Introducing "Beauty Among Thorns"

Here is my latest design - Beauty Among Thorns!

It has been a journey for me to make it as I had to create some beauty from all the thorns in my life the last few months!

Have you had to make some beauty from the thorns in your life? Would love to hear your comments.

It is available at Quiltwoman.com.

The Quilt Pattern Magazine story........

The Quilt Pattern Magazine  (TQPM)                     
TQPM started quite like most great things do – with a conversation between two people who had opinions on what a great quilt magazine should include and ended with one of them saying, “Well, you should do it!” That conversation took place between our Publisher, Cindy Mccoy and our Editor-in-Chief Maria Hrabovsky. Maria made the suggestion and together, they ran with it.
After 15 issues now (one each month) the staff now includes a Pattern Editor-Carol Dockery, a PR person-Nan Baker, 2 Copy Editors – Sharon Kilpatrick and Maria (who is filling in for a while), and Karen – the new Editor! Meet our Staff here.

Each issue contains a variety of quilt patterns – patchwork, applique and others. Others? Like Penny Rugs, or English Paper Piecing – things like that. Meet our Designers here.
Some people say they don’t care to read a magazine online and I totally understand that, I really don’t either. But TQPM is formatted a little differently, to make it easy to print out, using as little ink as possible. It’s also available in PDF format, so that you can download it to your own computer and read it when you have the time.

We also have our own little social group at Pattern Pastiche. Every subscriber is invited to join. There, we have groups for every BOM and Workshop that’s going on, so you can share your progress and ask questions. It’s like a great Quilting Bee that never closes down, so you can go any time it’s convenient for you to go!
And while it is mainly a magazine for Quilt Patterns, we do have some monthly articles. Chris Hammacott writes about her quilting/teaching experiences from ‘across the pond’, Anna Branch shares her adventures in moving to the Canadian wilderness and Kirk and Karen Whiteside both share their lives with us. Karen, as the techy quilter, teaching us how to use our iPads to best advantage when quilting and Kirk as ‘the quilters husband’. They both have a great sense of humour. There is also a Book Review of a new quilt book in every issue. Meet our Contributors here.

OMG! I love this one!!! SO much!!!!!
And in addition to all of that (yes there’s more) There are also Bonus Patterns that come out pretty much every month. And now you can visit us on our Blog, you can Tweet with us and Like us on Facebook. We are EVERYWHERE!!! That’s a ton of value for $14.99 a year! It’s less than a half a penny a day! And not only that (YES – there is more!!!) your satisfaction with TQPM is guaranteed. If you don’t like it, you get your money back. Now, who does that????? Only TQPM.
If you’re a quilter, and you’re not subscribed – you are missing out! If you know a quilter, this is the perfect gift for them.

Prrrrrrrrrrrretty!
I’ve only included 3 pictures of projects that have been featured in the magazine, but there are MUCH MORE, believe me. Let’s see, 12 issues a year, a minimum of 6 quilt patterns per issue (sometimes more and the Bonus patterns)…. hold on…. carry the 2… ok, that’s 72 Quilt Patterns per year. Where could you buy 72 Quilt Patterns for fifteen bucks? TQPM
All the patterns are tested by our testing staff – they make the quilt completely. They don’t just make a block or two, they make the whole darn thing! Each pattern and article goes through a rigorous editing process to make absolutely sure everything is correct. Visit our Gallery here.
Wanna know what our subscribers have to say about us? Visit our Testimonial page here.
I hope to see you soon at Pattern Pastiche and if you subscribe after reading this, tell them Karen & Nan sent you
If you are an artist, or know of an artist that would like to be featured on a blog, please email Karen at SlaveToMyNeedles@comcast.net. I would also recommend that you check out the upcoming artists in the calendar on the Indie Mosaic board!

Good bye to Denny.

                                                                                                                                                                            

My heart is heavy as I tell you that we had to say good bye to Denny earlier this week. He was a feral cat that we rescued in 1999.  Oh the stories I could tell about this little guy! My cross stitch pattern adaptation of "The Cat Burglar" by artist Will Bullas was done during the time that he came into our life. It suited him "purrfectly" as he literally stole my heart! His life was not easy before we rescued him as his right back leg had been broken in 2 places and he walked with a limp. But he was a strong little guy. Two years ago to the day he died, he was diagnosed with diabetes and  had insulin shots twice a day from then on.


Many of you know him from his Hopscotch quilt which became "Denny's Hopscotch Quilt" so I wanted to share this news with you. He is missed greatly!

Good bye Denny! We love you!

PURRFECT SPOTS - The story continues...

Well life after a hurricane can be challenging as we learned very quickly. We had no water or power for 10 days. Fortunately the weather cooperated as it was early October so it was not too cold or too hot. In fact it was beautiful. We had water from our disaster supplies and friends brought us more. We had plenty of batteries for lights plus lots of candles. I have to say that candlelight dinners have never been the same for me since that incident. Don't think of it as a romantic evening anymore, now think the power is out!!!

House was damaged, but we could live in it and had lots of workers for weeks on end redoing the roof, the ceilings, the windows, etc. It was a very busy place.

The cats took all this in stride and thought the dumpster (that sat in our driveway for days filled with debris) was a great place to play. Now how they managed to get in is beyond me, because that thing was over 6 feet tall. Of course I was horrified and scared to death that they would get hauled away. Most of the time I kept them in what we call the "Cat House". They would come out in the morning and run and play with supervision of course and then be in by 3:00pm for the night.

But now that Casey was in the picture, they wanted to stay out and play so did not always come  when they were called.  Sometimes Casey would go off and roam, but always appeared before dark. I was in the process of getting him trained to the indoors so to speak, but he didn't really like it. The cats had finally accepted him more or less – in other words they ignored him all except for one. Dinstuhl, otherwise known as "Baby D" just loved Casey. She was a tortoise shell with lots of chocolate in her coat. She was named for a Candy Store in Memphis, TN which had wonderful chocolates! She was the runt of the litter, but she had spunk. She and Casey would play together, go roaming together, hunt together – they just loved being together.

                                               "Baby D"

When the holidays arrived we celebrated our first Christmas with Casey. It was a festive time for all and we were so thankful to have our house back together again. The weather had been nice, but in December it turned very cold. We even had sleet on Christmas Eve. This cold, cold weather continued into January. Right after New Year's, Casey just didn't seem right. I took him to the vet and they ran some tests, but could find nothing wrong. Over the weekend he grew worse so I took him to the Emergency Clinic. They weren't able to discover any problem other than a fever. They called it a FUO (Fever of Unknown Origin). He was given antibiotics and I took him home. That night he grew worse and after many calls to the ER, they suggested that I keep watching him and get him to the vet the first thing Monday morning. I held him in my arms all night long. It was one of the longest nights of my life.

Monday morning we were at the vet when they opened. They looked at his eyes and saw they had become jaundiced. They had the report from the ER. The vet was not optimistic. Casey went down hill during the day and died the next morning at 8:15am. I was devastated! I shared it with my other kitties, but not one seemed to care except Baby D. She looked up at me and then touched her nose to mine. I call that a kitten kiss. I felt that it was her way to share in our loss. (Now I know you all may think I am crazy, and I admit I am – crazy about cats. Other cat owners understand I know.)

My veterinarian asked to do an autopsy because he wanted some answers. Casey had been a healthy cat from day one or so we thought. I agreed. They discovered his liver was not the normal size plus there were problems with some of the other organs as well.  His blood work was not good. Two of the veterinarians said they couldn't believe that he had survived as long as he had because of all the internal problems. I knew that Casey was a survivor and that he had hung on as long as he could because of all the "TLC" that he received.

 But it all happened so quickly. We wondered if he had been poisoned, but we could never find a clear cut answer. It was indeed a mystery. Needless to say Casey was gone from here but was in a forever safe place. I knew that there was a new cat in Heaven. 

 

He was gone, but his legacy would live on and that will be the next part of the story.

To be continued…………..

The Purrfect Spots story continues next week......

Next week, I will continue the story of how Purrfect Spots got started. I hope you will check back then.
Thank you.

We have a winner in the Quilting Gallery Guest Blogger Tour!

I was a Guest Blogger at the Quilting Gallery last week and I offered a special prize for one lucky person who commented on my blog.
Using www.random.org  - the winner selected was Jennie P.  Her comment reads:

Jennie P. says:

February 8, 2012 at 11:05 pm

I have two dog children. One pit bull, named Ivy who has a beautiful cream and white coat and she has crystal blue eyes. She’s my baby girl. And Remus, my mutt, is a large breed. He may be a lab. I have no idea what he is actually. I picked both dogs up off the highway (not on the same day) when they were little. They would have gotten killed. I couldn’t stand to see them without homes and I didn’t want to take them to the pound in case they’d get euthanized. I don’t let them in the sewing room though because the long pet hair would get all over my fabric.

Congratulations Jennie and bless you for saving two dogs and giving them a forever home!

Purrfect Spots is a guest blogger on Quilting Gallery Today!

I am so excited! I am a guest blogger today! I hope you will go to Quilting Gallery and read all about Purrfect Spots and leave a comment for a special gift! Thanks!