and happy posies!  Designed by Piece of Cake, we are running Fresh Picked Posies as a block of the month through the Barn.  Becky's version called for random (no ruler) cutting and piecing of the background blocks.  Since I'm a controlled chaos, method to my madness kind of girl, I'm not very good at free motion cutting, so I decided to use a Buggy Barn Crazy block for my backgrounds.  We've included the pattern for these blocks in your first month, along with the fabrics for all of the backgrounds and your applique for month one.  I love this quilt!  It really is my happy quilt!  How can you not help but smile when you see it?  Have a sunny and happy week!

Happy Flag Day!

 It's always fun to hang a flag outside, and when it's a flag quilt, it's even better to see it gently waving in the breeze, unlike a flag that gets whipped nearly to shreds in our mach 90 wind!  This is our "Old Glory" hanging from my porch.

We hung our "Flag Day" quilt at the barn; it's still one of my favorites!

Besides celebrating Flag Day, my husband and I are also celebrating the graduation of our oldest son.  He was so happy to have achieved this milestone and we are so proud of him!  Now it'll be on to grad school for either physical therapy or a physicians assistant program.  Here we didn't think we'd be able to keep him in school and now we can't seem to get him out! 

More Gathering Baskets

Pam just got her Gathering Baskets quilt (by NeedleLove) back from our quilter, Karen, and hung it in the barn this morning. Isn't it wonderful?  And just look at what Karen quilted in each basket- I hope you can tell that every other diamond in the basket is heavily quilted to make it look like a basket weave.  What a fabulous job!  And best of all, there's still time for you to have one too!  Have a great weekend!

Basket Mania

I'm so far behind I think I'm first!  I saw that on a sign and decided it pretty much summed up my life!  My husband and I spent the long weekend trying to get a handle on the knee high grass and planting the last of the flowers that I usually have in on Mother's Day...it's been such a cold wet spring that everything is late!  We don't have the vegetable garden planted yet so even if I cheat and buy corn starts at Home Depot, I'm afraid my corn won't be knee high by the 4th of July!  Tom loves fresh tomatoes and I love fresh picked corn on the cob, and I have to have pumpkins for Halloween!  I keep telling Tom that I've been this late before so I haven't given up yet!  But I did get to plant several containers including this bike basket. 





Bramble Baskets


I must confess I have a fetish for containers: boxes, baskets, I even hauled an old sink home from my mom's that I hope to hang on the chicken coop and plant flowers in.  So is it any wonder that I love basket quilts too?  I love our new Bramble Baskets quilt in Still Crazy...



Gathering Baskets by Primitives by Linday



And I also love both of these Gathering Basket quilts, one by Primitives by Lynda and the other from Needle Love.  Pam just finished the one from Needle Love and even though it's still at the quilter, we've been hearing rave reviews!  The flowers in ours are more pinks, reds, and oranges than the one by Needle Love on the web site so keep watching for an updated photo as soon as we get it back from quilting!

I also love this book that is fabric baskets and containers.  There are so many great things to look at in this book so I thought I'd share a few....We do have it for sale at the barn if anyone's interested.

That's about it for now.  I did have great news from my heart doctor who took me in on Tuesday for a heart cath sure she would be putting in a stint but she she was amazed at my "beautiful" plaque-free arteries so no stint for me!  Evidently my high blood pressure gave her false positive test results so I just need meds to get my blood pressure and heart rate under control.  So now we've got the all clear and Pam & I are off to Lethbridge Alberta on Wednesday to teach at Village Quilts.  Then home again, home again and back to work on the next new book!  Will talk to you all soon





Vingnette in Stitches

We're hooked on another new magazine, "Vingnette" by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House.  We've done a lot of Leanne's things, including "Butterfly Garden", "Down in the Garden", "Journey of a Quilter", and "Leanne's House".  I guess you can tell that we like her stuff!  The magazine is really very well done and has lots to looks at!  We've decided to participate in the mystery block of the month that is featured in this magazine and have selected this kit for "Vingnette in Stitches" based on the floss she's using. You can get the kit either with or without the handkerchief linen;  just use the drop down box.  Hope you like it!  Enjoy!

Quilt Market Preview



Pam with Carrie, DeeDee, and Jenny form Back Door Quilting in our booth



It's me again....finally!  Pam and I got home from Quilt Market in Salt Lake City on Monday and as is usual for me after the big push to get ready for Market, I've spent most of the week taking care of all the stuff I shoved to the back burner, like blogging!  So I wanted to share a few pictures of Market with you.  It was a little hectic for us since Ron had to go home and farm. It's been so extremely wet that all the farmers were having trouble getting their crops in the ground.  But we did manage although I had to stay in the booth more than I am use to! We were selling our new book, "Still Crazy" which celebrates our 15th year in business. 

Kitty corner across the aisle was one of our favorite designers, Annie Downs.  She just joined Henry Glass and has designed her first line!  We are so excited!  You might know here best from "Boys Story" and "Pockets of Posies".  She also has a new book out called "Some Kind of Wonderful".   We just love Annie!  She's so nice and her designs are awesome!  The quilt on the left side of the picture is made with her new line.  Be sure to watch for it on our web site!

Right across the aisle, was Jill Finley, another fellow Henry Glass designer, and her booth looked like an ice cream parlor and she was even offering mini ice cream cones to her customers!  Naturally, she won the best booth award!  She really made us look bad!   Plus, we had people in our booth eating ice cream all day tempting us but it also made a perfect prop for our "We All Scream"! 

And here are two such customers now!  Actually Sandy and Valerie were kind enough to help us in the booth on Sunday so Pam and I could shop the Market.  They, too, are sisters.  Sandy often helps us with sewing projects and Valerie is that stitcher extraordinaire I've talked about besides being our very good friends!  Would you believe that that's about all the pictures I have?  I know, I'm pathetic!  Maybe you noticed that all the picture taking was in the vicinity of our booth!  I told you we were slaving away and this proves it!  We did have a great time in Salt Lake and bought lots of great things for the Barn. 

We also spent an afternoon in Park City before Market after we got our booth set up.  I purchased a couple new stars to hang in my sewing room window.  Please excuse the dirty windows...did I mention it's done nothing but rain?  Well it's true and if I wash windows, it always rains and I've definitely have enough of that so it's gonna be awhile before I break down and decide it's safe to wash windows!  My tulips have just now decided to bloom and that's no exaggeration!  Here's to sunny days ahead!  Will talk to you all soon!