The amazingly talented Jen Duncan

Don't you just love this adorable ABC Quilt? Want to make one? My friend, Jen Duncan has a tutorial on Moda Bakeshop for this darling quilt. I absolutely LOVE the scalloped boarder and Jen's method brings it into the capabilities of anyone who can sew. I've never seen anything like it and I've been teaching quilting for 20+ years.

"OK", you say, "I'd love to make a quilt like that but I'm not doing the A-word (applique for those not initiated) and I'm NOT cutting out each and every stinking letter no matter how cute it is."

Well, ladies and gentlemen.....today is your lucky day because you, too, can get a set of pre-cut, fusible-already-on-the-back, Alphabet Letters from the lady herself! And for a very, very cheap price. I know, because I am the owner of such a set already! I'm making my granddaughter, Sadies a quilt with paper dolls & Alphabet letters.

Where do you get these letters? What colors can you get? Well, check out Jen's Etsy Store. They are surprisingly cheap (Jen, do you make anything on them?) and with the fusible already applied, all you have to do is press them to a background square, stitch by hand or machine and you are done. I bet if you wanted just the letters for a specific name, she'd do that too.

Jen is amazingly talented in so many ways. Check out her blog to see what I mean. Jen, you stretch my own creativity helping me to think outside my own tiny box! Thanks for being my friend.

Practice Tea

Today my good friend Judy and I too two very special ladies to Tea. I took Miss Sydney and Judy took her niece Mikalyn (I'm sure I' have spelled that wrong....sorry!). We went to The Mad Hatter's Tea Party in downtown Eureka. Here's Judy with her cup of "White Tea." I'd never heard of white tea but she gave me a sample and it was very nice.













Mikalyn had ice water and took pictures too. You can see part of the menu board....we had three kinds of tiny sandwiches: Chicken, egg and salmon. They were really, really good.

Grandma had Black Currant infused black tea and it was nice too. Sydney had iced tea and she drank it from her cup and saucer, pinkie properly extended. She loved stirring it with her tiny spoon provided just for that. We also got scones and tried a "Little Jarusski." It was a little fruit dumpling with custard, cherries and banana. Yum, yum.

I think Sydney enjoyed buttering her scone the best....I'm not sure she'd ever been trusted with a knife before.

Such concentration!

Good to the last crumb! Sydney behaved herself (and so did the rest of us!). Conversation was good, friends were great! All ready for High Tea at the Empress Hotel!

Don't forget to comment on my 200th post....there will be a giveway! See below.

Another Talented Young Woman

Tonight I'm going to post about another talented young woman I know. This mother of two makes the most beautiful jewlery and hair sticks. I'm not showing you my absolute favorite earrings in her etsy shop (Kohl Designs) because I just ordered them and don't wany YOU to buy them on a fluke!

I love these gun metal butten-style earrings.




If my hair was long enough for hair sticks I'd pick these!








These rose Swarovski crystals are really pretty too!

Jamie is mom to a toddler & sweet babe, oh so cute. Her Mother-in-law, Katie works at Scottie Dog Quilts and wears many of Jamie's designs. Be sure to check out Jamie's shop.

Quilt Vendor

I've been remiss in posting about the Redwood Empire Quilt Show a couple of weeks past. Since opening Scottie Dog Quilts eight years ago we now look at the show from the eyes of a Quilt Show Vendor. As a vendor you are allowed entry to the building at noon the day before the show begins. You are greeted by and empty space marked out on the floor by tape with a table and two chairs. First picture shows our ladder and lattice.

Here's Mr. Scottie Dog carrying in the cash register. You can see the nearly empty hall. There is so much work to setting up a booth...scurrying here and there, toting bin after bin of goods, samples and fabrics.

Here's a couple of shots of the finished booth. It takes a lot of time to get the samples hung, the baskets filled and the signs attached.

This is our newly finished BOM (Block of the Month), Humboldt County: Where the Redwoods Meet the Sea.

We'll be offering this BOM as a kit with all the fabrics for only $12.99/mo. plus shipping for 12 months.

Or if you want to choose your own fabrics, the pattern is also available. Just email or call us for details. We'll get it up on the website by mid August.

Below is my personal favorite quilt from the REQG show. Called Family Memories, it was made by my daughters....Liz did the sewing & quilting and Beka did the photos. They gave it to us last year for our anniversary. Thanks to Jen Duncan since I stole this picture off her blog!

Then one week after the Guild Show we had a booth at the Arcata Snip & Stitch Craft Extravaganza. Liz was camping with her bestest buddies so Mr. Scottie Dog and I set up by ourselves.

Everyone was required to use a tent canopy and our friend Sue loaned us hers. Wow, I never knew they were so easy to put up. I probably could have done it by myself, but I'm so glad Mr. Scottie Dog was there tho help. He's such a great supporter of Scottie Dog Quilts!

He hung the samples, got the cash register set up and more. The day went well and take down was quick

So that's the life of a Quilt Show Vendor.

200th Post Giveaway!

I sat down today to blog (I've not been very good lately---sooo busy getting ready for our upcoming Scottie Dog Quilts Alaskan Quilting Cruise) and realized that this is my 200th post...giveaway time! I'm going to give away a Cell Phone Tote. You get to choose from the picture. The bags have two inside pockets and a Velcro dot closure. They'll hold most all cellphones (blackberry included!) and many cameras. I'm going to take one on the cruise and give one to a friend. So leave me a comment and I'll randomly pick a winner next Wednesday, August 5.




When you sponsor a Quilting Cruise there are lots of details to iron out and extra things to pack. We'll have to have extra sewing machine needles, rotary cutter blades, thread, etc. in case someone forgets, runs out or breaks something. We have wonderful door prizes and favors for all our quilters and those needed to get packed. Liz and I went shopping for clothes last week and I was delighted to find a dress for our formal nights at a local discount store (I'm not too proud to admit it!). Of course I needed shoes to go with it...my flip flops or sketchers just weren't going to work. Since I have a hard-to-fit foot, I ordered a pair at my favorite catalog store....just hoping they arrive by the time we leave next week.


I sewed a dress for Sydney for one night (like I have nothing else to do!) and yesterday I got her to pose for me in her new dress.

Don't forget to comment for the Giveaway!

Crafty Mama!

Wow! you have got to check out a new blog....Crafty Mama is written by a young gal with panache and style (actually I think panache means Style, so I guess that's redundant!). You can check out Crafty Mama here.


NOTE: I just looked up the word "panache" and Webster's defines it as "flamboyance of style." Yup, that's Larissa!

Tonight Liz and I had dinner with a couple of friends (one of them Crafty Mama aka Larissa) and she brought her new creation...this lovely clutch purse! The pleated bag with a curved yolk and sweet birdie applique. I also liked the handle, it's a nice touch.


In my business I see a lot of talent and lately I'm seeing so many talented younger women. Stay-at-home moms, working moms, single women in their twenties and thirties and I am so blown away with their creativity, resourcefulness, imagination and the fact that they are also fun! Perhaps it's a sign that I have truly hit middle age (I can't believe I actually said that!), but I am tickled that so many of them gather at the store and I am privileged to see their work.

Congrats Larissa on a blog well done!