It’s Christmas Eve, and from one quilter to another, I thought now is as good a time as any to share my five favorite decorating and stress-relieving holiday tricks and tips this holiday season.

5. Embrace quirky.

When I decorated my home this season, I wanted to make sure friends and family would know they’d find like-minded company inside.

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4. Be inclusive! Make certain the pets participate in the holiday festivities too.

This costume was on sale–I’m pretty sure because it was too reminiscent of Thanksgiving with that Pilgrim belt.

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3. Make sure your pets are faced with edible temptation over the holidays–just like you–every single day.

Spray paint and hot glue some dog bones onto a wreath. Then hang the wreath in the dog kennel just out of reach from the dogs so that they look at it longingly all day long. (Wreath credit goes to Marilyn Barrow.)

2. Remember that the holidays can be for the birds, too!

With the owl craze over the last few years, don’t we all have some fabric owls lying around? I strung holiday lights in my wishing owl bird cage and installed a tiny Christmas tree, too. (Owls are by Lynn Krawczyk that appeared in Quilt Scene a few years ago.)

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1. If you are feeling a little blue at times over of the holidays, then my greatest advice to you is…GET THYSELF INTO THY STUDIO and surround yourself with all of your favorite (quilt-y) toys!

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Wherever you find yourself over the holiday break, I wish you a peaceful and festive time with friends and family. And, of course, I also hope you can find some time to stitch.

Hugs to all this holiday season,

Pokey

It’s late afternoon on Tuesday, the eve of the eve of Thanksgiving, my absolute favorite holiday all year.

I am yearning to take a few days off, gorge on turkey and all the fixings (or as they say here in Houston, the fixins’) and vedge out for a few days. I have no plans except spend some quiet time at home, continue moving my studio upstairs, and haul out the holiday decorations. (And hey, if I can swing a ticket to the New England Patriots-Texans game on Sunday…all the sweeter!)

Thankfully today I had a little visitor come to my office for a short while. Her name is Emily, and she is my coworker Rose Reyes’ six-year-old granddaughter. Emily wanted to join me for “arts and crafts” and although I had stored all of my Open Studios supplies for the year, I was able to quickly find some Great Art Finds in the form of googly eyes, neon pompoms, and a glue stick. She pulled my blue velvet chair up to my desk, grasped a handful of Sharpies from my pen mug, and put her industrious self to work pretty quickly. Admiring my chalkboard and colorful chalk sticks, she then proclaimed that she first needed to create a “Thanksgiving mural” before she could add a “pompom googly-eyed turkey.”

It was a great visit, and one that reminded me how fantastic this time of year is.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope yours is lovely,

Pokey

Since I am still recovering and regaining my strength from the fall shows, I was a totally home body this past weekend and I loved it.

I unpacked my goods and adorned my bar with some of the pet postcards I bought:

I unpacked a vintage quilt top I bought at Festival and mulled over what I plan to do with it. (Have any ideas?)

And I found a warehouse furniture sale in my neighborhood and bought a vintage hutch from Belgium to put upstairs in my house. Khaleesi gives me the “paws” up on this purchase…

Getting this hutch got me thinking. I have not shared my studio space yet on my blog, because frankly, over the past two years since I moved to Houston,  my studio space just has never gotten to the point where it has worked for me. So I am going to gut the room it’s in currently (and turn said room into a super swank TV den/library), and put  my studio upstairs in a larger area that has more promising lighting. This means I have a PROJECT, and I am very excited to create a new space that will work! It’s not going to be easy, I am going to have to tear down (rather carefully) an enormous custom-built shelving unit for my quilt fabric to then re-mount on a wall upstairs. I will have to move several tables plus a fragile vintage pantry unit upstairs  (but hopefully I can find some brawn to assist). I will have to do a lot of painting, possibly re-wire some lighting to get the lighting where I need it to be for working, and gut a closet/ redo the shelving to turn it into a storage room for equipment and dye supplies.

As soon as this idea came to mind, I knew that my studio space was going to be so, so much better, and I cannot wait to embark on this project.

So that was my weekend. I can’t wait to get cracking on this…

UPDATE! Congratulations to Julia Hyll! Please email me at pokeybATquilts.com to send you the pink fabrics! Thanks for answering, everybody!

When October came around, I noticed in my health club’s women’s locker room they hung laminated fliers from the shower heads with diagrams for conducting a breast self exam. I thought to myself that was a good reminder ‘cuz I sure hadn’t done one in a while. However, I am good about getting my yearly mammograms, and I hope all of you are too!

In honor of all of you who have had to battle breast cancer, and in honor of our loved ones who have lost theirs, I thought I would do a small something and conduct a pink fabric giveaway. All you have to do is answer the following question and I’ll randomly select a winner later in the week.

Question: In addition to conducting your monthly exams and getting your yearly mammograms (if you are of the age), what is a healthy habit you have recently adopted?

Mine is pretty basic: I’ve cut down my caffeine intake to (at most) two cups of coffee each morning, and I drink a lot more water during the day.  You?

I interrupt your regularly scheduled Quilt Festival blogging to get a little personal this weekend. My quilting friend Cheryl Sleboda had a neat idea: to host a blog hop among art quilters who could share one quilt that a family member had made.

Here’s the blog hop schedule:

The “My Family Quilt” Blog Hop!
Oct 1. – Sylvia Lewis
Oct 3. – Deborah Massie Boschert
Oct 4. – Sheila Frampton-Cooper
Oct 5. – Pokey Bolton
Oct 6. – Frieda Anderson
Oct 7. – Lisa Chin
Oct 8. – Cheryl Sleboda

Meet the quilt maker of my family, my great-grandmother on my mother’s side, Julia Connor:

Coming from very meager means, my great grandmother (“Gram” to me) learned to triumph in her life by being very creative, resourceful, and generous. She quilted, made dolls, painted, and could basically take any bit of paper or fabric and fashion it into some kind of art.

When I was a little girl, I spent lots of time talking with her when she visited her daughter (my grandmother “Ruthie” who I called “Fooie” because I could not articulate my “R’s” as a little girl). A favorite past time was driving down to Fooie’s home where my brother and I would race into the my grandmother’s room where one of her mother’s quilts would be, nose dive onto the bed “to pull the quilt up to our noses,” and listen to all of the family gossip.

Over the years I had learned of the challenging life my great grandmother led, but she remained positive, determined to see the beauty in any situation.

The last time I saw my Gram was when she was 98 years old, living in a modest nursing facility outside of Eureka, CA. My mother, brother, and I went to visit her, and she shared with us her greatest and latest gift: mailed correspondence with another nursing home patient in Eugene, OR. I remember watching her elderly, papery hands lovingly trace the stickers on the outside of the envelope, commenting, “Look! Do you see how she added stickers with butterflies and lady bugs? How thoughtful!”

My Gram passed a year later at 99. She was a lovely woman to me, a positive force in my life, a glass-is-half-full type of person, teaching me that any hardship is surmountable if you have the right attitude.

Lucky for me, when I took a big brave step in my life and moved to Houston, I had one of my great grandmother’s quilts to accompany me. It is one of my most cherished treasures.

My (great) grandmother’s flower garden quilt, entirely hand pieced and stitched, and done so with a whole lot of love.

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I had the quilt on my bed for the first few months I was living in Houston, but Clarence (ever an energetic dog) proved to be too much for this quilt, so it is now retired to the sofa table in my family room where I’ve stacked a number of fragile quilts.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy it every once in a while…

And still snuggle under, making sure to bring the quilt all the way up to our noses!

I am so glad it’s Friday and I am more than ready for a weekend quilting poolside! Weather report says that’s a go…

To celebrate the upcoming weekend, I thought to kick it off with a quilt book giveaway. I have a jewel of a book on hand that is terrific for both the beginning quilter and those wanting an easy, no-brainer book brimming with colorful patterns that will take no time to stitch up.

Bright & Bold Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaefer C&T Publishing

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All you have to do is answer the question below, and I’ll randomly choose a winner this upcoming Monday.

Question: What are your quilting plans this weekend? Are you going to make pet postcards? (That would be a good answer.)

Me? I have absolutely no plans other than to haul my machine out onto my back porch (heat index permitting) to finish a baby quilt and make pet postcards for our Festival Pet Project.

You?

Have a great weekend,

I’ve attended the Long Beach show since its inception in 2008, both as an exhibitor and a member of the Quilts Inc. staff, and I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite memories from over the years. Warning: this is a people-centric (not quilt-centric) post!

• Editors on a Plane

2008

This was an especially hilarious memory. After a long day of editing in the Quilting Arts/Interweave office, we scurried home, grabbed our luggage, and took a late night transcontinental flight from Logan to Long Beach…where the editing fun didn’t cease. As soon as we took off, out came the red pens!

Helen Gregory and Barbara Delaney opting to not watch the FREE Direct TV on Jet Blue but rather edit. Again.

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• Touting an Extreme Manicure

2008

Alisa Burke sporting an extreme manicure with her lime green hands.

Alisa Burke was one of our founding artists at Make It University!, and with her workshops, successfully convinced quilters that paper and paint can be just as fun and exhilarating as fabric and thread.

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• Channeling My Inner “Chariots of Fire”

2008-2013

My morning solo runs in Long Beach, coupled with a music mix of Southern CA artists, made early mornings (typically dreaded at home) my favorite time of day.

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Every year, I ran the length of the beach to the pier and back before the show opened, and although I chose a Doors playlist over Vangelis, that quiet time running on the beach made me feel like I could outrun anything or handle any (possible) quilt mishap.

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• Getting By with the Help of My Friends

2009

From left to right: Jamie Fingal, Judy Coates Perez, Leslie Jenison, Pokey Bolton, Melanie Testa, and Jane LaFazio

I’ve gotten to know this crew pretty well, and the beauty of these prolific art quilters(besides their talent) is they are not cliquish, but rather inclusive–of everyone, embodying the spirit of the greater quilting community. (And they are pretty darn fun, too, as anyone who witnessed “Surviving the Runway” can attest.)

I got to marvel at and hug other quilt friends, too, like Maggie Winfield, who always dressed to the 9’s for the show:

2010

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And I got to know other artists who have a rather beautiful spirit:

2013

Sheila Frampton-Cooper

Julie Herman (left) of Jaybird Quilts

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• Show & Tell….I Got to Play, Too

2009

“This Thing Of Ours” by Pokey Bolton. My sister-in-law, Sally Murray posing with me in The Silver Screen exhibit.

With the Silver Screen exhibit I finally had a reason to turn my obsession for “The Sopranos” into a quilt.

Upon reflection in reading my narrative for this quilt (below)–given the passing of James Gandolfini–I wont see my silver screen wish come true, but it will always be my favorite  TV series!

My Narrative:

Fans of HBO’s “The Sopranos” know it isn’t just a TV show about wise guys. There’s a bit of Tony in all of us: impulsive and selfish; concerned friends will rat us out; living with the guilt of whacking others (so to speak); distrustful of those supposed to have our backs; and deep down, a little panicked that—in the end, and despite our best efforts—the ones we love most will fly away.

 Not only were heavy issues and the ensuing plot lines handled masterfully by David Chase and his posse of writers and actors, but the show was also hands-down funny. It’s no wonder millions of people waited patiently during the long hiatus between seasons to find out what would happen to the Don and his crew next. I can only hope that the intensely disappointing, anticlimactic last minute of the series finale was conceived for one reason, and that is…the movie’s getting made! Here’s to “The Sopranos” making it to the silver screen.

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• Witnessing A College Degree Put To Good Use

2010 (or 2011?)

My niece Lindsey Murray, a recent proud Boston College graduate in this shot, blowing hot air into a plastic dolphin. I think she passed out a couple seconds after I shot this.

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However it was the Long Beach show where my Lindsey bought her first quilt kit, and made her very first (of many) quilts:

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•  “Somebody Pinch Me: I Won! I Really Won!”

2013

Colleen from Redondo Beach rendered speechless when she realized she had the winning ticket for a new 550 model.

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Helping to host the Iron Quilter challenge was a total hoot (for full, in-depth coverage with LOTS of photos, visit this page). However, the best moment for me was watching a very lucky attendee win a new BERNINA. She was so shocked and grateful…I teared up.

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• Coming Home With Loot!

2013

My kitty, Khaleesi disapproves of my dog-themed fabric.

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What quilter doesn’t love to come home with gobs of fabric?

• Being With One of My Greatest Mentors

2013

Sittingwith Yvonne Porcella, Founder of SAQA, My Mentor, Cheerleader…and Friend.

Yvonne Porcella has been one of my biggest cheerleaders and supporters. Perfect example: years ago at a BERNINA retreat before a TV taping, she saw how stressed I was with segment preparation, cleared off a pool table in the hotel bar (and made it clear no one in the bar could play), assisted me in setting up my sewing machine, and helped me finish everything, all the while being careful not to slash the green pool table felt with her rotary cutter. It was wonderful to catch up with her at the Dinner@8 supper at the Hyatt.

Lastly…

Working alongside some of the best people I know.

2013

With Ruth Polanco, Show Director

2010

And with Lindsey Murray McLelland and Sally Murray of Interweave

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With love to Long Beach! I know it’s not on the roster for next year, but you never know what will happen down the line. Until we meet again…

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Tomorrow my little brother turns the big 37. (You are getting ever so closer to the Fab 40’s, Lil Bro’!)

The Chatham cousins (This is probably the last time I will ever see my brother in a suit.)

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For years, he’s been asking me for a quilt, and it’s my bad that I haven’t made one for him yet, so I’m sending him a promissory note tomorrow letting him know I’m on it. We both have fond memories as kids watching TV, huddled under one of the numerous quilts my great grandmother lovingly hand stitched.

Challenge is, he’s of the rugged, hunt/fish, Bass Pro Shop variety. Owning and running a farm and cattle ranch in Washington state, he spends his days wrestling rattlesnakes and irrigation woes, harvesting fruit, and herding cattle. (One time while talking with him over the phone, he put his cell down to tell some guy, “Dude! Watch out! That bull isn’t castrated!”)

In his free time he fly fishes, camps, sails, hunts, and actually broke a horse in (that he delivered) and now gallops on all over his property. Get the picture?

So it’s time I make him a quilt, but it needs to be something more macho than say, maybe grandmother’s flower garden (although it would be a fun challenge to make that in taupes, greens, grays, and blues). I have been looking at a few patterns, and think something with a more modern quilt aesthetic would most likely work for him.

What do you think of the following?

Bachelor Quilt #1

This Asymmetrical Diamond Quilt inspired by Lisa Roddy’s quilt on her blog, Shiner’s View, came up in my Instagram feed yesterday from Robert Kaufman. The color scheme is perfect for Davy with the sandy beiges and watery blues, a throwback to his professional sailing days.

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Bachelor Quilt #2

I bought this pattern from the Jaybird Quilts booth at Quilt Festival in Long Beach last summer. Looks like I could whip this quilt up pretty quickly, and I like the positive/negative interplay in the pattern.

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Bachelor Quilt #3

Also by Julie Herman of Jaybirdquilts.com, I think Varsity would be fun to make in a variety of beiges and blues.

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I am leaning towards Varsity but would love to hear what you think. And have you made quilts for the men in your life? Share in the comments area and if you have pictures on blogs or websites, please link!

Oh. And Happy Birthday, Davy…

Last week just as I was leaving my last work meeting and embarking on my long holiday weekend, a song came on Sirius’ 90’s on 9 station that I hadn’t heard…well…since the 90’s: Alanis Morissette’s “Thank U,” a song about gratitude.

Listening to the lyrics, I remembered a friend of mine’s daily practice of stating a gratitude–one simple thing she was thankful for. Every day. If she was having a particularly bad day or hard time, she might have just stated she was thankful for running water or electricity. For years I thought this daily gratitude business was, well…corny. I didn’t quite get it, and I realize now how silly I was, and how there have been instances where I could have given myself a lift had I just remembered to be thankful for something big or very little, or remembering that out of every negative or seemingly despairing situation, existed a small seed of positivity that just needed to be discovered and nourished.

I was very grateful for a long weekend, a weekend where I engaged in a few social events, but was peppered with stretches of welcomed solitude.

It got off to a very patriotic start:

Flags flying high in La Grange, TX.

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I set up my machine in my backyard and I “bikini quilted” (my tongue-in-cheek term for quilting outside).

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I was invited to a 4th of July BBQ and I did something I rarely ever do: I ate meat (…but just a little).

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And I didn’t go to the BBQ without bringing a red-white-and-blue dessert:

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And after eating, I raced to catch some fireworks (which for the most part I caught by my dashboard light…’cuz I got lost):

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And when home that night, I realized how thankful I am for these two little ones.

I hope you all had a nice 4th,