"Always Smoke Free, Mostly Pet Free"

That's what it says at the bottom of my business card.  And this is why...

When we rescued Dash, he decided I was his person. Initially, even Dennis wasn't enough for him. Now, however, Dennis is good and so are our neighbors and good friends, Don and Annie. That means, we can actually go somewhere and leave the dogs with them rather than always having them in the car. What freedom...we can do overnight things again!

Dash is pretty good about staying on the rug...pretty good. I don't have the heart to make him stay out of the studio or shut the door, so he's my "mostly pet free."

Dory

Alaska 2007 Shop Hop Quilt

Isn't this a great quilt?? Lyn is going to enter this in her local quilt show in July.

I'm working away on it and will soon have some fun stuff to show you. Its taking me a bit of time though...so stand by.  There will be quilting pics soon.

Just to pique your interest a bit, here's a shot of the sashing and border I took, so that when I get to the bottom, I can remember what I did. Thank goodness for cell phones and digital cameras!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Dory

...and We're Back

We left mid-morning on Wednesday, heading for Quincy. By the time we reached Eugene, Dennis had had enough of driving in the pouring rain so we spent the night at a Motel 6. We were up and on the road early with the goal to arrive in Quincy in time for me to attend the monthly meeting of the Quincy Crazy Quilters.

We made it and I had so much fun at the guild meeting catching up with friends and customers. In fact, when I left, I had three customer quilts to bring back with me.

Friday it was still pouring, so we used that day to run our errands. We drove to Genesee and delivered hats that Dennis had embroidered for Sierra Rescue, then we continued on to Chester where I picked up three more quilts from two new customers.  I'm so loving the fact that even though I've moved, my formerly local customers are still using me. They've all become my friends and I don't want to lose that.

Friday night was dinner at Pangaea with friends. Dennis has embroidered their logo on sweatshirts and screen-printed it on hoodies.  They're great people and they make a lovely Spicy Salmon Chipotle Burger!! (Can you tell what I had??) Saturday it stopped raining and was beautiful out.

 We loaded up

and headed into town for dinner with friends. We got back home to the power being out and woke up Sunday morning to snow.

The scenery on the way home included the Craggy Mountains just out of Yreka.

 And Mt. Shasta

We were entertained on the way home by the many positions Dash took trying to get comfortable. He was good for quite a few laughs!

Its good to be back! The sun has been shining brightly and I've been trying to take advantage of it between working on taxes and quilts!

Dory

Travel Day

Dennis and I have an agreement: Any trips to Quincy must be done during Guild week so that I can attend our meeting. We decided last week to go down on Monday (day before yesterday) to pick up our tractor, meet up with my sister and go shopping for a love seat to match our couch, and then head back north before his kayak class on the 23d.  Then the rain came; then the snow came...and here we are, still in Sequim.

We decided to put the trip off for a day, but then we saw the picture from the weather cam at the summit of the Siskiyous. It was snowing so hard you could barely see any vehicles. Now we're leaving two days later than planned, but I'll still make our guild meeting.  Luckily, the summit looks like this today, so we should make it over without an issue.

Of course, we had planned to be leaving Sequim by 7 this morning...its nearly 9 now. Best laid plans and all...

Dory

A Beautiful Morning with Pony Kisses

Yesterday was so cloudy, our satellite didn't even work for awhile. It was literally as thick as pea soup, as the saying goes.  This morning, though, it is beautiful out.

This is the view from our living room of the Olympic Mountains...I never get tired of looking at them.

And, as promised...pony kisses from the girls: Kate on the left and Emma on the right.

Dory

A Pretty Nine-Patch

Does this fabric look familiar? It will if you've been following my blog.

Barbara sent this Nine-Patch up to be quilted and wanted it to match the quilts found  here.  Luckily, I take detailed photos of all my completed quilts prior to returning them or I'd be in trouble. I did a fun little design in the actual nine-patch blocks that turned out great, was easy to do and required no marking.

Here is a  photo of the back. Barbara used muslin on the backs of all these quilts, so they're almost as much fun as the tops!

Tradewinds

Isn't this quilt beautiful?

 It is my second Tradewinds quilt and I love this pattern! It used to be a free pattern on the Hoffman Fabrics site, but not anymore. However, I did a little searching and found the pattern here, if you want to make one of your own.

I love the secondary pinwheels that are created by the placement of the background fabrics. Can you see them?? Here are some close-ups, including one of the borders where I did a meandering feather pattern.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Dory

Word Verification...UGH!!!

For those of you that have tried to comment and are asked to verify the almost illegible words that Google blogger pops up with, I am sorry!!

After searching around FOREVER (okay, so maybe it was only an hour or so...but it felt like forever!), I've been able to turn that off.  Comment away...in fact, feel free to comment away. At least that way I know I'm not "talking" to myself!!

Dory

The Sequim Studio

My studio is done!!! Its lovely having my own space, especially being right off the house. We've converted the garage and if we open the door to the studio when we leave in the morning to work out, by the time we're home its lovely and warm. I also have an  Eden-Pure heater that keeps it warm and is quite efficient. However, I'm not sure I'm buying their claim that it will heat a 1000 square-foot area; but it does fine with my 300 square-foot area.

My first quilt was done in here.  It was cold and dark and made me really miss my yurt!

But now I get to quilt in here! We put in a wall that leaves Dennis all of about 10 feet at the front of the garage, where the main door garage door is. I have the back two-thirds of the garage with a view of our backyard and the pond. This picture sort of gives an overview of the whole room.  My plan is to make a long quilt to hang on the back open wall.  It will be squares of black and white 12" blocks with different background fills quilted in each one.

Taken from the same side, showing a different perspective. The two cabinets hold customer quilts and batting. The shelves near the window will hold all  my quilting books (when I finally put them up there). The cutting table has shelves for all my Art-Bin project containers and my bolts of fabric. I purchased this table from a longarm quilter that was going out of business. This is the first time I've actually had the room to use it. The door you can see will be replaced with a full-light door that I found at a used furniture shop. I am going to paint the inside with black and white blocks of some sort to carry on the theme from the floor. If you look closely, you can see that the switch plate by the door is also black.

This was taken from the opposite side of the room toward the house. As you can see, the door is open and the dogs have been great. They know not to come in and they lie right in the doorway. Its pretty cute. The other door you see is to Dennis' teeny-tiny bit of the garage that's left.

Same basic view, but you can see further into the house (notice the cute little Dash dog??) 

The racks hold my thread, the cases below hold my bobbins. I've just bought another holder so that I have six instead of the odd five. I've also noticed that I don't have nearly enough thread!!

This is a shot of a curtain rod that has hooks on it for me to use to hang my quilts for pictures. When I have local customers, I will hang their quilts there so that they get a full view upon entering the studio.

And my sewing are.  Of course, I haven't been able to sew there yet, but soon...I hope!

Quilt pics will start to follow...thanks for hanging in there with me. It feels so good to be quilting again!

Dory