quilt show....

Well, it was good, but not great. Some of the bigger booths were gone this year. The more recognizable ones anyway. My one big negative was that I was so careful to make sure to write down Mary's cell number, so we could meet. Then I promptly left it right on the kitchen counter! Mary, I'm so sorry I missed meeting you! I had the sticky stuck to my money envelope and then took all the money packets out, divided them up between hubby's front pockets like I always do and left the envelope right there. The second miss was taking almost no pictures! I didn't care for the Best in Show quilt. Not my cup of tea, sorry.... but I did get a few.
Loved this one...Karen Kay Buckley won best Traditional.below....sorry for the ghastly picture, a lady moved right as I was shooting and blurred the whole thing.

This was my favorite one and it won Best in Machine Quilting, for some category...the border is about 8" to 10" and INTRICATELY quilted.

Look at the detail in this border...we're talking quarter inch peacock feather designs!!

Besides which it's just a pretty quilt. The Best in Show that I didn't care for was solid yellow, whole cloth, with machine quilting and cut outs with lattice, and quite frankly...sorry to say, looked like a bedspread from JC Penny. Sorry, if it was your quilt, you did an amazing amount of work, but it wasn't my taste, not Best in Show. Once they post the pictures, or if Mary got pictures you can see more.

quilt show loot...

Now the loot... too many pictures make it tough to do in one post. As I said before I was kinda disappointed this year....and much more selective in what I bought. A big plus was seeing not one but at least 5 booths with REAL wool! Lots of it, but mostly bright odd colors. I bought none of it, LOL! Well 5 small pieces from my favorite booth. I was able to find a big 1 1/2 yard piece of solid black that I needed for backgrounds for a couple projects...yippee!

Here's my whole haul except for a few pieces I forgot that had already been put away. I picked up tons of things I thought were fabulous and then put them down and walked away. I found 4 patterns, a sewing case kit...
I found one guy with loads of the primitive fabrics and homespuns. Some cheddars....Then I got a few FQ's that I wanted like the President pictures. I want to put an Abe Lincoln pic in a CW block. I always pick up background pieces, and 2 yds of that cool cheddar with red flowers. The green FQ bundle in the back is from Pinwheels...6 lovely spring greens.
***By request...that neat cheddar is called Washtub's Santa Claus Lane by Karen Snyder for Andover Fabrics Patt#3305** II guess those could be poinsettias but also pass as just red flowers!!

I had already put up the hoops and wool when I took the first picture. I wanted an 8" Q-snap for embroidery, and bright red and christmas green wool for the letters on the Christmas List quilt blocks. Then I got a smaller 7" hoop and legs that fit the BEST hoop I found last year. This lets me use it separately and with the next smaller hoop. It totally saves my arms !

Now for the BEST find this year. These people were new this year. Cool zippers and purse parts!!The online store at.... QuiltPlus.com has the purse parts, but sadly no zippers. I might email about those. SO here's what I bought... 3 sets of handles, one of those snapping openers(you push and it snaps open and then snaps closed) plus zippers. No ordinary zippers, but the ones I have been trying to find ALL OVER! The ones with cool bronze dangly hangers. I didn't know what sizes I needed so I just bought a selection of ones I liked for purses and mostly sewing cases! Dutch Girl. fish, cherries. Kitty cats....

a heart, sailor girl, more kitties and a tiny purse! I bought a few things, then went back and bought more!The ladies at Pinwheels said they might also start carring the small round bronze beed zippers they found in Japan that came in my sewing bag kit. So that's my stuff. I spent about 2/3rd of what I normally do, but I got exactly what I wanted and everything I had on my list.

geese in the forest...

today I got working on my new bom Christmas quilt by Anina called Geese in the Forest. I finally got the time to do February blocks. Click here for more information.

Too bad March is right around the corner and there will be more to do soon.

scraps...

I know I've been missing lately here on the blog, but I've been working on getting the huge SLOL quilt all pinned...and re-pinned. How I hate when that happens, you turn over your quilt and realize you didn't straighten and pull the backing quite tight enough. SO that corner needed to be re-pinned. Now save the stories about the merits of the basting spray, I just really don't care for it on big quilts...well I don't care for it that much at all on any size quilt . To each his own. I don't mind pinning, it just takes time. and I pinned the HECK out of this sucker. But it's all done and ready to start tomorrow.

Before switching machines, I needed to get some swap blocks done before the gals drummed me out of the group! So I sewed this morning and got them finished and put the background together for the next 2 ABC sampler blocks so I can applique them this week. When I was trimming the excess from around the pieces I realized I could share a tip for using the excess scraps of fabric!!

This totally comes from Lucy, who shared all the beautiful quilts she makes out of the smallest little one inch squares. She inspired me to grab a tin and start cutting from even the smallest pieces left from cutting. It's a big tin, but I'm working to fill it up. Above I cut the small dress for the M block and had the pink piece left over. Normally I would have tossed it but nope! Keeping it on the straight of grain I got 3 squares from that piece to add to my tin.

I also got great scrap tips from reading Crazy Mom Quilts scrap saving system and she posted some of the coolest tutorials! I bought fabric sunday for making a few of her fabric storage cubes. I keep loads of scraps for different projects like...mini quilts, Lucy's tulip quilt, a spiderweb scrap quilt, and others. Until now I've used small paper bags, but these fabric cubes are much cuter. Go check out some of these links!

It's DONE!!!!

Oh I have so many notes to post over at the official how to page, but the top is officially

DONE!!!

I sewed on the final border and seam yesterday afternoon after un-sewing it once! Anyone who works with homespuns knows they stretch. I went merrily along sewing and get to the last 5 inches and I realize I have just under 2 inches hanging past the end??? Un-SEW...and pin the edges and it all sewed fine the second time. Now you know from before that I had no more space on the design wall so I'll just show the bottom border to you.

Six large stars, one small star and three houses make up the lower border. My quilt is finishing at 58 1/2" x 81". Definitely NOT the same measurements as Cheri's pattern called for at 63 x 75". But I got curious and started adding up the dimensions of Cheri's quilts by doing block by block addition and hers doesn't add up at that either! Anyone surprised?? Gotta admit I still love her! By my calculations it would measure 57.5 x 79". I came out just about on the nose because I had to add the 2" spacer bar on one side towards the bottom...without it mine would have been 58.5 x 79!! Just one inch wider. I'm very pleased.

Mine is super long and I almost added either a row of economy blocks to the left side or another row of flying geese. But in the end I'll leave it alone. I'm getting the backing sewn today...my least favorite job of all and then I'm going straight to the pinning and quilting.

Someone asked how I plan to quilt it. At first I thought all over meander, my easiest speciality, but I did that on the Christmas quilt and didn't like how it looked over the wool, so I am going to do this one with custom quilting. First I'll do as much ditch quilting as I can , outlining the blocks, then move into the pieces where needed and cover the appliques with a bit of stiitching here and there to keep them down. I'll make it up as I go along!

fat girls R us club...

who the heck knew it was already monday again? I got chocolate for Heart day and I loved...yes loved... eating every single piece. Ferraro Roche are my favorite chocolate candies and the plastic boxes are great for storing goodies like thread inside. 27 pieces in 3 days...geez like a starving animal or something. Now they are gone and I can relax again. I swear they called to me all day long!

Didn't even get on the scale this morning since I totally forgot but I'd bet no loss and maybe a gain of a pound or two. I wasn't really trying this week, just eating when I was hungry. I'm not exactly trying very hard, but maybe soon I can get back in the game and work at it.
Hope you all did better than me!

there was clapping....

I said a silent prayer and held my breath as I laid out the top section over the lower section to see how badly they were going to match/line up. It was sheer luck when they spread out and the edge of the quilt matched PERFECTLY!!!


There was mass clapping!! It's a very big quilt! The one left side section isn't goofed, it's done on purpose. Cheri's quilt had the flying geese switched with the spacer strip as a quirk and I liked it so I left it. I won't do the center seam until after I get the 6" border done for the bottom. SO far...I'm liking it!