Living on the dry side of Washington State-INTO EACH LIFE A LITTLE RAIN MUST FALL-DRIPDRIPDRIP

If you have to be wet you might as well be happy and stylish!

What could be better than cherry boots? Maybe a cherry hat and coat!

The road are wet

The sidewalks are wet!

Kids are getting wet

Couples are getting wet, and I am cold and tired of this liquid weather....
I live where the weather is supposed to be dry and arid. I always have Spring fever this time of year as I get to travel to places where the sun lives and where gardening starts early and the blossoms are out months before they are here. My husband went golfing today and it started out sunny for about an hour and has been overcast and raining since. It's a bummer. Chilly, cold, damp....I went to put my vehetable peeliongs in the compost out in the backyard and I sunk into the mud in the garden...yuck.

The upside is my garden. I am sure it will be lovely this summer. Soon we should have delecious rhubarb, asparagus and those delcious California strawberries to enjoy. Spring does have lovely perks...my tulips are up and looking healthy so soon there will be that color along with my crocus's. I cannot wait to get into the dirt for fun. The air smells fresh, the air is cleaner, the colors of the plants is prettier, it is a good excuse to put something great into the oven,

candles smell better, and a nice blanket is cozy if you are watching TV ir sharing hugs with Grandkids. :-) Hey Apple Crisp sounds pretty darn good....Does anyone else feel this way? I can smell it now....

FUN with PEEPS

Easter Hat of Peeps...silly but fun!


Can you believe these hats are made with Peeps? I bought three packages this week just for the colors! I wonder how tiaras done in Peeps would look?

FIRST RATE AND FIRST PLACE STORY QUILT

One of the biggest perks to teaching is the lifetime friends that one makes. years ago, Lois Podonly came to take a StoryQuilt class from me and she has ended up being a master story teller and creative quiltmaker. Now Lois has taken classes from nearly everyone and she does fabulous quilts in all styles and types but it is her Story Quilts that make her who she is as a quilter (in my opinion). This quilt took first place at the Tucson quilt show. It is about her husband Gary who is very fun, a Doctor and an avid bike rider and skier. When he used to date her he brought her pickled and he loves chocolate covered peanut m &m's. This quilt is full of color, happiness, creativity, story telling and loads of exciting and fun embellishments. If you click on the photo you can see these things up close. Lois can put together hoochy mama blocks like nobody's business. It is so much fun to see a quilt like this. I should also mention that Lois has a large beautiful house with wonderful artwork and her many Story quilts and other quilts she has collected pepper the walls along with the paintings, wood work, clay and other wonderful items she has. I hope you enjoy this. I thought it was a great quilt to share.

LAUGHING MAKES YOUR CELLS HAPPY

Some Benefits of Laughter
Improves Blood Circulation
Increases oxygen level in the body
Releases Endorphin (Feel good hormones) which are natural pain killers from brain cells.
Boosts normal immunity
Helps Controlling Asthma Bronchitis, High BP, Spondylitis and Tension.
Gives relief from spondylitis, insomnia, tension and depression.
Enhances Aesthetic value of Face.
Increases stamina and self confidence and makes one mentally balanced person.
In an easiest form of meditation since while laughing you do not think any other thing.

Researches over the world have approved that laughter is much easier form of stress busting.
Benefits of laughter have been mentioned in the next of Ancient India and many other civilization in the world.
It has been proved that laughter has a positive impact of various systems of human body

TN Quilts and Story Quilts and COLOR and FUN

Above is Linda's gypsy. She has a ways to go but is this wonderful or what? Linda works at TN quilts and knows more about color and fabric than most anyone. It is fun to see her work.

Here is Linda cutting for her blocks.

Linda is working on her borders and background for her gypsy.

The quilt above is Kristi's. She is doing a story of Daniel out of the Bible. The colors were lovely and sophisticated. She is really good with color and design...and drawing too.

Below is Kristi working hard on her project.

The workshop area at TN quilts is nice and open and good light and a great place to create.

Above is Sue and her daughter Beth. They were great fun, knew how to do any kind of jewelry, stained glass, woodwork, knitting, sewing, metal arts...pretty much anything you can name, they know how to do it. Amazing.


This is Sue's story quilt for her husband's birthday. By the end of class she had a pieced quilt behind the legs and stuffed toes on the feet. It is a story of her husband coming home and getting ready to get into bed but the floor was covered with pins because Sue sews in the bedroom. He stepped on a pin and hopped around until he got another one in his other foot. Who can't relate to this problem if you sew? Men's feet are like pin magnets. Isn't this great! Hope I can use the finished quilt in the book I am working on. :0)

Beth, Sue's daughter brought a photograph of her children with Super Hero outfits on that they made. The photo was darling and the quilt is going to look just like it! This will be a great lecgacy quilt for the kids when they get older and now, can you imagine how fun this will be for them?

This is Deb's quilt that she did for a gift for her husband who loves to camp out, use his chainsaw and loves his dogs. Great fun! Her border was wonderful too!

Here is the people who stayed until the very end and enjoyed every last minute of time together.


Here is Sue hard at work on her borders for her Story quilt.

This is Sandra with a large pile of border blocks for her Christmas quilt. She recalls when she first got married buying her husband a $1000. guitar that is worth alot more now. her picture is awesome and hopefully you will see this wonderful quilt when it is published.


Here are girls hard at work on their blocks. This is a lovely place to be able to sew and laugh.

I thought I would share a few photos of fabric I took. TennesseeQuilts.com sells everyone online that they carry. ALL 8000 bolts. Can you imagine loading all of this on a website?

They also sponsor a quilt conference called Quilt Fest that is tons of fun. I got to teach there and had a ball! Jonesborough is a wonderful old city with lots of history. Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket were both from that area. It is beautiful there.







If you look closely above you can spot a few fabrics I designed. They carry a nice array of my Grandmother's house line. This store is great fun for anyone who loves sewing and fabric.

FUN THINGS AND HAPPY COLORFUL BLOCKS

CAN YOU GET ANY IMAGE QUITE AS WONDERFUL AS PAUL NEWMAN'S BLUE EYES?

I taught at TennesseeQuilts.com and here are some of the fun samples from the Flower Power class. All of these blocks in a quilt are quite whimsical and wonderful. Tennessee Quilts is a great place to teach because they have 8000 bolts of fabric and everyone of them is on their website.


Linda on the left owns Tennesee Quilts with here Sister in law Brenda. Here is the butterfly she made and a darling flower to go along with it....if she can talk her friend out of it. :0)

Is there anything more fun than Kaffe fabrics and Flower Power blocks?

Here is Charlotte with her samples of a great beginning to a fun Flower Power quilt!

Tennessee Quilts carries alot of my fabric and some that is hard to get any longer.


Just wanted to share this image from the theme fabric on my website. We ordered the last two bolts of this on black from benartex. This fabric brings smiles to your work. This is an artist trading card that Brenda made.

I took this photo of my friend jackie at Quilting Adventures. We just ordered new spring socks and will have them on our website soon. I will give you a preview here first. We still have a nice variety of socks to keep your feet warm. It is too cold here for sandels yet.

I am posting this photo here of me in front of my Feather Tree pattern. It is available on my website. One of the ladies I met made a quilt with all of the crazy birds in this pattern and she made up her own tree, it was wonderful. Marylouquiltdesigns.com


When I was in TN, it was sunny and raining. My Canadian Grandmother used to say "it's a monkey's birthday." I love that. Here is the perfect latte for days like that.


Here is something to give you the giggles before you go and do whatever chores are in front of you. Work is always easier if you can smile.

Happy Day friends.

More Asilomar photos from 06-thank you Karen

This is Brenda and her quilt from Empty Spools class of 06-isn't it great?

This is Rana who is cutting like crazy to get her quilt done...nice Complentary colors

This is Jan who has a nice Grandma quilt going in the background

Mary Lou, Molly, Helen and Karen- this group could get into alot of trouble :0)

This is Lovely Mel with Mary Lou's "Jack's House" quilt

This is Lorraine taking a breather....

Above is Dorothy who did a lovely quilt about her Mother's cooking (Italian)-she had an apron that belonged to her and she matched wonderful fabrics to it....a great concept.

This is Diane who was working on a quilt about her studio and loving to quilt.

This is Cherise. Cherise is a friend that opens her home to me when I go down to LA area to teach. We have spent alot of shopping and laughing and sewing time together.You may recall Cherise's dog from an earlier blog...he ate my glasses. :0)

We've had alot of laughs about this.

If you are curious about Asilomar and want to be on their mailing list, the website is

www.Emptyspoolsseminars.com