Hippy Birday

Hippy Birday was painted by my good friend Traci Suzanne Marvel. She gave it to Toni Whitney for Toni's Birthday. I thought it was such an outstanding painting for so many reasons that I decided to recreate it in wool felt, with her permission of course.

I used Lana Wool Thread from Aurifil for the stitching. What a great thread. I wasn't surprised to see how much I loved it since Aurifil makes such wonderful cotton thread.

I'm still working on our Hippy Birds eye because it isn't quite right. I'm also in the process of making 3 more blocks to make into a table runner, pillow, and wall quilt.

I love working with the wool so much and Traci has so much folk art I want to make into felt designs. I wonder what's next?

Whoopsy Daisy by The Quilted Fish

Whoopsy Daisy by The Quilted Fish is one of the tops I finished at the cabin retreat this last weekend. This picture is taken off their website and mine will be quilted by Jan Barnett.

My Granddaughter Mackenzie wanted a black and white quilt so I thought this would be perfect for her. I even copied most of the fabrics because I loved it exactly as it is pictured.

To finish off the edges of the daisies I used a blanket stitch on my machine since the petals were fused with Pellon Fusible Web.

I can't wait to give this to her for Christmas.

Jan Barnett at Handi Quilter Retreat

Handi Quilter owners were invited to write their Handi Quilter Stories to try to win a free trip to Salt Lake City for a Handi Quilter Retreat.

This is the reception the winners got from the employees at Handi Quilter Headquarters. The winners had no idea what was going to happen when they walked in the door. What a great surprise this must have been.Jan Barnett, the woman who machine quilts my bigger quilts, was one of the winners.
Here she is along with the other winners. Jan is the one on the far right.

Jan is working on the HQ Sixteen while Cheryl Duncan, HQ Studio Educator, watches.
I wonder what wonderful new technique she is learning now?

As you can see, Jan is having a great time. Jan works so hard on their farm and still finds the time to quilt for others. She recently bought the HQ Fusion after many years of service from her HQ Sixteen. Her work is outstanding and I can't think of anyone who deserves this trip more. Congratulations Jan!

New Free Motion Designs Every Day!

365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Designs by Leah Day is one of the most outstanding Blogs on the Internet for Quilters! Leah Day is a beautiful young woman who has given herself the challenge of creating a new free motion filler design every single day for one year! She tells you her design inspiration and as if that wasn't enough...she shows a video of how to make the design.

Leah gives views the opportunity to ask questions like, "what causes skipped stitches?". She gives amazing tips and discusses tools that make a huge difference in making the quilting process so much easier.

Her website Day Style Designs Online also has great information and the products she uses not to mention a Gallery of her quilts.

I have been quilting for over 30 years and machine quited for most of that and I am learning so much from this talented young lady. All machine quilters, Beginners to Advanced, can learn from Leah Day. We will certainly be seeing a lot of her in the future.

Viola, Tulips, and Simply Daisies

All three of these stunning new quilts are designed by Brenda Yirsa for Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. Brenda has once again done an outstanding job creating these beautiful, fresh, and modern designs.

I am honored to have done the quilting on the cover quilt for the Viola's.

These quilts are fun to make and what I like is that they look harder than they really are so it makes the quilter look even more amazing. By using Wonder Under Fusible Web the pieces are just traced, ironed on to the fabric, cut out on the drawn lines, and fused together to the background. Using the Applique Pressing Sheet from Bear Threads makes it super fast and easy! As always they are sewn and quilted with the BEST thread, which is Aurifil.

Each one of these designs is a pattern from Bigfork Bay Cotton Company and they also have kits for each pattern with the exact fabrics shown in the original. How great it that?! Just when you thought it couldn't get any better....they also have the thread kits that you can order so you have the exact thread used in the quilt too! High quality fabric from Batik Textiles, thread from Aurifil, and designs from a leading cutting edge artist. It doesn't get any better than this.

My First Basket

This morning I made my very first basket. I've been wanting to make one ever since Alan and I were on vacation in Manistique Michigan.

Alan's cousin Kathy is an amazing Basket Maker. We all made plans that next summer JoAnne, Kathy, and I would all stay at Kathy's house and sit by the lake and make baskets for a few days while the guys all go do what ever they do at the cabin. Well, when I got home I started looking at basket making supplies, bought a couple of books, and finally couldn't stand it any longer and bought a kit. I decided that since Kathy was such an expert basket maker that I wanted to know a little about what I was doing so that I could get her help with more intricate things I can't figure out on my own or that I am doing wrong.

I can already find several mistakes in this basket, just like I did with my first quilt, but I'm anxious to move on to something else soon.

Don't worry, basket making won't take the place of quilting but I really do like it. Oh, and I have fixed the lashing on the top of my basket so it doesn't have the mistakes you see any more.

Poinsettia By Brenda Yirsa For Bigfork Bay Cotton Co.

This is one of the Poinsettia I made for Trunk Shows for Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. It is designed by Brenda Yirsa.

Shelly Diaz, my daughter, put the top together for me and I did the quilting. We made three of them. They are so much easier than they look, and everyone wants more bang and less work.

The batiks are from Batik Textiles and the thread I used is Aurifil 50 wt. I use Wonder Under Fusible Web by Pellon to fuse the applique down.

Meet Mr and Mrs Diaz

My daughter Michelle "Shelly" Paul became Mrs. Diaz when she married Anthony "Pony" Diaz on the 4th of July. It turned out to be the most beautiful day anyone could ever wish for. Even though the forecast was for rain all day, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Well, no black ones anyway. The temperature was in the 70's.

Everything about this wedding went perfectly. I've never seen an event go together so well. Of course, Shelly is a perfectionist and I doubt it ever occurred to her that it wouldn't go off without a flaw.

I love Pony and his family. We have been like one family for many years now and this just made it official. I wish Shelly and Pony a lifetime of love and joy.

Holly Moose by Bigfork Bay Cotton Company

Holly Moose is a new pattern from Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. It is taken from the artwork of Paris Bottman. This is one of my favorite designs from Paris. I believe Carol Rockwell designed the holly in the border which I really like. I couldn't wait for this design to come out. I of course need one for me.

The patterns are available at Bigfork Bay Cotton Company as well as the kits. If you get one of the kits be sure you get the Aurifil thread pack that goes with it. Once you use Aurifil you will never go back to any other thread.

I always use Pellon Fusible Web for my applique. They have recently come out with batting too! Cotton, wool, soy, bamboo, and poly. I can't wait to try their batting. Soy sounds very interesting to me.

By the way, if you are a Quilt Shop, and you would like to book the Trunk Show with all three of the New Paris Bottman designs, be sure you get in touch with Traci Suzanne Marvel at Bigfork Bay Cotton Co.

Peace for Bigfork Bay Cotton Company by Paris Bottman

When Bigfork Bay Cotton Company first came out with their amazing patterns, two years ago, and I started making their Trunk Shows for them I wondered how they were ever going to keep coming up with such wonderful fresh new ideas. I'm not wondering any more. The high quality of artistry just keeps coming with each new season.

This pattern, Peace, is designed by Paris Bottman. Her artwork, which is seen all over the World, transfers so well to quilts. I am so very excited to be making this quilt right now. Bigfork Bay Cotton Company has a total of three of Paris Bottman's patterns this Spring.

As always the kits as well as the patterns will be available at Bigfork Bay Cotton Co. For each of the kits there are also Aurifil thread packs that you can purchase. If you haven't tried Aurifil thread yet, you can't imagine what you are missing. It is the finest thread on the market. I will never use anything else.

New Puppy Toy Poodle Joey

I would like to introduce you to our newest member of the family, Joey. He is an apricot Toy Poodle. He is very small. My friend keeps telling me to put him next to something when I take his picture so everyone can see just how small he really is. As you can see, I haven't done that yet.

We bought him from acquaintances in Montana on Wednesday. Today, Saturday, he is really comfortable being here. He is really active and driving the German Shorthair, Daisy, crazy. It's too bad Buck, the lab, went camping with Randy last night because Buck seems to like him more than Daisy does.

Joey was named by my 7 year old Granddaughter Kenzie. She had been thinking of names for 3 weeks. Kenzie has named all the new animals of her other Grandparents and friends and even renamed some of the horses. Vegas is now Spirit for instance.

Kenzie wants to be a Vet when she grows up. A Rescue Vetrenarian she says. On a field trip last year they saw a baby lamb being born and she thought it was so gross. She told her mom that the farmer stuck his hand up the sheeps butt and pulled this lamb out and all the momma's guts came out too. Jenny tried numerous times to explain it to her but she still thought is was gross. So when Kenzie told me she was going to be a Vet I asked her how she was going to do with that since she would have to deliver lambs. She informed me that Vets don't deliver lambs, farmers do! She really is amazing with animals and I wouldn't be surprised at all if she doesn't indeed become a Vet.

Christmas Tree by Paris Bottmam for Bigfork Bay Cotton Co

Here it is! The first quilt I've done of the new designs for Spring 2009 by Bigfork Bay Cotton Company!

Christmas Tree is a wonderful design based on the art work of Paris Bottman. There are a couple more of her designs coming out too that are just as fabulous!

My daughter Shelly wants this quilt really bad. It is so amazing in real life and so very simple to make. I really mean that. I use Pellon Wonder Under so that I don't get heavy build up in the layers and it never leaves gummy stuff on my needle. To quilt it I use Aurifil Thread exclusively.

I can't wait for you to see all the new patterns coming out for Spring. Patterns and kits for Christmas Tree should be available around the second week of March. Call 1-888-245-5718 or order online at their website http://www.bigforkbaycottonco.com/. If you are really anxious I would pre-order just so you make sure you get yours right away.

Amanda's Flip Flop Quilt

This is the flip flop quilt I designed for my Niece Amanda. When we were talking she mentioned that she wanted one of my quilts. I asked her what she liked and the first words out of her mouth were, "flip flops!" Next came colors she liked and that is how I began. I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted it to look so I started looking at patterns. None of them were exactly what I wanted so I took elements from the ones I liked and did this. The hardest part was drawing out a flip flop. I finally just put my foot on a piece of paper, drew around it, and went from there.
Jan Barnett did the quilting for me and she did an absolutely amazing job. Each block has different things like starfish, shells, and sand dollars and each flip flop is quilted differently including toes in one. The blue strips say things like, let's party and I love flip flops.
I know it's not the best photo but I was in a hurry to get it in the mail and no one was around to hold it for me. Isn't it funny how I can spend months waiting to finish it but once it's done I want to send it NOW!
I can't wait until she gets it. It should brighten up her cold Alaska day.

Grayson David Holliday, My Nephew!

My brother just sent me pictures of my adorable little nephew Grayson David Holliday! Here he is with his Mother Gay and his Dad Gary. Fortunately for him he is already a Cardinals fan so he is going to know what it's like to be a winner from the beginning! For those who track my blog who don't watch football, they are going to be in the Super Bowl.

My brother and his family live in Arizona so I haven't had the opportunity to see my "bundle of joy" yet but I sure hope it doesn't take long before I do.

Gary says Grayson is such a good baby. He is always so happy and hardly cries. I think he gets that from me.

We are all so excited for Gary and Gay! This is their first baby and they are having the time of their lives with him. I can't wait to have my time too.

Now I have to go..there is a baby quilt to make!!!!!!!