Welcome to our new blog home!

If you got here from our previous blog, you know that I moved us so that I could better control the design of our blog. It's not perfect yet, but I'm working on it. Please let me know what you think about our new blog – comments are appreciated!

If you subscribed to our old blog, it would be good if you took a minute to subscribe to this new one since this is where all new posts will be. Click "Subscribe" in the navigation bar above or "Subscribe to this blog's feed" in the column at right. I have a mac and I like to keep up with new blog posts in my mail program. I click to add the new URL as an RSS Feed in my inbox. If any of you have a pc and want to share what you see when you click the subscribe button, please do write a comment about it. I find this to be the easiest way to keep up with my favorite blogs.

Now I can move on to real quilt-related news! A few weeks ago when I was teaching at the NC Quilt Symposium, I had dinner with Hollis Chatelain, Sue Nickels, and John Flynn. We have all done something for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Sue and I both made quilts for the traveling exhibit. Here's mine:

HoldOn_01 copy

Sue, Hollis, and John have made auction quilts (which sort of made me feel like a slacker). We got to talking about which quilts auctioned had raised the most money. Now, I didn't have a horse in that race but I admit that it brought out my competitive side.

The four of us decided that we should have a 4-person challenge on the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative site to see whose little quilt made the most money. Ami Simms, the quilter/powerhouse behind the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative said "Sure!" She gave us the dimensions (9" x 12" if possible, not bigger than 20" x 20") and a due date (September 1). The quilts will be auctioned off in mid-November.

I have decided to make a miniature of Passion Flowers, a quilt from our brand new book, Applique Outside the Lines. The full-size blocks are in the neighborhood of 24" x 24". I'm reducing the blocks to 5" x 5". Tomorrow I'll show you more!

PassionFlowerMini-01 copy

It’s hot in Texas…

… which means it’s time to pull out the baby pool and the hose. It was 100 outside yesterday and we still had a great time. Jack surprised us when he started pouring water over his head – and it looks like he surprised himself too!

Enjoy the weekend!

Applique Outside the Lines…


The new book is here and Linda is shipping it out now. It’s already getting good reviews! In their new issue, American Quilt Retailer wrote:

Applique Outside the Lines by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins (C&T Publishing) is brilliantly thought out! In fact, it is so well thought out and explained, that when you use this book, Becky and Linda encourage you not to follow the directions! Can you imagine that? How wonderful!”

We love a good review! Click here for more info.

We’ve also added a new ePattern to our site. Jacob’s Ladder didn’t quite fit in the Piecing book but it’s too pretty not to share. Click here for more info.

Our Jacob’s Ladder is made from Japanese taupe fabric but you can use any fabric you like to make yours. Value placement is important in this quilt. The instructions in our ePattern clearly state where to put the light and dark fabrics so that you don’t have to guess.

Playing catch-up…

I’m home and desperately trying to dig my way through the pile of stuff that didn’t get done while we were on the road. There is hope. The pile is smaller!

I shot this while standing in Times Square last week (hard to believe that it was only a week ago). What an amazing place. Noisy, crowded, busy people going everywhere at once, taxis doing their best not to kill you, eye-candy everywhere you look – NYC is well worth a visit. Enjoy this (short) show:

Visit the Artgirlz blog…

I had a few moments in the hotel room to blog surf. I checked the Artgirlz blog to catch up on posts I missed. I found their post on the color turquoise and it made me oh-s0-happy! I especially love this photo with the stripes in reflected in the pool water.

There are so many good blogs out there and you are reading this so you know that. I’d like to encourage you to talk to your friends and see if they, too, are blog surfing. If not, tell them what you like about it and encourage them to join the fun. They will thank you for it later.

The trip is winding down…

We’re nearly home and I’m looking through a few of the photos I took thinking that you all might be interested. These matted photos below were part of a much bigger piece of art. I liked the way the photos float inside the openings in the matt, sometimes on torn black paper. Nice look.

I have no idea what this is. Looks like a huge upside-down water glass. It was on top of the MOMA.
A big part of our trip included a stop in Baltimore where Jeff (our youngest son) lives.