Beautiful blues

Did I mention the I love blue!!!?
When I took my trusty Bernina 153 in to be cleaned (it sure gets noisy when
it needs a bath!) I couldn't resist these blues.
I think they were featured on the cover of McCall's Quilting magazine.
I also saw this cute pattern and thought it would be perfect for these fabrics.

The bottom fabric will be the border. I have no idea what I am going to do
with this quilt but I just had to have these fabrics. Sometimes you just have
to listen to your heart and my heart was screamin' at me !
Won't bet anything on when I'll get to cut into it though.

Until next time...
Susie

Scraps aren't just for quilts

See, you can make lots of things with scraps!
This bag is about 24" long and 12" high and 8" deep.
It has sturdy denim handles, four pockets on the inside, a hard
cardboard bottom and little round button feet.
I use it as a weekend overnight bag or to carry fabric to retreats.
Let me tell you, it holds ALOT of stuff, space-wise and
weight-wise.

A few years ago, at our guild retreat, we all made these as our
mystery project. We were told to bring ugly squares and we all
swapped. The light triangle have signatures. The construction
was a little difficult but not impossible.

I will fill you in on our retreats in a later post. But just to give you
a little teaser, I go twice a year, once with the whole guild (but
only about 45 women attend) and once in the fall with just my bee.
We will be going the weekend of October 19. Stay tuned!

We had guests for the weekend so I didn't get much sewing done.
BUT this weekend, I am actually going to start quilting my
trip-around-the-world. Can't wait--really!

I also am going to make a REALISTIC list of things I want
to get organized in my messy sewing room. If I am brave enough
I will take before and after pics.

Until next time...
Susie

Black, white and red all over

Otherwise known as the newspaper quilt!!!

I must be in a silly mood this morning. It is a dreary, rainy day
in Washington, D.C. so I guess being silly is better than being
dreary.

I am a reality TV junkie. You know, Survivor, Amazing Race,
Big Brother. My co-workers and I discuss them at lunch so that
makes them even more interesting. So as I was day-dreaming
while driving to work, (don't worry, my car knows the way so
I don't have to think much!!!) I realized that this is why I have
become hooked on quilt blogs. It is like reality TV for quilters.
Catching a glimpse into your lives and what everyone is
working on keeps me inspired and makes me realize that I am
not the only one who is loves quilting.

This is my current project. I have been collecting black and white
fabrics for years now and found this pattern by Jackie Robinson
called Strip and Slash. It is so much fun--no triangles--
and perfect for my growing piles of black and white.

The top pic shows the steps (although out or order--sorry!) and the
second pic is a few blocks laid out on my design wall.
The layouts are limitless and will be fun to play with when the
blocks are done. I will need 192 blocks to make a large lap size.
I am thinking that I might like to do an asymetrical layout.

I do have to put this away for a while while I wrestle with
my king-size trip-around-the-world. I need to get that quilted
so I can cross that off my UFO list. I'll take a picture of it this
weekend. We are having my Paducah friend here for a visit so
I won't be getting much sewing done.

Until next time...
Susie

What a haul in Lancaster, PA!

Here is a pic of Angie's quilt. Well, it will be a Nine-Patch Pizzazz quilt
hopefully before Christmas. Angie is my son's wonderful girlfriend who
just moved away for eight months. She just graduated from college and I
want to make her a quilt. I bought the fabric on my trip to the Amish quilt
shops in Lancaster, PA.

Five members of my quilting bee (me included) took a day trip to
Lancaster, PA on Friday.We left at 6:30 am to avoid rush hour and
walked into Sauder's at 8:45. It is an Amish quilt shop in the basement
of a house out in the middle of farm country. There is electricity in the
shop but none in the house. There is also no bathroom! If you HAVE to
go you can use the outhouse. But the fabric selection is current and
the prices are around $6 per yard. There is also a bargain table with
folded pieces and many bargains.


Above is fabric I bought for a celtic quilt class I will be taking with Peg
Bingham sponsored by my guild, Southern Comforters. I have already taken
her class a few years ago and made a table topper. She is a great teacher and
makes the complicated piecing very easy. This time I want to make a larger
quilt and thought that Christmas fabric would be nice. The background will
be the red, green and gold print and the knots will be the green, red and gold.
I don't think I will use the lighter gold and white. I bought it before I saw the
darker gold. I will post more about this class in September.

We then drove to Intercourse, PA and our first stop was the pretzel
and lemonade shop. We had hot-from-the-oven homemade pretzels and
fresh squeezed lemonade. Then on to some serious shopping at Zooks,
right next door..

Here is a photo of the miscellaneous fabric I bought. The top is a charm pack,
all blues and since there is a scrappy blue quilt in my not too distant future,
I just had to buy it. I know, I know, some purists wouldn't consider it a scrap
quilt if you buy fabric to make it. But my definition of a scrap quilt is the use
of many, many different fabrics. The white-looking piece is really a cute
shirting with tiny blue flowers. The next two pieces are sewing theme fabrics.
Whenever members of my bee see a sewing themed fabric we usually buy a
few yards and give each other a FQ. Needless to say we have all accumulated
lots. The last piece is for our guild's strip exchange for September, the theme
is blues. Well you know me and blue fabric.

We also visited the Old Country store. and while there was a raging
thunderstorm outside we all shopped and browsed. This store has a
beautiful craft section in the front, fabric in the back, and quilts
(already made by Amish women) as well as a museum upstairs.
It is a beautiful store and a must to visit if you are in
Lancaster. By the time we left, the sun was shining again!

This is my splurge. I saw an ad in the quilt magazines for this quilt using
Alex Anderson's Cottage Rose collection. The pattern is available free on
PB Textiles web site.


My bee gives fat quarters for our birthdays. Flo wanted blue batik, Terri
wanted large print flowers in pink or red, Mary wanted bright batik,
Georgia wanted brown and pink, Karen wanted brown civil war, Cathy
wanted red or yellow and white, and Lori wanted brown, beige or rust.
My choice is --guess what--blue and white. I feel very organized now
that I have everyone for the whole year.

We stopped at a few more little shops mostly selling quilts and then
ate at an Amish smorgasbord. On the two hour drive home we all
shared what we bought and I spent the weekend washing and ironing
my new fabric.

What a wonderful day!

Until next time...
Susie

Quilt Bingo Confetti

Here is a quilt that I have donated to our guild's quilt bingo to be held in
October. It is called confetti and the small squares are all thirties
reproduction fabrics. This is the third one of these I have made. They are
really fun. The other two have beige backgrounds with scrap squares.
They use 1.5" by 5" scraps so can use up small pieces. See below for
the scrappy one. It is one of my favorites. The other I made using a
grayish beige background and gave it to my friend who lives in Paducah.
I took it to her when two of my friends and I stayed with her during
the Paducah quilt show. It is the kind of quilt gift that doesn't matter
about color or style. It can go in any decor. Her family loves it. I love the back of the blue one. It is a thirties cheater.
Here is a close up of the quilting. I did it all on my Bernina 153. I
experimented with freehand vines in the borders and the flower centers
are from a stencil. I have alot of thirties FQs left, mostly with pieces
cut out of them. So looks like there is another scrappy thirties quilt in
my future.

If you are interested in the Quilt Bingo e-mail me. It will be held in
Bowie, MD, October 14

Until next time...
Susie

Blink and you miss it

This is the fastest quilt I have ever made. I received the invitation to my
cousin's daughter's wedding shower on June 22. The shower was July 29. I
knew I wanted to make her a quilt for her wedding but decided that I wanted
to give it to her at her shower. Could I do this? Could I make her a
twin/large-lap size quilt in 5 weeks (one of which we were at the beach)?
I hadn't even decided what pattern to use. I did know from her mother that her
house was earth tones (Not quite my style)

So, our guild was having a trash to treasure sale on June 27 and I bought
a pack of 200-5" squares in earth tones for--ta da--$1!!!! That made my
decision for me. I am the guild librarian and have over 200 books in a corner
of my sewing room so I got out both Nickel quilts books by Pat Speth and
Charlene Thode and Open a Can of Worms by Debbie Caffrey. I decided
on this pattern from Open a Can of Worms.

I needed, I think, 360 5" squares so to my stash I went. Now when I say
that a certain color scheme is not my style, that doesn't mean that I don't
have those colors in my stash! I got the top done in two weeks. I even took
it to the beach to start the machine quilting (in case it rained--it didn't)
but didn't touch it. I had one week left to quilt it and went on a marathon
that whole week. I quilted when I got home from work every night
(except Wednesday of course -- that's guild/bee night) I finished the
quilting on Friday night and it took me all day Saturday to bind it.
It is 68" by 84". I sewed the label on on Sunday morning then left at noon
for the shower.

Whew!!
Done!!

Until next time...
Susie

Birthday blocks

The top pic is a birthday block for Debi. She wanted pastel flowers.
The next one is for Linda. (shhh don't tell them).
She wanted patriotic and this pattern is called Spinky's (cute name huh?)
and came from Quilterscache.com

Until next time...
Susie