February 2005

	Standing with Mary Hales of Mt. Vernon, WA, in front of one of five quilts made for her in gratitude for the ten wonderful years she owned The Quilt Shop in Stanwood, WA. Mary has made a very big difference in many quilters’ lives, including my own, and continues to be active in the quilting community here.

My world is oh, so different than it was when I last wrote; the book deadline has been met, and the editing of AnglePlay Blocks™ is in progress. I've done my end-of-year accounting in a more timely fashion and with better understanding than I ever have (each year, I get a little better with QuickBooks and my accountant!). My world is opening in a new gentle and wonderful direction as I explore the development of my spiritual side. And most importantly, thanks to The Gathering of Wise Women this past summer, my business is going in fresh new directions—and I'm learning to relate to it as an expanding business, not just a full travel schedule…

Linda and I went to Quilt Market this year to "scope it out" in preparation for having a booth there next year to launch the templates. That was a good plan—we learned a lot from vendors there and from making our own observations. But it turns out we can't be at Market til we have been wholesaling a whole year…but we will have a booth at Festival in October.

What a joy it was to mount a show of 33 of my quilts at the La Conner Museum of Quilts at La Conner, Washington. This was a special show in that it included a number of quilts I made 25 years ago—the ones in which I first tried to do something different with sampler blocks! Those quilts were made for such special people, that this show was a bit of a sentimental journey for me… I ended up traveling up to La Conner about five times, (a 3-hour trip from here, with ferries, etc.) doing narrated tours of the show for different groups of friends and neighbors.

On September 24-25 this year I'll be the invited artist at Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, CA. This two-day event will be the "official" launch of the AnglePlay™ templates, and my new book AnglePlay Blocks. This is going to be a huge undertaking—I need to bring together at least 100 quilts to display. Linda and I are going to pack all the quilts and product in a rented van and take a road trip to California. My quilts will be hung from ropes strung from tree to tree, and I'll be giving narrated tours of the quilts a couple of times a day, in between selling books, templates, template caddies and other delights. Previous artists featured at this wonderful event have warned me that I will be selling and signing many many books… One recent year, 10,000 people came to this event in one day…

	Patches, my feline companion for 12 years; this photo was taken after one of my last trips of 2004. She settled into my backpack before I had it totally unpacked from my trip! Of course I didn't disturb her…cat hair IS removable from most surfaces…

I truly savored the holiday season this year, which is a function of how settled I feel in this neighborhood and this area (I've lived here almost 3 years already!), and the fact that my boys were home for the holidays. David came from NJ for a week, during which time we went to La Conner to see my quilt show. What a delight to show him quilts I've made since he left home. As we left the museum, he got a cell phone call telling him that he was one of two finalists for a wonderful job as Artistic Director of CityKids, a comprehensive arts program that serves children from all over New York City. Just last week, he was notified that he got the job! Hooray! He has finally gotten the break he has been waiting for for so long…

The shocker for me in December was taking my beloved cat Patches to the vet's office for a physical, and not coming home with her…to make a long story short, she just wasn't herself for several days—but because she was eating and drinking and using her "kitty box," I thought we were on stable ground. But when I took her to the vet for a checkup, she had a complex medical condition that had come on very suddenly, and putting her to sleep was the most humane solution. This was the first time I have had to do this to one of my pets; it was complicated by having to make the decision so quickly. I will miss her for a long time, especially when I come home from a trip. My pattern was to come in the door, call her name, and for the next 15-30 minutes, she would follow me around the house "talking" to me, filling me in on what her life had been like while I had been gone…

The excitement continues to build as my first hosting of a quilting getaway in my beloved Pacific Northwest, PIECEFUL HARBOR RETREAT is only about eight weeks away! My partners Nancy Chong, Janice Baehr and I are gleefully carrying out the theme of "Northwest Garden Party"-which in this part of the country, of course, involves boots, rain hats, and slugs… Our "sub-theme" is "Come and be Pampered—You Deserve It." It's not too late to sign up-go to our retreat website at www.prqc.com/phr, and join us!

	This quilt is the project for the first annual Pieceful Harbor Retreat, a Northwest quilting getaway which will take place March 30–April 3, 2005 at The Inn at Gig Harbor in picturesque Gig Harbor, WA. I designed the Rail Fence backdrop, and Nancy Chong designed the appliqué. We will be team-teaching students to develop their own version of this quilt. Do join us—registration forms are available at www.prqc.com/phr, or by phone at 360-568-7778. Attendance is limited to 40 quilters, so don't delay letting us know if you would like to come!

One of the joys of living on the Kitsap Peninsula has been taking the time to take a deep breath, savor my environment, and build a life here. Through this process I have become aware of and active in a wonderful network of women who are actively acknowledging and developing their spiritual lives. Knowing them and participating in a New Year's Bonfire gathering began my New Year in a gentler, more conscious, more deliberate manner than in years past. It felt almost magical to stand out in the cold around the bonfire under the stars, as we each affirmed our wishes for the new year, and then together threw into the fire what we wanted to release from the year past. When we went in for a bite to eat, the first snow of the winter began to fall, so we all scurried into the night, to begin our new year cozy in our own homes, not stranded on a snowy highway!

My wish for you is that you have good health, time to think, and that you become increasingly aware of the blessings in abundance in everyone and everything around you; and in this world where there is such turmoil, may we all make the place where we are a little brighter and more peaceful in the months to come.

Happy Valentine's Day, Margaret