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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Park Bench BOM

I received the sixth installment of the Park Bench BOM from Fat Quarter Shop the other day. I sewed the blocks today. I really love this project. I know I say that every month. But it is true. Here are this month's blocks.

The colors aren't reading right in these photos. The six-pointed stars are dark and light gray in the top block and dark and light orange in the bottom block. Sorry about that. I only have an iPhone for a camera.

I couldn't resist taking all of the blocks out of my project box and putting them up on the design wall.

I am getting excited about getting this one finished.

I am linking up with BOM's Away Monday @ What a Hoot (Link here). I am also linking up with Anything Goes Monday (Link at right).

Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Canned Pears

I have had some good sewing days. It was great fun to cut into the Mirabelle fabric from Fig Tree to make this Canned Pears pattern (available here). Joanna's colors are so sweet. All of her fabrics seem to go with each other. I love that. Her creamy background fabric is hard to tell the back from the front. I had to un-sew a couple of the setting pieces because I had pieced them with the wrong side up. Other than that, I had no trouble with this pattern.

I was pretty proud of myself when those 1-inch square checkerboard borders fit. I didn't have to do any resewing on them. I made 3 pear blocks from each of my fat quarters. I only needed 18 for the quilt, so I have three extra.

I am thinking of making a pillow to go with the quilt.

I am linking up with Anything Goes Monday (link at right).

Thanks for stopping by.


Friday, June 27, 2014

Fabric Sale

On June 21, DH and I drove to Dry Ridge (isn't that the cutest name for a town?), KY to catch the big once-a-year sale at The Quilt Box. It is an hour and a quarter drive from our house. It was well worth the trip.

They set up the sale in a barn on the property and all fabric in the sale is $5/yd. Wow. What a perfect opportunity to get backing fabrics. I went prepared. I made a list of all of my tops waiting to be quilted that needed backing. I measured each of them and figured the needed yardage. We arrived about 15 minutes after they opened and the place was already packed.

Here are the fabrics I picked up.
 Apple Cider by P&B. I got 8 yards. It will make a good backing for anything. I didn't plan it for anything specific but I have several quilt tops it would work for.
 June's Backyard from Clothworks. I plan to use this as the backing for my Lori Holt Row Along quilt. The turquoise will work nicely with the colors I used in that quilt.

 Present Juliet from Windham. I will use this as the backing for my Pansy quilt that has been a flimsy for years. There are a lot of purples in that quilt and this soft lavender will be a great backing.

I found it hard to shop for the specific quilts I had in mind. I think I would have been better off to just grab the fabrics that appealed to me (the way I usually shop) and make the match up later. I was too focused on looking for a certain color for a certain quilt. The other thing that made it hard to shop was that by the time I got there, the place was half filled with people standing inline with their bolts of fabric. Most of the fabric was in the line rather than on the tables. As we waited to get our fabric cut, we were all checking out what other shoppers had in their arms. "Are you going to buy all of that bolt? If not, will you pass it to me when you are finished with it?" Actually, that is how I got my hands on this sweet little thing:
Patisserie from Fig Tree. I love Joanna's colors. This was an impulse buy. I took the rest of the bolt and got 3 7/8 yards. I know I will be able to use it with some of my other Fig Tree fabric to make some of the projects that are swimming around in my head (table runner, placemats, pillows, doll quilt for granddaughter, etc.).

Here is my sweet little pile of goodies. These fabrics will help me get some of those flimsies completed.

Here are the things I learned and will remember for next year:
1. Be on time. That means, be there early. The first people in the door get to see all of the fabric.
2. Be prepared. Experienced shoppers brought carts or tote bags to handle the bolts. This is especially important while standing in line. We were in line for a loooong time. I had DH to hold my purchases, but some women were really struggling to hold all of their bolts.
3. Grab what you want the first time you see it. It won't be there the second time around.
4. Don't be narrowly focused on a specific fabric. If you do, you will pass over some other potential choices.

Thanks for stopping by.


Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Sewing Day

I have had two good sewing days. The newest Designer BOM from Fat Quarter Shop arrived. The first thing I did was make a terrible mistake in cutting my pieces. Duh! Even though FQS sends very generous cuts, I couldn't make up for this mistake. I had to carefully adjust so that the error was in the seam allowance, not in the finished size. Whew. It worked. Here is the block.
I love these colors. The fabric is from Laundry Baskets. Love Edyta!

The other thing I put together is a scrap pillow using the bonus triangles from the Uncle Sam wallhanging.
I used the tutorial found here, but my HST's weren't exactly the right size. I adjusted and came out with a 14x21" pillow. Now I have to get filling so I can finish it. I have enough HST's for a second pillow.

I am linking up with BOM's Away Monday @ What a Hoot. Link here.

Thanks for stopping by.


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Tula Pink Pillows

I have found myself waiting for a couple of shipments to arrive so I can finish up some projects. I don't have the batting to complete the Uncle Sam wallhanging (as well as several other quilt tops). I have three on-order from Hancock's of Paducah, but they are out of stock. Darn. I am waiting for two new BOM projects to arrive. First, I am waiting for the 2014 Designer's Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop. Second, I am waiting for the Pumpkin Patch Lane BOM from Shabby Fabrics to arrive. I have other fabrics lined up and ready to go for quilts, but I didn't want to cut into a new project just to have the two BOM projects to arrive.

What to do? I went back to the Tula Pink Pineapple Slices pillows. I got the free pattern from Free Spirit Fabrics. PDF available here.



I used my walking foot on my domestic machine. I quilted a swirl in the center. Then I did SID along each slice and continued the line of quilting into the border.

I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. I had two 20" pillow forms from Joann's that I got at half off several months ago. These pillows will go with the Diamonds in the Sky quilt, if I ever get it finished. I just can't get into hand piecing. I know EPP is all the rage, but it just doesn't trip my trigger. I have to get it done, though, because I spent a lot of money on the kit.

I am linking up with Anything Goes Monday, and Fabric Tuesday (links at right).

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Patriotic Wall Hanging

This is what I have been working on lately. Cute, no?
It is 44" wide. I have the perfect spot to hang this. Now I have to make something else to hang in that spot for the rest of the year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Gen X Blocks for June

I haven't been able to post my new photos on Flickr because it now requires a Yahoo account. I try to keep my online profile as small as possible, so I won't be connecting up with Yahoo. No more pictures on Flickr from me.

Here are the two June blocks.

I don't know why these colors look so bright. They really are much darker in tone than they show in these photos.

Here are all 12 blocks I have completed so far.


Friday, June 6, 2014

Back to the Machine

I have had some time at the sewing machine. It feels pretty good. The first thing I sewed was the final few border pieces to the Designer series.
I love the Fig Tree Avalon fabrics. Here is another one for the pile of 'ready to be quilted' flimsy tops.

The next thing I worked on was the Park Bench BOM. The fifth installment arrived while I was on vacation.

Today was a good sewing day. I finished the assembly of the Star Surround quilt from Happy Quilting.
It is huge. I cleaned up all of the dust bunnies from my sewing room floor when I got this hung on the design wall. This is a real change for me. It is very graphic and very modern. I know it will be fun to quilt, but it is now added to the pile waiting to be quilted.

Thanks for stopping by.




Sunday, June 1, 2014

Where in the World Have I Been?

First things first. Rabbit, Rabbit. The first of June. It's my big brother's birthday.

Now, where in the world have I been? Can you guess?

We took an 8-day cruise on the Royal Carribean ship Independence of the Seas out of Southhampton, UK to Norway. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everywhere we looked there were stunning views. If you ever have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and go.


We followed that cruise with a back-to-back 6-day cruise to France and Spain. We had only 5 1/2 hours in Paris, but we got to all of the major landmarks. We must go back sometime so we can actually go inside the museums. I haven't gone through the Spain pictures yet, so I don't have anything to share on that part of the trip.

I just had to get pictures of this stunning artwork that was on the ship.

This is a mosaic made up of spools of thread. It is made up of over 17,000 spools of thread. Now that is a collection of thread that any quilter would die for.


Back to work tomorrow. Trying to catch up on the pile of mail, emails, and blogs. Can't wait to get back to the sewing machine.

Thanks for stopping by.