Monday, April 28, 2008

Hodge podge this weekend

I finally took a pic of this awesome hand thrown wood kiln fired pottery. I bought this near Big Prairie, Ohio. They only fire twice a year and I happened to be near the shop during spring opening weekend. I just love the concept of hand made pottery....instead of 'made in China'...... My friday rest was having a manicure and pedicure....hey I used a gift card from Christmas 2006! LOL I tell you...my time is soo limited that I had to force myself to use the card. Only catch with it, was that the spa is 40 minutes from my house. Had it been the local nails shop I'd have been there the very next week! Still it felt great...and yet another sign of spring and open toed shoes.
Ah have I mentioned that DD2 loves fabric? she can't stay out of it...
But who can be made at THAT face....I love my little squeezy poof.....

Oh and I did start another WIP.....I cut all the strips for the Ruffles and Rows kit and made about half of the yo-yo's and the prairie points as well. I've gotten a good start on it. Now it's monday night, the girls are fast asleep and I should be too. I just can't stop thinking about the night I've missed. I was invited to a reception for Ted Storm. Her quilt won best of show this year at AQS in Paducah. A mutual friend is having a big party for her. A couple of my other quilting buddies came ALL the way from Tennessee for this event...but I am home...an hour plus drive away from the action. It about breaks my heart that I will miss seeing them, miss the opportunity to meet Ted....but it wasn't meant to be. Hubby is out of town...and no sitter.....well I have to look on the bright side and hope they took pictures!


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Thimbleblossom giveaway...


Camille's having a giveaway...check it out.....she's giving away her 'Bloom' quilt...eeekkk! love it...

Others' Quilts

There were so many inspiring quilts and projects at weekend but I chose a few pictures of the best to show here....well by best I mean the ones more inspiring to me. One gal used Kaffe Fassett fabrics and really impressed me. The shadowed nine patch was done by our LQ shop owners daughter.
This quilt has quite an interesting story. Apparently 15 years ago the local quilt guild was raffling off blocks for some fundraiser. One gal won them and didn't do anything with them for all these years....so she was going to throw them out. Another gal in our weekend group took the blocks and put this together...had it quilted and took it back to the original owner to show. The original owner was stunned and actually thought this gal would give her the quilt!! But that didn't happen....I didn't get a good picture of the quilting but it's hand quilted with baskets in the white blocks...it's beautiful.
This will be a granddaughters quilt...I have a WIP nearly just like it...someday I'll finish it!
Ahhh and this cherry of a quilt....there are those Cherry Baby fabs again...did I mention I bought more of them to make this table cloth??? It is trully lovely in person and besides myself there were 4 other gals wanting to copy cat this quilt.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

More on "quilt away"

This is the Round Lake Christian Camp where our retreat/quilt weekend was held. Is this camping?? Wow what a great building....bright lights, comfy carpet, clean clean clean!
This was my view while sewing....there were about 22 of us at this retreat. It was beautiful....almost too beautiful to be inside sewing...I said "almost"...haha
This was one of the weekend projects, Pincushion Stacks. This was the sample...I haven't made mine yet.The retreat wallhanging below...sooo cute...again..I didn't start it...I had sooo many other projects to make....
Here's the gal I went with...she's just cutting away there....being all busy while I lazed around and took pictures.




Weekend projects

The Quilt away weekend was awesome. I posted the pics of the goodies I bought but the weekend was so much more than that. I felt as though I had accomplished so much. I can't say there weren't interruptions as I DID have to leave on saturday and drive 20 minutes home to see a patient in my office. It was a glitch but he has limited time available so I tried to be accomodating AND he's one of my quilting buddies' husband, oh and I did stop home for my other camera....so that's where half my pictures are from.
I suppose you would like to see what I worked on??? come on...pretend LOL!
With out much further ado....my finished tops! This is a tumbler little quilt from Celebrate Spring charms by Sandy Gervais.
A little Dandlelion Girl charm goes a long way in this table topper. The half square triangles on the right were left over from the flying geese blocks in the table topper. I put a border on it and it measures about 5 X 7 inches now....I think I may finish it with just a backing and frame it.

Another table topper..have I mentioned I LOVE table toppers right now? I started knitting a dishcloth as well but only stitched 1/3 of the rows so nothing to show yet. This is a Pearl Louise quilt pattern. I am going to quilt it and applique the edges at the same time.
Daffodils near the camp....a sign of spring..just what we needed. I hand quilted a little quilt but I am putting the binding on so I will take a photo when I have it done-done.....

Monday, April 21, 2008

Have you seen this?

I first saw this quilt on D Mills blog......I himmed and I hawwed over whether or not to get it...ALL the way from Australia....then I gave in....mmm Cherry Baby fabs from Lakehouse.... It arrived while I was gone at Quilt Away.....IF I didn't have 6 loads of laundry and kids I would have it pieced already... LOVE it!!!!



Spring Fling Swap ...

This little box arrived just before I was to leave for my quilt away weekend..... It was from a secret pal on Pat Sloan's RR yahoo group. She sent this cute towel....
AND a whole lot of other goodies....
Thanks D!!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

I DID get to my Quilt Away Weekend...

I have sooo much to write but I hit the wrong button and it published these pics first d-oh! So here are these lovelies I picked up on Friday. Jane and I went to the Country Cupboard in Berlin and they have awesome wools...and kits.
Valdani size 8 pearl cotton...couldn't pass that up.
No I didn't have my camera because the battery went dead and I didn't bring my charger to the retreat. What the heck was I thinkin'? Well bein' sick last week didn't help me pack that's for sure. Love these Lakehouse fabrics.....
I picked up some charm packs and coordinate fabrics for future table toppers etc....from Mrs. Miller's in Charm, Ohio.

Ohhhh Fresh Squeezed! And I have been eyeing these charms for my one-patch hexagon WIP and some little civil war style quilts.

Let's not forget a little Prairie Paisley...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

IT got me

It got me too.....for almost a week now. I have gotten nothing done. I feel aweful AND I am suppose to go to my quilt-away weekend tomorrow :(
DD1 had it right along with me and DD2 started with fever last night. UGH........help LOL
So needless to say posts may be scarce for a bit here....

Note*** thank you to Anna from Bunny Hill for her great flu bug....if one can call a bug great!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Mid-week update....

I've been busy while watching Dancing with the Stars and American Idol this week. I quilted this for my nephew....using the Silly Safari fabrics by Moda. I love the zebra ric rac...I bought that at JoAnn's...not where I thought I'd find something that cute. Here's my other "monkey"....making bindings...there are 6 waiting to be sewn on...yikes...I have to get crackin'. The only problem is that I am going away for the weekend.....just taking hand sewing and hand quilting.

I finished this little project tonight. I bought some vinyl covered Moda Strawberry Lemonade fabric to make a splat mat for DD2. I used stash binding and just machine stitched it. Total price $17....Price at Land of Nod...$42 or something...I did better making one myself obviously.
I also pulled this WIP out and completed the top..now it needs to be layered for quilting. Honestly I don't know why I abandoned this project as it took about 20 minutes to assemble... As you can see I really love my 1930's repros....

Saturday, April 05, 2008

my friday

I finished my tea towel for Pat Sloan's swap group...it's a secret who I will send this too...I hope she likes it. I loved embroidering that bunny. It went fast. There's a new fabric store in my town. It opened 3 days ago. I promptly went in to check out what they have.

Their yardage varies from $4 -$8 a yard. I did pick up a few 1/2 yards but I cut them into fats for the swap above.

I about freaked when I saw these beautiful threads...but they are size 5 pearl cotton...and I prefer size 8 so I passed on buying any.

And they have an awesome selection of towels for applique....loved that. Like I said I didn't get much. I spent the rest of my day at my office working through charts. I have had some big changes in my office and more will come...it's going to be tough for awhile.
Today I have been working on a quilt that I wanted to start weeks ago...just getting it layered for quilting now. I have to get stuff together for an impromtu trip to my home state this next weekend...that means laundry, packing and getting projects ready for the road trip. I don't know how much blogging I will do this week...we'll see.


Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Melly and ME swap...arrived from Karen in Australia



Yeah my swap arrived from Karen in Australia. She was as prompt as I was. And funny thing is, is that hers arrived in Australia today as did mine in the U.S. from her! She sent so many lovely fabric scraps, a cool Australian magazine as well. And below is what I sent her...tons of scraps and a pincushion. It was an awesome swap. I hope/think she is pleased.