High season for local quilters......

"If you have ever searched for a way by which to measure who we are as a people, the things we value -- the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves -- then you really ought to consider attending a local quilt show."

That is how the article in today's Oregonian begins. The Oregonian is our local newspaper, published in Portland. There are several quilt shows coming up in the area and this article makes you want to hot foot it to the Great Northwest. Even if you can't make it to this corner of the world to take part in these events, you will enjoy the article. It's well written and honors those who take pleasure in creating with needle and thread.

Check it out!

More cupcakes!

These are Melinda's version of the cupcake pincushions. Check out her blog in my blog list- "Creations by Melinda". She was teaching at a retreat and their theme was Mardi Gras. She found some cute Mardi Gras fabric and used some large head decorative pins for "sprinkles". Can you beleive it? She made 60 of these to give away at the retreat! What lucky retreat participants!

Debbie's "Out of this World" rag quilt

Debbie Lamb, a customer/friend of mine sent me this photo of her ginormous rag quilt. It's all flannel and several layers thick and it's queen sized! This thing must weigh a ton! She made it with purple, blue and silver flannel. I think the silver is handspray flannel. I'm not sure what the blue and purple are, but I know Debbie always makes her rag quilts with super thick and squishy flannels. She found my site one day when she was on a hunt for Maywood Shadow Play flannels. You can see a few more of her rag quilts in the photo gallery on my website. Debbie taught me how to make these so they fray on BOTH sides of the quilt. I'll try it and blog about my results one of these days. Thanks for sharing, Debbie!

Cupcake Pincushions

These adorable cupcakes have NO CALORIES! These photos were taken at the Baby Lock booth at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup a few weeks ago. The Baby Lock folks were nice enough to allow me to take these photos and gave me permission to post them on my blog.
The cupcake wrappers are the re-usable silicon cupcake baking cups found all over the place these days. The white fabric "frosting" was embroidered with "sprinkles", then wrapped over batting. They used poly batting scraps for this. You could use fiberfill stuffing or whatever you have around. The nice fluffy polyester scraps are nice because they give it a really fluffy feel.

The Baby Lock folks used hot glue to secure the cupcake into the holder. Then they decorated the "cupcakes" with buttons and pompoms.

What a cute gift these would make for a quilting friend. And what a great way to practice using a new embroidery machine!

The last 2 cakes.

My cake decorating class has come to an end. I took a cake decorating class with my daughter-in-law for the last 6 weeks. Here are my last 2 cakes. The purple cake was my favorite. It's chocolate and filled with raspberry filling. Check out the "stippling" on the top. In the cake decorating world they call it "Cornelie's Lace" (not sure I spelled that right). Nobody else in the class had a clue what stippling was, or why I caught onto it so fast. I also "stippled" the sides of the top layer of the tiered cake.


This thing was HUGE! The bottom is (2) 12 inch layers. Each layer was a whole cake mix. The top (2) layers were another cake mix. Each layer was split and filled, so the bottom is 4 layers and the top is 4 layers. The bottom is half chocolate and half white, which raspberry filling between all 4 layers. The top is lemon cake with lemon filling between all 4 layers. The decorations are a little over the top. I kept trying techniques so I could learn. Every time the instructor told us about another decorative design, I looked for a spot on my cake to try it. :-)

Cakes for 6 weeks! My freezer if full of cake! I don't feel like making another cake for a while! It was fun, though, and I learned a lot. And the best part was spending time with my daughter-in-law. I will think of her whenever I make a cake from now on!

Lakehouse Fabrics

I don't generally do much "advertising" on this blog. That's not the purpose of a blog, in my mind. If you want to shop, you can go onto my website and shop until your little heart's content. I try to keep the blog about fun stuff and chatting. But several readers have sent me emails asking where to find the fabrics in this month's giveaway so here goes.

The fat quarters I'm giving away in March are from Lakehouse Dry Goods. I got the bolts last year, so they are no longer available to me. When they're gone- they're gone. I have them on sale- many on pretty good discount. You can find them by logging on to www.alderwoodquilts.com or just clicking on the logo on the right on the blog. Go to the catalog, then fabric, then go to the second page and look for the thumbnail for Lakehouse. I also have several sale patterns that have the quilt made in this fabric on the cover. You can find them in the sale pattern category on the website. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll see if I can help.

Thanks to so many for signing up for the giveaway. I have you all entered!

Hello, Carol!

Carol- Thanks for entering the giveaway- please send me an email so that I can write back to you. You don't have a profile with your email address in it so I can't communicate with you. You won the January Giveaway and I haven't been able to contact you.

Puyallup Sewing & Stitchery Expo

I attended the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington last weekend. (Puyallup is right outside of Tacoma). This show has been running for 25 years and I've gone several times. It's really a fun show! It's open to the public and the attendance is always very high. If you're ever in the northwest in March, I highly recommend that you experience it.
There were hundreds of vendors. The fairgrounds have some great buildings and 2 of them were full of vendors. The show also attracts quality instructors. I took 12 classes. My favorite was with Sue Hausman, and I'll do a whole blog post about that! I'll give you a hint. I bought a new "toy" from the folks at Husquavarna Viking. :-)
Mount Rainier watches over the city.
OK- I just had to take a picure of this. People must have thought I was nuts, but I just stood there laughing and then got out my camera. For the most part, vehicles were not allowed into the fairgrounds during the show. There were a few service vehicles, and I suppose this sign was meant for them. But what really struck me as being funny was that all of the other benches had people sitting on them... but not this one! Do you think people thought it was meant for them? I'll have to admit- I didn't have the nerve to park my rear here, either!

Cooper- the new grandpuppy

I can't believe how many people commented or sent me emails about the puppy! I've had tons of requests for more pictures. This one is Cooper with his "mom"- my daughter-in-law, Cady.
Here's Cooper with his "Daddy"- my son, Paul.
Cooper is a real climber. He just climbs up and over everything.
Dreaming of shooting hoops when he gets bigger. :-)

I have photos of the other pets in our family on my website. There is a photo gallery on there that has pictures of my other granddogs, and my grandkitties as well as our own dog. I need to get Cooper in the gallery.

We had Cooper here with us for a few nights while Cady and Paul took a little vacation. What a smart puppy! Our golden retriever, Jaeger, is a little less than impressed. Cooper likes to chase him around and bite his ankles.

Quilt Qua

I've just discovered a new resource for quilters who like to spend time with their computers ALMOST as much as they like spending time with their sewing machines. Connie at Quilt Qua was nice enough to add me to her list of online businesses and the featured list of quilt bloggers. I'm honored to be among such good company. Thanks for a great new resource, Connie!

http://www.quiltqua.com

http://www.quiltqua.com/shops/online/

http://www.quiltqua.com/links/blogs/

March Giveaway

Time for a new give away! Anyone who replies to a post on this blog or who sends me an email during the month of March is entered. I'll select a winner at random on April 1st. Be sure to check back to see if you won. If you don't have a profile with contact information, I won't be able to contact you.

This month's give away is the Bloomin' Bugs pattern and 4 fat quarters to get you started. This is a super fun quilt. You can make it as pictured on the pattern cover, or use some of the blocks for pillows or tote bags.

Good luck!

Happy March!

Thanks to so many who have posted and sent me email messages. The response to my guest blog post on quilting blogger has been amazing! I'm blown away by the number of quilters from all over the world who connect in this world of blogging. I will reply to everyone soon!

I just returned at midnight last night from the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington. My head is spinning! I have so much to tell you, and lot of great pictures, too! There's way too much to post on one day- I have topics for blog posts to last me for WEEKS!

I am having guests today (I'll tell you about that, too), and I haven't even unpacked my car yet. So I'll have to keep this short.

This coming week, I'll be posting the March giveaway, my next cake, free patterns and ideas I picked up at Expo. pictures of the puppy, we'll get started on the March bag and MUCH MORE! I met some well known people at Expo, got a new "toy", and made some new friends. I can't wait to share it all with you.

Before I close, I wanted to let you know that I really will be starting a block of the month. Several of you have mentioned that you are anxious to start. Thanks for being patient with me!

Now I need to unpack the car and find my toothbrush! Have a super fantastic terrific day!

Book WInner!

The winner of the February giveaway is "Q". Send me your mailing address in a private email to sue@alderwoodquilts.com and your book will be on it's way lickety split!

I'll be posting a March giveaway tomorrow. Thanks for everyone who replied in February- check back and reply in March to be entered in the new giveaway!