We walk past so much beauty.   This is the view of a picnic table on the grounds of the company where I work. It's just outside the door I use to go in and out of the building every day. This lovely sight greeted me the other morning. It was so pretty, so other worldly, I had to stop and take a picture. I wonder how many of my coworkers rushed past without seeing how special the scene was. I've sewn the binding to the Gardens of Our Imaginations quilt, so I'll be hand sewing that down over the weekend. I'll be picking up Awash in a Sea of Blue later today, and I can't wait ..read more

  The asterisk flower quilt, The Gardens of Our Imagination, has been quilted and I have chosen the binding. White was an obvious choice for the binding, but in the end I decided to go with the fabric I chose for the back. I wanted something with some color, but not too much. Now I can sew it down while I watch television. Lately I've been streaming Top Chef. I have watched every season since the beginning. so now I have been working my way through them again. All the angst is still there. The pink bird quilt, Yakkety Yak, is all squared up and the backing is ready. I'll bring it to ..read more

 In the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" department, I got bit by a bug on Friday while I was working out in the yard bagging leaves for the spring clean up. The problem is WHERE I got bit... It doesn't so much hurt as it is uncomfortable. I can see just fine and have no other symptoms. The swelling will eventually go down.  What's buggy (pardon the pun) is the effort it takes to keep that eye open and the fact that the nosepiece on my glasses rests on a swollen spot; so that is annoying. I've been putting cold compresses on the area. Do you know how uncomfortable THAT is?  A ..read more

This is my granddaughter in the Pink Dinosaur Seminole Dress.  Pretty sure she likes it.  Seeing these photos (and the others my son sent), reminded me of what his pediatrician said to me during one of his exams. "There's a little ham in this kid." Clearly it runs in the family ..read more

  This is the bodice of the dress I made for my granddaughter. I wanted to make a dress that featured Seminole Patchwork. But when I saw the fabric with the dinosaur eyes, I thought my granddaughter would be happy if I could include it in the dress. I sent the photograph to my California family. My DIL said my granddaughter said, "I think I might faint" because she liked it so much. This is the back of the dress. I really didn't need to have the patchwork panel on the back of the dress, but I didn't want to drop the ball. I added a band of seminole patchwork along the bottom of the s ..read more

  Now that I know the dress fits my granddaughter, it's time to make "the real thing." I'm cutting out the pieces. And I am "making" the fabric for the bodice. The bodice is lined so there is no need to worry about all these seams ..read more

  I ordered some fabrics to make a dress for my granddaughter. The dress will have a seminole patchwork band across the bodice and a strip along the hem. The fabrics are here, but the dress pattern has not arrived quite yet, but it is due soon. I am quite excited. Have you noticed the eyes in one of the green fabrics? They are supposed to be dinosaur eyes surrounded by dinosaur scales. Because OF COURSE, my dinosaur-loving granddaughter has her Memere wrapped around her little finger ..read more

  WAY BACK in 1988 or 1989, I made my son a pair of shorts and I incorporated a band of seminole patchwork, as you can see in the photo I took back then. I think my son was 8, and I'm kinda surprised he actually WORE the shorts, and not just to humor me. I have pictures of him at school wearing them. Anyway, I have long thought Seminole patchwork was sixteen kinds of awesome, and I still do. I think the shorts were pretty stylish then, and I think any cool kid would be happy with them now. It was super easy to insert a bit of seminole patchwork into a pair of shorts. It's always nice to ..read more

  I am quilting this small table runner to show as a sample in the new tutorial.  I have received comments from some of the people I have designated as my "editors." It is so interesting. Each person notices something different. All the comments I have received and been very good. Some are corrections about my grammar, some are suggestions about better photographs and sometimes I get suggestions to reorder my logic. In each case the suggestions or comments strengthened my overall concept. It's a lot of work, and a lot of thinking. It's challenging, but I know it's worth it. Way, W ..read more

 While I haven't got a specific retirement date in mind yet, it's coming. I've spent the last few months training Ben, a lovely young man, who will be taking over for me. I've pretty much taught him everything. Now I get to watch while he does the work. We all work in our own way, and there's nothing wrong with that. Except. In my very first job when I was sixteen, I worked in an office, and my job that summer was to be the backup for when all the gals in the office went on vacation. So I got to do a lot of different things. One day I had to stuff envelopes. But there were like 10 differe ..read more