The Ribbon Dancer.....She is so alive with the joy in her step and song in her heart!

       
           Maggie, The Ribbon Dancer...Larger than Life!

Do scraps make your heart skip a beat.....They do for Maggie, more like a skip in her step!  I placed the gnomes under her to give the idea of her feeling LARGER THAN LIFE...

Do you love to dive into a big box of tiny remnants and think of the quilts that have been created with that tiny triangle of pink paisley you spy in the bottom corner, hard to believe it  once was 3 yards for a back and you got it on SALE!.... (Do you want to reach out touch the streamers?)

Did you have Retreat enVy when you saw pictures from Victoria's fun with peers combing through scraps upon scraps? (I left the rays free to help give movement and texture....

When did you discover that scraps are NOT meant to be SCRAPPED.....but CELEBRATED in SCRAPPY quilts? (all these little tiny scrap baskets imploring MAGGIE to play with them!)

The story is unveiled!....I hope the happiness that I pieced and quilted in this story quilt touches you!

The streamers are from a thrift store I found CELEBRATING retro ribbons for a child's bike...I saw them and WHAM BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM....I'll take 2 of those for a quilt!

I had a blast quilting the details on this piece...it is a tiny quilt and you know me with the teeny of teeny, ROXY AND I LOVE THEM!

And it is a 1st for me!!!!!  It is off to a quilt display CELEBRATING story quilts...barely made the deadline and am so excited.  Maggie cannot wait to hang out with other stories made by Mary Lou Weidman...Peggy Baldwin Clayton and many more....

Once upon a time a puppy named Porsche ate a corner of her mommy's quilt...This sad quilter emailed LaDonna and from there giggles, tears and a story was created!

And now another chapter is complete...

What quilt show you ask?  Here is the press relaease.....

It was one of those chance occurrences that change a person’s life forever. In 2002, Peggy Baldwin-Clayton won a book at an event at Quilts by the Bay. She had just turned 50—a milestone for anybody—and had been gathering pictures and mementos of her life so far as part of a celebration. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with them all—putting them away in a scrapbook drawer somewhere didn’t appeal. The moment she opened the cover of the prize she’d won that question was answered. The book was by Mary Lou Weidman, Quilted Memories: Celebrations of Life. Peggy made her first Story Quilt , Celebrating 50 Years – my Self Portrait filling the entire 42” x 57” space with pictures of her life, of friends and relatives, buttons she’d collected, even an earring or two from special occasions. She has taken several classes from Mary Lou since, and Mary Lou included Peggy’s first quilt in a subsequent book, Out of the Box – Unleash Your Creativity through Quilts. Peggy has gone on to make 26 more quilts in the last 9 years, in spite of--or maybe even because of—large-scale events, the passing of her husband from cancer during the Hurricane Rita evacuation, celebrations of vacations with her quilting friends, Hurricane Ike and losing her job as Ike’s floods caused her company to relocate. personal health issues, Even becoming the president of Galveston’s quilt guild didn’t slow her quilt-making. What had been just a hobby has turned into a life-time passion due to that one, small bit of luck.

Baldwin moved to Galveston in 1989 to become director of the Galveston County Unit of the American Red Cross. Since then, she spent almost 3 years as the executive director of the Ronald McDonald House of Galveston, 8 years with Seaborne ChalleNGe Corps ending as its director. In March she retired from the executive director position for Bay Area Habitat for Humanity. Starting to quilt as a hobby in the 1980’s, she now calls herself an avid and passionate quilter”. All but one of her quilts have been quilted by Holly Dee Quilts owner Denise Green, a long-arm quilter in Seabrook,



Upwards of 20 of her quilts will be on display at the 1861 US Custom House, 502 20th Street from July 11-September 30, M-F 9-5 (closed Sept. 5).



Also on display are several quilts made by her teacher, Mary Lou Weidman. Mary Lou is the author of 5 quilt books published by Martingale and C&T. Her latest one-person show just closed at the LaConnor Quilt Museum in Washington state. She also designs fabric for Benertex, and has taught quilting in every state but two, as well as Canada and eight other countries. Her classes emphasize creativity—looking at things with fresh eyes. She’s fond of quoting Albert Szent-Gyorgyi: “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else does and thinking something different.” Her newest book, written with Mel B. McFarland is Out of the Box Easy Blocks—Free and Easy Piecing. It will be released the same day as the opening of the Galveston show—July 11.



Note to Peggy*******or would it be better instead to include her quote: “If you always do what you have always done you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I like the quote you used.



Also included in the exhibit are quilts from other students of Mary Lou, coming from as far away as California just for this show. The quilts are dense with details and memories, large-scale canvases celebrating quilters’ lives in bold, bright colors. This exhibit is one that both surprises and delights—you just can’t help smiling!