News - January 13th, 2016
Dear Friends -GOOD Friends,
MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE HERE- if you order from me I need the three digit number on the back of your credit card. Please add it in the customer notes ot I cannot process your order. I will have the new website correct this but in the meantime this is my best fix for the problem. Thank you for understanding.
Well, I am writing this in case you hear. I have diagnosed with breast cancer and I am going through the process of learning what I must do to get better. I may have to cancel some jobs later this Fall but I will not know what until I have my consultation and then surgery. So for now I am planning on business as usual. I am on God's timeline not mine and I understand that and am OK with it. I can face pretty much anything after last year with my husband. :0) I think stress may not have helped me but quilters always DO help and they make me laugh, imagine and love. I am so thankful to have quilters as my best friends!
It is still going to take some time as the person who I had hoped would do the website is not actively working on it so I will go to plan #2. This has been a pain for me for a long time. I have had problems finding someone good and dependable too. I am not convinced a webdesigner can do both. Sigh. But it will be redone so hang in there please.
I ordered great bright and cool fabrics like I LOVE to work with and they will be here the beginning of the year and I will be selling them on my new website. It is fabric that most quilt shops do not carry and you can't find them. Many of you ask which shop I buy my fabrics from. Now I just decided to order what I love and pass them on to you. You will love what I have to offer! We'll see how long this takes for my new site to be built and up!
Stay tuned for new patterns and alot of fun things offered there.
We are going to see Spring coming along this week so I am ready for warm weather and the beginning of my garden. Colors and designs continue to just grab hold of me and I am changing the way I do my story quilts somewhat.
I am finally getting my mojo back and wanting to create and have fun with other quilters! Quilters make the BEST friends for sure and I feel that way everytime I go off to teach. I am working on getting my Hoochy Mama TWO book together and it will have the same things the first one did with the additon of houses, hats, hearts, animals and other fun things to make using the foundation idea that I created 18 years ago. Seems like yesterday....really. Stay tuned. I am going to see what it will cost to have them printed and then hand in my photos and the pages. It will be just like my Flower Power book and the original Hoochy Mama Quilts book. Not alot of color but good graphics that will show you whether it is squares or rectangles and how and where to hoochy the corners. I never tire of making these fun blocks because until they are done, you never know how they will look. The mystery is what keeps my interest! Another new item is my MOOSE pattern that is like the cow pattern. It will be printed sometime next month and he is so cute. My friend Kathy Collins helped with the instructions and measurements. I am so thankful for her gift of knowing how to do this. It is very hard and some people have the knack-she does for sure.
I am now officially out of the book that has the cow pattern. It is Out of the Box with Easy Blocks. So Mel and I have decided to do a pattern of just the cow. It should be out soon as well.
I need to catch up my 2016 calendar this week. I have filled all of the spots and will only take offers for 2017 now. I am cutting way back on my teaching and found that I need more time to create and long trips just wipe me out. Carrying heavy suitcases and running from place to place on planes and in cars is tiring. Though I do love being with quilters more than anything. I feel blessed and that my teaching is a true gift from God. I hope to keep doing it for a few more years but not at the rate I have been doing it.
I have been going through the many quilts I have made and the ones I made about our family (stories) mean so much now that he is gone. It just makes my point that a story quilt will last forever.
I am now working on a quilt about us that includes name blocks quilters that held us up in prayer and good thoughts sent. I am doing a woman and her skit and the borders are the signature blocks. VERY fun.
Retreats- Tina who cooks for our retreats and I have great plans for two retreats in 2016.
I plan to release the cutest witch you have ever seen and also a booklet called "Wall Flowers". Just wait you will love it!
COWs- I have many cows at my house now. Mel is moving and does not have room for them. With my travel schedule I think that the herd may have to break up and we will write and ask the owners to mail them to certain large venues to share them. I hope this works because everyone LOVES the cows.
If you have been following me in the past two years you know that we have a whole herd of cows that are traveling across the US and Europe.
I am teaching a COW workshop with all kinds of ideas (given in handouts) and discussion of how to develop a fun theme and invent creative things to go on or with your cow. The cow pattern is pieced and easy pieced...no little fussy pieces. I will offer it in two sizes. This class is alot of fun. Make the MOOve to take the class and enjoy the process.If you want to make the cow with NO class you may purchase the book from my (see above to order) and the book is "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks." I wrote this book with Mel McFarland. It has a GREAT cat pattern I teach in there and other FUN things.
Building Quilts with Easy Piecing- or NOT your Grandmothers Quilts. My second most popular This is using my"hoochy mama" method of easy piecing and building a great quilt with a theme. We will piece words, buildings and people or trees or flowers (Flower Power book) and make an original FUN and happy quilt that could easily win prizes. Whimsy, invention, process and passion all work towards beautiful quilts with these ideas. Two day.
Flower Power Workshop-My most popular .Easy piecing ideas for all kinds of great flowers, discussion of what's wrong with your stash and cool birds, bugs and other critters. A cotton garden with great color is a ton of fun and there are always students who come up with new ideas and share and we laugh and enjoy this workshop so much! Two day
Come On To MY House- Creative and fun pieced house blocks that make awesome quilts- I give ut an easy tree pattern and ideas for cutting and slashing and easy roof tops etc. LOVE this fun class- 2 day.
I hope you will join me for the fun and the wonderful outcomes as you grow in your design and composition. If you would like a workshop with me, two days or more please, ( I no longer teach one day workshops -contact me at Marylouquilts@aol.com
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I like to post fun things, recipes and photos of students projects and things that make you smile. Please check out my fun blog.
Check out my blog to see the photos. http://marylouweidman-marylou.blogspot.com/
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A SINCERE thank you for being there for me when I needed it so much. Quilters are the BEST friends in the entire world and I mean that. I wish more girls knew what it is like having quilters for friends and having a hobby that is so very fulfilling!
On a personal happy note, my dear son made his Iron man attempt in Whistler BC last month- we are so very happy he did this in less than 14 hours...who would want to? Anyway, he worked at it for a year and did it! Jason is an Ironman!
"If you always do what you have always done, you always get what you've always got."
Think about this if you are still doing the same old things over and over- this might be the year you change and expand and invent and challenge yourself!
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"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains it's original dimensions. " Oliver Wendall Holmes
Thank you for coming here and for supporting me, I love my quilting friends.