Back in February, I took 5 of my friends to Kiva Elementary School where Heather is in 2nd grade, and we stitched out some silk hearts as part of the Masterpiece Art Program. Today Heather presented me with a book of thank you notes that the class had written to me. This is what some of them had to say:

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
Thank you so much for teaching us how to use the sewing machine and may be once I will see you again.
Your friend,
Donya

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
You are a great sewer. You are so nice. I love the work you do.
Your friend,
Jaydah
p.s. Thank you so much!

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
Thank you for coming and helping us make the quilt. It was really fun.
Your friend,
Lucas

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
I loved doing sewing. It was awesome. The hearts were cool. Art Masterpiece was graet!!!
Sincerely,
Lexi

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
I loved sowing with you. I hope you will do it again.
From Danelle

Dear miss, vedeler
I really like how you make the quilts it is so interesting how you do it without getting hurt or anything else
Sincerely,
Gigi

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
Thank you for teaching us how to sow. It was very fun and the heart was really cool. I bet everybody liked it.
Have a great summer!!!
From, Cole

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
Thank you for what you’ve done in Art masterpiece. I loved the quilts that you made because you probably put a lot of hard work into making them.
Sincerely,
David

Dear Mrs.Vedeler
The quilts you had us make were so fun. I wish we could do it again.
(No name on this one)

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
Thank you so much for the wonderful quilt. Sewing is so cool! You are very good at sewing.
From Jake

Dear Mrs. Vedeler,
I think you were the best Masterpiece Art parent. You are so cool. I love when you come.
Your friend,
Kloe

Dear Mrs. Vedeler
Thank you for helping inart masterpiece. I saw how you do it and I was amazed. I also love the quilt we did. Thank you for coming to do that.
Thank you, from Tommy

All in all, I think it is very safe to say that these kids really enjoyed themselves!

International Quilt Market this Spring is being held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in, you guessed it, Downtown Minneapolis!

I’m staying at the Best Western Normandy Inn & Suites with my two roomies, Donna Morales-Oemig (FollowThatThread.com) and Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero (KalCollections.com).

As hotels go it’s certainly not the swankiest, but it’s comfortable – and it has free Wi-Fi in the room which is a big plus in my book! I wasn’t sure when I first saw the building if the plaster missing from the outside walls was by design or because it fell off. Apparently it is by design – trying to imitate Old English Tudor styling.

This morning Donna and I took a walk to find some breakfast and got a glimpse of Downtown Minneapolis. It’s a mixture of old and new – towering glass sky scrapers next to ivy-clad brick buildings.

The reflections in the glass are quite spectacular, especially in the early morning sun.

Tomorrow will be a busy day – the first “official” day of the trade show. More photos to come!

After a very hectic couple of months, I am sitting in my hotel room in Minneapolis after my first day at International Quilt Market.

Three weeks ago today I moved into a new home – twice as much space, with a dedicated studio which has really opened up the flow. Still a few boxes left to unpack and lots of sorting still to be done, plenty of room to dance, and I could even lay a king size quilt out on the floor – if I really wanted to!

The project that has taken up most of my time in recent weeks is my new design collection – GO! Be Dazzled – which was introduced to the world at large today in my School House at Quilt Market.

Do you recognize the GO! logo used on the cover? GO! as in AccuQuilt GO! the fabric cutter.

This quilt was created as a Block of the Month to specifically use the dies for the AccuQuilt GO! Each month 2 blocks are created – they can be identical or use diferent fabrics and/or thread colors.

Each month one or more of the following dies is used:

• GO! Circle 2″, 3″, 5″
• GO! Stars 2″, 3″, 4″
• GO! Hearts 2″, 3″, 4″
• GO! Funky Flower
• GO! Round Flower
• GO! Feathers

The title of my School House was:

Embroidered Applique Meets AccuQuilt GO!

Subtitle: A Match Made in Heaven.

It really is a match made in heaven! The biggest challenge that most people have with any applique project is creating the applique shapes. Using the GO! cutter and dies ALL of the challenges go away. No printing of templates, no tracing temlplates and no cutting on the line with a pair of scissors. Simply apply fusible webbing to your applique fabric, place the fabric on the die and crank the handle. Finished in seconds!

I’m pretty excited about my new collection – and I hope you will be too!

Here are some close-ups of the embroidery.