An Old Fashion Sewing Bee ...

Ok so really when was the last time you participated in an old fashion sewing bee??? For me - never. Don't get me wrong I have my "Quilty Gal Pals" over Monday night and we sit and quilt but always on our own little projects. It's really more of a social night than a sewing night - but we do get a few things accomplished!

Last Saturday my guild had an old fashion sewing bee! You see my Quilty Gal Pal  Diana and I are in charge of the guild's raffle quilt for our Sept show! Yes we are running a bit behind but wait till you see the quilt! It's awesome!  

I brought it to sit and sew and had seven ladies all take a space around the quilt and work on the embellishing of the some of the crazy square blocks!

 

I had so much fun to sitting around and focusing

on one project with a bunch of "Quilty Gal Pals"

That's what I love most about quilting -

it brings women together to form lasting friendships.

Right now the crazy quilt is on my dining room table -

everytime I walk by I stop and add a few more embellishments!

It's addictive! I keep saying "Oh what's one more bead or flower or ribbon"!!

I've decided I'm a compulsive embellisher!!!

RNQG Quilt Show and the Supper Quilt

The show was incredible ~ everyone did a fabulous job putting it together.

Having The Supper Quilt was certainly a big draw for quilters and non-quilters alike.

Everyone was in awe of this absolutely beautiful quilt.

The quilt was made by Donald Locke of Texas.

It took him 2 years to make the quilt, and it was quilted by Linda Taylor.

Each of the squares started out as 1 inch square! that means they are 1/2 inch finished!

and he used a little feather weight to sew this creation!! Unbelievable!

For more details check here.

I loved the show for other reasons ... selfish reasons!!!!

As soon as I arrived and walked thru the door one of my quilty gal pals came up to me,

hugged me and said "Did you See?" "See what I just go t here"

Then she grabbed my hand lead me over to one of my quilts

where I found a "Judges Choice - Best of Show" ribbon!!!

Thank you Marianne for keeping me contained!

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry ... so I cried!

It is just so exciting to make something, share it with others

and have them really appreciate what you do.

So here I am with my quilt and my ribbon!

Layered Circles - RNQG Judge's Choice - Best of Show

Then .... once I came down from the clouds ...

another quilty gal pal came up and said the same thing

only it was for my other quilts in the show ....

OK - now I'm on the floor and they've come out with the putty knife to scrape me up!!!

Horseshoe Crabs and Sand Dollars - Judges Choice- Hand quilting

Stars in the Garden - Judges Choice - Applique

OKAY so it's taken me a day or two to come down from the clouds - I still can not believe I won three Judges ribbons. OH and three Vendor Choice ribbons! Just unbelievable!

As I white gloved around the show and marveled over all the other quilts,

not just quilts but - works of art,

I felt so privilege to be amongst such a talented group of ladies.

Thank you RNQG for a fabulous quilt show.

Despicable Me - Agnes HD

I took a crafty break the other night and sat with

my daughter to watch the movie Despicable Me.

It is one of my daughter's favorite movies!

Mine too!!

Well did I ever see a few similarities between little Agnes and my Victoria!

If  little Agnes was blue eyed and lighter hair they could be twins!

This clip just sums it all up

Agnes is by far the cutest character in the movie ....

and so is Victoria ... Cute that is!

Here she is at 4 ... Yup, she's a Cutie Pie!!

Spring has Sprung

Yes Spring has Sprung ... at least inside my house!!!

I have a huge wall in my entry way that was designed for ONE purpose...

to display my quilts!

This is my quilt for Spring.

"Springtime Impression"

The pattern is from Rebecca Wat's book Fantastic Fabric Folding.

I made this quilt back in 2005 and it is my favorite for spring.

It features 125 Batik folded flowers!

Thats a lot of folding!

TIP: I used frey check around all of the edges - not that batiks

frey very much - but I was not taking a chance!

The flowers start out as a 6 inch square and then you fold and fold and fold to get this....

 I tacked the tip of each petel down (I actually use this quilt!)

and I added a pearl bead for the center.

I think this was the start of my beading adventure!

HAPPY SRING TIME!

6 Batik FQ's

My newest adventure with batiks .... a sample for Quilter's Stash - Groovy Girls Class!

Terry Atkinson's Four Patch Farmhouse - great pattern!

Whips up very nice!

Just six fat quarters ... 3 light and 3 dark

make up this great little table runner!

I love when a quilt pattern is so versitle you can make it in

all sizes from a 3 block table runner all the way up to a queen size quilt!

And the best part ... selecting out all of the fabrics!!

Australian Fabrics

Last fall when I attended "The Gathering" Quilt Show in Nashua, New Hampshire

I purchased some great Australian fabrics

- since then I've added to my stash and just last week decided it was time to cut into them! 6.5" x 9.5" with a teal Kaffe shot cloth as the corner stones

Here they are all cut and up on the design wall. I really like the energy these fabrics have ... and I was even more thrilled when I saw my favorite quilt shop now had them in stock! Yippee!!! Now to sew them all back together again. I'll post finished top later.

Learning to Knit!!!

 Two days ago Mom and I were out shopping, and I found this beautiful skein of Plymouth cotton yarn ... it reminded me of the beach with the soft sandy greenish color blending into a beautiful turquoise which melted into a crisp steely blue. I looked at it and saw a beautiful beach with clear cool water and a cloudless sky ... can you tell I'm from New England and have been buried in snow since mid December!!! Anyway ... I had to buy it, not only because it reminded me of the beach (which is where I'd love to be right now) but it was on SALE for 25% off! I couldn't leave it there ... so I bought 2!! Just in case!!

 I brought it home and mom told me it had to rolled into a ball - she volunteered for the job so I gave it to her! And she loaned me her bamboo knitting needles. I love them! And so the knitting lesson began ...

Cast on 46 stitches .... that only took 2 tries! Then the first row pearl one knit one - repeat to the end. Okay! How hard could that be??? That took three tries before I figured out (with mom's help) exactly what I was doing wrong. Who knew you had to bring the yarn to the front and then to the back before you stitched!!! Second row knit to the end - I got the hang of that row right away. Row three and four are to repeat row one and two ... OMG - I have to keep track of all of these stitches and rows....   So after five hours of knitting this is what I have....

The beginnings of my "Beach" scarf! it has a few holes ... and some how I picked up 6 extra stitches along the way (I just could not leave them behind!) but I'm hooked! I can't wait to finish it ... I figure it takes me an hour to knit an inch ... it's suppose to be 48 inches long ... you do the math! I might have it done for next winter!!

Firenza Bag

I LOVE bags!

I just love selecting out the perfect fabric  -
did you know that there is actually fabric out there
that just screams "Make me into a BAG"!!

This is my latest store sample bag ...

The Firenza Bag by Pat Bravo

It's a darling small handbag that features a zip top,
pockets inside and way too cute ruffled flowers on the front.

I made it as a store sample for Quilter's Stash -
I added it to the "Bag Wall" ... the wall has everything you need to make bags!
I love it!! It's my corner of the shop!!!

Feeling Blue-Green Today!

This morning while surfing the web and a few on-line quilt magazines I found this pattern:

and I thought - "That looks like a fun one"

I rummaged through my stash and pulled out these...

I was feeling very blue-green today!!

It must be all the snow we have.

I started cutting, sewing and pressing and after a few hours

I had my blocks on my design wall...

now I just need to sew it all together add a thin blue boarder and

a nice 5" flowered boarder and voila - a Super Sewing Day Quilt!!

While doing all the cutting I remember an idea from this blog on

cutting useful scraps ... so I cut 3 different sizes.

2.5 x 4.5 rectangles

2" squares

3" squares

I'll use these in other future projects.

It's Super Bowl Day and the game is on....

 but since my team - the Patriots -

are not playing - I'm not watching!

I will watch the Black Eyed Peas at half time though! 

I've had my own Super Bowl of Sewing Day!

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Blocks ... 10 more done!

OK so this project is a long term one - that I started 3 years ago!

 I do a few blocks when I can ... and here are the latest completed blocks!

c-5 Lady of the Lake

d-8 Rosebud

g-3 Bear's Paw

g-8 Crown of Thorns

h-9 Weathervane

k-6 Gentleman's Fancy

l-5 Pineapple

m-2 Wild Goose Chase

m-4 Jack in the Box

c-3 Album

That's a total of 95 DONE!!! only 49 to go!!! Yippee!!

Raffle Quilt Blocks for RNQG

One of my quilt buddies -  Deb  is organizing the quilt blocks for RNQG's

2013 raffle quilt.

I volunteered to make a few blocks and of course got carried away

(as usual!) and made four blocks.

The idea is to make a block of something you would find in your garden!

I thought that was fabulous - and completely original! 

The background fabric is black -

so I really wanted something that would POP off the block!

My first block was a beaded butterfly.

 I really could have kept on going with the beading (it's so addictive!)

but I contained myself!

I used silver embroidery thread for the antennas.

And YES I did needle turn applique - because I'm nuts!

For my second block I knew any garden of mine

would probably have a toadstool for sure!

I found this awesome Amy Butler fabric in my stash

for a funky cap to my toadstool -

and of course I just had to bead it!!

Then came along my version of a dragon fly!

With gold beads for eyes and beaded wings-

Can't you just see this guy flying around in the garden!?

Yes - more needle turn applique!

And every garden needs a Bluebird of Happiness!

I just love May / June when the bluebirds come into my garden - they are such a beautiful little bird.

I have a bird house just for them - I usually have to shoo a few sparrows away

to make room for the bluebirds! 

So those are my contributions to the raffle quilt ... I think it is going to be fabulous.

I think I'll buy SEVERAL books of tickets! I totally want to WIN this quilt!!

Another Quilty Weekend ... went by way to fast

This is the group of ladies I spent the weekend with quilting, sharing stories & ideas, gaining inspiration and building friendships. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend.

The retreat was held at a Salvation Army Retreat Center. It was simplistic and comfortable - a joy to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I shared a room with my two friends Diana and Giuliana.

We quilted all day and stayed up way too late watching movies on Diana's computer. Diana is Not selecting the movies next year - and that's all I'll say about that!!

Diana is in the purple, Giuliana is in the red and I'm in the blue - with no sewing machine! I decided to spend the weekend doing all hand work! Friday I stitched 4 blocks for RNQG's 2012 raffle quilt (we are ahead of the game!) Saturday I worked on embellishing the crazy squares for SCQG's 2011 raffle quilt (we are a bit behind!) and in between I started hand quilting this quilt. It was so nice and relaxing - sitting back, hand stitching and having great conversations!  Nancy you can sit next to me any time! I think this was one of my favorite retreats!.

relaxing and stitching away

The room we quilted in was HUGE! it is the chapel and the light would pour in through the stain glass cross window - the light traveled around the room as the day went on and that quilter was "blessed" by the quilty gods!  

    

All in all there were 31 of us on the weekend, i

t went by too fast and I can not wait for next year.

I may not bring a machine then either!

                                      



The Cut Away... applique style.

I am now ready to hand quilt my Hawaiian Quilt ...

but before I can do that I need to do the cut away.

This will make it much easier to hand quilt

(one less layer of batik to quilt through!)

I tried the fancy scissors - (top right) but I just could not get the hang of them!

SO I've gone back to my tiny little snip scissors and

if I go very Slowly and Carefully I seem to be getting the job done.

I've only made one tiny little oops(!) I snipped a thread or two on the top layer

but Fray Check took care of that!

I'm leaving just under a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

The edges are all done - now it's time to cut away the center.

I can't wait to finish this part and get the quilt basted

so I can begin the hand quilting process.

I love hand quilting - I find it relaxing.

I'm hoping to have it done by September for my guild's next show!

Wish me luck!!

Snow Day of quilting - What FUN!

I've had 2 days off from work due to snow days! Yippee!

I've spent them organizing the Groovy Girl Sewing Club that I'm teaching

at Quilter's Stash and doing some preparing for my next quilt retreat next weekend!!

I love spending time in my quilting room and looking out at all of the snow

(about a foot of new snow!)

I seem to get lost in my own little quilty world - which brings me to the picture  above.

The picture above is from Minnie's Sewing room in Disney World - my daughter

was there on a field trip a few years ago and snapped this pic with her cell phone!

"It made me think of you Mum"!

I love it - it's whimsical - and reminds me that quilting is a world

where I can loose myself in my creations!

Hope everyone has fun creating in there quilting world of whimsy!