Serendipity

 According to Webster's dictionary, serendipity is: luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for.  The kind of luck that only comes from above.  That is how two crazy quilter's, one from Kansas and another from Washington state came to write a book together.  A very happy accident, that really was no accident in the whole scheme of things.

In November of 2011, these two crazy quilter's happened to sit together at a lecture given by Carole Samples.  Both were moved, almost to tears by this lecture.  At that moment we realized that as different as we both were, we had so much in common.  We both had a deep love for crazy quilting, historical quilts and a special place in our hearts for Carole Samples and her work.  I couldn't sleep that night thinking about Carole's lecture!

The very next morning we vowed to write a book together.  Our journey was filled with the joy of creating beautiful things together.  It is our hope that you will feel the joy radiate off the pages of our book.  Then maybe you can take a little bit of that joy to create your own beautiful things.

Oh, and it is due for release May 2014, so excited!

For Allie's take on our book announcement, you may visit her here:

http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/2014/02/announcing-our-new-book-quiltingjust.html


Talk to you later,

Allie and Val

{Crazy} Quilt Heart

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!  Of the top two things I love to make, a heart is one of them.  This is a class I will be teaching for Prairie Quilt Guild in my home town next week.  If you are interested in taking this class you can go here:

  http://www.pqgks.com/programs.html

If you can't make it to the class, I have the heart portion of the project (not the borders!) written up as an online class.  For more info on the online class, you can go here:  


http://www.valeriebothell.com/catalog.php?view=productListPage&category=179

Thank you for stopping by and I'll talk to you later,

A Very {Vintage} Update

I haven't posted in a few weeks and so I thought I would give you an update on my vintage crazy quilt block that I am working on.  I changed a few things that I thought didn't look quite right.  I had a white lace butterfly in the upper right hand corner but it just stuck out like a sore thumb, so off it went!  I put a Christmas tree in it's place.

Here is a close up of the lower left hand corner.  The reindeer are still flying, but I have added some red poinsettias and some small Christmas trees to the mix.

Upper left hand corner close up...

Upper right hand corner close up...

Bottom right hand corner close up....

I am giving a lecture and a workshop in my hometown in the next week or so and that has keep me busy, so I don't have as much progress on this project as I would like, but I am getting there!  You may have noticed that I haven't appliqued the picture of my 4 boys on the center of this block yet.  I am waiting until I am a little closer to the finish line because I don't want to damage the print as I work.  I have another project that I made a few days ago that I will post in a few days so......

I'll to talk to you later and thanks for stopping by!