Wednesday, October 29, 2014

fall

I've got to tell you, one thing I miss living in Dallas is fall. Typically, sometime before Thanksgiving, the leaves on the trees turn brown and drift to the ground. Just like that, BAM, fall has come and gone. One day it's 80 and the next day it's 45. What happened to fall??? I was so happy to experience true fall while I was in Asheville last week.



this is the quilt garden at the Asheville arboretum. Do you see the flying geese?
 Of course, that nasty season that follows fall? You know, the one that starts with a W? I don't miss that one at all!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Kathie's studio

Wow, I really disappeared on you, didn't I? A little unintentional blog break I'm afraid! I did have a great excuse last week. I went to visit my friend Kathie in Asheville, NC. We hadn't seen each other in years but it felt like no time had passed at all. She was a gracious hostess and we had a wonderful time. Today I thought I'd give you a peek into Kathie's awesome home studio. 
This first corner would be a spot where I could function well, the sewing/ironing station. 
But after that, I'm lost! Kathie is a weaver. She has been a weaver for as long as I've known her (much longer really!) and I have always admired her beautiful work. Here are two of her gorgeous looms....

 While I was there, Kathie had her looms set to weave some of her fabulous "towel towels" as she was being filmed for a video for the website This Land, which will be featuring some of her towels soon. I'm so happy to have one of her towel towels in my kitchen!

 Look at all of those beautiful colors of yarn waiting to be made into wonderful things!
 Kathie has threatened to put me to work if (WHEN!) I visit again. I'd be perfectly willing! Thanks for the great visit my friend!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sew Sweetness embroidery pattern

I'm excited to share a project I got to work on this summer for Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness. Sara put a call out on Instagram for testers for her new embroidery pattern, Fantasia. Since I love to do embroidery I jumped on the opportunity. I ended up making this mini quilt using one of her floral motifs....


It was such a fun project for m and I just loved the floral motif that was included in her pattern. I also tried out two tone binding on this project which was new to me. I've used it again & will write up a tutorial for it when I am able to share the project I perfected it on (more secrets. I know, I know).

Thanks for the opportunity to test for you Sara! I enjoyed it.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Dualing Asterisks

After much discussion on Instagram last night, I have decided to name this one Dualing Asterisks
 Made with my very first set of bee blocks. I love these asterisk blocks & love the way the quilt turned out! It was quilted by my favorite longarmer, Diann, with interlocking circles on top & rectangles on the bottom.

I also did matching binding on the two halves, which I learned from Debbie over at A Quilter's Table. Red binding on the red half....
 and blue binding on the blue half....
 So so happy to have my favorite photography assistant (son Steve) home this weekend....
Thanks Steve!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Bee blocks

I've been having fun making bee blocks for my friends in the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild. Joellen chose these awesome blocks for October. She gave us the yellow for the background and we added our own grays....
 Look at all of her blocks together on the design wall at the guild meeting! This is going to be a stunning quilt.
Bettepat wanted pink/orange/yellow bullseye blocks on text prints (she supplied some of the fabric and we added to it from our stash). These aren't due until our November meeting but I have such a busy month I thought I'd get them done early. They were fun to do!
Soon I will share my completed bee quilt with you!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

NYC!

In the spring, my oldest daughter Leigh Anne moved to New York City. It's been her dream since she was a little girl, to be a journalist in the Big Apple, and this year she made her dream come true. I couldn't wait to visit her there, to see her awesome apartment in Brooklyn (which is bigger and more beautiful than I ever expected!) to share some good food and meet her new friends. So, last Thursday, my buddy Joellen and I hopped on a plane and went to New York to see Leigh Anne!

yes indeed, we do often dress alike without planning it. always have.
While we were there we figured we might as well hit up a few quilt shops! Of course we made a trip (ok, we made TWO trips) to The City Quilter in Manhattan. 

 We found lots of awesome treasures there & the staff was so friendly and helpful. This is a shop not to miss if you find yourself in New York City.

Another, that I had been dying to visit was Purl Soho. As luck would have it, the shop is right near where Leigh Anne works, so we met her for lunch one day then walked around the corner to Purl Soho. Wow! Another wonderful shop. The yarn & wool are colorful and oh so tempting. And yes, I left there with a bag full of treasures too.

 Joellen found another prospective stop on the internet. Brooklyn General Store looked like a place we needed to see, so after brunch on Sunday near Leigh Anne's apartment, the three of us hopped in a cab and ventured there. I'm so glad we did!

never mind the closed sign! It was indeed open
Beautiful fabric (including lots of Liberty), beautiful trims, yarn and oodles of notions. While we were there, there was a children's sewing class going on in the back room. It was a busy, friendly place!


 You guessed it. I left with another bag!

Three awesome fabric/yarn/craft stores that you should check out. I know I'll be back.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

retreat fun

Last weekend I went with 7 of my friends from The McKinney Modern Quilt Guild on our first ever retreat. What fun! I was greeted at the door the very first day by this very smelly chicken
 We named him Bobbin. He was a pest ALL weekend!

I already shared with you my two major quilt top finishes.....
Asterisk bee blocks quilt top
Metro Hoops quilt top
I made two little zip bags (Suzy's Sacks by This and That). Here's one of them....
And when I ran out of projects, I started sewing 2 1/2 inch squares together for a future pillow cover....

One of our planned activities for the weekend was a mug rug swap. Here's the whole gang with the mug rugs they received.....
I received this gorgeous fall mug rug from Kristi, complete with a pretty red mug that matches my kitchen!
 I had made 2 mug rugs to bring in case someone didn't have a chance to make one (and I'm glad I did!) First this disappearing nine patch mug rug made with 2 1/2 inch squares....

hmmm it's sideways!
 and this one I made from some fun selvedges.....
If you want to read more about our retreat and see some of the other beautiful quilts and goodies the gals made, I blogged about it on the guild blog here.

Have you ever been on a crafty retreat?