THANK YOU

I just took a moment to cruise through and read the comments that were left on Marcus Mentions (Marcus Fabrics blog) and Stitch This (Martingale Publishing blog) about our new book, Tributes and Treasures, and all I can say is THANK YOU!!!  If it was up to me, everyone would win a book and a fabric bundle.  Your comments were all so kind and complimentary.  If you are looking for us at Festival, we'll be the ones with the swelled heads!! I often have to stop and pinch myself because I can't believe that we reached a point in this business where we were asked to write a book AND that people want to own it!!! Thank you again and if you are attending International Quilt Market or Festival, we are booth #1033 - stop by and say hello.

My plan for this post was to share pictures from our Camp Blanding retreat in September.  Paula and I had a great time - 5 days of good friends, good food and good fabric!!  There are usually 100+ ladies in attendance and they are grouped by friendship - bees, guilds, neighbors, family, etc - and it's great to walk around and see what everyone is creating and eating!  We have a great group that we sit with and they were very productive this time.  This is also the same group that we do our yearly exchanges with and some of the girls have even finished some of the exchange quilts (personally that's a topic I don't care to discuss, but some day I will join this group!!)

Diane and Wynette are both on a roll with the exchange quilts (we're just exchanged our 3rd set of blocks).  Diane shared her Snowball quilt that she worked on between our August and September retreats.  AND then she went ahead and put together her Churn Dash quilt at this retreat.  There are a lot of the Churn Dash quilts completed, so I went ahead and added that to my post-Market list of personal sewing items!

Diane's Snowball quilt

Diane's Churn Dash - just needs borders now!

Wynette had already completed her Snowball quilt and may even be part of the group with a Churn Dash quilt, but this time she has outdone herself.  We exchanged our Star Blocks on Saturday night and she had her top put together by the next weekend!! Way to go Wynette!! This weekend she finished up her Glory Bound quilt from our cruise.  Wynette loves a big quilt, so she added 3 borders to hers - LOVE IT!!

Wynette's Star Block exchange quilt. Love it on point!!

Wynette's Glory Bound with borders

Ronda drove over with Paula from Texas and she was a busy girl.  She brings lots of projects and gets a lot done on them.  The only picture I was able to get was of her 1930's Arkansas Crossroads.  This was an exchange group from Texas.  

You get to see a lot just sitting in your spot and I watched as Diane F. finished up these great Fall houses and campers. A lot of work went into these blocks!

Gloria's daughter Heather creates these beautiful mohair and painted fabric animals. I could sit and watch her for hours.  She designs the animals herself and then cuts, sew, stuffs, and accessorizes each one. She was making owls, foxes, baby chicks and corn this weekend and I just had to have one of her owls.  She names all of the animals, but I knew this little guy had to be called Hootie.  I'm still looking for the Blowfish!!

Can you find Hootie watching over me on my return trip?

It seems September is a good time for retreats.  Debbie from Texas finished her version of Bonnie Blue at a retreat. She started the quilt at a workshop Paula taught for the West Houston Quilt Guild.  It's always so nice to see someone else's  interpretation of our patterns.  Great job, Debbie.  If you look carefully in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, I think you can see another Bonnie Blue in the works.

The Latimer Farms shop kits have been shipped to local quilt stores and hopefully you should start seeing blocks and/or the actual quilt appearing in a shop near you soon.  Marcus Fabrics had a great ad for Latimer Farms in the Dec 2015 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  It's always a little shocking to turn the pages of a magazine and all of a sudden see a picture of yourself!  I remember when this one was taken  - I made sure my hair was looking good, I had on makeup and nice clothes!!!

We're wrapping up the last few things for Market.  The quilts are all done and currently enjoying their glamour shots.  These will be used on our pattern covers and in our brochure. I fly to Houston on Tuesday and help with any last minute kit preparation and then it's off to downtown Houston and set up in the George R Brown Convention Center on Thursday!!  I will post one last time before Market and Festival with pictures of our new quilts and kits.  They will all be added to our website after Festival.

Until next time, happy quilting,
Mary Ellen