NW Quilt Expo

I went to the Quilters Expo Show on Thursday with my friend Myree. We both did our part to stimulated the economy. Lots of Eye Candy (great quilts) I took lots of close up photo's of the quilting done on the quilts. I can't even imagine it yet, but someday I hope to be able to quilt like the Pro's. To help me out I bought Megan Bests book "Spiral Twists" and her Mini SID ruler. She even autographed it for me. Quilter's Rule also had a booth and of course after seeing a demo of the Nautilus Tools, I decided these tools were just the rulers I needed to enable me to someday be able to LA quilt like the Pro's. I realize I will really need to PPP. But a few more nice rulers and tools hanging on the wall next to my LA will also give me just the right amount of support I'll need on my journey. I also added to my collection of Pam CLarks Books and Stencils, I really like her books and use them alot.

Beings I don't quilt for customers now, I have to make my own quilts. So I'm Always on the hunt for good patterns that have a fair amount of open space for custom type quilting. I found a pattern at the Pine Needle with Flying Geese called "Points North". I'll use my new Pam Clark book "Triangle Tango" when I quilt it. That book is filled with Flying Geese Ideas, Thanks Pam.

I'm also a sucker for quilt kits, I just don't have time to shop/hunt for fabric. I found 4 kits to buy and I already have idea's on how I'm going to quilt all of them when I finish piecing them. Actually I saw so many quilting ideas at the show I can't wait to finish piecing and I've already begun. Underneath all the stuff I bought in the pix above is a simple flannel quilt I'm working on. I bought the kit from the Stitching Post at the show. Hopefully my new Circle Lord Thingy will come this week, plan to try it out on this quilt. I love my Circle Lord.

I bought a Kit and 3 patterns from "A Quilter's Dream" they were up from CA. I really liked their stuff and will watch their website from now on. I bought a kit called "Folkalburst" from Thumbuddy Special. The fabric used is the Show's Theme Fabric by Thimbleberries. Glad I spotted this cuz I like the fabric and the pattern. Plus she had the same pattern made with a Batik also, it was to die for. I also bought an autograghed copy of the New Thimbleberries Book" Basic Beauties". Plan to make a few quilts from this book as the patterns have plenty of open space for quilting.

Now for my big discovery of the show, Books and Patterns by Laurie Shifrin. Although they are Batik, I see lots of potential using cotton instead of Batik. I enjoy looking at batik but I'm not a fan yet. Batik always seem cold to me, and I hate to be cold. Anyway Laurie was doing demo's in the Common Thread booth, she was so warm and cheerful how could one not be drawn to her stuff. She even autographed the 3 Books I got. Yep, I'll be a fan of hers from here on out. I even bought 5 of her patterns, one being a Log Cabin Star type pattern, I just love making and quilting Log Cabin quilts.

The last book I bought was "Star Savvy Laps From Fats" by Ellen Replogle. I really like this series of Books and have made many of the quilts from prior books, I see this book is no exception. I hope I live and I'm able till I'm 100, it's the only way I'll even be able to finish the projects I saw or bought just at this one show.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love This Flannel

As I've said before, I love making Flannel Quilts.

I fell in love with this Folkart Flannel

By Maywood Studio's, so I bought

the entire bolt this time.

So far I've made 2 quilts with it.

On one I used Pink accent

and on the other I used Red Accent.

I have a couple other patterns in mind, but will wait until after the NWQE this weekend before I cut into any more of this fabric. I might

find another pattern there. I'm also

waiting until after the

NWQE before quilting them.

Hope to see Long Arm Quilting ideas at the show.

I heard they've added more space for both Hanging show Quilts and Vendors this year. Last year was a great show can't wait to go now. This is the biggest show in our area and Every year it gets better N better. I spend one whole day just looking at quilts and the other day I spend lots of money.

Thanks for stopping by.

Farm Fresh Produce

I went out to the farm and didn't forget the camera.

The Plum tree is loaded and just starting to ripen up enough to pick.

Next is kwii. They won't be ready until late Oct. This is the first crop to ripen in 3 years. The winter's here have been so bad they lost the crop. The kwii is about the size of your thumb, I perfer these over the usual store ones. Now if they just ripen up before Winter sets in.

The next pix appears to be Apples, but actually is Asian Pears. Again there Tree's are loaded, and almost ready to pick. They also have

Peach and Pear trees but they've been

harvested already.

Lots of Purple and Green grapes on the Arbor too.

We picked 2 buckets of Blueberries. This picking was nice because we left the net covers off the bushes as we finished picking. Now the rest can go to the Birds.

My car was full of Produce, Sharla will take some to school for the other teachers and I'll give some to Friends and neighbors.

Moms Pets

I thought I'd post Moms Pets. Here's Peachee. Yep she's treated just like one of the kids if not better. She's always bathed and groomed. Spoiled rotten she usually has pancakes and fresh layed eggs for breakfast, and people food for dinner too. During the day she loves peas,plums and tomatoes or anything else she finds out

in the garden.

These are 3 of the 4 hens. They each lay an egg a day. One of the hens lays her eggs standing up, so her egg is usually cracked. This cracked eggs is what Peachee gets for breakfast.

Thanks for stopping by.

Comments

For some reason visitors are unable to leave comments and I'm at a loss why or what I need to change. After a stressful day at slaveway I need a few sweet comments.
UPDATE, I figured it out...All sweet comments are now excepted.
Thanks for stopping by.

I have a new flannel quilt to show you that's made with Maywood Flannel. Will post soon. Stay tuned. OK, just a peek.

Finished My Irish Chain Quilt

It took a week, but now I'm done quilting and binding my Irish Chain. This is a quilt that almost wasn't. I really didn'tthe color tone combinations. I almost gave it to the goodwill...then decided it's so b like ig it'd make a great practice quilt.
Now that it's done...I hate to admit... but I like it. I've never freehand quilted leaves before. Don't know why I hadn't done them...but I found they to are quite simple compared to feathers. Frankly I don't think you can ruin a leaf...just look on the ground, "are all the leaves perfect?"No. Some are windblown and tattered, some have been walked on. Some have even been rained or peed on. Others just lay in a pile of mush cuz they've been driven over and squished. Now if my leaves were to appear squished I'd surely pick them out. But I rarely pick out my mistakes...all my quilts are for practice so I strive for perfection, but do not sweat imperfections. Thanks for stopping in.

Freehand Leaf Block

This is what I'm doing in the big open blocks on the quilt I just posted. By time I'm done my freehand leaves should be looking much better, I hope. If not, oh well it's just a quilt. A practice quilt at that. All my quilts are practice quilts until I give them away, then they're gifts made with love.

Thanks for checking in.

Where Have I Been?

Stressed out at work...enough said. Now for the fun stuff I've been up to. I'm working on this 86"x102" Green Colorwash Chain quilt.

I've been at it every chance I get. It seems to have miles and miles of CC's, thought I'd get those out of the way then go back and do the borders with Vines N Leaves. I wasn't sure at first what I was going to put in the focus showcase blocks.I knew I'd have to draw my own design because the blocks are 20" sq. and I knew I didn't want feathers. Then it hit me as I was looking at a clotheshanger of all things...I could do 4 branches/vines that connect in the center, the outer part of the branch would be shaped like the hook of a clothes hanger. Now that I have this all figured out I'm on a roll. Stay Tuned for the finished result. Plus I'm going to the Fall quilt market this weekend hope to find/buy lots of goodies.

Tomorrow I'm going out to Moms...does she ever have tomatoes...why she planted 30 plus bushes for just her and dad I don't know but I think she obsessed with tomatoes. If I'm lucky the Plums will be ready to pick and the pears are still coming on so I should be able to get more of those also. If I remember and it's not raining I'll get pictures of the chickens and Pechee. Thanks for stopping by,

Terry