GO PACK GO--Handsewing while Cheering!

 Mostly all I did today was watch the Packer game, grade tests and prep for Unit 3 for my ASL classes.  It was a relaxing day..oh and I did knit another dishcloth too!  This little arrangement in the picture above is from Etc. store.  I loved the roses and Jacki bought the pattern so I am hoping she will make me one..lol or let me borrow it to make one! (or a half dozen!)

 I did a tiny bit of handsewing...ran out of glue in my sewline thingy.  One little flower...

 So now I have two made...lol I think I did the first one several months ago when I prepped a bunch.  It takes me about an hour to do a flower...so ten to go.  Maybe if I shoot for one each time the Packers play?  I can work on it between plays and such and I feel like I am doing something.  They will go into a doll quilt that Sentimental Quilter has us making.  I have fallen off of making the doll quilts each month, but will work on this one and do it eventually.  All the petals are half prepped already!

Linking up with Kathy!  http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2012/09/slow-sunday-stitching.html

 Oh and this is the Twister Christmas Tree I really think we should make.  It is so cute!

This cute modern looking pillow was at Quilter's Oasis.  I doubt I will make one, but it made me smile.  :)

Saturday Night Sewing

 Here is my UFO for this month--Broken Crockery which I made a quilt camp close to two years ago I think.  Umm, it isn't all done being quilted.  I started it, but it wasn't coming out how I wanted (the other day) so I haven't decided what to do to finish it.  It is closer to done though so that is good.
I also made a scrappy binding for Smith Mountain Morning.  Used leftover binding in my drawer and grabbed a few more strips from the bin and whipped it up.  I wasn't in the mood to battle a big quilt binding tonight though.

 So I added binding to my other Modern Lil' Twister.  See I am using my new clips?

 Back is orange and grey and here is the front.  I got it all quilted and then bound it.

 Wanted to show you I added my little seam guide to my featherweight.  After using the tool I will say Becky helped me with a quarter inch seam perfectly!  I stuck this right on top of what she already had helped me with.  Yippee!

 Here is is done.  Kathy and I decided we liked this one better than the one I finished first.

 That one has purple on the binding.  It will now be a gift :)

 Here it is all hung up in its rightful place, for the moment.  I sure have been into making little quilts lately.  I just love them!

 I wanted to show you my Grandma Nan's earrings too.  Not sure where she got them, but the detail on them is incredible.  Those scissors actually look like mini stork scissors!  I enjoyed wearing them for shop hop, guessing that is going to have to be an annual tradition! 

Smith Mountain Morning is Quilted

 Ros quilted Smith Mountain Morning and got it back to me today (one week, what a turn around...she is AMAZING!).

 She quilted it in beautiful feathers.  This one is for my best friend Monica Bauer and her husband Bob.  I can't wait to get it bound and get it to them!

This is the backing I used...rather traditional but it is pretty and I think Monica will really like it.  Now to use my new clips and get it bound!

What We Worked on This Week...

Did a few more spools for Bonnie's Challenge.  

Got some more Bow Ties done...

Did some cutting and added to my strips in bins and to my strings which I don't think I have ever posted about.  This dresser my mom redid when I was twelve.  I begged for it to be mine and it has survived countless moves and may actually be the piece of furniture I have had the longest.  Should have taken a picture of the front of it too, but here the drawers are pulled out so you can see how I put my strings in sort of by color.  The bottom drawer is where my quilt tops and backings wait to go to the longarmer.  

 Kathy continues to work on a twister border for the Halloween Twister quilt.  Last night I cut a ton of leftover bits into spools for me and a few for Becky.  My basket is now overflowing!  The leftover bits went into the strips and strings.  Every time I get in a cutting mood I am moving through the smaller pieces of fabric I have.  What I don't find a use for goes in a bag for BJ!  She loves scraps.

Shop Hop Day Two!

We met up this morning at 3 Dudes Quilting to start our shop hop.  Jacki joined us for the first time, crown and all.  She fits right in with this wild group!  Left to right Jacki, Ros, BJ, Lauren and me.  Kathy took all the pictures of us in front of each store.  3 Dudes is twice the size it was last year and I can't believe I don't sneak in more often...they have a great selection of civil war stuff which made Lauren very happy!  All I bought was the demo special below.  I can't wait to try it out.

Next up was Quilter's Ranch...Ros thought she lost her cell phone and so Kathy went on a mission to find it only to discover it was in the car after all!   

Their demo special were these binding clips which most all of us went home with.  Time to replace the barrettes I have been using.

Next up was Zoe's, they had this thing you put on your finger as the demo.  I can't deal with a thimble so I knew that gadget wasn't for me.  Here we are doing the princess wave in front of the store.

  

We then wound our way through the streets on foot to Cutting Edge Quilts.  The Chandler Food Fest or some such thing was going on so parking was about a mile away and it was upwards of 100 degrees as usual....still this was absolutely hands down the friendliest store of the shop hop.  They all holler out hello as we come in the door and are so friendly.  Their demo was of Anita's Arrowhead which is in a book they were selling.  I LOVE that pattern, but have already made the one quilt and will do another sometime.  Others really seemed to be liking it too.

You can see several Anita's Arrowhead patterns here with Gudrun who was doing the demo.  She is a sweetheart too!

 Finally a shot of Kathy with the gals...I didn't buy anything at this store, but it is close to home and I do get in there the most of all the shops.

There is a really cool purple ostrich out front of the shop next door so we all had to pose there too.  SMILE.  

This Women of Courage quilt was hanging behind the longarm (that is what is across the picture) and I love it!

Next we stopped for lunch at Pita Jungle.  We wore our crowns in and people must have thought we were nuts...now and then people would ask what was going on.  I think they thought we were an odd group of bachelorettes out for the day, lol.  Non quilting people were like HUH when we said we are out quilt shop hopping.  Cracked us up!
Next we made it in to a new to the shop hop shop that I have never been in.  They were a scrapbooking store and now are also selling fabric.  A few months ago several people were telling me how this is their favorite fabric store...I was like huh, never realized that had fabric.  So we found our way in.

 There was a nice gal doing a demo for a curved ruler which I considered buying...she asked us how many shops we had left and we told her one and then she mentioned that store closes in a hour...well we all ran to the car and said we would be back (this store is open til 9!).

When we came back I spotted this beauty.  Seriously LOVE it.  It is made out of Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy.  It is to die for.  I actually thought this was the Cog and Wheel pattern (which they had) but upon further study it was not.  I asked if they had the pattern and they did.  Turns out it is Cluck Cluck Sew's Spin Cycle!  Another pattern I have been admiring.  Once I saw it in these fabrics I knew I could finally seriously dig into my stash fabric to make it.  Best of all this pattern doesn't have circles in it but has much the same look.  I am SO excited for this!

 These pictures of are half the quilt as it was hung folded--one of each side.  STUNNING.  Seriously, I love it, can you tell?

So I bought that pattern and two packages of clearance charms in various fabrics.  

 But before all that happened, we hurried out to Quilter's Oasis (which is near the High School I used to teach at when I first moved here).  This store is quite friendly too, they hooked us up with water and snacks (as most of the stores did).

Kathy is really into the twister look and loved this snowman and another reindeer that they had in the store.  Crazy all the things you can do with the twists!  I think the Christmas tree and reindeer are cuter than the witch's hat and snowman, but all are cute!

Didn't buy anything there, they were demoing a cool curved ruler that did lots of sizes.  If I get to doing another one of the circle quilts I might have to get it, or borrow the one Ros bought.

It was a great day with good friends.  I love these gals!  Was nice to make a new friend...she and I hit it off because she too gets (and used to get) crazy migraines.  She gave me a few tips to try next time and I will be trying them!

Cutting and Sewing and Hanging with Bonnie

 Kathy and I were inspired by this large Halloween quilt we saw at Quilter's Bee yesterday.  So I got to cutting the squares and then moved on to cutting all the scraps BJ gave me yesterday into Bow Ties.  I did all of them, even got two sets out of some of them so the bag has extras for down the line when I get around to making another one of these!

 Kathy then cut them into the wedges which are needed for the windwill shape.  At about this point I decided that using the Lil' Twister would be easier for me!  Seriously too many ways to turn these and have to unsew.

 Perk of this method...see that tiny strip of waste?  Each block has one of those, so considerable fabric savings compared to my method.

 The fun part (roflmfao!) was then laying these out so that they could be (ahem) chain sewed.  It too two of us and we hauled up an extra table to lay them on (five dogs means the floor would be a disaster!).

 You lay them out in stacks like so.  Then add the boder, some on top of the stack and some under the stack.  Somehow we messed something up and later we would be unsewing.  (What a surprise!)

 Eventually it started to take shape.  We wound up undoing the stacks and laying them all out on the wall.  Kathy pieced the parts and I put the blocks together and then the rows.  Eventually she said it got easier.  She hasn't tried the other method yet though.

 Getting bigger.  And tada!  Bug had to check it out.  Now Kathy has decided to try doing some small blocks to make the border more interesting.

 I cut and sewed up a mini version of Speck--the Another Year of Schnibbles choice for this month.  It is so very cute and made from Frolic squares I had on hand in the right size.  I can see making this one again, I want to try the X version, but my precuts didn't have two of the same fabric in them to match up.

I also did one little spool block and a nine patch of bow ties.  I really enjoyed Bonnie on quilt cam and then watched several shows on Amazon Prime...finally finding a new one I like--West Wing.  Plenty of episodes left to watch while I sew.