Stag

We have a lot of dear around here.
Depending on what they are up to, we either love them or hate them.
But either way, they are a source of inspiration.
Sometimes they inspire marksmanship and other times they inspire quilts.

This one made its way to a friend who is recovering from surgery.
AND, come this spring, it will make its way into the pattern shop!!

Mushrooms and Poison Oak

We have had a bit of rain here on the Central Coast.

 

 

Along with a VERY lush crop of weeds we now have lots and lots of mushrooms and poison oak.

That might not sound very nice, but after all of these months of brown, brown and more brown, they are quite lovely.

My Favorite Pinterest Board

Pinterest.

It is hard not to love Pinterest.
I just realized last week that I have 117 Pinterest boards.
One hundred and seventeen!
It is so nice that they take up ZERO space, otherwise I might need of some kind of intervention.

My absolute favorite board is one called Sugar and Spice.

 1. via  2. via  3. via  4. via  5.via 6. via

It reminds me of all the joy of raising two little girls. 

Of the sweetness and shyness and silliness and wonder of it all.

Days I would live all over again if the opportunity ever presented itself.

A Quilter on a Mission

Here are a few quilts my friend Mary V made from my book Simply Strings.

From left to right: Shantytown, Color Me Happy, and Horse Feathers.
And for the record, she made them all in less than 2 weeks!
Amazing.

Memory Quilt

Have you ever been tasked with making a memory quilt from baby clothing?
I recently faced this challenge.

A little bag of baby clothes arrived at my house, via my guy, with a request for a memory quilt. Of course, I was glad to be asked BUT the bag of clothes was all knits. Apparently babies are against cotton. They hate it. Only knits will do for their sweet-smelling snuggliness.
That was a year ago. One year of guiltily moving the bag out of my way, then moving it into the closet and finally shoving it into the deep, dark recesses of said closet. Knits. What was I supposed to do with all those knits.

Well, the time finally came when I could not put it off any longer. I was down to 3 days before I would see my guy's family and I knew they were expecting us to arrive with a quilt.
As it turns out, I work well under pressure. Even when it come to quilting with knits.

The 2 green prints were actually cotton, but the rest were either knit, fleece, thermal or sports jersey. There were also lots of cute little appliques, which all made their way onto the quilt. The only fabric I added was the background, backing and binding.
What do you think?

For the Love of a Good Friend

A Painting Party

There is a local artist, here in town, who hosts painting parties. She serves wine and snacks and provides all the supplies and instruction needed to recreate a famous work. Sounds fun, right?!

A group of us signed up to take one of her classes (last November). It was based on the Tree of Life painting by Gustav Klimt. All of my girlfriends were really looking forward to taking the class and all of the husbands were either lured in by the wine and snacks or flat out lied too. It was terrific!

I am sure I don't NEED to point out the original, but it is the one in the top left corner.  The rest are all us.

We pretty much nailed it, don't you think?!
And by "nailed it" I mean that we might not be allowed to come back to her studio.

If you would like to take a class yourself you can check out the schedule HERE.

Baby Brothers

Last week my baby brother turned 38.
That can only mean one thing...photo time!

That is me and all 3 of my little brothers, circa 1977.
Tommy, of course, is the newborn.
Adorable!

February Mood Board

images via:

1.texture  2. coffee  3. tulip  4. plates  5. door 6.  cookies  7. candles  8. text  9. rose

A splash of red for February.

I designed this mood board using a template created in Photoshop.

That template is available as a free download, along with lots of other goodies,  for newsletter subscribers.

If you are interested you can subscribe here.