Day 6 of 7 and a win (or two)

I fell behind on posting my quilts from the Instagram 7 days of quilts, because...my hubby gave me a new computer for my birthday!  He's been working to get everything set up and transferred over, so I haven't been online much for the last few days.  Somehow my computer and my phone are not working well together, so he has more work to do.  And EQ won't let him re-install - says we've used up all of our re-installs - so we are waiting to hear back from them.  It will be great to have a new and faster computer, but it sure is a pain (for DH - lol!) to get it all set up and running properly.  So anyway - here is my Day 6 quilt...

I have always loved this quilt!  This pattern was in a Fons & Porter magazine and I believe it was featured on the cover.  It's called Red Sky at Night and I made this in 2007.  I hand quilted it as well - there are feathers in the red area and I stitched 1/4" in on each triangle.  I took down my Trees Up! Lights on! quilt and replaced it with this one in my sewing room, so I will get to see it every day for awhile.  I used many different reds, greens, golds and shirting/background fabrics for this one.

Recently I shared my purchases from my trip to The Woolen Needle but I don't think that I mentioned what really FORCED (haha) me to go there.  I did want to look for some wool and wovens to use for the Buttermilk Basin mystery sew-a-long, but then...I won an awesome giveaway from Thelma at Cupcakes & Daisies blog!  She was giving away a gift certificate for $50 (now that is seriously generous!) at basically any place of your choice!  It could be anywhere at all - how cool is that?  So, since I had been thinking of making the trip to Woolen Needle, that is what I chose.  So, it's all Thelma's fault that I bought too much at WN!  Thanks bunches Thelma - such a generous giveaway and I was just thrilled to win!

And if that wasn't enough, then Jess from Primitive Gatherings called and said that I won their drawing from their Valdani coupon event!  I always order during their Christmas open house so that I can get the coupon book (because you know, there is ALWAYS something you NEED from PG!) and when they sent out the reminder for the Valdani special, I placed an order. There were a few colors that I needed and they have a couple of new ones, so I got those too.  The prize was a $20 gift certificate, so now I'm going to have to order again!  Isn't that just a shame?!

After all that luck, I'm thinking I need to go buy a lottery ticket!

Ok, hubby needs to work on my computer.  I will post my last quilt soon!

Happy President's Day!

Day 5 of 7 quilts

Another purple quilt!  Can you tell that purple was once my favorite color (replaced by red!)?  These are all Civil War reproduction fabrics (as are most of my quilts).  Some friends and I went on a little road trip to Homestead Hearth in Mexico, MO, where I picked up some of these purples and the pattern - it was a free one by Jill Reid for Windham.  I hand quilted this one too - straight lines 1/4" inside the lines on the blocks, orange peel in the sashing and a cable in the border.  

We have some company coming this weekend, so I'm cleaning a little and trying to get my piles organized!  

Day 4 of Seven days of Quilts

If you have read my blog for a long time you have seen this quilt and know the story behind it.  If not...here goes!  A few years ago, a good friend and I took a road trip to Wisconsin.  We stopped at several awesome quilt shops, with a final destination of Primitive Gatherings.  We stayed at Lisa's retreat house for a few days and it was amazing!  While we were there, we drug Lisa off to a few different shops (she thought she needed to work, but we stitched in the car instead!) and she took us to her house and also to the warehouse.  She gave me 3 huge boxes of scraps from her first 2 fabric lines.  I have used tons of them - making so much jewelry, but I still had a lot left, and that is when I decided to design this quilt.  I named it Gathering Scraps and it is a reminder of a great trip and great friends. I designed it specifically to cover 2 tall tables that I use when vending at shows - I wanted something to go over the top of the tables.  When I finished the quilt, I sent Lisa a text showing it to her, and she called and asked if she could borrow it.  At first I hesitated, because I had a plan for it, and I wanted it for an upcoming show.  Then I decided that was stupid - a lot more people would see it if it were in her booth or at her shops.  So I sent it to her and made a much smaller one to use in my booth (and did something else to cover my table!).  Out of all of the quilts that I've designed, this one was my favorite to make (and it's a good thing, since I made 2).  It goes really fast and it was just fun!  I know Lisa has taken it to shows, and it's been in the shop in Wisconsin. Now it's in the California shop.  

If you want to read all about our trip you can go to these links...
Day one
Day two
Day three
Day Four
The rest!

I'll be back tomorrow with another quilt!  Is anyone in shock that I am posting so much?  You should be - it's a miracle.

Day 3 of 7 days of quilts

Here is the quilt that I posted on Instagram for my day 3 of 7 days.  This is called Everlasting Wreath and was designed by Edyta Sitar.  I really enjoyed paper piecing the blocks - it was fun to use lots of fabrics, and the yellow in the center is my all-time favorite yellow fabric.  The trouble with this one is that when I went to sew it all together...not so fun!  I hate y-seams, and that's what it is.  Plus, the edges were not supposed to be straight, but I just couldn't deal with it, so I cut it all off.  Then I couldn't decide how I wanted to hand quilt it.  I remember asking the question on my blog and many people said Baptist fans.  That was a big fat NO to me.  In my opinion, Baptist fans are nice and they definitely have a place on some quilts, but I feel they are way over-used.  So...I ended up just quilting around the center triangle, then stitching a straight line out from each one of the triangle points.  It's really all this quilt needs - something simple to compliment the busyness of the pattern.

Speaking of busy patterns, that is what I'm working on - finishing up my pineapple quilt so that I can have the pattern ready for our next show, which is in Dallas, TX in March (click to go to their website).  YIKES!!!!  Just one month away!  I'm going to finish the binding today and try to get a decent picture - that is always the hardest part for me.

We also have lots of jewelry and ruler boxes to finish up before the show.  Here are a few that we finished over the weekend - some darks - earrings are 3/4" the pendants vary in size, with the largest being 1 1/2"

 And a few brights - these are 1 1/2" pendants

Here are some of the finished kitty pendants - all 1 1/4"

 And it hit me that I had the perfect fabric to cover the back of these (so you couldn't see my hand stitching threads)...a cute Judie Rothermel shirting.

Back to binding!

Shopping day (cont'd) and Day 2 of 7 days of quilts

Here are the fat quarters that I bought at The Woolen Needle (Williamsburg, IA) - aren't they pretty?  

 At Inspirations (Hills, IA), I found this cool bee fabric by French General.  Since my husband is a beekeeper I really want to start collecting some bee fabrics and this is my first one!  I don't want the cutesy bees, so this was just what I had in mind.  I hear there is one in red too, so I need to be on the lookout for it.

 This is my quilt for Day 2 of the challenge (on Instagram) by my friend Nancy.  I made this in 2004 - it's called Ancient Stars by Sue Garman. Isn't it a great pattern?  Right up my alley - lots of little pieces.  At the time, I really liked purple, and did not have a big stash, so I collected purple, green and tan fabrics for awhile before I could make this.

Hope you are having a great Monday!

Quilt a day challenge

My friend Nancy challenged me to post a quilt a day for seven days on Instagram.  Here is day #1...

 I know I've posted this on my blog before, but it's been awhile.  This is a section of one wall in my sewing room.  I made all of the quilts on the wall, except the pink one.  They are all hand quilted, except the star - I did a cross hatch by machine.  The corner chair came from my grandparent's house - it always sat inside their bedroom door.  I just love this chair.  The bear on the chair (haha) was made from one of my grandma's fur coats.  The lawyer's case also came from their house.  The quilts on the top shelf all came from family (though I'm not sure who made most of them) and the ones in the bottom are various quilts that I've bought at auctions.  My aunt gave me the crock on the floor - I have wanted a Red Wing crock forever.  It holds lots of scrap bags gifted from many different people.  There's just a mix of stuff on top of the cabinet - the jar holds bindings that are ready to sew on, the bowl is just scraps.  So that's day 1!

I skipped day 2 because I went to Hills, IA to pick up my pineapple quilt (which will soon be a pattern) from my quilter, Kym.  We met at Inspirations Quilt Shop in Hills, where I found these...

Then we went to Williamsburg to The Woolen Needle (yes...I'm lucky to be close to these 2 awesome shops!).  I've been thinking about starting the free BOM that Buttermilk Basin is offering. Have you seen it?  It's really cute - it will spell out Let It Snow and is all wool applique.  So far there is just one block released - the letter is red and it has a cute snowman on it.  I decided that I want to make my letters blue.  I had a nice blue in my wool stash that will be perfect, but I needed some "snow-like" colors, and also some backgrounds - something that will go with the blue and that you can still see the snow on.  Here is the wool that I found.  Love those grays - but that just looked boring, so I had to add the purple and blue to my pile!

I also ended up with a bunch of fat quarters that I didn't need, but I loved them, so I bought them anyway, but that picture isn't showing up on my computer yet.  DH gave me a new iphone for Christmas and sometimes the pictures load from my phone to my computer right away and other times they don't.  Maybe they will show up tomorrow and I will post it then.  

Stay tuned for the rest of my 7 days of quilts.  I love posting on Instagram (I know I tell you that almost every time I post!), but for this challenge, I wanted to give a little more detail on the quilts that I'm showing - so I will post them here as well.

Hope you are having a fun Superbowl Sunday!

Fabric and more kitties

I saw these fabrics online and knew they would be just perfect for my jewelry - aren't they pretty?  The line is called "Trinkets" by Kathy Hall.  I ordered mine from Fat Quarter Shop online.  And I cut into them yesterday so I got to pet them all individually - lol!

 I made more kitties and I think these are all sold already, so will need to get that fur fabric back out and make some more!

I was tagged on Instagram by my friend Nancy and challenged to post a quilt a day for 7 days.  You can go there to see my first post .

Have a great day!

Hearts and Kitties

I just sold the last kitty pendant that I had on hand, so that is what I'll be doing today!  They are 1 1/4".

I recently had a special order - matching heart pendant and earrings - with bling on all - fun!

Have a great day!

Hearts!

My birthday MONTH starts tomorrow! Woohoo! Can you believe I will be 29 (AGAIN)? And Valentine's Day will be here soon.  In honor of that I thought I would share some of the heart pendants that we have made.  You are going to have to turn your head sideways, because I can not get the picture to turn!

Next up I'm going to make a few hearts with a little bling on them.

Hope you have a great day!

Many pictures, few words!

I'm going to try to make this really quick!  Several people have asked why I haven't posted lately, and the truth is that I just don't get around to it.  It always takes a lot of time, and I just don't get it done (Instagram is much faster and I post there all the time - follow me there!).  So, this post will be unedited pictures with a short description - hopefully!  

This pineapple quilt will be my next published pattern.  It is about 32" x 40" - I would love to make it bigger, but again...NO TIME! These blocks are 4" finished, and really fun to make.

Here is Ozzie, just blending in with my piles of wool!

I started working on this recently.  It is called Blessed Bee by Wooden Spool Designs.  I signed up for a block of the month, but unfortunately I don't like a lot of the wool that they used. They are light/bright...just not me.  So, I'm trying to dirty them up a little and am just replacing some of them with wool I have on hand.  It's a really cute quilt, and since hubby raises bees, I thought it was appropriate!

Boomer and Bailey sitting in the snow.  I think their butts would be cold!

 Our business is usually somewhat slow between Christmas and New Years and I try to work on things that are not work related.  This is Home for the Holidays by Primitive Gatherings.  There is a group on Instagram who are working on this, so I decided to join in.  Didn't take long to prep the blocks, but I have discovered that I am not good at stitching the letters!  I love the wool for the candy canes.

This is a kit that I ordered from JJ Stitches, it's called Noel Garland - all French General fabrics.  My friend Nancy and I both bought it and Skype sewed it together.  The fabrics are so pretty.

Ozzie...just hanging out with the little quilts.

This is another quilt that I worked on over the holidays.  It's for my niece.  I was trying to lay it out and measure it so that I could piece the backing, but you can see how well that was working!  Ozzie is underneath, and Callie on the top!  Such fun...for them!

I'm in the process of sending out the newest charm for our Charming program, so it's off to the post office for me (and I won't get started on the USPS and their new price increases - it will cost me a ton of money this year...BOOOOOO).

Have a great week!