Fabric!

Went on a road trip Tuesday (it was a friend's B-day, so went fabric shopping and had lunch out - the best birthday celebration in my book!) and stopped at 3 fabric stores.  The first was Hancock's in Clarksville.  Generally speaking I don't buy quilting fabric at Hancocks.  I don't usually buy too much there at all, but I did find a few bargins on Tuesday and here they are:

This was some cheap-o quilting cotton I found on the sale table.  I bought it to go with a panel I purchased, on sale, at Lebanon Sew & Vac awhile ago.  Amazingly, when I placed it next to the panel, it actually matches pretty well!  Score!

This is some stretch lace that was on the sale table.  I'm always looking for a good lace bargan!

Some stretch cotton rib knit.  Always useful; and on sale!

Lightweight interfacing for a Cape pattern that I bought online from Liesl & Co.  So friggin' cute - I can't wait to make it.  If you've never seen their patterns, go here:  www.lieslandco.com  it's worth a visit!  I have some loden colored corderoy that should work just fine with the pattern.

And last, and probably least, is a spool of Coats & Clark hand quilting thread.  It's for sewing yo yo's, not hand quilting!  I make yo yo's when I need an easy "take-along" project or for hand sewing in front of the TV.

Well that's all for today.  Tomorrow we'll go to the next shop, a real, live quilt shop!

I found the missing fabric!

This quilt came about because I wanted to make a Quilt of Valor quilt and I wanted to make a quilt with simple, oversize blocks.  I call it "Lifesaver":

I think it needs a white border around it.  It also needs a border to be big enough to be a quilt of valor.  But, you guessed it, I was out of the white I used for the background!  I have spent the last couple of months emailing stores, visiting stores, asking my friends if they remember where I got that white tone on tone from - na da.  Finally, yesterday I went on a road trip to KY and there it was!  I bought 5 yards!  Not gonna run outta that white again!

Anyway, I just loved all the RW&B prints I used in this quilt.  I especially loved the lobster and crab prints.  I loved them so much, I have bought more RW&B seashore prints for another quilt.  I'll post all my fabric purchase next time.  Be prepared for fabric overload....

A New Barn Block at Brown Hollow Farm

Brother has done it again!  He used an old block and remade it into a colorful Bento Box block for the little, old barn on the hill.  I love the flowery designs on this block.

You can see how small the barn is, Darling Hubby has to duck to stand under the eave!  But isn't the block cute!  ...and Hubby!

Here come the goats and Gem to check it out:

The little barn is up the hill from our main barn and the block looks far away in this photo, but it is easily visible from the road - I hope it makes my neighbors smile!

Been a Long Time!

WOW!  It's been a long time since I posted!  I've been working on items for the Boutique at the WOWE Quilt Show and haven't gotten much else done.  I'm not posting those items until after we set prices; then I can show them and sell them.  Yeah!  I've also done some quilting for WOWE quilts and this one for a friend:

Cute, cute Baby Boy Quilt!  Had a lot of fun with it, and probably did more quilting than she wanted, but there were such good spaces for quilting on it....

Also went to the AQS show in Chattanooga on September 19 - wonderful show!  Highly recommend it.

Finished Quilt Top

Well, I made the decision and got the inner and outer borders on my pineapple quilt!  Here it is:

Yes, I'm loving it!  Now to the Gammill for an all over meander - I don't want to over quilt it or take too much away from the pineapple design.  Hope it looks good when I'm done.

A New Quilt Trail Blcok

Brother has finished another block for the 3 Rivers Quilt Trail in Humphreys County.  It's a combination of a twist on a traditional quilt block and the Lakeview School Logo/Mascot.  He created the logo as an applique - made it out of very thin exterior airplane grade plywood, painted it, and then attached it to the background block.

We're just trying to figure out who/how it's going to get installed at Lakeview School in New Johnsonville.  I'll keep you posted!

Work in Progress

I'm struggling to complete this pineapple quilt that our paper piecing group finished earlier this year.  Except me.  I just can't figure out how I want to end it.  I'd like for it to be bigger than it is so I'm thinking, Add borders!  Right?  Why is it so difficult?

Is this the way to go with this quilt?  I'm not sure.  I'm going to have to call in reinforcements.  This quilt needs to be finished, quilted and bound by October for the local quilt shows.  I can't let it hang around any longer.  I'm phoning a friend.

More on Challenge Quilt

I finally finished the top and decided how I want to quilt the "I Must Be Off My Bobbin" quilt.  Here are some pics of it in the frame with the quilting started.  I spent most of the day yesterday quilting this one but I have about 18" left to do this morning.

The decision on what to quilt in the grey areas took me forever.  I knew I wanted to do feathers in the orange, since it will stand out the most, and the grey..... I didn't know.  Finally decided to quilt all over stippling in the grey area and the swap blocks.  Good decision.  It unifies the swap blocks and the grey "sashings".  The feathers aren't great, but it's a good practice piece for me.  I'd like to do better at the bottom of the feather stem - too many lines of thread coming together.  Need to get better at stitching over previous lines of quilting.

Overall, I'm happier with this quilt than I thought I'd be!

Completed doorpize quilt

Finished the doorprize quilt for the WOWE quilt show in November.  It's 80" x 80".  Lots of overall quilting on this one.  I sure do like it.  I hope the folks coming to the quilt show like it too!  Watch for it on the WOWE FB page.

QP Challenge Quilt

I finally started putting my "I Must Be Off My Bobbin!" Quilt Challenge together.  I decided to use orange.  A lot of orange.  The name of this quilt might be "Orange you glad you like orange?"  I'm liking that I have wide open spaces for quilting - I like that a lot!  But I'm thinking that a little diamond in the middle of the orange area would be kinda classy.  What do you think?  My final choices for the diamond are the black and the gray.  I'm leaning towards the gray.

 Black, purple and teal diamonds.  Like the black (upper left) the best of these 3.

 No diamonds.  Like this version too.

Black diamond and gray diamonds.  Liking the gray, but also like the black.  Although the black really draws attention to itself. Arrrgh.  Decisions, decisions.

TVQA Spring Seminar

I spent 3 lovely days in Murfreesboro, TN, at the TVQA Spring Seminar last week.  We were at the Old Fort Hwy DoubleTree Hotel for 2 1/2 days of classes and 2 evenings of speakers/trunk shows - fun, fun, fun!  I took 2 classes from Nancy Mahoney - someone who's quilts I have always admired, and learned alot about applique!  Here are a couple of pics from the first class:

 This is me and Nancy standing in front of her quilt, "Blue Bayou", from her book "Simple Circles and Quick Curves."  A real beauty!

 Here's the class with our finished blocks.  Teresa, from the blog "A Quilt and a Prayer", is standing down front on the left.  We first met last year at Assembly Day.  And standing towards the back on the right in the white sweater is my friend (and roommate for Spring Seminar) Cindy.  Everyone made pretty blocks!

 Here's a closeup of one of the blocks in Blue Bayou.

A Photo of the back of Blue Bayou that shows Nancy's quilting.

Seminar was great and I highly recommend that everyone that loves quilting should try and attend!  I was lucky enough to win a scholarship this year, which really helped, and look forward to sharing what I learned with my guild, Courthouse Quilters.

Birds

I'm obsessed with birds lately, how about you?  I even bought a scarf with birds on it last week!  These birds I made came from a book I got at the Book Fair in Northern Virginia on our last trip north (I don't have the book in front of me, but I'll post the title next time):

He's a work in progress - but I love him!  Needs his tail figured out and a beak, eyes, leg wraps, embellishment, etc.... just a little work.  :-)  Sometimes I just have to mull projects over in my mind for awhile before I can "see" the finished project.  I'm just about ready to get back to this bird and get him done.  I hate that he's blind and can't speak!

Opportunity Quilt

It's my turn to provide the "Opportunity Quilt" for the WOWE Quilt Show this year.  I decided to use the star blocks I made during retreat in April and make a patriotic quilt.  Here is the quilt top so far:

I need to decide on borders.  The best way to do that is to bring this top to my Friday Friends sewing group and ask the girls!  They always know what's best.  So once I have the answer from my quilty friends, I'll get this top done and start thinking about the quilting.  Speaking of quilting, I have 2 tops half loaded on the Gammill that I need to get quilted!  Better get going....

New Quilt Block

Brother has finished another Barn Quilt Block.  This one is going to White Bluff, TN.

Iron Caddies

I'm making Iron Caddies for the WOWE Boutique at the quilt show this November.  Here is a custom one i made for Shirley:

This is what they look like opened up.  You can use them as a pressing surface when not carrying your hot iron in them:

They have a heat resistant fabric on one side and a decorative fabric on the outside, insul-bright inside to keep everything extra safe from the hot iron.  We're selling the large one's for $20 and the small size one for $18.

A Finish!

Well finally.  I finished a project I started 3 years ago.  Not a big project, just one that kept lingering.  I started it 3 summers ago, re-do a chair for the guest bedroom.  Not a big deal, right?  I guess it was for me!  The first summer I spray painted it white.  The second summer I spray painted it white again, but with a gloss finish.  This summer, I have done the seat upholstery.  Yes, it's done.  And in it's new home, not kicking around the basement or getting in the way in my sewing room.  It's finally done and here's the proof:

I used the same fabric for the seat that I used in the headboard for the bed in the guest room.  It's a pretty grey swirl that shows up kinda funny looking in photos, but is just perfect in person.  The chair sits in the corner of the guest room by the closet door.  Here is the headboard and a better pic of the chair:

For some reason, e blogger took uploaded all the pics and not just the 2 I selected.  At this point I guess I should add a photo of the quilt that hangs in the guest room.

This quilt hangs on the wall across from the bed.  It has dragonflies quilted in the white squares.  I quilted it on my Janome 6600 a few years ago.  I think it was the first large quilt I ever quilted on my home machine.
Well, that's my guest room!  The color of the walls in the first pictures of the chair is more true than the later pics.  I really love that green, so soft and summery.

Two For One

Well, I tried an experiment.  Glad I tried it, even though I made lots of mistakes.  I decided to load 2 WOWE quilts on the Gammill at the same time.  Good idea, just not executed well.  Here's some pics of the 2 quilts on the Gammill.  What I'll do different next time is sew the 2 backs together into one back and then lay one full width king size batting on it and then the 2 quilt tops.  I laid these out like 2 separate quilts, and that just didn't work like I hoped it would.  But I got them done and they're waiting for me to bind them.

Snippet

Hey!  I made this piece of art from left over scraps from paper piecing.  Just used a pre-stretched artist canvas from Michael's and Mod Podge and ... voila!  Art!  I kinda love it.

And here it is on the wall in my sewing room.  This position is the "intended" one, although I like the way it looks above as well.

May Finished

Hey, I've got 2 finished already this month!  The first is a WOWE quilt.  The fabric was donated by Judy V. and she pieced the top.  It is all jungle animals and very cute!  I quilted it with an all over swirl pattern that took a lot long than I thought it would, but it came out nice!

It's not an exact WOWE pattern, but it is the accepted size for WOWE and it looks a lot like WOWE#1.

The 2nd finish is for friends of ours and is made from the WOWE pattern "Old Friend."  I call it "Puss 'n Boots."  It was quilted with my double daisy chain pattern and I added leaves to it this time!  Like the pattern, but it may not have been the best choice for this quilt.  But, hey, it's done and will be headed to it's new home tomorrow!

Do you see why it's called "Puss 'n Boots"?  My brother named it.  The quilting is pretty good, but I need to work on control.  Practice, practice, practice!

I machine sewed the binding for both quilts.  I expect both of them to get a lot of use and to get washed quite a bit so the binding was sewn on by machine.

Love my Gammill!  Can't wait for the next project!