So Inspired!

At the start of the month I had the opportunity to travel to India.  My daughter had been in southern India studying for four months and even though she had travel the country extensively she had not yet been to see the Taj Mahal.  So we met in Delhi and took a train to Agra and we shopped for quilts!  I just found all of the fabrics wrapped around people to be so inspiring.

Quilter's Harvest-What a Blast!

               Nanette provided so many great fabric pieces to choose for our button cover.

                                  Melissa teaching Betty how to make a Felted Wool Magnet

I love to see mothers and daughters learning a new skill together.

We had our first ever Quilter's Harvest activity on Friday.  It was so much fun.  Teachers Amber, Nanette, Melissa and Amanda all did an incredible job.  I feel so privileged to know these creative women.   The workroom space easily accommodated a class of 15.  So it is good to know it will work well for a group of 8-10 for a three day quilt retreat.  We had four irons going at a time and did not blow a fuse (always good to know)!

                                                                     Such good food!

One of the best perks of the day was having a “personal chef” cooking up delicious meals all day long.  Really can you think of anything nicer than that!  Laura of "Be My Guest" is such a good cook.  


Good friends, some old some new, great food and crafty activities.  What a great day! I look forward to doing it again in the spring.  Hope you all can come.

Winners for Quilter's Harvest Tickets

Congratulations to Joleen and Melissa 
Joleen and Melissa have each won a ticket to Quilter's Harvest on November 12th.
Your complimentary ticket is for Group B.
Please email me your contact information so I can get the ticket to you.
Thanks to all of you for your comments and for following the blog.

Blogger Quilt Festival--Elephant Quilt

I met Amy just one month ago. She is very clever!  She came up with the idea of a Blogger's Quilt Festival.   Be sure to go look at all of the great quilts that are posted there.  I have spent hours looking!

One Summer our family decided to travel to Zambia, South Africa.  We were there for three weeks and most of our time was spent working with Mothers Without Borders.  As I always do, I had taken some applique work with me to keep me entertained on the long flight. While there I met Jessie.  Jessie saw me working on my applique and wanted to learn a new skill.  Over the next few nights I taught  her how to applique and embroider.  The two of us came up with some simple animal shapes that she could make.  When I left Zambia I gave Jessie some while cotton fabric and some embroidery floss.  She already new how to hand dye fabric.  A few months after returning home, I received these cute elephants in the mail.  I assembled them into a baby quilt.  It is one of my favorite quilts.  I love the colors Jessie used for the elephants.  She has done some other animals for me as well and they are waiting to be assembled into a quilt.

All theTeachers are Doing it!

All of the teachers that are teaching Quilter's Harvest have posted about this fun upcoming event.  As part of their post they had a ticket give-a-way.  So I got to thinking I should do the same.  So all you need to do is make a comment to be entered once and follow my blog to be entered twice.  I'll pick the winner, or two, on Friday.  Hopefully I'll have more than 4 followers by Friday and some of you can come join us for a fun fall activity.

Game Board Quilt

I have been working on this Game Board quilt for awhile.  I'll post someday how and why I came up with this quilt.  But for today here are some photos of the top.  I have started on the back.  It is a Twister game.  But, it is too soon for photos of that.  I got a little distracted yesterday with my goal to work on the back all day.  Let me just say my house is really clean!

Move Over Fall!

I do love a good snow fall but, in October!  Today I will sit by the fire and start working on the back of my "Game Board" quilt.  Photos of that tomorrow.

Winter is Coming!

We had rain all day and when the clouds cleared this is what was on the mountain tops.  I am looking forward to snow but I hope it won't it to spoil our Quilter's Harvest  coming up on November 12th.

No Time to Quilt

I have been so busy getting ready for quilt retreats that I have not had any time to quilt.  Huge bummer!!  But, I am very happy with my new workroom.  I had been accused of having a sweatshop in the basement by some of my children.  So, I got my creative thinking cap on and got to work.  I also hired an electrician who helped with the lighting but was no help with the Mod Podge.  Not only do my tables  inspire creativity, I can now have 4 irons on at one time (thanks to the addition of two more electrical circuits).  Who knew 1 iron uses more electricity then 8 sewing machines!
My tip for the day: do not try to get Mod Podge off your hands while in the shower!

Teachers Come for Lunch!

Amanda                 Amy                     Jill                     Amanda

 Tuesday was a great day!  I got to make some new friends.  A few of the Alpine Quilt Retreat teacher came for lunch.  We just spent a few hours sharing ideas and getting to know each other.  I am looking forward to more gatherings. The cute lunch boxes are from Dear Lizzie in Highland, Utah.

Sometimes my House is a Flower Shop

I don't mind my kitchen being used as a floral shop.  The smell is delightful and the leftovers are calorie free and fun to have around.  I have a daughter who lived in Manhattan for three years.  While there she did and internship with a Belle Fleur.  She does beautiful work.  This is the end result.

BUT I DON'T WANT A BRIGHT QUILT!

I am getting ready to make a memory quilt for my daughter.  Just before she left the country for four months I took her to the quilt shop.  I asked her to show me some fabrics she liked.  She knew immediately that she was picking out the fabric for her quilt.  She is the youngest so she knows the routine.  She started to pull the things that caught her eye.  She just kept saying, "but I don't want it to be bright"  This is what I have to work with!  Now I am left with how to make the quilt timeless and not bright.  Wish me luck.

EMPTY NEST?

In the year 2008 out youngest child graduated from high school and we became empty nesters.   A friend from our local quilt group had made a wall hanging for her husband to celebrate the landmark in their lives.  So I decided to try to make a quilt doing the same for my husband for Christmas.  I knew I wanted something masculine and I picked up a book that had birds in it that I liked.  I am not an artist by any means so I started by tracing or photocopying the birds from the book and cutting them up to make a pattern.

This is our son's family with his new little nest.  People asked what are you going to do when they have more children?  That was not the intent of my quilt, to keep a running family history, although I do think that would make a great quilt.    My quilt was a representation of our live in the year 2008.

HOLIDAY QUILTS

I have always wanted to make a quilt for each of my children for the holidays.  One for Christmas, Easter, Halloween and one for Valentines Day.  I have four children, thats 16 quilts!  I started a few years ago with a Valentine Quilt.  I had appliqued some harts for another project and had some left over.  That was the beginning.  Then I wanted to include some of the cute little notes my children had written each other over the years.  We have a tradition of putting a valentine box on the kitchen table the first week of February.  That gives everyone a reminder that the day is fast approaching and you had better start thinking about something to do for your loved ones!  I find that some people in my house need a little more reminding than others.  Then on Valentines Day we have a formal dinner that includes heart shaped meat loaf and red mashed potatoes! After dinner open the box.  So I have quite a collection of cards from over the years.  It was difficult to pick my favorite.  This is the end result!

ABOX FULL OF T-SHIRTS

What do you do with it?  That cub scout shirt with those cute arrows on the pocket, or the T shirt from your child’s first swim meet, or the baseball uniform with your last name ironed on the back?  Add to that the turtleneck that was worn for the second grade school photo, the high school band uniform, years and years of memories just getting wrinkled in a box in the basement, and ranging in size from toddler to teenager - what do you do with it?  Well, when my son married, I thought it was time to do something with the box or just throw its contents away. I opted to do something.  One day I just started to cut pieces apart, to iron stabilizer to the back and start adding fabric to the small pieces that represented his life so far.  I didn’t have a plan.  I wasn’t sure how big the quilt would be when it was finished.  I couldn’t imagine how I could have the cute navy cub scout shirt and the bright 1970’s fluorescent state swim meet shirt near each other - they certainly clashed in the box!  I really had no idea if they could work together on a quilt top. But I just kept sewing and after a few days and a lot of cut-up shirts and boxers (boxers are made of fun prints and great cottons), it came together.  As a bonus, it ended up being the perfect size for a twin bed. 

    That was the first of many “memory quilts”  I have made for family members.  I have enjoyed helping friends, as well.