Sharing the Love

Happy Valentine's Day! I started celebrating early. Yesterday, I had fun meeting some wonderful quilters and giving a little talk and trunk show of my quilts at one of my favorite shops - Ye Olde Schoolhouse Quilt Shop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  Jeanie and her staff were welcoming,  wonderful and warm, as always. Thought I'd give you a blog tour to share the love with you. They clearly love their customers (as well as quilts and fabric and all sorts of cute quilting-related things)

Ye Olde Schoolhouse - it's a "must stop at" shop.

A wash tub full of scraps! What could be better for making my scrappy little quilts?

Stop by if you're ever in the area. The shop is a few miles north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Jeanie at the shop made up some kits of some of my quilts. I think there may be some left. Contact the shop  if you're interested in buying one.

Thanks to all of you who braved the cold and came out to see me yesterday! It was great to see so many familiar faces and also lots of new ones. 

Gotta love this little box.

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Have a great Valentine's Day, everyone. My sweet husband let me sleep in this morning and then made me cranberry scones for breakfast. And, now, it's snowing . . . . what more could I ask for? (Being able to watch Season 2 of "Fargo" would be nice . . . it disappeared from my cable service before I finished Season 1. Love that show and now I'm hooked. You betcha!)

I was hoping to get something finished for the challenge this month but I was busy working on finishing up my book quilts and meeting my deadline. It's all turned in now (Yay!) and I just have to wait until the Martingale staff does it's magic  . . .  It's going to be hard to wait until the end of the year to see how it all comes together. 

Here's a little peek . . . 

A Heartful Month

I love hearts and have a soft spot for most things that are heart shaped. Thank goodness for February and Valentine's Day because it gives me a good excuse to indulge myself. I usually immerse myself in hearts and heartfelt thoughts all month long. 

I've been chastised for wearing my heart on my sleeve at times but ask me if I care. I do have a lot of heart-shaped jewelry and I wear it often (on my neck, and on my ears . . . ).  Perhaps that's what they meant?

I have more. And I know I will probably buy more. I can't resist a nice pair of silver heart-shaped earrings. Or a vintage locket. Or a bracelet with hearts on it. . . . Depending upon how you look at it, this is either ridiculous or pretty cool. Makes it easy for my family to always know what to get me for my birthday  . . . .

"The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart."   ~Helen Keller

                              

 "Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go."  ~Louise Driscoll

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So - Happy February! To me, the whole month of February means Valentine's Day. If you haven't already heard, this month our small quilt challenge will be making something that celebrates hearts.  You can choose to do any kind of  Valentine's Day quilt you like. Go to the Facebook or Yahoo group pages for further instructions and join us. It's fun to see photos of what everyone comes up with. Make a quilt with appliqued hearts or make an embroidered hearts quilt or just a red and white quilt, as long as it has a hearts theme.

Perhaps there's a pattern you've always meant to make but never found the time? Maybe this is the year. Pick out some pretty fabric. Sew some squares or triangles together. Make something just for yourself. Put your heart into it.

                             

"Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart." 

"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." 

~ Wm.Wordsworth

"Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it."

~Proverbs

"Let's all just be nice."

~Kathy  

I'll be finished with all my book quilts next week (Yay!) and then maybe I can make something "heartful" myself.  

Also, don't forget - a week from today, on Saturday, Feb 13, I'll be at Ye Olde Schoolhouse Quilt Shop in historic Cedarburg, Wisconsin, celebrating. Hope to see some of you there.  I'll be the one wearing hearts (on her sleeves and everywhere else).

Happy St. Valentine's Month!

Finishing Up Quilting Stuff

I'm working on finishing up the last couple of quilts for the new book. Except for maybe one, they're all quilted by hand. I do it this way because I am a lousy machine quilter and, although it takes awhile, hand quilting is much easier and much more fun. Especially since the quilts are small. Very relaxing too, once you get into the "zone."  

Nothing fancy, you see. (This quilt is from The Civil War Sewing Circle.)

Little quilts are perfect for practicing your hand quilting. I think it really adds something too so I always like to do my part to encourage quilters to try it. Even if the first one you try isn't all that good, keep at it and you'll get better. When I've been away from it for awhile and then pick it up again those first few lines of stitching are a little less straight than I'd prefer. But it comes back and you pick up a certain rhythm if you do it long enough. I'll have some tips for you in the new book.

If you do think about trying to quilt by hand, here's my favorite book on hand quilting - Loving Stitches by Jeana Kimball.  Book includes lots of great tips on needles, thread, batting, etc. plus nice photos. I can't say my quilting fits into the "fine" hand quilting category, but it's fine by me. There's room for the "average" hand quilter too if you stop being afraid of the hand quilting police. I used to think they'd probably stop by and pick me up anytime I quilted anything.  But I stopped looking over my shoulder and they went away.

Some days, though, I can't seem to quilt a straight stitch to save my life. This past week was like that. I had such good intentions of quilting up a storm and getting them finished but I caught my husband's cold last weekend. It waited until I finished my manuscript, however, so for that I am grateful. But, most of this week my head was spinning, my throat hurt and my nose was all sneezy and drippy. I just could not quilt for a few days - every stitch I sewed had to be ripped out because my head was so crazy and I couldn't see straight through my watery eyes. You know how that goes. I gave up and figured I probably needed a little rest anyway. Now I'm better and the quilts will get finished soon. I sure could have used a couple of those quilter ladies in the pictures to help me out, though. Maybe make me some chicken soup too and wrap the quilt snug around me. And tell me a little gossip to keep me entertained. Or just walk the dog . . . . 

I've also decided I will add labels to the quilts - something I really should be better about. Especially since in this new book I wrote a section encouraging quilters to do that, ha ha. Now, how would that look if I didn't even follow my own advice?? Sometimes I do include labels on my quilts, but often I get stressed because of a deadline and then don't have time and forget about doing it later. To me, the time to make a label is when you make the quilt, not three months or (more likely) three years later. My husband likes to nag encourage me to do that. From his comfy armchair, as he watches TV and eats popcorn, mind you. (Hon - if you want to see labels on my 150+ little quilts, YOU sew them on.)  But I will do it this time. 

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You know, February will be here soon and that means another month, another small quilt challenge. Wonder what we've got cooked up for you . . .   Something to do with Valentine's Day perhaps?  Hmmmm? 

(Pattern for little scrappy hearts here.)

Have yourselves a good stitching weekend. I know I will.

Show & Tell

Mark your calendars. Come visit with me for a little quilt Show & Tell at one of my favorite quilt shops -  Ye Olde Schoolhouse in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on Saturday, Feb 13, 2016.   Details here. 

I'd love to meet you. I'm bringing quilts and patterns. It's a cute shop and Jeanie always has a wonderful selection of fabric and tons of other great things. The shop will have kits available to make some of my quilts that are in this book -

If you have a book of mine you'd like signed, bring it along and I'll sign it for you.

Hope to see some of you there!

Yay, I'm Almost Done!

One of the most exciting feelings (and also one of the scariest) is pressing that Send button to e-mail your completed manuscript for a new book to your publisher. But I did just that this morning and now I can finally take a breath. Yay! I'm almost done.

I've been hard at work on a new book since last year and now all I have to do is finish up some quilting and a few bindings on the last quilts before I turn those in next month. I'm very excited. This is going to be a great book. It'll be a little different than the others but I know you'll still like it a lot. (Of course you will - there will be cute patterns for 16 small quilts! What's not to like??)

Now it's up to my publisher (Martingale) to do their magic and turn all of my ideas into something special that all of YOU will love. Can't wait.

Maybe there'll be some hexagons. 

Perhaps there will be a pretty little red and white quilt . . . 

And so now the waiting begins. I'm a little sorry for telling you about this and then making you wait so long but, honestly, I couldn't keep it a secret for a whole year. Hopefully, it will be published by the end of 2016 and you'll have something fun to put on your Christmas wish list later this year. 

Me, I'm going out tonight to celebrate, snow or no snow. And, in a couple of weeks I can get back to working on my Dear Jane quilt. It's been so long. I've missed her . . . .

Have a great weekend!