We interrupt this blogging drought to announce....

 

Audrey has a new baby brother!!

Vincent Reed was born yesterday afternoon and weighed 9 lbs. 3 oz.!!

Everyone is healthy and happy (especially Grandma)!!

Audrey will be with us through the weekend and her bedroom is my sewing room...so...no sewing!

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I've finished some very fun secret sewing and this iphone wristlet (pattern by Caroline of Trillium Design); fabric is DS Design - not sure which line.

 

 

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Lucky Me!

 

Last week I had two great blogger/sewing experiences that happened only because I live within driving distance of Minneapolis.

 

 

On Friday, Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio had a book signing

 

and a trunk show that I was lucky enough to attend! Jacquie and I started blogging about the same time and I have been a fan of hers from the start! Her quilts are awesome and the show was so much fun because sitting next to me was my friend Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts!! We oo'd and aww'd together and drooled over the quilts Jacquie created!

 

And then on Saturday, I was lucky enough to attend an all day workshop by Jacquie on rotary cut and machine pieced hexagons!  I was so excited to attend because I knew I would finally meet another blogging friend, Karen of Badland Quilts. We've followed each others blogs and emailed for years but had never met even though we only live about 45 miles from each other.

Karen is the nicest, most talented quilter and has an amazing stash!  We had lunch together and visited throughout the day.  So fun!

 

Here are Karen and I:

 

Here is the (unpressed) result of my work on Saturday:

 



I'm using mostly DS prints along with Moda Bella "Ice" solid (which doesn't show up very well on the photo).  Jacquie helped me choose the solid when I said I didn't want to use the white I brought along.  It's going to be lap size one day.

 

Here is the whole class along with Jackie.  

 

The person who organized the workshop secretly asked everyone to bring an orange fatquarter.  She attached them to a stick, put them in a vase and presented them to Jacquie at the end of class:

 

Jacquie's favorite color is ORANGE!!  Karen made Jacquie the beautiful needle keeper / sewing kit with Minnesota fabric to remind Jacquie of her visit.

 

Three blogging friends IRL in one weekend! Yay!

 



Fab Little Quilt Swap

I just finished the doll quilt for the

Fab Little Quilt Swap 12

and put it in the mail:

 

I always try to expand my skills with these swaps and on this one I used all raw edge machine applique and did other than stippling for the machine quilting.

Neither are perfect but I'm satisfied with the results.

 

 

The center of the quilt is from the Wish You Were Here! pattern by Don't Look Now!

 

The back is nice and bright with a bird label:

 

 

It went off in the mail to it's new owner today!

 

 

Hope she likes it!

 

 



Did someone say DOTS??

Today is the FIRST day of the
Sew We Quilt

dots on dots blog hop!!

And I am one of the first stops on your hop!!

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When dots were mentioned, I pulled out dots from my stash and only stopped when I got to FORTY DIFFERENT POLKA DOT FABRICS because I had a certain block in mind!

• I used my 9 degree ruler and cut one wedge out of the 40 different fabrics.  I adjusted the length of the wedge as to what I would need for a 12 1/2 block.
• I sewed the wedges one by one, then two by two until I had ten in each quarter arc pressing all seams open. 
• I sewed each quarter arc into a half circle and then the two halfes together pressing as I finished each section carefully not to stretch the bias edges.
• Next I cut a circle out of freezer paper to cover the center hole and ironed it to my white mini dot fabric (this would be my 41st dot in my stash).  I cut it out adding 1/4" seam allowance.
• Next I drew the word I wanted (SMILE) to fit the center circle and traced it in reverse on Steam A Seam.
• Then I cut the letters out, arranged them on the circle and zig zagged around the letters in invisible thread.
• The final step was to apply liquid starch to the seam allowance of the circle, press the seam allowance over the freezer paper edge, remove freezer paper from back of circle and zig zag it to block with invisible thread.

Hope you like my dot block.  I am not sure if it will become a pillow or a wall hanging.  What would you do with yours? 

Here is where you go next today:

Cat Patches

Busy Bee Quilts

Stitch by Stitch

Just Let Me Quilt

[Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans

PolkaDotClassic

AnnieOak Designs

Blueberry Moon

If you need to find the entire shop hop list, go to Corrie's blog here:

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit my blog!







Summer Stars

 

A Summer Star Finish

 

16 1/4" by 16 1/2"

 

 

The stars didn't stand out enough so I added a little hand quilting after I stitched in the ditch around the blocks. 

 

This was a fun summer project.  Thanks to Temecula Quilt Co. for the the weekly block patterns.

 

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I finished the hand quilting while on a short holiday to Duluth and the North Shore.

 

Here we are at Gooseberry Falls State Park:

 

The weather was fantastic and we hadn't spent time on the shores of Lake Superior for over ten years.