Open Gate Blog

Nothing better than sewing with friends!  Remember I told you that we were getting together to work on the Peppermint Wreaths table topper?  Well, we did get together and worked on it.  Sue had everything cut out and we just had to sew.  Of course, there was much eating, chatting and laughing as we worked.  Here is one of our snacks, chocolate peanuts...yum!  And, we finally got some sewing done.  Here are my pinwheels and starting to put a section together.  We will continue later this week.  Remember Fields of Green ?  It was a quilt I designed that was featured in Irish Quilting.  Joyce helped me remake it with Royal Gardens fabric.  Here is a picture of it.  Will keep you up to date on Peppermint Wreaths and other exciting things I am working on!  Have a great week!

This week is a short week for most of the workforce.  I am lucky to have a 4 day weekend too!  It's not hard to guess what I will be doing, besides eating a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner!  I have several projects that I plan to work on.  My friends, Sue and Joyce and I are planning on starting a new project (like we need a new project!) but we couldn't resist.  This table topper/tree skirt was designed by my good friend, Bonnie Sullivan from All Through the Night.  It's called Peppermint Wreaths .  I'm excited to get started!  I will show progress next week.  We are doing the smaller, table topper and I just happen to have the perfect feather tree to put on it! Although I wasn't at Market, some of my quilts were! Maywood Studio puts up wonderful displays of current and new fabric lines.  They sent me a picture of one of the displays of Royal Gardens.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!   

I don't know if you know but my mom is a wonderful bag maker.  She has made me several bags and I love them all.  Unfortunately, she lives in Canada and we can't make them together or I can't easily call her up and ask her to make a bag for me.  So, I had to learn for myself.  I have been making bags and purses for a while now.  This past weekend, I did not have any commitments so I decided to make a bag.  The bag I chose to make was an Indygo Junction bag and it is called In-Style Suitcase Bag .  I really liked the looks of it and also liked that it was big enough to be able to put all my stuff in it.  Here is a picture of the one I made:  I used the black stripe from my latest fabric line, Royal Gardens .  The handle is made with the green dot.  Once I received my fabric, I did get some sewing done and here is one of my latest patterns, Chocolate Cherry Crunch , using the blacks and reds in Royal Gardens. One more thi...

Finally, I am back blogging and ready to go!  It has been a tough year for my husband and I.  He is doing much better and I am so thankful for that.  I am still sewing, creating and traveling.  I have been to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa in the last few months.  I have met a lot of great quilters and had a great time.  The most exciting news is that my third fabric line, Royal Gardens is in stores!  I love the colors and the prints.  It has my favorite reds, blacks, greens and creams and this time we added purple.  So beautiful.  If you want to see the entire line, click on the Maywood Studio link and it will take you to it.  Meanwhile, here is some samples of the fabric: I am thinking about offering fat quarters on my website, what do you guys think?  Would anyone be interested?  If so, let me know. In the next few months, look in your favorite magazine for quilts featuring Royal Gardens.  I ...