Lead in The Holidays

I was asked to make a quilt for Leader Dog for the Blind, Lead in the Holidays silent auction to be held November 22, 2013. Tonight I finished sewing on the binding and attaching the quilt label. The quilt, called Ruff Around the Edges, was designed by Karen Brow, Java House Quilts. The dogs were machine appliquéd with Floriani embroidery thread. The custom machine quilting was done by Jessica Jones Gamez.

Demo day one

Today was the first demo day. Carpet was removed from the living room and master bedroom. Tile was removes from entry way and family room. The dust is just unbelievable.

Construction has begun

I have been thinking of redoing the flooring in my great room and master bedroom. The thought of doing such a huge space has always caused me to rethink the idea. In August, I was referred by a friend to Diane Drummond of Moon Valley Interiors and so the snowball started down the mountain. I think today is officially day one of my 2013 remodel experience. I survived and so did the girls. These last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind of decision making but I think that most the decisions have been. Now it is time to watch my home be transformed through the extraordinary efforts of Diane Drummond and my talented team of contractors.
Today, the electricians began cutting the existing ceiling to install can lights and ceiling fan.


Katie inspecting the work and Katie and Molly playing after being restricted from some of the house for most of the day.


Monday, the removal of all the tile and carpet begins. My plan is to keep you posted on the construction process.

Quilt labels

I have spent the last week, embroidering quilt labels on my Bernina 780, I always seem to procrastinate about making labels for my quilts, so I really had a lot of labels to make. So far I have finished 9 labels. Now I just have to sew all the labels on the quilts.

I used the Floriani Total Control Professional embroidery software. I am new to machine embroidery and embroidery software, so making these labels was a great learning experience for me.

Bernina Bonanza

I attended Bernina 830/780 Bonanza at the Bernina Connection. This was a two-day event where we worked on 2 projects. Everyone enjoyed learning embroidery pointers and winning prizes.

Friday night we made a pin cushion. We had a choice of doing embroidery or using the Bernina PaintWorks tool. I decided to make the embroidered pin cushion.


Saturday, we worked on the Melford Messenger Bag by Charlie's Aunt. A Bernina educator had adjusted the pattern so we could use some of the embroidery features on the Bernina 830 or 780. I did not finish constructing the entire bag but got an excellent start. The picture shows the embroidery I completed. The top left is the front flap, the bottom left is the front of the bag, right is back of the bag and lining fabric. Endless embroidery was used for the flap embroidery.

Bird Dance Blocks 1 - 21

January 2013, I started Sue Spargo's 2013 Block of the Month called Bird Dance. There will be 30 colorful birds blocks, each block is 6" finished. The blocks are made using hand dyed wools, linens, silk velvets, linen and velvet ribbons and rick rack. It has been quite a challenge to learn all the embellishing stitches, use new embellishing threads and re-learn needle turn appliqué. Needle turn appliqué is definitely not my most favorite technique. Valdani #8 perle cotton, sea grass, silken pearl, Razzle, Dazzle are some of the embellishing thread used for the Bird Dance blocks.

I have placed blocks 1 - 21 on my design wall in the order I think they will be in the finished quilt.

Madeline Island School for the Arts

I just returned from a fabulous week at Madeline Island School of the Arts in La Pointe, Wisconsin.
Five days with Sue Spargo exploring Contemporary Folk Art: Small Embellishment Studies. Sue is absolutely inspiring and generously shares her knowledge of wool appliqué embellishment.


I really got a good start on my Tree of Life, but there is still a lot of embellishing to complete. The tree, approximately 14" by 18", is appliquéd on silk Matka. My plan is to use my Dad's, John ( my brother-in-law) and Uncle Henry's silk ties, wool from John's sports coat, vintage silk which was purchased when my parents traveled to Japan in 1962 plus velvets from clothes sewn by Lucie and myself.