And there will be apples this fall!!!

Dried apple strings for the mantle at Christmas and before that

apple pies, apple cobbler, apple tarts and Pep's hard apple cider that tastes like champagne. Yum!

I need to get out my Apple Tree Lane quilt.

It's been awhile .....

I've been a pretty bad blogger lately. I pulled a muscle in the back of my right leg shoveling snow about six weeks ago. It got inflamed and either sitting at the computer or driving makes it worse as does a lot of walking. Even now this is going to be short. The small amount of time I spend at the computer is spent working. But today it feels good enough to do a little. It's so beautiful outside I just need to show you some pictures of the garden.

This of course, is not the garden. This is our Easter Lamb Cake. Both Pep and I spent part of our childhood back East and remember Lamb Cakes each Easter. This year we got a mold and started the tradition for our grandchildren.

This obviously is the garden. Tulips & hyacinths.

Golden Poppies.

Bleeding hearts

And just one of our many forsythia.

There's lots more going on - it's great just to walk out to feed the birds and see what's new each day. Life is pretty good - now if my body would just cooperate more :)

Hope you all had a great Easter and have a good spring.

Fabric due at the end of the month!!! Yay!

At long last - no snow!

At least the snow is gone in this part of Missouri. Thanks God. We were rather tired of it. It is a lot grey and gloomy - and rainy. I think someone mixed the months up. It's supposed to be windy this month - to dry up all the moisture from the snow - and THEN we have April showers.

Anyway - spring is on its way and I made my Peter Cottontail Miniquilt to celebrate It's not on the website yet but if you want one you can email Tara at info@janpatekquilts and order one. Or better yet, join the Mini Club and save some money. Which brings me to a problem it seems we were having. Apparently somehow the page for Linda's Club (which we no longer have) and the Mini Quilt Club got mixed on the website. Tara started getting quite a few people joining Linda's Club. She very nicely emailed or called them and told them that we no longer had that club. One lady had a friend who had just gotten her latest Mini quilt and called to question. So Tara figured out what was going on and got in touch with Shannon (our weblady). We're pretty sure it's fixed now but if you tried to join the Miniquilt Club and were told that it was defunct, get in touch with Tara at the email address above or 816-632-7632 and she'll fix it for you. Sorry about that.

This is my new fence behind the birdfeeders made out of skids. I really like it. Not too many birds around with Dueces in the area. I want the leaning dead tree cut up for firewood. I don't think it adds much to the ambiance but Pep says that Dueces uses it to cross over to the big tree on the right. I think the exercise would do Pep's little mountain lion good. He is quite a climber.

The dogs on their morning constitutional when I fill the feeders - Wooly Bully, Sniff (Jake's dog) and Sumo (Zoie's dog)

The other day, I was hurrying around as usual, getting all the chores done and everything taken care of. Cullen was here and wanted to gather eggs. Usually I do that at night. I started to say "no". Then I thought of all the times I had gathered eggs at my Grandma & Grandpa Laird's house. They had a big garden each summer and birdbaths and a grape arbor and a chicken house.

So we stopped everything and let Cullen build memories.

Spring has got to hurry up

I don't know if you can see the cardinals or not. I think there are 7 or 8 in the trees. I counted 23 males out by the feeders the other morning when it was really cold.

This is our view off of the deck. The pond is to the left behind the trees. And it is beautiful ... BUT....

Can you tell that I am soooo ready for spring?

And the winner of the Mystery Quilt Is.....

Peony who said "Love the goldfish". Me too Peony. If you'll email Tara at info@janpatekquilts.com and give her your information, she'll mail you the blocks for the first two months and the border and sashing.

I loved reading the comments and wish you all could have won. We do have a few spaces left, I think. If you want one, check with Tara. I'm sure she can fix you up.

Right now I'm going to the loft to make some pillowcases to go with Zoie's Baskets.



We're setting up a bed with the quilt on it at Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton and I think it needs pillowcases. I ordered a sham from Moda to put in the middle. I am soooooo ready for spring.

Miami Valley Album Quilt - Mystery Quilt 2010 and A Contest, A Contest

A few months ago I bought a quilt book that someone had recommended on Amazon. When I bought it, Amazon did one of it's "people who like that book also liked this one" things. I thought this book looked interesting so I bought it too. I can't remember the name of the original book but I absolutely LOVE this one. It is chock full of my kind of quilts and all the history I love to go with them. So when I was thinking about the Mystery Quilt this year I decided to do a quilt patterned after theirs. I added some blocks of my own, of course - like the fishbowl block from an antique quilt I saw at Festival. And, also of course, I didn't use strictly solid fabrics.

And I'm making mine an "Album" quilt also. Before I finish it, I'll embroider a name or names on each block.

This is Pep and Dueces - Pep is a cat person. I'll embroider the name of his first cat "Sylvester" and of course "Deuces" on the cat block.

And these guys are Dotso and Jeremiah. (The water is really clear - the wall behind them is gold.) There's a long story behind these goldfish. It all started when Jake asked if he could have one of the 12 cent goldfish they sell at Petsmart. I have found out a lot about goldfish since then. They don't live in a little bowl like in the block - each mature fish needs 10 gallons of water and can live up to around 25 years. For my birthday Pep got me a 37 gallon tank. I find them very restful. They are my quiet friends.

Anyway, anyway..... each block will have a family member's (human or otherwise) name or names on it. The names don't necessarily have to have anything to do with the block. They can if there's a link but otherwise just the name of someone you know and care for enough to remember. Of course there will be flower blocks, etc. I can't give away too much - it's a Mystery Quilt. I am enjoying this quilt very much so decided to share the fun.

Make a comment - anything at all between now and Feb. 24th. The morning of the 25th Tara will draw a name and we'll give that person the Mystery Quilt this year - a block at a time of course. If you already belong and we draw your name, we'll give you next years blocks free.

Have fun and good luck to all.

Flower Patch and the consequences of aging :)

In 1989 Snowbound was published by Red Wagon. Since then I've published I don't know how many books - by myself and in conjunction with other designers. As I've gotten older, I no longer have the energy to publish books of my quilts - so I'm pretty well just doing patterns. I leave the books to younger folks or organizations like the KC Star. (By the way, the 2nd block in our Star BOM came out in the paper today for those of you in the area. For those that aren't in the area or can't get the Star see my February block picture to the right to download or order the pattern from the Star.)



Anyway .... larger quilts don't show up well on patterns. Flower Patch is an awesome quilt - I really like it. Shannon used it as the wallpaper this month on the Home Page of the website, she liked it so much. And I really don't like the way it shows up on the pattern or even the individual blocks. The color is too dull on one and too bright on the other.



But then, color was always a problem in books too. At least you could see the detail though - even if the color was right. Aaah well........I'm doing a book for Quiltmania next year. I think I'll put Flower Patch in it and let them do the struggling. For right now you can order it as a kit and see the color for yourself. If you like flower quilts and my quilts, I promise you'll like it. :)