Diversionary Tactics?

Do you do this?  :-) 

Instead of sewing on the things I must get finished because I have deadlines, I found myself playing with the 60º angle on my big ruler. :-)  Why? No idea! :-) But I do find that sometimes it is fun to do a quick and easy project in between the bigger ones to kind of recharge myself.  I'm sure you've seen these table runners every where. I have too! So I thought it was about time I played! LOL

I love how it turned out!  I can see more of these in my future! I'm no longer intimidated when I see a striped fabric I like! I now have a few different ideas for them. ;-)

I'm so sorry, but I was spammed over the weekend~ with some uglies. So word verification is back on. I know many of you don't like it, please bear with me and maybe I can un-do it in a few weeks.

And finally~ just two more posts until I hit 700!! Wow! I had no idea I talked so much! :-o You can bet, there is going to be a little party. :-)  Stay tuned!

Until next time~
Happy stitching!

Stitches...

I love to sit and stitch in the evening when DH is watching TV.  While I was on my trip, we visited a quilt show in Springfield, MO.  The show was lovely and I came home with many ideas ;-), but the vendors? Oh my!!  I have never seen so many vendors at a quilt show, and apparently many others hadn't either because the vendor area was busy! LOL  It was almost like a craft fair in the vendor 'mall'.  Of course, I found lots of wonderful things! :-)

One of my favorite discoveries was these little woolie kits at Sew Graceful Quilting's booth.  The pattern is Little Bits by Joan, #308 Punkin Seeds.  It was so easy to stitch up because the wool was in the kit, and I have limited wool sources here. I gotta tell you~ I am in love with Joan's patterns!!  :-)

I have a few more I am going to work on so I can change them out in the frame for the different season's. :-)
(I think if you click on the photo, it will enlarge a bit.)

Then I happened upon a booth with Sherri K. Falls patterns  Loved them! This one is called Autumn Blessing.  I stitched it in perle cotton 5 and really like the thicker stitching.

I am working on another one of her patterns and hopefully will be able to show you that one soon.

Until then,
Happy stitchin'!

I'm Sewing!

I think I have recovered from retreat. LOL I am back to sewing and I have to tell you about the great bag I tested for Kim at Lily Patch Quilts.   Kim just designed The Varsity Bag~

I know my DD is going to flip when she sees this bag! LOL  It is large enough for a laptop, or your quilting supplies! :-)  It has the zippered outer pocket (above) and the top zips closed.  It features both a long strap and short handles. I sure wish I had this one when I was flying home from retreat! I could've done more shopping! LOL ;-)

The other side~

...has a large durable pocket.  And inside there are more pockets that are strategically sewn so you have a place for your pencils and other small things so that they don't end up in the bottom of the bag. I love it! :-)

Kim has entered the bag in a contest at Lemon Squeezy Home. Would you help me give her some votes? Go to A Lemon Squeezy Home and  vote on the sidebar for The Varsity Bag by Lily Patch Quilts.  There are a lot of nice bags to look at, but I truly feel this bag involved the most work.  I hope you agree too. ;-)  Thank you!!

In other sewing news, I am working on my Schnibble for this month~ I think I started a little late! :-o  And I've finished 2 stitcheries I will show you next time~

Thanks for stopping by~
Happy Quilting!!

Unpacking~

As I was unpacking from the retreat, I took some photo's for you. :-)
When everyone registered, they were given a retreat bag, a bag of batting samples and their T-shirt if they ordered one. Since I was on the committee, I just put my bag aside and didn't really look in it until after the retreat. :-o  Oh my goodness!  The Warm and Natural company donated all the bags of batting and it was a big hit with the ladies. The pieces are big enough for small wall hangings and I've already heard that a couple of the ladies have used some of them.  :-)

The flower pinned to the bag was made by one of our committee members, the talented Shauna.:-)  The journal covers were made by various HGTV message board members and inside there was a little note that said who made your cover. Very fun!  Thanks Malou! I love my red/white cover!  The key ring, little card wallet, dish cloth and other goodies were also made and donated by board members. Everyone received a donated book and pattern too.  As well as the little F8th of fabric and the measuring tool. Lots of goodies!

The bag had our board name and the Missouri bird and flower embroidered on them. What a great memento. There was a also a pillow square with the state outline printed on it for collecting signatures. I'm not sure why mine didn't make it into the photo. LOL 

We had class time every day during the retreat. I took a Swedish weaving class~ and loved it! I should have taken a photo of the back of my placemat too because none of the stitches show on the back! It is really cool. I want to make another one as soon as I collect the supplies. It was done on 11 count Aida cloth.

While we were visiting a local quilt shop, I saw a display of Swedish weaving books and picked one up. This will be a perfect new hobby when watching TV at night. Of course, I discovered a few other 'perfect new hobbies' too. ;-)  I'll tell you about those in my next post.

Until next time~

Have a great week and happy stitching!!

I'm BAA--AACK! :-)

Anyone out there?  :-o

I know it has been almost a month! And I just got home the night before last! But I had a blast!!  I was at the Circle of Friends retreat in Branson, MO. We had 66 retreater's and a very fun weekend.  Its going to take me a long time to recover! LOL

Remember all the secret sewing I have been doing all year?  We were working on row robin quilts. Back in April we started making our center rows and passing them around. I did 2 lap quilt rows and one wall hanging. So every month to 6 weeks, I had three to work on~ and I had to keep them secret so the owner's would be surprised at retreat. I was blown away by all the creativity on all the quilts!  I'll show you mine today~ and if you'd like to see more go to this blog and scroll down a bit. :-)  I think I have photo's of all of them too. :-)

This was my wall hanging. I did the center black cat row and plan to add some crystals for their eyes after I have it finished. The person who made the row with the eyes told me they glow in the dark! Too fun! :-)

Mine is in the center ;-)

 I love the wintery one to the right of mine! And the one to the left is going in the owner's fishing cottage on a lake. Very cool!

This is one of my lap size quilts. I made the Christmas trees and gifts in the center row~

Blogger won't let me put a space between the photo's today, so the bottom shot is of my second lap quilt. I  made the house row and asked everyone to keep it to an autumn theme.  I love them both! **you can click on the photo's to make them larger** ;-)

Mine is on the left, my friend's with a chicken theme is on the right. 

Love the autumn rows!

I have much to do yet, unpacking and organizing. But I'll be back with more photo's soon!!

Have a happy Friday!!

Time Out~

For Fun!! :-)

I have been looking forward to the next few weeks for over a year. :-) I am taking a blog time out and going to a retreat! And while I'm halfway across the country, I am going to be visiting friends, quilt shops, a quilt show, more friends, more shops..... LOL You get the idea!  :-) So much of what I haven't been able to show you this past year has hinged on this retreat and when I get back~ I'll have photo's!! :-) The row robins I've worked on, the challenge, the secret stuff... just wait, it will be worth it!! :-)

In the mean time~ and to help myself settle down a bit.. :-D  I did a little sewing yesterday~ Just a Little Bite. ;-) ;-)  The September Schnibble is a new pattern by Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co called 'Speck'. The new patterns use little squares.... just "little bites of fabric"  ... :-)  Since the pattern has both the 'x' and the 'o' variations~ I combined them into one little table topper with a few leftover charm squares. :-)

It is the perfect size for one of our end tables.  Originally, I was thinking about a pillow... but the end table needs a topper. LOL I just need to quilt it~ which probably won't happen until after I get back. Just sayin'. ;-)

I'm off to pack and check my lists!!!
Happy Quilting!

I'm Here!

I'm just having a hard time keeping up! :-)

So much of what I am doing now, I can't show you, that I forgot what I can!! :-o

This is September's block for the HGTV BOM I'm doing with my friend Karen.

I really need to lay out all my blocks and take a photo. I am just loving using my CW's and playing with this project!  The center block is called Card Basket from Quilter's Cache.  I see a star. ;-) LOL

I've also made a second Christmas Block for a gift~

Oops~ this is the first block I made, but the second one looks just like it! I guess I forgot to take a photo. :-/

I've made a pile of swap blocks, and some birthday blocks, and a few other things. I will have lots of 'splaining to do in October! LOL

Hope you are having a great week!

Keep those machines humming!~ I am!! :-)