Pam Holland Coming To St. George

I am so excited! Pam Holland is coming to St. George, Utah to teach at the School of Threadology for Superior Threads.

I have been a fan of Pam's ever since I read her book The 1776 Quilt.

I was captured not only by the quilt, but also by the story of Pam's life.

Pam is from Southern Australia, and she and her husband are the parents to 15 children. Three of their children are biological, and the rest have been adopted from various parts of southeast Asia. From 1967-2005 they were foster parents to 148 children, many of whom are special needs.

(In my opinion, they deserve a special place in Heaven for their service in behalf of children).

Being a parent of such a large family has included loss. Their daughter Liseby (age 24) was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 1995.

During Liseby's illness, Pam began to quilt, mainly as "an antidote to grief".

"It was my therapy as I watched my beautiful daughter struggle with her disease; my emotions were hidden in every stitch" Pam wrote. Liseby's Hope became one of Pam's first quilts.

Six months after Liseby's passing, Pam was still in mourning. A close friend of Liseby's invited Pam to England for a 10 day bus tour. She had never traveled alone, or even slept in a bedroom of her own. She purchased a book titled "Quilts" that changed Pam's life, and propelled her into the making of the 1776 quilt. I will tell you more about that journey in tomorrow's post.

Pam now travels the world as a teacher, from Tokyo to Mexico to the United States and everywhere in between.

I feel very fortunate that I will be able to take a class from her next week at The School of Threadology. I know I will learn so much!

Pam is a true artist. From her pencil drawings and sketches...

...to her amazing photography. *This is my favorite picture from her recent trip to Mexico.

Pam also does videos presentations of her world travels for The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricci Tims.

She is very media savy.

And by reading Pam's blog each day, I would say she likes to have fun. I know she loves color, especially red and orange. These are her latest slippers made in Kazakhstan.

How can you not love a person who would putter around in slippers like these?

This is going to be a very wonderful week.

The World Is Full of Cactus

My sweet friend Ricci just gave me these Mary Engelbreit note cards.
With a name like Cactus Needle...

This proverb can be interpreted many ways.
What is the message you hear?

More Sunny Days

When Lori and Rae Ann were here for the quilt retreat last week, we all worked on our Sunny Days quilt.
We didn't even plan it that way. This was one of those moments when it becomes a little "psychic".
I started my Sunny Days up at Rae Ann's cabin. She informed me she had just bought the same pattern. Meanwhile Lori was having the same experience without talking to either me or Rae Ann.
Do you think we must have been ESP-ing each other without really realizing it?
We all showed up at my house and pulled out Sunny Days.
Strange. Same wave length. Kindred spirits?

I have been having the most wonderful time pulling fabrics for this quilt.
Every sun turns out bright and cheery.

This is the original pattern by Joyce Weeks.

I only have a few more blocks to go.

Doesn't this sun almost look on fire?

On the top of the picture you can see Lori's blocks on my design wall. She is using a red polka dot fabric as the background.

Lori also suggested making 25 blocks (instead of the 30 on the pattern) to make the quilt more square. I like her idea and will follow her lead.

Lori loves gingham and uses it in many of her quilts. This block mixes up the size of the checks. Another great idea.

I sure wish we lived closer. I'd be following her around, notepad in hand.

Our Argentine Suguaro Cactus

Spring in the desert is the most beautiful time of the year.
In our front yard amidst the red rocks, our Argentine Suguaro comes into full bloom in April.

Large flowers reaching 6"-8" wide bloom for a few weeks, and then they are gone.

The flowers mostly come out at night. We love to take our camera's out in the moonlight for full effect.

Each blossom will come out for a day or two, and then die off.

Once the first set of flowers are gone, the next set of buds will develop and bloom.

This year Mr. Cactus counted 75 buds on our plant.

Neighbors walk by, bringing their cameras to take pictures of this beautiful plant.

The last few weeks I have seen many cars stop in front of our house, windows down, gazing.

With a name like Cactus Needle, it brings joy to see our Arginetine Suguaro flourish.

My thanks to my friend Rae Ann for sharing these pictures she took while she stayed at my house last week.

Miriam Gourley Rawson

For the Dixie Quilt Guild meeting last Saturday, we were honored with a trunk show/ lecture by Miriam Gourley Rawson.
Miriam is a local talent, who has written books, patterns and been involved in design for many years.

Miriam designs under the name Fabric Folk

Fanciful Folk Art is just one of the many books by Miriam.
Among her many talents, Miriam is currently doing display work for Roberts crafts, in Washington, Utah (near St. George).

The latest apron design.

Look at the cute flower pockets made with Texture Magic.

Miriam first became known for her fabric dolls.

And now designs pincushion, aprons, quilts and fabrics.

Aunt Minnie's Button Apron

I bought this pattern to further my button addiction.

The bio on her web site tells us a little more:

Miriam is currently in the process of designing a new line of fabric for Benartex fabrics, a division of Bernina of America.

She creates new patterns for her Fabric Folk business, as well as for showroom models, displayed at trade shows and in the showrooms in New York, for Marcus Brothers Textiles and other clients. She also is an avid painter, preferring to work with oils.

With the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War approaching, Miriam has been involved in designing patterns to honor the event.

The bonnet was made with fabrics from Miriam's new fabric line that will be released soon.

Inside of the bonnet.

This pioneer doll is the mock up, also showcasing the new fabric line and patterns to be released.

The doll will be made from fabric panels.

"Keeper of The Bees"

Miriam uses a double applique method for her quilts, where each piece is completely backed and then sewn down.

To see more of Miriam's designs, make sure to check out her web site http://www.fabricfolks.com/

Dixie Quilt Guild May Meeting

We realize it is not the month of May yet, but yesterday the Dixie Quilt Guild held our May meeting anyway.

We have a big event coming to our little town of St. George next Saturday May 1st, which normally would be our day to gather.

Our community will be hosting the Iron Man competition, and our small town (population around 72,000) will be transformed. The media expects 30,000 people to be involved. We have been asked to either serve as a volunteer, or stay off the streets.

Most of the major roads will be completely blocked off from 7am until midnight. *On a personal note, I am not sure how I will even get out of my subdivision, because one of the biking routes goes through our area.

Here is a Show and Tell from our meeting.

We have such amazing applique work coming from our group. I always stand in awe of the talent.

This quilt was a donation to our humanitarian group. Nice donation!

Don't you love the setting for all these poppies?

A civil war quilt from a class at Zion Retreat a few years ago.

Block of The Month quilt taught at Quilted Works in 2009.

Bev continues to work in using up her stash. A great way to use up leftover blues, or any other color that might have gathered in your collections.

A Sally Collins design.

Sally will be coming to our guild as a guest lecturer and teacher this coming November.

If you are interested in taking classes, be sure and contact Linda Sidlow in care of the Dixie Quilt Guild.

Ginny Beyer design.

John Flynn was in town a few months ago as a National guest teacher for our guild.

Our guild member said she has worked night and day making Wedding Ring was from one of his classes.

Since Ricci taught her Going To Market quilt, many of us have been drawn to making one too. Margaret Miller has started a version in florals and polka dots.

Going To Market (From Me To You)