Cedar Rapids Quilt Show

Cedar Rapids, IA has a wonderful quilt show every other year - and this is the year.  I've been to it twice before, and it's always a nice show.  Now, before you read on...remember my lack of photography skills.  And, I leave for Florida tomorrow, and do not have time to mess around and edit these already-poor-quality pictures - so enjoy the quilts, and ignore the photo quality!  When you first enter the show there is  a display of quilts by two different featured quilters. 



 

The only picture that I got of Alice's is the Dear Jane in the background.  The following are quilts by Featured Quilter, Elaine Sondag - be prepared - they are wonderful!

Dear Jane quilts always just amaze me - this one is exceptional - wonderful piecing and hand quilting - amazing!
The rest of the pictures are miscellaneous quilts throughout the show - all very nice!

 The following pineapple quilt won best of show. 

So much inspiration!

Have a great day!

Advice Please!

I am in the mood to do a little hand quilting, and I have one top that is all basted (and has been that way for a long, LONG time!).  Problem is...I can't decide how to quilt it.

I love this pattern - it's by Laundry Basket Quilts - and was a lot of fun to piece - but NOT fun to sew all together!  Anyway...advice...ideas...thoughts?  I've been looking at it for an hour and haven't come up with anything - please help!

Have a great night!

Barn quilt and Mr Patches

I know that I told you about my barn quilt that Mom bought for us at Country Threads - it is so awesome.  By the time I got home from the Galena show, DH already had it put up.  It is actually on our garage - and I love it there!

I really want to make a quilt with this same pattern - the one that I bought from Country Threads, but I will change it a little.  One more thing on the LONG list of "want-to-dos"!

You will remember that our 17th anniversary was when I was in Galena - well, when I got home, DH had a little surprise for me...isn't he cute?

I don't know if you've seen these before - it is by Jim Shore, and I think he said he bought it at Lowe's - so cute!  You might have to enlarge the picture to see the patchwork on his bibs.  We decided that he looked cute outside the front door.  Boomer, did not think so!  OH MY!!!  When Boomer first spotted Mr. Patches, he went ballistic!  He was barking and carrying on out there.  When we opened the front door (to make fun of him for being a dork) he was barking and GROWLING!  I have never heard him growl before.  It was hilarious.  Then out came Sophie (our border collie) and she was barking and being all ferocious!  Too funny.  Glad to see that they can be guard dogs on occasion.  It took a couple of days before Boomer moved on and ignored Mr. Patches.  What a goof.

Boomer the guard dog!

Hope you have a great day!!

Stitch Steals

Have you been to Stitch Steals website?  Are you signed up for their daily deals?  If not...what are you waiting for?  They send an e-mail each day offering a special "deal of the day" - sometimes it's fabric, some days notions - it just depends...whatever tickles their fancy that day.  And...be sure to check out their blog - here they have "Feature you Friday" and guess who they are featuring today?  That's right...little ol' me!  I'm so excited!  Don't forget to sign up for their daily deals and "Like" them on Facebook too!

Have a great day!!

1930's

Ok...I'm having one of those "what was I thinking" moments!  A fellow blogger and I were chatting about unfinished block of  the month quilts, which inspired me to FINISH one of mine!  It was a BOM from 2005 (YIKES!) - and I had all of the blocks pieced and even the bow tie border all pieced, I just hadn't sewn it all together.  Well, for some reason, in 2005 I thought it would be a good idea to make this huge quilt in 1930's prints!  Now, don't get me wrong...I love 30's prints, but not for my bed!  They do not go with my decor!  I use them for baby quilts all the time, and you will remember, I even added to my 30's stash while in Minnesota a few weeks ago.  Here is a picture of the quilt...

It is supposed to have an outer border, that I haven't added yet.  It is supposed to be a solid, but I don't plan to do that.  I wouldn't want a solid outer border - I do have a blue print that I may put on it.  Before I do that, I think I will try to sell it, and if the prospective buyer wants the blue border, I can add it then.  The size now is approximately 72" x 96".  I also have already purchased the backing - it is a 30's Judie Rothermel print in yellow.  If anyone is interested please let me know!  And just fyi...the cat does not come with it!  Callie seems to always want to be in the picture!

And, for those of you who doubt that I really did make that hexie flower...

Look at that!  I'm like a proud mama...my very first hexie flower!

Hope you all have a great Labor Day!!

Time to regroup

We were home from Minnesota for one day - just long enough to unpack, repack and regroup.  Mom and I left for Galena Friday morning.  We stopped in Dubuque first - of course there was a quilt shop that we needed to visit!  Then we walked down the street to a church that Mom wanted me to see the beautiful stained glass windows.  The only one that I took pictures of is the one that was restored in Mom's cousin's name...

All of the windows were amazing - glad that I got to see them.  Then we were on to Galena to get checked in to our hotel and to get set up for the show - which was held in the Middle School since there was so much water damage in the hotel downtown. Here are some pictures of my booth.

 Originally there were 9 or 10 vendors, but since they had to re-schedule the show, there ended up only being 5 of us.  There weren't a lot of quilts either - and I have no idea why I didn't take pictures of what was there!  Of course, I had to do a little shopping myself.  Vicki from Yellow Creek Quilt Designs was there.  I have always wanted to visit their shop in Pearl City, IL, but haven't had the chance yet.  I do always make sure to visit their booth at the Des Moines show, and when festival used to be in Chicago - they always have great stuff! Remember when I said that I try not to buy many patterns - as I already have a ton and also design my own?  Yeah...I just seem to keep buying patterns!  I tried to steal this quilt from Vicki as soon as I saw it on Friday.  Unfortunately she kept a close eye on it, so the best I could do was buy the pattern and dream about the day that I might make it for myself.  I should have taken a picture of that too!  It was awesome in person - their whole booth was just amazing.

Vicki also had some very nice wool bundles, and of course I had to have a couple of those!

 If you check Yellow Creeks website you can see that they have made some amazing hexagon "quilts" that they have put in frames.  I had my hand on the kit and the Paper Pieces about a zillion times, but kept talking myself out of it.  I keep saying that I am going to make a hexagon quilt, but hadn't even made one single hexagon in my life!  I decided that I should make a few before I committed to a kit (like I need fabric!) and a huge package of hexagon papers.  Well, my neighboring vendor, Carolyn, informed me that they were giving away little packs of Paper Pieces - with fabric- at the door!  She ran over and got me one. 

And for those of you who thought I would never make them - guess what...I DID!  I even have my little hexie flower all sewn together!  So proud of myself!  Then, I was yammering on about them to a friend, and look what I got in the mail from her...

 Three different sizes to try!!!  She was afraid they weren't small enough for me (isn't she just funny!) - but I think they will do.  I haven't tried them yet - but I really want to try the 3/8".  Maybe today or tomorrow?  We will see how that goes!

I mentioned Carolyn - my vendor neighbor - she has a shop in Postville, IA called Forest Mills Quilt Shop.  They had a ton of neat samples and lots of kits and charm packs.  As we were setting up on Friday - I was nosing around in her stuff and look what I found!!!!!

 

I was so excited!  I have been waiting - not very patiently for Lisa's new fabric line to hit shops.  They only had one charm pack of these, and they are MINE!  I grabbed them and would not give them back and smacked poor Carolyn's hand when she tried to touch them.  I then took them to the hotel and petted them all night!  They are nice small prints and will work well in jewelry.

Unfortunately the quilt show did not have as many visitors as I had hoped - but I did ok, and it was great to meet everyone.  I feel bad for all of the people who worked so hard getting ready for this show, then had to reschedule and change the location.  I think if it would have been on Main Street - as originally planned - that there would have been a lot more people. Hopefully they will have another show next year and will not have so many hurdles!

We drove home Sunday night after the show.  I was soooo tired by the time I got Mom home, then drove myself home.  Being in Minnesota then doing the show meant I had to leave my house a lot!  Those of you who know me, know that I am a total hermit and generally only leave home once a week when I have to buy groceries or starve!  Fortunately I was able to stay home until Thursday, when I had to leave and go to the dentist, and to the grocery store - as the cupboards were very bare.  It took me a couple of days to unpack everything and catch up.  This is what was going on when I was trying to unpack my quilts from the show...

They are sooo helpful!
Have a great day, and a great holiday weekend!

Trunk show and a movie!

The last (but certainly not least) activity on Quilty Day was the guild meeting in Hackensack.  I have never spoken to a group before, and told them that I really had nothing to say! I stuffed as many quilts as I could into my biggest suitcase to show the ladies. We started with a couple of my first quilts and then went through my quilting journey.  It's easy to see by my quilts that pieces just kept getting smaller and smaller - obviously leading me to where I am now - making 1" to 2" quilts!  I meant to give Mom my camera to take a couple of pictures during the trunk show, but I was so busy before hand that I forgot.  So...no pictures of me (that should not break your heart!).  I did take one blurry (you should be used to that by now) picture of all of my jewelry spread out on a table...

That's a lot of jewelry!  We have been building this inventory for quite some time to get ready for the show in Galena.  The ladies did a nice job of making a dent in it!  I did take some pictures of their show and tell. Sorry, I don't have names for most of them, so I won't add any names...just pictures!

 I really loved this bag - it's square.  I want one!

They showed lots of fun things! 

It was a great day - love doing the quilty things of course, and am grateful that my sister-in-law and niece are so patient and play along!

The next day we didn't have anything planned.  Mom's goal for the trip was to make a stained glass window to go in Aunt Nancy and Larry's front door.  Which meant that she didn't get to go play with us - she had to stay home and work!  We did let her come out to the guild meeting, but that was it!  So, on Tuesday she worked on the window all day.  We took a short boat ride with neighbors, which was awesome, then we decided to let her have a break (!) and we all went to see The Help.  It was a great movie.  I have read the book since I've been home and it really followed the book well.  I would definitely recommend them both.

On Wednesday we were supposed to leave at 8:00 a.m. to head for home.  Of course, you know that didn't happen.  Mom and Larry went to install the window (it was too dark the night before by the time she got it finished) and of course...it DID NOT FIT!!!  Are you kidding me???  We threatened to leave her there to fix it!  So, she drug her stuff back out and did a little work - and Larry did a little work on the door.  They finally got it in there.  I only took one picture, and it's not a good one.  Tempers were a little high, and I didn't want to be in the way and make things worse!

I wish I would have gotten a better picture, and taken one from the outside.  This does not really show you anything!  Maybe Aunt Nancy will take a few better pics and send them to me to share (hint, hint).  Finally we got on the road about an hour and a half late.  I think at the beginning of this journey I told you that according to Mapquest it should take us less than 9 hours to get there - it took 12.  Well, the trip home took about 14!  Geesh we are slow!  But we had fun doing it. 

We stopped at Gruber's in St. Cloud on the way home.  WOW!  That is a big place filled with lots of stuff.  I did not take any pictures - didn't know if it was allowed.  I did find a few things there to buy (shocking!).  I thought I took pictures of my purchases, but I guess not - I'm not finding them.  I bought the pattern - 45 and Life To Go from Primitive Gatherings, a nice piece of wool and a few fat quarters.  Mom found lots of wonderful yarn and there was a great deli in there that we grabbed lunch for the road.  They also had the new Cotton Club block of the month quilt all finished and on display.  It is wonderful!

Next stop was not really a stop,  more of a "jump out now" type of thing.  As we were driving through Hutchinson, we passed the gas station, then thought we should have stopped.  We were at a stop light when I looked to my left and saw Thimbleberries.  Of course, I exclaimed - "there's a quilt shop we need to hit!"  They told me to get out - so I did!  I jumped out, placing great faith in my SIL that she would come back to get me!  I didn't take any pictures and didn't buy a single thing - can you believe it?!?! 

They did come back to get me and I think our next stop was Country Threads (again).  Mom decided that she wanted to buy Linda a barn quilt and we talked her into buying one for herself!  We got there after closing time, but they were kind enough to let us in.  Mom quickly made her purchases and they were also kind enough to give us all one of their cook books!  All kinds of great stuff in there! Here are the purchases that I made on our first stop there (I neglected to show them before)...

Notice that the pattern is the same pattern as my barn quilt  and when I bought it I did not know that I had that barn quilt! 

Ok, this post has gone on long enough, but I needed to get through all the fun stuff we did on our trip, so I could move on to current things!

Have a great day!