ANGEL IN BLOGLAND!

I know you have all had one of those moments..."the ahah moment" when you are totally blown away with the kindness of strangers! Well today was one of those days for me! I was looking at blogs last night and pulled up John'aLee's blog. Wow! Beautiful! Now I am green with envy because...she has a button! I want a button. I have been trying to figure out how to do a button with no luck for a week. Joh'aLee has a button! Too cool. So after reading her explanation of how she got this incredible blog I emailed Madam Samm. I know she thought I had lost all my "buttons" but guess what! She is an incredible lady who agreed to do a button for me. Well one thing led to another and another and now I have this totally awesome blog background and guess what..I HAVE MY OWN BUTTON!! (the button links you to the Panguitch Quilt Walk Festival). I even have business cards!! I am still in shock over the kindness of Madam Samm. I felt like I was floating on air all day! Thoreau said "to effect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." Madam Samm did that for me today!

Now Madam Samm is one busy lady. Two blogs going at once! Check out Sew I Quilt and Stash Manicure
Fun stuff. I am totally in love with both . Now I am going to make a mug rug tonight! I just don't want to miss out anymore! But honestly, Madam Samm you are my hero! THANK YOU!!

To all those who have never heard of the Panguitch Quilt Walk Festival here is a little history. Fourteen years ago I was on the Main Street board for our small town in Southern Utah. We were trying to come up with ideas to bring people to our town. Now we are only 22 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park so lots of people pass through, but we needed them to stop. Panguitch is a town full of old red brick homes steeped in history. It's history starts in 1864 when the town was first settled. The winter was brutal, food was scarce and the settlers were starving to death. A group of 7 men, with a wagon pulled by two oxen, set out to get food from Parowan, 40 miles away.




In their weakened state, the men struggled with every footstep, sinking up to their hips in the deep snow. Eventually they abandoned the wagon and oxen and continued on foot. As they held a prayer circle kneeling on a quilt, they discovered they did not sink into the snow. The men completed their journey by laying quilts over the deep snow and walking across them, retrieving their quilts and repeating the process over and over again. The story became known as the Quilt Walk and is treasured in the annals of Panguitch history.

But when I suggested a quilt festival to the city council they could not believe that women would come to our small town to take quilt classes, see a trunk show and a quilt show. And surely they wouldn't spend any money to do that!! What was I thinking???

A few weeks later a bus of tourists came to town and stopped at my quilt shop. It was closed and so when they went to the restaurant for lunch they ask if there was anyway it could be opened for them. The restaurant called me and I went down and they bought a ton of stuff. Luck would have it, when they went back to the restaurant to pick up the rest of the group, they were really excited about the quilt shop. So at the next city council meeting they thought it was a great idea to start a Quilt Walk Festival.





This is our 14th year. We have 3 full days of classes, free trunk shows daily, a big quilt show, historic home tour, dinner theater, heritage fair and a Chocolate Fest! It has grown leaps and bounds and we love it. The town gets decorated with quilts everywhere. There is a fun spirit wherever you go! We are so lucky to have this. The past 14 years we have been saving all the money from the festival to buy a statue for our Quilt Walk Park. In September we dedicated the statue and the park. Dreams do come true!!

So long story short I have a "BUTTON" so my dream came true also! Click on it and see where it takes you! I hope it brings you here!

Walking on air!

Claudia

Grandma's Helper

We have our 7 year old granddaughter with us this week. She is off track and loves to come to Grandma and Grandpa's house. She loves all of our antiques, anything old, and junkie. She is an avid garage sale fan. In her eyes everything old is a treasure. She has had a bad cold since she has been here and not felt like doing much. But tonight she got my big button jar out and made a necklace.


Amazingly the buttons she picked out were all antiques. Each one she picked up deserved a comment. How fun is it that she sees treasures in such simple things! Time flies so fast and they are grown!


She designs doll clothes out of everything from batting to my really good fabric. She is into all of it. Do you think it will last???

Isn't it fun to be a Grandma???
Claudia

Cathy Miller the Singing Quilter is Coming!!

Cathy Miller is a Canadian quilter and folksinger from Victoria British Columbia. Since September 2000 she and her musician husband John have toured a program of songs, stories and quilts to guilds and quilting events across North America, Australia and New Zealand, the UK and Germany.

They have performed at over 500 quilting events for more than 50,000 quilters worldwide. These include appearances at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, the AQS Nashville Show, Ricky Tims' La Veta Colorado gallery, Eleanor Burns' Quilting retreat, and on Alex Anderson's now defunct TV program, "Simply Quilts".

To date Cathy has released four CDs of songs about quilting. These songs range from the historical, through the poignant, to the drop-dead funny! This program is sure to entertain and inspire both quilters and non-quilters alike.

Cathy is doing our trunk show on Saturday June 11, 2011. She is also teaching two classes for us on Friday. She is awesome and her classes will be so much fun.

Friday morning Cathy will be teaching the most amazing project...Mock Mola Raw Edge Reverse Applique.
This is a great way to use "holy" fabric, that you can't bear to cut up. Students will learn this technique by working on a small individual project using two layers of fabric, plus batting and backing. With Cathy's help, each student will design their own piece. Machine quilting will attach all the layers together, then the top layer is cut to reveal the design. The pieces will be mostly completed at the end of the three hour class. This is a hugely popular class!

Skill Level: Machine appliqué. Some free motion experience required

Pattern: Written instructions and design suggestions will be supplied.

BSK




Friday afternoon she will be teaching Slow and Steady Turtle Applique.
A very classy looking turtle, made with fabric scraps and hand appliqué. Students will learn freezer paper appliqué using three techniques and the best situations for each. This charming turtle pattern will be ready to finish in the car or in front of the fire at home – a perfect hand work project to carry anywhere!

Skill Level: Hand appliqué suitable for beginners.

Pattern Fee: $10 (required)



This is a rare opportunity to learn from a wonderful teacher, a new technique that will amaze and inspire you. Try something new. Expand your horizons. You will be glad you did!

But the best part is, she is going to sing the song she wrote about the Panguitch Quilt Walk! Now I can't think of anything cooler than that! I'm still in awe just thinking about what an amazing thing it is to have a song written about the history of our own town!! Major Goosebumps!!

Time to get those registrations in!

Claudia

IT'S UP! CHECK IT OUT!!!

Ok! I'm EXCITED!!! It's up and running! The Panguitch Quilt Walk site is ready for you to choose your class and get your registration in!!!. There are prizes for the first 3 registrations!! So pass the word! It's Here! I'm EXCITED!! Lots of fun classes and fun ideas. I'll be featuring them for the next while so you can see how great they all are!

This year we will be having Cathy Miller The Singing Quilter, teaching and doing a trunk show. We have Dave's Bernina from Provo and St George donating another wonderful sewing machine.
Here's another fun thing to shoot for... Bring a friend who signs up for a class that has never been before and your name will be put in for a drawing for another special prize! We want your help spreading the word!

We love to have you all come to our wonderful town and share our fun!

I just got home from a quick trip to California and so I will post more tommorrow, but I am so EXCITED I couldn't wait to tell you!!
Claudia

My Gosh How Time Flies! Quilt Walk Countdown!

I know I said I would post again with fun things from the trunk show that the Village Dry Goods hosted with Pat Speth. I just didn't think it would take me over a week to get back to it!! You would think that I could find 20 minutes a day to post something. Sorry!

Pat Speth was awesome. Her thing is 5" squares and what you can do with them. Check out what she does with them! The first quilt is made with the left over corners she cuts off.






It was a wonderful retreat and trunk show! I learned so much and enjoyed every minute!

I have 8 little girls birthdays to think about this year and so I took an idea from Jerilu and made aprons. Here are 7 of them and one was sent off last week. Really fun to make and turned out cute!I decided to make them all at once so I wouldn't be doing them the night before their birthdays like I usually do. I'll add some cooking utensils and a package of cookie mix or something and voila I'm done!



The end of the month is coming rapidly and the website will be up for the Quilt Walk. Hopefully it will be up the 31st.
We have lots of fun classes and we have Cathy Miller the Singing Quilter.Cathy is is our featured teacher this year. She is also coming to sing the song about the Quilt Walk which is incredible and her cd cover is awesome. I might be a little prejudice because my Quilt Walk quilt is part of the inside art work!


Invite your friends! Bring your family! I promise you will have a great time at the Panguitch Quilt Walk Festival! We have lots of fun things planned this year!

Claudia

CAUTION:LOTS OF NEW IDEAS COULD OVERLOAD YOUR MIND!

First off my update on the Joseph Smith Tribute quilt. I have finished 9 log cabin blocks(Block 1) and one large 9 patch variation (block 3) and have blocks 4 & 5 cut out and waiting. I skipped #3 but will get it cut out this week. I am really going to try hard to get alot done on it this weekend. A 3 Day weekend! Hurray!!



I got sidetrack on that quilt last weekend as Nan and I took a trip to Brigham City to The Village Dry Goods quilt retreat. Oh my gosh what fun! We were nervous about going due to the weather...OK Leon was nervous about us going due to the weather, but it all worked out great. Too much inversion though. Now I remember why I hated January in northen Utah. It's such a small world. Roylane and Fran own the store. Rolayne and I went all through middle school and high school together. Rolayne and Fran had invited Pat Speth who wrote all the Nickle Quilt Books to be the teacher. Everything you could possibly do with 5" squares. It was really fun and Pat is one awesome teacher. So many wonderful ways to use the 5" squares.

We got there Thursday night and the class was all day Friday and Saturday. Nan really packed light on this trip ...one bag of her clothes stuff amazing! Now we won't go into details about all the stuff we packed for class!





Motel rooms need to rethink their set up. How can you possibly sew with only one small table? But you all know just how flexible we quilters are! Good thing I am so tall. The bathroom counter worked just great with the help of a couple of pillows in the chair. A girl's gotta do what a girl's got to do!




Friday we were at class at 8:30am eagerly awaiting our day! It was fun because we knew lots of ladies there and many we hadn't seen for a year. Have you noticed when visiting with quilting friends even it you haven't seen them for ages, once you start talking it's like you saw them last week.! Pat started by showing us several quilts to inspire use. What an amazing trunk show and this was just the ones we were going to make. She was doing a large trunk show at dinner Friday night.




I love to go and learn something new. You always pick up those tips that make things so much easier. It's fun to walk around the room and see every one's gadgets and fabric. Here's some more pictures we took in class and tomorrow I will post with pictures from Pat's trunk show. Unbelievable!





Today was a hard day. We buried a good friend and fellow quilter. Anita got sick at the Quilt Walk last summer and I took her to the hospital. Last Monday she died of cancer and was buried today. A hard day. Peace be with you my friend.



Enjoy every minute!
Claudia

OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW AND FAVORITES TO BOOT!

Don't you just love the New Year? I love the thought of a clean slate..a new beginning..possiblities galore! On New Years Eve I always finish something that has been sitting around waiting... Yesterday I finished a quilt top that had been sitting there for just a short while actually. Two star blocks were done and the other two waiting to be put together. So I finished them and made 5 alternate blocks and added a border and it's done. The blocks are big (14 1/2")so it worked up fast and I had my finished project to end 2010. Now I would have quilted it too, but my longarm is out in another building and it takes too long to heat it up so I can quilt comfortably so the quilting won't happen till it warms up.



So now on January 1st I start a completely new project. This one is one I have had sitting on the shelf for several years and this year it is going to get finished. So today I will cut out Block # 1 of the "Joseph the Prophet Tribute Quilt". This quilt kit is at least 5 years old and needs to be done. I will be making 8 (9") log cabin blocks for Block 1.




Can I just tell you of my new favorite things??? A few months back I was stopped in Costco by this really nice guy who wanted me to see his books. Now I am the biggest sucker in the world when it comes to things like this. Demo it, show me, tell me, let me touch it and you have me...hook line and sinker. Anyway, he told me about his books and I thought "what the heck I need a new read" and bought them both. Well I didn't start reading them for a while, but one Sunday afternoon I picked up the first volume, snuggled down on the bed and set to read. Remembering Isaac the Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp
Well I couldn't put it down. I read all afternoon and into the night. I finished it in two days. The story is wonderful, but the messages that are told are what we all need to hear and remember. It reminds us to live the kind of life we are suppoed to be living..full of gratitude, love and caring. So then I started the second volume and finished that post haste. But were was the third? It didn't come out until a while ago and as soon as it did I bought that one too. I have now finished all 3 and have my husband reading them(he's on #2). We gave them to our kids for Christmas, sent them to friends and I am starting over with a higlighter to mark my favorite spots.

But the best part of all is I went to his blog http://www.rememberingisaac.blogspot.com/
and discovered he was having an open house in SLC in December. I told Leon I wanted to go. We headed up there on Dec 11th and what fun we had. Ben Behunin is a potter and we went to his studio and I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. All the pots, mugs, trays and bowls that he writes about in his books are here. Now remember what I said before about demos, touching seeing.... well we came away that day with trays, plaques, a mug, a bowl, more books. We drank the special peppermint tea, had molasse cookies and candy that was incredibly delicous and totally enjoyed ourselves. What a fun atmosphere. He is such an artist and so kind and humble. I wanted a mug so I picked one out. I like big mugs. Nothing I like better than a mug of steaming herbal tea. So I buy this big mug, but when I get it home I realize that it is too big and I have to hold it with both hands when I drink it. But I love it.
Well come to find out on Christmas morning, Leon had already gone to the pottery shop and bought me a mug and christmas ornament. The mug he bought me is the one that in the book Jake made for Amy on their wedding day. It's the perfect size(the one in the picture with the flower). Leon amazes me!




Anyway I totally recommend that you pick up these books and enjoy the potter and his life in Niederbipp. It will make you laugh, cry and appreciate the world around you! The books are full of wonderful thoughts, one of my favorite being:

"Art is the healing ointment that oozes from our hearts and minds and heals our aching world." Fred Babb

I don't know about you, but that's how quilting is for me.

Enjoy your journey though 2011. Maybe it be all you want it to be!
Claudia