Have you all been over to Park City Girl to see the virtual quilt show!  It’s amazing.  She’s asking everyone in blog land to post about their favorite quilt–and there are over 500 up on her site already!  A virtual quilt show.  How fun.  

Now asking me to choose my favorite quilt is a bit like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.  I’ve agonized over this since last night.  I considered my Lewis and Clark Redwork Quilt, the Anna Lena Quilt (Dearest Brother) and many others, but, in the end, it has to be Butterflies in My Garden.

It was VERY early in my quilting career that I made this quilt.  I took a class from Constance Rathfon at The Stitchin’ Station in Astoria and learned how to make the butterflies.  I put it together with my own setting and when I got my first Gammill quilting machine, it was the very first quilt I put on and quilted.  I tried a variety of things on it and it really turned out nice.

Thanks to Amy for the virtual quilt show.  You might also want to check out the posts at My Quilt Village.  The group of shop owners/designers who have that site have been posting about their first quilts!  This was my first quilt.  You can read all about it here.

Peninsula Quilt Guild Show

As always, the Peninsula Quilt Guild Quilt Show was a huge success again this year.  The ladies of this guild put on a terrific show–and the members include some very talented quilters.  I was delighted to be asked to post photos of the winning quilts.  This is a non-juried show, but the public votes for their favorite quilts in three categories–Small Quilts, Medium Quilts and Large Quilts.  Here are this years winners.

Small Quilts

1st – Becky Olson – Hawaiian Vacation on a Budget

2nd – Carol Osterholm – Life Is Good

3rd – Beverly Wakeman – Kitchen Quilt

Medium Quilts

1st – Insanity – Lynda Newell

2nd – Pink Texas Star – Lynda Newell

3rd – Kismet – Lynda Newell

Large Quilts

High Desert Poppies – Lynda Newell

Surprisingly Red – Lynda Newell

Chuppah – Dale Owen

Congratulations to all!

I’ve known about Project Linus for years, but have never been directly involved with it.  Today I got photos from Judy J in Sedro-Woolley.  Can you believe this!?!

Her quilting friend Teri B (who, I might add, is a friend of my sister’s ever since they both went to ITT Peterson School of Business in Seattle way back in 1974!) is chairman of Project Linus in Sedro-Woolley.  Last Sunday the had a blessing of the quilts at Bethlehem Lutheran Church.  They blessed 324 quilts.  After the blessing, the quilts are given to Project Linus.  All I can say is BLESS THEM!   

Oh, and I must tell you that the population of Sedro-Woolley is only 10,000!

The best gifts are unexpected!

It’s amazing how people touch your life.  When I had the store, I hosted about 8 retreats a year, with about 20 people attending each retreat.  That’s a lot of fun and a lot of friends.  Last fall there were a few ladies from Central Oregon at one of the retreats.  They were lots of fun, but, hey!, they were quilters.  What do you expect!?!  Among them was a sweetie named Peggy from Wamic, Oregon.  Now I like to think that I know my Northwest geography, but I wasn’t familiar with Wamic.  I was told, however, that it’s near Maupin.  So, that cleared things up.  I was also told that it makes Long Beach look like a big city!

Last week, I received a small, plain-brown-wrapper package in the mail.  It was from Wamic.  It was from Peggy!  Well, I tore right into it, and, lo and behold, out fell two beautiful, handmade gifts.  One is a pincushion and the other a tiny wallet.  I LOVE them both!  And, they’re made with my Daisy-A-Day fabric line!

Now, I don’t think Peggy had any way of knowing that I’ve been coveting this shape pincushion for a long time.  I’ve bought a couple of magazines with patterns for this style pincushion in them, and even an $8.99 pattern for a pincushion like this.  Surely, I thought, I could make one.  But it looks HARD!  I’m not real good at stuffing things.  So, I haven’t tried.  But here, courtesy of Peggy and the US mail, I now have one!  Oh, I shall treasure it!

And the tine wallet is a real charmer.  It’s got lots of room for credit cards and cash.  It, too, is made with Daisy-A-Day fabric.  It’s going right into my purse, and I know I’m going to love using it.  And every time I pull it out, I’m going to think of Peggy–and Wamic–and how the best gifts are a total, unexpected surprise.  Thank you, Peggy.

Footnote:  I knew I liked Peggy when I first met her at retreat, but I like her even more now.  No, not just because of the special gifts, but because of this note that was included with them.  “Sorry–I thought I mailed this in November.  Found it in my studio.  Does that tell you anything?”  Yup.  It tells me that Peggy and I have a lot in common!