My New Book and Quilt Show Vendors

Look what I have…

Uncommonly Corduroy

by Stephanie Dunphy

Now don’t be jealous…you can possibly win your very own copy, well the ebook version anyway.  Go to Stephanie’s at Loft Creations and follow her links to all the wonderful bloggers offering you a chance to win this treasure.  Each of those quilters tested patterns for Stephanie and they are known as her Supremes.  I follow most of them and can tell you, they are fantastic!  You can bet that the patterns in this book are perfect!  Don't let the name fool you...Stephanie's patterns aren't just for corduroy, you can use your favorite quilter's cotton too.

I’ve read this book cover-to-cover twice, three a few times and have already chosen two bags that I will make.  I won’t get started on the quilts…yet J 

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In my last post, just over TWO weeks ago, I mentioned a quilt

show.  This is a small show that our local quilt guild hosts every other year.  The guild name is Port Saint Lucie Crazy Quilters…I know a couple of them and can see where they get their name J  (because they are Crazy Fun!!)

Since we always seem to take a gazillion (is that even a real word?) pictures, I split my recap into two posts.  Today I’ll share photos of a few vendor booths and later I’ll show you some of the amazing quilts our locals created.

I’ll start with my two favorite Sweethearts…

 
Laura 

Dave

They own Laura’s Sewing in Port Saint Lucie and in North Palm Beach.  Dave and Laura are our local Brother dealer…now you know why I love them.  I purchased my Quattro 3 from them back in December and they have been wonderful with their unlimited training, not only on how to use all of the machine’s features but also how to care for the machine. 

More vendors...

Fiber Art

 Who doesn't love a beach umbrella and flip flops?

Free motion quilting demo

Wool

More wool

Even more wool (which is different for south Florida)

Kits for small quilts

Fabric

Not a rag quilt...this was a product you attach to the seams

It ravels in the laundry

I love this Christmas Tree kit

Kits with templates for making cathedral window blocks

Always a Special

Eleanor made an appearance

So what did I bring home?

A Sweet Heart Quilt

I can see this hanging on the wall next February 14th

My first wool projects

Kits for small candle mats

One for July 4th, one for Halloween, one for Thanksgiving

and one for Christmas

And these needles because the candle mat vendor

told me I needed them :)

I think I demonstrated great restraint, don't you?

Have yourself a blessed week and don't forget to stop by Stephanie's.  Tell her I said Hi!

A Gift and UFO Busting

A co-worker has a birthday next week so I made her a little cosmetic bag on my new sewing / embroidery machine.

I love this project from Anita Goodesign.  The stippling and the zipper installation is part of the design so the entire bag is made in the hoop. 

In an effort to clear out some UFOs, I pulled out Willow Weave.  WW was a sew-along hosted by Aunt ‘Reen last June.  I don’t remember why I didn’t finish.  I had all of the blocks pieced, just needed to be laid out and the rows sewn together.  This is the layout, I’m in the process of sewing everything together now.

I’m planning to quilt this myself…nothing fancy, using the walking foot and simple stitching in the ditch.  

That has been my weekend in a nut shell...well, other than a quilt show.  I'll share more about that in a couple of days.

Hope you all have a great week ahead J

Goodnight Irene Sew-Along: February Blocks

Here are my rows one and two for the Goodnight Irene Sew Along hosted by Terry.

I am ADDICTED!  Sewing these blocks together puts me in a zone…I have to force myself to stop…after all, it’s a sew ALONG J

Stop by Terry’s Treasures and check out the Linky on her sidebar…there are some amazing Goodnight Irene blocks to see.

Hope you all are having a stitching good time this week… I am, in spite of the day job J

Not ONE but TWO Finishes

I finally got the binding on two Christmas quilts.

Fat Quarter Shop’s Deck-Ade the Halls quilt

 I asked the long-arm quilter to stitch candy canes… so cute J

A strip quilt that my husband requested

This one has the words Faith, Love and Hope quilted on it

Next up?  Row two of my Goodnight Irene quilt.

Have a wonderful week my dear friends  J

Coming Unraveled...

Remember the Granny Stripe Afghan I mentioned here?

This was to be a leisure project for me…no rules, no deadline…just something to do for FUN. 

Well, I was having fun…until my pattern repeated a couple of times, then I realized two things:

1)    It is too wide for my purpose, and

2)  I didn’t like the variegated yarn I placed in the middle of the cream yarn.  It just didn’t “go” so…. it had to GO!

Guess you know what I’ll be doing during the Super Bowl on Sunday J

Anyone with a ball winder want to come over?

I’ll be back to share a…get ready for it…a FINISH!  I know, right?  Just need a little sunshine to get a decent picture.  Weather man can’t decide what tomorrow will bring, always a mystery.

Have a great weekend J

Goodnight Irene Sew-Along: January Blocks

After way too many days weeks, I finally made it back into the sewing room today. (Insert Happy Dance!)  I am very pleased to report that I am on schedule with my Goodnight Irene sew-along with Terry.  Granted it is only the first month… J

I chose to use 5” pre-cut batiks from Hoffman called Breakers for the print fabric.  The background fabric is some crisp white yardage I picked up at a new fabric store in town.

Missouri Quilt Company has a couple of YouTube tutorials on how to make a scrappy4-patch as well as the X block.  I used their methods to create these… 

Hopefully the links above will take you to the correct videos as they are very helpful and I found their techniques to be fast and accurate.

This month’s goal was to create the first row of blocks for the quilt but NOT sew them together.  Since it is supposed to be scrappy, we may need to rearrange some blocks later.

On my design wall…

In the dining room, was hoping for better light…

It isn’t too late to join Terry’s sew-along.  Check out the links on her sidebar and see everyone’s progress so far.

Hope you all have a blessed week…now time for me to clean up my mess J

2014...Already?

It is day 11 of 2014 and I am just now getting around to writing a blog post.  I've drafted something 3 or 4 times but could never get around to finishing it.  Let’s hope this isn’t indicative of what the year will be like.

First, Happy 2014 to you, my wonderful friends.  I haven’t posted anything so far this year but I have kept up with you.  I’ve read so many blogs recapping 2013 with all the quilty and creative accomplishments as well as some pretty impressive goals for 2014.  This post is not about my accomplishments nor goals but a short recap about our holidays.

As you know from my holiday greeting to you here, my son was home for Christmas.  We enjoyed having our little family together one more time.  He returned to his post December 26^th and went right back to work. 

 

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I received a nice package on Christmas Eve…not from Santa but from Darlene.  Darlene is a good friend of Kaaren’s at The Painted Quilt.  Kaaren has a fun feature on her blog 4 times a year (March, June, September and December) called First Friday Freebie.  She generously offers her readers a free pattern design on the first Friday of those months. 

 Last December’s FFF was Bells & Bows and you can see a picture of it here.

Where does Darlene come into the picture?  Well, Darlene just opened a new quilt store in Nova Scotia appropriately named A Needle Pulling Thread.  You can read more about the store and see some amazing photos by going to this post at Kaaren's.

 

Darlene kindly put together a kit for Kaaren’s Bell & Bows which I just had to have...

Not only does this kit include a generous amount of fabric but also the embroidery floss, batting and even a Pigma pen for tracing the pattern.

This project is definitely on my list to complete soon so it will be ready for this year’s holiday décor.  I'm so grateful to Kaaren and Darlene for teaming up on this one.  I tend to finish 'kitted' projects in a more timely fashion...is it just me?

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My DH, DD, her boyfriend and I flew to Philadelphia two days after Christmas to spend time with my in-laws.  It was a very special time with family.

This was the display in the hotel lobby.  Doesn’t it remind you of balls of yarn?

Speaking of yarn, I found a cute little yarn shop in Chadds Ford, PA filled to the brim with all kinds of yummy yarn.  Sadly, I did not get pictures of the inside of the store but will ask when I visit again.  The owner was so kind…knowing that I do not visit the area often, she wrote on my receipt “NO limit on returns for store credit.”   This was in case I needed to return any of the yarn I bought.  (We all know that won’t happen)

Now I bought all of this yarn because a couple of special people inspired me with their own plans for a Granny Stripe Afghan.  Thank you Candace and Stephanie, I’m having fun with this one J

So sorry the colors aren't coming through well...it's been raining here for days :(
Can't get good photos

Most of the ten days we spent up north (well, north from Florida) was spending time with my MIL and FIL at their home in Wilmington, DE.  However, we did take the kids to Philly on New Year’s Eve where they ice skated for the first time.  We've been up north many times in the winter but never considered ice skating.  The kids hit the ice at Penn’s Landing and after a few minutes, they looked like they had done this before.

Aren't they the cutest?

We also took an afternoon to visit one of DD’s favorite museums.  I'll tell you more about that in a future post.

I am off now to finish putting away holiday decorations and start my Good Night Irene quilt that I told you about here.

Have a wonderful weekend...I'll be back soon.