CHALLENGES

Jo & Friends Retreat at The Barn 2007

On the last weekend of March, 27 of us met for our annual retreat with Jo Morton of Nebraska City, Nebraska. This is the fourth year Jo was our featured teacher and about 20 of the ladies also attended for the fourth year. Rather than a structured project this year, we made 4" churn dash blocks from Jo's fabric to exchange. Everyone will set them together differently, with suggestions from Jo. We can't wait to see the quilts made from these blocks when we gather next year!

One of the highlights of our weekend is the "Show and Tell." We have posted photos of the "Jo" designs on her Yahoo group, JoMortonStitchers. If you are a member, you can see them there. If not, join up and get involved with the fun!

Here we will post pictures of other projects shown during the Show and Tell. I'm always impressed at the talent in this group.

We had a surprise visit from Terry Clothier Thompson from Lawrence, Kansas. She was working on a new quilt, a great inspiration for Spring!

On Saturday, Candy Hargrove came over with a wonderful spread for lunch. Since she retired this year, she is quilting even more! She also brought alone one of her hand applique projects, "Friendship's Garden," by Blackbird Designs. Candy has begun sewing for Jo, and her first pattern for the Andover fabrics site is up! "Northwest Star" can be seen on www.andoverfabrics.com, by clicking on their Free Quilt Pattern section. It uses the new "Hattiesburg" collection by Jo.

Diane Basham has been very busy this past year! She recently picked up 5 quilts from the quilter. She fell in love with the Paper Dolls pattern by Amy Bradley -- you can see why! She also inspired our friend Janice Johnson to make it for her granddaughter Kaitlyn.

Diane also made a real treasure for her daughter, a memory quilt with photos. She chose colors she knew her daughter loved.

My sister, Tricia, resisted the quilting bug for years. Then she went to Paducah with us. She decided to make a king size quilt for their bed, and began collecting batiks and screen print designs to express their love of scuba diving and deep sea fishing. She did a wonderful job on this first quilt; our friend Naida McKee machine quilted it for her.

Our friend Judi from here at the Lake finished her "Chocolate" sampler we did as a block of the month. It's hard to see the border, but it is a beautiful brown floral.

Judi has been using her own hand dyed fabrics, and after request, has begun selling them. Here is one of her finished quilts using her gradiant shades.

Lynda is peeking around the edge of a section of her Lone Star Quilt in her favorite colors. She loves working on this, using the fusible product.

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February 2007

Dear Friends,

I am excited to tell you that my niece Rachel is assuming the webstore operation! We are in the process of changing things, so it will be a gradual change. She has enjoyed working with the fabric, making kits, and posting new items on the webstore. By working at home she will have a chance to spend as much time as possible with her son. I will be working with her for a while, and then hope that I can realign my life to spend more time with family and friends, and make a few quilts.

Rachel will carry on the "Jo's Little Women" Club online and Jo Morton designs, as well as all Need'l Love patterns and fabric. As she learns more about the quilting world, she may add another specialty. We hope that by working together, we can offer you more kits of designs from these two wonderful ladies.

Rachel, her husband Casey, and 7-year-old son Derek live only about 10 minutes from me. I have enjoyed being able to spend so much time with her, and look forward to many years of sharing our love of quilts and fabric together!

Here is a picture of them outside in the snow:

Gretta continues to enjoy her life, both here at home and when we're visiting friends. She doesn't get to see Buddy as often now, but has another new boyfriend. Newly retired, her aunt Candy adopted a darling little Bichon-Pappillion and named him Buster. He has Rocky to show him the ropes and they are all doing well. For Valentine's Day, aunt Debbie made Gretta a red and white collar that says "only love." Here she is showing it off in the sun.

Please continue to visit the website as we make changes and add new things. We'll keep you updated through the email newsletters and monthly on the "Notes" page. We believe that by concentrating on designs by Jo Morton and Need'l Love, we will be able to offer you inspiration from them, and assistance with your own creative pursuits.

Piecefully yours,

Julie