Author Archives: Becky Goldsmith

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About Becky Goldsmith

I am a quilt designer/teacher/author, a wife/mother/grandmother, and certified yoga instructor who is searching for balance, strength, and happiness in all things.

Show and tell: Chicken Pincushion…

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Joan wrote with a story and here it is:

I just had to share this with you. I know you will get a kick out of it!!

So to backup…tonight is our quilt club meeting and we are having a hands-on demo, how-to EPP project. We will be somehow making ❤️ Hearts!! What paper shape it is, beats me. 
EPP is new to me, but I picked up a little kit and made a “Dilly” bag. It’s super cute. Hexagons. I think I may be hooked. Another skill, right?

Anyway, everyone that attends the meeting will get a little packet (to make a ❤️??) and if we want to participate in a gift exchange we can, but it has to have a ❤️ on it. I want to join in but it had to be quick and easy. (Because I just got home from Florida). I also wanted it to be useful but not another mug-rug. 

Enter the chicken pincushion from your last post. I love pincushions, can’t have too many of them (unlike mug-rugs😝)!! So I decided to give it a shot and put a ❤️ on her/his chest. Turned out so darn cute. 

I may have to make one for myself. For sure if my friend Chris Peterson doesn’t get it tonight in the drawing. She loves chickens, has her sewing room decorated with chickens. She made a rooster quilt. And I think she has a metal nesting box outside that she displays plants/flower pots on her patio. She’s a MN farm girl just like most of us and proud of it. Lives in town, so this is next best thing.

But wait! There’s more!

Yay!! Chris got the chicken and she loved it. It will go with her menagerie of chickens 🐓. 😝

Another funny (jokes-on-me thing) that happened while I was assembling the chicken was I sewed up the wrong side 😑 (across from the beak, same side as beak 🤷‍♀️??). They are small, so hard to see what side is what (can I think of any more excuses🤔), mine were 3” squares. Nice size. 

In any case, when I unfurled the chicken, the tail ended up under her chin (beak) and instead of a tail it looked chicken legs!!😝😂

There you go, a new twist on the pattern. Add 2 strips of wool with a knot at each end for funny legs/feet!! Could be cute or weird!! Maybe I’ll try one for real for myself. (Or my sister in Atlanta, she’s a chicken person. She wants the real chickens to feed/water clean up after!! Not me. I’m done with that; pincushions are better!!)

So that’s my chicken report. 

I will make a couple more for friends Jackie & Vicky for our retreat “up Nort” as they say. 

Happy stitches to you,

Joan

Many thanks to you, Joan, for sharing the story of your chicken! And may you, too, have many happy stitches!

Spring Bling Show and Tell…

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Two weeks ago Ann Blasdel took a class with me, through the Austin Area Quilt Guild, and she has totally finished her quilt! It’s beautiful! Well done, Ann, and thank you for sharing your quilt with us!

Ann based the colors in her quilt on the Alexandrite gemstone.

You can find the Spring Bling class with my other classes on Creative Spark. In the online class, MJ Kinman teaches the gem medallion and I teach the machine applique. When either of us teaches this class to a guild, only one of us is on the zoom answering questions for all the techniques in the class. Students get unlimited access to all the videos, hers and mine.

Ann said: “The videos were very clear and presented in a very organized way.  Really nice to be able to follow them.”

Thank you again, Ann, and congrats on the fast finish and beautiful quilt!

Whimsical Garden show and tell…

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Susan Keck sent me this photo of her Whimsical Garden quilt. This is her 2nd quilting project ever and she won best of show!

Susan, I’m proud of you for tackling this as a new quilter. You have sewing skills and it shows. Well done and may you continue to have many happy stitches as you start on Steve’s Birds, in wool!

Show and Tell… Flutterbye, Butterflies :-)

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I shared the Flutterbye Butterflies pattern with Margery Tadder, an internet friend, a while ago. I asked her to keep it a secret until the book was closer to release. The book, 100 Whimsical Applique Designs, is available now for presale so it is time to share Margery’s Butterflies :-). I love it so much!

At long last, I’m sending a picture of my butterflies using your lovely Flutterbye pattern. I’ll be 93 December 1st and compared to some of my contemporaries, am doing wondrously well. After surviving a long bout of pneumonia and slowly regaining energy, am back out and about and grateful for it! 
I used the butterflies for a pillow. Am really happy how they turned out after a couple false starts. 

Over the years I have saved family signatures thinking to use them in a quilt. It never happened but on the pillow back will trace the names of those who have passed away. It will be the perfect place. 

This is my finished(yay!) Flutterbye pillow and also one of the back although it didn’t turn out as I had hoped. My plan was to scatter a number of signatures in a freeform way, but about went out of my tree trying to trace them so they didn’t look like a jumbled mess! After wasting a couple pieces of fabric, got serious and did a few the easiest way possible! 

Love the butterflies and tulips and they are such pretty and cheery spot on this cold and snowy day!  But what’s not to love about this darling pattern?! The pillow does need to be stuffed again as this form is too loose. You probably know the story…the Navajo women purposely make a mistake in their weavings so the gods won’t be angry because only the gods are allowed to be perfect. I tell you, if there are any Navajo gods looking down on my pillow they definitely aren’t mad! haha.

Thank you many times again, Becky, for your generosity and kindness, and Best Wishes to you and your family for a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Margery, thank you for sharing your pillow and the story to go with it. I think the signatures on the pillow back are perfect as they are and I’m not entirely sure that it needs more stuffing—but that is your call :-). I hope you keep right on stitching because it does bring joy, both in the doing and the finishing!

Happy stitches, to one and all :-).

Show and Tell… Christmas Trees!

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Kathi Dineen sent me the story that goes with these 7 wonderful quilts…

I have a Hand Appliquetion class every month. Last December I asked the ladies to bring a Christmas project—quilt table runner—pillow etc. I brought my Slice of Christmas quilt and all fell into “let’s do, it”

Here you go 7 quilts finished this year!! Thank you for all you do-love your work!!

Kathi at The Quilt Works, Albuquerque

Linda and Kathi

I love every one of these quilts! And how fun is it to see how different they are from each other :-).

Lottie and Cheryl

The Slice of Christmas book is out of print, but you can find the ebook here.

Nancy, Julie, and Susan

Thank you all for sharing your wonderful, happy quilts with us!!! I hope you enjoy them at the holidays for years to come. Happy stitching!

eeBoo for Kids 2023

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Beginning with toys for the littles, these are the coolest lacing cards ever.

They are new from eeBoo this year, big and sturdy and beautiful. They also double as paper dolls! You sew the clothes onto your little animals, and then play with them. I mean, so much fun!

Choose from ‘Occupations’ or ‘Woodland Friends’ Lacing Cards. In each set, 5 sweet and fanciful, large die-cut animals come with easy to lace-on outfits. This won the Oppenheim Gold Best Toy Award, because of course it did :-).

NEW Mini Puzzles have been taken to the next level! 4 different 36 piece small dinosaur puzzles that also GLOW IN THE DARK. These are not your average mini puzzles, they are the same quality as the large puzzles for adults. Printed on the front and the back to make them extra sturdy, along with the already superior cardboard. These puzzles feel good to touch, and for some of our kids, that’s a pretty big deal.

Scroll below to see all 4.

These puzzles will slip into stockings. Or I think they’d be a perfect before Christmas present, or after! During downtime at the grandparent’s house, you can have an ace up your sleeve. Pull out an unexpected gift to occupy little hands and minds. You can see the pieces are bigger than a typical mini puzzle, so the finished puzzle is bigger, too.

Puzzles are a wonderful activity that require careful observation, spatial reasoning, and patience. Piecing together a puzzle develops familiarity with pattern, shape, and color recognition.

And for your little dinosaur lovers, these Giant Shiny Dinosaur Dominoes are pretty much perfect.

Each die-cut domino piece features two colorful dinosaurs highlighted with shiny holographic foil, their name, pronunciation of their name, and the footprint they would have made.

Learn about 7 different dinosaurs, and develop matching and concentration skills, as you play.

NEW and amazing, eeBoo consulted doctors and experts to create anatomically accurate artwork for these Human Anatomy Puzzles, below.

Beautiful and educational, this set of 4 puzzles has it all. Bear needs these, and I could learn something new, too. Couldn’t we all? By interacting with material while playing and “puzzling” we will retain more. I hope you have a child in your life to enjoy these with.

eyeSpectro is a game for slightly older children like Bear, or math savvy littles. Engaging both the right and left side of the brain, this game increases strategic thinking and numeracy skills, and introduces the color spectrum.

Back to puzzles, eeBoo is committed to connecting with nature through art and play. The “Love of…” series is specifically intended to give children a space to interact with nature they might be nervous about. Love of Bees and Love of Bugs are both beautiful puzzles, and are perfect for adventurous kids as well as the more timid. Bear is below working on his “Bees.”

As always eeBoo artwork invites imagination and playfulness as we interact, and these puzzles are on point.

Last, and definitely not least, these beautiful decks of playing cards are new from eeBoo this year. Playing cards with our kids is a tradition in our family that has carried through the generations. We laugh, get intense, learn new things, and laugh some more. Chris and Lorna and kids love spades these days. What card games does your family play?

  • Birds & Flowers
  • Birds & Flowers
  • Garden of Eden
  • Garden of Eden
  • From the Garden
  • From the Garden

Scroll above to see the 3 we have in stock: Birds and Flowers, Garden of Eden, and From the Garden. Gorgeous artwork combines with extremely high quality, and you will be enjoying these cards for years and years to come.

We know eeBoo uses sustainably sourced materials, and is consistently committed to protecting our planet. They have a carbon footprint of zero. What I didn’t know is that they also make sure they use suppliers that are benefitting the communities they are located in, instead of using up resources and causing harm. It is difficult to find gifts you can feel good about in every way, and eeBoo creates exactly that. Inexpensive, high quality, useful, good for planet and people. And women owned! Click to see all our eeBoo Puzzles and Games.