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I recently baked an apple pie in order to photograph it and make a block for my cookbook quilt (plus ~ it made Mike happy).

When I took it over to Shorehaven to share with Dad and Mom (who are still doing quite well), my Dad had a story to share. I made the pie in a plate inherited from my grandmother. Dad noticed the plate and asked if I knew how Grandma got it. I did not. He explained that back during the depression going to the movies was a big deal, and to get people to attend they had “plate night” in which each person was given a plate. He said they were the only nice dishes he ate off of growing up.

I found this information about Dish Night online: “Movie attendance plummeted during the hard times of the 1930s. Savvy marketers at Salem China and other potteries sold theater managers on the idea of giving away free dishes to women to attract viewers. “Dish Night” promotions were wildly successful, and Fiesta Ware was another type of dishes given away.” Dad added that it wasn’t uncommon for someone to drop a dish during the movie, and when they did everyone applauded 😂.

The contest I’m planning to enter my cookbook quilt in requires a traditional quilt block to be included in the design. After making the “food” blocks for my cookbook quilt I needed to start making the Dresden Plate blocks that I thought would make it even more interesting. So, while on retreat I made a few. They were cute,

but they didn’t look right on the quilt. Phooey! That left me with the question: “what traditional block should I use???” Nothing with triangles seemed to fit, and I knew it needed to be “simple”. Then it hit me ~ rows of four patches would make a checkerboard! Yes! I decided to frame the photo of Mom and me first. If you’ve read my blog for a while you know that when I have “duh” moments I sometimes share them so that others might be saved the same frustrations. Well – this ended up being a really “duh-duh-dumb” couple of hours: Since I chose the four patch as my block, I began making my checkerboard with 1 1/2″ squares.

After 4 hours and oodles of ripping it was done (and not as accurate as I’d wanted).

I went to bed disappointed in myself, and woke up realizing how foolish I was. Checkerboards are much easier to make with long strip piecing (DUH – I knew that!). So that’s how I did the top and bottom borders, and they were actually easier, fun, and much more accurate!

I placed them top and bottom onto the quilt and then hand appliquéd the framed photo in place. I chose to sew the binding on before stitching on the other appliqués, and was pleased with the results. Now it was time add a bit more quilting. The area around the photo of Mom and me needed something, so I copied a portion of the original design of the cookbook onto freezer paper, cut it out, ironed it in place, and quilted around it.

Because of the blue background fabric I left around each appliqué, it was easy to machine top-stitch them onto the quilt, once I figured out where to put them. I then photographed the quilt to enter it in the contest and that’s when I realized the red background needed more quilting. I had a wonderful time spiraling it all. Then it was done.

I couldn’t wait to show it to Mom and Dad ~ and they loved it! I gave it to them this past week and hung it in Mom’s room so they could enjoy it.

I’m so grateful they are still here to see it. Every moment with them is a blessing!

Way back in August I wrote a post about food quilts in which I challenged my readers to make a quilt for the “Food Glorious Food” competition being held at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah (click here to read that post).

Then Carol sent me the photo and story of her recipe quilt (click here to read that post), and I was inspired to take the challenge myself! I really wanted to make a quilt about my mom and our cookbook.

The beautiful red and white design on the cover would be wonderful as the background of the quilt. So I contacted General Mills and asked permission to place it on my quilt. Once that was accomplished I gathered  photos of our family from cookie baking days, put them all in a jpg image, and sent it off to be printed at spoonflower.com.

The fabric came back exactly as I’d imagined, even with the worn and taped portions of Mom’s cookbook in view. For this project I decided to add dark blue border strips (mom’s favorite color), quilt the background on the lines of the design, and add the appliqués later. This may sound a bit backwards, but I like to try different things.

Then I realized the quilt really needed food on it, so I decided to do a bit of baking, take some photos, and make blocks inspired by these treats (before everyone devoured them 😁). Mike was thrilled, as it meant I needed to bake some of his favorite desserts. The photos that resulted are at the top of this post. They were then repliquéd to make “the “food blocks”. This is the schaum torte in progress:

Next came the apple pie and fruit cake. Here’s all three food blocks done:

I used the same blue as in the borders for the background and trimmed it close to outline the appliqués. I then did the same outlining trick to the small photos I wanted to include:

At this point I needed to add a traditional block somewhere in the design per the quilt contest requirements. That was an adventure in itself ~ and it will be the topic of next week’s post. Stay tuned 😊!

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And one more thing…

The ThreadBenders challenge ~ “Achromatic” won an award in the AQS Ultimate Guild Challenge contest. The top 3 winning groups were published in the latest issue of AQ, and I thought you might enjoy seeing them all together.

It’s that time again ~ I’m stitching with friends at the Cattail Retreat house in Poynette, WI. And the Fall colors are lovely.

I missed this group’s last retreat due to moving my parent’s into senior care, so I was really looking forward to this one. As always the friends, food, and extra adventures were all great. On Friday we did a shop hop to Sandy Creek quilts and a fun alpaca shop. Out front was a crocheted bike! It’s not something you see every day.

A few of us also made a side trip to Madison to attend the grand opening of my friend Wendy’s new Sew Much More store.

It is big and beautiful! And so needed with the loss of JoAnns. They have everything a quilter could want!

And the classroom is spacious.

I know it will be a huge blessing to the sewists in Madison, just like their Waukesha store is to those in the Milwaukee area!

We also spent a lot of time quilting! It’s such fun to see what everyone is working on. Isn’t Mary’s quilt top yummy? I love her use of color gradation.

April was working on adorable puffin blocks.

While Laura accomplished some lovely hand work.

Judy is new to our group and she made blocks for a granddaughter’s quilt.

Sandy’s autumn quilt turned out sew pretty.

And Cathy’s is too!

I worked on a number of different projects. You’ll get to read about the main one in next week’s post. I also brought a hunter’s star lap sized top I’d started in Paducah. I wanted to do something unexpected, and had a bit of fun with a large polka dot gradation fabric jumping through the center.

The colors were chosen to go with the VW fabric on the left, but I’m not thinking it’s a good fit any longer. Hmm. I’m not sure what I’ll do next with it.

Quiltina and Quiltilly jumped into my suitcase and were happy to hang around and offer opinions.

While chippy (our mascot from a previous retreat) snuck in too. April gifted him a key she received in her goodie bag from Sew Much More. Doesn’t he look dapper?

It’s been a fun weekend, but our time together has come to an end, and I need to go pack up. Hope you’re enjoying the beautiful autumn colors!

As occasionally happens, I’ve collected a number of items to share that are unrelated, but I’m sure you’ll find them interesting. We’ll start with a quilt my friend Nina made for her grandson Corey. It was inspired by Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and she calls it Corey’s Neighborhood.

It includes Corey’s house, the neighborhood school, park, fire station, etc. Nina gifted it to him with some toy trucks. Adorable!

Then, Pamela found my blog while surfing the web for information about a Sunbonnet Sue quilt made by her grandmother.

“Hello-I was thrilled to see your post with the “Sunbonnet Sue” variation. I’ve been looking for the original pattern without any luck at all because I have a queen size quilt my grandmother made over  50 years ago with this same Sue block. I am now restoring the quilt-actually remaking it as the fabric in the rest of the quilt is deteriorating badly. It is basically useless now, but the Sue Appliques are perfect. She embellished hers with ruffled cotton eyelet lace on bonnet and skirt.  I have twenty one of them and am considering making two twin size quilts with ten appliqués each and will frame one block. It may take me a while to do this but I just have to preserve my grandmother’s handiwork. I’d love to share a photo with you, if you’d like to contact me at my email address.  Thanks again for posting-it was a kind thing you did for your friend!  Regards, Pamela”

I replied by telling her how lovely it was to know she desired to preserve her grandmother’s quilt in such a special way, and asked if I could share it. She was pleased and sent me a photo of “one of the few blocks that isn’t in tatters”. 

It’s the same block as the ones I put together for my friend’s niece (click here and scroll down in that post for Isabelle’s quilt story).

I’m looking forward to seeing Pamela’s quilt completed!

And I have one last story to share from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. At the end of the last day, after talking with Steve and LuAnn about their scissors holsters, I turned the corner in the vendor mall and met Kelly in the Sew Lite booth. Ever since I had trifocal lenses inserted during my cataract surgery last year, I’ve been able to see at all distances without glasses! It’s been a huge blessing. BUT… I need really bright light to read. The lamp on the table next to my chair is “almost” bright enough. So, I’ve been on the lookout for a better option. When I saw the very bright “XTV Versa™ Rechargeable Multi-Light” hanging from Kelly’s shirt I was intrigued.

There are two very bright lights at the end of the black wires. The flat metal pieces at the top of the photo on the right are a two piece magnet that holds the battery pack and lights to your shirt front. Just look at the difference it made while I was doing my devotions this morning. This is with the table light on and the Multi-lites off:

And this is with the Multi-lites turned on:

It’s spectacular! I’m hooked! And they are made in the USA!!! Click here to visit their website.

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And one more thing…

I was so encouraged to see Karen’s finished quilt in my previous post about the Carson Valley Quilt Guild, that it inspired me to share a few other encouraging moments I’ve had recently…

Patty emailed me a photo of a past project she finished, along with this message:

“I spoke to you after the Saturday Tips lecture at the Wisconsin Quilt Show. Mentioned that I’d taken a class from you many years ago in Oshkosh.  A couple of years ago, I found the quilt that I’d started and decided the time was right to finish it.  Turned into kind of a memory quilt – lace from a project I did for my brother, buttons from my Mom’s button box, lace leaves I made when I got my embroidery machine.  Everything that I had lying around the house waiting to be used brought back a memory.”

What an elegant art quilt! Well done Patty!

Also, a few week’s ago I presented my Modular Memory Quilts lecture to the North Shore Quilter’s Guild and did some reconnecting. As I began to set up I noticed Judy sitting in the front row with a friend. I was tickled when I read her name tag. Every Sunday morning when I post to my blog, without fail, a dear quilter comments with kind words of encouragement. It means a lot to me, but I couldn’t remember where I knew “Judy” from. And it was her! I was so pleased to have the chance to thank her.

My friend Nina (Corey’s grandma) was at the meeting too, and she’d brought a project for show and tell that she made in one of my Repliqué workshops 20 years ago. I love it!

So much encouragement. Blessing upon blessing. Thanks ladies!

I’d like to start this week’s post by thanking all of you for the comments, stories and kind words many of you sent after last week’s post about recipes! Amazingly – my Mom is still with us and filled with the joy of the Lord.

After sharing a number of posts about the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, I realized I needed to add one more. This one is about some of the people I met while there. It was delayed a bit because I was so excited to tell you all about my time in Nevada and Mom’s cookbook. Now the time has come and I think you’ll enjoy meeting these dear people too.

So here it is and the first person I’d like to introduce you to is Shweta Gupta. She was a student in one of my Paint Stick Appliqué classes.

Shweta was very intrigued by the paint stick techniques and asked many good questions during class. Afterwards she stayed to chat and I discovered that she has a child attending college in Madison. She told me she was thrilled to realize her trip to bring him to Madison coincided with the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. Shweta lives in Bangalore, India, and has a quilting business she calls Twinkle Quilt Threads. She told me that quilting is still not wide spread there, but she loves making, teaching and selling her work. Click here to find her on Facebook. I know you’ll enjoy it.

On Thursday evening Nancy Zieman Productions and PBS host a “Teachers Meet and Greet” each year. It’s a wonderful way to get to know others on the faculty and to find out what they’re sharing at the show. The snacks are always delicious. I love to mingle and talk with everyone. We were sitting around the outside of a large square of tables. Part way through my mingling this year I noticed three women sitting across the way. Two were actively chatting, but the other woman was sitting quietly looking around. I took the opportunity to join her and I’m so glad I did. I enjoyed listening to her Scottish accent as she told me that she did quite a bit of sewing in her life, but now she lived in Senior Living and didn’t have the desire to do it anymore. She said she loved to encourage others and she was at the show to assist her friend Joe Vecchiarelli who is a “fit specialist” and is known for his work with costumes on Dancing With the Stars (among many other things!). I was embarrassed to admit I hadn’t heard of him. At this point in the conversation he came over and Tania introduced us. He needed to talk with her about putting his dress forms (which he is famous for) in the classroom for the next afternoon. He was concerned about where the classroom was, and if he could leave them there. It was a fun moment for me because I was able to tell him I was teaching in that room in the morning, and they wouldn’t be in the way at all. I explained where it was and he and Tania left to make the move. The next day Joe’s dress forms were waiting for our class.

As the “meet and greet” came to an end we made our good-byes and she said “you may want to Google me. My name is Tania McKnight Norris”.

That night while Lori and I were discussing the adventures of the day, I told her about Tania and looked her up. WOW! She is an incredibly accomplished woman! She’s lived all over the world, her artistic and sewing talents are amazing, and her ultimate claim to fame was as a designer for Walt Disney. She worked closely with him on many projects for both Disneyland and Disney World. I found a recent Sew & So podcast on YouTube in which she was interviewed, and I know many of you will find it fascinating. It’s a bit long, but worth every minute.

In case you wondered about the creepy image at the top of this post, Tania designed this purple wallpaper for the haunted mansion!

What an interesting woman. The next morning before their class began I snuck in and asked Tania if we could talk for a moment in the hall. She agreed. I thanked her for telling me to look her up, and told her it was a blessing and a joy to have met her. Her response was very kind. We hugged and she even agreed to a selfie. What fun!

Now if that wasn’t enough… I have one more story to share. My daytime lecture this year was entitled “Problem Solving Tools, Tips and Techniques”. It came about because I’ve shared so many of these ideas on my blog over the years that I thought it would be nice to put them together in one place. The fun part was that I could include a handout with the lecture that provided the links to those items on my blog so the students needed only to mark the links they wanted to remember on their handout, and when they needed it in the future ~ it was there ~ and with photos! The lecture seems to have been a hit.

One of the tools in the talk is called Annie’s Scissors Holster. Annie is the granddaughter of the couple who owns Sew Very Smooth. She made this device on a 3D printer when she was eight (if I remember correctly). It sticks to your machine and holds scissors, snips and tweezers exactly where you need them (click here to purchase one for yourself).

I have one on each of my machines ~ and I love them. When I brought up the scissors holster in my second lecture, someone in the audience said “Sew Very Smooth has a booth in the show”. I’d not been able to visit the vendors at this point because of my rather crazy schedule, and I was thrilled to know they were there. I finally got to check out the vendors in the final hours of the show on Saturday. When I purchased my holsters a few years ago, I didn’t connect with the owners. So when I found their booth this time I tapped the holster on a machine and asked Steve if they’d been selling well, with a smile on my face. He looked up and asked “are you the one?” I had to laugh, and it started a fun conversation about Steve and LuAnn’s very creative grandchildren. This conversation wove through the topics of quilting notions, family (I shared about my Mom’s amazing improvement in her health since going on hospice), and faith. That’s when I found out that LuAnn had recently been through a difficult time with her health. We talked and then prayed for one another. And as the show ended she agreed to join me in what else? A selfie!

As we parted Steve and LuAnn gave me a sample of their Polish Kit. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure I’ll be telling you all about it in a future post.

I think you’ll agree ~ I met some very interesting people at the show this year!

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And one more thing! A while back I posted about needle threading (click here for that post). Jill sent me a photo of two interesting threaders she owns, along with this comment:

“My father’s Aunt had a sewing kit that I was lucky enough to inherit. She had to be born in the early 1900’s. These needle threaders were in her sewing things. They have advertisements on them so maybe they were free? Maybe some of your other quilting friends would know? They sure are a treasure to me! Thank you for your blog.” 

Wow! I haven’t seen any like this before. And the one from White Sewing Machines says “since 1876” and “American Made”. I did a bit of web surfing and found some available for sale on Ebay:

I learned that Needle threaders in Europe date back to the 18th and early 19th century. Thanks for sharing Jill. 

 

 

After sharing the story of my Mom’s cookbook in a post a few weeks back, Carol sent me a very interesting email:

“Just read your blog about your parents and life changes and I wanted to share with you this quilt that I made about 20 years ago.  I was lucky enough to inherit my grandmother’s recipe box that included recipes in her handwriting as well as some recipes that had been handed down from my great grandmothers.  My brother helped me scan and print them (he even cleaned up some of the stains on the cards).  I chose the quilt blocks, Grandmothers Favorite and Grandmothers Choice for the quilt. At the bottom of the quilt, I machine embroidered a limited family tree showing my relationship to the grandmothers.  This quilt hangs in my kitchen.  BTW the recipe Pork Cake is the old German Fruitcake recipe and it does have pork sausage in it and is very good (even though fruitcake gets a bad rap nowadays).“

And here’s a photograph of her beautiful, prizewinning quilt:

What a wonderful idea! She even sent close ups of some of the recipes:

As far as Carol’s grandmother’s recipe ~ I’m not sure I’m ready to put pork sausage in my fruitcake, but I’ll think about it 😁. Thanks for sharing your lovely quilt with us – and congratulations on your well deserved ribbons Carol.

I had to laugh when she mentioned fruit cake because I have a story to go with my Mom’s recipe for fruitcake:

Around 15 or 20 years ago my Mom was put on a medication that had some awful side effects. She became very depressed (which is not like Mom), and she lost her enthusiasm for everything. As Christmas approached I called her to talk about our cookie baking day. We always made all our family cookies together, but it was a tradition for Mom to make the fruitcake ahead of time (even though she didn’t like it). During the conversation she said she’d come and help bake but she didn’t want to make the fruitcake. I was bummed!!! I told her it was fine, but after hanging up the phone I banged my fist on the table and started talking to myself (a very selfish reaction 😔). I went looking for Mike so I could whine. He responded with “why don’t you get her recipe and make it yourself?” DUH!

So I called her back and asked for the recipe. It was an obvious effort for her, but she acquiesced. She seemed to be struggling to tell me the ingredients, and I figured it was because she wasn’t feeling well. I told her it could wait, but she wanted to continue. At one point she gave me a list of dry ingredients to mix together, and told be to add them alternating with 1 cup of any liquid. I asked what that meant. She said “whatever you want”, and I jokingly asked “chicken broth?” She laughed. Then I asked her what she usually used. Her response? “Oh I guess I mix a 1/2 cup of milk with a 1/2 cup of grape jelly”. To which I said “that’s not just any liquid ~ that’s pretty specific”. I wrote it down and have been making it that way ever since.

We love it! And fortunately my Mom was able to stop taking that medication, and a short time later she was Mom again.

Now for the humorous ending to this story. As I began to write out this post I decided to look up the recipe in Mom’s cookbook. Fruitcake was on page 142.

No wonder it was difficult for her to share her recipe over the phone! Virginia Walters had made just a few alterations to the original ~ 🤣😂😵‍💫 ! Mom’s cookbook is a treasure.

And, since many of you may not be familiar with Schaum Torte, I thought I’d share this recipe here. It is a favorite for everyone in my family. I remember Mom telling me my grandma would say: “when you think you’ve beaten the egg whites long enough, beat them for 1 more minute”. We always serve it with ice cream, fresh strawberries, and fresh whipping cream.

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I also want to share a Mom update this week. After 3 months of joy filled family time and ministry since Mom was first put on hospice, her body and mind are failing. She was placed in “end of life” care by her hospice nurse on Friday. Hospice is keeping her comfortable, and I know she is ready to be with her Savior. Thanks to all who have prayed and are praying!

Over the years I’ve found quilters everywhere to be warm, welcoming and wonderful ~ and the group I visited last week in Gardnerville, Nevada were especially delightful! What an adventure! This was the view from my hotel window on Saturday morning (quite different from Watertown 😊):

How did this come about? Well, Amy took my Seminole Sampler class in Paducah in 2024. When she and her friend Louise took on the Program chair positions at the Carson Valley Quilt Guild, Amy decided to invite me to be their September speaker. She is incredibly organized and puts her all into everything she does. She said she’s used some of the techniques from that class in recent quilts, and even put her class samples together into a top to advertise my workshop. Wow!

I usually make kits for that 3 hour long class so the students can make many sample borders, without taking up class time cutting strips. Amy asked if we could make it a 6 hour class, add a few different borders, have the students cut their own kits ahead of time, and (here’s the amazing part!!!) she volunteered to make kits for the students who didn’t want to make their own kits! How could I refuse?!? I put together cutting instructions and she and Louise made many of the kits out of their own stashes. WOW again! My kits are usually in the teal/lime/white range, but the samples in this workshop were all different – and the variety added to the fun!

As an interesting aside ~ prior to class Karen told me that she had taken my classes at WCTC when she lived in Wisconsin. She emailed me a while back to say she wanted to finish one of those class quilts, but she couldn’t find the instructions. I sent them to her and was so thrilled that she brought it to class for me to see. What a blast from the past! She said she enjoyed learning all the different methods of appliqué, and even hand quilted it!

Well done Karen! And a good reminder not to fret over having UFOs. Their time may come.

Karen was one of 24 quilters in the Seminole Sampler class, and as it neared it’s end I couldn’t resist having everyone line up with their favorite strip.

The really exciting part for me as a teacher was when many of the students brought them to Monday night’s lecture ~ and some of them were already sewn together into samplers!

WooHoo!

On Sunday I taught Architectural Repliqué. It’s a slower paced class with a lot of individual attention, and everyone did great.

Some of the “house” blocks made it to show and tell too!

On Monday Amy and Melissa had a happy adventure planned since my lecture wasn’t until 6pm. We drove through the mountains to Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful! First we stopped for a yummy breakfast at the Gateway Cafe.

And then we had a lovely ride along the lake. From the mountains in the background to the turquoise waters near the shore ~ it was breathtaking.

I thought you might enjoy learning a few facts about Lake Tahoe. It is the largest Alpine Lake in North America, and the second largest Alpine Lake in the world! It’s the second deepest lake in the US, with the deepest spot at 1645 feet deep. It contains 39 trillion gallons of water, is 99.94% pure, and the heat stored in it’s massive body of water compared to its relative surface area keeps it from ever freezing. Fascinating! We ended our trip with soup and ice cream at a small shop across the street from the State Capitol building in Carson City, and that night I was able to share my Quilt Tales lecture with the entire guild.

I’m so grateful that God has given me the gift of quilting. It’s taken me to so many wonderful places, allowed me to make friends around the world, and filled my life with joy! Thank you Amy, Louise, Melissa, and everyone at the Carson Valley Quilt Guild!

In closing I think you’ll enjoy this Nevada sunset. Beautiful!

In last week’s post you might have noticed that I’m drawn to hexagon quilts because two of the quilts I featured were based on hexagon blocks:

These were in the main exhibit. The special challenge at the show this year was to make a quilt with hexagons!

They were all fascinating, and these were a few of my favorites. “Hexagons are the Bestagons” used a gradation fabric to achieve a spectacular effect (and I love the name)!

I found this hexagon variation very creative and intriguing.

Who would have thought to make a crazy quilt with hexies?!? The stitching is wonderful!

And I think this one is just fun!

On another note ~ I had full rosters in all 3 of my Hawaiian Paint Stick Appliqué workshops (praise the Lord!)

This is a technique I came up with for the quilter’s cruise to Hawaii led by Wendy and me in 2019. We just didn’t have time for Hawaiian needle turn appliqué because we wanted to spend as much time as possible seeing Hawaii (click here for a related post). But we did have time for “PaintStick Appliqué” while on the ship and the response from our travelers was great.

So while coming up with a class idea for this year’s show this technique came to mind. I wasn’t sure how it would fit into the 3 hour class time and I was worried that the students wouldn’t get their block done. I was wrong. The first day everyone had completed their block in the first hour and 15 minutes!

They all seemed pleased,

but I had a brief moment of panic because the supply list asked the students to bring one 18″ square of fabric. What would we do to fill the rest of the time? Well…I had some samples of other things I’ve done with paint sticks. I showed them to the students and asked them what they were going to do to their block next. The response was amazing. Some of them took their original stencil and repositioned it:

Some did this with new colors of paint sticks.

The creativity was off the charts! I was impressed. So I called home that night and had my sweet husband bring me the rest of my rubbing plates. They were a hit!

Just look at what this dear quilter created in the Saturday class.

I always say that I learn more than my students while teaching. In this class I learned that sometimes the students just need time to experiment and discover their own voice. Thanks everyone!

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show was truly great this year in so many ways, and I read that they broke records for attendance! I think I still have one more post in me about the show because I met so many interesting people, but that will have to wait for a future post.

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And one more thing! I thought you might enjoy an update on my parents ~ it really is amazing and we’re so grateful for this time with them (to read their previous post: “Life Changes and the Quilts Go Along” click here). They are both doing well in their new “home”, and they love visitors ~ especially grandchildren!