More People To Love My Kids

You read about "blended families" and that kids having more adults to love them can be a wonderful blessing. Well, my kids have that, sort of. They have Honorary Grandparents. Don and Peggy have been close friends of my parents since before I was born. We celebrated Thanksgiving together for as long as I can remember. And as an adult, they loved to tell me what they thought of my various boyfriends that I would bring home for visits. One of my sweetest memories is when Don took me to lunch on the day I was to be married, after a painful broken engagement. He reached out to me on a tough day. Now when that anniversary comes around, I remember his kind gesture and our time together.

So when I was pregnant with our first child, Mike and I asked Don and Peggy to be Honorary Grandparents. Mike's parents are both deceased so this gave our kids two sets of grandparents and increased our extended family circle.

Don and Peggy are true grandparents. They celebrate all our major events and love and dote on the kids. It wasn't until the kids were older, that they realized that Gran and Gramps weren't actually blood relatives. When my youngest was in elementary school she wrote a little paper on how she had inherited her love and skill for painting from her grandfather. (His website is http://www.donaldfredericksen.com/).

So, this past weekend, Don celebrated his 80th birthday. I made this little quilt to celebrate. The photo was taken at my son's Eagle Court of Honor.


You just can't have too many people that love your kids.

Hoffman Challenge 2009

My Hoffman Challenge piece called Woodland Spring is done and on its way to Fort Collins, CO.

It took me awhile to be inspired by this year's Hoffman Challenge fabric. But finally, the idea for Woodland Spring surfaced. New leaves and blossoms are just appearing in the forest.
I used my Lazy Landscape for the background and my Graceful Trees design. Hot fix pearls made the sweet little blossoms.

Quilt Camp - Finally, Time for New Work

Just before Easter, I had the great fun of having 5 friends join me at my beach house in California for a week of sewing. We set up the family room, overlooking the ocean, with sewing tables, ironing boards and a cutting area.
We had a blast. It was one of my best vacations ever. I concentrated on UFOs and made this new piece here called Icelandic Poppies. I was inspired by all the California poppies that were in bloom.

Special Occasion Quilt

In late March we celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday. So naturally, I wanted to make a special gift to commemorate the occasion.

This simple piece features a photo of my folks, my brother and me, our spouses and the 6 grandkids. I had each of my kids write a sentence about why they love Papa. I free-motion quilted their words in the blue border.

I learned a lesson in making this small piece. I added the narrow black flange to the blue border before I attached it to the half-square triangle inner border. Duh, the flange covers up my near perfect points.

The Alliance for American Quilts: Quilters' S.O.S.

I was interviewed for the Alliance of American Quilts - Quilters' S.O.S. - Save our Stories as an artist in the Sacred Threads Quilt Exhibit. You can read my interview, by clicking here.

This picture is of my quilt, Miriam's Dance which exhibited at Sacred Threads in 2007.

New Work: Compassion

A dear friend of mine from church, Babette, went on a mission trip last summer to Rwanda. Knowing my love for quilting, she brought back this beautiful batik which I used here as the central panel. I added the black and half square triangle borders and then quilted it. I call this piece Compassion since she was on a trip with the Christian humanitarian organization called Compassion International.

Laptop Pattern For Sale

I am pleased to report that my first pattern is for sale! This pattern is based on the pre-cut 2-1/2" strips of Hoffman Bali Pops or any jelly roll collection. It is easy to make and adjusts to any size laptop.

You can purchase this pattern on-line directly from me, by going to my home page.

Carly Mul at Webfabrics.net also carries the pattern and you can buy the wonderful Bali-Pops directly from her website. Click here to see the pattern at Webfabrics.net.

For local Washington DC Quilters, Leslie Pfeifer at the Quilt Patch also carries the pattern in the store.

New Work called Punch Line: “‘Twas Me First Day With Me Hook”

My Fiber Artists @ Loose Ends group is exhibiting "Punch Line" at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, February 26-March 1, 2009. My piece is called “‘Twas Me First Day With Me Hook”




This inspiration drawing, shown above, was by my husband, Michael Ellis. My piece illustrates the last line of a famous joke about a pirate talking to a bartender about how he lost his eye.
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A pirate walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I haven't seen you lately. Last time you had both eyes.""Arrgh," says the pirate, "I was swabbing me deck, when gulls were flying over. I looked up, and one of them pooped in me eye.""So?" replied the bartender, "You couldn't have lost an eye just from that!"
"Well," says the pirate, "’Twas was me first day with me hook.”

Road to California - Hoffman Challenge

Mary Kerr sent me these pictures from the Road to California show. This is my 2008 Hoffman Challenge piece called Global Balance. Thank you Mary. It's exciting to see it among the other entries.

New Work Called Nothing on Earth

I made this quilt for my friend Dianne and presented it to her for Christmas. She redecorated a bedroom and asked that I make her a piece that would go with the new decor. The room is her son's bedroom when he is visiting from college. He is into music so I wanted to make something that fit his interests. The score is a piece written by my father called Nothing On Earth. It is based on Romans 8:28-39.

"Lord, you have called us, according to your purpose, and nothing on earth, or in all of creation, not fear or temptation, not want or tribulation can ever separate us, from the grace of your love."