Time Keeps on Slippin'...

Hello my friends!

I cannot believe that I have allowed so much time to slip by without posting!  If you had asked me I would have told you I posted 3 weeks ago, tops!  Imagine my shock and dismay to see that's it been two whole months!

I do have a few good excuses though...

First of all, I have a new grandbaby!

This is Kennedy Irene Hafer and she is such a doll and my namesake (-: 

 

She keeps us busy and smiling all day long!

 

 And since Kennedy and her parents (my son and his fiancé) are living with us until the new year, I needed to have a baby guest room so...

 

I dismantled my office and made that the baby room complete with crib, rocker, changing table and dresser.  Curtains and quilt are on the list of things to do and I found the perfect fabric for them too...

 

Isn't this the cutest fabric! I love the little owls. I think a Yellow Brick Road Quilt will be perfect with these.  I'll use the border fabric on both the quilt and the bottom of the curtains.

 

Now I needed a new space for the office so in a act of selfless love and devotion (;-p) I dismantled my beloved sewing room to put the office in there and instead of redoing my office I did the office up for my hubby making it a "Me Room" for some of his memorabilia from his Air Force Days.

 

 

 

 

Now, fear not!  I still have my sewing room, it's just now combined with my longarm loft.  Gammill Bea is sharing her space with Elena (my Elna machine) and Misty (my Featherweight) and Emmy (my Bernina).  It's a bit crowded and my guest bedroom closet and linen closet are now filled with quilty stuff but it works!  Do you see how my stash has grown?  The top of the cabinet is all wool!  I've gone wool CRAZY!

 

 

 

 

So with a new grandbaby to dote on (in addition to my other two wonderful granddaughters) and all this moving around and re-arranging (and cleaning out) which took a considerable amount of time and all the traveling I've done this summer, it's no wonder that the time has slipped away from me!

 

This summer alone I have traveled literally coast to coast!  I have visited quilt shops and antique stores in Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee! 

 

And speaking of Antique shops, look at this great piece I found in Colorado!

 

 

  It's absolutely beautiful!  At first I was thinking what can I use this for?  But once I got it in the loft I had the perfect idea!  Look at how wonderfully it stores my thread.  The drawers are just deep enough!

 

I've also gotten a fair share of quilting done as well.  Most of what I've done lately I'll save for another day since I haven't taken pics yet but here is a wall hanging done for my brother-in-law.  It's a housewarming gift for his new house that he bought- I don't know- probably 5 years ago...so I was a little slow in getting it done but I did it!

Well, I, as always, have lots more to share with you...  Pictures of shops I've visited, quilts I've been working on and new ideas and techniques but it's late so I'll save it for our next visit.  I'll be back in a couple of days... I promise :-)

In the meantime, Keep Quilting!

Irene

PS  I'm afraid I have to stop taking comments from those of you who are "anonymous".  The spam has gotten a bit out of control. :-(

Washington Shops and a couple of Projects

Hi Everyone,

 

How was your week and weekend? 

Did you get any quality quilting done? 

Well, I've been hard at work on a project

 and I am happy to say that I finished a top! 

This is called Autumn All Around 
and it's a pattern from

the Summer 2013 issue of Primitive Quilts.

 

 

It's 31" X 36" and has 94 "pennies". 

I love autumn/Halloween/Fall stuff and
this wool applique has it all! 

Now all I have to do is get it
loaded onto Gammill Bea!  :-)

How do you think it should be quilted?

 

Another project that I brought along with me is

Merry Merry Snowman. 

It's a Bunny Hill Design pattern and I bought it as a

block of the month about two years ago (oops).

In any case I did get it started, finally, and block one is now complete!

 

 

 I think I'm going to add black buttons for the eyes

of the snowman at the top.

 The french knots don't seem enough... 
what do you think?

So that's what I've been doing the last few days but I promised to finish filling you in about the shops that I visited in Washington so lets do that now...

Des Moines, WA

 

This is Country Carriage Quilts and this

is an AMAZING Shop. 

 It's about 15 minutes from

SeaTac International Airport

so if you're heading through there make sure

that you give yourself some time to go...

I promise, you won't be sorry! 

This shop is worth missing a flight over!

It's also a Quilt Sampler Featured Shop and

 as we take our tour you'll see why!

 

 

This is their sale area... Lot's of great kits and

$5 wool scrap bags.

 

Here's the contents of mine...

 

 

 

This shop has everything and

very cleverly and artfully displayed. 

There's a lot in this shop but you can see it all.

 

 

 

So, along with my bag of wool scraps,

I did find one more thing to purchase...

 

Another block of the month!

 

It's called Minglewood and here are a few shots

 of the sample they had hanging in shop: 

 

 

They had it hanging in a hallway so

I wasn't able to take a head-on shot.

Isn't it gorgeous?!?!  How could I resist?! 

 My mom couldn't resist either :-)

 

Anacortes, WA

 

 

In Stitches is in Anacortes, Washington which is

 as far west as you can get without a boat .

I understand that new owners have taken over

as the original owner retired. 

 

It's a nice shop with helpful staff.

 

 

 

 

Mt Vernon, WA

 

Last, but certainly not least, is Calico Creations

 

 

 

This shop has a lovely selection of patterns

 

And lots and lots of fabrics to choose from

It's well lit and the layout lets you see all their wonderful offerings!

 

 

But I have to say that my favorite part

 of the shop was the wool!!!

 

 

  

 

And as it so happened, my mom and I arrived

 just after the shop received a new shipment!

 

SCORE!

 

The only problem was how to choose

from the 100 or so colors? 

This is just a few of the choices!

 

Here's what I bought...

Aren't they GORGEOUS! 
These are Mary Flanagan Woolens and

if I had hit the lottery,
trust me, I would have bought
a LOT more.

Of course, I bought wool from other shops so,

truth be told, this is only about half

 of all the wool I acquired on this trip.

  I guess I better get started on some wool applique projects!

 So, that's my Washington Quilt Shop Experience. 

It was so much fun traveling from
shop to shop with my mom...

 we always have such a good time! 

 I still have to tell you about all the
INDIANA shops I've been visiting
so make sure you come back in a few days!

Until then,

Happy Quilting!

Irene

 

 

Longarmed and Dangerous

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe how long its been since we last visited!  It's been a crazy three weeks for me  but I have managed to get a few things done...

Did you know that I am Longarmed and Dangerous?  

Well. Meet my Gammill Bea. (Named after my Grandma Bea)

My Gammill Bea has traveled with me for the past 7 or 8 years. She has been a constant friend standing always at the ready. It's taken me a long time to get Gammill Bea's room all set up but I finally took an afternoon to get it together.  It's not totally finished but at least everything is just about in it's place.

So, now that Gammill Bea is all settled in I hope to put her to work really soon!

Do you remember my private little Phoenix Shop Hop? Well, on that shop hop I found a product that I thought I would give a whirl and let me tell you...I LOVE it!!

It's called Hugo's Amazing Tape.

I must confess, it was a little pricey...if I'm not mistaken about $15 but I think it was worth every penny!

This is how my cones of thread looked before Amazing Tape...

And this is after...

It's wonderful.  It isn't sticky...more like cellophane or plastic and you can use it on just about anything...including paper which is wonderful because I have a lot of Pantograph patterns that I use with Gammill Bea and this stuff keeps them from unrolling!  Fabulous!! It's reusable too so if I use a cone of thread, once I'm done I can use the same piece to close it up again.  Love, Love, Love IT!

As far my project lists are concerned, well, I haven't got as much done as I would have liked but as I said it's been a little crazy recently.  In any case I did manage to find the time to work on a few projects. 

I finished the Door-A-Doodle Snowman and Heart...two of each! I have only to finish the hand-stitching portion of the binding and they will be all set to go!  But, I have a little confession to make...

Along with the Amazing Tape that I bought, I bought a new project.  I know, I know.  I'm supposed to be finishing projects I already have but I couldn't resist!  I don't know about you but we eat a lot of flour tortillas in my house and I found a pattern to make a microwave tortilla warmer! 

The pattern called for a 13" circle. Now, whenever a pattern calls for a circle...I head for the kitchen.  There are a thousand circles in the kitchen of various sizes and I've yet to be disappointed!  I used a platter that I have never used for serving but it made a great template :)  So, now I needed something that I could use to make the template out of.  Normally, I would use cardboard but I didn't have a big enough piece.  My plastic template sheets weren't big enough either...What to do?!?!

Then I remembered that I had an old cutting mat that had been warped and out of shape.  This became my template material and it worked great!

 The pattern was easy to follow and went together really quickly and voila!  I now have a tortilla warmer.  This project didn't get put on my "New Project" list but since I finished it I don't really need to!  Whoop! Here's a pic of the finished project and the stuff I used to put it together.

  

I also worked on my Antique Rose Hand-Applique Quilt project but I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked...oh well.  I'll get to it, right?

Well, dear friends. I better get the house clean and the bills paid...

which is what I was supposed to do when I turned on the computer.  I'm so glad we got to have this little visit and I hope to hear form you all in the form of your comments.

Happy Quilting!

Irene

Welcome and Hello

HELLO AND WELCOME!

It's the start of a new year and of course with that comes the ever-present- though rarely-accomplished- new year resolutions.  I have the usual ones...you know: lose weight, be more organized, be a better wife/mother/friend/daughter. You get the picture.  As a quilter addicted to starting projects but not quite as committed to finishing them, one of my primary resolutions is to tackle all those pesky and dreaded quilting UFOs...the UnFinshed Objects. Now, included in this list are the projects for which all the materials have been purchased and are in some sort of container waiting to see the light of my Gammill Optimum Plus Longarm...Yes, I have a Gammill, but I digress.  I plan to screw up the courage to post the list to this blog and then- hopefully-show my progress as I work on and complete them.  Now, let's be honest...all of us quilters have at least a few UFOs out there in our quilting universe but I think I may be pushing the boundaries just a wee bit.  Maybe by posting the list here online where the (quilting) world can see it will give me the accountability I need to get these babies done.  One can only try, right? 

Well, stay tuned...the list is in progress and with any luck at all I'll figure out how to post it here along with some pictures :-)



Irene