Check off another finished project...

The bathroom wallhanging is finished!! YEAH! All quilted and bound and ready for hanging. I'm still working on the crocheted rug but it's almost there... Just needs to be about 6" bigger. I've decided to do a white shower curtain with blocks of color.. plaids, solids and prints that are in the wallhanging. It's going to have a large sashing of white... kind of like "happy blocks" but bigger. I think this will give it a more modern feel but still cottagey (spelling?..is it even a word?).

Finishing up some LQS samples....

So the other thing keeping me VERY busy is working and making samples for the shop. I have quite a few samples to finish up but I thought I would take a picture of two of them. These were quick and easy. The gingerbread pillow is called cookie time. I found the perfect brown at the store that looks just like gingerbread cookie dough. We're going to sell the patterns and some kits. And these placemats are a class I'll be teaching. One large D9P (disappearing nine patch) plus some strips make these very quick. No hand sewing AT ALL! No binding! I could make dozens of these... but lots of other projects waiting to get finished up. Sew, I'm off to the sewing room again!

Working on the bathroom extras

Al is determined to list our house this fall so I need to get the bathroom finished up. We painted it a nice neutral medium beige/tan and are installing a new mirror. This mirror is much larger and will make the bath feel bigger and brighter.
The wallhanging is going on one wall above the towel shelves. This rag rug is going in front of the sink but since it's only 1/4 of the way done, I've got to get going on it! I also have to make a shower curtain... something to go with this cottage look. Haven't decided on the perfect one yet... any ideas? I might bring in the bright homespuns... I know for sure that I want it bright with lots of white.

Busy finishing up the cupcakes

Well, Mom is having her tea party in October so I thought I better finish up the last of the cupcakes she'll need. She's putting one at each place for a nice take home gift. I sent her 3 already and just had 5 to do... so with the help of my daughter, we finished up the last 5. Now to get them in the mail. These are SO simple. The pattern is called Hotcakes... not sure who puts it out. The hard part was finding the round buttons for the "cherry on top". Mom got lucky and found some downstate... we are out of them up north. Now I'm on to my next project which is to finish up the wall hanging for one of the bathrooms. We're repainting it and I need to get this quilted and done so that I can take it to the paint store... need a color that "pops" it... but nothing bright. I'm thinking a light or dark tan/beige. The bathroom only has one small window so I don't want to darken it up. The wallhanging is nice and bright with a tan border. I'm also working on a croched rag rug to use in there. I'm cutting all my selvages and scraps into 1/2" strips and with a large hook, I'm crocheting an oval runner. So far so good... I worked on it last night for a few hours and got a good start on it. Just need to cut lots more pieces. My hands are a little sore today so I'll give it a few days before getting back to it. I'll post a picture in a couple of days... forgot to take one.

Southwest Round Robin Quilt

My quilt top came home today and IS IT BEAUTIFUL!!! Al and I just love it. All the ladies in my group need a HUGE pat on the back for such nice work. I can't wait for the next Round Robin.
Al and I are taking this down to the sewing room to start planning the next few borders to bring it up to queen size. This will be a quilt for our bed in Arizona.

The next projects to finish up...

So now that one little project is finished up, I need to get going on three others.

First one that needs finishing is the last rows on a strippy scrap block that goes to someone on block central. I sent the block out to her but cut it a 1/2 inch short... THAT'S NOT GOING TO WORK! LOL

Then I have 2 purple and cream blocks to do. I'm making the "Rob Peter to Pay Paul" blocks. This is for the BC October Favorite Block Swap. During shop hop, I bought a template to cut these out quicker. It makes a 6" block so I need to make 8 of them so that I end up with 2 - 12" blocks. When I was digging through my civil war fabrics today, I found the perfect purple and cream.

The final project that needs working on tonight and tomorrow night is a gift for a friend that lives in Arizona. I found some cute oriental fabrics (some vintage, some more recent). I'm going to make her a surprise using these... just haven't decided if I should make a small wall quilt or a pincushion. I'm leaning toward the wall quilt since I have a cute pattern in my latest two copies of Quiltmania. I know she love oriental fabrics, so either will probably be good for her.

Making a miniature civil war quilt

I decided to finish up a few projects that were hanging around the sewing room. This was one of them. I started making a bunch of mini 9 patch blocks when I was in Arizona in the winter. I have lots of small pieces of civil war fabrics and they're all so cute, I hate to throw even the smallest bit out. Today I put them together with the green patches and then added the hst border (1/2" blocks). I fussy cut a few of the pieces so that some of the prettier parts show in the quilt. There's a bee, a cat's head, some star flowers, and a few other "I spy" pieces. The quilt is 7" square. This was a challenge to make but lots of fun... just have to add a label to the back of it.

Weekend trip to see Quilt Exhibit and more

Al, Lisa and I took a long weekend and drove into the UP of Mi and then down into Wi to the Milwaukee Art Museum. They have a quilt exhibit going on (that was for me to see)....Lisa wanted to see the buildings. Al just went for the drive :)

The museum opens it wings at 10am so we had to be there for the opening. It was a sight!

Since Lisa is a vegan, we had to find a few vegan places to eat. This one with Al and Lisa pictured was the BEST! Al and I enjoyed it as much as she did. I had meatloaf, Lisa had a vegan salisbury steak... not sure what Al had but he said it was good. Lisa took home a german chocolate cupcake (yup, that was vegan also). She ate half in the car and told Al he could have a bite later to taste it. He thought it was so good, he ate the rest while she was at the pool. WAS SHE MAD! Next time we'll have to buy one for each of them :)

Lisa and I bought lots of fabrics on this trip and bought a few quilt books. I'll post some pics when I get home and can spread everything out. We stopped at Yoders in Shipshewana for most of the fabrics. I love solids and they have TONS!

Making cupcake pot holders

My mom has a tea party coming up in the fall at her church and she needs table decorations and party favors. The theme of her table will be cupcakes ...inspired by this cupcake pot holder pattern. I've stitched up 3 so far, one for the local quilt shop (this will be a Saturday "make and take" class) and 2 for mom... 6 to go for her. Jenn made the top one, isn't it a cute fabric?! These are SOOOOO easy.

Pincushion I made for Gerda

Today I can FINALLY post a picture of the pincushion that I made for my swap partner, Gerda. It took over 2 weeks to wind it's way along the postal road from my house to hers. I was just starting to sweat and wonder if it was lost but it arrived. Thank goodness!

Gerda is always saying how much she like greens and reds so I knew I would have to use those colors. The undersides of the leaves are shades of green wool that I found in Chicago a the quilt festival in April. This pattern is from Sue Spargo (Peony Bloom) but I shrunk it down and kind of did my own thing.

OOPS!

I was working on pinning my blue scrappy quilt and Al found a mistake... how did I not see it?! Well, I fixed it and am now quilting it :)