Summer Quilts and Lessons Learned

Part of the joy of spending summers in Chautauqua, New York, is listening to lectures. So many lectures! This week we’re exploring health care. Today, for instance, I learned about new research into mental illness, a particular interest after spending time working with patients in a mental health center years ago. This afternoon I’ll attend…

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Why I Love Quilt Shows

In a dead heat to finish No River Too Wide, and instead of blogging I thought I would share photos of Quilting Around Chautauqua this past weekend. I signed books at the Millcreek Sewing and Fabric booth both days. When I wasn’t signing and talking to my fabulous readers, I had a chance to see a…

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Something Old, Something New, and Not Just for Weddings

I am endlessly fascinated by feedsacks.  I don’t mean the burlap variety farmers use for hauling hen house manure, or the ones the foolhardy leap into for Fourth of July sack races.  I’m talking about cotton feed or flour sacks adorned with cheerful prints that were designed to be emptied, washed and used for quilts or clothing.  The practice…

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We Interrupt This Blog for a Short Commercial Break

One of the reasons I’ve so enjoyed writing the Shenandoah Album novels has been the chance to design quilts with words.  Never mind how hard they are to actually construct.  I can sew my quilts with sentences, choosing colors I love and imagining the result.  Early on, of course, Leisure Arts blessed me with real quilts…

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Still Crazy After All These Years

Are you participating in the block of the month project I’m doing with Pat Sloan?  Are you considering participation?  Or are you simply interested in what quilters do?  Then read on.  If not, there are lots of blogs below this one to entertain you while I show the block of the month participants how to…

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Weaving The Story of Women

I promised another side of Guatemala, one of the most multi-faceted places I’ve yet to visit, a country so visually extraordinary that there were few moments when somebody on our trip wasn’t snapping photos.  Since only the men in my family seem to have the photography gene, my photos pale in comparison.  Yet even I…

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I Am Quilter, Hear Me Roar!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. . .  Shhh. . .  Come closer.  You can make a quilt.  Yep, YOU.  Okay, so you’ve never done it before.  Well, everybody had to start somewhere, right?  And I’ve got just the place for you to begin.  One block a month.  That’s all you…

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