Quilt Therapy

All photographs were taken with permission.

All photographs were taken with permission.

I was shocked and excited when I looked at the name on the booth next to Moda’s booth – because it said:

 ”Pieces from my Heart”
Algona, IA

Now, sometimes, it’s the little things that catch my attention – and obviously this was one of them because I had absolutely NO idea who the little lady I was standing there talking to was {blush} - until MUCH later in the day, when I had one of those V8 moments.  All that interested me was that she was from Algona.

You see, two of my brothers were born in Algona, and one (who died of SIDS at 3 months) is buried there.  What a small world we live in! 

Sandy was so kind and gracious!  We visited about the places that I remembered from my youth, as we lived there for about five years.  And then an aunt and uncle later moved back to Algona, buying the Dairy Queen and later a cafe that was flooded out.  I personally haven’t been back there for many years, but my grandparents lived in northern Iowa, so while I was in college in Missouri, I’d make a run up to Grandma and Grandpa’s about once a month, and would drive right through Algona to get to where I was going!

Sandy had some beatuiful quilts in her booth, with fabulously colored fabrics from her line from Moda called “Objects of Desire” – bold, fun colors that made me want to snatch everything up and hang in my sewing room for inspiration! 

Without further ado, let me share some of Sandy’s beautiful work with you (taken with permission):

“Flower Power” by Sandy Gervais
Charm Pack Quilt Project

“Overlapping Interest” by Sandy Gervais
Moda Fabric Matcher Pattern

“Brightly Blooming” by Sandy Gervais
 Charming Jelly Cake Pattern

For more patterns and inspiration from Sandy Gervais, please feel free to visit her website at www.PiecesFromMyHeart.net.

Of course, it had to happen.  Linda wanted to know what Mark’s latest fabric line looked like … and I had to meet the infamous anti-quiltzilla of the quilting world – Mr. Mark Lipinski. 

Do you remember my posts about Mark earlier this year?  Yeah, I was sure I was being treated like a red-headed stepchild. 

As luck would have it, I found him in the CK Media booth, autographing copies of the latest Quilter’s Home magazine:

At the same time, I was on the phone with Linda, explaining that JD had taken a phone photo of Mark’s latest quilt fabric and he was emailing it to her.  I deplore rudeness, but I was next in line and couldn’t hang up on Linda…so, I proceeded to introduce myself, with phone to ear <egad> as “the woman who designed the “Strippin’ with the Stars” BOM quilt that he gave credit to someone else on his blog.”  He started laughing and said he remembered (can’t be sure if he was just playing me for a fool or if he really DID remember) … then he wanted to know who I had on the phone and I told him it was Linda – so, he took the phone right from my hands and had a big ole’ conversation with her about my quilt design and that he knew she secretly designed it.

We giggled and guffawed about this and that, and then I asked him if he’d mind posing for a photo opp.  His first words, as he moved me IN FRONT of him, were that he needed to be shown in the back because he didn’t want people to see how big he was.  Of course, I’m none-too-small, and wear oversized shirts, so the man could have completely hidden behind me, so we’d have look like a two-headed siamese twin if he’d have wanted to!  Just before my husband had taken the photo, Mark wanted reassurance that I could Photoshop the photo to make him look good. 

“Oh sure, I can do anything!” I replied

So, here’s our original photo:

Here’s a lovely photo of us, after we’d miraculously lost a few pounds (and we became coneheads):

Here’s a photo where I gifted Mark with a bit more hair (he didn’t know I was a cosmetologist in my younger years):

And here’s a head-shot, leaving out our voluptuous bods:

But honestly?  I think this is truly what Mark meant when he asked me to Photoshop our photo:

Thanks for taking the time to meet me, Mark – and for tickling my funny bone – you may call me cupcake, only if I can call you TART!

Please forgive my blogging absence last week – I just had too much work to do, to blog.  That’s a shame, and although I love my blogging, sometimes work has to come first.  Because JD and I were taking Friday off to head to Houston for the International Quilt Market – and I had to cram my usual five days of work into just four!

We confused a lot of vendors, but we went as representatives and designers of AbbiMays.com, ’cause ya’ll know I design a lot of quilts to go with the fabrics that Linda sells at Abbi May’s.  But, we were also “sandwich signs” for Quilt Dash, so Karen made us a couple of blocks that match the design we used on the Quilt Dash website and I quilted them and added our name and then sewed them to our shirts.  Here’s the model-worthy JD, showing off his lovely shirt for me:

I’m not going to tell you that he had fun, but he did his job of pulling my rolling cart (he kept telling people he was my pack mule) and keeping me on schedule for all of the visits and booths I had to stop at.  He probably would have had more fun walking across broken glass in his bare feet, but he was a trooper! 

One of the first quilting celebs that I need to meet was the lovely, talented and funny Pat Sloan.  Pat donated the Grand Prize for our first “Autumn Colors” Quilt Dash and we’ve exchanged some fun emails back-and-forth about a lot of things, quilt and non-quilt related.  (Yes Pat, I let him take the time to wash the car before we left, thanks for the advice).

One of the things Pat told Karen (my biz partner with Quilt Dash) and I was that she was battling mice in her home, the mamas were coming in from the fall weather to make nests and have their babies.  Pat was out of town a lot, with all of the teaching and work that she does, so she was having fits about leaving home and coming back to find that the mice had taken over her casa. 

Never fear, Karen and Tammy to the rescue!

A few years ago, Karen had the same problem….but, it was just a single mouse who didn’t want to leave.  They decided to leave a sticky mouse trap in one of Karen’s shoes … except her grandson Jack felt that they needed some additional coverage … you know, guards for the potential mouse prison:

With that in mind, I printed Karen’s photo out and begged a dinosaur from my son, and we presented Pat with, I’m sure, the most unique mouse-warming gift she’s ever received – her very own guard to help with the mouse traps:

(Pat warned me that she was a squinter when it came to photos – which is true.  But, to be honest, she should just say that she’s a smiler – because when she smiles, her whole face smiles!)

Thanks Pat – for taking the time to meet and greet us – and for having as much fun as we’ve had these past few weeks, sharing Quilt Dash with you!

We’ve decided that this beautiful charity quilt that our local quilt group made will be the free pattern offered to all Quilt Dash members who complete the “Autumn Colors” Quilt Dash.  It’s just too beautiful to leave as a charity quilt and let the pattern go by the wayside!  So, if you are a Quilt Dash member, this is the pattern you’ll be receiving when we announce the “Autumn Colors” winners on November 16th!

Our little quilt group has completed our first charity quilt, and I couldn’t be more happy with the results!

This is one of our pizza box quilts, that we started in February 2008 and it’s made with the Moda “Summer Basket of Flowers” fabrics that were generously donated by Abbi May’s Fabric Shop.  I made the center row of four blocks and pieced them together, then another quilter took the pizza box and made the next row of blocks and put them together … and we passed the box around until the quilt was completed.

At the last quilt meeting in Septemer, I respectfully requested that I be allowed to finish this quilt, and to have the UMC church and their UMW group, that sponsors our Cub Scout pack, sell raffle tickets to raffle off the quilt…with the proceeds going to the Scout pack.  It was a unanimous vote by the gracious quilt ladies, and I took the bull by the horns (yeah, we do that in Texas) and sent it off for long-arm quilting as quickly as I could. 

I received the quilt in the mail this week, quilted to perfection by MaryKates-QuiltsnThings – with a new pattern that I just love!  And the UMW ladies met this week and approved of the quilt as well as selling the raffle tickets to help the CS pack.  What joy it is to find such generosity amongst friends!

So, I’ll bind the quilt this weekend and show it off to both the Cub Scout pack on Monday, as well as to our quilting ladies — and then I’ll turn the quilt over to the UMW so they can get busy selling the raffle tickets!

Ooooh, I just love quilting — and quilting for charity that benefits a fine group of local boys in Cub Scouts is even better!

We’re farmers.  We have stock.  And my family has taken to calling me the chicken whisperer.  Funny that they didn’t believe that I grew up on a farm in Iowa.  My dad owned a sale barn, a livestock auction.  Of course we had chickens … and a huge, beastly turkey, and ducks with peg-feet (frozen off in winter puddles).  In one of my foster homes, we also raised chicks and then butchered them for the freezer.  Yeah, I was around chickens a lot in my youth.  And my kids didn’t believe me!

But, they do, now!

Yup, we’re chicken farmers. 

The girls – who have been named Ying & Yang (though I have no clue which is which)

The King of his Coop – Ryann – and he let’s us know he’s in charge, too!

The Fruits of the Girls’ labor – lovely, brown eggs.

My husband is SUCH a romantic Texican!  He was selling popcorn in town with the manly-man for their Cub Scout pack, and along came a smoothe-talkin’ guitar picker & musician … ready, willing and able to whip up a song for JD’s wife. 

Can you stand the romance? 

What til’ you hear the song, though.  It’s surely a Hill Country Lament!

This is a LARGE file, so please be patient while it loads.  It’s a .wmv file, so it should automatically open with your Windows Media Player:

Tammy’s Song

btw:  you’ll see the manly-man about halfway through, giving everyone the PEACE!

Today is picture day for the girls at school.  They were flitting and fluttering around the house last night, getting their clothes organized and trying to decide what jewelry to wear, how to fix their hair, etc. etc.  It was girlie-central, for sure!  Thank goodness the boys were gone to a Cub Scout meeting.

Last night, I asked JD to call the school in the morning, to see if our homeschooled son could get his photos taken, too.  The school that the big girls attended in Utah let us bring the two little ones over on picture day, so I could have photos that were all the same background for all four kids.  It’s nice to be able to have the same photograph formats for all four kids – especially at holiday card time!

So, by the time the dad-person woke me up this morning, he and the son-man were already dressed up and ready to head to the school – they were happy to accomodate us and got the manly-man in for pictures immediately! 

He is normally very photogenic:

Though, the dad-person tells me that his smile in this year’s photos will look more like this:

Not a problem!  I’ll have much more fun with the photos when the kids get older.  Is always good to have something to blackmail them with when…say, their first date comes to the house!