Yosemite, the last leg of the trip and our Marvelous May Give-away!

The days have been bathed in sunshine and billowy clouds while we were in Yosemite! I haven't been there since I was a child and can't believe how beautiful it is! Many of the trails were paved so Jennifer and Chloe could hike with us much easier. Many of the other trails, although not paved, were hard enough for her to do a bit of off roading too! Chloe had all the squirrels barked out warnings everywhere we were and about drove her crazy! She would just shake when she saw them. It couldn't have been a nicer trip accept if my ankle wasn't hurt, but I did discover that just one Motrin in the morning made me feel so much better!

I also was able to grab some sketching time and enjoyed being able to lose myself in nature! Hope you all are safe and sound as I continue,like you, to watch the storms in OK and pray! Nature is so unpredictable! Last year at this time we were traveling those roads on our way to Kansas City, MO for market. I can't even imagine the horror and devastation those wonderful people are having to endure! . When donating your resources to help aid in there recovery remember to choose a reputable agency and send cash!

Since my WiFi service was so scattered and spotty I decided to include today in our drawing! Yeah, one last opportunity to get your name in to win big! I will be going back and gathering all the posts while I was gone and today's to add to my hat before drawing! Make sure to check out the blog in a few days for an updated picture of the basket!

Happy Memorial Day!! We are coming to the end of our Marvelous May Market Give-away!

As my excitement about market has played out and May is winding down so are the opportunities to win. We had a fantastic time working and traveling down the coast. We visited new places and saw friends and family! The weather was amazing and we never tired of our adventures! Dennis and Linda made our visit to The Redwoods even better! We are feeling so blessed. My mom and brother live in paradise, filled with flowers, antiques and green rolling hills close to the ocean! Enjoy some of the photos from our travels!

I want to remind everyone to keep commenting here and on FB to be entered into the drawing in June. You have until May 31st to be included. I also have a few more things for the basket but will have to post them later, once I get them unpacked!!

This Memorial Day I want to honor all the veterans that fought for our country! We are blessed and honored that we can call ourselves American. The grandkids all met at the Riverside National Cemetery to honor their grandfather we lost Jan 1,2012. We love you dad!!

Hillcreek Designs added some more fun! A huge embellishing button pack!

Hillcreek Designs is amazing, they do the button packs for many fabric designers like Nancy Halverson and Kelly Mueller just to name a few, oh and me! Janice and Janet were so excited when they showed me their embellished Lil Miss Cutie Patootie Panel from my new Gumdrops and Lollipops line. They added buttons all over the panel and it turned out so cute! Since they heard I had a panel in the basket they said they would throw in their button embellishment pack of buttons! You can always find all the button packs for everyones fabric on their website. Make sure you thank them!! Thank you so much Hillcreek Designs! We Love you!

Janice is showing us the button pack and behind her is the panel!! Yeah Janice!!

Market was Amazing!! What a wonderful time we had and Terri Degenkolb from Whimsicals added to our Basket!!!

Well Market in Portland was great, so many wonderful products, friends and new people to meet! I find its challenging to work my booth and get to go around and see everything but I did try to get by a few places to grab some goodies for our give away basket. I managed to see some of the beautiful quilts that were hanging.

Remember Sue Bleiweiss sent us the sketchbook and book well this is one of her quilts that I saw in Portland!! Beautiful Sue!!!

 We managed to find a cute Boston Terrier Quilt that was so adorable and made Chloe's first trip to market even more special. I decided that next market I am going to tie a sign to her back that says "follow me to booth...." LOL She won over everyone at the show and made lots of new friends and fans.

In the van and ready to go!

 She was perfect, always obedient and calm, most people were so impressed by how well  behaved she was! Convention Centers are not used to dealing with dogs but we never had any issues which helped take some of the stress off of us.

Terri Degenkolb from Whimsicals and I have been friends for a few years. We go back to the days when I was designing fabric for Red Rooster Fabrics. She still designs for them and has great fabrics and wonderful patterns for Hats, Bags and Quilts. Our booths this year were fairly close so I was able to sneak out and find her, just enough time to grab a quick chat and some photos!

 Make sure you go and visit her website at www.whimsicalquilts.com to see all of her amazing designs and patterns.   She also has a blog at http://whimsicals.typepad.com so you can follow her busy life of design!
Terri was so generous to you guys!! She not only sent her book but a bunch of her awesome patterns!! Thanks Terri!! We missed Tom and hope to see you both soon.

 My internet is still sketchy and we are in an amazingly beautiful place right now so hopefully my photos will load and I can share them with you next post! Make sure you comment here and on FB!!

Here's our basket!!

Some Fabulous Artist Transfer Paper from Lesley Riley!

Well I was so excited and thrilled when Lesley Riley and CT Publishing were going to send us something for our Marvelous May Market Give Away Basket!!  I am sure you have all heard of Lesley Riley, she is an author, served as contributing editor for Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine for 5 years and launched Lesley Rileys TAP Transfer Artist Paper.  This amazing product is a great way to transfer images to almost any surface!!

She is now a life coach for artists trying to find their artistic voice! She has chosen to use her many talents and experiences to mentor other artists on how to be successful. You can only imagine how thrilled I was that she would take the time to send us something for our basket with her busy schedule!  I was so excited when I opened the box to find not only some TAP, Transfer Artist Paper but also her book on all the wonderful ways to use it!! I had to take a look inside!!  Thank you so much Lesley.

 I am hoping to be able to attend one of her Red Thread Retreats someday soon. Check out her website for more information! I love reading her blog too! So insightful and I can totally relate. Praying your audit goes well, my heart jumped when I read about that! Thanks again Lesley!!!

Okay so here is our new basket!!!

Happy Mothers Day!!!

I know its just about over but there is so much I would love to say about this day. Where would we all be without our Mothers?  For me, I have such wonderful memories of my childhood and the special things my mom always did and continues to do for all of us. Its more than cooking and cleaning it is the endless hours of late nights when we are sick or the hand sewn beaded Barbie gowns I never appreciated, the long hours of laundry and cleaning up after me so I could run off and play. All that and so much more. My childhood is filled with memories of Christmas cookies and special music that allowed us to creep down the stairs to the awaiting gifts. The birthdays filled with my friends and my slumber parties with my mom telling us all scary stories all night. The hours of digging she did so I could plant an handful of pansies and take all the credit, all that and so much more.

I know that who I am today is largely because of who she was for me. Many of the things I love and hate were influenced by her ideas. The talent I have is a gift from her, that creative spirit, that free thinking part of her person that set her apart from all the other moms was passed down too. The rebel that I also became in certain things, breaking the mold of common and daring to be different. My appreciation for beautiful things and attention to etiquette details all became important to me because she instilled it at an early age. She came from nothing, poor and with nothing of value and built her own life through hard work and determination. She engrained a love of nature and gardening that runs deep in all of our veins, we all love to get our hands dirty.  None of us are afraid of hard work, knowing the lengths she went for each of us kids. There was never anything too hard, or expensive or unattainable if we wanted it bad enough and were willing to work for it. So many lessons I never knew I was learning at the time, shaping who I am today. She taught us how to do thing for ourselves and be independent, we often take on things that are far beyond us, but they happen. She would always say if you don't know how  to do it, fake it. She showed me how to love people, to love my family to give to others. It was not always easy but it is always worthwhile fighting out those mother/daughter conflicts during the teenage years. The years when you thought your mom knew nothing, to realize later she knew it all.

These lifelong gifts that we now own are invaluable as we pass then down to our own daughters and granddaughters.

Each mothers day I long to be with my mom, she lives too far to visit every Mothers Day since I try to go after Christmas but I always think of her, call her and celebrate the things she loves.

This year, the day before Mothers Day,for my sketchbook students, I had a Mother's Day sketchbook Tea Party. One women brought beautiful tea cups and saucers from her childhood another homemade cookies. We sketched things that reminded us of our moms and we ate and laughed and enjoyed the morning together talking about our moms.

I hope each of you can hold on too the good things that your moms brought to your lives. I know moms aren't perfect, but they are unique gifts that give of themselves to shape us into the women we have become! Happy Mothers Day to all of you!!

Some Beading Fun with Lyric Montgomery Kinard for our basket of goodies

Well things are really starting to move now, and our basket is loaded with lots of fun items that make me just want to start creating some beautiful things. When this is all over you will have enough things to start and finish some amazing projects!!!  Our newest item is from Lyric Montgomery Kinard. First let me say how I have always loved her name! What a wonderful thing to have something so poetic for a first name and something so unforgettable! Now add to that her unforgettable award winning art quilts and you will see why I am her number one fan! I have only admired Lyric for years until recently we have had the opportunity to kind of work together on the Sketchbook Challenge and the Art Box Project along with some other art quilt projects.  We have yet to meet in her person although I am getting to know her better via the internet! I can't wait until we finally get a chance to meet, maybe Houston!  Lyric is not only an amazing artist but she has written books, magazine articles and produced DVD's, she even has a Quilting Arts Workshop on surface design now available on DVD!! She is multitalented and is so generous with her gifts. Then add to that the fact that she is a full time mom to 5 children and it is simply amazing she does all she does!

This is one of Lyrics books available on her website!

When I approached her to see if she would donate to our basket she was excited to be able to send you all something! I hope you will make sure you go and check out her site and all of her quilts and product for sale, and while you are there make sure you thank her for her generous gift!! I really loved looking at her website she has so much content, not only does she have all of her publications  but she has a page of her artwork which is just so beautiful
!

So when I opened the box from Lyric I was so excited to see that she has sent us her DVD called "Bead it like you Mean it"!! Wow, thank you so much Lyric, and then she also added three postcards of her work for us to enjoy!

Wow!! I know what you're all thinking, how could it get any better than this!! Things just keep coming in that are amazing and will move your forward in your creative journey!!! Thank you again Lyric!!! 

Our Marvelous May Give-Away Basket just keeps growing!! 

More Goodies for you to check out!! This time its from my friend Jamie Fingal!!

Hi GF's, well as you can tell I am fighting with Randy for computer time these days. We do have other computers but my Mac has all my photos. He is busy working on last minute things and I am still sewing! LOL I didn't forget about you though, things are still arriving, I just received some very cool things on Saturday!  I told you that there was going to be so many wonderful items and they are going to be a nice mixed bag so you will get a wide variety of goodies in this give-away!

Some of my Fabulous Folded Bags and my new sign for my booth that I had printed at Spoonflower! 

The next item for you is from my dear friend and amazing quilt artist Jamie Fingal! Yeah Jamie!!! Jamie is an amazing artist, writer, teacher and friend. We met about 5 years ago and she has never quit inspiring me to reach higher and dig deeper in my art quilt life.  She also introduced me to Moo Cards, which I love and use all the time. They are a business card company that will print your photos on business cards, multiple photos up to 50. So it is like carrying around a mini portfolio. Here is her card she has included with a picture of one of her art quilts. 

Jamie recently had surgery and a bunch of her friends sent her
Valentines and get well wishes which I put together and delivered.
I was worried she was lonely but found she was being watched
very closely!

She is also a curator and curates shows through the Dinner at Eight Artists.  I have been honored to be invited to have my pieces juried for her shows and they travel the world, it is very exciting. She writes articles for Quilting Arts Magazine and has written a book too, wow, I know what your thinking, she is amazing! How does anyone do so much? Well I am not done yet, she also has a heart for philanthropy work and has a House Quilt Projects for returning Veterans. If you see her on Facebook you know she has a standard line, Whats for Dinner? She has a large following and now Quilting Inc is taking it one step farther and they have a contest going that will be shown in Houston, centered around

 Jamie' s daily question! Check it out on her blog.  Her bright art quilts and zippers are her signature style and she wins time after time with her innovative quilts. I hope you will check out her sites and blogs and maybe sign up to do a house quilt for a special veteran coming home from war and her Whats for dinner challenge! And now the drum roll please..... Her gift for our goodie bag is 2 packages of Misty Fuse fusible, one in black and one in white plus a Goddess Thermal Pressing sheet for appliqué! She uses these products in her quilts and loves them. Misty fuse keeps your quilts soft and does not leave that stiff feel often seen with other fusibles.  Please visit Jamie and thank her for her gifts.  Thank you so much Jamie for your generosity and for your wonderful addition to our goodie bag!! 

Remember, for a complete list of the rules and details check out  the tab at the top called Marvelous May Market Give-Away!!! Our updated goodie basket picture will be posted there also!! 

Update on our basket giveaway with Kelly Mueller from Wooden Bear and my preparations for Market

Hi GF's, so sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I have been cramming to finish my pattern book so I could get it off to the printers in time! Wow, I have a lot more respect for book authors and pattern book authors, that was hard work!! Designing, sewing, writing, layout, blah, blah blah. It is much more work than I thought it would be! One morning, around 4am I told Randy I didn't think we were going to make it and he almost had a melt down (for Randy) and said, I am not going through all this to quit now! so two days later it was sent! Phew, and we are still married!

I have so much to share with all of you and in an effort not to throw it all out there in one day I am going to break up all this good news into several posts. I don't want you to burst with excitement!!

First of all I wanted to let you all know how fun it has been getting deliveries everyday for your virtual gift basket. Remember, you have to comment on my blog or FB pages to be entered. I have been dropping your names into my jar which I will show you soon. Also please share this with your friends so we can get others involved in the fun!! All the details and information are on the Marvelous May Market Give-away tab on this blog! I am adding the goodies as they arrive and will be updating the photos.

Lil Miss Cutie Patootie loves to open all the goodies coming in!

Our next item is from Kelly Mueller of Wooden Bear. Kelly is amazing, talented and sweet and she was the first to be featured on Fons and Porters new TV show called Quilt with the Stars! When you go to the Fon's and Porter website link scroll down to the bottom of the page to see her interview, studio etc! Yeah Kelly, a TV star now too and she looks so cute.  She is down to earth and if you can't tell yet, I love her! She has been a constant source of knowledge, information and encouragement for me as I have labored through my first book. Kelly has written several books over the past few years and has it down to a science. She not only writes a pattern book but she designs fabric for Red Rooster Fabrics. Check out all her fabric lines on Red Roosters website.  Her books and fabrics go together and her wonderful whimsical characters are always popular and collected.

When she heard about my giveaway she was more than happy to send us something special for our basket. She sent you her newest book called "Happy Harvest". This is her largest book so far and filled with fun projects and quilts just for you! She also sent her Happy Fall magnet (she makes herself) from her artwork, plus I had an extra panel from one of her fabric lines I thought I would include too!

Thanks Kelly for your addition to our Give-away Basket!!

 I hope everyone will go to her website called "The Wooden Bear" and check out all the goodies she sells. Books, fabric, accessories, tea towels and lots more. She also offers lots of free stuff you can download and enjoy. Kelly is always generous like that! You could also send her a thank you for her gift, I am sure she would love that!

So here is our basket so far, slowly filling up with some wonderful things. I will have updated photos on the giveaway tab at the top as I add to our basket!

Yeahhhhhh