What will you finish first in 2013?

[Lois B.]

Wendy, Your mug rug is adorable. Love it! I thought of you this weekend. My husband and I stayed in a B&B near our son's home in New Jersey. It was a small horse farm, but the hostess also kept chickens. Our breakfast was fresh eggs directly from the "girls' in the back yard". The yolks were so bright they were nearly orange. You must have treats like that nearly every day.

[Renata L.]

Your mug rug is too cute, Wendy!!! Lois, were you in southern Jersey? That, once upon a time ago, used to be BIGTIME horse and tomato farm country! Not so much anymore, but still a few farms survive down that way and beautiful area.

[wendy w.]

Thank you.

Lois I am getting eggs again now after a lean winter. I wonder why home grown eggs are so much more yellow must be all the worms. Sounds like a perfect place to stay

[Constance G.]

Norma, your quilt is gorgeous...love all those pointy points!

Wendy, cute mug rug! Makes me feel like spring is coming!

[Lois B.]

Wendy, Her set up for the chickens was too cool. The pen was on wheels so she could move it all over the horse pasture. Because of preditor fowl, eagles, hawks and such, she could not let them roam free so instead she just rolls the pen all over the pasture so they can eat bugs and worms. During winter she can't move them further away from the house than the electric chord can reach. She says that in order for them to keep laying they need 14 hrs of light, so she extends their days with an electric light. As soon as the days are long enough she can move them further from the house.
Renata, There are still some farm just south of Philly. Lots and lots of all kinds of fresh fruit and other produce is still grown there, but more and more of the land is taken up with housing developments and shopping centers. It's sad to see it go.

[Norma H.]

Thank you ladies for all your kind comments

Wendy, your mug rug is very sweet

[Renata L.]

It is sad to see it go, Lois. One of my relatives lives in Cumberland County--south Jersey farmland, just south of Philly. Their property used to be the parents' horse and tomato farm, the last generation to use it as such, but each surviving child received a piece of the land along with a house on it which they have maintained in its original state--very country! That area is still untouched by shopping centers and probably will be protected because of the "historical" nature of the area (not even a cell phone tower could be approved) but you have to wonder for how long will it remain pristine. They used to call New Jersey the "Garden State" but that has changed so much over the past 50 years. I spend alot of time up there when I can break away from DC.

[Susan B.]

Norma, your quilt is gorgeous! That must have been fun to bind, or a real learning experience, or would have been for me! I'd be ecstatic to finish a quilt of such detail. The colors are luscious.

[Susan B.]

Wendy, I love the mug rug. That looks like the size project I could get done, life interfering and all!

[Norma H.]

Norma, your quilt is gorgeous! That must have been fun to bind, or a real learning experience, or would have been for me! I'd be ecstatic to finish a quilt of such detail. The colors are luscious.

It was fun to make, but you can do that too. Go to http://classroom.simplearts.com/class/?page_id=10 and sign up for the class. Be prepared that it takes a lot of work and Annie's class is not available forever. I think she changed some of the conditions on the class. When I signed up it was the first online class she did and we only had access to the lessons a short period and had to wait for the next. I think people now get access to the whole course at once.

It's a quilt based on learning as many techniques as you can and that's seen in the quilt. When she designed it she wanted people to know as many techniques as possible and in my class some were questioning about why they should make templates when they could paper piece. I just had to tell them that they were here to learn how you can do things in different ways and it's always good to have more tools to choose from.

What for me was the most difficult thing in this quilt was to choose how to quilt it. I wanted every block to speak for itself and at the same time to make the quilt a whole.

[Norma H.]

Cute mug rug Wendy. They could be fun to swap

[Lois B.]

I agree! I would want a chicken one from Wendy and a coffee cup from Rosemary..... and...... Maybe I am thinking round robin sort of thing. Rosemary I had my heart set on your AAQI coffee cup quilt and then I never got to Houston to even see it. It was gone. I'd love a set of mug rugs from TQS friends.

[Rita C.]

Love the mug rug Wendy and the mug on it - can I have both please? :lol: I would be on for a mug rug exchange too?

[Constance G.]

Norma, thaks for the info about Annie Smith's class. Hmmmmmm...how many quilts can I juggle at once... :shock: :?:

I think a mug rug swap would be fun!

[Constance G.]

So are we thinking of a random 1 to 1 swap where your your partner is drawn out of a hat, or is it more along the lines of a multiple trade-ins with people indicating how many they would like to swap with ie. if I were to say that I would like a group of 4 and would trade with 4 different people (and maybe putting a list of preferences that I might or might not get?). If people just send their mug rugs direct, then the person running it just needs to to a spreadsheet co-ordinating wallah.