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Last time I was in La Veta there was a big boat being built by a man whose heart is as big as his hat! If you have a dog in need of a home - I know just the place for it! I can´t give out the exact address - but just fedEx it to La Veta in care of Noah. Remember to poke holes in the box!

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 If you are in the Iowa area this weekend, the Ankeny Area Quilters´ Guild Presents: "Pieceful Days and Pieceful Nights".  This is the second largest quilt show in Iowa and it´s already underway! It´s a "can´t be missed show"!  Be part of all the quilt excitement on July 11 & 12th. Show hours are Friday, 9am-6pm and Saturday, 9 am-4 pm.

If you go, please go by the TQS booth (that´s right! we have a booth!) and say "Hi" to Susan and Celeste.  JoAnn from Ankeny did and she is our newest TQS Star Member (TQS Member JoAnnDM)!  Ruth got to welcome her personally on the telephone first thing this morning!

At this show, there are fabulous quilts, 195 at last count, great shopping, lectures, events and delicious food.
Check out all the details for the show by clicking here:  Quilt Show

Location, location, location: The Faith Baptist Bible College is located at 1900 NW 4th Street, Ankeny, Iowa. To get there: go West on W. 1st Street, turn Right (North) on State Street turn left on 4th Street. The college is on the right about 2 blocks down.  And when you get home, don´t forget to tell us all about it and send us your photos!  Have fun!

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You just have to get Mabel-een under control - here is a tip we found on Youtube-

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A month or so ago it somehow slipped out on a blog that Justin and I got a new dog. You wanted to see her - so here she is. It´s not the greatest picture, but it was taken on a rainy day at Autumn Rock so she looks a bit worse for wear. Mabel had been abandoned in La Veta back in April. We saw her and tried to feed her for days. She would take the weenies and run into her hidey hole under a porch next to our ´quickie mart´. She would not get closer than twenty feet to any human - even though her tail was wagging.

Long story - short, we told the town hall if they could catch her we´d take her, but we were heading to Paducah and New York and they would have to keep her in the pen for almost a month. We arrived back in La Veta and the next day the code enforcement officer said, "We got yer dog!" She was very, very shy and we were afraid that if she got off the leash that she would again be very difficult to catch. However, that was not the case.

She is very friendly, still a bit shy, and it is obvious that she had been abused. She has learned that she is in a good home - and now that she is house broken, and after a few pillows ´got ate´, she has settled down and is proving to be a really good dog. When we got her, her ears were still droopy, but now they stand straight up. The other three dogs are finally accepting her as well.

Mabel? We´ll Mabel-een, for her eye makeup. I don´t know much about eye makeup, but she needs someone to help her learn to put it on a little bit better. Doesn´t four dogs constitute a pack?

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Taos Pueblo

During the recent holiday weekend I took a trip with an old friend from high school and his family to Taos, NM. Taos (rhymes with house) is less than a two hour drive from La Veta. It is a wonderful old town built in the Sante Fe, adobe, style. The town is centered around a plaza and many shops and fine art galleries abound. The famous frontiersman Kit Carson lived in Taos and his house is now a museum.

However, the jewel of Taos sits just outside the town proper. The Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark. The multi-storied adobe buildings have been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years.

The Taos Pueblo is an amazing place and no doubt the photos I took will inspire my quilting in some way. I hope the images will inspire you too. Three Purple Pueblos is a quilt I designed and made in 1991, my first year as a quilter, that was inspired by pueblo imagery, but long before I knew about the Taos Pueblo.

The music is "Journey" from my Sacred Age CD.

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Being fired up by the wedding at Alden Lane last week, I decided it was time to finish Joey and Shelly´s Chuppah. Between Wendy (she did the machine work) and my self (I did the hand work) - we are looking at 60 hours - but hey, who´s counting? Here is the problem, on one edge there is a little puckering - take a look. How distracting is it? Do I need to redo - or move on to "something old. something new, something borrowed, something blue".........I am thinking that when it is in place, it will be a non issue.

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There are still a lot of fires in California.  Here was the Smokey Sunset last night in the Hills near Yosemite.  The air quality is still poor.  They say if you can´t see 5 miles, stay inside and watch Episode 301 with Jane Sassaman.  Okay, "they" is Capt´n John, but we think he´s right.

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Photo by Gregory Case

Are you intimidated by all of those fabulous large print fabric in your local quilting store?  Are you not sure how to make it work into a quilt?  Well, join Alex and Ricky as they discover the Jane Sassaman way to make use of  large print fabrics to create a stunning quilt in just a few hours.  Jane also shares how she conceives and designs a fabric line; in addition, Ricky teaches you how to set in a corner using a print fabric.  To watch the show click here. 

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Congratulations to Lavella Casinelli from Santa Rosa, CA who received the CBS channel 5 (cbs5.com) Jefferson Award. To see more about her quilting efforts, healing one person at a time go here.

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On the 4th of July, Alden Lane Nursery (home of Quilting in the Garden / QITG) was a glow with Wedding festivities. Who, you might be asking was tying the knot? Cyndee´s (my personal friend, fellow pirate and leader of QITG) son Matt and his beloved fiancee, Mia were celebrating in style. I told Cyndee anything she needed, she could count me in. First duty was to sew a tiny pocket for inside the wedding dress to hold a coin (sorry about the blurry picture), then on the 3rd it truly was "all hands on deck". The details were incredible. Things to take note of: The green rectangle was for the ring bearer - when finished it had pink ribbons securing the rings. The party favors were pink fire crackers in bags with pink and brown jelly bellies along with a candy bar - OH yes!!!. The cake was tiered cup cakes and guess who made the flower girls flower ball? Also, Mia´s parents are from Vietnam, and her Mom wore a traditional "long dress" - check out the fabric on that!! It was pleasure and honor helping behind the scenes - the amount of friendship, care and love in the air was intoxicating. The best part? I hear that across the United states fire works were displayed - now THAT was working out the details. OK - so this is not exactly quilt related, but honestly - who can´t resist a love story?

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