Come to Alaska with Redwood Sewing Center & Scottie Dog Quilts

In 2009 our store sponsored our first cruise to Alaska. What a time we all had! Fantastic scenery, food, quilting, adventures and more. Many who went said they'd love to go again and those who couldn't make it couldn't wait until we planned another cruise.

We are so excited to announce our Scottie Dog Quilts Alaskan Quilting Cruise. We leave Seattle August 11, 2012 for 7 fabulous days aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, the Jewel. We'll have 7 days of Quilting and glaciers and quilting and whale watching and quilting and shows and quilting and fine dining and quilting and spa treatments and quilting and totems and .... well, I guess you get the picture. Still need a picture? We'll visit the Sawyer Glacier for unbelievable views.

We'll see bald eagles.

Walk among Totem Poles.

Visit the gold rush town of Skagway.
You could ride a train into the mountains.How about High Tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC?
Tour Craigdarrah Castle...the most fantastic home I've ever toured!
Here's the entryway!
Perhaps you want to see whales.

Our sewing room will have floor to ceiling windows...we won't miss the scenery a minute. We only sew when we are out to sea so you will be able to take advantage of everything Alaska has to offer. Your cruise fees include your Quilting classes. Since our group rates are so good you can bring your spouse, your best friend, your entire family. Cruising is a wonderful vacation for all age groups. Our ports of call are Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria, BC.

Have I got your attention yet? Click Here for a PDF brochure. You can contact our awesome Travel Agent, MJ Bryant at 888 278-7875. You will need to hold your space with a fully refundable deposit. Don't wait, space goes quickly. I want to go to Alaska with YOU!

Minnesota Quilt Show (a little late!)

More of what I did this summer! I went to the Minnesota State Quilt Guild Show in St. Paul with two friends I met several years ago on the Internet. Both Ann and Carol have visited me here in Eureka several times during our Scottie Dog Quilts Mystery Quilting Retreats. I try to see Carol at least once when I get a chance to visit Minnesota. Ann lives at one end of CA and I live at the other. Too far to visit on a whim. I thoroughly enjoyed my day with them. Here are a few more of the stunning quilts: This one had the longest, thinnest points all pieced into wheels and lovely, exquisite appliqued roses.

Sorry about the lady in the photo....it was hard to photograph the quilts alone as there were so many people. I'm not sure why exactly I liked this quilt so much. The colors were more vivid in person but the primitive fish blocks with their bubbles & eyes of buttons, metal rings and disks was amazing.This quilt was amazing too. Where do I start? The machine quilting was fantastic, the piecing was perfect, the applique awesome, and there were 3-D elements that were so creative. See a closer view below.I liked this floral one too. It reminded me of antique English embroidered pieces but was all applique.
Here's a new (not antique) crazy quilt that was stunning. Some of the blocks contained quilt blocks, some were just "crazy."
These last three photos are part of a display called, "The River Crossing Our Borders." I think there were 20 participants and each was given a max & min. size for their piece. My guess is there was some co-ordination on the "size" of the river on the right and left sides of their quilts. They each created a piece that was then hung with the others to form the (Mississippi) RIVER as it meanders through Minnesota. Lots of different interpretations, many different techniques, differing seasons of the year, so many ideas. I spent a long, long time looking at each of these.

I enjoy going to quilt shows. There is so much talent, so much creativity that sometimes it feels as though my head will burst with all the new ideas. I was once told that quilting is a craft as opposed to an art form. HA! Don't believe it for a minute!

Laura & Gabe's Wedding Quilt

For the past 18-20 years I've met on Thursdays with a group of quilting friends. We call ourselves The Grateful Threads. Threadheads, Threadlets...Sydney is often referred to as the "Snippet." The membership of this group has changed and morphed over the years. I guess I'm the only original local member left. Bev and Judy have moved to Oregon. About a year after we started Lynn and her sister Ann joined. We've had others move in and out of the group and seen a second generation of quilters join. There are now eight local members and two out-of-towners. We run block swaps between us and have a tradition of making quilts for members at special times in their lives. Weddings especially. Laura is currently working full time and going to college full time so in the past year she hasn't been around on Thursday nights much....that is, until we decided to make a quilt to celebrate her marriage to Gabe.
When we make a special quilt we gather up all our orphan blocks and fit them together and they turn out beautiful. This time though we wanted a plan. So everyone was given 1/2 yard of the turquoise batik background. Instructions were to use it and our "theme" was turquoise and purple. Use mainly batiks and what would look good with the theme colors. Ann and Bev sent blocks. We each made some blocks, some "filler" shapes (checkerboards, flying geese, half square triangles, pinwheels, etc). What problems did we encounter? Mostly that Laura suddenly seemed to have every Thursday night free.....I don't know how many times we had to scamper to cover blocks, half-sewn rows, entire tops! Liz and Larissa spent hours quilting it. Sydney had been sworn to secrecy. She wanted to know why we were keeping it a secret from Laura but even today when I was finishing the binding at the store she told me she had a plan on where to hide the quilt if Laura popped into Redwood Sewing Center.
We have two block swaps going right now....One in Civil War fabrics with block from The Civil War Diary Quilt and one with 1930's fabrics from The Farmers Wife Quilt Book. To be festive with our swap we decided to meet at Babetta's Italian Restaurant. (Yum...Chicken Picatta is South Beach Friendly and I always get it....sooo good.) After exchanging our blocks and oohing and ahhhing over them we said we had more blocks to exchange. Laura looked worried as if she'd forgotten something. I said I had blocks to exchange, Lynn said it too and then all chimed in about blocks to give away. I carried the card and bag to Laura and we all said, "Happy Wedding!" It was great.....she cried!
And here she is with a great big smile with her quilt. Can you find the cat block Sydney helped me make (her idea) and their dog too.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

It seems that every year in September when school would start we would be assigned a speech or an essay entitled: "What I did on my Summer Vacation." My family went camping. Tent camping mostly but in Jr. High my dad bought my uncle's tent trailer. I think it was a Coleman brand. We'd go to Yellowstone National Park nearly every other year and then go to Mammoth Lakes, Mt. Shasta, Big Bear Lake...anywhere you could fish, roast marshmallows over a fire, hike and enjoy the outdoors.

Mr. Scottie Dog and I have had many adventures but this Summer we hitched up our trailer and drove across the country to Minnesota to visit the grands. We said goodbye to Sydney the end of May and drove through Susanville, CA, Reno Nevada...coming to the Rocky Mountains. Still a lot of snow!We drove through Salt Lake City, Utah and into Wyoming. At Fort Bridger we toured the Fort and Trading Post, then posed by a Callistoga Wagon actually sitting on the Oregon Trail.

In Minnesota I met up with two dear quilting friends, Ann and Carol at the Minnesota State Quilting Guild Show in St. Paul.What fun we had checking out all the wonderful quilts, buying fabric and sewing goodies. Beka met us for dinner at Dixies on Grand. Oh, my! I remember I had a seafood pot pie with a crab cake crust!It was wonderful being with Beka, Jason and the grands for nearly a month. We went on picnics.We went to Split Rock Lighthouse.We went camping at Duluth.and that's just the start of the story. More tomorrow.

Yard Sale

Stuff, STUFF. Do you have too much stuff? I certainly do. Mr. Scottie Dog and I have been married for 39 years. Lots of time to accumulate stuff. We read books and they go on a shelf. We see a good deal at Costco, Target, etc. and we buy it. Friends and relatives give us more stuff. I checked and I have 5 Pyrex 9" X 13" pans. FIVE. Now I know I have one or two that I inherited from my Mother-in-law. I don't need them. I also have a metal pan I make Mr. Scottie Dog his brownies in. I like metal best for that. So 4 of the glass pans are just excess stuff.

Yard Sale: Set up a bunch of tables on the drive, put up a bunch of signs and wait for people to come and decide they can't live without adding MY stuff to THEIR stuff. What do I have that anyone else might want? A huge box of books....I enjoyed every one of them (except one I only read two chapters and put it on the shelf). Will I ever read them again? Probably not. Now I DO have books on my bookshelf I won't part with. My hardback collection of Little House on the Prairie books I'll always keep. I've also got a few extra sets of dishes to put in the sale. I have a Christmas set, a blue willow set of stoneware, Bill's Mom's china and a set of Pyrex I will be keeping. But what about knick nacks? I've also got way too many. I can't remember who gave me all the country angels, but it's not my style any more. I've got too much furniture and tons of movies (both VHS and DVD) and music I'm going to let someone else put in their home. I've got TV's, linens and more.
So I've got a bunch of friends bringing some of their STUFF too. We'll set up a bunch of tables, the signs are up. Just need to put it all together Sat. morning. Sydney is going to sell lemonade and cookies. I bought donut holes for breakfast. Sydney likes donut holes...... hope I unload a lot of stuff.

The Humboldt County Fair

Day 8 of the Humboldt County Fair. I've been coming to the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, CA for about 39 years. I remember the first year Mr. Scottie Dog and I attended as newlyweds...actually it was the first county fair I'd ever gone to. Then over the years we brought the girls. Loved to look at all the animals, the flowers, the quilts, the attractions and of course eat a bit of "fair food." Most years when the girls were young we'd bring a picnic lunch or dinner and just buy a treat. Then there were the years I judged the quilts at the fair....and the past few years we've been vending at the Crescent City Quilt Show and missed the fair entirely.
Well this year we are vendors in the commercial building here at the fair. Here are a couple of shots of our booth. We were quite pleased with our location.

Pfaff gave us great pricing for all our machines and we've sent many happy sewers home with new machines. We are also selling quilt kits and a few other things. Business is booming at the Fair!

One of the truisms is that you will eventually see everyone at the fair! I saw Ferndale native, Guy Fieri with his family.

Finally back to blogging. I'll post some vacation pics tomorrow. Hope your summer has been as fun-filled as mine!