Check it out!

Our new “Good Morning” fabrics are featured in a free pattern on Moda Bake Shop today!

Click on over to get your free pattern!

Thanks Rebecca Silbaugh!

Barb

Well it’s just about time for our newest fabric group, “Good Morning” to start shipping. We have a few new patterns to go with the group so I’d better start telling you about them!

The first is “Suburban” …

These two quilts were recently featured in an AP&Q magazine ad …

You get instructions for both quilts in the same pattern. It’s two for the price of one!

“Suburban 1″  has a new technique for piecing house blocks. Mary came up with this brilliant idea all on her own.

You piece one block and get 2 houses …

Genius! Sometimes I am really glad she is my sister.

This quilt has some open spaces that are great for some creative quilting …

Our quilter extraordinaire, Sharon Elsberry quilted a Bella dog house on my quilt!  Some of her quilting designs are going to be featured in an upcoming AP&Q issue. I will let you know more about that as it gets closer to release.

“Suburban 2″ is actually my favorite of the two.

I love simple shapes. I guess squares are about as basic as it gets! I really like the random placement of the blocks.

So be ready with new patterns to sew as soon as the bolts start arriving in stores September 5th!

Happy Sewing!

Barb

Some BIG HEAVY boxes arrived at my doorstep recently!
Remember that small Fed X box full of artwork headed for Dallas …

That grew into a bigger box with strike offs from the mill …

That has now grown into 4 monster sized boxes …

A little closer please …

C-L-O-S-E-R …

It’s “Ticklish”!

You will be seeing more “Ticklish” very soon. The shop owners will start feeling and seeing “Ticklish” in September and “Ticklish” will be the focus of our market booth in Houston this October.

Hope your Ticklish!
Barb

Visit the Martingale blog, “Stitch This” today for some great tips on using precut fabrics!

They are also giving away some “Good Morning” precuts so don’t miss out!

Hurry on over!

Barb

The adventure continues!
Things just get better and better.

Here we are getting ready for another drive …

Today we tracked and later spotted lions for the second time!

I am thinking that the cub in the center of the picture might be a young male.

Our driver got us so close to one hiding in the grass that she gave us a dirty look. We were instructed to make sure all our limbs were in the jeep! Notice the pinned back ears. This lady is not happy!

They really are difficult to spot in all that golden dry grass.

And so beautiful! We could have watched them for hours.

But there are hippos to see in the water floating …

And sunning on the beach …

Our driver was very cautious around these guys. They are actually very dangerous and kill more humans every year than sharks!

One of my favorite animals were the Cape buffalo. I fell in love with their charming faces and fancy horns.

I think the guy in the center looks a bit like George Washington in a powdered wig. Notice how the insides of the ears look like butterfly wings?

They can sure move quickly when they want to …

We spotted some other quilter type people too. Here is Jodi Barrows with her husband Steve. Their son Tucker is on the right.

On to the rhinos!

And lets not forget the wildebeests!

There is just not enough time or space to show and tell all the wonderful things we saw!

So I will wrap this adventure up with a few last photos. This picture is of our guide and driver Sofiso (pronounced sew-fee-sue).

We have corrupted him with his very first Oreo cookie!

The gangs final night drive …

And my favorite animal of the whole adventure! I will NEVER forget hearing those elephants breathing!

Thanks Africa for the trip of a lifetime!

Leaving my carbon footprints …

Hope to return again someday!

Barb

Well it’s yearly “Man-cation” time!
Every year my husband and his merry band of engineers go on a road trip.
Every year I make a pillowcase for each member of the gang.

This year the gang is a bit smaller than usual. Because I was out of town, he was unable to go on the “big” trip. He had to wait until I returned and talked another straggler into waiting with him.

They will only be gone 10 days this time. It is usually 18. I plan on doing lots of sewing and will have a pizza or 2 delivered for dinner.
Hope they have fun and enjoy the traditional pillowcases!

One of the overnight stops along the way, a cabin just outside Glacier National Park.

And a stop in Jackson, Wyoming.

Thanks guys for the road trip updates!

Vroooom …
Barb

Thanks for participating in the Stop. Go. Quilt. Sew. Blog Hop!
Without further delay the lucky winner of this great book is …

Lisa Marie!

I don’t know if this story is funnier about the little boy (mine) or the big boys (not mine).
When my son was about 5 he went to a day camp program at the YMCA.  They did sports, crafts, etc.  The leaders were mostly college kids. One day when I arrived to pick my son up after day camp he was wearing different clothes than when I dropped him off.  When I asked why I got this story.
The college boys decided it would be fun to let the kids have a contest.  Well my son was all over that — if there’s a competition he’s going to try to win.  The contest was who could drink water at the water fountain for the longest time.  Naturally, my son drank water until he threw up.  Hence the changed clothes.  He “won” the contest but I don’t think they do that contest anymore.  Some years later we saw one of those college boys and all had a good laugh about it.

Congratulations!

I will be contacting the winner shortly by email.

Enjoy!

Barb

Today Martingale is giving you a freebie!
That’s right!
They’re featuring a free pattern from one of our books …

You will need to visit their blog here and sign up to receive “Stitch This” email updates. The updates are really simple and fun. They just don’t feature quilting projects either … they have lots of knitting and other interesting things too!

I have been getting them for the past few months and they’re always packed full of information.

The free pattern is called “Tangerine Tango” …

And will show you how to make quick and easy 4 patches.

So visit today and get this free pattern from our “Four Patch Frolic” book!

Happy Quilting!

Barb

I can’t believe it!
We were actually in Africa and went on a safari!
Something that was never on my bucket list … but it should have been!

What a wonderful experience! I took over 1000 pictures, so it’s difficult to narrow them down for this post. All of them are my favorites! I think I will have to split this up into 2 different posts.

Here we go …

This is part of the gang waiting to be picked up to start our adventure. Left to right … Mary, Jennifer from AP&Q magazine and Susan from Blue Moon River. We have no idea yet how much fun we are about to have!

We took a small plane to Kruger National Park and were taken by jeep to our camp … our home away from home for the next 3 days …

What a great place! Really remote and we are living in permanent tents elevated above the ground. The only thing separating us from the animals is a very small electrified fence. Every tent is supplied with an air horn. If any animals get in during the night we are to blast the horn and an armed guard will come running. The first night I slept within quick reach of the air horn on the nightstand.

This is where we will be dining every night …

For being in such a remote location, the food is very good! We are treated to fresh foods, fresh baked breads and elegant homemade desserts.

This is Mary eating … wait for it … A little lamb! Mary ate a little lamb …

Our tents are down this way …

Mary and I are sharing a tent and just by the luck of the draw, it happens to be one of the tents farthest away from the main lodge …

We have a really cool outdoor shower with hot water. Now this is my idea of camping in Africa! Its like living in the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House at Disneyland!

Every morning at 6AM one of the guides walks down to our tent and wakes us up for the morning drive. No alarm clocks here! There are real live monkeys chattering in the trees above us! We must brush our teeth and be down at the lodge by 6:30 for fresh blueberry muffins. The jeep leaves promptly at 6:30. Most of the animals are out in the early mornings and then active again before sunset.

We see our first animals of the day … Impalas.

They are plentiful and dinner for lots of different animals.

This is where I loose track of what animals we see in what order … this place is fantastic with wild animals! We see everything imaginable!

Zebras! Look how close we are. This is such a surprise! I never imagined we would get so close. We can hear them chewing!

A Hyena dining on Warthog …

A Warthog not being dined on …

Giraffes! Running!

Another “snack stop” with hot coffee and fresh baked peanut butter cookies …

We haven’t even had breakfast yet!

But I can’t stand it any longer!

I have to tell you about the Elephants! Here we are driving along, in a jeep, in Africa and our driver spots a herd of 30 elephants. He drives in so close we can hear them pulling the grass out of the ground. If that isn’t thrilling enough, They start to move around us …

THEN … a HUGE bull elephant steps in front of our jeep! Less than 6 feet away …

He pinned us in place until the rest of the herd could pass by! OMG! We can hear him breathing!

We are in Africa seeing things that we have never seen before, taking showers outside and listening to elephants breath …

Barb, Susan, Warren and Cynthia England, Mary and Jennifer … overwhelmed!

More to come!!

Barb

Do you have the October Issue of American Patchwork And Quilting yet?

Well if you have it check out this page …

And go here to see our “great trends” house quilt!

You will have to flip thru a few slides before you get to this …

Our Suburban #1 quilt!

Thanks APQ!
Barb