Happy Saturday!

The show in Iowa City was lots of fun last weekend!  My friend, Becky O, helped me on Saturday - which was awesome.  We haven't gotten together for a long time, so it was nice to be able to chat.  We had plenty of time to visit in the afternoon because it started snowing and all of the quilters stayed home!  My husband helped on Sunday, which was also fun.  He hasn't ever helped me at a show before, so it was nice for him to meet some of the people and just to see how everything works.  He's had some great ideas of how to make things easier and better for future shows.

I finally finished a new quilt design.  My goal was to have it all done and the patterns ready to sell at the "It's a Gatherin'" show in Stover, MO on April 4th and 5th, but when I was invited to the I-80 shop hop in Iowa City, I rushed to get the binding sewn on, and brought the quilt along to the show and offered the pattern as a pre-order.  It is called "Dottie's Dashes".

As usual, it's not a good picture, but at least you get the idea.  I hope you can see some of the quilting if you enlarge it - Kym Ward from Reds Threads worked her magic on this.  I am always so impressed with everything she quilts for me - she does such great work!  I'm getting closer to being finished with writing the pattern and having it ready to publish.  Lots of people ordered it at the show, so I really need to get it finished!  Pattern writing is not my favorite thing, and I need to learn to write the pattern first, then make the quilt - but it never happens that way in my world!  Oh, and it really is square and not all wonky like it looks in this picture!  It's a fairly large quilt (72" x 84") and I was trying to just get a quick pic to show you, without rearranging my sewing room for a clear shot!  The "dark" fabrics are all from the Jo Morton line called Ember Reds and Evergreens and the "lights" are all from different lines from Primitive Gatherings.  Do you remember when I was begging for that black fabric?  It was to finish this quilt!  I had a half yard bundle of the Jo fabrics - which was obviously not enough for borders and binding.  The original plan was to use something that coordinated for the borders, but in the end, I really wanted the same fabrics for borders and binding that were in the quilt top.

Speaking of fabric designed by Primitive Gatherings - have you seen Lisa's newest line called Homestead Gatherings?  Oh my!!  When I saw that they had the pre-cuts in, my first thought was...well...Happy Birthday To Me!!  I ordered them right away and have been playing with them ever since!  Blacks, reds, greens and brown!  YUM!!  The red is so nice...dark...LOVE IT!  See the houses?  LOVE!

 Now normally when I buy these fun bundles, I can hardly stand to open them up and disrupt the perfectness.  But, I just couldn't help myself on this one and I cut into them immediately!  And the results...

Obviously, they aren't finished yet - but you can see the fun I had!  Really, really love these fabrics!

One more thing that I wanted to share...look at this adorable birthday card that I got from my customer and friend, Nancy B.  Obviously she knows me well!  Isn't it just adorable?

 See how everything pops up?  So cute!  Thanks again for thinking of me, Nancy!

And what's a post without a fluffy?  Well, it's just incomplete!  Ozzie likes to be close...sometimes a little too close...

And Callie just thinks he's weird (pot calling the kettle black!)

She's a little wide to be resting here, but she was happy.  Another reminder of why I buy lint rollers by the case!

Have a great weekend!