A Little Time and Timeless treasures Fabric Leads to a Sweet Memory Quilt

This bird above is my new signature in my quilts...I have been putting him in everything-he makes me happy-he is my bird of happiness
After Market I received a box of Timeless Treasures Fabrics. It was especially welcome because they had wonderful colors and even more important the hand or feel of the fabric (cotton) was NOT whimpy as it has been with other companies. I felt the fabric and it had a nice solid feel to sew with. I started four projects immediately and am finishing up all of them this week. The quilt pictured here will look far different soon once it is quilted and bound and embellished...I cannot wait. I have already made changes to the faces of the girls here. It is such a sweet story about my daughter when she was five and her best friend and how they sat outside all day selling lemonade and how thrilled they were with "dollars!"-they looked very much alike and today they are in their 30's and still giggle when they are together just like before. A nice blessing-friendships that last.


It was fun taking some fabric from Timeless Treasures that was French for leaves and it made it far more interesting. The clouds in the sky are script and I love those clouds with the lights and darks of different fonts and play with black and white...I would LOVE a bolt of that stuff for backgrounds and faces and dresses and trees (colored with textile paint).
Don't you love the colors they provide with their tone on tones? SO much fun to work with! Wait until you see my flowers and cats!
I hope to meet you this year in one of my workshops as I travel. I have many new ideas and things to show you how to bring out your inner artist to play! YOU have some great stories to tell in quilts and I want to help and encourage you!

Feeling like creating? Check some ideas here!

You know how sometimes you have a favorite subject to make? Well, I can't get enough of cats and birds and today my Granddaughter drew me a picture of a cat (which I left at her house) and I have been working on a little quilt from fabric from Timeless Treasures and cats are in it and French fabric is the leaves on the flowers and the clouds are alphabet fabric and you know, my artist came out about a week ago and she is letting me have so much fun! I am getting the border on tomorrow and then will share it once the rick rack is sewn on. This year I am going to have so much fun teaching you new tricks and how to think "artistically."
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Speaking of, the secret to art is below by Andy Warhol who I did many papers on in school. He was NOT a good friend but he was a very good artist. Maybe alot of famous artists are that way come to think of it.

I LOVE good photography and this photo below was sent to me by my friend Pam from Camerillo. Many of you know her as she is a fabulous quilter. She quilted many of the quilts in the new book that Mel and I did together. Anyway, isn't this photo beautiful?


You know when you are in the laundry room and you have socks that don't match? How's this for a great idea?

I took this photo of a quilt at one of the quilt shows (maybe Road to California I can't remember) but isn't it wonderful? I would love a quilt with many of these in it...I don't want to do it, I just want it. :0)

The cat quilt is one that I will be teaching on the Panama Cruise-you can get the pattern in the "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks" Book. Easy, fun and people love it!

Loved the peppers in different colors and this wonderful saying-I can relate though I shouldn't say that....

NEW YEARS INSPIRATIONS FOR YOUR INNER ARTIST-take it all in and CREATE!

The wonderful dog quilt above was done in a Ruth McDowell class by Mel McFarland-five of us went to Kalispell Montana and took her class-Mel just finished this and I think it is wonderful! Spike is the dog's name.


The quilt above is by Mary Linfesty- she belonged to my swap group on Yahoogroups and we did BEES that time and she took the bees and mixed it up with darling flowers and a beed skep-all done Hoochy Mama method-she is a pro!

The quilt above is my feather tree with many birds and one sneaky cat! I love the cheddar background- it has long been mny favorite for backgrounds because it can be the compliment to many things...wonderful color!

Who doesn't love anything that Maxine says? I think she is so funny!

One year I took a teaching cruise to Mexico and Jamaica and Balize. I did this wool wallhanging of a bird and a pineapple and hung little doodads from Guatamola on it-I love it and don't think the camera caught the great color and effect.


This is a painting photo that someone sent me. Also this guy had this drawing he was doing and I kept it from a letter someone sent. I would love to try this but it might be tiring and what do you do with the drawing once it is done?
I thought it was wonderful but don't know whose it is. It has been in my files for awhile. I am erasing alot of "stuff" and want to share it before it is gone.

My cousin who does beadwork and some scrap booking too sent me the photo above and below. That is about as much as I know but like both of them, don't you?

I think the color and design in the painting here is wonderful....one of the thousands of things in my files....18.000 photos....I am trying to delete some of them so my computer doesn't crash. I can't help it, I love inspiration and design from talented people. Don't you. And how do you like the "UP" house? I have no idea what this is all about but I do know the movie "Up" thanks to my Grandkids and this part is obvious!

As many of you know, my five year old Granddaughter has adored bugs for three years...she just never gets over how much she loves bugs! My friend Laura who is the sister of Chrlotte (amny of you know them from Asilomar and also Florida) thought that it would be a nice gesture to make pillow cases out of this bug fabric. It is the cutest pillowcases I have ever seen and naturally this is what my Granddaughter wants to sleep on every night.....can you blame her?

Creativity Thrown at YOU to Set Up An Imaginative and Artful New Year!

As we come into the New Year, These Things Could Help You Be Happy! At Least I Hope So

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS

I wish you the blessings of the day of Christmas and each day after that.
I appreciate your kind friendship and support of this blog and my other places I share. May you be deeply blessed and be a blessing in return.

Delicious Maja Toffee Recipe from Linda Milligan (of Possibilities) last year-IT is WONDERFUL

Linda Milligan December 20, 2010 at 2:25pm
Maja Toffee
Here it is Mary Lou,
It's called Maja Toffee-I'm not sure why.
2 cubes butter (I Use Land of Lakes slightly salted and then I don't add the pinch of salt)NOTE- a pound of butter comes in FOUR cubes in a package-this is what a cube means
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp Karo syrup
1 tbsp hot water
pinch of salt

Melt and stir (constantly) these ingredients together in a heavy pan. I use a wooden spoon, but I'm not sure if that is necessary or just me and my superstition. You also need to hold your tongue just right. ; )

Keep stirring until the mixture boils and starts to turn the color of brown sugar.(If the phone rings or someone wants you to do something for them do not answer them until you add the Hershey Bars--see below.) Take off heat and add 1 cup of diced almonds and stir quickly to mix. Dump mixture on cookie sheet that has been treated with Pam.

Spread as thin as possible. Lay 5 Hershey Bars on the top and spred as they melt. Sprinkle some more diced almonds on top or pulse some in a food processor to make finer crumbs. Let cool--usually overnight to allow the chocolate to harden correctly. Break into small pieces and enjoy!

Also, just so you know--if you give boxes of this away, you will be expected to every year for the rest of your life. ; )

A Mirror to End ALL Mirrors This Christmas and Next! And surprise that is so fun and creative!

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So I have a friend named Sue Cresse who has a million and one ways to be creative and this is a mirror she made. It is so beautiful in person! Sue can take an idea and always make it tons better.
Do you know someone like her?
She bought a simple mirror at Home Goods and then transformed it into this with the help of a glue gun.
She said it is so heavy, you can hardly lift it to get it on the wall and they had to a real system in place to hold it. So cool!



I got his link from someone and I have spent hours goofing around with it and thinking about quilts made with some of the things I cut out....it is so much fun. It takes a little practice but is well worth it!
http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/

Random Acts of Kindness Often Feels Better for the Giver than the Receiver

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Above are photos I took in Switzerland of candy...lovely chocolate candy.
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So, today my husband stopped at the grocery store for milk on the way home from work.

As he was standing in line, he heard the clerk at another counter trying to tell some man he owed her more money.

My husband got out of line because clearly her noticed the man had some mental issues.

The man had put down a can of spam,something else and some loose tea bags from bulk and he gave her 75 cents.

She was trying to explain that he had to give her more money and he wasn't getting it.

So while everyone else stood there,

Mark took nine dollars out of his pocket and gave it to her.

My husband said it was all the cash he had on him and he thinks that it was still 75 cents short. He said he thinks the cashier gave him the extra 75 cents after she saw the nine dollars there.

The man came over and shook my husband's hand and thanked him and Mark said he obviously had no money, was dressed poorly and had problems.

He came home happy.

My husband said it made HIS day to help someone like that.

It is so cold outdoors and I feel badly for anyone who is walking with no car and maybe no home.
I am counting my blessings today as I cut up some really pretty Timeless Treasures fabric....how about you?

Understanding Art and the Artist and ON Being Kind

You know, I saw this photo and I thought of how some people don't "get" story quilts and whimsy and it made me laugh.

When I was at Market, we were holding up a cow quilt in front of a group of gals and showing a pile of the different ones and everyone was smiling and commenting and a woman walked up and caught my eye and had a huge frown on her face and she looked sternly at the cow quilt and then back at me and she shook her head from side to side.
And then walked away.

Someone there asked me (later) if that hurt my feelings.

I said "first of all she doesn't "get it" and second of all I would not want to go to lunch with her." Here is the thing.

If you see a quilt or a piece of art, would you stand there and there and be rude and try to get that person to look at you so you could be hurtful or mean? If you would, then there is something deeply wrong.


Art is subjective and that is why some people love Rembrant and some people love Andy Wathol and some people love Grandma Moses. There is room for everything and honestly here is the other thing.


Story quilts have a point and you have to be willing to "think" about the piece just like they teach you in art school.

Your painting should have some kind of point (like the beauty) which could be something the person is doing, a person's gaze across the surface and you are carried across to see what THEY are looking at, a theme (did they carry it?), color etc.

I understand that if a person is deep into traditional quilts which I happen to LOVE and always have, then maybe they don't "get" the point of something that has the theme that one tries to carry across but honestly, why give someone a dirty look, shake your head or call me a "Mary Loonie?"

I got alot of mileage off of that even though it was meant to cut like a knife.

Eleanor Peace Bailey recited a poem once in Switzerland when I was there. I thought it would be boring (I am dumb sometimes I know) and it was fabulous.

The idea of the poem is that people judge you because you use bright crazy colors or do something that they deem weird when in effect God loves what you do because you are continuing His creativity.

And to that point

I remember a guy in church that used to beg to do solos and he was a terrible singer.

I commented on it to someone who was far wiser than I and they said "you hear a person who cannot sing but God hears the most beautiful volice ever because Paul sings it to please God and others.

She was right, he was the sweetest man and he was totally sincere.

As long as you are happy with your work and you work hard then it is the least others can do to be polite because maybe they don't know what you know.
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