I wanted to share this note from Cass Bowan on the success of their beautifully made raffle quilt from my book Floral Abundance. Congratulations to the Friendship Knot Quilters' guild!

"Way back in November, 2009, we corresponded and you gave permission for us to use your pattern "Flowering Urn Medallion Quilt"for our raffle quilt. Well, the show is over (March 11-12, 2011) and it was a huge success. Before the show it traveled to all the area quilt shops for display and ticket sales. It was appraised at $2,000. Our proceeds from the quilt totaled $3,632.00. A relative of one of our Guild members won the quilt so we were thrilled it was somebody we could identify with. It was a stunning quilt. I've attached a picture - not sure if I sent it when it was done.

Thank-you again for allowing us to use your pattern."

Cass Bowen
Friendship Knot Quilters' Guild
Sarasota, FL

Quilt Tours of Las Vegas




I recently went on a great half day tour of some Las Vegas quilt shops hosted by Susan Tracy of Quilt Tours of Las Vegas. Our first stop was Fabric Boutique where I saw this great bag pattern by Charlene Bubb. A great idea for recycling your old jeans.



The second shop we visited was The Christmas Goose quilt shop which featured great gift selections as well as many wonderful samples and lots of applique quilts which I love.
Shown here are some of their quilt blocks using felted wool.

I've been making a felted wool wall hanging using the patterns from my Rose Sampler Supreme book so the felted wool samples were especially interesting for me to see. Felted wool is so easy to use as you don't need to turn under the seam allowances. The pieces can be fused in place and then sitched down with either a hand or machine blanket stitch.

Egypt--A New Day!



Last February 2010, my husband Chris and I travelled to Egypt. We were very impressed with the people and their amazing history, wonderful temples, and artifacts from the Age of the Pharoahs. We watched with great interest the events during the recent uprising in Tahrir square, Cairo as our hotel was right across from the museum and this square. It is such good news to see these brave, patriotic people with such a rich cultural heritage finally making great strides toward democracy and freedom.

The above picture shows us enjoying a camel ride at the site of the three great pyramids. I must tell you an interesting story about our experience; one of the camel guides offered Chris one hundred camels in exchange for me! As bartering is the rule here, Chris countered with "No, two hundred!" He later told our friends that the only reason he didn't accept was because he thought it would be too difficult getting one hundred camels home on the plane and through customs. So now you know my true worth; at least now I know where I stand.



This is our official Egyptian photograph taken at the special Egyptian dinner and dance evening on the boat as we cruised down the Nile River. There is also an interesting story about how we purchased our costumes to wear for this evening. After dinner the previous night, we were having some drinks with friends and we heard someone calling outside the window; so Chris went to look and there were some vendors standing up in boats and they threw some bags up through the window. We weren't sure what was happening but then we realized the bags had costumes in them and they wanted us to buy them for the special event the next evening. Anyway, we ended up purchasing the ones you see us wearing. Here is a picture of Chris doing his "window shopping."

Be Attitudes



Joan Carl proudly displays her finished quilt top on the last day of our
Be Attitudes class at The Quilters' Garden Patch in Bronte, Ontario.
This is a Nancy Halvorsen designed quilt in which she reminds us in these delightful blocks "of the uplifting attitudes and values that can make our lives more enjoyable and beautiful." The blocks were fused and stitched with black thread using a machine blanket stitch.

Christmas at Our House 2010


Christmas at our house is over for another year! After the hustle and bustle of all the holiday preparations, I like to leave the decorations up for a week or two so that I have some quiet time to just sit while I sew or knit and enjoy the peace and quiet. It is then that I really appreciate the decorations and am especially thankful for my family and friends at this special time of year.



I made these crazy quilted Christmas stockings one year using bits of antique lace and scraps of velvet and satin. The only problem is they don't seem to hold enough! Santa always takes them off their hooks and fills them to the brim with lots of extra goodies around them on the floor.




Our Christmas tree is about 25 years old; everytime I decorate it now I wish it was a prelit one! But I perservere as once I have the lights on the rest seems easy and I like the openness of the tree brances as I can put lots and lots of decorations on by hanging some way inside the branches. I love lots of decorations--especially angels.




This is our Christmas table just before we are ready to have our dinner. I love setting a nice table! We had our daughter, four of her delightful friends, and our dear friend Margaret, to help up celebrate. It was a truly wonderful day!