My Life

Quilting Friends & Old Buttons

Our quilt guild’s biannual quilt show was last week.

It’s always fun to see what our members chose to hang and to shop the vendors!

Unfortunately, this has already been a very sad year for our guild with two of our members passing away during the month of January and two of our members’ husbands also passing away.

One of our founding members, Betty Bowker, passed away on my birthday no less.  She was very generous, kind and especially supportive of my work as a quilter and designer.  Although she had been failing in health for some time now, it’s always sad when a friend passes away.

Like most of us quilters, she had a stash!

At the advice of another of our guild members, her children decided to offer her stash for sale at our quilt show.
Before the show even opened I spotted these.
I’m a sucker for old buttons.
Perhaps it’s the old jars they tend to be collected in,
perhaps it’s all the colors of the rainbow that show up in one place,
perhaps it’s like any other addiction,
cause, unknown!
Our other member and friend that is no longer with us is Norma Highsmith.
She had a very short bout with cancer.  Norma was a very active quilter and guild member.
This is a photo of her that I took at our November night meeting, before any of us knew she was even ill.  She had just completed this quilt that she had taken as a class at our Quilt Away in June 2011.
One thing is for sure, time marches on.
I’m so glad to have known these two ladies.  If not for quilting I would never have known either of them, or been enriched by their generosity, caring and love.
By far the best by-product of quilting!
I will treasure this photo and  these buttons because they will forever remind me of my quilting friends.
Until next time,
Susan
Applique quilt projects, new fabric collection, New ideas, New Pattern Sample, Suzn Quilts Patterns

For Everything there is a Season

Who knows what season it is outside this week?

It is Winter

It looks like Spring.

It feels like Summer!

Just the middle of March, and the extended 7 day forecast here in the lower half of Illinois is 80+ degrees EVERY DAY!

My flowers are blooming!

Inside it’s Spring Quilt Market Prep Season!

I’ve been picking and pruning my “Salt Air” and adding a few others that are acting like fertilizer, making the pretty stuff prettier!

It’s fun to FINALLY cut into this stuff.  When it’s early in the season, with a limited supply of the good stuff, I can’t bear to cut until I know for sure the design is just right!

And this is what I’m working on today.

How about you?  Are you doing your spring gardening yet?

Until next time,

Susan

fabric shopping, My Life, New Pattern Sample, New Quilt pattern sample, Suzn Quilts Patterns

Out Quilt Shoppin’

It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it!

That’s right, buying fabric.

This is how they looked on the bolts,

and this is how they look sitting on my work table.

(next to some of my new threads)

Also shown is my Garden Trellis pattern that I’m making with these new fabrics.

I’m teaching this quilt at a workshop next month and decided I wanted another sample.

Garden Trellis has been one of my best-sellers since I dreamed it up in 2005.

That’s right, I dreamed it!

I literally woke up and came downstairs and sketched it and the next day sewed it.

David thought (& still thinks) I was crazy, but how crazy is it now that it’s one of my top-selling patterns???

Do you ever dream in quilting?

Time to sew…

Until next time,

Susan

Applique quilt projects, quilt as you go lap quilt, restocking stash

Sulky Thread Love…

I ordered some thread last week because it had been a while and I was running low on several of my favorites.

Just a few days later and here they are!

The spools with orange labels are the 12 wt. threads and the spools with the brown labels are the 30 wt. threads.

I put my favorite at the top.

It’s my most-used, Sulky 12 wt. Black!  It’s what makes my applique “pop!”  I didn’t know my applique didn’t pop until a couple of Sulky reps wandered by my booth one year at market and introduced me to their threads. They knew my applique didn’t “pop”, but they didn’t tell me that, they just said, “Oh you do a lot of applique. Would you like to try our 12 wt. thread?”

Little did I know that thread would totally change the look of my applique!

I took that thread home with me and eventually tested it on my next applique project.

Oh, my goodness!

It’s like taking a big black crayon and outlining my applique shapes.

I guess I’m still a kindergartener at heart!

Notice how I just showed you what I’ve been working on without showing you what I’m working on?

I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned.

Until next time,

Susan

New Quilt Pattern Magazine

Quilts from Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks follow-up

It’s available now!

You can see my block in the quilt made by Peg Spradlin on her website.

This is my block as it appeared in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Vol. 3.

 I wonder who won and owns it now???  See my signature under the “m”?  That’s one of the requirements of the challenge.  Each of the original 100 blocks featured is won in a drawing during the blog hop sponsored by Quiltmaker when the new issue is ready to debut.  You can see past blog hops sponsored by Quiltmaker here.

This it how I made it into a little quilt that was also featured in the gallery of that issue.

I love seeing how other quilters use my designs.

Now run out and get your very own copy before it’s too late!

Until next time,

Susan

New Quilt Pattern Magazine, Quilt Market

New Magazine:Quilts from Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks

It’s always fun to find something new and exciting, yes?

I heard at Fall International Quilt Market last October that Quiltmaker was working on a new publication, a magazine that quilt designers use multiple blocks from previous issues of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazines and put them together into one quilt. They can be your blocks or other designers’ blocks.

QFcover opt2 Announcing QM Rocks the Blocks

 Last month I was contacted by Quiltmaker because someone was inspired to use one of my blocks in their quilt and it made it into the first issue!  I couldn’t wait to find out which block they used and to see how they used it.

The issue goes on sale this week and on Tuesday, Quiltmaker is giving away 20 copies.

Good luck!

Until next time,

Susan

P.S. My friend, Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods, has a quilt included in the issue.