Sunday, September 28, 2014

Sunday Funday!

I was so happy to see the Packers beat the Bears this morning!  It has been a rough start this year!  Here are Kathy's Wanderlust blocks so far--this one is going to be so pretty!
 I went over to Becky's to sew today (been forever since I have made it to her place!) and our other friend Kathy came over too.  Becky and I were both working on Wild and Goosey blocks and Kathy was working on an Eye Spy a Four Patch pattern--all from Bonnie's site, we really are her # 1 fans!
So here are the two blocks I made while gabbing.  Two more and I will have another row!
For dinner I made Grain Free Pumpkin Pancakes from Road to Living Whole's blog.  Marian is a co-worker who is really supportive of me on WW.  She has tons of gluten free recipes on her blog which just happen to often work for me on WW.  I can have gluten but pancakes are a once in awhile choice for me, these I can have anytime!  They were pretty good and I plan to try more of Marian's stuff.  I know her honey nut iced coffee is delicious and low in calories too!
If you have a favorite healthy recipe you want to share with me, feel free--I need all the good eating choices I can get!  THANKS!

Rally in the Valley Shop Hop Day Two!

 Tiffany and I started out our day at Quilter's Bee.  Here is their shop hop quilt--we collected clues at every shop so we can make this if we want.  I like this year's quilt, so it might get made!  This was the only store that I didn't find something to buy!

 The next store was Arizona Quilts.  Loved their color choices on the quilt.




 And Sun Valley Quilts--hey had a very colorful shop hop quilt.  The quilt is designed by Diane Ebner.
 This one was also at Sun Valley Quilts.  I love this store, they have lots of fabric selection and whoever picks out the fabric likes a lot of stuff I like!
 My favorite thing of the whole shop hop was seeing this quilt!  Love it and it reminds me of the Quilty Barnalong (which I am still collecting fabric for but need to get cutting out).
 They were sold out on the pattern and did not even have it listed as one I could find online (their sign said Houses in the Rough) so I asked my Quiltville Open Studio facebook friends if they had any idea what the name of the pattern is or where to find it.  I tried searching online myself and found one called Ryonkan by Thimble Creek Quilts and one in Quiltmania magazine, though I don't know when.  One of the gals online said that boutique.com is in the process of posting a pattern online, so we will see if that turns up.  Really love this one!

 Tiffany fell in love with this quilt and bought all the fabrics to make it.  She wants to put minky on the back and have a nice cuddle quilt for herself, cannot wait to see it!
 The clouds were all white and fluffy as we drove to our next shop...they had been telling us we were in for rain all day!  See this rubber ducky cloud?  Someone in the car thought it looked like an elephant or a rocking horse!   I see a beak and head!
 Next store was The Olde World Quilt Shoppe, I love all the civil war stuff in this store!  I took gobs of pictures of things I loved!



 Bought myself a little teeny tiny twister at this store so I can make some of these!


 Almost bought the above kit.  We have always nicknamed my Papa DeLos "old crow" since that is his poison and I love this little top!

 This is their shop hop quilt top, and another one with cheddar I loved!
 This is the Kim Deihl Club quilt of the month.  I need to join a Kim Deihl club, but theirs is full (wait list only) so I may have to join the one at the Fat Quarter Shop.  This little quilt, Laundry Day,  is SO cute, my picture isn't the best, but I loved this one as much as the house quilt!  This shop has Carrie Nelson teach classes and they gave us a free book with Miss Rosie (the dog--mascot) on the cover to commemorate the very fabulous life of Miss Rosie who went over the rainbow bridge not too long ago.  My heart goes out to Carrie Nelson, I know how she loved her dog!
 Next up was Quiltz.
 They had a bright Shop Hop Quilt up!
 If I didn't already have too many hand project (hexies) going, I might have been tempted to buy this one, pretty block!

 Our last official stop was Bernina Connection.  The sky was still dry when we went in!  These are their shop hop quilts.  Love the one in Halloween colors.


 It started storming while we were inside and we had to go out to the car in an absolute downpour!  The streetlights were out, trees were down, it was nutso fast!  We had a quick lunch trying to wait out some of it!

 We made one last stop at SAS fabrics (they sell fabric for 3.99 a yard and I bought about 15 yards there!)  This was they way in and out of our street by the time we got home.
 And the backyard again.  The water just takes forever to drain!
 And here is my haul from day two.


 Spread out so you can see all the pretty fabric.  I am a lucky girl!
 And I fit it all where it needed to go and I don't think I will be needing much fabric anytime soon.  I did sign up for the Hatbox Cotton and Steel fabric exchange over at SewMummy--I want some of that fabric and not one shop hop store carried any of it!


All and all another fun shop hop year!  Thanks Tiffany for coming with me and being a fun hop!

Friday, September 26, 2014

City Sampler Progress

 Tonight I sewed up block 11 and block 12 of City Sampler.   Linking up!


 Here are the first dozen blocks.  Quite a wild, unruly bunch!

I finished up the orange lozenges tonight too.  48 orange, and one black in this stack but for some reason I had a half a dozen that were a quarter inch too small width wise.  I must have sorted them into the wrong bag and didn't notice when I was cutting.  I kept them separate..I am really close to the 405 I need to have a whole quilt top of these....cannot wait!
Today at Weight Watchers I gained .4 (dang it all, so close to 60 pounds, ugh!) which really sucked, but we bought a new cookbook that has lots of great recipes in it and I worked out an hour on the bike and 20 on the elliptical today so I am off to a good start for next week!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

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!


Happy National Quilting Day!

I participated in the National Quilting Day sewalong on the Modern Quilt Studio page.  We sewed Friends all Around.  Here is my first block....