My Crazy Quilt Fabric Book

I posted a picture of my completed Secret Language of Flowers Crazy Quilt Fabric Book on Face Book the other day and some of you were asking for more pictures, so here goes!  I have this killer camera, but the thing is, I don't really know how to use it that well.  I find I can take the best pictures of my quilts and projects in natural sunlight, so my fabric book and I took a trip outside.  I have always been fascinated by the way the Victorian's expressed their feelings to one another by the types of flowers that they gave to one another.  This tradition also transferred to their crazy quilts.  Many books in that time period were written about the topic of the Secret Language of Flowers and many of them didn't even agree on what emotion each flower should represent.  Hopefully both the giver and reciever were using the same book so there was no miscommunications!

I started with a 6 1/2 inch square and did a pansy block just because I love the colors and then it progressed from there.  I ended up with 12 crazy quilt blocks and about 1/2 way through the process I had decided to make them into a fabric book.  I then stewed about how to make my fabric book for quite some time....and then I wrote a book with Allie Aller and didn't have time to think about it!

I ended up putting two pages wrong sides together and binding them.  I tried to group the pages so that the same colored binding would work for the two pages involved.

I then crazy pieced a cover that would be large enough to hold all 12 of them as pages in a book.

I hand sewed the pages into the "spine" of the book.

Having just a little fun with the pictures, I made one of them look sepia......

Anyway, that is my adventure with my crazy quilt fabric book and I really pretty pleased with it!

Talk to you later,

Just Checking In!

I can't believe it has been 2 months since I posted, so I thought I would just check in with all of you.   Allie Aller and I turned in our manuscript for our new book in eary March and the same day we turned it in, Jodie Davis asked me to do 3 segments for the Quilter's Newsletter Magazine on QnnTV.  So much for taking some time off after finishing our manuscript!  It was alot of fun and I was really wasn't too nervous, in fact, Jodie is so good that I even forgot there were camera's going and we laughed and giggled and had a great time.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture because that is certainly not how I look everyday. They have a wonderful hair and makeup artist come to the studio and she is certainly a miracle worker in my personal opinion!

Jodie was a dream to work with and so pretty!  Thank you Jodie for asking me to be on your show.

Talk to you later,

Crazy Quilt Curtains!

Well I have finally finished a project done that I can blog about and show you!  You may remember about a year ago I made a purple crazy quilt bedspread for my room.  Well I got this idea to make crazy quilt ballon curtains to match and I finally got one of them done!  I had to piece a 66'' x 79'' square and that took some doing but I am really pleased with the results.

Here is a picture of them open....

Here is a picture with the bedspread, I hung up my favorite pansy wallhanging above our bed, so it is coming along....just two more ballon curtains to go!

And the owner of the mystery purse has been solved from my last post, wouldn't you know it, this purse belongs to Pam Peugh!  So sorry Pam that I didn't take notes that night!

Have a great day and I'll talk to you soon,

Victorian Stitchery Retreat-Purse Contest

 So sorry that I have taken a month to get back with you on the purses that were entered in the contest at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat!  All the entries were just beautiful!  I believe this beauty was done by Elizabeth Rudder( please correcte me if I am wrong, I didn't take notes that night for some reason!).

 This sweet purse was done by Sandy Fox, I so love the pansy fabric she used!

 This was done by Sandy Fox's cousin, Teresa Morris.  The embroidery and color choices are just amazing!

 This purse is a beautiful boho bag that either Elizabeth Rudder or Lonna Hammond made...would someone let me know!?

 

 This purse was made by Linda Farris.  It is a real beauty and I just love it.  It is special because she had crazy quilted both sides.  The first side was done in a class she took from me.

The second side was a class she took from Carole Samples.  What a beautiful purse Linda!

Judith Baker Montano and Allie Aller graciously said yes to being the judges for the contest.  There was stiff competition as you can see, but they finally decided the winner was Teresa Morris.  It was a very special moment when she described what this purse meant to her.  Her father had passed away and she had lined the inside of the purse with one of her father's shirts using the portion of the shirt with a pocket.  What a special memory for her...congratulations Teresa!

In my last post I didn't know who had made this crazy quilt so a big thank you to Marci for letting me know that this beauty was made by Pam Peugh!

Allie and I have a deadline fast approaching, so it may be a little while before I post again...

Talk to you later,

Victorian Stitchery Retreat 2012

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from the Victorian Stitchery Retreat.  We had so much fun this year and as always we enjoyed the new hotel we stay at!  I even managed to work in some classes.  I just love taking from all of the teachers but this year I took a Cockade class from Candace Kling.

Here is Judith Baker Montano helping her students with their blocks.  Every one of the blocks in the Asti Postcard class were just stunning!  I was so inspired I bought a kit from her....we'll see how long it takes me to work on it. ;-)

Here is Dixie getting some help with Candace...

I just love it when Dr. Vicki and her mom can come! 

Here is Liz at Show and Share, these are the Cockades that she made in Candace's class.  I just love them!

Here is Marci with her Show and Share....I just LOVE her colors!

Dixie did an amazing job with her Home Portrait project.  I was a class she took from Allie Aller last year.

Here is a stunning project that I saw laying on a table after Show and Share....I think it is one of the Kansas City ladies...if someone reading this knows, could you let me know?  I just love the colors and the whole piece is stunning!

In my next post I will show you the purses that were entered in the Crazy Quilt Purse contest!

Also, I had many students and some teachers give me feedback about the status of the Victorian Stitchery Retreat..I'll keep you posted...maybe I'll do it again! 

Talk to you later,

A Very Special Photo Shoot

 For those of you that follow my blog, you may remember that I went to visit Allie Aller this summer.  I met Allie for the first time last year when I asked her to come teach at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat.  We found an instant connection and have become fast friends over the last year or so.

While we were together this year for the retreat, we asked Judith Baker Montano if she would take some pictures of us together.  Judith is an extremely gifted photographer and takes most of her own pictures for her beautiful books.  She agreed to do this for us and what fun it was!

 As you can see here, one of us cannot keep her head still!

What fun getting to see the pictures as Judith took them....

 

Judith even took some individual pictures for us...

After three different mornings and 400 pictures, we agreed that this picture was the winner as the best photo of us together.  So you ask, why did we spend so much time taking pictures together?  Well this is why...Allie Aller and I are writing a book together!  To say we are excited about this project doesn't even come close to how we feel!   I am very blessed to be teamed up with Allie and it has been a great ride to be on...

To get Allie's post on our wonderful photo shoot, you may visit her at  www.alliesinstitches.blogspot.com

 Talk to you later,

Lovely LaVeta!

Last weekend my family and I traveled to LaVeta, Colorado and we had the best time!  My youngest boys are finally getting old enough that it is much easier to travel with them.   Here is a shot of the room we stayed in...yes it was a bit rustic.

This really made me laugh!  It was taped to the back door of our room.....

But the views around us were just beautiful!

Love this shot....

The was the  road running to the side of our room.

LaVeta have deer that live in town.  They are like pets and are very tame, they are so sweet!

This buck was just relaxing by the Catholic church...

I took a quick tour of the town and here is the La Veta School of the Arts.

Here is a shot of the La Veta Quilt shop.....this building has so much character.

Here is Ricky Tims Art Quilt Retreat Center...

I loved this window in a shop in LaVeta.....actually the building is vacant right now and it would be so tempting to move my Pink Bunny Shop to LaVeta!

And of course, I had to visit my dear friend Judith Baker Montano!

All in all my family had a wonderful but quick visit.  You never know we may go back next summer!

Talk to you later,