Boise Blues at hand

This quilt has 110 blocks. It calls for 110 eight inch fabric squares; no fabric is wasted.

The magic ingredient crisscrossing this quilt are the Japanese indigos. I stumbled upon them in 2004 at the City Quilter in New York. Cathy Izzo, the shop's owner harvested them at Quilt Market and lugged them home. I spied them on the counter, still wrapped in cellophane, and pleaded with Cathy to sell ALL of them to me, never dreaming the quilt would be seen on cover girl.

A year ago this February I was in Boise, Idaho having a blast. The weather was milder than New York.

I explored their Anne Frank Memorial, attended the Boise Basin Quilters meeting where I demonstrated my Super-Sized Nine Patch Quilt, taught in the largest shop classroom I've ever been in, Patty Hinkel's Quilt Crossing, when Patty and I weren't out sampling Vietnamese food at lunchtime. I knew about the Boise Art Museum's collection, they even had some 19th century American quilts on display. What I didn't know was that the area is home to the largest Basque community in the United States. I enjoyed a Basquaise meal with unforgettable friends that I had first met three weeks earlier in New York.

My rarest moments were 'underground' in the Cotton Club. That's Cheryl Little's internet shop, below street level, in a period office building, where she curates fabric collections for her fortunate customers.

Have at look Cheryl's contribution to Making it Simpler: her splendid Cotton Club indigo kit. Look around the site. I started shopping at the Cotton Club when they were strictly mail order and my computer monitor's screen was monochrome green.

In July 2011 I'll be in California to teach the my "New" Old Italian Block in Long Beach for Quilts Inc Summer Festival, class #215.