It's always exciting when PFATT is posting new items for the month! It's SPRING! Check it out by clicking on the banner above. Next month will be our Halloween in June promotion (with doorprizes!) and in July we plan a Christmas in July promotion. PFATT a wonderful place full of goodies to get lost in! I am so proud to be a part of these wonderful folks!
Now that I have given my Grandson his quilt I can show it to you. (My daughter helped me with it.) I couldn't post it till now for fear that they would peek and see it. Since it is my first real quilt. I was very excited to give it to them. As you can see it was quickly put into use. I am sorry that I chopped off my grandson. I would love to show you pictures of all my grandchildren but, I am not allowed to show their little faces...which...if I think about it, I probably would have felt the same way. I am such a proud grandmother and would love to show them off! Please just fill in the blanks with lots of cuteness! Anyway.......I am hoping the quilt will be fun for them to take to the beach and to the park.
I got in lots of quality time with the grandkids while they were here....Lots of coloring, painting, and playing etc.
One afternoon we started with this....
....moved on to this.....
And after finger painting for awhile with the watercolors we called it quits here! It was just as much fun to play with the muddied water as it was to paint with it and goo around in it! In this way...they are so like me! Hmmm, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, eh? How do you think I got to creating stuff like this...
It was a beautiful day to visit an art Fair! At one time we did fifty-two shows in one year! Yes....count them.....FIFTY-TWO! It has been a very long time since I exhibited in one but I like to go to several each year. The Cheery Cherry Fall Festival in Menomonee Falls, WI was one of the first shows we did. Today I returned after many years to touch base with the past and the future! I want you to meet Kathryn Petersen from Rubicon, WI. She had the most wonderful exhibit! I love her Raggedy Ann and Andy! Every handmade version is different and new even if it is made to look old and primitive!
Isn't this a cute doll?
Ya gotta love a woman who sells spider eggs!
I love the cat!
I also ran into Cho Ny of Creative Designs again. I bought a great appliqued sweatshirt from him in the past and lost his card so I was so happy to find him again. I hope I will have time to photograph the pretties I got from him. Hint...one is a rosie pink and another is a pretty green.
As I was leaving I couldn't help but wonder how big this tree was the last time I was here! I bet it didn't cast a shadow like it does now!
Meet Catherine Thursby, artist, seamstress, shop owner, and designer of Red Shoes. I love the eye candy in her blog, and on her website for her little shop located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Aren't these pillows eye catching? The little soaps, each with its own colorful face peeking out are cute for any child or for some of us who still treat ourselves to fun little things.
When visiting her, be sure you have lots of energy to keep up! I have a feeling that Catherine is overflowing with ideas and that a paintbrush, needle and thread are attached to her at all times! Here is what she says about herself: "I like to make things, I am a mom to two children, 8 and 3, a wife, and small business owner.
I have a little shop called Red Shoes, I am never on time for anything, and I bring my dog to work with me daily.
I tend to obsess over things, love my family, friends and music. Am
crazy about vintage goods, and love Art."
Visit her! She is truly and refreshing person to meet!
Did you ever notice how some people just don't appreciate your art supplies, (stash of sewing stuff, piles of material, wood, books or metals) in quite the same way you do? 
I get questions like, "Why do you need so much green?". I'm sure the shock that registers on my face when I am asked a question like that...can not even be read by the person who would even ask it. I love tubes and bottles and jars and pens and markers and spools and reams of color! I even love the dried up palettes after a project is done. I have to admit that I love a small stack of threads of many colors after snipping the finished edges of something I have sewn. Yes...I throw it out but I have to tell you that I like it. I LOVE COLOR! What do you keep a stash of? Send your pictures and your url and I will try to post as many as I can...Send me a jpeg of your color collection! Be sure to tell me a little bit about yourself so I can share you, your work and your stash!
Maybe they are even small stashes....a stash of crayons is always a good thing!
Don't even get me started on material!!!
Meet Allison and Tracy Stilwell, better known as the ARTGIRLZ!
I was finally able to catch up with them at their booth at the Chicago Quilt Festival. They are both wonderful artists and quilters and, their latest venture allows them to combine their talent and their love of materials and has grown into a line of Artgirlz Collage Kits and pewter charms for the scrapbook, rubberstamp, altered art and doll making markets. The kits contain handmade paper, tags, beads, yarns, hand painted fabric and wool felt. The collection offers coordinated, interesting materials that can be used in a wide variety of projects as pictured below.
They invite you to be bold and have fun with their products. To visit their website and to get to know them better click HERE. While at the show my t-shirt ripped. They shared in my plight of what to do about it! Both of them thought I should rip it some more and make it work for me! LOL! So if you talk to them tell them Claudia with the ripped t-shirt says hello and sent you their way! I love their products! I will share with you what I made when I finish it!
While at the Quilt Festival I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Etherington from County Threads. She gave me permission to film her for the blog while she was doing a demonstration of rug weaving. A chicken house in north central Iowa became home to Country Threads, Inc. in 1983. Connie Tesene and Mary Etherington, two friends who loved to sew, started a small quilt pattern business, which has become Iowa’s largest and best known “quilt shop in a chicken coop.” Country Threads is based and located in Garner Iowa. Be sure to visit their web site and go out of the way to visit them if you can. ("Four Miles West of the Garner Stoplight on Hwy 18...Look for the signs.") Their next stop is the Spring Quilt Market May 4,5,6 in Salt Lake City, UT. Then they are on to Minnesota Quilters June 15,16,17 in St. Paul. They have a fall Camp from September 18-22. The cost is $175. The two entrepreneurs, who started by designing four patterns, currently have designed over 800 patterns and books. Country Threads patterns are sold in quilt shops around the world. They also put out quite a newsletter called "Goat Gazette". See for yourself....Their booth was packed full of the most wonderful things!
I'd like to make these great banners and I know my daughter would love their punch needle patterns. And...
I'd love to order this to make! Isn't it just the most adorable Quilt (with a capitol "Q")? To visit their online shopping click HERE.
Oh my! I have never been in such a large area with as many REALLY NICE PEOPLE all at one time! It must be the nature of quilters and people who love fabric. It was crowded but let me tell you...everywhere you heard..."oh excuse me....I'm so sorry....Isn't this wonderful....I'll share it with you!" My goodness I came out of this day thinking that if quilters ran the world we'd be so much better off! I have a whole weeks worth of things to show you and people for you to meet! So I guess I will just start from the beginning! There is bound to be something you will like going on in this blog for the next week....lots of new people to meet and lots of eye candy!
This is where I met Debbie Lofgren from Little Stitches. She is from Escondido, Ca. Their patterns are a mixture of primitive, folk-art & a bit of whimsy. AND.........they are super nice folks too! Be sure to visit their website and get to know them better HERE. You can order from their website so treat yourself to looking at all the wonderful patterns from penny rugs to punch needle and more...they offer it. Tell them I said hi!
To order these check out there website on this page!
I am sad to see it go but I hope someone gives it a good home. My Friend, Ang, helped me to put it on ebay. I asked all three of my children and all of them hated it! LOL! I spent the first several years of the seventies cross stitching this piece. During that period of time I became a mother, I sat with my father throughout his heart attack and surgery, I buried two grandparents and I bought my first house. I carried it with me on vacations to Florida and the island. I watched President Nixon resign and I celebrated the bi-centennial of the United States. I got my first house and car. It was quite a period of time. All through it I would pick this piece up to relax and stitch. I loved it's turquoise and rose colors. They now seem to be coming back into popularity. I am trying to downsize, declutter, recycle etc. etc. etc. I hope it finds a good home. Slowly I am starting to part with some things....a much needed task! If you like it....please give it a good home! It goes in four days on ebay.
I have taken my first quilting class and never realized how much geometry is involved! I feel like a student back in High School Geometry. Both teachers were and are great people. It's just that my mind closes off to numbers of any kind. I can measure things but when I am asked how many degrees I need to equal whatever or whatnot I panic inside and go blank immediately...then I panic again. I can't do that immediate response thing! I learned to take the information home and do it my way which is visually. I am an artist, not a mathematician!...a definite right brain thinker! LOL! I am making my first quilt in bright colors that will be outlined in a black pattern for my grandson, Wyatt. I hope to have it done for his birthday.
I REALLY LOVE COLOR!
I did a great deal of sewing when I was younger. I love fabrics! I have my favorite fabric shop right here in town called Calico, Canvas and Colors. They have put out a wonderful series of books called the Mostly Pattern Series. The books are wonderful when it comes to explaining exactly what to do! And...they are illustrated! I have also found some other on line interests such as Connecting Threads and Quilter's Quarter. I am hoping to attend a quilting retreat in August sponsored by Sew and Save. There I'll can get help when I need it, meet some new folks, and/or keep my nose to the grindstone in order get this quilt done in time for Wyatt's birthday!
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