Memorial Day

(www.countryliving.com)

We hope you are all enjoying the holiday with friends and loved ones. Most importantly, say thank you to someone who has served.

We just got back from a parade and had a surprise. Remember last year when a replica of the house that Polly and I grew up in rolled by??This play house was raffled off as a fundraiser for the Village of Dexter. Uh, despite buying handfuls of tickets, no one in the family got it. There was another play house this year, but it wasn't as fantastic as this one - how could it be.

Anyway, this went by today....It is an adaptation of our Stars and Bars quilt. This one was made bed size. It was in the parade to publicize the upcoming Civil War Days in Dexter in 2 weeks. That was fun to see.

Polly & Laurie

What Everyone Else Is Doing

Thanks for the pictures everyone! In no particular order.....

Here is Carol G.'s recently finished Kaleidoscope. Isn't it great? See more at her blog. quiltfever.wordpress.comAlso, Grace is learning to sew this weekend. Her cousin Logan is teaching her.Oh, it seems I'm not the only one who took eleven years to make a quilt. Barbara just finished one too.
You can read more about it here.....blueberrythrills.blogspot.com

And did you see this quilt?? It might be my favorite quilt yet made with Charlevoix fabric.

Natalie Bonner of Piece N' Quilt made this and you can find the pattern here.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone.

Laurie

Blast From The Past

I'm showing you this quilt today for a couple of reasons. I always include it in my trunk show and the rambling story I tell about it always triggers a few questions. I started this quilt in the early 90's. It took me 11 years to finish. By far, the longest time I have ever taken to make a quilt. Many other quilts were started and finished during this time. It is a copy (pattern) of an mid 19th century quilt. Basically, I have a love/hate relationship to it. I'm sure you know how that is. I LOVED the pattern and still do. The original had a white background, but the applique was stunning with Prussian blue, cheddar, red, orange, and pink. I wanted to recreate that quilt - but use the cheddar as the background instead of in the applique. At the time, before I had a computer and before many online quilt shops existed..... I was looking for an antique reproduction cheddar at all my local quilt shops. I wasn't having any luck. None. My weekend fabric shopping expeditions were extending farther and farther across the Midwest. I sort of gave up on the idea, but then I wandered into a local shop that had this new-fangled fabric called batiks. I found a cheddar with no problem. It really was a great, strong cheddar and soon I saw I could find all the other fabrics I needed in the batik section. I bought it and went straight home to start cutting. My enthusiasm for the project waxed and waned. When I saw antique reproduction cheddars my heart plummeted, because that is what I really wanted for this. I labored on. As I said, it look 11 years. I think it works aesthetically, but every time I see it, I still wish I could have found antique cheddar in 1991.

So that's my story. What does it mean? I don't know, except of how lucky we all are to be able to shop the world from our desks. This luxury has changed our art form forever.

What is the other reason I am showing this quilt?? Well, because Polly and I are working on 3 different books in different stages of publication, just about everything we are working on now can't be shown yet. I hate that. I don't like it when I see it on other blogs either, but I know that's just how it is. So, forgive us. We didn't fall off the planet, we just are working incognito for a bit. This is a bit of spring and summer color that we all need right now.

As for depleted content on this blog..... how about this? Email me here with pictures of what you're working on right now. I'll post some in the next couple of days. Thanks

Laurie

Weekend Catch-Up

It's beautiful here in Michigan this weekend and I hope your weekend is going well. Yesterday was Flower Day at the Farmer's Market. Me, not having a green thumb (but a calloused quilting one) just observed. Lots of money and flora changed hands.I'll make my purchase later this week, some herbs for the porch planter. That's as much gardening as I do.

Gibby is doing very, very well. He sends you all his thanks for the good will.

Polly is in New York City with the East Coast granddaughters. They saw this last night.I got a report this morning that all the girls LOVED it.

After unpacking over 50 pieces of luggage (dozens and dozens of quilts and rugs for the trunk show and lots of kits for the classes) from Mackinac Island, I found that we have a couple of kits left over. I have one Flying Free kit.....
and one kit for the Michigan pillow workshop....Email me here is you are interested.

After the market yesterday, Bill and I basted a quilt. It went splendidly. Sorry, I can't show you the whole quilt, but this is a small part of it.This is going to be the 2012 Block of The Month for Kansas City Star Newspaper. We're pretty excited about that. Once it has been in the paper, it will be published as a book by Kansas City Star.

All of you who have asked about my quilt that I worked on last summer with the berries..... well, that one is getting very close to it's publication date and we'll be showing that soon.

Laurie

P.S. The Flying Free kit is now gone. Thanks!!!

P. P. S. The pillow kit is gone too. Thanks again!

The Saddest Dog in the World

Gibby had a little mishap yesterday. We were at the dog park, his most favorite place in the whole wide world, running and playing with the other dogs when I noticed a cut on his hip.
In the over-zealousness of the place, it seemed he got nipped. Gibby didn't want to leave, but I hustled him out of there. Now he has a couple of staples (Yes! REAL staples!) in his hip, a run of antibiotics, and a cone head.

Bill did a little surgery on the cone head to make it more maneuverable, and then, in the way that men do, fixed the edges with duct tape. Saddest dog in the whole wide world.

It will be 10-14 days before he can go back to the dog park and maybe that long with the cone. My day will be spent trying to make the saddest dog in the whole wide world a little happier.

Laurie

Due To Technical Difficulties.....

You don't know what you got till it's gone Welcome back Blogger!!!!

Just when we were all waiting for posts from Salt Lake City.... Blogger blew a gasket. Let's hope we get lots of news starting today. In the meltdown, we lost our last post. I'll try to recap.....Great trip, best facilities, etc. etc.

A little about the vendors at the Grand Hotel. First we have Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop. Hearts to Holly is located in downtown Charlevoix. They were pretty geeked when they heard the name of our fabric collection. The timing was great for them, as they also are one of the top 10 shops in the current Quilt Sampler Magazine. In fact, their Charlevoix quilt made the cover.
Another vendor was Maria Barton of Star Rug Company. She had lovely wool and lots of sample rugs. She had many great Halloween rugs with her. Love them!
Laurie

Afterwards

View from our room

We are just about all done unpacking. We had almost 50 pieces of luggage to go over to Mackinac Island. Yep, it was a lot. Our personal luggage, the trunk show (which consisted of 6 suitcases and 4 large boxes) and kits and other sundry supplies. The people at Shepler's Ferry and the Grand Hotel have it down to a science. Our stuff was loaded onto one large cart, shrink wrapped and taken over. Once on the island, the hotel wagons picked it up. It later arrived in assorted rooms all ready to be opened.

If you ever think about going - do it!! Excellent service is the rule of the day. You will not be disappointed. Keep watching the Grand Hotel's site, they will post next years quilting retreat soon. One of the guest teachers will be Kim Diehl.

The students all reported they would be back. It is like no quilting retreat you have ever been on. You will be treated like a queen.
It takes a lot for us to miss Quilt Market, but this was a special opportunity and we would go back in a heartbeat.

One of the vendors this year was Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop from Charlevoix Michigan. They have the honor of being one of the top 10 quilts shops in the current Quilt Sampler Magazine. Not only that, they are on the cover. Not only that..... they used Charlevoix fabric by Minick and Simpson in their quilt. We couldn't be happier.

Laurie

Grand Hotel

Last Thursday we drove to Mackinaw City and boarded the ferry to Mackinac Island. I didn't misspell anything. Both are pronounced Mack-in-naw. No, it doesn't make any sense. It's a Michigan thing. This was one of our first views - the Big Mac bridge with joins the lower (the mitten) and the upper peninsula of Michigan. It was a gorgeous day. Lake Huron was crystal clear. (It's Lake Huron on the east side of the bridge and Lake Michigan on the west side of the bridge). We passed the lighthouse and soon saw our destination - Grand Hotel.This was our taxi ride up to the hotel. There are no cars. At all. It's either horses or this.
It is as awesome as you have been told. This is the porch.....and these are one of the millions of potted geraniums here on the island.We soon saw the over the top decorating that fills every inch of the place. This is the pavilion floor.
The pink and green theme goes on for days here. The green continues into the dining room - which also seems to go on for days. The hotel was booked when we were there and we were told that dinner Saturday night was a small affair for over 1000 diners.

Polly and I are unpacking and getting our wits about us. We'll have more tomorrow.

Laurie

Greetings From Michigan

Polly, Leigh Ann, Connie and I start out tomorrow morning. My SUV is packed to the gills. This is left over and needs to fit in Leigh Ann's car.Keep your fingers crossed. Tomorrow, with everything going our way - we will be here.We might be off the grid, so to speak for a few days. They do have electricity and wireless (no cars of any kind though). We have some jam packed days ahead.

Everyone who stays at the Grand Hotel has to "dress" for dinner. Let me tell ya, that put a crimp in our usual work shop clothing. But, no worries. We clean up pretty well. We promise to behave and dress a bit more appropriately than these two infamous sisters.
Laurie

Strips and Scraps Winners

(antique quilt - maker unknown)

Hello,

Thanks everyone for commenting. The four priority boxes are all ready to go to the post office.

The four winners are:

Stitched With Prayer

Flop

Elaine

Carol SC

Email me here and we'll get them out to you before we hit the road for Mackinac Island.

Laurie