Shop Hopping

A few friends and I went on the 'Movie Mania' shop hop in central Missouri last weekend.  I realized as I was driving home after dropping everyone off that I completely forgot to take any pictures - what a bummer!  We started our extended shopping spree at Homestead Hearth in Mexico.  It is definitely one of my favorites!  From there we headed over to Mexico Sewing Center, and then on to Centralia to visit Material Girl Quilt Shop.  I wish I had taken a picture of that one - it is so cute!

Our next stop was Columbia, MO where we visited Satin Stitches and Appletree Quilting Center.  Both shops were larger than the last time I visited.  It's great to see places expanding in this economy!  From there we headed to Specialty Quilts & Fabrics in Jefferson City.  We wrapped up our first day with dinner at my favorite restaurant - J. Bruner's.  The onion rings were absolutely fabulous as always, and my filet was perfect.  I'm pretty sure they serve the best onion rings in the world!

We headed for Stover on Saturday morning, stopping first at Claude's Country Threads.  Claude's had an adorable version of this Fons & Porter bonus pattern hanging in their shop:

Their version had sashing between the blocks, a look I think I prefer. This isn't a quilt I would normally be the least bit interested in, but then I found this fabric:

It is so cute!  I love some of the names!  I decided I had to have some - and that it would be a perfect border for the puppy quilt.  I downloaded the pattern as soon as I got home.

From Claude's we headed to NuStyle and then Stover Quality Quilting.  I found a couple of great fabrics and a super-cute kit at the second shop.  I've been pretty good about staying away from Christmas projects, but they had an adorable table runner with ultra-suede gingerbread men down the center.  It is actually a stitchery pattern called "Ginger Garden Table Runner".  I didn't take a picture of the shop sample, but here's a picture of the kit:

Our next stop was Love to Sew in Osage Beach.  That shop has really grown!  They had fantastic ombre fabrics...I had to by some of nearly every color.  They are fantastic for applique.  We wrapped up the shop hop at Fabrics and Friends in Camdenton.  Sadly, none of us has received a call to tell us that we won any of the prizes.  You'd think at least one of us would win something!

We then visited my second-favorite (or maybe it's a tie for first) restaurant for lunch - On the Rise Bakery & Bistro.  They have expanded, too - life must be good in central MO!  I had my usual - the Monte Christo.  It was yummy!

We wrapped up our shopping with a stop at The Quilted Fox on Sunday.  I have been thinking about signing up for an advanced hand piecing class I saw in their newsletter but hadn't taken the plunge - that is until I saw the quilt.  It is gorgeous!  Sign me up!  The class starts August 4th.  I can't wait!

We had a blast shopping and eating - it was sad to see the weekend come to an end so quickly!  One bright spot in the week was the arrival of blocks one and two of the Primitive Gatherings block of the week.  I was so excited to receive them that I have already prepped the first block!  The black flannel background feels wonderful.  I am hoping it will be nice to work with.  Here are the first two block kits - don't they look fun?

What may be even better than the BOW itself is the summer freebie!  It's called "My Favorite Things".  I love both of the blocks so far!  Here's a picture of the kit for block two:

I love it!  I can't wait to see what's next.  I may have to prep this one tonight - I'm so anxious to get started!

Dyeing Frustration

I am making great progress on the Sauder Vilage rug.  So much so that I wanted to start the grass and sky this weekend.  I hate leaving all the background for last!

I broke out the dye pots on Saturday.  I hadn't done any dyeing in a while and was really looking forward to it.  I went through several recipe books and finally found colors that looked perfect - a light, bright green that would contrast with the corn stalk and a happy, sunny sky blue.  I did everything just the way it is supposed to be done, and ended up with this:

The colors in the photo aren't great...but the green clearly isn't light and bright!  The blue is way too dark.  Both colors are very pretty, but neither will work.  I considered starting over, but thought I might be better off just waiting to get them from Nola.  Definitely an 'epic fail'!

I spent a little time playing with a very old project in the sewing room this weeekend. About three years ago I went to Runaway Quilters' retreat and spent the entire weekend in sit & sew stitching these triangle papers.

I spent several hours cutting them apart, tearing off paper and pressing them.  I barely made a dent in the stack - those things are time-consuming!  

I am excited about working on this project, though. Perhaps I could finish this one (lap quilt size) in time for the quilt show....

Retreating at the Lake

I had a chance to get away to the lake house for a couple of days and focus on sewing and hooking (and working a bit, but that part isn't fun to talk about!).  I've been spending most of the time doing applique and managed to finish my third rose block. That makes five blocks out of twenty - and three out of four roses finished.



















I also finished two more of the applique blocks for my house quilt.  Four more and I will be able to piece the top and add the rest of the applique.

I have made progress on my Sauder Village rug over the past week or so, too.

I plan to finish the chair tonight and start on the lettering.  I'm heading home tomorrow so I want to make the best of every uninterrupted minute I have left!  Too bad I don't have any of these to munch on while I hook:

Amaretto macaroons from Missouri Baking Company on The Hill.  Delicious!  It's a shame they are back home in the freezer!

Basket Fun

I had a little time in the sewing room this weekend and was able to finish up another basket block and prep two more.
 

I am absolutely loving this project!  These baskets are so much fun to put together and I am very happy with how they are turning out.  I really want to have this one finished for the quilt show.  So far I've finished 3 blocks...only 17 more to go!  I'm planning to work on another while sitting through a 3 hour conference call today.  It sounds wrong, I know...but I am completely amazed at how much better I listen to calls if I stitch during them!  It prevents me from multi-tasking with other work and I actually pay attention. If the people on the other end of the line only knew!

I am also working on a new rug project - hopefully one I can knock out quickly before my next workshop in June. This is Linda Pietz's Sauder Village pattern. 

It's a very fun pattern and I am particularly enjoying doing the color planning as I go rather than thinking it through in advance.  It probably isn't the smartest approach, but hopefully it will all come together in the end!

Back to Reality

Paducah was wonderful (as always) and I actually managed to make it through the week without going too far overboard with purchases!  I picked up a few patterns (they are easy to find a home for in the sewing room), a little bit of fabric (we won't count the bolt of black batik - at only $5 per yard I would have been a fool to leavie it behind!) and one kit. I was trying to avoid kits but the colors in this quilt were absolutely gorgeous, and since I already had the pattern, how could I resist?  I am so tempted to start on it but I know I need to focus if I am going to get anything ready in time for the 2013 show.

Speaking of getting things ready for a show, I finished (okay, almost finished) my rug late Friday night, just in time to get it into the show on Saturday.  Hook-in St. Louis was outstanding!  Donna, Nina and Maria did a fabulous job! 

I still need to sew down the binding tape.  I made it about half way around before I left for the show - but it was close enough!  I will be glad to mark that one off of my list.  It's been around for a while!

My next rug project is the Sauder Village rug.  I started it last night.  It seems like it will go quickly, but I'm sure that won't be the case.  I am aiming to finish before my next workshop...that gives me just shy of two months to work on it.   I think I'm up for the challenge!

One More Week!

I am SO ready for vacation!  I always get really pumped about Paducah.  Something about being able to totally immerse myself in quilts and quilters for a full four days makes my heart happy. I can't wait!

Last week was a very busy work week and I really didn't have any time to work on anything.  I'm really getting down to the wire on my rug.  I registered it for the show so I have to get it finished (or at least hooked and steamed) before I leave for Paducah. I have made progress:

The border is very tedious.  Doing "hit or miss" is much more difficult than it looks! The colors are so close to one another and require more planning than I would have hoped.  I'm also thinking that I will need to hook the outer-most border.  There's a half-inch or slightly larger border drawn outside the piano keys that I was hoping to be able to ignore, but I think it is needed in order to make the border proportional.

I managed to finish my second Grandmother's Garden block over the weekend.

I had so much fun with the embroidery!  I started prepping the next block. I have to figure out how I want to do it.  There are four of them in the quilt. The original Nancy Page pattern has a flat "blobby" rose. I like the Eleanor Burns dimensional version looks much better, but since I am going with the non-dimensional approach I don't want the roses to look like they don't belong.  I may try to find a middle ground between the two - separate petals instead of blobs, but still flat.

Hopefully I can wrap up work at a reasonable time this afternoon and get back to my rose. I will get back to the rug this evening - hopefully I can get around the next corner and make decent progress up the next side.  I've got a lot of hooking to do between now and next Tuesday!

Only Two More Days!

I am so excited about April!  Only two days until baseball season opens and only three weeks until Paducah!  I have a horribly tough work schedule the next couple of weeks so it really helps to have something to look forward to.

I haven't been able to work on much of anything since Kinderhook.  I did manage to get quite a bit of work done while I was there - not nearly as much as I hoped or planned for, of course.  I completed 25 of the 45 stars for Stars & Sprigs:

I also put together 8 or so baskets for my Grandmother's Garden quilt.  I prepped the applique for my second block yesterday.  I love the colors I am working with and am really excited about this project.  Hopefully I will have a finished block to show by the end of the week  My goal is to have this one finished in time for next year's quilt show.

We had a great TAS meeting this weekend, working on embroidery stitches.  We were having so much fun that we ran out of time and really didn't get to spend the time we wanted to on some of the techniques!  We may have to have a "part two" at the next meeting.  Getting back to emboridery meant that I had a chance to finish my sheep from Jan Vaine's class:

I absolutely love him although I have no idea what I am going to do with him!  I wish I would have kept track of the number of colonial knots - it took two complete skeins of wool embroidery thread to fill in his little body (he's less than 3" tall)!  His legs, face and ear are ultrasuede.  He was so much fun to make!