Trying to find this fabric

Good morning, everyone.  It has been a long and busy time.  I have so much to share.  First of all, Janis the hen has learned to crow.  Apparently this is not unusual, but it is sure annoying.

Second, I was at the annual convention for Univera, the natural health products company I am associated with, and I won the 2012 Weight Management Throwdown!  It was a complete surprise, and loads of fun to be famous for a couple of days.

Because I only have limited time this morning, I will put off sharing what has been going on in the studio until the next post except for a couple of things.

First - Do you know what this fabric is called, who made it, and where I can get more?

Second is a sneak peak at the doll quilt for the August doll quilt swap.

I can't show the rest because my swap partner, the very talented Sharon Vrooman of Vrooman's Quilts, has been known to stop by here once in a while.

There is much more in the works - one piece I need to get finished today - so I will say goodbye for now.  Joyful quilting, everyone.



Seeing stars

I don't know if you can see how stunning this fabric is from the photo.  It is "Flowering star of Ghana" from the 2001 Alexander Henry collection.  When I was visiting my friend Sharon in her studio, she was pulling fabric from her basket of silks and brocades when she casually set this one aside.  I fell in love with it, and she gifted it to me.  It was a one yard piece, with a small 9" square cut out.  Not her colors, she told me.  I have been looking at if for a few weeks now, pulling other fabrics from my shelves and putting them back.  Then, I found a 1/4 yard piece of the teal flowers from Sandy Gervais Tranquility and knew that was it.  I spent a few minutes doodling, and then set to work.

At this point, this is what I have.  These will all come together as a liberated medallion of sorts.  The hsts are left overs from the stars I showed in the last post.  I am also going to use strips of the orange fabric to fill in.  I may use some narrow strips from the dark teal in the hsts.  I want to make sure the liberated stars really stand out when all is said and done.  I have only made these a couple of times before, and I really like them, even though they take much longer than regular stars.  Sometimes, it takes more thought to be liberated.

This is going to be another one of my process, or intuitive, quilts.  So far, all I have is a seed of an idea for the middle.  I have to dig through my stash and see how much teal and orange I can find.  That will dictate the final size of this piece. 

 Joyful quilting, everyone.

Making fabric backgrounds

I am intrigued with the idea of making fabric for backgrounds using different techniques.  Gloria Loughman has been very successful using diamonds to create wonderful backgrounds. She makes much better diamonds than I do.  I wasn't thinking, and used the 30 degree angle instead of the 45.  It is still interesting, and will work for what I need.

 I needed something in very earthy tones, so I went through my batiks and found just the right ones.  I will applique the focal pieces on by hand, I think.  This one is for the International Robin.  I like using these earth tones, even though they are a huge departure from the colors I have been using.  It is good to try different things.

I will be with Bella the next couple of days, then I head north for my Gwen Marston workshops.  I am not sure there is an internet connection where I am staying, so I may not be online until I get back.  I will take plenty of photos, and give you all a full report on the workshop when I am able.  Until then, joyful quilting, everyone. 

More fabric shopping

On Thursday. Willa and I drove to Annapolis, MD to visit  Cottonseed Glory.  This is a lovely little quilt shop with a great collection of wonderful fabrics.  I loved browsing through the batiks, the Kaffe Fasset Collective collection, and the color walls.  There were many fabrics I wanted, but I only bought a couple of pieces.  The prices in this shop were higher than the other places we have visited unless you looked around for the older bolts.  The fat quarters were $3.00, but Annapolis is a very pricey tourist town, and I am sure the rents are high.  It was wonderful to see all the fabrics they had.

After we left Annapolis, we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge heading to Easton for another fabric shop.  This is one of the world's best bridges, I think.  It was great fun to be a passenger and look at all the beautiful scenery as we crossed the bay.  Next stop was lunch.

We ate at the Fisherman's Inn, right near the water.  I had forgotten how good a shrimp boil could be.  Willa had a steam pot of mussels that looked very tasty.  It is interesting to try and stay on my diet when there is so much great food here to eat.  This restaurant had a very impressive, and large, collection of oyster plates displayed wherever there was wall space.

This is the small shop in Easton.  The collection of fabrics is small, but I found several pieces I had to have.  The plum colored PT Cruiser is the car Willa drives.  It is very comfortable for tooling around and visiting quilt shops.

Now, for the fabric.

Friday, we went into DC to see a couple of memorials I hadn't seen.  I will post those photos tomorrow or Monday.

Tomorrow is Easter.  I hope you all have a joy filled day.

Fabric Shopping in Amish Country

I have been enjoying my stay in Northern Virginia.  I arrived late Thursday night.  Friday, I spent the day settling in while Willa and David were at work.  I took some time to cut fabric for the doll quilt for the April swap.  Saturday morning, Willa and I went to a couple of fabric shops where I found some beautiful batiks on sale, and a piece of peacock fabric I fell in love with.  Sunday, we had a brunch with many old friends, and that was great fun.  Monday morning, we set off for Pennsylvania and Amish country to shop for fabric.

We headed around Washington, DC on the beltway, then headed north through Maryland until we reached Pennsylvania.  Our first destination was The Old Country Store in Intercourse, PA.  We stopped here at the visitors center along the interstate.

The Old Country Store is a wonderful place where they have a quilt museum upstairs, a gift shop with locally made handcrafts, quilts, and food, and a fantastic fabric store.  Willa and I found wonderful fabrics at extremely reasonable prices.  I found beautiful Kona solids at less than $7.00 per yard. 

I already have plans for all of them.  I also found some homespuns for the house quilt that I am starting soon, at very low prices.

If you buy 10 fat quarters, they are only $1.99 each.  I found some great batiks and other things.  I should have picked up some more.

The Old Country Store also as an online store here.

After lunch at Stolfus Meats and Deli, we headed back, planning on stopping at a couple of other fabric shops along the way.

I believe this was called Bird In Hand Fabrics and Notions.  This was more of a local shop carrying fabric and notions for making plain clothes, as well as quilting fabric.  I have never seen so many different bolts of black fabric.  The prices here were also very reasonable.  As you can see on the sign, many were on sale for $4 - $5 per yard.  I bought a small piece of fabric and a quilting stencil here.

I didn't get a photo of the last place we stopped, Log Cabin Quilts in Bird In Hand.  Here, I found the black and yellow fabric I needed for this months Stash Bee Hive 1 block. 

Here are some of the odd pieces of fabric I picked up at the different shops that are for various projects.

Some were on sale, some I just fell in love with.  A couple are for bees and other WIPs.

All in all, we had a wonderful and successful day.  We spend way less than we expected, and came home with more fabric than we thought we would.  The drive was beautiful, and we didn't run into any of the bad traffic that I expected in the DC area.

Today, I am going to work on sewing my April doll quilt.  I will leave you with this photo of a farm field in Bird In Hand.  Joyful quilting, everyone.

Beautiful fabrics from a swap

I was a participant in a Serious Stash Swap coordinated by Victoria at 15 Minutes Play over the past few weeks.  We were given swap partners and we were to swap 20 fat quarters.  My swap partner, Mimi, and I emailed each other with some ideas.  I sent Mimi her box without taking a photo.  It included some Kaffe and several shades of grey, which Mimi said she liked.  I mentioned I liked batiks and brights.  This is the collection I got in the mail today.  Aren't they incredibly yummy!  There is also a beautiful Amy Butler that somehow didn't make it into the photo.  All the warms fill in some big holes in my batik collection.  I am already seeing wonderful quilty visions.  I am so happy I participated in this swap.

I will be back Friday after my Bella days.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

BOM blocks and a new project

The BOM blocks for January for my guild were fun to make.  There are two 12.5" blocks here.  I had fun going through my scraps looking for 18 different brights to make the 2.5" squares for the corners.  I love bright quilts, but I don't seem to make many of them so I don't have loads of brights.  I thought I would find some in the fat quarter collection I won at my December guild meeting (over 100 of them), but there weren't many brights in their either.  At least I have a good strong red group.

When I went on the Western Washington Shop Hop last June, I found this pattern I had to have.  I don't often use commercial patterns, but I fell in love with the example.  It is very hard to see in this photo, but there are some curves in this that are done in a Cathedral Window style.  Today, I finally got to the fabric store, gift certificate in hand, to buy the fabric I will use for this small quilt.

The color on the left is a deep rich plum that is repeated in the little pattern elements of the orange.  These fabrics are from different manufacturers, but they work really well together.  The middle batik is a much better color match than the photo shows.  I am pretty excited about getting started on this project.

This just makes my WIP list a little longer, but I really enjoy having several projects going at once.  That way I don't get bored.

I hope you are all planning a safe New Year weekend.

I am going to take a little break until at least Sunday.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Bella and the doll

Bella liked the doll and has named her Dolly.  She even shared some of the stuffed friends from her bed with Dolly.  Later, Dolly went jumping on the new trampoline Santa brought Bella.  Dolly and Bella skipped nap today.

Dianne, Bella's other quilting grandma, made this incredible mini for me.  It is about 15" square.  I have always admired the Tree of Life pattern, but this is amazing.  Those HSTs are so tiny!  Thank you so much, Dianne.  I love it.

My SIL sent me these two wonderful fabrics from Africa.  The one on the right says it is from Ghana.  They are both "Guaranteed Wax."  Thank you, Willa.  I love them.

Tom had great fun in the fabric store.  In addition to a generous gift certificate, he picked out thesebeautiful fabrics.  Most are fat quarters, At least one is a half yard.  He also got me the clippies for hand binding.  He was laughing at me using my hair clips.  The green pin cushion is also from Tom and the red one is from Bella and her parents.  I am a very lucky woman to have so many supportive loving people in my family.

Have a joy filled day, everyone.

A tease and new thrift shop finds

This is all I can show of the red and white mini quilt.  I finished piecing the top this afternoon.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Almost all the points survived and the corners match.  I will figure out how to quilt it next weekend.

I went to the doc to have him look at my ear, and he pronounced the infection gone.  On the way home, I stopped to pick up some King Tut thread to quilt the Jacob's Ladder and some small things to get ready for the gift exchange at my guild meeting.  Then I went to the local Goodwill.  I was really excited to find these wonderful things.

Look at all these wonderful shirts!

Intriguing plaids.

Hawaiian prints and a chartreuse plaid.

Look at the reds.

I even found a good sized piece of Grannies Flowers from 1997.  It is going to help create the back for the JL.  I also found a king sized floral on black sheet, a table cloth for our dining table, and cloth napkins.  All in all, a very successful trip.  I was excited to discover that the store had enlarged its linens section.  I will have to keep my eye out there.

Tomorrow, I start my week with Bella.  Until Friday, joyful quilting, everyone.

Getting things done

Today, I was able to finish my Jacob's Ladder top.  I am calling this quilt Hidden Garden.  It is so hard to show all the wonderful floral fabrics and great colors with a photograph.  This is the first quilt where I have had to match so many corners and points.  They are not all perfect, but I don't care.  I just really like this quilt. I am so happy I got the top finished today.

I have been dealing with a terrible ear ache for a few days and finally went to the doc this morning.  I have an ear infection.  I don't think I have had an ear infection since I was a kid.  It is most unpleasant.  Hopefully, the antibiotics and the ear drops will help quickly.

Last week, on our way home for the cabin in the woods, we stopped in Chehalis at Sister's Fabric. This is one of my all time favorite fabric stores.  There is an amazing selection of fabrics, including a fantastic collection of gorgeous flannels.  I purchased these batiks for a quilt I designed that I will start on after the new year.  I love these fall colors, so I will use this one all year long.

These beauties are for our youngest son's next quilt.  He loves these colors, and I am going to add them into the string quilt I started a couple of weeks ago.   I hope he likes it.

I am making mug rugs for a couple of hunters in the family.  I thought this fabric would be appropriate. I love the plaid.  I did some fussy cutting on the bottom fabric earlier this evening.  These small quilts are fun to make and are good gifts.

This bunch is from my stash and is destined for a 15" x 15" quilt for Bella's other quilting grandmother.  This is a sneak peak for her.  I just hope the pattern I have come up with is not too complicated for me.  The pieces are going to be very small, I think.

It was great to be back in the studio today.  I don't think I will be back until Friday unless I can sneak a little bit in on Thursday morning.  After all, how long does it take to prepare enchiladas?

In the meantime, joyful quilting, everyone.

Estate sale finds

I love estate sales!  I went to this sale because I saw a photo of this Santa on the estate sale site.  I collect Santas and haven't had a new one in a couple of years.  I arrived early, and he was just waiting for me.  $4.00

Then, there were these very sweet dolls.  The larger one is about 15" tall with the smallest being about 4" tall.  These beauties cost $7.00.

I wandered into a room with shirts and sweaters on a table, but before I could start looking for 100% cotton shirts, my eye caught something that looked like a quilt coming out of a corner of a basket.  Woohoo!  It was a quilt.



I pulled it out, unfolded it, and started looking for labels saying it was made in China.  Not only was there no label, but there were no places that looked like a label had been cut off.  As I started looking at it, I could see it was hand quilted.  I am not sure where it came from, but it is in very good condition, and fits the big bed nicely.  Are you sitting down?  $8.00.

I also picked up about five yards of fabrics, mostly red, for $4.00.  I haven't taken a photo of that yet.  All in all, a very good estate sale for me.

After I came home, I worked more on the BOM quilt.  Then I built more blocks for the Jacobs Ladder.

I have four more to go if I want it 60" x 60".  I may add another row to make it 60" by 70".  I have just enough florals to do that.  It will be the biggest quilt I have had on my design wall.  I am not going to use a border, I don't think.  I am going to piece the binding out of what is left of the florals.  I will have used every last inch of the Kona Aloe.  I am loving this quilt.

For some reason, the aloe shows up much stronger in the photos than it does in real life. 

Have you been watching all the new fabrics that have been introduced at Market?  I have fallen in love with the newest Fig Tree by Moda, Butterscotch and Roses.  What are you drooling over?

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

Oh Goodie! New fabric!

Isn't she absolutely adorable?  I fussy cut 15 little fairies from a piece I had of Timeless Treasures for Bella's quilt.  I thought I had enough polka dots to go with to make a nine patch quilt for her big girl bed, but I didn't so I had to go to the LQS this morning.  She has another beautiful one that her Grandma Edwards made, but I just had to make something with these little fairies.  These are all the goodies I have to make this quilt now, including a bright pink Minke backing.

Pinks and purples.  Purples and pinks.  Polka dots galore.  This is going to be fun.

I also had a wonderful time shopping in my friend's incredible stash for the rest of the florals I need for the Jacob's Ladder Quiltalong.  I am pretty excited about finding  such a wonderful group of these old fashioned style florals for this project.  

I have no idea how big this quilt will be when I sew all these into blocks.  I suspect it will be the biggest quilt I have made.  I just have to make sure it doesn't get too big for Priscilla.  She doesn't like anything over 80 inches wide.  She can be so picky.  (For those of you who are new to the blog, Priscilla is my Juki and frame.)  Anyway, tomorrow, I will make another two blocks for the JL.

Until then, have a great evening, everyone.

Joyful quilting.