Jenn and Jon engagement photos

Jenn and Jon had some engagement photos take at the Sleeping Bear Dunes here in northern Michigan. She brought along a quilt that she made for their house. It's one of my favorites. This is one that she designed, pieced and quilted all herself!

Helping out a small town quilt shop

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES LIKE US!



Hi Everyone... Today I just want to help out a local business, a small town quilt store, by having people go to the site below and voting for HEARTS to HOLLY QUILT SHOP. They are hoping to get a grant to improve thier business. With so many small quilt shops closing up, we need to help out the ones that are still holding on. This would mean SO MUCH to them. Thanks in advance!

From Sue, the owner:

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Thanks to a program sponsored by Chase and LivingSocial called Mission: Small Business, your support could translate into a $250,000 grant. But we need at least 250 votes to qualify.

We just started our campaign today because we just heard about this amazing opportunity and we need to reach 250 votes by THIS Saturday, June 30th to qualify. I know this doesn't give you much notice or time but we are asking for your help to reach our goal!

Here is HOW:

go to http://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/ and click "Support"

Find our business, Hearts To Holly Quilt and Gift Shop, LLC in the local listings and vote for us! If you have trouble finding us, just search state of Michigan - City of Charlevoix and look for us.

Please ask your friends to vote too.

You must have a facebook account to vote as that is the only way to login. If you are not on facebook...Join us!


Thank you all for being loyal customers. We value your business and thank you for all your support for the last 4 years. This grant would directly benefit you and our community, by helping us expand our horizons!


Don't delay...Vote Today! Deadline is Saturday!

Like us on Facebook

Charlie likes his quilt!

Remember Charlies quilt... the quilt for my daughter's cat? Well here's a picture of him enjoying his new gift. Lisa spread it out on her bed and he jumped right up and made himself comfortable on it. You're welcome, Charlie!

Worked on my FARMERS WIFE quilt blocks

Flock #34

Broken Dishes #11

Flower Pot #37

Friendship #39

Hill and Valley #46

Northern Lights #61

Old Windmill #62

Puss in the Corner #71

These are some of the blocks I finished up this week. I am now more than halfway done with these... 60 blocks completed so now it's time to switch fabrics. These will be for the 30's twin quilt. Next I'm going to do either Civil War or Flower Sugar... still deciding.....

Working in the yard a little today

Today I was stitching on two projects... a little bit on my Farmer's Wife blocks... finishing up some that I started in class last night. Then I worked on Amish with a Twist. 
Needing a little break after dinner, I went out to the garden to see how everything is doing and to do a bit of watering. The peonies by the garden are blooming and they're just beautiful. These are HUGE... about the size of a dinner plate! This bush did okay last year but seems to have tripled this year.

Inside the garden I spotted RED strawberries. I didn't expect them to be red yet but quite a few were and YUM!! Al and I munched on some right then and there... brought about a quart in for tonights snack... maybe strawberries on biscuits?

Lisa's new picnic quilt

Daughter Lisa and I had a stitching weekend recently when she came up from downstate to get a VERY short vacation in. She visited with us and did some work on her UFOs.

She finished up this scrappy Picnic Quilt that she had started quite a while ago. Aren't the colors wonderful?!

We took pictures of it out by the barn and in the front yard... and then I just had to give it a trial run :)

It's SO DARN HOT today!

Today is HOT HOT HOT! I check the temps online and it says its only 86 but that's in town where it's always a bit cooler. Out here in the country, away from the lake breezes, it's so darn HOT! Has to 90 at least.

I did a bit of sewing downstairs (it's so nice and cool down there)... worked on my Amish with a Twist sample. It's getting there.... slowly. All twelve blocks are done and now I'm adding the triangles that trim each block and turn them on point. Six are finished. Here's pics of the ones that are done:

 Now to head back down and finish up the rest.

A quilt for Charlie

Charles Eames Cat is my furry grandcat, owned by daughter Lisa. This will be Charlies first quilt.

You might remember my Orange Slices quilt.. a braid quilt done with Moda's Central Park. When I cut the braids to square off for the strips, I had lots of leftover pieces. Those became the squares that are sitting on the yellow floating "shelves" of this quilt. This is my go at MODERN quilting. It was also a way to use up a little from the scrap box.

Lisa was up north here for a couple of days and we spent quite a bit of time quilting. She finished up a picnic quilt and I finished up quilting this. Check off another UFO from the list :)

A very sad week....

A few days ago a wonderful lady, quilter and friend, lost her battle with cancer. Gerda was a long time friend of the quilters that frequented Block Central and The Quilt And Needle forums. Many of us never met Gerda in person but she became one of our good friends through the internet. If there was something out in cyber space that we were looking for, we just had to ask Gerda to search and she'd find it. This earned her the nickname, Marian the Librarian.

Many times she would email me when she would come across a new way to make a Pickle Dish quilt (one of my favorites) or if she found a really pretty version of one. She also would email veggie recipes, knowing that my daughters are vegans. One time I sent her a pattern that I had made. I didn't know how to turn it into a PDF, but she did, and sent me back the PDF version. She really was a wiz with the computer. In her last email to me she talked about the impending birth of her grandson, telling me he was expected at the end of April, and how excited she was. I'm so happy she got to see him before she passed.

When I first started chatting on Block Central, my first forum, Gerda was one of the many wonderful ladies I got to know. Seems like she was in almost every fabric and block swap even though postage was getting out of hand for her. I won one of the first "Favorite Block Swaps". It was Americana... done in red, white/cream, and blue. She signed her block on the back, like always, in the seam.

I put the quilt together and started quilting it, in 2009. It has been sitting on my shelf since that time, waiting to be finished. I took it down yesterday to find the block that she made me for that swap. It was in the area that wasn't quilted yet, so I took out the safety pins and looked for her signature on the seam.

I took a picture of the seam, then put the quilt back together and wrote her name on the front where I would be able to see it. I plan to finish this quilt up now. It's one that I will always treasure along with all the friends I've made online.


We are all going to miss you Gerda.

Angie's Graduation Quilt

 The graduation quilt for my neice, Angela, is finished and delivered. She texted the other day to say it arrived so now I can post  pictures of it. I used all purple and aqua fabrics with solid white sashing. The pattern is out of the magazine Quilts and More, spring 2012 issue. If you want a fun and easy quilt, this is it. I love how modern it is.

Well, that's another job done so I'm off to the sewing room to finish up my next project. I'm on month 4 (out of 5) of the Amish with a Twist BOM. This is going to be a sample at Hearts to Holly and so far, I'm really liking this pattern. It has you work on the border pieces as you do the 12 sampler blocks. That will make the whole thing move along much faster... when I'm done with the 12 blocks, I'll be mostly done piecing the border. Nice! It's a well written pattern, also.... nice for a beginner that wants to slowly progress to something a little more difficult. I'll post some pics of the blocks when I get a chance.

Today Al and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary... 31 years. It sure doesn't feel like that long. I don't think we'll be going out for dinner until tomorrow... we both thought today was the 22nd until I was working on the computer and noticed that it's the 23rd.

 Al just got back from Colorado where he picked up a sewing machine for me... yes, I know that's a bit of a drive but I love my Pfaff and I wanted another just like it. A lady from Colorado had an ad for one exactly like mine BUT hers was only used once or twice (this machine is from the 90's and was built in Germany). WELL, that was one I had to have.
Als buddy from high school lives out west of Denver. He has been wanting to visit for quite a while. This was the perfect chance to do that. With me having kind of a busy week, I thought it would be best for him to go alone. He got out there just fine but ended up with altitude sickness... we live near Lake Michigan and his buddy is up over 10000 ft. His friend took good care of him but Al didn't stay as long as he had planned... he took off for Colorado Springs to pick up my machine and then headed back. That's a lot of driving just to make your wife happy....Isn't he the sweetest!?!

The new machine is over at the sewing repair shop getting a good going over. The grease is pretty dry so they are going to clean it, oil it and make sure everything is in good working order. It sure sounded great when we did a test run with it.

This book below is a gift from one of my quilting friends. She is cleaning out and thought that I would like it. It's an old quilt pattern book from the 70's with drawings of over 1000 blocks. It's already a favorite of mine. Thanks Vicky!!!!

My latest project (well, one of three going on right now) is this Amish With A Twist BOM.

Sue gave me the bag full of fabrics to make the quilt top and I've started it... but just barely. With any luck, I'll get block two and three done today. This is block one plus some of the border pieces. One of the things I like about this pattern, besides the use of all solids, is the way they have you making border pieces as you make blocks. By the time you are done with the blocks, most of the stripped border work is done too!

I'm also quilting a graduation quilt and piecing Jenn's wedding quilt. The graduation is coming up so I want that finished up SOON so that I can get it into the mail.

Jenn's shower isn't until mid July so I have a little time before that has to be finished.

Of course there are lots of other ufos and started projects hanging around the sewing room but I'm really trying to concentrate on finishing up the important ones.