Mary Lou Weidman taught a “Story Quilt” class at our shop last spring.   Linda Kaiser, holding her autographed copy of the new book, is shown with Mary Lou at Quilt Market in Houston last weekend.  Linda’s quilt, “Zelda” ( a fortune teller) is featured in the book.  Way to go, Linda!!  The book should be arriving in our shop in the next few days.

The quilt pictured on the right is one of the entries in the Houston Festival competition.  Imagine stitching all of these tiny hexagons together in this intricate structure. 

QuiltFest 09 has come and gone; here are some pictures of a few of our instructors — Louisa Smith, Mary Stori, Susan Cleveland, Alice Kay Arnett, Debbie Maddy, Jo Morton and Sue Nickels.  Participants, please send me images of your projects as you get them completed and I will post them here.

That was the slogan for our booth at last week’s Quilt Expo in Knoxville, TN.  Sponsored by AQS, the show was the first for Knoxville.  We featured all Kaffe Fassett designs and quilts from his latest book Country Garden Quilts.  We exhibited 12 of the quilts from the book.  We even used one of our Kaffe quilts as a “rug.”  The most fun we had was convincing shoppers it was “okay” to step on our quilt.  We had scotch guarded it and put a rubberized mat underneath it.  We invited visitors to take a ride on our “magic carpet.”  We finally had customers sitting on it going through our fabrics and our kits.  Enjoy these pictures. 

We are all decked out and ready for you hoppers; so come on’ a my house.  The theme this year is “red, white and blue.”  Our block is Chinchilla Star and here is our quilt.  Our featured notion is, of course, Marti Michell’s Large Schoolhouse, Template Set K — we just can’t seem to get out of the “house” theme. 

I am getting behind; enjoy Judy’s April and May house blocks. 

Eggs that stand on end and forsythia in bloom indicate Spring has arrived in Boones Creek and Tennessee Quilts.  As you may know, on the exact moment of the equinox (7:44 a.m. eastern time this morning); eggs will stand on end.  My brother has been testing this theory for much of his life — he has a lot to do.  Today’s test was a success and confirmation of the arrival of Spring.  Have a terrific day.

This is the first of 4 shop samples we are doing from Jan Krentz’ new book, Quick Star Quilts and Beyond.  We started these when Jan was here teaching in October.  This one in Kaffe Fassett fabrics turned out great, don’t you think?  This design is on page 71 of Jan’s book. It finishes about 80 x 80.  This one is labeled “easy” and it is.

Remember the 7 bears Linda knitted for each of us for Christmas?  She finished them and sent them to the Mother Bear Project.  See the thank you picture. 

Work on projects now for Valentine’s Day.  We have Yo-Yo’d our tree again, this time with Candy Kisses fabric from Moda as well as completed a Candy Kisses wallhanging using Pieces From My Heart pattern and Moda fabric.  Enjoy Judy’s February block using Marti Michell’s schoolhouse template.

For staff Christmas gifts, Linda Kaiser knitted these teddy bears to send to the Mother Bear Project on behalf of each staff member (since we don’t all knit).  The bears will be sent the Mother Bear Project in Minnesota and then to children in emerging nations.  If you want to participate go to motherbearproject.org to learn how.  Each of Linda’s bears has a unique personality and I am sure will bring smiles to the faces of the children who receive them.  Thanks Linda for a very special gift for each of us.