Dear Lord, look at this Dear Jane! Linda Pederson is a wonderful quilt artist

This photo below is of Kathy Woods the machine quilter and Linda Pederson quilter extrodinare and story quilter. :0) Linda can do anything and wonderfully. I bet there isn't anyone else out there with these wonderful colors for the "dear Jane" pattern. My goodness it is wonderful what she does with color and design.









A Barn that is quite wonderful in one of her story quilts (Linda Pederson)

This is Linda's Mother in one of her story quilts. Very darling.

Below is Linda's most recent story quilt. Quite lovely and I want to use this quote in a quilt I am doing for my Mother. She beat me to it. :0)


Linda is one of the finest quilters I have ever seen-she is a fabulous appliquer. So I took some photos of some of her things. They are not nearly as good as with my old camera. Nuts!

Here are the cookies that I keep bragging about on this blog-scroll down on the right-it is Linda Pederson's recipe and they are fab! Wait until you taste one....then go to two, four and six...honestly they are wonderful

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Little John the Baptist
Matt..18:4-5
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."
Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat.
He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.
She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!"
Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

A New Story Quilter Makes Her Move!

So my friend Susan Typpi the flight attendant for Alaska airlines is a wonderful story quilter. She took her friend Liz to my story quilt show and Liz was hooked. So they went back to Susan's home and they have been working on a background for Liz's story. I was especially excited to see my old cherry fabric on yellow in the border. :0) I loved that fabric. Now she is ready to cut you her story and place it on her quilt canvas (she set a nice color palette). Don't you love the fish on this? Terry Mangat's fabric is always a favorite of mine. Susan you are a great teacher. I am worried....when you retire, I may lose my job.



Got this letter from Susan today and thought you would enjoy it as I did.
Dear Girlfriend,
I thought you would get a kick out of this. I think Mark will appreciate it too.
Real story at the Typpi house :
Yesterday, Liz and I decided to go to the Island Quilter quilt store on Vashon. She needed some fabric for her story and that store is always a fun field trip. We decided to ask the hubby to come along since we have been pretty much cloistered downstairs since Sunday and he has been ignored. He was his usual patient self in the store and then we went to lunch at the Hardware Store restaurant as a reward for his good behavior while we were shopping.
Last night, he started hollering in his sleep. I shook him and sort of woke him up but he went right back to sleep. This morning. I asked him what he was dreaming about and , in his usual quick witted way, he said, "I was dreaming I was in that quilt store and they shut and locked the door and I couldn't get out". Quilter's husband torture for sure!
Love,
Susan

West Virginia story quilt class is coming up soon and it is in a beautiful location! Many teachers (friends) have written they are jealous because of the place it will be in. If you are interested in coming the beginning of May for your own story quilt, please contact Glorid-greg@hotmail.com and ask her the details. We will be having great fun and the girls I know who are attending are super!

Loads of variety in Mary Lou's Story quilt Class at Asilomar=Wish you were there!

The quilt above was made for Laurie's Granddaughter- can you imagine how lovely it would be to have a quilt like that from your Grandmother? So much fun. We have two alphabet's in my new book with Mel that is coming out in July. They are a little more formal and not real blocky. I love being able to say things in my quilts and if you follow me you will see I have done this for years.
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This adorable quilt below was started last year and is about Donna's four girls and how they used to get on a sleeping bag and go down the stairs together while giggling and screaming. Isn't this darling? What a cute memory-you can see her legs at the top of the quilt along with the family dog.

If you love cats (or not) you are sure to love this quilt! It is beautiful in person.

If you read on below, I have told the story about this quilt and the little girl who wanted cake for breakfast. Click on this photo to look at the details! Awesome job.

De's quilt which has her husband and son...it is going to be quite wonderful as she has words of the story to put on it and it is a great story to tell.

If you would like to take a story qult class, I am doing one in West Virginia in a couple of weeks in a fabulous location (see my website -Marylouweidman.com for a contact person under "schedule" and I am doing one in the apostle Islands (Wisconsin on Lake Superior- Gorgeous place and in the Fall- my most creative time! See my website please
This quilt is about parents and parents in law and the quilter has leaves with everyone name on them and fabulou paisley fabric leaves to work in also. It is going to be a wonderful keepsake once she is done. Lucky family.

The colors in this quilt are just stunning in person. She is doing a story about her trip to Peru and she used the panel in the middle for inspiration-only the story she has drawn out will go into the middle of this quilt. It is going to be wonderful.

Check out the great bird with the flying top comb! Super border beginning-such fun!

COOL border and now for the great story!

This quilter came "out of the box" and was delightful and fun and did this quilt about her husband sharing a lovely evening with her. She was a real plus for the class as were the rest of the group for their lovely and vaired personalities.

Caution, some serious quilters below.
The lady who is doing this quilt is a widow and she is doing a quilt to remember her wonderful husband by. I wish you could see how pretty it is in person.

I had 22 lovely students in this large classroom and we all got along great. No whining and no one complaining about someone taking their space. What a lovely week for me and a super productive week for the other students. There are some girls missing in these photos. I am praying my camera will show up and I can show them to you also!

This class was especially fun for me because I not only had old friends come back but I had a couple of girls who I have met here and they have been in my chatroom for many years. It is such a nice thing for me to meet the people behind the name!

De who is looking down had always fused in prior years. This year she did a great story of her husband on the sofa (darling sofa) and her son behind him and photos of the family on the walls! It was wonderful but I have no photo. The girl on the right is my co-author in the book that comes out July 11th. She worked on beautiful stratas, a Christmas quilt and a quilt about her Dad who called everyone "cowboy."
Great stuff!

I wish I had photos of the final quilts that these two glas made! Both finished them. One is the cat in the back which had loads of pieced blocks worked into her body and it ended up being just stunning. Sue next to Sandy, did a quilt about her daughter wanting cake for breakfast and her Mother said "no" and the little girl said "well you let me have donuts." The finished quilt had the little girl in a kitchen with lots of details and many of her dolls and toys that we woujld all recognize. Great texture and story.





These photos were all taken by Patty Hempen- thankfully she took alot of photos since I lost my camera. Wahhhh. Did you notice alot of people are too busy to look up from their projects? That is good, right?


This year everyone was quite independant and they all had great projects (stories) started. Sandy below did two quilts and she has the knack of doing winning pieces that are oh so exciting. I think there are going to be a good number of winning ribbon quilts coming out of this class.

I Loved This Funny Card

It is always wonderful to get a funny card from a friend and this is one of the best!
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The Deaf Wife Problem
Bert feared his wife Peg wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid.
Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem.
The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.
'Here's what you do,' said the Doctor, 'stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet & so on until you get a response.'

That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He says to himself, 'I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens.' Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'

No response.
So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, 'Peg, what's for dinner?'
Still no response.
Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again he gets no response.
So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her. 'Peg, what's for dinner?'

'For God's sake, Bert, for the FIFTH time, CHICKEN

In The Everglades in Florida on an AirBoat! Hang on Tight!

In the top photo, the people behind us were great and the guy on the right helped three of us into the boat and then he had a horrible time getting in himself. The guy on the left was from Cuba and had an amazing accent and was very nice. We don't meet people from Cuba in the Northwest. I would like to meet Andy Garcia...he used to be one of my favorite actors.
It doesn;t look tough but the boats here are really deep and it takes skill to get in and not fall into the water or break your neck and NO one is there to help you. They just watch you struggle to get in. Getting out was tough too. I watched many people (most) struggle. You have to sign away any rights to sue them when you go on the airboat ride. As a lark, they tell you it is because of the poisonous snakes and the alligators that eat people every year. I think it is that step into the boat myself.

Lots of cool things to see at the Seminole reservation.


So I am going backwards in time because I lost my camea. Lucky for me that Charlotte and Laura took a few photos. The airboat one is the most fun because it was so exciting and you could see alligators all over the place, wonderful water flowers and loads os animals. If I ever get my camera back, you will see loads of photos of the ride. I had always dreamed of seeing the Seminole Indians and that week while visiting Florida Charlotte and Laura made it happen. Very fun and very educational. If you are in the area, don't miss it. This tribe really does alot for their people and the schools and the other things on the reservation are great and spotless. The photos below are some of the samples for the beginning of the Hoity Toity Houses class. The girls didn't get any later photos because they were busy working. I hope to share more later on this wonderful trip and the beautiful area.

Mary Lou's LaConner Museum show and Tulips make for a wonderful visit in a wonderful city!

It is hard to beat the beauty of the flowers in full bloom in Skagit Valley. The acres and acres of yellow daffodils are fabulous and unreal right now. Huge and happy and wonderful yellow fields are everywhere.

I just got back from the recption for my quilt show at the LaConner Museum in Western Washington. It will be there until the end of June and it has many of my new quilts and older ones too. It was fun seeing the smiling faces of people who went to see the show. Loved hearing people say the quilts were very happy.
There were acres and acres of yellow daffodils everywhere around the city. So wonderful in so many ways and soon when those are gone there will be thousands and thousands of tulips as you can see in every color and size. So beautiful. Great shopping there and great restaurants. My favorite breakfast and lunch place is "Calico Cupcoard." Beautiful baked goods and delicious meals. Lovely and friendly staff there also. If you plan to go see my quilts do it when the tulips are in full bloom!