This week we traveled to Malad, Idaho and did a trunk show and stitch demo for the Oneida County Quilters. They gave us a trunk show of their own, a wonderful lunch and a ton of fun! We thank them for their hospitality. They do lots of good works and donate quilts to those in need.

Here's the whole group with Mary and I....



And their fund-raising raffle quit for this year (contact the Oneida County Quilts for tickets at http://www.southeastida.com/oneidacounty/index.html).....


And some of their individual quilts.....

This one by Ruth Thomas looks like it has lace inserts but it is simply tons of embroidery on a piece of gingham check...


These are antique (her grandmother's) hankies set into a quilt and sashed with satin


And this one is appliqued and embroidered by machine and for her son I think...

I have started a new knitting project today. Well, I should say that I am still making the gauge swatch. I hate this part but it is just like quilting without finding an accurate quarter inch seam allowance before you sew. Speaking of that, do you know how to find an accurate seam allowance? The easiest way is to place the first line on a ruled index card under the needle and slowly lower the needle till it just touches the right hand side of the ruled line. Mark this spot on your machine with seam guide or whatever else you want and that is where the fabric runs as you sew.

Here is my bee-u-tee-ful new sweater pattern. You can wear it two ways. One is short and one is long.




That is for those days when you don't know up from down. You will still look smashing either way! Hope it gets made!

I have not fallen off the planet for those who are wondering.

Remember when I was telling you about our new quilt book? I was going to keep you updated as we went through the process. The book is called Cradle to Cradle and this is what the cover looks like. The book features quilts designed to commemorate the moments in a girl's life from her baby quilt through her wedding quilt and ends with a baby quilt for her first born child.



When I left off last time, the quilts were getting their beauty shots taken by the photographer. Well today the whole thing has gone to the printer! I don't know how that happened. We will give you all the details in our July newsletter.

The good folks at Henry Glass have agreed to reprint Bubblegum basics one more time so we will all have enough fabric to make the quilts in the book! What a company! Two of the quilts in the book are made from Bubblegum Basics.

We also have a new mystery block of the month quilt made from Bubblegum Basics in the works. We will be offering it on our website and I think it is pretty cute if I do say so myself! The reason I say that is because I am doing exactly what I want and will keep this quilt for one of my grandaughters. It has been really fun to work on. Sometimes you gotta do exactly what you want, don'tcha think?

A couple of weeks ago I spent the day with my friend Nancy who was visiting from Florida. Our tradition is to shop hop and eat and catch up. Here was my take for the day. I wonder what I am making...I figure with these fabrics it will turn out cute no matter what it is! Hope I haven't jinxed myself!

So far this week I have ridden 860 miles in the car and am going to do 200 more miles before Monday. See what I mean about stitching in the car? I can really get a lot done. It is like the QuiltSoup mobile unit! However, I usually forget the camera and then regret it when I remember that I forgot it.

We visited Superior Threads in St. George, Utah. Don't you think their building really suits the red rock and bluff landscape?



We were treated royally by Carrie who works at the desk. Bob, the owner, lived in Japan for several years and Carrie's office is decorated with Kimonos and the like. That little diploma by her work area says she has a Ph.D. in Threadology!



I stopped in to pick up some Frosted Donuts for all of you but they were on backorder so we will have to wait for awhile. Darn it!



I love the portability of this thread collection (cause I am on the road you know!) and the quality of the Masterpeice 100% cotton thread for my applique and handwork.

Idle hands make me nervous! I have been putting a few of these together while I am designing the next batch of quilts. I don't have any applique ready to go and I cannot stand it when I have nothing in my hands! Know what I mean? Looks like I still need to get an iron out before I take pics for you! I figure you have all seen creases in fabric before, can identify what they are and probably have some of your own just like this!

I have been showing you snippets for a few days and wanted to show you what the finished product looks like. I mean, how many little snippets can one person stand? The quilts is made from Flower Sugar, a new collection by Lecien Corp. Aren't the fabrics wonderful? Now I just need to write the pattern...

Serendipity favored me today. We are vending at HMQS in SLC this weekend.
I had reserved 2 tickets to the awards and entertainment evening because the featured speaker was to be Joe Cunningham telling the story of the Joe the Quilter. If you don't know who Joe Cunningham is, treat yourself to his website.

Who should happen by and chat us up this morning but Joe himself?



You may not know this about Joe and I am hoping he won't mind that I am telling tales out of school, but in addition to being a gifted quilt artist with "quilt" running through his veins and filling up his very soul, he is affable and self-effacing. What else can one human being be? We drug him to a local soup and sandwich shop for a quick bite between the show and his performance. We then watched in awe as he regaled the crowd with his one man play and musical telling the story of Joe the quilter, an Englishman who lived in 1765 (or so Joe Cunningham claims). You find yourself wondering which Joe is really Joe, where do they overlap, how authentic is each and are these questions even relevant.

Are you with me so far? Just let me recap a little bit for you...he (Joe Cunningham) writes plays, music and lyrics and performs them, and envisions and makes original conceptual quilts telling the story. Can you say talented?

To top it all off, he unveiled his latest body of work and I felt my breath catch a couple of times. So fresh, so artistic, so inspiring. So rich, so humbling and just so...Joe. Thanks for sharing your talents Joe the Quilter Cunningham. It was an honor.

If your name is Amy at park city girl, Laura or Kristen Kimber your are going to the HMQS show! Please send me your address and I will drop your ticket in the mail today. Stop by booth 213 and say hi!

The stitching continues....

I am giving something else away! I have 3 tickets for the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City, May 7-9, 2009. The tickets are good for a one day admission. HMQS offers over 100 classes on a variety of machine quilting and embroidery topics, has 175 vendor booths (including us in booth 213) and a judged quilt competition with $23,000 in prize money. Some of those girls can really quilt. You can check it out at this place. . If you're up for a little shopping, some make and take, free demos and beautiful quilts, leave a comment. Oh yeah... this is part of what I cut out and marked for applique today. Sorry about the glare. No time for beauty shots right now! Off to stitch!

I'm delighted to tell you that we have posted 3 free patterns over at QuiltSoup. APQ is doing a story about pre-printed panels and free patterns that use them as a service to their online community. We have posted the patterns for all of you, our regular visitors, as well as the newcomers. We have patterns for the pillow you see here(and yes you have seen this before) and two quilts made from Bubblegum Basics. Please use any and all of the patterns with our very warmest wishes. It's our way of saying thanks for being such great friends. Speaking of thanks and friends, I would like to thank RuthAnn Hogan for turning my pillowtop into a pillow! Great job!

The winner of the fabric drawing is jerseystitcher who commented on April 13. Congratulations. Please send me your address. Thanks to all of you for entering and you just never know when there will be another one!

My favorite things about quilting are talking to quilters about quilts and seeing quilts....any quilts. Last week I had the good fortune of presenting a trunk show for the Main Street Quilters and they gave me a little suprise! Thank you ladies. I had a terrific time and laughed till I cried!


Let me bring you up to speed on this book I have been writing. Again, it is being published Kansas City Star Publications and will be called "Cradle to Cradle". So far, we have made one jillion new quilts and a pillow for the book. We did them in a twinkling of an eye as we wanted to use the "freshest" fabrics possible. Next, the quilts were packaged and shipped to the editor. The quilts were to be shot "on location" and in the studio! Sounds like the movie bizz doesn't it? This is where we will pick up next time.

The drawing for the fabric give-away is officially closed. While we print and draw names you might want to visit my friend Vicki at Bloom Creek (link is to the right). She has posted a very nice tutorial about how to make unique labels for your quilts. Leave her a note and let her know we sent you and that we are all so happy she did this wonderful post!

I don't know Christy B but she has been working on a puzzle quilt with Bubblegum Basics and sent me a picture of her results. It's really nice when someone takes the time to do that. Seeing your quilts is so much fun for me. You can read all about the construction on her blog periodicalprolix.blogspot.com. (wished I knew how to add links successfully!) Cute quilt Christy!

You still have time to enter the fabric drawing!

Let's kick off the book adventure with a give-away. The Easter Bunny left a fat quarter stack of Bubblegum Basics for me to give to someone special. You are all special so now I don't know what to do! Leave a comment and we will enter your name in the drawing. Deadline is April 20th MST.