Oh baby!

Does it sometimes seem like everyone you know is having a baby or grandbaby at the same time? That's happened to me lately!


And of course I don't have any extra baby quilts on hand for gifts. So I ordered some tiny white baby socks and onesies from Dharma Trading Company and dyed them to match.

I think they are very cute and they will look even cuter when they are worn by a baby.

Who am I?

On Sunday, I am off to New Zealand for a week of teaching and three weeks of leading a quilting and textile tour of New Zealand. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go! There will be 16 people joining me. With that many folks, I knew we would need name tags. And no ordinary stick-on tags would do! So, I drew a pattern for my signature tiny tree, paper-pieced mini-quilt with a neck strap that we could use for a name tag. My super creative assistant, Donna, had the great idea to add two pockets, so the name tags would be functional as well as decorative. She also machine embroidered everyone's name on the tags. Aren't they cute! I will put a few goodies in the pockets before I give them to the folks on my trip. Wouldn't these make great name tags for going to a quilt show? Look for my newsletter coming soon for instructions on how to make one for yourself.

The Raffle Quilt is Finished!

The 2011 Hawks Aloft raffle quilt is completely finished. Michele Hymel did the spectacular quilting and Donna Barnitz applied the binding. It looks just beautiful! I hope you can see some of the intricate quilting in this photo. Because of the southwestern design of the quilt we decided not to do our usual feathery quilting and instead did geometric and southwestern style quilting. We debuted the quilt at the Monte Vista Colorado Festival of the Cranes and sold a bunch of raffle tickets. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. If you wish to purchase tickets, please send me a check made out to Hawks Aloft and mail it to me at PO Box 10028, Albuquerque NM 87184. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number. I will mail you back your filled out ticket stubs. The winning ticket will be drawn at our annual Christmas party in December.

Many times I am inspired to create a quilt by a piece of beautiful fabric. That was the case with this little sailboat quilt, “Sailing Away”. I had a beautiful piece of hand-painted fabric by Mickey Lawler of Skydyes that reminded me of a gorgeous New Mexico sunset, where there is definitely a lack of water. Still, I was inspired to use it as a backdrop for a sailboat. This quilt is featured as a pattern on page 38 of the March/April 2011 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine. So, you can make it too!