Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to All!

May your day be filled with family and friends.

Love Sue

Visiting Family

I am visiting my family in Spokane for a few days. It is like a winter wonderland here. This is the spectacular view from my sister and Pete's home. Yesterday morning it was spectacular the sun was shining and all the trees and plants were covered in icicles. It was hard to capture the beauty with my little camera but I hope get the idea.

They have a large barn on their property which they renovated this summer. What a fabulous space to work! Wendy now has her own a dye room and wool room. If you did not know we do all our dyeing in house. Wendy does all the wool and velvets for the website and kits with a little help from my kids Aimee and Jason.

In the other sections of the barn is a pottery room and encaustics room for my dad a huge space for jewelry and print making for Wendy and a metal shop for Pete.

Wendy has a large amount of one off pieces of wool from testing wool colors. Pete and her have been working through this huge table of wool making similar size stacks. Wouldn't these make unique scrap bags for applique!

I can't believe how wonderful this work space is now. The whole family including my kids love to come out here to create. They are always joined by their four legged friends Shumba, Morgan and Boekie.

Take care

Sue

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been an amazing year! I am so thankful for my children Kelly, Andrew, Jason and Aimee my Mom and Dad, Sister Wendy and her husband Pete and to my many special friends. Without them I would not have had these wonderful opportunities.

Today I am featuring some pictures from quilts we have been working on here at home. I have three quilt groups that meet with me monthly and many of these projects are still in progress. I am truly thankful to these friends who keep me moving forward and inspire me to try new things.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Take care

Sue

Teaching in November

Early in November Cathy and I travelled to Grand Rapids, MI to Smith Owen Sewing Center. I teach here annually and this was our third trip. Many of my students stitch on my projects and it was wonderful to see the progress they had made.

Here are wonderful examples of my 'Flowerbed' quilt. I was amazed at the amount of embellishments on each piece. Susan took my 'Altered Texture' Flower basket quilt class at NEORQC in Ohio and brought her piece to share with all.

Nancy is teaching a class on 'Magnolia' at Smith Owen and many shared their quilts. They are nearly finished and I believe they will be offering 'Mercer Lane' next year.

I taught three classes this year. The first one was the ever popular leaf embellishment class. We stitched with luxurious fibers using wonderful stitched and layering.

The second class was a new class working with circles. It was a great success and fun was had by all.

I also taught my Small Bird 'Altered Texture' class.

It is always amazing to see these little pieces come to life.

On Monday night I gave a lecture at the Light House Quilt Guild in Grand Haven, MI.

We had dinner before the meeting on the lake. This was the wonderful sunset from our table.

Many of the members work in wool and they had a table displayed with some of my patterns that they had made. We really enjoyed visiting with this enthusiastic guild.

This was my last teaching engagement for the year. I am now trying to catch up from a very full and productive year. My dad has been here for 10 days helping us set up a new computer system and working on a business plan for 2011. I completed my 2010 'Crimson Tweed' BOM and now stitching on blocks for the new 2011 'Imperial Blooms' BOM.

The weather here in the Midwest has been very mild and I am hoping to finish putting my yard to rest for the winter this weekend. I then can plan the many quilting projects I have in my head for my new books for Spring Market.

Next week I am flying to Spokane for a few days to visit my family.

Take care

Sue