Going, Going…Gone!

My sewing room has been eerily quiet these days. I mentioned in my last post that I am moving over the next month, and while it will save us a good deal of money in the long run, and I’m getting a fresh and nicely furnished quilting studio out of the deal, I would so much rather be sewing and creating than packing and trying to sell extra things we don’t have room for! And, I’m still working two jobs while trying to get it all done!

Last night I did get a break. It was our guild meeting, and August is the fundraising meeting with a live auction and tag sale. Our guild raised over $12,000 for Breast Cancer Research last night in less than four hours!

I didn’t take anything home from the live auction, but I did find a few treasures in the Mall In The Hall, the tag sale/rummage sale component that took place before the auction. There are books, magazines, patterns, kits, fabric, quilt tops, completed quilts, fresh garden veggies, quilt racks, notions, batting, vintage blocks, new blocks, embroidery hoops, quilt frames, knick-knacks…you name it, it was probably for sale there.

All items are donated by members that cleaned out their stashes, their closets, basements, those neglected tubs that haven’t been opened in five years…

And the live auction included some gorgeous, beautifully quilted quilts, quilt tops with backing and binding included, bundles of quilty-goodness for wine lovers, chocolate lovers, batik lovers, fans of traditional quilts… There was a laundry bundle that included a tabletop ironing board, a Clover Mini Iron, Shout Color Catchers, Dryer balls, Orvis soap, Retayne, and many other quilt care products–clever! The creativity that went into some of these baskets was just amazing in itself! I wish you all could have been there…if you had, we might have been able to raise another $10,000!

I brought home four pieces of vintage fabric from the Mall In The Hall sale…about six yards of 1940-1960 fabric in amazing condition (a few stains that I need to remove) for only $4.00!

This floral piece is just lovely (even if it doesn’t show that in the photo!), it is a cotton chintz, a three yard piece that I think may become a dress or skirt for your’s truly with the scraps going into a quilt…

The leaf fabric is called “Spring Song” it appears to be from the early 1950s, it has the cutest little dragonflies and fruits and leaves…just great! It has a few stains, but I believe I can get them out.

And this one, with the little dutch boys and girls?! Adorable! You can click on the photos to enlarge them and see the deatils better. I’m sure if my mind hadn’t been focusing on downsizing and moving for the last two weeks, I would have brought home much, much more last night! I did pick up these two patterns, though:

I drove across part of Iowa this weekend, to see my Mom and attend the baptism of my grand-niece. I once showed you the barn quilts that you can find dotting the Iowa landscape. On our way home Sunday, we stopped at a BP Station (petrol station) to use the restroom and saw this hanging above the cash counter:

It’s a quilt that shows all of the blocks that adorn the barns throughout Grundy County, Iowa. You can see more here.

Happy sewing!

Studio 5(30)4…

No creating happened this weekend, but the sewing studio in my soon to be new “home” got painted a lovely shade of aqua and moving in will commence soon:
I so love that color! I’m not looking forward to moving all of my loot, but I have a period of six weeks to accomplish getting it all moved, so I can do a little at a time. And the fresh paint job in my studio and new bathroom definitely make the idea much more appealing! and I got to meet this little sweetheart…my grand-niece who made her first trip to Iowa this week. Look at those cute little curly toes! This is the recipient of my French Roses Quilt. She was born in May, and is a Tennessee belle. Hopefully, one day, she moves closer!

Fair Game

Today is Opening Day at the 2009 Iowa State Fair. I’m not going to the fair today, I’ll be working a nine hour day. However, last night was a Special Preview of the Fabric and Threads Exhibits for anyone who entered a project and their guests. I went with the seven women who make up my new small group, Seams Sew Easy.

There was some beauty to behold. First the BLUE RIBBON ROOM (Hint: my bag and quilt were NOT displayed in here.)

This lovely pink applique quilt was made by a woman from our guild…lovely. And this fabulous Oriental & Indigo Quilt also was created by one of our guild members…

Upstairs, the rest of the quilts, knitting, tatting, embroidery, cross-stitch, garments, etc. are all displayed in one large room. Sadly, with most of the quilts, you only get to see a 2.5 foot by approx. 5 foot slice. It’s a form of torture for a quilt lover to not let them see the entire work of art.


If you look in the upper right hand corner of this photo (below) you will see my Purely Perennial quilt (at least a part of it!). It didn’t show well, at all, in this room, but what can you do? Hope for a better showing next year, I guess…

I also entered my Miranda Bag, shown at the bottom right, here…no ribbons, but I wasn’t expecting any…

My friend Veronica won a BLUE RIBBON on her retro apron (sorry, no photo!), and Beth received an Honorable Mention Pink Ribbon on her first quilt:

Here is Lisa’s cute little quilty…her son was asked to draw a Family Tree in school…this is what he drew, a Christmas tree with his Mom, Dad, brother, sister and himself flanking it. His clever mama turned it into a quilt:

Loved this strip pieced quilt in mostly Kaffe Fassett florals…it received a Second Place Red Ribbon:

Here ‘s a shot of (or, a portion of) our group’s charity Spools quilt…I didn’t have a hand in this one, they completed it earlier this year just before Veronica and I joined the group. Unfortunately, their lovely applique doesn’t show:

Anyone who knows “quilter” Doris, knows that I loathe Sunbonnet Sue quilts. (Seriously, it has it’s own website?!?) Sorry if you happen to be a fan, but I just don’t get the appeal. And, the Straw Hat Sam blocks? Even worse. Don’t get me started… But, even I have to agree that these little Geisha Girls are pretty darn cute:

Before we headed off for dinner, we had an official shot of our small group taken (I think it’s the first time all eight of us have actually been together!)

Dawn, Teresa, Lisa, Me, Beth
Emma, Veronica, Tricia

I was so inspired by the quilts…I went home and whipped this up for Alissa, my August block for the Sew Connected 2 Bee:

Alissa likes wonky, and asked for no triangles. Other than that we had free reign. So I went for an assymetrical block with curved piecing to accent it. Hope you like it, Alissa!

Gotta love those tadpoles…

Sherbet, anyone?

The Squares Squared quilt is complete…finished the binding Saturday morning about 25 minutes before my shift at the shop began.

The back is a tone-on-tone pink bubbles print from the “Mother Goose” line…

The front is primarily from the “Rhumba” line by Windham Textiles, with a few accent prints thrown in, such as the tangerine swirls from the “Clementine” line…

Finished size is 42″ x 50″.

My Big Girl Birthday Party

A few weeks ago, I had a birthday. It was one of those big ones, y’know, like 16 (driving age), 18 (voting age), 21 (legal drinking age), 25 (cheaper insurance age), 30 (leaving your 20s behind age)… You get the picture. All I asked of my sweetie, my sister, and my best friend who co-hosted the party was that there be no over-the-hill insinuations. My sister assured me there was nothing “over-the-hill” about this party theme! (Click on photos to enlarge)

You see, I wasn’t the only one to turn 40 this year, the Hungry Caterpillar did, too! I’ve always loved this book, the colors of Eric Carle’s artwork, and the story. On the door to my sister’s house was a sign with images of the caterpillar (and butterfly) that read “40 is fun! 40 is young! 40 is beautiful!” And my sister and niece made that fabulous cake and butterfly cupcakes…

My best friend made frosted flower sugar cookies (my faves!)
and brought me a vase of 40 long-stem roses!

She also made these amazing invites:




My sweetie gave me a dozen roses, as well, and my 4-year-old nephew brought me a single red rose…53 roses at once….L-O-V-E-L-Y!

There was great food (inspired by the book, of course!), great company, most of my family made it to the party, and lots of friends, including one college friend I have not seen since April 2000!!!!

We played Pictionary with clues my sister came up with, including bonus points for 1969 themes and “Doris Fave” clues…

and kept the little ones busy with their own “Pictionary” board…

In lieu of gifts, the hosts asked everyone to bring that I could put into a quilt to remind me of all those who helped me celebrate my 40th birthday. Everyone did a fabulous job selecting fabrics…my brothers even went to quilt shops for me!! The “guest book” was squares of fabric that everyone signed to go into the quilt. The quilt design is still in my head…but I have a grand idea…

My loved ones did a wonderful job of making this such a memorable and special birthday for me, I had no angst whatsoever about the “big number” attached to the day, and I truly could not have asked for a better celebration…this is one HAPPY birthday girl:

Everyone should be so lucky to have a birthday like this!

Rock-n-Roll

Over the last two weeks, in between sewing projects, I’ve been working on re-upholstering my sweetie’s Grandmother’s rocking chair. It used to live in the family lake house on Lake Mille Lacs in central Minnesota. Her sons used to push her around the ice covered lake in this chair in the winter–doesn’t that paint an interesting picture?!

These are the before photos (above) showing the chair in what it was recovered in in the late 1970s/early 1980s (I’m guessing by the fabric that was used). My sweetie’s Mom recovered it at the time, and it lived a few decades in her family room before be passed down to her son last year.

So we tore it apart, down to the skeleton…

Love this “fix” his Mom added, that is lawn chair webbing strips used to hold in the styrofoam that was used to form the back….

And, then sweetie and I went shopping for fabric…revealing just how different our tastes in decorating are (it’s dangerous to find a guy who actually has an “opinion” on these matters…sometimes it’s best if they just don’t care!). I wanted to recover it in a traditional-contemporary print, something like this sofa…or this… But he wanted it to look more like it did when Grandma had it (a dark royal blue “suede-y” fabric. Yikes!). Well, she was his grandmother… so this is the compromise we came up…

It’s not exactly Anna Maria Horner or Amy Butler home dec…but it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb and blends in with the rest of what I have…

The stripe is a dark blue (so he’s happy) and also has greens and golds in it (so I’m happy).

It’s trimmed in a gold braiding that really sets off the stripe…


And…it’s a million times better than the “before” model…. ;->