Rally in the Valley Shop Hop 2014

Shop hope 2014!  I was not invited along with my usual crown wearing crowd so I made my own plans this year with Tiffany.  Kathy joined us for part of the day but had to work all afternoon so it was mostly just the two of us.  I wore my Grandma Nan's sewing themed earrings and carried her lime green Vera Bradley purse since it matched my Celtic Solstice T-shirt (which finally fits me!).

First stop was Three Dudes.  Love this store and all their Halloween themed decorations!

I bought this panel and some Triangles on a Roll to make one of these skeletons for Mackenzie.

Three Dudes Shop Sample

Here are Tiffany and I after store number one!

 I guess I took no pictures whatsover at store number two--Quilter's Ranch--didn't even realize I was slacking at the time.  I don't even think we saw the shop sample quilt!

Store number 3 is the one closest to my house.  It is a smaller shop, we didn't have the best experience there.  Pretty sure it was the owner that was a crab--she was rude to several of the employees in front of the customers.  All with a smile on her face, I was not impressed.  It was my first bad experience in this store.

The annual ostrich photo.

After a quick salad we headed out to store number four--A Quilter's Oasis.

 

They were demoing the lazy angle ruler and I was pretty sure I had it already.  It was the first thing I checked when I got home, and sure enough I had it!  I have never used it but this gal gave a great demo of all the things you can do with it and I will eventually be getting some use out of it!

A Quilter's Oasis Shop Sample

I also ran into/met my newest quilty friend Terri!  She and I will be roommates at quilt camp.  We are facebook friends who love Bonnie Hunter and she recently joined Nimble Thimbles and signed up for Quilt Camp.  My usual roomy invited her bestie to come this year so I asked Terri to room with me.  So fun to meet her!
Store number five was our last stop for the day.  Scrapbooks, etc.  and the ETC. is fabric.  Really a fun more modern store.  They have really cute little quilts and displays all over.

So far their shop sample was my favorite since they did it more scrappy.

Scrapbooks, Etc. Shop Sample

They were demoing drunkard's path templates and such.  I just made one awhile back so I didn't buy any of that, but if I make another one I might go with something like this one.

Here is my haul (no picture of the stuff Kathy got).  Almost all the fabric was on sale between 20 and 40 % off.  Love finding a good deal and it doesn't matter to me if it isn't this year's fabric.  I did get a few patterns and the mini hex and more ruler.  We had a lot of fun!

This is Tiffany's haul.  She was picking out fabric for her herringbone quilt (PHXMQG is making it in October--I am going to go since I have not been there in almost a year.)

 I did manage to sneak in my Wild and Goosey block today.

 I also got a scrappy border on Mac's Scrappy Mountain Majesties and a backing made for it too, one more to send over to Ros (I am up to four--sheesh!).

 Made some Favorite Vege Soup for some work lunches this week too!

 Trimmed up my Jack-o-lantern.

 And have a few more lozenges made too.  Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Orange and Modern Blocks

Linking up to Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Cute Block--more like a weave block...and as you can see I only got it half right the first time around.  I was paying attention to how the colors matched up across but didn't realize I needed to match the colors up and down too--despite Angela's clear directions.  I sometimes skip ahead and use the pictures, you would think I would learn but...

Grew a few more lozenges too!

I have reached 59.8 pounds lost (this past week was 2.6) so I thought I should get a picture or two so I can see the progress I am making.  These pants are the smallest pants I own and I was not in them when I started.  They are now comfortable!  I am about to the point of getting rid of some of the clothes since they are seriously getting lose and starting to fall off.  I have a long way to go but I am really happy to have lost almost 60 pounds in 7 months!

Back to quilty talk...here is block 9 from City Sampler.

And block 10.  I am keeping up with this Choose your own blockalong splendidly!

Here are the first ten blocks....I am listening to "Outlander" since everyone raves about it.  I tried reading it but got bored since it seem so SLOW moving...also reminds me of a romance or something...so I am listening to it and trying to give it another try.  I am on disc five and it isn't grabbing me yet!

Linking up to the Choose Your Own Blockalong!

BOM Progress

 I unpicked and resewed my Ooh Rah! BOM--it is still not quite the right size, but it is alright.

 I also substituted a different blue for my Traditions BOM--I accidentally cut the blue provided a bit too small and just didn't want to deal with it.  It works fine.  Now all my BOM are caught up for September...October will be here before I know it!

Off to work all day and night--looking forward to shop hop this Saturday!

Bringing Out My Inner Junk Gypsy!

 I decided to work on Ooh Rah! and do my September BOM.  I did the whole center part and then discovered that despite my close to perfect seam allowance, it was far too big for the 8 inch side pieces.  UGH!  I trimmed some but it still is too big.  So I put it away for another day.  I may just make another middle because that seems like less work than tearing apart and fixing this one, lol!

I decided to head downstairs and got in my workout and did some cleaning...then I decided I wanted to paint this cabinet my folks gave me turquoise.

 Watching the Junk Gypsies show has me really loving this color and wanting to makeover something so I did!  This cabinet lives in our third bathroom which is rarely used now that we don't have a roommate living upstairs.

 I wanted it to match the fish shower curtain in there and be more fun!

I pretty much had to climb in the sink to get these pictures, but I love how it turned out and there is lots of paint left---wonder what is next!

Sunday Funday!

Block 8 for City Sampler is done, loving this block too!  Aren't they all magnificent together?  Long way to go but they are fun!

 Bonnie posted this link earlier and I have printed it before and just have never felt confident enough to do it.  Now that I have paper pieced a gazillion Wild and Goosey blocks I thought I could try it!  It wasn't too bad, much harder than Wild and Goosey but it was fun!  I could not get the dotted lines to print on the pattern so I used a ruler and drew them in myself.  My last two pieces are slightly off and I may try to fix that later, but for now I am content with it!

 Her is what the crazy back looks like too!

 And the mess around my machine now that I am done!  LOL...off to finish watching the Packer game...hoping they keep up the momentum they just found before the half!

Orange and a Whole Lot More!

 Linking up with Angela over at SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Orange Link Up.  I have been working on my lozenge leaders and enders and am making some real progress!  Cannot wait to get all these lozenges into a quilt top!

 I also made block 7 of Tula Pink's City Sampler.  Really enjoying these little blocks!

 Last night and this morning I finished all the Scrappy Mountain Majesties blocks and got them sewed together!  I still need to add borders but it is time to go into work for several hours, so they will wait (yes, I picked up hours on a Saturday--ugh!).

The vast majority of these blues came from the estate fabric sale I was lucky enough to go to last May.  I have an overabundance of blues (I like them and she did too) but I still found it hard to have lots of variety in this--especially in the lights.  Overall I love it and am hoping my youngest son Mac will love having a bed size quilt for his  double bed.