Summer at QIC

It's beginning to really look and feel like summer around Quilting in the Country (despite the rain the last few days). I can't remember a June with more beautiful wild flowers in the Gallatin valley.
We thought you might enjoy seeing a few pictures of the poppies that have exploded out back of the bunkhouse. Please feel free to wander through the gardens when you visit the shop!

Graduation Celebration

If you've been a long time follower of my e-letter, I’m sure you remember our Quilting in the Country web mistress, Juli. Juli’s daughter Miriam graduated with honors at the BHS graduation ceremony on Sunday. Saturday evening Bill and I had the honor of hosting Miriam’s relatives and special friends at a pre-graduation celebration. We all know that graduation celebrations are landmarks in our lives and occasions when we honor our most cherished relationships. Finding the appropriate thing to say or give at such an event can be a challenge. I had known for over a year what, in my mind, would be the perfect Miriam gift. Miriam has been an amazing birding expert since a very young age when she and her sister, Allison, would accompany their mother to work at QIC.

What, you are probably wondering, would the perfect gift be? I called my friend, Lorca Smetana, who trains homing pigeons which she releases for many ceremonies. Although it was difficult, I wanted to keep the dove release as a surprise for Miriam and her family.  As we all gathered in our front yard last Saturday evening I knew that I’d been successful in keeping the gift a secret.

Lorca gave a short history of carrier pigeons. She gently handed the white dove to Miriam. As Miriam released the dove, Lorca allowed the other doves to flutter and fly.  Watching the doves circle and then disappear into the clouds was an overwhelming symbol of letting go and new beginnings.

Lorca created a lovely card using one white dove feather and one wild mallard feather. The mallard feather symbolized the time, years ago, when Miriam had tried, unsuccessfully, to teach our non-flying Mallards to fly! Of course, the white dove feather symbolized Miriam’s flight- a new passage. 
 
Lorca asked me to contribute words to the card she created.  This is what I suggested:  Listen, look, taste, touch, breathe and fly. And that’s only a beginning for Miriam.

When Allison and Miriam were young girls Juli often brought them along for a day at Quilting in the Country. As Juli worked, sometimes she put the girls “to work”. A successful day at QIC meant the girls could select a fat quarter of their choice. Juli surprised Miriam with a quilt from the fat quarters she had chosen long ago.

Pillows, pillows and more pillows!

Looking ahead on the summer calendar, I really need to make some quick summer gifts. I need gifts for graduation, a 50th wedding anniversary, wedding and bridal showers, a new baby birth, Father’s Day, and birthdays. Whew!

Have you considered creating simple pillows as gifts? We have many of the antique art fabric images available.  They are from the Golden Age of Illustration, 1885- 1935, and are considered Giclee high quality art on fabric. I absolutely love working with them. You can create a very special pillow as a unique and personal gift that is easy but meaningful.

Here are some samples along with links to our website for ordering the prints or in some cases kits, patterns or books. The "Dad" pillow would make a wonderful Father's Day gift.

 DAD Pillow

Farmer's Wife with Seeds

Girl with Iris

Good Housekeeping Girl

 Hollyhock Girl

Special Quilt for an Important Cause

The International Quilt Market took place in Portland, OR in May. Moda Fabrics (one of our favorite fabric lines at Quilting in the Country) was there and created quite a stir with this quilt. 

Isn’t it stunning? It is one of the Howard Marcus’ “Collections for a Cause” fabric lines. Howard Marcus is the owner of Moda Fabric and these fabrics are inspired by antique quilts in his personal collection. You may be familiar with some of the previous lines that raised money for groups such as The Alzheimers Association, UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity. This line of fabric will support St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

I’d like for you to have a little background information on the original quilt. Here is what is written in Moda’s fabric preview book:

“This beautiful quilt from the Howard Marcus Collection is from Virginia. It is believed to have been made by Anner Patrick Bousseau. The fabrics featured in the quilt are from 1825-1840. The quilt was passed down through her descendants.

There are over 1700-3” clamshell segments, plus partial clamshells in the quilt. The dress and home décor fabrics used, all prints, range from dark browns to medium browns, gold, double pink, indigo, Prussian blue. All were set with tan solid clamshells. The border is a golden brown toile or possibly chintz faded to beige that has regular ovals featuring the head and shoulders of a courting couple. She holds a rose and he, in uniform, offers a ring.”

Don’t worry, there aren’t 1700 clamshells in the updated version! (Unless you want to order two kits and make it bigger!) The original quilt was 96” X 115” and Moda’s new one is 61” X 69”. The kit will include over 600 laser cut pieces to make the clamshells as well as border and binding fabric. This quilt may be a bit challenging for a beginner but the laser cut pieces make construction much simpler and faster.
We want to make sure you have an opportunity to order this one—of—a—kind kit and support a great cause as well. We need to place our order for this kit by the end of June and the kits will ship to us (and then to you) this September. It’s truly a beautiful quilt. We hope you’ll be as taken with it as we are. We are offering a special to those of you who order the kit before June 30th of 10% off the original price of $184.99. Order online or call the shop to place an order: 406-587-8216. "Love" Kit

Lacrosse State Champions!

I mentioned a couple days ago that I'd like to share more about our recent trip to Colorado. My husband, Bill does consulting work for a company, Colorado Histoprep, in Ft. Collins. He hardly ever has on site work but this trip to Colorado was to work with other experts on a new product-lung valves. 

Bill is the fellow in back, third from the right.

In addition to Bill’s work we decided it would be a good time to visit our family in Denver. It was the perfect time! It was our oldest grandson Conor’s 15th birthday. Also, our granddaughter Quinn plays varsity lacrosse at Cherry Creek High School. We arrived in Denver just in time to get decked out in the school colors-blue, red and white- and go to the game which would determine whether Quinn’s team would qualify for the state tournament. They won the game! Bill and I decided we HAD to stay for the championship game. 

Intermittent showers didn’t dampen our spirits as we watched Quinn and her team mates decisively win the Cherry Creek High School State Lacrosse Championship!

I enjoyed presenting at the Ft. Collins Fig Leaf Quilt/Furniture shop. It thrilled me that long time friends came to support me. My childhood Iowa farm neighbor came, another neighbor from Minnesota graduate school days made the effort to come, a friend from Billings, Montana just happened to be in town, and QIC Colorado customers came. I had fun and think everyone else did too.

I did visit two other quilt stores in the area. One called Laughing Ladies Quilting was in nearby Berthold. Amazingly I could hear women having fun and laughing when I entered. The shop has an eclectic selection of styles of quilts and fabrics. It was interesting to me as I always wonder why other shops choose what they do. The owner of the shop, Lori was willing to share her buying philosophy and I learned more about what makes each quilt shop unique. Lori started her business two years ago.  I shared my books and she plans to offer classes from my Quilting in the Country book. 

At my daughter Anne’s insistence we visited another shop which just celebrated its two year anniversary. It is located in Greenwood Village, CO and is just a short distance from Anne’s home. It is completely stocked with Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, a wide array of Westminster Fabrics and other fabrics of that type. Anne, Quinn, and I chose some fabrics to recover footstools. If I were opening a quilt shop at this time I would like it to be just like Snappy Quilts. Well, maybe not exactly like the strip mall location-I love living next door to my shop and our environment is so special!

Quilting in the Country

Glory Week

Didn’t you love the blog entries Kristin wrote to you last week in my absence? I also liked receiving the Quilting in the Country e-letter without having to give a thought to it. It was a lovely surprise. Another gift was the beautiful lush green lawn and blooming flowers. Apparently it really rained while we were gone. Some of the garden seedlings were popping up. Our environment was gorgeous. It was quite a contrast to the Denver area which was behind Bozeman due to snow and cold weather. I knew it must be the week local nursery man, Jerry Cashman, has coined as Glory Week. We’re glad that we didn’t miss Glory Week while we were in Colorado.

 We met Jerry and Jan Cashman when they first moved to Bozeman in the early 1970’s.  They were a young couple introducing the long standing Midwestern Cashman family nursery stock to our community. They lived in an apartment on South Nineteenth but early on had acquired land north of Bozeman where their present nursery business is located. A few couples were invited to the vacant property to a "Plant a Tree and Watch it Grow" party. I remember it was a cold, drizzly evening. Years have passed and the Cashman’s business thrives and so does the first tree that was so ceremoniously planted many seasons ago. 

As the tree grew on the Cashman’s  property so did their business. Jerry learned about the Bozeman climate and what variety of flowering trees and bushes would thrive in our area. He also paid close attention to the calendar and eventually proclaimed a week in May, Glory Week.  I didn’t check with Jerry but I decided that last week must have been Glory Week. I concentrated my daily walks in the older neighborhoods with lots of flowering crab apples, fruit trees, and flowering almond bushes. It was a perfect week for walking! Just walking from the shop and the bunkhouse was amazing. 

I'm looking forward to sharing more about our time in Colorado with you. Check back in a day or two!

Final Staff Retreat: The Recipe

Of course one of the best part of any quilting retreat is the food! Why are quilters so often such good cooks as well? It's amazing we find the time-I mean who wants to cook when there's quilting to be done?!

Nevertheless, the Quilting in the Country staff are no exception to the good cooks rule. It's fun to be able to retreat in a place that has a well-stocked kitchen where we can prepare our food from home. G-Bar-M's kitchen is just such a place. However, Jane tells us it's even better with her paid retreats where they do all the cooking for you and provide you with more food than you could ever eat!

When Kathy and I were asked to do the e-letter, we remembered that Tina had provided a recipe to be included. Except then we forgot to put it in. So you blog readers are the lucky recipients. Here is Tina's recipe for White Chicken Chili. She brought it in a crock pot and it was such an easy lunch and so tasty.

White Chicken Chili

A chili recipe with chicken and white beans.

This easy chili recipe uses two kinds of white beans and rotisserie chicken meat for a deep, rich flavor.

White Chicken Chili Recipe

• 1 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 -15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 -15 oz. can navy beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups cooked, diced Rotisserie chicken meat
• 1- 4 oz. can diced green chiles
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. oregano
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)
• 4 sliced green onions (optional)

Heat oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan. Add onion and garlic. Cook 2-3 minutes. Process one cup chicken broth and 1 can cannellini beans in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add to onion and garlic mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer 20-30 minutes.

Garnish with shredded cheese and onions and serve with sweet cornbread.

Serves 8

Because Jane knows about quilters being such good cooks, she's compiled four cookbooks over the years. Her Soups On is no longer available (although it can sometimes be found on Ebay for prices over $100!) Copies of Salad Sampler are also getting dangerously low so don't wait too long to purchase that one either.

And then, to satisfy your sweet tooth we have Daily Desserts (a compilation of 365 desserts) and Cookies to Share (recipes gathered from the many cookie exchanges Jane has hosted over the years).