I've come to the conclusion that 2014 is the year I'll spend chasing myself trying to keep up with all the wonderful things happening. Who knows why everything seems to happen at once but this is my year for that. At least they're all good things and lots of them I can share with you so you can be part of the fun!

Some pretty great Just Takes 2 news was shared on Facebook last night! Barbara Black's 2012 Just Takes 2 quilt will be the feature quilt for the 40th Anniversary International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. Brenda and I are truly honored to be part of what will be a spectacular event! If you've ever thought about attending the show, this is the year to go! I've been to all the major quilt shows and the Houston Festival is by far the biggest and best I've ever attended. It's the only show I think about returning to year after year. They're pulling out all the stops and it's something you won't want to miss. Barb's Just Takes 2 quilt will be everywhere and I mean everywhere! The Ruby Jubilee exhibit is going to be fantastic. It might be the biggest collection of red and white quilts to be exhibited since the Infinite Variety exhibit in New York that inspired Just Takes2™! If you have a red and white quilt you'd like to share they've extended the deadline to enter quilts until May 31st. I have a quilt or two I might submit! If all that's not enough to tempt you, Brenda and I will be at the show! Karey Bresenhan graciously offered us the opportunity to have a booth at Festival and we'll have it filled with lots of wonderful things. We'd love to have you stop by to say hello. If you'd like to start your own 2012 Just Takes 2™ quilt you can order the patterns - HERE.

I know I usually talk about Sentimental Stitches here but if you know me at all you know that my family is the most important thing in the world to me. I love them like crazy and keep them close even if sometimes it's only in my heart.

That's our son Paul on the right - Check out their shirts and what they say!

I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!

The kids put this picture on Facebook last week so I guess it's okay for me to share the news. Yes, we're excited beyond belief but guess what else?? That first grandchild is due to be born the day after Festival ends! No stress there for this grandma! I just know the good Lord will have that baby either come early, late or find a way for me to fly home during Festival so I don't miss a minute of something as wonderful as this. Congratulations Paul and Angela!
None of you are surprised when I tell you I have baby's first quilt already underway are you?

I just love this quilt! It's one of our "cottage quilts". I made it years ago and we use it every year. I've often thought about sharing the patterns for all of the cottage quilts with you and selected this one to be the first pattern in a new section of the online store. It's called Indigo Spice Stars and you'll find it in the Dollar Downloads! You might find an entire quilt pattern in that part of the store or maybe just a block or two. It might be patchwork, applique, embroidery or a little of all three. One thing you can always count on - it will only cost $1.00!

Sunday is Mother's Day and I want to wish all the Moms a very Happy Mother's Day. To celebrate I put all the digital patterns on sale. If you use the discount code MOM you'll get 25% off all of them. Now's the time to order your favorites or catch up on past block of the month designs.

I took another tally of where we are with finishing up the Midget Blocks. I counted 21 blocks that we need from the original quilt. I should have some of the posted by the end of the week (that's tomorrow) and I'll add some notes to the Midget Block page I found one time where I duplicated a block. If you check your patterns - Block 7 and 71 are the same. I don't know how I managed to do that but as long as you get all 187 patterns from the quilt it won't matter. There are also several that are substitution blocks for some of the more difficult ones and I want you to have a list of those.

If you're on the mailing list you'll soon be receiving an email with a survey about an upcoming project. It's something I've been thinking about for a long time and decided that if I'm going to be busy this year I might as well be really busy! Everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a drawing for some great prizes so please take a few minutes to reply.

This is going to be a Sentimental Summer! I hope we can enjoy it together.