Where We are Published: Quilts and More Spring 2020

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Have you been to the news stand lately?  If you have you might have seen this…It is the Spring 2020 Edition of Quilts and More.
The cover has lots of fun spring like projects and if you jump to the inside, you’ll see this…Our quilt!


This was such a fun quilt to make.  I have scrap buckets that are organized by size.  I pulled the appropriate sized, opened it up and started to sew.  I had a little help with this one.  Kelli and Kalissa were in on the sewing too.  We actually made it sometime ago when Kalissa was still in high school.  She wasn’t the best seamstress.  Quarter inch seam allowances weren’t her friend…but with this quilt, it was okay.  No seams need to match.  In fact, this is one of the easiest quilts a beginning quilter could make.

I made it in rainbow colors but it would also be great as a three color quilt.  If the person you are making the quilt for is a Minnesota Vikings fan, you could easily alternate starting with purple in the middle then white then a band of yellow.  That would be really fun.

You can see that we put a scrappy teal binding on to finish it off.  It was a great way to use up even more scrap.

The idea to make this quilt struck me when I was taking a shower.  Seriously, I was thinking it would be nice to make a scrappy quilt that was easy for beginners and this popped into my head.  It’s fun too as there are no traditional blocks.

They did an awesome layout in the magazine.
I love how they did a close up of the bands so that you can see the variety of prints.

When I designed this, Kelli said to me, “There is no way I will sew that quilt.”  I was confused by that and asked her why…It was and “easy” quilt.  It would go fast.  Why wouldn’t she want to sew it?

That’s when Kelli said to me, “Mom, think about it.  It’s like adding borders on borders on borders.”  I guess she’s right.  That didn’t bother me though.  It did bother her.

Here is the project they did as the alternate colorway project.  I love it.  Don’t you? Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Help and a Follow Up

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When people ask questions, at times I think all of you might like the answers as well.  That’s when I answer the question here on the blog.

Today I was hoping maybe on of you blog readers could help answer this from Gail.

“I found you online and was hoping you could help me with a problem.  I have a quilt I made when I first got my embroidery machine. I have it hung on my wall in the spare bedroom and  have included a photo of the problem block.”

“The problem is that some time ago I was making my own room deodoriser (which I don’t do anymore) and have noticed that there are what look to be oil stains on one of the blocks. I think I must have accidentally sprayed the deodoriser on the quilt, and as it included fragrant oil, I’m assuming this is what the stain is. Do you have any advice as to how I can remove these stains without damaging the quilt? The stains have been there for some time now I think and the only good thing (if there is one) is that it is never handled and appears to be on only one block. I have read that Dawn dishwashing liquid could work, but we don’t have it in Australia. Somebody said that Fairy, which is sold here is the same.”

Does anyone have any suggestions for Gail?  If you do, please leave a comment in the comment section and she’ll read them there.

I’d also like to give you a little follow up on this quilt… Continue reading →

What I’m Working On…

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Last week was busy so not a lot of sewing happened during the week.  Kalissa and Craig were on vacation and I had their dog Betsy.  She does not like Rosie.  She snaps at her in a way that is not playful.  It’s a very defensive snap that makes me really nervous.  I had to kennel Betsy upstairs and Rosie downstairs.  That was the only way I could make it work.  It’s weird because Betsy liked Ruby. She likes Puppycat.  I don’t know why Rosie is such a trouble to her.

I went to my great nieces basketball games one night.  Two of them played and both of them did an awesome job.  One is a senior, the other a junior.  It’s hard to believe they are so grown!!  The game was an hour away so there was no sewing that night.

I’ve been behind writing blog posts so a couple nights were spent trying to catch up..again no sewing.

Friday I finally got sewing time.  This is how far I got on Sunday night.

I started in on the other half on Friday night.  I sewed and sewed until I realized that I was short on block and one setting triangle. AH!!! So frustrating!!  It was 10pm and I decided to just be done and I’d deal with it the morning.  I can piece way into a night but I can’t bring myself to make all the pieces of for a block or anything else that requires much thinking.

I went upstairs and on a whim, I checked the sewing room.  YAHOO!!  There was the block and attached to it was the setting triangle I was missing.
Saturday I woke up and immediately started sewing.  I had this little helper….

…and this company. Continue reading →

It’s been five years….

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It’s been five years since this happened.  Our daughter Kelli and I had our book published by Kansas City Star.


It was a fun adventure that didn’t pay off for us in ways that we expected.

We had hoped that we would launch ourselves into the quilting world in a big way and that didn’t happen at all.  Our book was dead on arrival.  Not due to us.  Not due to the designs.  Instead due to circumstances beyond our control.

Many of you likely don’t know but back in January of 2015 we were told our book was being printed and would be released and we would get our shipments by the end of the next week.  We were excited and anxiously waiting.  We had all sorts of plans.  Kelli was coming home.  We were going to have champagne.  We were going to surprise those of you who pre-ordered with a book in your mailbox several days early.  We were on cloud nine.  Tuesday of that week rolled around and we were sent an email telling us that Kansas City Star, our publisher, was closing their quilt book division.  WHAT?? What did that mean?  What was happening with our book?  We no longer wanted to celebrate.  We wanted to cry instead.  Here one of the biggest days in our life was just dead on arrival.

Our book was later picked up by C&T Publishing but in the transfer, our book fell between the cracks.  C&T didn’t promote it.  Kansas City Star closed and left our book behind.  It was the worst timing ever.  We asked for C&T to promote it but the timing was completely off.  They already had their roster of books they were promoting.  It’s no fault of either company…just a terrible luck of the draw.

We kind of lost our push to do more in the quilting world about that time.  We realized we loved home and whatever we did, we didn’t want to travel.  We didn’t want to promote.  We’re home bodies and we wanted to stay home…so in the end, it really was okay that things happened like they did.

We were allowed by the company to sell our designs from the book to magazines if we wanted as they “dropped our book” from promotion.  We were encouraged to write another book….we’ve thought about…look, we have designs that would would make another book.

Ruby-1
But our heart isn’t there.  Kelli is busy with Georgia and her family.  I’m chasing childcare kids and grandkids…plus you all would be a little sad if I took time off of blogging and threw myself into writing another book.

So…we dabble.  We write patterns for the magazines.  We can do one at a time and concentrate for a short period of time and then put the projects away.  That works MUCH better for us and our lifestyle.

That said, here are few designs from our book.


My favorite from the book might be this next one…. Continue reading →