Today’s the first day of my four day "staycation!" Dick (my husband) is taking a group of our co-workers to Cincinnati, Ohio, to be in our booth at the Original Creative Festival at the Sharonville Convention Center. (We’ll also have a booth at the Shipshewana Quilt Festival the same time.) We have great people helping in those booths, so if you’re going to either show, be sure to stop by and see them!

Meanwhile, since we have just one car (most of the time Dick and I are going to the same place, since we work and live together, so we don’t really need a second car) I’m home here with the cats, the computer, and the sewing and quilting machines! Much as I love Dick and sharing our lives over the last 41 years, I’ve looked forward to eating when and what I please, doing what I want when I want to do it! My drawback is that our 19 year old Beethoven is on Dick’s lap most of the time he’s home, so Tovey will be wanting me to just sit back quietly and provide a lap, and that’s not something I do very often.

Here’s our bay window view of the bird feeder. Although birds visit, I’ve kind of decided this is really our squirrel feeder! The other day I discovered where the seed went so fast! The cats enjoy this view, too. They used to scare the squirrels, but the squirrels now realize there’s a window between them, so they just stare them down now.

One night I was able to get a photo of the night crew! There were actually three of these little bandits. I grew up with a critter-crazy father and we had everything from raccoons, skunks, alligators, opossums, foxes, and chameleons, to dogs and birds. My second grade class came to our house for a field trip! We never had cats and I wondered how people could live with all the fur… until we had one kind of imposed on us (to help our son) and Dick and I fell completely for his feline charm, and that was the beginning. Now our house is as much the cats’ as ours.

Anyway, I have several projects here to choose from. I finished quilting our "Peace" wallhanging (44448 ) in time to go with the gals to the quilt show, so my Handi Quilter frame is waiting for my Autumn Trails (53058). I’m working on the side panels, so that’s one thing to work on.

I also want to start the fabric from the Design Magic line for my next Margo handbag. (59135) I’ve chosen the Fractured X stencil, 59315 and of course there will be purple in it somewhere. Paintstiks need 4 days to dry, so I’ll only get the stenciling done while Dick’s gone.
I have my fabric chosen for my Triple Expresso. I’m doing Shake Rattle and Roll 59284, with purple, green, and a cream with purple and green dots. I think I want to do a class with this pattern in the fall.

I’ve been waiting for Star Crossed Love to come in since we saw it at Quilt Market last fall and it’s finally here. It uses the wonderful hand dyed fabric from Starr, like what I’m using with my Autumn Trails. Star Crossed Love uses the Hunter’s Star tool that I’ve already used with two other projects. This quilt will be so much fun to quilt!

All the sizes of the Leaves Galore Templates are in now, so I could work with them too. (59787) I’m going to do a variation on Melissa’s Quilt.

It is s’arting to look like this 4 day staycation needs to be a 4 month staycation!! I’d better end this now and get going!

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I’m really enjoying carrying my Margo Handbag! (59135) I haven’t made a purse in a long time, but I needed a new one, and thought this would take less time than shopping for one.

I loved making it, and especially like the way Lazy Girl has you square off the corners, and how you put in the recessed zipper, and the lining… well I guess it’s just a great project!
Here is mine finished, as in the directions.

Here’s the zipper pull I added. (37410)

Then I got to thinking that I might want to add a tab and a magnetic closure for times I don’t want to zip the handbag closed. And the fabric I chose looked kind of bare compared to the photo on the pattern. So here it is with the tab added.

I drew lines here in black so you can more clearly see how I attached the button (26810). (The magnetic snap is on the other side of the tab.)

This one is a little smaller than the purse I replaced, but between the pockets in the purse and the Pockets To Go (59148) that I added, I was able to organize everything and it’s wonderful. So much easier to find things than before. (To make the Pockets to Go for the Margo, you need to make it 2” smaller in the length.)

I loved making this purse, and next I’m going to make another one using Paintstiks like Shelly Stokes did, but of course mine will be purple. The technique is described in the new book, Design Magic. (59305)

Although it was less than two weeks ago, spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis seems like the distant past already. Since we got home, we got the kitties used to having us back, had two sewing club meetings and two embroidery club meetings, finished two newsletters and almost got caught up with the mail and email!

My husband Dick, daughter Cathy, and my “other daughter Cathy” (daughter Cathy’s assistant ,who also helps me with the New and Noteworthy columns in the newsletter) and I all went to market. It’s the place we go to twice a year to guess at what you’re going to want us to have in the store, and spend lots of money on new fabrics, patterns, and tools. (Cathy said she only ordered about 1,000 bolts this time!) Although I had to spend one day in the hotel working on the newsletter to be sure I’d meet my deadline, I saw all kinds of projects and products to get excited about.

Here are a few photos.
This is Angie Steveson from Lunch Box Quilts. I discovered her at a convention a few years ago, and we’ve loved her embroidery collections. One of my favorites is Everything Baby, but her Halloween Fun Quilt was fun, too! Look at this wonderful one for fishermen! It will be in the store shortly.

We got Larisa Bland’s book, Piece in the Hoop, in the store a while back, and I was delighted to see that she has more than the book! She has a large selection of embroidery collections, and I came home with big bags of them for our embroiderers. Be sure to take a look at them.

Sue Pelland was demonstrating her rulers for cutting leaves or petals, and I knew I’d have to make a quilt from this fantastic new tool. I could only carry home one size ruler and the pattern, but we have more on the way. With her ruler, it’s so easy to cut dozens of these shapes, with fusible on the fabric, then fuse them in place for raw edge applique. When I get a few models quilted for our upcoming quilt shows, I’ll be starting a project with the Leaves Galore rulers. (59219) The Quilter’s Chalk Line will be a big help keeping the lines straight, too.

You can always see what’s new on our website by clicking on “New Items” on the left side of any of our pages. Our web gal, Cheryl, puts them up as fast as she can, and lots of goodies pour in after shows like this, so we keep her really busy!

(To find the item on our web page after clicking on the link, hold down the “Ctrl” key and touch F. Enter the item number in the box, and you’ll be taken to that item!)