This is a quilt I purchased at a garage sale! Can you beleive it????? I was so thrilled to see this. The maker is a friend of mine and so I asked for the pattern too. AND GOT IT!!!!! This is SO my style! It is hanging up in my sewing room for now. I think when we have the new house built it will go into the guest room right above the head of the bed. I will not even tell you how much I paid for it, but I am sure she did not even recover her fabric costs, much less the time involved in the HANDSTITCHING of the applique!

I am a huge fan of a local quilt store. You may have heard of it...The Stitchin' Post. (www.stitchinpost.com) I belong to a group that meets once a month called Stash Bashers. The reasoning behind this group is to help us dwindle down our stash by assigning a new quilt top to make every month and also to help us organize our stash. It is wonderful! I finished another top yesterday but have now decided to add some borders. It is a HUGE quilt! Made out of Civil War flannels. It is gorgeous even though it is not very bright. I attached a photo of when I had it all laid out on the floor so I could number the strips. Needless to say it looks better now that it is all sewn.

I belong to a group on the internet called Quilt-Europe. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Quilt-Europe/) We share ideas, coordinate swaps, and just support other quilters as friends. It is wonderful. We are currently involved in a fabric postcard swap and also a block swap. I am behind as usual but plan on sewing all day tomorrow with my good friend Teresa. She also belongs to the group.

I have made a wonderful friend in Italy through one of my other groups. Her name is Simonetta. We have been writing almost everyday now for months. She is a fantastic quilter and sweet as can be. She has a blog at http://myquiltdream.blogspot.com/. Take a look. She has a lot of talent.

I need to go and get ready to work in my daughters classroom this morning. I love teaching 1st graders how to do math! What fun. Maybe there are some future quilters in there??? We can hope.

Have a wonderful day. Make sure you do some quilting!!!!!

Denise