Open Gate Blog

Happy Tuesday! Thank you everyone for commenting on the blog tour!  It was fun and successful and I loved reading all your comments.  Some of the favorite movies were - Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, The Help, Blindside and Dirty Dancing to name a few.   The winner for a free copy of Diamond Traditions is Kerry L. who said: "Too many fav movies but I think my all time love is To Kill A Mockingbird. Would love to win your book!" Kerry, please email me so I can get your book sent to you.   Glad she wanted to win the book because she did!  Have a good week!

Welcome!  It's my day for the Diamond Traditions blog tour.  I have been busy working on my project for the tour and thinking about the quilt that best represents me.  I've decided that the quilt that best represents me/favorite is Courtyard .  I have made this quilt twice.  It is my 5th pattern that I published and re-did many years later it in my first fabric line, Olde World Style.  I think the reason I love it so much is that it has lots of piecing (no kidding, you say?), and has my favorite colors in it red and black.  Here is the original Courtyard and it even has a picture of my sweet Glory sitting proudly next to the quilt.  I miss her so much and love to see her next to one of my favorite quilts!  Isn't she precious?  She really was a great dog! Here is Courtyard using Olde World Style.  I changed it up a bit using the greens and reds as the blocks with a black chain running through it.  For the original, I had...

Welcome  to the 4th day of the Diamond Traditions Blog Hop!  Today is Sherri's day from A Quilting Life -  aquiltinglife.blogspot.com   I met Sherri through -your guessed it - Carrie Nelson!  I was fortunate enough to meet some great people through Carrie.  Besides the fact that she is a great person too!  Anyway, back to Sherri.  If you don't know anything about Sherri, she is a wonderful quilter and even has her first book published with C&T Publishing too!  It is called: A Quilting Life.  Make sure that you check it out.  I don't know her really well but what I know so far, I really like.  I am looking forward to reading her blog and answering the questions that I gave everyone.   Sherri feels that the quilt below is the best representation/favorite of hers.  " I picked my scrappy trip quilt since it has so many of my favorite fabrics in it!" Also, make sure that you check out her blog to see...

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop so far!  I know that I am and it's been awesome to learn some new things about our fellow bloggers. Today's day is Lisa from   Stashmaster ~  The-Stashmaster.blogspot.com .   I met Lisa through Carrie Nelson   from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  Carrie is quite the connector!  I have met some great friends and bloggers through her.  I got to spend some time with Lisa at a retreat a few years ago.  Lisa is one of those friends that I instantly felt comfortable with and drawn to.  We got along great and her sense of quilting style is inspiring.  I hope you enjoy her post and getting to know her as much as I do! Here is the quilt that best represents her.  Lisa says:   " I named it Kowabunga.  It's a Miss Rosie pattern called ZuZu's Petals, but I made it my own with every orange fabric I could find and then a fun surfboard print on the border.  I like quilts with lots of p...

Welcome back!  It's day 2 of our Diamond Traditions Blog Tour and it's Denise from Quilter's Window's day.  I met Denise at Quilt Market quite years ago and we hit it off right away.  We became friends and have been ever since.  Denise is one of my favorite people and we even get together to do fun, personal retreats once a year. Denise will blog about the quilt that she chose so make sure that you get to her blog .  If you didn't see yesterday's blog, you might have missed that each blogger is giving us a bit of an idea of who they are.  Make sure that you learn a little bit Denise on her blog. Also, I asked each of the bloggers to send me a quilt that best represents them.  Here is Denise's: Denise says:  " Flower Box as a quilt that represents me. " and as you can see some of the writing on the quilt tells you why. Hope you are enjoying the blog hop and getting to know us a bit better!

Happy Monday!  Don't forget to join us on the Diamond Traditions Blog tour that starts today.  Our first blogger is Thelma from Cupcakes 'n Daisies . Thelma is a friend I met through Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  If you've never been to her blog, you need to get on over there!  She is creative, prolific and as sweet as can be! I asked each of the blog post participants to fill out a "Get to know you" questionnaire which they will answer on their blog post.  I also asked them to send me a picture of a quilt that best represents them.  Here is what Thelma said about her quilt that she chose: "I've attached a picture of my Red and White Tribute Quilt as the quilt that most represents me.  It's best represents me because it's red and required a ton of math, my favorite part of quilting. " Red and White Tribute Quilt by Thelma Childers I will say that this is totally Thelma.  Like she said, she loves the math but...

Hi Everyone! We are starting a blog tour on Monday, June 17th for Diamond Traditions.  A few of my wonderful friends, who happen to be bloggers, will be joining me.  Here is the schedule: Monday -  Thelma from Cupcakes ‘n Daisies ~  cupcakesndaisies.blogspot.com Tuesday -  Denise from Quilter’s Window ~  Quilterswindow.com/blog/ Wednesday -  Lisa from Stashmaster ~  The-Stashmaster.blogspot.com   Thursday -   Sherri from A Quilting Life -  aquiltinglife.blogspot.com Friday - me -  http://opengatequilts.blogspot.com/ We will be doing giveaways and of course showing quilts too! Please join us starting Monday. Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company and Sherri from A Quilting Life for dinner.  They were up in Madison for a retreat and we met in Janesville, WI for dinner.  Here is a picture of us.  It was so much fun and I always enjoy meeting old friends an...

It appears that some people are having trouble getting to Block 6.  I am posting the link to the page again.  Here it is: Blogger Girls Block of the Month Block #6 Make sure to go to the Blogger Girls Block of the Month page on my website and scroll to the bottom.  Run your cursor over Blogger Girls Block of the Month Block #6 and you will be able to click on it.  If you are still having trouble, email me at info@opengatequilts.com.  Make sure to leave your email address so I can respond and send you the pdf of the file. Sorry for all the trouble!

I can't believe this is our last block for the Blogger Girls Block of the Month!  Where does the time go?  Here is how the last couple months will work.  This is the last block.  All of the blocks and finishing instructions will be posted until the end of July.  Once the end of July comes, they are off my website.  We are planning on doing a "Quilt Parade" on July 1st.  Us bloggers will have our quilt top done and will post it then.  That way you can see all the wonderful completed quilts.  Also, if you have yours done, post them on flickr and then we can all see them.  If you aren't sure how to do this, please send me a picture of your quilt or quilt top and I will post it on flickr for you. This whole block of the month experience has been awesome!  I have enjoyed doing this so much and hope that everyone else has as well.  If you want to do it again, let me know because I have some ideas for the next one. As for block 6 ...