Winners Circle - Houston

Michelle and I arrived in Houston today in time to go to the IQA Winners Circle! The best thing about going to the Winners Circle is that you can get nose to nose with the quilt (as long as you don’t touch it!) And you get to meet most of the quilt makers. On the show room floor you are several feet away as the quilts are cordoned off.

The Best of Show winner this year is Janet Stone for her quilt, Garden Variety Sampler! The quilt has her trademark sheep and alphabet, and the detail on this quilt is stunning! The prize for Best of Show is $12,500!

The buttons in the photo above are covered with fabric. There are also all kinds of little beads and charms and other details.

Clever way to do the sheep!
When I get home and have time to sort my photos, I will share more of this amazing quilt. Congratulations Janet!!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween tomorrow!
Oh happy day, my friend Michelle and I are heading to the International Quilt Festival in Houston tomorrow!  I am so looking forward to being inspired by all of the beautiful quilts.  I will be sure to take a lot of pictures :)
Have a great week!  I will try to post some while I'm there!

(This little mug rug was made by my friend Pam :)

Thimbles From Italy!

My brother recently went on a business trip to Italy and brought me back six thimbles!  Take a look at how beautiful these are! These will go nicely in my thimble collection :). Thank you, thank you!!

He also was able to take the BERNINA train through the Alps in Switzerland!  Take a look at the beautiful photo below.  I will try to share some more interesting photos when I get my computer photos updated (which is taking hours...)

I hope you’ve had a lovely Sunday.  I had fun at the CWQG’s retreat this weekend.  I was only able to go on Friday, but it was a lot of fun sewing with friends!

The Cutest Little Penguin That You Ever Did See

My daughter Megan has been busy making a Halloween costume for her little one!  Look how adorable this is!
The white part is stuffed - in the photo below she said, "My has a fluffy tummy!"
The bottom picture shows the completed costume with wings and feet.  I can hardly wait to see it on her!
What will your little trick or treaters be wearing this year??

Sneak Peak!

Here is a sneak peak at Millefiori block number three!  I've been doing the prep work this week.  I like having some stitching to do in the evenings while I watch TV (or Tee Va Vee as my granddaughter says :)

This part of the process is more time consuming than actually sewing the pieces together, but it's also fun choosing the fabrics, doing some fussy cutting and placing them to see what kind of design you're going to end up with.  I really can't tell how it's going to look until I get it all laid out!  And then I either love it, think it's OK enough to leave, or I've actually taken the pieces out and tried something different.

Either way it's a FUN and exciting project to work on.  My sewing room is a mess as I'm pulling fabric fro everywhere, but that is a fun part of the process too.

Notice the little fussy cut diamonds above and I really love how the chevron fabric made a cool design in this block.

Sometimes laying the fabrics together in big chunks make me think that "these two particular fabrics will not work together" but then I find that a very small piece of the fabric may work just fine!

Go play and have fun!  I'm going to clean up my sewing room and prepare my Woodland Whimsy block.

Millefiori Block Number Two!

I finished the second block of the Millefiori quilt I am working on!  On to block number three!

Woodland Whimsy

Look what arrived this weekend!  My next Woodland Whimsy block :) A little deer and a gnome - I can hardly wait to get started!

Brown Bag Challenge Concluded!

Besides the mouse pin cushion, I decided to make this little zipper pouch from stuff found in the brown bag.  From my stash came the light blue batik and the zipper (yes I had a zipper in my stash!), and the brown batik, the woven panel and the tassel were all in the brown bag. When the time comes to exchange our brown bag projects I will let you know if my guess as to who my bag's owner is, is  correct :)  If I'm right, I don't think she reads my blog so I do not think I'm spoiling the surprise!  Have a great Monday :)

The Brown Bag Challenge Continued

Here is the first project to come out of the "brown bag"!  This cute little mouse stands about five inches tall and can be used as a pin cushion (it's filled with fiber fill and crushed walnut shells).  The batik fabric came out of my stash, but the green and pink fabrics were in the brown bag, as well as the little yellow flowers I used for embellishment.  It was fun and easy to make and I've included a picture of the pattern below, in case you're interested. I have one more item I am going to make, with some other contents of the bag - stayed tuned!

The Brown Bag Challenge

My miniature quilt group decided to do a Brown Bag Challenge for Christmas this year. Each of us was given a brown paper bag - lunch bag size - and we were to put some fabric, embellishments, and/or any other sewing supplies that we wanted to in the bag.  The bags were anonymously exchanged and now we are supposed to make something out of the stuff in someone else's bag and at our Christmas luncheon we will each receive something made from the stuff we put in our bags.  Does that makes sense?
Well, here is a picture of what was in the bag that I received and am supposed to make something out of! I think I have an inkling of whose bag this might be and she has quite the sense of humor!  She did not make this easy on me :). Everything I put in my bag is all matchy matchy.  I don't know if that will make it easier or harder on the person who got my bag though, because we all have such different styles.  Anyway, I have an idea of what to make with this!  Stayed tuned! Oh, and the good news is, I don't have to use everything in the bag, I must use something from the bag and I can add to it from my own stash. Phew!!

The Chipmunk Block is Finished!

I finished another Woodland Whimsy block - the Chipmunk.  Once again, it was SO fun to work on.  It just kind of comes to life as you stitch it - not just the animal, but the flowers and the bugs and everything.  I am particularly proud of my bee this time :). You can probably see it best in the last picture on this post.
I have completed six of the ten blocks so far - I can hardly wait to see what comes next!



Have a great day - I hope you get to sew!

It's Fall Y'all!

I thought I would share some Fall photos I took while biking on the river trail yesterday with my husband.  It's such a beautiful time of year!!

There is a blue heron perched on the tree limb out in the water - you can see it better in the pictures below.

New Books

I recently picked up a couple of new quilting books that I thought I would share.  This one is by Angela Walters, whose quilting truly inspires me.  She has several great books, including the two Shape by Shape books, which are my favorites. Plus she has a lot of free demo videos on YouTube and a couple of Craftsy classes.  She is the star of the Midnight Quilt Show (free - online), which is about a 20 minute show every couple of weeks.  She is a great teacher and I feel like my quilting has improved by learning from her books and videos.

Check out her website!

http://www.quiltingismytherapy.com/

Bethanne Nemesh was recently on The Quilt Show and I was so inspired by her beaded cording technique (I'm not sure that's what she calls it :) that I ordered her book "The Devil is in the Details - The Art of Fine Finishing Touches). I am excited to learn more about this technique and try it on a future quilt!  There are other edge finishing techniques in the book as well.  I don't know about you, but usually by the time I get to the edge of the quilt I'm ready to just sew a plain old binding on and call it good.  This will be a nice challenge for me. Find out more about Bethanne at: http://www.whitearborquilting.com/store/index.html

I also ordered some Christmas fabric and an ornament pattern from Lynette Anderson:

 http://www.lynetteandersondesigns.com.au

I need to make a few handmade ornaments for some ornament exchanges I'm involved in this year and these looked fun and cute to me!


What have you been working on lately?  Are you thinking Christmas yet?

Have a great day :)