It's beginning to look a lot like..............

But let's have Thanksgiving first, please.

I just love our Dresden Turkeys wallhanging. It is, of course on the wall at our house. If you haven't gotten a kit already you probably won't be able to get one made for this year but you could be stitching on Thanksgiving Day while watching (or not watching) the football games of choice. Be sure to order a Dresden Tool too as it makes things so much easier. Then you can feel very self satisfied as you're already ahead of the game for next year :).

"Santa's Coming" is our newest Wallhanging Club quilt so if you belong to that club, yours is on it's way. If not, you have plenty of time to order a kit and get it made in time. The piecing is really easy.

If you happen to live in France or Europe, you can get the pattern in Quiltmania's newest magazine Simply Vintage. The directions, of course, are in French.

And be sure to keep checking in for Moda's latest - this time very short - Blog Hop starting December 5th. I'm not sure which day I'll be posting yet. We'll all be downloading the patterns and recipes we did for the schoolhouse last spring. And I decided to take the block and make a tablerunner/wallhanging so I'll also be downloading the pattern for that. All of this downloading, of course, depends on whether I can sweet talk Michele into setting it up for me. Have I mentioned more than a million times that I am NOT a very left brain person. I'm sure she will, she's very nice.

Well, off to designing, the grocery store, picking up feed at Coop, Jake's school Christmas parade tomorrow, picking up Cullen and Quinn for the parade, yada, yada, yada.

And tonight I will get to sit and stich. :)

It's Veteran's Day

Most of you who follow this blog (or have just read my books over the years) know that we're a pretty military family. My father was career Army, Pep's father was career Navy and Jake's father is career Air Force.

So Veteran's Day is pretty important to us. And it's a day for the country as a whole to stop and remember to say "thank you" to all of the men and women (my aunt Janet was a WAC) who have served their country so well and kept us all safe.

We thought it would be nice to celebrate Veteran's Day by cutting the price of two of our patriotic quilt kits.

My idea was to offer Jake's Eagles and Four Flags for 20% off today. But Kelly sends out our emails and she made it 20% off for a week. Good idea Kelly.

The kits would make a nice gift for a quilter who has served or has a spouse serving. And really, they're both pretty simple to make and could easily be done in time for the holidays.

But you don't need a quilt to say "thanks". It's just one way of remembering. Our local veterans were selling things outside of Walmart this week. I didn't need a cap but I gave some money anyway. When they said thanks, I said - "And thank you!" Let's make sure we do.

It's Good to be Home

It is indeed good to be home.

Once here, besides all of the packing and unpacking, washing clothes and generally detoxing from a week away, I had promised my church - which is an hour away in Kansas City - that I would bring quilts and kits and appear two nights at an event they're having. If you're in Kansas City, Missouri Crossroads church at 79th & Main is presenting the musical Big River. It was this weekend and next weekend. It is well worth seeing.

Next weekend - Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 and a matinee Sunday at 2:00 - my quilts will be there but I will be at home. It's an excellent production.

To back up a bit, I'm rather late posting about Market but better late than never, I always say.

The last day of Market was Halloween. I didn't go with Jenny Doan so I didn't have to be Raggedy Ann. I did take my Witch Is In quilt though. (I always say "it's not a Halloween quilt, it's a 'statement' quilt").

But it is fun to take pictures of ladies in witch costumes. I grabbed my camera when I thought of the pictures but neglected to get the names of the first two ladies. I just love the purple. Sorry ladies.

Here is Susan Knapp. Just love her hat!

And we spotted Mary Ann Nelson and Marsha Harward across the aisle at the Moda booth. If you look closely the tips of their hats are moving. Too funny!

Carole Krag didn't wear a hat but she brought her quilt. Great job Carole.

Nick from Primitive Gatherings was absolutely awesome as Elvis.

Back home, Zoie's Japanese Chin turned purple for Trick or Treating.

Kelly was taking care of the animals and farm while we were gone but had stopped bringing Spike out. He got too upset every time he came and we weren't here. He's only 7 months old and it's the first time we've been gone for any length of time.

She brought him out about a half hour before we got home. When we walked in Spike got so excited I almost thought he was going to have a seizure or something. He kept falling over, wiggling and jumping and running between Pep and I. Dueces (Pep's cat) on the other hand was somewhat aloof. He would follow Pep from room to room and sit down with his back to him.

As we slowly unloaded the van over the next two days, every time we opened the door Spike jumped in and wouldn't get out. As far as he was concerned the van was not going anywhere without him again. I had to leave the door open a couple of times and just go in the house.

Tuckered out but happy!.

To Market - to Market

It's O-dark-thirty and we're off to Market. The chickens aren't even up. Kelly and the kids are coming to stay and take care of Spike and critters.

Spike isn't happy. When we packed the van last night he got in and wouldn't get out. I had to carry him out and he's getting a little hefty.

We will have an awesome time at Market - already looking forward to seeing good friends.

And I think I'll cry half way to Houston :) I miss my Spike.

See you in a week

Look what we did! And a sneak peek, no less........

We're in the usual mad rush around here getting things ready to leave for Market. And, of course, I can't show you any of the quilts I'm working on because they need to debut at Market. So, I decided that this was a good time to show you some of the quilts other people have done.

These first two - the "Bible Quilt" and "Flowers" were appliqued by Ada Voskuilen. Both are Blue Ribbon winners. The Bible Quilt was made for her grandson Olsin and was machine quilted by her friend Megan Best.

Flowers is a Linda Brannock design and Ada asked me to say thanks for her since she didn't have Linda's address. It was hand quilted by her friend Sharon Struiksma.

Thanks Ada, for sharing. Awesome work, all of you.

And this is Gabriel's Ark appliqued by Lisa White for her new granddaughter. We all just love the fabrics she chose. Mine is definitely a "boy" quilt - made for my grandson Gabriel. Her's could be for a boy, I suppose, but I do think it looks like a girl's quilt too.

The next one is "Give Thanks" by Toni Peerbolt (from We Gather Together) and seems to be a blue ribbon quilt too. A lot of hers are.

And last, but not least, in the quilt section is "We Gather Together" by Toni.

I just love her choice of fabric too. Awesome work!

And here's what Zoie did Sunday afternoon. This is the wolf mask & ears she made for her Halloween costume. She's a very creative kid. I never could do 3D stuff and think this is just stupendous.

And while we're all working away, what are the kitties doing. Hanging out in my chair - Dueces on my Primitive Primer quilt -- sleeping! And they don't look like they feel a bit guilty about sleeping while everyone else is busy.

It's supposed to freeze tonight and tomorrow night. I'm going to cover my dahlias and Pep's peppers because it's supposed to get warm again next week. We'll see if they'll make it. They have just outdone themselves this last few weeks.

And Tuesday I'm off to Houston for a week. Here's a sneak peek at out new line, Farmer's Market.

Can't wait to show you the quilts but that will have to wait awhile :)

First we need to at least have the holidays.........Turkeys first - Dresden Turkeys, of course.

Arkansas, Des Moines and Home Again!

Here I am at the Arkansas Quilt Congress with Jeanne, Linda and Ann.

Jeanne (on the left) facilitated at the workshops I taught and was a great help (she even brought candy for us). Linda (in the blue jacket) was the program chairperson and maybe even arranged the whole shebang. She was awesome. Besides keeping everything running smoothly she took time to take me to breakfast each morning. Ann (on the right) is president of the Guild. I really, really want to thank them all for a great teaching and lecture experience. Besides being very competent they are all really nice people and great quilters. If you live anywhere near the area, they are great people to hook up with.

This is "Flags of the American Revolution" - which is part of my trunk show/lecture. And it's really special right now because I

talked Melissa Becker into making me some button kits so you can get the star buttons. It includes all of the very small white star buttons for the Bennington Flag block and the First Stars & Stripes block along with the blue star buttons she designed for the Guilford Courthouse Flag block. She made them for the shops years ago when it was a Girl Gang quilt and very nicely said that she would bring them back into production for me. So if you want to order the book and make the quilt, you can order the buttons too if you want them. Thanks Melissa.

We got home from Arkansas late Saturday night, unpacked, repacked and left for Des Moines on Monday.

Here's a pic of the booth - or part of it. We had a very nice time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - met a whole bunch of very nice quilters as usual. After a 2 day set up and a 4 day show, it was time to go home again. And I'm really glad Des Moines is so close - about 2 1/2 hours.

Spike was really glad too. He stuck like glue the next few days. Here he is, trying to climb in my lap. I keep telling him he's getting to0 big. He's not a baby any more. His face is looking more and more like a bulldog - getting his big boy teeth.

And we don't leave for Houston and Market until the 25th. I really don't think he's going to like that.

But meanwhile we're at home and decided to have a fall special on Jack at the Gate - one of my favorite Fall minis. This week (Oct. 11th - 17th) it's only $29.00 - that's a little more than 15% off. We sold most of them at Festival so order yours now.

And speaking of stitching, my line for Market got here yesterday.

Let the sewing begin!

Home at Last........And the Winners Are!

After 2 weeks away I'm "Home Again" - for awhile at least. It's about time for Market. And speaking of Market, I have so very little time to post on my blog because Market deadlines loom.

I had a stupendous time in Arkansas at the Quilt Congress and in Des Moines at the AQS Festival. I hope to have a little time next week to tell you all about both of them.

I'm grabbing a minute though to post the winners of the Blog Hop drawing. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments. It was a fun hop, wasn't it? Lissa Alexander always has such great ideas. And thanks to Moda for the Fat 1/4 Pack and Jelly Roll of Together they so generously provided.

Anyway - The winner of the Fat 1/4 Pack of Together is James_Linda who started the comment with HAPPY AUTUMN TO YOU and ended it with BLESSINGS. If you'll send your name and address to Tori at jpqinvoices@yahoo.com, we'll get the Fat 1/4 pack out to you.

The winner of the Jelly Roll is therealfrannie who started her comment with "love your fabrics" and ended with "great idea to put the eucalyptus inside." Also please send your shipping info to Tori.

And QuiltinginMinn who said "That look Spike is giving you" and ended with "It's my favorite time of the year", is the winner of our latest BOM pattern for Cabin in the Pines. Once again, please send your shipping info to Tori and we'll get it out to you.

Congratulations to the winners and I wish you all could have won.

Well - back to work.

I promise to tell you all about my wonderful trips to Arkansas and DesMoines Festival as soon as I get my deadlines met. Quilters are usually such nice people and these were all tops.