Clear Lake Trunk show and other half of my All Iowa Shop Hop

Here's the trunk show I  did in Clear Lake.  Decorating Seasonally with Quilts is what I call this presentation.  Thanks ladies for having me come speak!

On the way home we traveled a different route than we did on the way up so we could hit more quilt shops.  I used the All Iowa Shop Hop map to plan our route.  The picture below is at Country Threads just outside of Garner. 

 Next stop was Seams to Me, in Algona and then on to the Grotto below in West Bend.

 Below is a little peek at Quilting on Main at Pocohontas.

 Next stop, Towne Square Quilt Shoppe in Lake City.

 In between the quilt shops we stopped at this fun garden center in Sac county. 

 Below was our last stop of the day  at The Yarn Basket and Quilt Shop in Carroll. 

Check out all these shops and more at the All Iowa Shop Hop, June 1-14.  I hope lots of you can go on the shop hop, it should be lots of fun!  I will be having an outdoor and indoor quilt show...and garden show, depending on the weather!  I still have lots of spots left to stay the night while you're on the shop hop, for just $25 a night, so take my number with you and give me a call while you're on the road, if you need a place to stay while you're on the hop.  I am about half-way between the Creston and Clarinda shops.  Please take the time to come on down to Southwest Iowa... The Quilt Coop,  down in the country, south of Clarinda, is definitely worth the trip.  It has been nominated as one of the 10 best shops in the country, so if you haven't been there, make sure and check it out!

More All Iowa Shop Hop

 I'm sorry I'm so slow in posting...May is a busy month here at the Farmer's Dotter. I've been trying to get my yard and flowers to look presentable for the AllIowaShopHop.com/ , so I may not be posting a lot.

I'll try and put a few more pictures of our shop hop, but I forgot to take my camera into a few of the shops....SORRY! 

THE REST OF THE 1ST DAYS STORY!  After leaving Creston, we headed on up the road to Winterset to the Fons and Porter shop and to the Ben Franklin store, where we found a few more goodies, of course. 

 From there, we headed to Adel, where Jacque Johnson has a cute little shop called Adel Quilting and Dry Goods.  I found the cutest little scissors there that had polka dots on them, so I had to get a couple pair...like I need any more scissors or things with dots! That's Jacque above, with a

t-shirt quilt she was working on when she and a few of her friends came down and spent a couple nights with me almost a couple years ago.  They were a fun group, as usual! 

 Next we went on to Des Moines, where we stopped at Creekside Quilting in Clive.  I had never been in their shop before, it looked like they have a lot of interesting quilting goodies!  A few of the girls seemed interested in coming down for a retreat...I would love to have them!

Next we tried to find the Quilters Cupboard in Ankeny, but I'd loaned my GPS to the kids, so we didn't make it there, darn! 

Remember, all these shops AND MORE, will be on the shop hop, so make sure you have lots of time!  I was headed to do a trunk show in Clear Lake that evening, so we were kind of on a time schedule.

From Ankeny, we headed north, taking Highway 69, to Ames.  I love to travel the back roads, and spring its such a beautiful time to be out and about!   Below is a picture of  the Quilting Connection owner, holding the All Iowa Shop Hop paper.  I have those here at my house now, and the passports, if anyone wants to pick one up, so you can start planning your trip!  The Quilting Connection is like 2 shops..I think it was actually 2 stores to begin with, they have a lot to offer.

From Ames, we got on Interstate 35 and headed north to Clear Lake, just in time to check into our motel and meet up with a few of the guild ladies for supper before the trunk show.  More on that later...sorry I'm so long winded today!

All Iowa Shop Hop a month early

I feel like I've been around the world and back....not really, just around Iowa and back!  This was our 1st stop on our adventure. Above is Joyce Franklin, the owner of Quilts and Other Notions at Creston.  She has been a really busy lady getting the All Iowa Shop Hop organized.  She has a HUGE shop and inventory...so stop by there while you're out shop hopping!
 My good friend, Diane Ware went with me and this was our 1st stop on the shop hop (a month early).
Click here: All Iowa Shop Hop.com/for lots more info on the hop.
I still have beds at my retreat available for $25 a night, so give me a call to reserve  a twin sized bed with polka dot sheets!  I'll also be having an open house/garden/quilt show during the hop.  Should be fun!
More details on my trip later.

Decorating seasonally with Quilts

Tomorrow I'm heading out on a little adventure here in Iowa.  I'll be giving a trunk show presentation titled, Decorating Seasonally with Quilts, at Clear Lake, way up in northern Iowa.  The program is tomorrow evening at their city hall at 7:00, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if anyone wants to come visit.  The picture above is the next season I'll be decorating for; red, white and blue, whoo hoo!

On the way up and back to Clear Lake, I'm planning on going on my own little shop hop in Iowa.  I have scoped out the shops that are going to be on the All Iowa Shop Hop, June 1-14th and I'm planning on trying to go to 19 of them in 2 days.  I won't be able to go on the shop hop myself, since I'm one the 80 shops on the shop hop, so I thought I'd try to hit a few before and let people know about my $25 a night spring special AND my open house/quilt/garden show during the shop hop.  I still have beds available, so give me a call...712-523-3508. 

My gardens should be doing great by then, so stop by and take a look around at quilts inside and out and see my retreat.  Above is a picture from a couple years ago of my hosta garden, under my deck.  It is just outside the main sewing room and is beautiful to look out to on a hot summer day.

I'll try to take lots of pictures on my little trip and give an update when I get back home.

Linking to Rednesday

I was searching for something red to link to: http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/2012/04/rednesday_17.html  She has such a cute blog with polka dots on the sides....gotta love those!

This quilt was in the window of an antique store in Leavenworth.  I'm always taking pictures of antique quilts, hoping to reproduce them someday.

Here's a picture of my quilts from last night at Corydon.  I got home in an hour and twenty minutes  and luckily didn't see too many deer!  Thanks ladies for having me come speak! 

I even picked a bouquet of lilacs and took along.

Trunk show tonight in Corydon!

This evening I'm giving  a trunk show in Corydon, Iowa, about decorating seasonally with quilts.. I just had a group of 7 ladies from the Corydon area here a couple weeks ago, so it will be great to see some of them again!  I'm sure their group wouldn't mind visitors, so stop by if you'd like to.

 This weekend, I'm planning on going to the Heartland Quilt Network meeting in KC if anyone's interested in going, let me know.

These are some of my different seasonal quilts that I decorate with in the 5 or 6 seasons...Snowmen/Valentine's, Spring, Patriotic, Fall and Christmas

 I have 3 different presentations that groups can choose from...if you want to see the other choices and cost, please go to my website or call me.

Find a Friend Friday

Click on this link: http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/ to see lots of other fun blogs.  I'm looking forward to looking at them myself this weekend.  I made this Farmer's Dotter quilt from mostly vintage scraps about 3 years ago after choosing the name of my business.  If anyone would like a free pattern for it, I can email you one.  Contact me at farmersdotter@frontiernet.net.

Grandsons and lilacs!

Here's me and my 2 grandsons in front of my lilac bush that is blooming profusely about a month early this year.  Grandpa and Mommy Tara had us all laughing!

Spring cleaning the garage

I'm showing you my dirty garage, hoping it will look better soon! I'm planning on repainting and redecorating the garage this spring to be all ready for the All Iowa Shop Hop.  Click here: http://alliowashophop.com/ to see the list of over 80 businesses joining in and over $5000 in prizes!
  My hubby has given up on me keeping my things in HIS garage and has taken most of his things to our shed. He's also working on a man-cave out in the shed (for sleeping) so he doesn't have to interrupt the quilting retreats. I'll let you know later how all of this is going! He has been very patient about the retreats, because he knows anything quilting makes me happy...he's such a good man, most of the time!

I'm planning on hanging a few quilts in the garage for the shop hop. There will be an outdoor quilt show if the weather is decent, but if it's not, I'll display quilts in the garage and all around the house. Of course, there's already quilts in almost all the rooms of the house!!!

$25 Spring Special!

Come stay in one of these sweet twin sized beds this spring! $25 a night per person!
I'm so excited about the All Iowa Shop Hop! It is June 1 - 14 and there are over 80 shops on the list. Check out their website and Facebook page for more updates...there will be over $5000 given away in prizes...I am donating a free 2 night stay for one lucky quilter and 3 of her friends! I hope many of you can go for some of the shop hop or all of it. I'm planning on having an open house/ garden quilt show at that time and I'm also running a Spring overnight special for just $25 a night! Come anytime from now until July 1st! It has been a slow winter, so please come and stay and enjoy Spring here at the Farmer's Dotter. My flowers are in their prime in the spring and so is the countryside!
May is the best time to visit the Rainbow Iris farm here in Taylor County, so book a reservation for that if you love iris. I have several here in my gardens and on the bank along the highway. I'll show more pictures of the iris later.

Lemonade party cake

This was a lemonade party cake that I served the ladies from Corydon. It is sitting on a table runner that I made out of orphan double wedding ring blocks. I think I have a few more of those orphan blocks if anyone is interested, let me know.
I just love having company and these gals are such a fun group. One of the ladies told her grandson that she was going to a slumber party for Grandma's!!! They did have lots of fun, but didn't stay up all night!

This evening we had roast with potatoes and carrots cooked in it, hot rolls, chop-chop salad, deviled eggs, relish tray and lemonade party cake for dessert. Why can't I remember to take pictures when the table is more clean, well any way they thought the food was great.
P.S. I can cook lighter meals or whatever to suit your needs. Or you are welcome to do your own cooking too! (More details on my website)

Corydon ladies are back again!

The Corydon ladies are here right now...started this yesterday and they just left this morning. They all seemed to have a great time and thought the food was just great, but too much! I'm from the old school and think I have to spoil them!
The picture above is Jeri with her find at a sale...she got all the stars at some sale for either 50 cents or $5...either way it was a steal!

This picture is of the group of 7 ladies from the Corydon, Iowa area. This makes the 3rd time for 3 of the ladies, so I think they like the Farmer's Dotter! It has been great fun to serve them! Thanks to all of you and I'll try to post more pictures later. Please leave a comment and let the rest of the world know what a fun time you had!

Notice the quilt blocks in the background...they put the design walls to good use!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring to all of you! I just love this flower garden quilt...it was gifted to me through one of my beauty shop customers. What a wonderful gift! Mary (daughter of Nina Poore) was cleaning out and thought I could put this quilt to good use after seeing what I do with old quilts. I have quilts ALL over the house and just love any old quilts. This quilt is a little tattered around the edges, but it is so neat because whoever made it fussy cut a lot of the blocks. SWEET!! Thanks Mary for the wonderful gift!
The bottom picture is a collection of spring decorations that I've picked up over the years...mostly garage sales and auctions.
Happy spring to all of you...I hope you can come visit me sometime! I'm going to be on the All Iowa Quilt Shop Hop if any of you want to stop by then...the 1st 2 weeks in June. I'll tell ya more later. I will run a special to stay the night if you want!

Bluebirds are back!!!

The bluebirds are back and so are we! Sorry I've not been keeping up on my blog....we went south to Florida for a couple weeks in January and came home for 5 days and went to the Phoenix area and etc. until the end of February. It was great to be in the warmth, even though this winter has not been too bad here in Iowa. But I am so happy spring is the same as here!!! I have a group of ladies coming from the Corydon area, so I've already put out my spring decorations. I'll show a better picture of the above quilt and story later. Please leave commments...I'd love to hear from you!

3rd Anniversary of Rednesday!

I'm going to try this link again....click here:suelovescherries.blogspot.com, to see all kinds of neat red things!

3rd Anniversay of Rednesday

Congratulations to Sue over at It's a Very Cherry World .... ....it's her 3rd anniversary of Rednesday, so take a look at all the fun red links! Today I'm linking to Rednesday linky party with this red and white little quilt that I just made around Christmas. I would love to try and get a Farmer's Dotter Friday linking party started.....is anyone interested? Since I'm kind of into polka dots, I'd like to have people show pictures of either vintage antiques with polka dots and or vintage quilts OR antique farming pictures. Does anyone have any of these things you'd be willing to show? Let me know....please leave a comment!

Sorry I'm so late in posting the last winner of the drawings...the winner of the $20 gift certificate to the Farmer's dotter quilt retreat is Lisa! I've had bed and breakfast guests this week and this weekend was Kooper Dane's 4th birthday and we had extra family here visiting, so not much free time! Keep watching for drawings later and thanks to all of you who are new followers. Merry Christmas to all of you, if I don't get back for a few days!

5th and 6th day prize and 4th day winner!

The photos today are of my quilt retreat...you can read more about them on my website...the link is on the bedroom picture of my sidebar.
Today and tomorrow I'll be having a drawing for a $20 gift certificate towards a stay at the Farmer's Dotter quilt retreat that I have here in my home in Southwest Iowa. I live in the midwest, 2 hours away from Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and Kansas City. I love to have quilters and bed and breakfast guests too! So if you're up for a road trip, join in the drawing! I will draw for it sometime Friday afternoon, so keep on entering until I draw!

Yesterday winner of the pattern for a tiny quilt pattern is Lee...email me your address...thanks to all for entering!

4th day prize and 3rd day winner!

Sorry I'm a little slow today...my new grandson, Kruz needed a little snuggle time with Grandma...his mom is having back troubles, so Grandpa and I are helping out.
Any way....yesterday's prize winner is Jeanne. Email me your address and I'll get the pin cushion pattern in the mail to you!
Today's prize is another pattern I've designed to look like an antique doll quilt. I love antique quilts (who doesn't!) and I design my patterns to look like antique quilts. I have quite a collection of vintage fabrics and feed sacks, so several of my kits are made out of the older textiles. I sell patterns and kits for these on Etsy and would also be willing to sell them wholesale, if anyone is interested, please email or call me.
This little quilt measures 8" x 8".
Thanks for taking the time to look and enter my drawing!