Back to AMB!

I'm feeling a little guilty that I haven't reminded you to keep up with the AMB blog tour.  So this post is about who and where.

Yesterday: (it's not too late to go by and say hello or to enter the giveaways) No Hats in the House (Indiana) and Life as a Quilter (Mississippi)    

Monday: A Sentimental Quilter (Illinois) and Jump Cut Arts (Connecticut)  We'll already be at the half-way mark on Monday or Tuesday.  Isn't it going really quickly with two states per day?


Do visit these great blogs: say hello and enter to win some beautiful fabrics that are just wonderful to work with.  And the best part, the cotton is grown, milled, and dyed in the U.S.  I know, we love fabrics from other places, sure, but this gives our folks work and keeps our economy working.  Besides, there's that whole national pride thing going for it, too.  

Fantasy Garden?

I need some help naming the quilt I'm working on.  Normally I think about it a bit while working on the quilt, but I'm almost finished and I still don't have a name.  

As you can see from the pictures I took yesterday and today, this quilt is a bit different from my usual.  The big flowers are the repeating Dresden plates that I wrote about a couple of days ago. 

To give it a fantasy feel, I added leaves of different colors and shapes, tufts of grass, berries and fern koru, the unopened fronds or leaves.  In this picture it's the curled lime green stem on the very bottom.

I'd love your help naming this quilt.  If you have some ideas, please leave them in a comment.  On Monday I'll take the quilt to my guild meeting and a quilt without a name is not a good thing to these quilters!

Welcome to the American Made Brand Blog Tour!

Thanks for visiting Louisiana!  We are excited to have you and hope you enjoy your visit to "The Pelican State."  Louisiana earned it's statehood in April 30, 1812 and is the only state to govern using the French Napoleonic Law: the reason we have parishes rather than counties.

Many people think of New Orleans when they think of Louisiana, and that certainly is reasonable when one considers the impact NOLA has on our economy, history, culture and lives.  But there is much, much more to our state. Let's travel from city to city for a glimpse of the culture and traditions of the magnolia state.

Louisiana has a predominately Catholic community in the southern parishes, myself included.  I can't imagine going to New Orleans without visiting or attending mass at St. Louis Cathedral.  Within walking distance of the cathedral are the French Market, Cafe du Monde, and the Riverfront. Plan to spend most of the morning in the downtown area for beignets and shopping and strolling.

Of course, there's the French Quarters with its party atmosphere, music, and delicious alcoholic concoctions.  Be warned!  A hurricane (and every other drink) is potent.  Every sip has consequences.


Have children in your party?  Take them on a street car ride to the Audubon Zoo, but don't forget the Aquarium, IMAX, Insecterium, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and WWII Museum.  All are filled with interesting, fun activities and history.  Like the weird?  Voodoo and cemeteries are a big draw.  I could go on, but we need to move on.  To represent NOLA, I included the Mercedes Benz Superdome because so many people visit.


Baton Rouge is next on our route.  The Louisiana State Capitol is a definite stop.  On my license plate it's the tall, pointed building.  I have memories of searching the tree line for the first glimpse of the Capitol as we drove into BR when I was a child.  It is the tallest state capitol in the union, a point of pride for Louisianans. Visit Baton Rouge is a good place to do some searching if you're planning a trip.  The zoo is awesome and there's lots of shopping at the Mall of Louisiana.  Do yourself a favor and visit River Road plantations and the LSU Rural Life Museum.  


Lafayette is city of cajun French culture.  Visit Acadian Village...like the Rural Life Museum in BR, it has a collection of historical buildings.  Architecture is important to Louisiana's history and culture.  Mardi Gras is a huge festival in Lafayette but with a family friendly atmosphere. Swamp tours, food, history, festivals, and friendly people are all attractions that draw people to Lafayette.  You definitely want to go to a Zydeco concert.

I would not do my state justice if I left out our swamps.  Louisiana has swamps in every section of the state, including the northernmost parishes. Of course, swamps are far apart in the north, but it's interesting to travel along the interstate in pine woods and hills and suddenly there's a small swamp of cypress trees, moss, and lily pads.  


And speaking of the northern parishes, there are two cities that I must mention: Shreveport in the west and Monroe in the east. In Shreveport there's the Boardwalk for shopping; riverboat casinos; golfing, fishing and outdoor activities; and beautiful public gardens.  Monroe has parks, gardens, a zoo, and outdoor attractions.  Of course, Duck Commander is located here, but you know that from Duck Dynasty.  

Between these Louisiana cities are lakes, woods, small towns and interesting historical places, such as Poverty Point.  Louisiana has too many things to do it justice; I can only hope that my license plate gives one a sense of the beauty, culture and people of Louisiana.  

Don't forget to visit Olive and Ollie to see the Ohio license plate.  It debuts today, also.  But before you go, enter to win the giveaways.  First place is a set of eight fat quarters from the American Made Brand by Clothworks.  AMB will send the fabric once I choose a winner and contact them with your info, so make sure I have an email address for contacting you.  The second prize is a small fleur de lis wall hanging that I made a few weeks ago specifically for this giveaway.  Again, leave an email address.

How to enter?  Couple of ways actually:

1.  follow my blog and leave a comment telling how you follow
2. like my Facebook page and leave a comment saying you did
3. share the American Made Brand website and leave a comment telling us how you shared.  Click here and scroll to the very bottom for a list of ways to share, such as FB, Pinterest, Twitter and so on
4. leave a comment telling where in Louisiana you have or would like to visit

Each comment is a opportunity to win.  I'll choose a winner on Thursday, June 5.  Must have a U.S. address to win.  You can come back as often as you'd like to re-enter.  Now, hurry, go visit Olive and Ollie...Heather would love to see you!

Pin It Weekly #67

Happy Wednesday!  I've been working on my repeating Dresden quilt and  I'm almost there!  Well, I almost have enough plates, anyway.  That's a far cry from being almost there with the complete quilt, but no matter!  I'm having fun making the plates and I'm really looking forward to working on the quilt itself.

Reminder that tomorrow is the day my American Made Brand license plate debuts!  I'm really happy and almost relieved.  I've been a little nervous, but this afternoon I took time to write the post and get it out of the way.  I've had so many internet issues because of the weather (I assume) that I didn't want to take the chance there would be no connection.  That done, I'm feeling much less concerned.  I need only a few moments of internet to publish the post.  Relief! 

And now, Pin It time!  I'm having a fun time looking over some flea market ideas.  No ideas why, except that I like flea markets. 

Hope you enjoyed the flea market and didn't spend too much money or take home too much stuff!  Come back tomorrow to see my Louisiana license plate.  And remember to visit Olive and Ollie, too.

AMB Blog Tour Day 7 and a new quilt

Vermont's Quilter in Motion and Rhode Island's Seaside Stitches are up for today's AMB blog tour.  Unfortunately, it's taken me about four hours to get through this one post, so by the time you read it, we'll be getting close to Wednesday.  That means that Simply Sandy [Kentucky] and Confessions of a Fabric Addict [Tennessee] will be debuting their license plates soon.  Thursday yours truly will finally debut her Louisiana license plate.  Yay! More on that later.

In other news, I began a new quilt today.  I've had this fabric for a while and have been holding it to make repeating Dresden plates.  Repeating Dresdens are fussy cut so that all 16 of the pieces have the exact same motif, which is repeated all the way around the plate.  Of course, this creates a new design that can quite striking and every one is very different from all the others.  

Since I just got started today, I don't have many plates to show.  I need about 15 or so plates for the project that is in my head.  But before I can get to the project proper, I'll have to make a few more plates.  I am having fun do that, however.  I like sewing together the pieces, then opening them up to press.  The design is really stunning and so different each time.  

Can you guess what I'm planning to do with these?  Think modern fun.

Modern Monday and Babysitting Woes

I've been working on the next block for the Louisiana Traveling Quilt.  I got two blocks from the person ahead of me and instructions (of sorts) that this quilt is a polka dot one.  This project is sponsored by the Northeast Modern Quilt Guild, so I'm working on keeping in the modern quilt theme.  I found two or three polka dot fabrics in the stash and am trying to choose from those.  The blue fabric on the right might be the one, but I like the colorful dots on the bottom, also.  I'll work on it a bit more and get back to you when something clicks.

The other thing going on right now is that we've been puppy-sitting again.  Darla is a cutie, but she's loud. No, I mean LOUD.  .She has a high-pitched, screaming voice.  Of course, she barks at everything.  I have trouble sleeping, so when I got up to move around at 3 a.m., Darla followed me.  Five minutes later she returned to the bedroom.  When my chair squeaked, she went into convulsions--barking and yapping and growling.  I tried shushing her but to no avail.  In this picture Darla is the one with hair on the left.  Our Maltese puppies all got beauty treatments that cost them their hair.  We're having trouble telling them apart.  

It may be true that puppies become like their owners: Darla definitely is like Marley: loud, wild, and an escape artist extraordinaire.  She escaped the back door and it took me 15 minutes of calling and coaxing before I got her back inside. Basically, she ran at high speed while I followed in disgust, and very hot, until she finally wore herself out.  That's what I do with Marley most of the time...let her run and play till she runs out of gas and asks to go inside.

Don't forget the American Made Brand Blog Tour!
If you haven't visited Quilts from My Crayon Box (New York) and A Stitch in Time (North Carolina), do so soon to be eligible to win the beautiful American Made Brand collection of eight fat quarters.  I am very impressed with their creations!

Happy Quilting,