I'm Ba-a-ack!

And whew do I have a lot to tell you! :-) I think it is going to take a few posts. :-)


Let's start with the retreat I went to in mid-April. What fun!  I worked on bags, wallets, my April Le Petite and much more. Of course, I didn't accomplish half of what I took along, but that is ok~ my kits will wait for me. :-)

Top two bags are Sherrod Studio patterns, bottom two are Lazy Girl Designs.  The wallet is an Indygo Junction pattern

We are lucky enough to have a quilt shop come and set up for the weekend. And the best part is that the owner or one of her staff go back to her shop every day, so if we are looking for a certain fabric, she brings what she has! Isn't that nice?!  I was looking for Thimbleberries to make this quilt~

from the Thimbleberries booklet 'My Best'

...and I found these. :-)  And she gave us a retreat discount too! Pretty cool!

But the coolest by far is the raffle. Every year they giveaway a couple quilts and a 'free retreat' voucher for the next year~~ squeal!!! Guess who won the voucher????!!!!  ME! :-))) Oh my gosh, I was just giddy! lol You could not have wiped the smile off of my face! I think I fell asleep smiling that night! :-)

I came home, unpacked the car, did a quick few loads of laundry and the next day hubby and I took off at 5 AM to go visit our families... more on that in the next post. ;-)

Hope y'all had a Happy Mother's Day! I just heard from the last of my chicks~ DD had been in Canada all weekend and just got back to school.

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!!

Look! Look!

:-) Did I get your attention? :-)

Kim from Sherrod Studio is having a wonderful giveaway of her new bag patterns. Go HERE and be sure to enter! 

As you know, I tested some of Kim's patterns a while ago~ you can see my bags here.... Bags
They were super fun to make and her instructions are wonderful.  I'm sorry I can't add any photo's to this post~ I'm on vacation. :-)  But I didn't want you to miss out on the fun!

Good luck!  :-)

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!

Packing and Planning~

The packing part~

Only half of what is going. ;-)

My bags are getting packed and I'm getting ready to go! :-) I'm off to a retreat this weekend. It is a 'working' retreat and I have lots of projects to keep me busy! Probably too many, but better that than not enough, right? And after that, I am hitting the road to deliver this quilt. :-) So you may not see much of me in the next few weeks, but I'll have a great show and tell around the beginning of May, so be sure to come back!! :-)

The planning part~

My friend Bonnie at Nap Time News and I have been plotting and planning a block exchange for a CW quilt for almost a year.  :-)  The emails fly back and forth furiously, then we get busy with other things, and we slow down, then they start flying again. Well this past week they have been flying fast and furiously! We both got our new issue of Quiltmaker magazine and both loved the same basket quilt! :-) A perfect place for our CW stashes.  We are both a little leary of applique, but we've decided its time. :-)

I worked on a test block last night~  and hey!~ applique wasn't so bad! lol
Whoohoo, I love when a new plan (and quilt) come together!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Why I've Been Busy~

...or why I haven't been blogging much. ;-) My 'secret' is out!  I have had the wonderful pleasure of being a pattern tester for the past couple weeks. And let me tell you~ I've had a blast! :-)

The very talented Kim behind Sherrod Studio has been designing some amazing bags! Just take a look~

This is the Seabrook Bag. It has lots of inside pockets and a special outside pocket.  There is a magnetic snap at the top. It is just the right size for shopping. I loved how clear her directions were!~ very easy to follow. I think I'll be making lots more of these. :-)

The Seabrook Bag

This beauty is the Carolina Bag. Another really cool pattern. It also has inside pockets and a magazine or more ;-) fits in it perfectly for that trip you'll be taking soon. I know mine is going with me! ;-) It already has my magazines and embroidery project in it. ;-)

The Carolina Bag

And this cutie is the Florence Bag. I made this one with my DD in mind. It has roomy inside pockets, the long skinny strap is removable and it has a zipper closing at the top. If you are afraid of zippers, you don't need to be if you make this bag... Kim's directions hold your hand through the whole process! You could practically put the zipper in by just looking at the photo's! How easy is that!?

The Florence Bag

I have to send out a special thank you to Kim for trusting me with her work! I'm not being paid to tell you any of this~ it was my true pleasure! I know I sound like a commercial, but I'm so excited to have finally found patterns I love! And I just have to tell you, these were the easiest patterns to follow! If you've been following me for any length of time, you know I love to make bags and totes, and have used lots of different designers patterns. Truly, you can't go wrong with any of Kim's patterns!  Thank you Kim!  :-)

Kim is taking pre-orders of her patterns on her site~ Sherrod Studios. Go ahead~ you know you will love them! :-)

Until next time~
 Happy stitchin'! :-)

A Sneaky Peek~

I just finished quilting a quilt for my Mom at Granny Quilts.  You will have to wait to see the front on her blog. :-)  I used an all over panto, but can't remember the name of it now! I'll go out to the cottage and check in a bit. ;-)  I'm going to be personally delivering it in a couple weeks. :-))

Have you seen the newest issue of Quiltmaker magazine?  They have the first installment of a Debbie Caffrey mystery. I love a good mystery! :-)  I plan to play along and chose these fabrics~ I'm not sure this is the order I will go with, but it will definitely be these 9. :-)

Have a good weekend!

I am going sewing!! :-)

Mail! Funtastic Mail!

I'm like a kid~ I love to get mail, especially the fun kind! lol  The bills and stuff I can do without. ;-)  Anyway~ I was so lucky to be chosen on Barb's giveaway sponsored by ButtonMad. I received these adorable birdie buttons and Barb sent the lovely FQ! Thank you Barb!

And just today I got this little lovely scissors bling in the mail from Susan at Quixotic Crafter. :-) If you've never visited Susan's blog, you are in for a treat~ she does amazing quilting!  :-)  Tell her I said hi! ;-)  Thank you  Susan!!

I've been busy quilting! :-) No photo's yet, its kind of dreary here and the light is terrible. Soon though. ;-)
Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!

Saturday Sewing ~

Usually weekends are kind of full and I don't get near my sewing machine~ but today I did! :-) And I may get back to it later. Whoohoo! I love Saturday sewing!

Today I finished this wallet. The pattern is from Indygo Junction and is called a 'Grommet Wallet' by Amy Barickman. 

I love sewing bags and wallets, but I was a little disappointed in this pattern. Look at my wallet, then look at the pattern.... notice the differences?  (Sorry, it was sunny today and the pattern is shiny so it caught glare) I didn't notice until I was finished. I was so busy concentrating on the directions that I never thought to check the photo.

If you guessed that their corners are round and mine are square, you caught it! :-)  Not once did the directions say to round the corners on any piece. I always feel a little peeved when what I make doesn't turn out like the pattern because they followed the little rule 'do as I say, not as I do'. :-/   I'm not going to write to them, I make notes on my patterns and will do things 'my way' next time.  It would have been much easier to take a nickel and round all those corners, although my quilter corners did turn out ok; so why didn't they have that tip in their directions? Sewing on the 1/4 inch bias binding was challenging, but on the whole it was fun to make this wallet and I do have plans for a couple more. This one is for a friend who loves purple. :-)

Speaking of binding, I know a lot of quilters machine sew their bindings on, and that is how they tell you to do the wallet. Some of the areas were a little tricky because the binding is so narrow, and the couple spots where it didn't catch? I pulled out my trusty needle and thread and blind stitched! ;-) lol

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!! :-)