Just Wanna Quilt podcast guest...

Well now, this is something to be checked off the quilting bucket list!!

Earlier this summer I was contacted about being interviewed by Dr. Elizabeth Townsed Gard for her podcast, Just Wanna Quilt. Before I could talk myself out of it--I said yes and scheduled it!!

Just Wanna Quilt is ranked number 3 in the top craft podcasts on Itunes.

Read these words from their website--"Just Wanna Quilt started as a podcast and a research project at Tulane Law School.  Learn about the quilting world, and talk a little bit about copyright and other intellectual property issues too.  We've interviewed about 300 people - from the regular quilter to the famous, industry people, scholars, quilt historians, inventors, and lawyers.  Give it a listen."

So if you want to hear me say um too many times, talk about AccuQuilt, Electric Quilt, Island Batik and other random things--FIND IT HERE!!!

Keep doing the hard things until the hard things become the easy things!!!

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him."  Psalm 28 : 7

Welcome to Lizard Creek Quilting!!

Hi all and welcome to Lizard Creek Quilting!! Where sunsets in the fall are just breath taking!!

Today is my stop on the New Quilt Bloggers 2018 Hop. Make sure and check out all the other stops to meet new quilting friends you didn't know you needed in your life!!

Click the Happy Stitching Team button on the sidebar to find out more information and where to enter for some amazing prizes!!

I have been quilting for over 25 years. But for many years before that I was into all kinds of country crafting items and sold them at local craft shows around the area. This gave me the opportunity to be a work from home mom, which I am very grateful for!!

Basically I just love to make things--anything!! Even if I have to digitize it myself...who knew I could make felt food!!

Ten years ago, I convinced my husband that I needed to add a long arm quilting machine to the mix of things I do. After coming up with a business plan, showing it could be a reasonable buisness--Lizard Creek Quilting was born!!

There is a small creek that runs through the farm we lived on, and also a piece of property we owned about 1 mile from the farm--you guessed it--Lizard Creek is the name of it.

I just love living in small town rural America!! Having a float in the local parade was a great way to advertise--and all it cost was the 2 five gallon buckets of candy that we threw to kids along the route!!
You can read more about it here.

Designing quilts based on deeply personal events in my family life has been the most rewarding part of my quilting so far. This quilt is called Promise Kept. It is a journal quilt my husband and I took along to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary. On our wedding day he promised me we would go to Hawaii for our 25th. Well I made him keep that promise!! I designed this quilt with spaces where we could journal about our trip. Every night we would each write what we did and thought about the day. Then when we returned home I appliqued pictures of the trip onto the quilt. The background fabric in the center blocks is fabric from our bridesmaid dresses. I made this quilt just for us--but loved how it turned out that I entered it into several shows where it won several ribbons. How cool that was!! It was even a semi-finalist in Paducah!! You can read about my experience to Paducah here. There are a few posts about that trip--just look in April 2013.

Lots of life happened the year I turned 50!! Became a Grandmother for the first time--super cool!! And we built a new house--with space for a new sewing space and an amazing long arm studio attached to the house. The previous long arm space was in a remodeled garage stall in the machine shed. While I felt super blessed to have this amazing new space--it took a while to get my creative mojo back. You can read about that here.

What started the journey back to my creative space was taking a class with Lisa Calle--Divide and Design. I highly recommend taking a class to jump start your creativity if you are in a slump.

This quilt is called--Cultivate your Creativity. It has photos of 6 generations of creative women in my life along with written stories of their life. I pieced the lady blocks over 25 years ago when I was just learning to quilt. They sat languishing in a box until I was cleaning out my sewing room to move. I decided to put them in my guild's rummage sale booth at the quilt show. While going through the booth, I just couldn't part with them yet--so bought them back. Well now I decided they had to be put into a quilt and not back in a box. So--this quilt was designed special to showcase the ladies and how we were all connected through our different kinds of creativity--gardening, canning, keeping a home with a very limited budget, knitting, sewing clothing, quilting, interior design and a budding artist!!

My creativity had come back!! Entering the AccuQuilt Barn Block contest was something I had done for many years--but in 2016--my block--Point of View was the grand prize winner!!
You can read my thoughts about that here.

Being an Island Batik ambassador has been soooo much fun and given me amazing opportunities. Sending off my first printed patterns last fall was a dream come true. Check out the Shop my Patterns tab for what is available now. There are more coming so check back often!!

Something I have always tried to instill to my kids is that--You never know if you don't try!!
I want to encourage you to try something you think is outside your box--or something you think you are not good enough for. Send in a design to a magazine--you never know if your name and quilt might be in the next issue!!

If I am not entering another quilt contest--Runner-up block AccuQuilt Barn contest 2017.
You can read the inspiration behind this block design here.

I will be loving on my grandchildren--add one more born this spring!!

Helping my husband--in this oh so sexy coverall outfit--with all that is required to raise a quality pork product--Hormel is where our hogs are processed--so the bacon you had for breakfast could have been raised by us!!

Or riding motorcycle with my husband. Finding inspiration for new quilts in all the beauty that is around the country.

Life is a great adventure.

What dream do you have that you think is too big to attain?? Tell me about it--if it is written down it might not seem so big--all it takes is one step and the adventure is started!! Where it ends is up to you!!

Below are the blogs for this week. Enjoy!!

Tracy        http://itsatsweetsday.blog
Joni        http://fortheloveofthread.com
Cherie B.    http://cheriesquiltingjourneyblog.wordpress.com
Cindy K.        http://graybarndesigns.com
Karen        http://thequiltrambler.com/blog
Sarah        http://9658textiles.blogspot.ca
Terri        https://meanderingsalonglizardcreek.blogspot.com
Liz        http://www.savoreverystitch.com

Resting Place...creative borders

 I had just the right project in mind for  the Creative Borders and Bindings Island Batik Ambassador assignment this month!!

This 20" block was designed this summer as a result of our motorcycle trip to Yellowstone National Park. You can read about that here.

But the actual feeling or inspiration has been in the making for many years. We were married over 30 years ago and started our life together on the place my husbands' family has farmed for over 60 years and are still farming it today. They do not own the actual farm, but have cared for it as their own for all these years.

Our children were raised with lots of love and laughter in this old farmhouse! So many memories were made here. But one frigid winter night the water in our toilet was frozen solid. It was the ONLY toilet in the house I might add--the bathroom window is in this picture. That was the last winter we would spend in this drafty old house on the farm. We contacted a builder, located a building site and by Thanksgiving were living in a new draft-free house!!

 Now, what does all this have to do with quilting you might ask?? Well, I am very much a homebody. Being a homemaker and specifically a farm wife and been my joy and privilege. I loved living ON the farm place and watching all the activities that go on during the day.

Seeing all the day to day activities came to a stop when we built the new house as the building site we choose was 1 1/2 miles away from the farm place. It is a beautiful place in the country on a hill. We can see for miles in every direction, the river to the east and often have wildlife cross our lawn. 

 But it has taken my heart a few years to feel at peace with not being able to see all the daily activities on the farm!!!

 This year will be our third Thanksgiving in the new house. Three years of finding the new normal daily activities. And my heart is finally at peace with it. My heart has found it's new resting place!!
The place where new memories can be made. The place that my grandchildren know as "Farm Grandma's House"!! What more could I need?

 So, come on inside. Find the place where your heart can rest and memories made!!

Wonder and Wander Together!!

April 2016 was our 30th anniversary!! Several things crossed our minds to celebrate the event. I brought up the crazy idea to purchase a used pickup camper, pull the motorcycle on a trailer and travel to great riding places. After some thought, Loren agreed and searched Craigslist to make Terri's new adventure come true!!

What follows is a little peek into our Yellowstone Adventure and how it inspired the quilt blocks I designed and entered into AccuQuilt's Barn Block contest.
Click the link here to see all the contest blocks. Or click the name under the block on this post to take you directly to the voting page for that block!! You can vote for more than one block--but only once a day.

Here we are all loaded up and ready to hit the road!! The sun was just coming up. The colors of God's paintbrush that morning were just exquisite!!

Watch for those colors.....

At the East gate into Yellowstone we go...along with lots of other motorcycles. We had been here over 15 years ago with the kids. I remember them saying--there was just too many trees and can't we see something different--so that is what I was expecting to see again--but there had been a fire, so lots of the trees were gone. But out of the ashes comes beauty!! There were so many wild flowers and the smell was intoxicating!! Red, blue, purple, pink, yellow, and white.

Most of my photos are taken while riding--so pretend you are riding the back of a motorcycle with me!!

Wildflower Meadows

There is just nothing quite like enjoying God's great big beautiful world from the back of a motorcycle. The smells and sounds are intensified and just too amazing for words.

We rode back to the Big Horn mountains the next day--up Highway 14 through Shell Canyon and back down Highway 14A. Most of the time I am just soaking in all the sights that I forget to take out the camera.
The towering red rocks of Shell Canyon were gorgeous. The green irrigated fields of hay had such a sweet smell. The fast running creek along side the road made me smile. All of it is stored on the memory card in my mind!! Along with coming down 14 A with 13 miles of 12% grade curves!!

Free range cattle!! Who knew that was a real thing?!?! No fences!! There were 2 young calves on the road right along a curve--interesting event on a cycle!! They let us pass without incident.

Shell Canyon Road

Bear Tooth pass is considered one of the top 5 riding roads, so we had to go!!

I kept the kids informed along the way--love the ways technology can keep us all connected!!

Saw lots of snow and these curve signs!!!

The views were 360 degrees around--I didn't know where to look first. Since I wasn't driving I could look anywhere!! Loren on the other hand--had to keep his eyes on the road--as looking out to the sides messed with his depth perception when he looked back to the road--so best I take pictures for him!!

The classic photo op!! We had made the kids take this photo years ago--so we did it this time!!!

Such gorgeous color!!

Vacation selfie!!!

Our rides in Yellowstone and surrounding areas of Wyoming far exceeded what we imagined!! Just beautiful!! We LOVED the pickup camper--like a little home away from home! I have a tendency to get homesick--even with all my family around, I can still miss my home. This trip that never happened!! I was so relaxed and enjoying the adventure of it all that I was so not ready for it to end. All was well with my soul!!!

Resting Place

We stayed a night in Spearfish, SD on the way home--beautiful place too--next's year's plan--Sturgis here we come!! Heading east on I-90 to home, we stopped at the Chamberlain rest stop. There is a giant stainless steel statue that I wanted to see.

Dignity is the name of this Native American woman wrapped in a Lone Star quilt. It was as inspiring as I had hoped it would be!! Well worth the turn off and drive up the hill.

Up To It

Wonder.

Wander.

Repeat.