Dancing with Francis

 Hey Hey Hey!  It has been a hot minute since I have been able to even think about writing a blog post. My husband and I agreed that 2020 would be a year of not making any major decisions. Due to COVID that has been pretty easy! I am going to hit the highlights and catch you up until now.  I love January because it is my birthday month. Woop! Woop! I turned 28 and had a very productive month doing client quilts. I also was 8 months pregnant. It made for very llloonngg days in the studio and lots of rest and snack breaks.  First finish of 2020. Storm at Sea by Beth Taylor February started off brutal. My husband, who is in the Air Force Reserves, was gone for a month of training in Virginia. I was pregnant and due the 25. He was supposed to come home that day too. It was also Leap Year! Through out my pregnancy we were taking bets, we chose not to find out the gender, and most people thought we were having a boy while I was thoroughly convinced it was a girl. Funny thing was we were soli

I remember three years ago driving to Bellingham to pick up my dog "Lucy". I had mentioned to my husband that I wanted a baby and he suggested we get a dog first, which in hindsight was perfect. I immediately started searching for German Shepherds everywhere I could. When I saw her cute, big eared face on Craigslist, I knew this would be my dog. My husband and I drove up the next day to take a look at her and we fell in love. We met her previous owners at a beautiful park and she was all puppy at four months old. Those big paws, falling all over the place, and yet curious and protective at the same time. She has turned our house into a home. I just love her! left: 4 months old right:  Norah 16 months, Lucy 3 years Ok, enough about my little family. :) My dear client Sharon sent me this beautiful quilt and I finally have a moment to write about it this morning. Can you guess whats on it?.... If you guessed dogs you would be correct! Dogs in sweaters to be more precis

I live two miles from town but it really feels more like the country up here in the valley. We have a neighbor that has about 15 acres and has the cutest little llamas. I was driving home late one evening as the sun was setting and there was this funny shape sticking out from the tall grass. Upon slowing I realized that it was a llama laying down but his neck and head were higher than the grass! It brought a smile to my face after a long day.  This lovely quilt was made by Nancy for her friend that loves llamas. The pattern is "Lloyd and Lola" by Elizabeth Hartman. It is going all the way to Germany to its forever home.  I tried to give the llama "hair" so to speak with McTavishing designs. I really think I achieved this, especially in his face. I did feathers for the ears too. I am calling this llama "Drama". He has so much character! On the blanket he is wearing I wanted simple quilting. Straight lines were the answer. I had an ide

Have you ever done a Sew Kind of Wonderful project? I have their rulers and a few of their patterns if you are interested. They are so fun and these girls make reading patterns easy! They have lots of modern designs and tons of patterns! Go check them out!  Teresa from Sleepy Valley Quilt Co . in Port Angeles, WA made this beautiful Mod Pineapples quilt. She asked me to do my magic.... so I did!  I can tell you I had no clue what to do in the negative space when I saw this quilt. So I started with the pineapples. I wanted to keep them simple so as not to deter from the fun quilting I knew I was going to do.  Simple straight lines in the pineapple spikes / half square triangles. Then straight lines in the center square. What is great about Sew Kind of Wonderful is that they are longarm quilters too. So they have created a longarm ruler to get those curved lines perfect when you quilt a pattern of theirs! Here was the start to the negative space. I cr