Whimzee Stitches Blog

Mug Rug Swap

2011-03-02T22:06:00.003-06:00

I recently participated in a mug rug swap. What's a mug rug you ask? Well, it's a big coaster for your coffee mug - basically a mini quilt that you stitch up - be as creative as you want and it's all the rage lately. Just google Mug Rugs and see what you get or go to flickr and check out some there. I was assigned a swap partner through The Quilting Gallery Mug Rug Swap. Below are the two mug rugs I created for my swap partner. One has machine embroidery and applique, the other just a simple 4-patch design.

And these were the mug rugs I received in the swap from my swap partner, Judith in the UK. She has a great blog too! http://www.needlesandlemons.com/

Modern Bricks Quilt Top

2011-02-06T22:45:00.003-06:00

I was able to put this together this weekend - Yeah - I feel so good that I actually am getting things done... need to keep the momentum going. Still trying to decide if I want to add a border on this one or keep it simple. I did add a two inch white border after I took this picture today. I guess I"ll have to audition some borders and see if anything works.

Week 6 Stash Report

2011-02-06T20:41:00.003-06:00

I busted this week! Yeah Finally! Made a new quilt top this weekend out of some modern 5" strips of fabric I got from a swap along with some white fabric for sashing and borders...

Added this week: 0
Added this year: 27.5
Used this week : 3.875
Used this year : 4.375

Net this year : 23.125 yet to be busted! :(

I'm an Evernote! Winner

2011-02-02T22:01:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it but February is off to a great start - I won a year's premium subscription to Evernote! from The Quilting Gallery. Yeah - I hope this will help me organize my life, my lists, my tasks, my oodles of patterns, downloads and inspirations I have collected in tons of different folders on my computer, and that's just for my sewing/quilting/embroidery world .... I need to do the same with my photography business world.... I might just have to purchase a second premium subscription just for that if I like how this works. Does anyone else use Evernote? Got any tips or suggestions on best way to get things organized?

Week 5 Stash Report

2011-01-30T22:57:00.002-06:00

I don't know how it happened but another 4 yards jumped into my shopping basket online and arrived this past week. I really got to get going on some projects. Where does all the time go!

Added this week: 4
Added this year: 27.5
Used this week : 0.5
Used this year : 0.5
Net this year : 27 more yards needed to bust now!

Design Wall Monday - how about a design wall itself

2011-01-24T21:39:00.001-06:00

I've decided to join in on Judy's Design Wall Mondays but there was only one problem, I don't have a design wall. So I carried myself over to The Home Depot today among other places that I needed to run to today, and I bought some pvc pipes and elbows and stuff. Didn't spend but $20 on all of it and I have enough for two design walls, one big one and one smaller one. I only made the bigger one because I needed that first, the smaller is for traveling to retreats and sew days. I bought five 10 foot lengths of 3/4 inch pvc pipes - four 90 degree elbows, four 3-way split/connectors, 4 end caps and some reducers to make it all fit. I cut, with a hacksaw, one 10 foot pcv lenght in half, so I have two 5 foot lenghts. I cut two of the 10 foot lenghts to 7 feet each, leaving two 3 foot lengths for the base. I loosely fit it all together and whalla, I have a frame for some flannel fabric and I'll have a design wall. Total time to cut and put these suckers together, maybe 1/2 hour. EDITED: I did not use glue, so I can take this apart and get it out of the way in the multi-purpose room where is lives now and also to take on retreat so we can have an easy vertical design space. I sewed up the flannel rather quickly too - I cut a lenght of flannel I had in half and serged it together in the middle; then I measured the design wall and added 4.5 inches all the way around to give me the rod pockets I would sew. I then cut my flannel to size, measured in 4.5 inches all the way around, folded the raw edges in to that 4.5 in mark, zig-zagged a rod-pocket in each side, cut the corners and reinforced the corners with some exta zig zag stitches and whalla, it was done. As I said, constructions maybe 1/2 hour, measuring, sewing and putting it all together, maybe 1 hour or 1.5 hours total, there was dinner somewhere in between some of the steps this evening.

And here it is in use this evening. I dug out some 5" strips of modern fabrics from a swap I participated in on Swapbot.com - I want to create a modern brick pattern quilt - I just need to decide on sashing between each 5x6.75 block or not... i'm envisioning a smoky gray sashing... tbd.

Week 4 Stash Report

2011-01-24T21:34:00.000-06:00

Well we're at week 4 and guess what, I fell off the wagon already. I couldn't resist... they just jumped into my arms at the quilt shop - they screamed at me that they needed a home, to be loved and amongst all those other loverly fabrics so neatly and orderly stacked together. They wanted to be placed into a new project. They wanted to be a part of a family. So, here we are --- adding once again and not using a darn inch this past week. All is about to change.... I'm telling you it is!!!

Added this week: 23.483
Used this week : 0

Net this year : 23.483 more to bust!

Week 3 Stash Report

2011-01-16T23:08:00.000-06:00

Not much stitching going on this past week here in New Orleans.... other than some blocks that needed to be completed for our guild, but it was their fabric, so it don't count! I had intentions of getting at least one new project started this weekend but I wound up rearranging our living room furniture, realizing we need to pain the walls soon and I want to sew some new window treatments too, at least the last one will use up some fabric from the stash! But that will be later on this year.

Anyways, nothing in, nothing out this week!

Added this week: 0
Added this year: 0
Used this week : 0
Used this year : 0
Net this year : 0

Check out this great BOM - I really like it!

2011-01-15T23:22:00.000-06:00

I met Sheryl, who runs the Quilting Tizzy Blog, last year at the GSQA Seminar in Baton Rouge - she just so happened to be a friend of Judy Laquidara. Sheryl created a new block of the month program - you need to remember to come to her blog on the 3rd Saturday each month to download the monthly blocks, they will be posted for 2 months only, so don't forget - setup a reminder in your outlook or online calendar or on your iPhone. You can get to the Garden Party BOM by clicking the link here or just click the Garden Party BOM button in the right-hand column. Hope you all join in too!

2011 - Week 2 Stash Report

2011-01-09T21:46:00.001-06:00

The first week of 2011 has come and gone! WOW, is this year going to move just as fast as 2010 -- I hope not! Now that all the holiday decorations are packed up and back in the attic, I feel like a refresh is do in this house and I want to rearrange furniture, paint, sew new pillows, curtains etc...

So we start week 2 with putting some binding on the frolic quilt today -- wow, it's finished but I didn't take a picture yet... later this week I will. Not much more sewing going on. No buying either - i'm am going to try and be real good this year and keep the purchased fabric down to a minimum.

Added this week: 0
Added this year: 0
Used this week : 0
Used this year : 0
Net this year : 0

New Delivery

2011-01-07T22:09:00.000-06:00

I got a new delivery today! My mom recently bought a Bernina 830 so she offered me her old Bernina 200E/730. YEAH - so now I have two wonderful Bernina 200E/730s! YEAH! I plan to keep one of the machines setup for embroidery all the time and the other will be used mostly for piecing, sewing and quilting since it has that nifty little BSR - Bernina Stitch Regulator. With a little fiddling about late this afternoon, I got everything setup and tested the newly arrived Bernina - nothing sews like a Bernina!

2010 Final Stash Report

2011-01-05T20:57:00.001-06:00

OK, I was supposed to report this stash thing monthly, wasn't I - or at least I think that's the way it was supposed to work.... well, at least I kept up some sort of spreadsheet on the stash in 2010, which in a sense, seems very OCB/OCD but it was fun just to see the numbers and well, as I run on here, NOT GOOD. Way more came in than went out. But I know I'm not alone in that department... plus I'm a fairly new quilter so I need to have a plentiful stash for all the projects, right! Too many great sales, one quilt shop store closing sale, a couple quilt shows and whalla, you amass over 400 yards of fabric in 12 months! Really, YOU DO! So here it is folks:

2010 Yards Added to the Stash: 487.586
2010 Yard Used from the Stash: 68.875
2010 Net: 418.711 in the stash that need to be used in 2011

YIKES!

New Year - New You - New What?

2011-01-05T20:48:00.000-06:00

OK - first off, I have neglected my blog for MONTHS it seems and well, I have no excuse other than life just gets in the way -- seems like a theme for me in 2010. I hope to change that in 2011 and be a little more selfish I think; what's wrong with being a little selfish? Nothing, I say!

So what's been going on in my life you ask? Well not much but plenty enough. Business is way down, WAY DOWN for 2010 so that took a priority to many project and efforts in the last half of 2010. 2011 I hope will bring a renewed life to the world, or at least that is my hope and desire. I know I am not the only one here going through a downturn in the economy and business. Sometimes being self employed is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I am in a planning funk right now and hope to twist that around and get on the priority train real soon and make some new things happen. When you run your own business it's up to no one but YOU to make things happen! Not a big realization but certainly one that needs to be reinforced from time to time, so that's what I have been doing lately. Refocusing, strategizing, prioritizing, planning, eliminating, simplifying...

Where am I with quilting, sewing and embroidery. OUT OF TIME! I'm sure you've heard that before. I didn't get to a tenth of the things I wanted to get to in 2010. I hope 2011 will be different. Let's plan on it. I reorganized a few things in the sewing room so that things are more "in my face" so that it will be a bit more obvious that I need to be working on things.

I'll have a new stash report/update to post as well - it's pathetic really - I had MUCH more come in than go out in 2010. No excuse other than HOARDING! But I like to look at it all organized and ready to go --- now, that's pathetic, I might need to call that A&E Show "Hoarders" perhaps, but it's not that bad really! Honest!

Serger Pieced Frolic Top

2010-10-17T22:42:00.000-05:00

I attended a Babylock demo recently and I know I've seen it before probably at my Bernina dealer Sew This - a serger created quilt top. So I had this pile of Moda Frolic line sitting around that I just had to have when I saw it at Denise's cute new quilt shop in New Orleans, Mes Ami Quilts. I decided I wanted to serge piece the top --- I know, not exactly a 1/4 inch but with this technique, it's all about speed but accuracy is still easily achieved as long as you take your time and don't rush it. I was able to whip this top and pieced backing together in an afternoon. I will let you know about the quilting --- I have a feeling it might be a little difficult with all that thread in there from the serger... we shall see.

Fall Quilt

2010-10-17T22:35:00.000-05:00

This is a quilt I started at retreat in August and then completed when I got back home. It's a quilt-as-you-go technique where you sandwich your pieced block/batting/backing - the backing is cut an inch larger all the way around the block size. This will be used later to bind each block basically after you sew all the sandwiches together as a quilt. You make your sandwiches and then free motion quilt each block.

After you've free motioned all your blocks, you take two blocks with backs (right sides together) and stitch them along the edge of the top block.

You'll keep stitching your quilted blocks together.

I used a glue stick to help me with folding over the edges to cover the block's raw edge and then you stitch it all down.

and bam - you have a completed, quilted quilt! All done!

My first retreat - recap

2010-10-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

I know it's been forever since I last posted on my blog - life just takes us on so many different adventures and time slips away so quickly when you are having so much fun! I am being sarcastic here folks! The last half of the year is just flying by and in just a short couple of weeks will be Quilt Festival in Houston -- Mom is coming in to town later this week and I've been busy cleaning every nook and cranny of the house which has been neglected just like my blog! LOL

I attended my first ever quilter's retreat this past August! Being my first retreat, I had no clue how much stuff I should bring - as it turned out, I should not have packed as much stuff as I did -- I was afraid I would run out of thing to do but I might also have some sort of ADD thing going because I was planning to do so many different projects and I wanted to get a major jump on the holiday projects. I can tell you one thing, not an inch of holiday fabric made it out of the van -- they stay packed up in the big rubbermaid tub they came in and back to the sewing room they went after the 4 1/2 day retreat was over!

Here is the sewing space I was assigned - an entire 8ft table - we had shared cutting/ironing tables setup so we didn't have to take up room on our tables for that. It was great spreading things out. Next time, I'll be packing and taking MUCH LESS with me, trust me.

I got to a slow start when I got there because I realized I had left all my rulers, iron, extension cords etc at home in my mad rush to pack everything else in the van that morning. My wonderful partner Jody was so nice to drive up the rest of my supplies to me --- he got to drive the 2 hours which was OK because he made it a business trip anyways. The gals thought it was so sweet of him to do that. I thought so too. Anyways, we all arrived on Monday morning - I got there around 11am - unpacked the van and got things setup up and then realized what I had left behind. After lunch I was still setting things up and then Jody arrived and I could finish my setup. Then some gals wanted to go on a road trip to the local pharmacy that just so happens to sell fabric and notions too. Well, we never made it - on the way there, there was car troubles after Theresa ran over fallen tree limb in the street. Glad we stopped because she killed her transmission pan with that limb - and we would never have made it past the first town. We got back and things got into motion to create my first project a blue/silver kaleidoscope quilt - paper pieced. I got through some cutting - got some stitching done and by nightfall I was ready to burn it all --- I don't think my mind was in the right place to stitch an tear the paper that night --- I am leaving the project for another time.

This little nap sack was one of the projects I completed at the retreat. Used Connecting Threads "cheap talk" fabrics.

I decided to show a quick project I whipped up on the serger. These little 4x6 notebook covers came together very quickly. I whipped up 3 of them in no time - gave away 2 and kept one for myself.

And finally I started an entire quilt project by time day 2 1/2 or 3 rolled around. Quick and easy with no seams to match up and it's a quilt-as-you-go project. More on this in another post coming soon.

I also whipped up a journal cover too --- I was very much into the fall colors that week!

All in all I had such a great time at this retreat. I met some wonderful quilters. I got to know some friends even better and it was relaxing to be away from life for a few days in the middle of the Louisiana woods with no TV and no distractions. We stayed up late every night - well, some of us did, and I even surprised myself that I woke so early most mornings - I guess I was just too excited and needed to get some sewing done.

Looking forward to next year's retreat already.

Beep Beep on the Highway!

2010-08-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

I have been neglecting my blog for months now with regards to posting anythign new. Lots has been going on around here in south Louisiana since my last post in, can it be, April? WOW - I should never have let it go so long. Anyways, I have not been stitching all too much since April so there proably would not be much to post anyways. My months have been filled with so many other activites that include changing the name of my business to Studio504 Photography and creating a new website, trying to stay afloat and get new business in a slow market, attending some photography workshops, teaching photography workshops, a couple of conventions and association meetings, some traveling here and there and most recently just this past week returning from New England where is was cool and wonderful compared to steamy and balmy New Orleans.

So, I am back and plan to share again --- this is a recent creation of mine - a new tote bag with a southwestern travel theme.

Up next is a 4-day quilting retreat, my first ever -- i'll be the only 'guy' there --- I think out of 20 or so --- what did I sign myself up for this time!! oh my! It will be fun -- I have chosen to only work on holiday projects and gift making the whole time I am there! More to come soon.

Quilts for Kids

2010-04-14T09:35:00.000-05:00

Just yesterday I completed this cute bunch of singing kids quilt for the Quilts for Kids organization. If you have not visited their website and ordered your quilt kit, now's the time to do it and get stitching for a worthy cause.

Incredible Give Away

2010-04-11T22:14:00.000-05:00

Would you like to win a fabulous give away?? How about an AccuQuilt Go. Go right now and check it out http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/2010/04/5-days-left-in-ihan-30-days-of_11.html Be sure to check out more information on their blog and website too!

Blog Link:: http /www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
Website Link : http://ihavea-notion.com/store/

Polish Quilters

2010-04-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

So my heritage is 100% Polish -- I am a first generation Polish-American, I love cabbage, sauerkraut, kelbasa and peirogi! Both my mother and father were born in Poland and immigrated to the states back in the early/mid 1960s. My sewing skills come directly from my mother and her side of the family although my father's side of the family was just as skilled. So, I have always had an interest in finding Polish quilters, which there are few or few that I am aware of because I don't think quilting in the sense as we know it in the states is something they do in eastern Europe, but I could be very wrong. So over at Quilting Bloggers website, they have lists of bloggers by country --- guess what, they have three quilt bloggers in Poland -- very neat! I use Google Chrome for browsing the Internet, so it translates the websites for you -- although at some point in my life, I could read and speak Polish very well, I no longer can. I think Mom could do it.

Anyways - here is the list of the three blogs from Polish quilters -and one quilt shop!!!

http://rusticnook.blogspot.com/

http://szmatkalatka.blox.pl/html

http://szmatkalatka.pl

http://www.textilecuisine.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the trip abroad!

EDIT: Look over to the right in my sidebar, I've added a growing list of Polish bloggers that quilt and/or sew!

GSQA Seminar

2010-04-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

I attended my first GSQA Seminar this past month and of course I just had to take Patchwork Time's very own Judy Laquidara's class when I found out she was heading in this direction and would be teaching. I only had one day to devote to seminar and I wanted to make the most of it and I think I accomplished that. Judy's class was wonderful, I learned a few things along the way, met and sewed with some wonderful ladies and most importantly, got to meet Judy in person! Here's a photo of us -- not my best side but it'll do!

I had a great time Judy! It was great meeting your Mom and your friends!

Scaling Back and Concentrating

2010-04-04T23:58:00.000-05:00

I recently had to make some hard decision about my time management and prioritization of tasks at hand, especially with my business which is priority number one all the time, at least that is what it should have been. I was taking on too many 'other' projects and tasks that didn't have anything to do with growing my photography business and thusly, I was suffering from those decisions. I made the decision to scale back on my teaching, sewing, quilting and classes so that I can focus and be much more present in my day to day growth of my business which is very important to keeping any sort of quilting or sewing hobby in check and fabric stash funded! So, with that, I am probably not going to be very productive with projects over the new several months but I am not giving it up - I am just scaling back. I am still planning to have Saturday afternoons/evening and all day Sundays to sew and quilt and embroider --- it will be my sanity check unless a bottle of wine has my name on it first!

March Stash Report

2010-04-04T23:03:00.000-05:00

OK - I had every intention of at least doing this Judy L. Stash Report update monthly but I am already a month behind --- so here's the update through the end of march. I did donate 8 yards of fabric for the million pillow case project over at AllPeopleQuilt.com Our guild made 103 pillowcases one Sunday morning a few weeks back -- read more about that on our guild blog here.

Used Feb/March: 13.5 yards
Used year to Date: 26.125 yards
Added Feb/March: 12.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 59.675 yards
Net Used for 2010: 33.55 yards

A Saints Tribue

2010-02-26T00:35:00.000-06:00

I will admit that I am not the biggest football fan out there but when our beloved Saints kept on winning this past season, the momentum of enthusiasm and spirit took over this town like the storm that hit us in 2005. We are all so proud and we just finished one of the biggest Mardi Gras celebrations in history along with a historical Saints Victory parade that estimated over 800,000 people in attendance. So with that said, I've been inspired to make some Saints related items - I found some of this fabric at Joann's a couple weeks ago and thought, I'll make some coasters for game day --- they remain on the coffee table still. I've been remiss in updating my blog lately, I hope to change that but I think I need an intervention of something to make that happen a bit more often!

Stash Report January 2010

2010-01-31T19:08:00.001-06:00

OK - so I had every intention of doing a weekly stash report but stuff just got in the way of a weekly report so I've promised to make monthly reports and I'll keep my database updated on a weekly basis the best I can so that I can make those monthly reports. Wish me luck with that.

I've done some purchasing lately, no surprise there huh. But sometimes the bargains are too good to pass up. I've busted a few yards this month - most went to swaps so i'll have to add that yardage back in since I'll be getting some back eventually. But I did make a few things too, but not enough so that plan is to keep stitching - and with Mardi Gras just around the corner, I'll some extra time to get some additional stitching done.

Bought this month:47.175

Bought YTD: 47.175

Used this month: 12.625

Used YTD: 12.625

Net YTD: 34.55

Winning in more ways than one! Geux Saints!! Superbowl bound!

2010-01-24T23:09:00.000-06:00

Isn't it great - the New Orleans Saints will be in their first ever Superbowl in a couple weeks! Yeah! Geux Saints!!! Who Dat!!!! Well, in celebration I created this machine embroidered (applique in the hoop) apron yesterday. I am also working on some towels and such to add a little more black and gold in the home!

Oh, and the winning part in more ways than one, I was also a recent winner of one of Ryan's blog contests at I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts - isn't it great - a wonderful barn quilt calendar, a great jellyroll of wonderful fabric and a great christmas collection of fat quarters and a charm pack!!! I also love Ryan's business card!!! Yipee!!

Embroidery Workshop at Sew This!

2010-01-24T23:04:00.000-06:00

I had the best time last weekend teaching an embroidery workshop at my local Bernina dealer, Sew This! is Abita Springs, LA. The room was full of machine embroidery enthusiasts and we all had a grand time learning and sharing the day of stitching. We covered some basics of stabilizer selection and hooping techniques and we were all off and running on several projects. Some of these gals had never even used their embroidery modules (can you believe that!) but within the first hour they were all embroidering!!!! Thanks to Mona and Deba at Sew This! for inviting me to teach this great workshop. Looking forward to the next workshop on March 6th!

Mexican Inspirations

2010-01-05T20:21:00.000-06:00

Over the Christmas holiday week we went on a quick 5 day cruise to Cozumel and Progresso Mexico from New Orleans. It was a great trip, nice warm weather, tropical breezes and a relaxing theme the entire time. On our stop in Progresso, we decided to take a trip to historic Merida, Mexico -- wow - what a great old city with lots to see and do. We did a historic downtown tour and shopping - certainly not enough time to see and do it all but I was very inspired by what I saw, particularly this tile detail in the old cathedral downtown.

On our walking tour near the city center, we stopped at a small shopping village that had some some great textiles hanging about --- there were great examples of patchwork and some incredible hand embroidered textiles that depicted mayan calendars and other stories. The embroidery appeared to be wool yarns and the vivid colors were just so eye catching. It was way above my budget so I went home empty handed but full of inspiration for future projects. Enjoy my pictoral inspirations.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T22:41:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! I'm a little late in posting this but that's what happens when you go away on a cruise to Mexico right after Christmas and come back with a viral thing/cold/sinus infection that knocked you down. That's how i'm starting the new year but that's OK - gives me time to catch up on some sleep and television. Hope I have the energy tomorrow to get all the holiday decorations taken down since this will be the only day that I really have the time to do that. Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and fulfilled 2010!

Merry Christmas to All!

2009-12-25T14:31:00.000-06:00

Wishing everyone the warmest of Holiday Wishes! Here is a shot of our christmas tree this year.

These are some embroidered kitchen towels I made for my Mom - now that she has them I can post a photo of them.

Embroideries Finished - YEAH

2009-12-19T23:20:00.000-06:00

I finished my initial holiday embroidery projects this week and finally took some photos to post here. The towels look great in our pink 50's bathroom! And the tablecloth looks better than the photo - my chalk markings didn't exactly wash out today either! Oops!

Now it's on to finish a bunch of embroidered gift items and the tree skirt - which I hope to get done by Christmas Day!!!!

Christmas Embroidery - Finally!

2009-12-13T19:22:00.000-06:00

OK - so I finally am getting around to putting the embroidery machine to some work with some Christmas embroidery projects. I am working on a tablecloth that I hope to finish in the next couple of nights!

And I made up a few towels as well - still have to stitch the border fabric to the towels but i'll take some photos of the completed projects at some point in the next week or so.

Look what the rain did to us!

2009-12-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

We had an incredible amount of rain yesterday - close to eight inches fell here locally in our area and well, I guess this carport was not meant to be or it just didn't hold up with all that water and the gutter didn't keep up with the rain fall - or we are just unlucky these days -- who knows - and this thing is just 2 years old!!! What a mess - but we can't touch it until the insurance adjuster comes out - who knows when that will be. I hope it's before Christmas!

Guild Loot

2009-12-13T14:04:00.000-06:00

We had our Stitchin Sistas holiday party the other night and this is the holiday loot I came home with! Our group is great and everyone walked away with a door-prize bag that was FULL of great items. I also had a stack of fat quarters (over there on the right in front of the fall rag-bag) that we give to the birthday person each month and it so happens my birthday is this month - I asked for red and brights! Yeah! I just love the embroidered coffee warmer wrap and the mini cutting mat with three rulers, that will be great for classes and I can take them along with my new scissors in my patchwork project bag that I got from our Santa Gift Exchange - everyone that wanted to participate brought a wrapped gift worth up to $20, I got the project bag -- yeah!

Great Calendar Give-Away

2009-12-10T22:36:00.000-06:00

Check out this great barn quilt calendar giveaway that Ryan is having on his blog - be sure toclick here to check it out and enter the giveaway!

Noodle Swapping

2009-12-01T21:05:00.000-06:00

Last month I joined a Swap-Bot noodle swap - aka - 5 inch strip of fabric swap and I just wanted to share what i've been receiving the past several weeks. I joined two swaps and each of them I was assigned 5 swap partners to send noodles to, both national and international. I love it! I love receiving packages from all over the world and I love sending things all over the world too! Today, I received a wonderful package from Holland that was beautifully wrapped in polka-dot paper and tied with ribbons and inside, what a great noodle.

Don't ya just love the fun fabric in black, white and hints of red!

This is what I've received over the last two swaps so far, still more noodles to come for November's swap but I jut love the variety. I already have plans to make some simple coasters with some of the christmas fabrics received and some swappers even send some minie blocks put together - that's ambitious but gives me an idea for the next swap too! If your'e interested in joining in on the fun, go on over to Swap-Bot and look for the 5 inch Noodle Swaps - they are coordinated by Ryan, another guy quilter like me!

Binding on a roll

2009-12-01T20:48:00.000-06:00

I recently acquired via the wonderful world of Ebay several old wooden textile bobbins/spools and they not only have that great vintage appeal, they are utilitarian as well. The first purpose I have found is to roll my quilt and project binding on them to store until i'm ready to attach the binding to my project. I just keep them on the roll and set the roll in a box on the floor and it just unwinds as I attach the binding. Great! I am going to acquire a few more of these in smaller sizes and use them to store ribbons and ric-rak and such. Loving it!

Great Give-Away

2009-11-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

Vickie over at Spun Sugar Quilts is having a giveaway on her blog -- go check it out and be sure to enter to win!

A new Welcome sign in time

2009-11-26T21:03:00.000-06:00

I was able to finish machine quilting and bind a new Welcome hanging just in time before guests arrived today for drinks and dinner. I started working on this project last month with embroidering the fall-letters on the yellow fabric and last weekend I pieced everything together. It's about 70 inches in lenght and 12 inches in width. I just did some free-hand machine quilting with varigated brown/tone thread.

Home is Where the Heart Is - Update

2009-11-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

The other day I was able to get my log cabin blocks stitched together and added to my quilt. I have to cut and attach the borders yet but I will make the December 15th deadline to complete this top! Yeah! Now, If I can also get the mini version of this quilt finished too then I'll be able to have two entries into the Bernina machine drawing - not sure what machine will be given away yet but any of them will do just fine! Another prize is to have your quilt machine quilted for free! That's a great prize too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T11:28:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Home is Where the Heart Is BOM progress

2009-11-22T13:56:00.000-06:00

OK so I actually do make quilts! I joined a BOM program at my local quilt shop earlier this year and although this should have been a 12-month program, it got condensed down to about 9 months so this is as close to giving birth as I'll ever get - LOL -- OK that was probably bad comedy but oh well -- So we are just about finished with the quilt tops - we have until December 15th to complete them the tops so we can have a chance at winning a Bernina sewing machine! I have my center done - that was a monthly progress you see on the bed. I have to add the log cabin blocks and the border this week and I'll be done with the top. YEAH!!! I bought my background fabric and some extra fabric from the line to make a couple pillow cases or shams, not sure which i'll make. This is a bit more country than I usually would like but it was a great exercise for a beginning quilter like me!

2009 Houston Quilt Festival Slideshow

2009-11-21T00:20:00.001-06:00

I put this slideshow together from the Quilt Festival - they are not coming up in the correct order so you can just click on it to see the whole gallery of images in order with the credits for each quilt I photographed.

2009 Houston Quilt Festival

2009-11-20T23:25:00.000-06:00

I have been remiss on posting updates to my blog latey so I will be catching up a little! Last month Mom came in for a visit and we headed westward to Houston for the 2009 International Quilt Festival - we had a blast! We took a class with Roberta Horton on scrappy quilts that was a real great class for us both - we both learned a lot about color value and combination to create some funny fabric combinations for a scrapy quilt.

Our trip was not complete of course without a few runs through the show floor for some shopping. We bumped into Elanor Burns and had a quick photo op - -- Mom's expression was not the best in this image but we only took one photo but it works.

The quilt exhibit was incredible! I think it was better than 2008 from my experience. We saw an amazing embroidered quilt created by Susan Stewart and her mother, Gloria Meyer - it's called "Gloria's Garden" and its just incredible to see up close. Free Standing Lace border- the entire quilt - three dimensional free stand lace throughout and not to mention the beautiful embroidery stitching - all by machine.

We had a great chat with Susan and her mom Gloria who were standing nearby behind Mom and I while we admired and were awe struck by the beauty and workmanship of this quilt -- we wondered about the time invested in this quilt - I think she said 5 or 6 months was involved in the contruction of this quilt which has over 7,000,000 stitches in it! Holy Smokin Embroidery Machine! Susan used Zundt Designs embroidery designs in her quilt - click here to see more about that on Zundt's website.

Here is Susan and her mom, Gloria. It was great meeting them and speaking with them. What great inspiration!

Stash sharing and using 2010

2009-10-01T23:28:00.000-05:00

Judy L. over at Patchwork Times has challenged us to showing our stashes as they are right now and then posting a photo on January 1, 2010 and then again at the end of 2010 - goal: use your stash for your projects in 2010. So if you want to join in the fun - hop on over to Judy's blog and join the fun of the challenge. Here's my stash as of a few weeks ago - it's mostly organized at this point but there are a few piles of new items here and there that are not incorporated into the stack stacks.

Satin Moon Quilt Shop - Victoria, BC Canada

2009-09-21T23:16:00.000-05:00

Satin Moon Quilt shop was truly a treat! First, I didn't expect to visit a quilt shop in Victoria, BC Canada but of course I asked since we only had a few hours to kill that morning in town but I just love this city - it has to be one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited, twice now. This shop was great and we were led there after asking a couple locals if there was a quilt shop within walking distance and there was, and it well worth a couple extra steps to find it near City Hall in downtown. The shop was full of wonderful fabric and patterns and great quilts everywhere. I stumbled upon a small sale basket of fabric at $6 per meter (Canadian) - that's just under $6 a meter US since the exchange rate that day was $1.08 CA to $1.00 US. Most of the fabric in the shop was anywhere from $12 to $16 per meter Canadian. I thought that was a little pricy in comparison to most US quilt shops but i'm sure taxes and the such play into that. The shop keeper was friendly and she informed me that there are over 3,000 quilters in the greater Victoria BC quilters guild -- OMG - did she say 3,000 members -- YES she did! My jaw dropped. Lot's of quilters all over that part of Canada!

I picked up a couple meters of sale fabric, found a fat quarter of balloon fabric and a great eagle pattern made by a local artist Shania Sunga.

Quilt Alaska in Skagway, AK

2009-09-21T22:47:00.000-05:00

Well if one quilt shop is not enough, here is a second just a couple doors down from Changing Threads. Quilt Alaska was awesome - they had a bunch of colorful quilts hanging around for your eyes to be drawn into. I loved this shop and spent as much time as I could there before it was time to continue in our visit with Skagway for the day before our Princess cruise ship would depart. This shop was crammed full of fabric and patterns and an extremely friendly counter of ladies that loved to chit chat and were just friendly. Now one could get very used to living with those blue skys, fluffy clouds and mountains in the backdrop -- but i'm sure when winter comes, you probably wouldn't want to be there full time.

I walked away with a few pieces of this and that and a couple patterns too!

Changing Threads in Skagway, AK

2009-09-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

It was like gold mine - Skagway, AK not only had one but TWO quilt shops to visit - be it both shops I believe are owned by the same person/company but each shop was a bit diferent - Changing Threads caters to the needleworkers and knitters with lots of wools and yarns to select from but a great selection of quilt patterns and lots of fabric too! I had a great time visiting this shop and fell in love with some great fabric rather quickly!

This is what I walked away with - some cute russian doll fabric, totem poles, a little wilderness batik and some graphic northwest native design fabrics as well.

Totally love the Barbara Lavallee fabric called "The Quilt Shop". She has a bunch of different fabrics and some really fun quilt patterns too.

Silver Thimble Quilt Shop - Ketchikan, AK

2009-09-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

Our first offical port on our 10-day Alaska cruise was Ketchikan - lovely little town with lots of tourist shops and lots of wilderness too. I spotted this little shop when I saw a sign in the second story window of a building - had to check it out -- upon entry, they had quilts hanging everywhere in the center of the mall - it was great!

And I walked away with a pattern and a small kit -- Just loving the Native Indian designs.

Like stepping back in time at Cliff's Variety in San Francisco

2009-09-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

Cliff's Variety in the Castro of San Francisco was a true gem! It was like stepping back in time to visit a variety and hardware store that had just about anything you could imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this shop and low and behold what else do they carry but Fabric!!! YES! A small but very lovely selection of fabric, ribbons, buttons and embellishments that just are like candy to the eyes. Of course I lied when I said I would only buy fabric at one store on our trip to San Francisco, here we were two or three days in and I'm buying more - but I was good, and I only bought two pieces of fabric, one lovely rooster design and the other a Japanese print -- yes, i'm on a Japanese fabric kick lately.

Stone Mountain & Daughter Fabrics in Berkley, CA

2009-09-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

I went to this fabulous fabric/quilt shop in Berkley, CA when we were there for a few days prior to our 10-day Alaska cruise from San Francisco. I made a deal with my partner and our friends that I would only want to go to ONE fabric shop while we were in the San Francisco area for 4 days --- I kept my promise but I sure did enjoy this shop. It had a great selection of quilting cotton as well as a really nice selection of imported fabric from Japan - I was DREWLING! I had to contain myself a little though because I could have easily blown a whole lot of dough there but I didn't. Here are some shots of the store - love their button department - look at that cool sign made from buttons!

Lots and lots of Japanese fabrics!!!!

The place was packed for a Saturday afternoon!

And here are my purchases of fabric - lots of great Japanese prints that I just fell in love with - and one holiday print.

This was my regular cotton purchases, some fun holiday panels, another red fabric and some asian print too.

Refold, Recyle, Resort

2009-08-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

I was inspired to refold and resort my stash recently and this is the result thus far - it's not everything, I still have a few piles of fabric in some drawers and in other places but this is the bulk of the quilting cottons. I was inspired to refold them on mini-bolts similar to these but I used ordinary cardboard that is sized to 10x12 inches - just so happens that when I get photos shipped from my pro-lab to my photography business, they usually shrink wrap images and orders to the cardboard to keep them flat during shipping so over the last few years I have amassed a small army of these little cardboard pieces and larger ones too that I just cut to size. It worked out well and what a great way to recycle the cardboard.

I decided to keep color families together, I think it makes life a little easier. I like this method of folding and storing much better - easier to see what you have and easier to just grab a mini-bolt off the shelf and use what you need and place right back in it's place. I was using a fold and stack method before, you can see a photo in a previous blog post here. I folded the fabric with the folded edge meeting the selvage edge and then just folded it onto the cardboard, just like a bolt then used a binding clip to keep it all in place on the bolt. Simple, easy, and it looks great too - like a miniture fabric shop right in my own sewing room.

Another Tote and some sewing room additions

2009-08-09T21:32:00.000-05:00

I got another simple tote completed today for the upcoming Alaska cruise from San Francisco - I hope our friends like this one, it only has one single sling strap, I think it will work.

I finally made a weighted pincushion organizer and scrap bag. I used a pattern/tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew! - you can find it here (it opens as a pdf so it might take a minute) I've been meaning to make one of these and I finally got around to it, not that I should be making these things right now, I really should be working on a few quilts and a BOM blocks but I'll try and get to those tomorrow night or the next day.

A couple months back I had made a under the sewing machine organizer but I don't think I blogged it so here it is.

Going on a sea cruise!

2009-08-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

I made a couple tote bags this past weekend for our upcoming Alaskan cruise at the end of the month. I was inspired by some bags I saw that included nautical appliques and a rope for the handles - actually the rope goes all the way around the bag in one continuous loop and then is tied off where is meets the end. It was a little challenging to figure out what should be stitched first but in the end I'm pleased.This is the second tote, much simpler and not lined but it'll be great to carry some extra things around in the ports or for shopping. This tote is going to be gifted to one of our cruising travel-mates - I hope she will enjoy it!

Great Eleanor Burns book giveaway!

2009-08-03T22:59:00.000-05:00

This is a great giveaway - follow the below link to see a great blog and a great giveaway -- don't miss it!

http://welovequilting.com/blog/2009/08/august-give-a-way-eleanor-burns/

Recent Purchases - adding to the stash!

2009-07-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

I made a stop at the Quilting Niche on Thursday after visiting a dear photographer friend recoving from a bad spider bite in the hospital - beware of spiders is the advice of the month! He's doing so much better now but still has a long recovery process with lots of IV treatments to fix all the clots that have formed because of the spider venim. Anyways, back to my recent purchases - I found some great fabric that was on sale - something for a teacher's tote, something funky paisley for another project - maybe a girly dress or something, some fun juvenille print fabric, some great pink and brown batik and a great sewing theme fabric with some cats! Love me some more cats!

And this great fat quarter pack - 25 fats for only $25 - - there are a ton of batiks mixed into this pack! What a deal! And I could not pass up these two Moda charm packs -- they'll probably become a part of a chubby-charmer tote gift at some point!

On to today, Saturday, my quilting friend Joanie and I attende the GSQA quarterly meeting today in Lafayette, LA and well, of course we had to visit the newest quilt shop in town - The Borne Quilter - which has been open about a year now I think. It's a great little shop and you can see some photos of our trip there on our guilds blog, Stitchin Sistas Blog. With each purcahse today, you got that cute little pillow/pin cushion - I thought it was just adorable. There was a bunch of stuff on sale for 40% off - Anyways, here are my fat quarters I purchased today. And here are a few patterns I snatched up.

And here are some patterns I picked up along with a free pattern that was given out with purchase today.

Here's a look at the fabrics I bought -- oohh la la -- I love every single one of them. The top three in that pile are going to be a fall-ish girls dress - hope to have that done before October! The next few are just for the stash - -just loved em and had to have em. The next few, green with stars, red harlequin and red with white snow flakes are christmas --- they're going into a new quilt top at some point soon. The bottom brown with diamonds just had to have will either be borders in something or a backing for something.

He're a better view of the purchases.

Here's a better look at the christmas fabrics I snatched up today!

Win this fabulous bag!

2009-07-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

Suzanne designed a fabulous tote using Mark Lipinski's Krakow fabric and is giving it away! Win this fabulous bag -- but hurry - the contest ends on Wednesday the 15th - visit her blog to enter: http://justanotherhangup.blogspot.com/2009/07/butterflies-blooms-july-give-away.html

In Loving Memory

2009-07-07T22:29:00.000-05:00

1958-2009

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and safe 4th of July today. I am sure your day will be full of BBQs and summer fun. We are going to celebrate by boiling up some wonderful blue crabs this afternoon and enjoying the afternoon with some wonderful watermelon and cantelope martinis. I hope to get a couple new projects under way too today and tomorrow - let's see how well those plans get played out --- I feel like I haven't stitched in a long time and it's time to get some projects going -- my goodness, Christmas is right around the corner folks!

Half Hexagon Quilt Along

2009-06-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

I joined a new online quilt along - like I don't have enough challenges already but I think there is no better way to learn something new by trying something new! I stumbled upon Aneela's blog and here Half Hexagon Quilt Along blog last night and was reading about the hexagon quilt along -- I was very inspired and then I began thinking about the 2 1/2 inch strips that I have been amassing from our strip club, where we exchange strips of fabric every month in our guild. I hope to post my progess on my blog as I move along on this new endeavor.

Great Fat Quarter Giveaway Contest

2009-06-08T22:25:00.000-05:00

There is a fantastic giveaway contest going on until June 14 at The Fabric Shopper blog - be sure to check it out and enter your chance to win some fat quarters!

It's June Already!

2009-06-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

I just can't believe that it's June already today! How time is flying and it seems little is getting accomplished but I know other things sometimes take priority over unfinished projects and starting new ones. I've been busy the last couple of months with my photography business since it's the busy time of year but I sure have not hung up my sewing needle and thread. I've been working on a Block of the Month with a local quilt shop, Sew This in Abita Springs, LA - the program is designed so that we have the top pieced by the end of this year! Yup I said this year! I'll try to get some snip-it photos up soon of what I've accomplished thus far. I've also been busy shopping for fabrics both locally and online - I just couldn't pass up the 50% off sale at a local Walmart that is going to close and open in a new supercenter but of course, no more fabrics in the supercenter -- dumb move for Walmart if you ask me! Anyways, I made several trips to snatch up as much quilting cotton as I liked and also snatched up several other fabrics for home dec projects and gift items for the soon upcoming holiday season --- I need to start cracking open those projects soon too.

My stash is grown quite a bit recently so I had to reorganize things a bit and get the yardage into more manageable and friendly piles - so I decided to fold anything with a yard or more of uncut fabric into what you see here. It's working great to glance to see what I have lots of on hand and the grouping by color also helps too!

There are a few novelty prints that I have acquired too and some of those are already separated out into project bags with a pattern for this or for that. I also have been gaterhing up lots of chickens and roosters lately too! HMM not sure what i'm doing with all that foul yet though but i'm sure something will cook up!

Enjoy the beginning of summer! It sure has gotten hot here
in New Orleans lately but thank goodness for air conditioning - I would not survive here otherwise.

Well that's all I have for now. I hope I doesn't take me another couple of months to update my blog --- isn't the idea of a blog to update it very often --- I should live by my own advice. LOL.

Happy Easter to all

2009-04-12T22:35:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Easter - belated posting but I think it still counts. It was a jammed full weekend of activity around here - no quilting but got some ebroidery done which was great. Yesterday, Jody and I celebrated 9 years together so I decided to embroider a fun crawfish design on an apron he can use for boiling crawfish, which is a ritual type event that happens on most weekends here in south Louisiana, especially on a holiday weekend like this one. I think it turned out great.

I also created some fun crawfish towels that I gifted to our friends Missy and Sonia who hosted us at their home today for a crawfish boil. I created them from a bunch of inexpensive kitchen towels I picked up at IKEA a while back - they were quite inexpensive and the redwork crawfish was fun - put my digitizing experience to a test but it turned out great.

I also need to repost a photo of the quilt Mom created for us -- I had neglected to place the quilt on the bed correctly to show the "shadow boxes" of the design - so now, that I have placed it on the bed correctly, thanks Mom, I can see the design beautifully.

I Wooly Love Ewe update and new bed quilt too!

2009-04-06T22:21:00.000-05:00

So I finally had some time this weekend to get some piecing done on the "I Wooly Love Ewe" quilt. I just fell in love with this pattern when I saw it in a recent issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting. I will admit I had some difficulties in getting this thing pieced, I need to hone my rotary cutting and piecing skills a bit. The applique was fun but I had a few issues in my technique - I'll have to continue discovering the different techniques - I have yet to try a fusible/turned-edge technique but I still have the applique border to complete on this quilt top before it get's quilted so maybe I'll try it on those pieces. Well anyhoo - here's a pic of the progress I've made so far.

I also put out a new quilt that Mom had given to us this past Christmas during our visit to New Mexico - Jody and I both love the colors of this quilt. It looks great on our bed and even though the temperatures go up and down here in New Orleans lately, we love snuggling under this hand-made beauty. Mom's a much better quilter than me, that's for sure!

Ooops, Forgot to post this one!

2009-04-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

OK -So I forgot to post this last month - it was sitting here in my draft box tonight when I logged in to create a new post. Anyways, our dear friend Linda celebrated her birthday in March and since she owns a bakery, I decided to embroider an apron she can use in her bake shop. She absolutely loved it!

I'm a Winner!

2009-03-19T23:39:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it but I actually won something!!! Anyone that knows me knows that I almost never every win anything - not a door prize, not a raffle, not even the lucky pull at the casino slot machine! So I was elated to receive an email from Phyllis Dobbs that I had won some cuts of her new kitty kat meow meow fabrics - check them out - they are so adorable. Also please visit Phyllis' website and blog.

Japanese charm fabric give-away

2009-02-24T22:28:00.000-06:00

Enter for a chance to win some really cute Japanese fabric charm square that Kerri is giving away in her first blog give-away. Be sure to check it out: http://lovelylittlehandmades.blogspot.com/2009/02/giveaway-japanese-charm-pack.html

February Quiltathon

2009-02-22T22:10:00.000-06:00

OK - A dollar short and little late but I finally got around to doing some quilting this month and it so happened that Judy was hosting her monthly Quiltathon as well, be sure to check it out by clicking here. I've been wanting to start a new quilt and finish this one before the spring holidays arrive - I just loved this quilt when I saw it in the January/February 2009 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine - it's the I Wooly Love Ewe pattern. I got my last few fabrics bought the other week and well, I thought I would have started yesterday but so many things got in the way of those plans. We wound up heading out yesterday afternoon to see the super Krewe Endymion's mardi gras parade - if you ever get to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, this is the one parade you don't want to miss! Well, it was a little chilly last night and we were probably 15 or so people deep along both sides of the steet, so we plunked our Eddie Bauer big boy fold up chairs in the back row, knowing we could only see the second story of each float that passed by, but that was OK with us and we wound up heading out for a bite to eat shortly after we had enough mardi gras for the night.

So Sunday morning arrives and I get a jump on things and start cleaning the catch all area of the den/computer/sewing room - and of course, it's 3:00 before I know it and i've not even cut my first square of fabric. But then I did and for the next six or so hours, with some interruptions, I was able to cut most of the block fabrics (minus the applique shapes) and started piecing some squares. I got a total of FOUR stepping stone patches completed but I feel I accomplished a lot for a mini-quilting marathon.

First Mini-Quilt project

2009-02-21T11:25:00.001-06:00

I joined a Flickr group to create and swap mini-quilts - to learn more about that, click here. This month, the theme was your favorite childrens book - I picked The Ugly Duckling which was a favorite of mine. I created a mini-quilt depicting that book which I mailed off to my swap partner Robyn in Texas. She mailed me her beautiful mini-quilt earlier this month - her favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are. This was a totally fun project and I definitely plan to particpate in this fun group again.

It's Carnival Time!

2009-02-21T11:17:00.000-06:00

Happy Mardi Gras! It's that time of year again here in New Orleans and everything is so festive right now! For those that have never experienced the revelry of Mardi Gras, it's worth at least one trip in your lifetime to come see what it's all about! Despite what you might see on the 5'0-clock news, it's not jut what happens on Bourbon Street - there is so much more to Mardi Gras and the weeks preceding Fat Tuesday or the day before Ash Wednesday. I found this awesome illustration on the following website that depicts Mardi Gras in the early days, http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainlife/ill259.html

If you're interested in watching some of the parades that are rolling on by this entire weekend, be sure to check out the live cams that are setup around town by visiting NOLA.com or just click this link to see the live cams http://www.nola.com/paradecam/index.ssf?video -- it's almost like being here!

Happy Mardi Gras Y'all!

Win a Gift Certificate from Superior Threads

2009-02-14T00:02:00.001-06:00

Superior Threads is having a give-away - check it out http://superiorthreads.blogspot.com/2009/02/give-away.html

Planning out some new projects

2009-02-02T21:35:00.000-06:00

Even though I have not started any new sewing projects, I sure have been busy buying things and dreaming of grand plans. In the recent Fon's & Porter Love of Quilting, Jan/Feb 2009 issue, I am very inspired by the "I Wooly Love Ewe" quilt pattern -- that looks like fun so I went to my stash and grabbed a few fabrics that I thought would go well in the quilt -- I still need to add some reds to the basket but it's a start and I might actually finish this one in time to hang it for Easter!

Next on the agenda is a few quick tote and purse projects. I had created some christmas gifts this past season and our friend Natalie, who received the pink and black kitty bag, brought it to her office and a friend wants to have me make one for her niece, a smaller version since she's only like 7 - - she loves puppies, kitties and pink -- so I found some fun pupy fabric a month ago that I knew would come in handy at some point - see, buying fabric whenever you see it not knowing what it's for at the time of purchase does make sense - LOL.

OK so what else - I know I still have to finish the binding on my Christmas Punch quilt - O my goodness - will I ever get to that??? - I'm sure because it's sitting there staring at me every time I walk into the sewing room. Here are some other fun purchases I've made recently - after attending the first Virtual Bernina Club at my dealer here in Louisiana, I bought the sewing room organizing book - there are some great projects in there! EDIT TO ADD BOOK INFO (Quilters Get Organized by Pattie Donham, published by American School of Needlework, www.asnpub.com, ISBN 978-1-59012-186-3 retail $10.95) I also found some fun fabrics the other day -- I have plans to create a little girl's smock for possible use in the photo studio --- we'll see, not sure how that will come along since I'm really not that handy with garment sewing.

Happy Ground Hogs Day -- and Jury Duty today!

2009-02-01T23:05:00.001-06:00

Hey folks - i'm still around just not doing the things I really want to be doing. It's been a real crazy start to the new year and even though I have every intention to quilt and sew on the weekends, every weekend thus far has ended up with a host of other things that have to get done or shopping that had to get done or organizing that had to get done. Well, the sewing room is a bit more organized now - I stashed away much of the christmas fabrics until later this summer when I will get back into the spirit of the holidays. Right now I want to start a couple other quilts and I have a few birthday gifts to create as well. Isn't that groundhog background just adorable! He'll only be around a day or so before I change that to a Valentines day background --- anything with RED will be my style! I also got slammed with a Jury Duty summons a few weeks back -- and will you know my number is up so I have to report bright and early tomorrow morning. This happened about 5 or 6 years ago and they got me again -- I just hope I don't have to go a few days in a row -- that will really put a damper on many of my plans!

Have a great Ground Hogs Day folks!

My first quilt guild meeting

2009-01-24T21:15:00.001-06:00

I attended my first quilt guild meeting today in Houma, LA - it was so much fun! Mona and Deb, owners of Sew This! in Abita Springs, my Bernina dealer and quilt fabric shop, picked me up on their way through town this morning - we had a fun drive. The Gulf States Quilting Association, http://www.gulfstatesquilting.org/ had one of their general meetings today and I really didn't know what to expect but it was a great learning experience and I was amazed to see well over 100 quilting friends come together. Upon arrival, we signed in then proceeded to receive our first gift which was a new quilt pattern and 10 assorted strips of fabric to get us started thanks to Debbie Frank, quilt designer and owner of The Quilting Niche in Houma - http://www.quiltingniche.com/. I was very surprised to receive such a generous gift upon entering. I then proceeded to the membership desk to sign up and pay my dues for the year and learned about the upcoming March seminar and trade-show in Baton Rouge - i'm looking forward to that weekend but I don't think i'll be able to take any classes there. The oveall meeting was good, a little boring with standard guild business but the guest speaker this afternoon was Linda Griffith http://www.organizedoption.com/ who presented a great program on getting our sewing rooms organized. Linda was informative and I walked away with a few things I might implement in my sewing corner. One other thing I was surprised about was that they had a table full of books, magazines and patterns that was free for the taking -- I walked away with an issue of Fon's & Porter, a book on flying geese patterns, a book of differnt block patterns for each state of the US, an embroidery design book and a great book about oriental cross stitch patterns that I hope will inspire me to create some cross-stitched embroidery designs in the future. Here's a pic of my haul today!

I am so proud to be an American today!

2009-01-20T17:56:00.000-06:00

Today marked a very special and important day in the history of the United States and I am very proud to be an American! I just wanted to share how elated I am that our nation has come together and there is a renewed excitement and incredible energy coming from all over the world with the election of President Barack H. Obama. I am so glad that our nation can stand proud and continue to move forward in a progessive and enlightened spirit - that dreams do come true and barriers can be overcome! Well done America - Well done!

Finished Quilting

2008-12-28T20:55:00.000-06:00

Finally, Mom and I finished quilting the Christmas Punch quilt top with a few blemishes but it's been a learning experience the whole time, especially for me a brand new quilter and never having touched a long-arm machine before either. It was FUN let me tell you - boring at times to follow the panto but I loved the snowflake pattern I found. The photo doesn't do the quilt justice and I still have the binding to complete which will have to wait until our return to New Orleans after the New Year! I really had ambitous plans but throw in the holiday fun, food, visiting and shopping and you sure run out of time rather quickly. I think Mom will be so happy using her long-arm over the next few months - she has 12 quilts lined up for quilting - WOW! I wasn't too happy with the batting we used - we used a Hobbs 80/20 that I picked up from Hancocks back home and brought several for Mom as well since they had King size in stock and she wanted them but we both agreed that the Hobbs 80/20 is not as nice as the Warm & Natural or some of the other batting out there. Live and learn - just another one to chaulk up to experience and learn from your mistakes but still, the quilt came out great and will be great on our bed back home and yes, even after Christmas too, at least for a little while!

We're quilting!

2008-12-26T19:00:00.000-06:00

Well I had a mission when we drove to New Mexico and that was to quilt my first quilt on Mom's Voyager long arm and well, after several little tweaks to tension and getting the darn thing rolled correctly, it was a learning process for both us and why not let Mom learn on my quilt rather than some of her own, and we were quilting in no time. We're doing a little at a time between visiting, cooking and a little shopping, but we'll get it done before we leave on the 31st. Here we are setting things up and me at the quilting machine following that pantograph of snowflakes. I'll post some new photos after it's done and binded, I hope this week!

Happy Holidays From New Mexico!

2008-12-26T18:52:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Aztec, NM on Wednesday around noon after a very long 20-something hour drive from New Orleans - we had an uneventful drive, just a little rain in Texas, moderately warm temperatures until we hit Amarillo where it dipped down to about 15 degrees over night or was it really early in the morning - I can't remember. We immediately unpacked the van, made our hugs and kisses, showered and then took a nice snooze to recoup a little after that drive. Plenty of snow up here in the upper elevation of northwest New Mexico but it's so lovely. Jody took some snaps outside today and it supposed to snow again tonight but then that's supposed to be it. We plan to take a day trip to Santa Fe and Albuqurque on Monday I think and then we'll be in Albuquereque for a couple nights for New Years eve and New Years day before we head back to New Orleans on Friday the 2nd. Hope everyone is well and had a wonderful Christmas.

Win Free Fabric!

2008-12-19T00:27:00.000-06:00

Thanks to CJ for letting us know about this new contest, you could win some free fabric starting January 2nd. Check out WinFabric.com. If you win you get to pick 2 yards of the fabric of your choice!

Holiday Tote

2008-12-18T22:50:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to create a holiday tote with some whimsical holiday fabrics in my stash. Tonight was a test run and a couple hours of stitching and here is what I came up with. I created this with a couple different sized pockets inside to hold a cell, a note pad and a skinny pocket for a pen. I used batting in between the fabric layers which was great for a soft bag as well as the straps. So here are the different pieces of fabric before assembly began.

I used 4 and half by 18 inch strips that I pieces together to create the front and back of the bag, then I used two 18 inch squares for the inside lining and some fun snowman fabrics for the inside pockets.

Couple of days and a couple of bags completed

2008-12-17T00:09:00.001-06:00

A couple of nights of sewing and I've completed two bags for gifts. I don't think the folks getting these even know about my blog so I'm safe posting about them here. I used a pattern from The Quilt Connection called "Sack It To Ya!" - there are two sizes, I went for the smaller size on these two and I am going to create the larger size one in the green/pink cat print as well. The first bag took me several hours to complete over two days since I didn't have dedicated time to complete it and it was my trial run on the pattern. The second only took about 2 and half hours to complete - not bad!

Pink Kitty Cats and some new labels

2008-12-14T22:20:00.000-06:00

I found this really great fabric with Hot Pink Kitty Cats all over it (isn't it a fun fabric!) a while back and I knew right away I wanted to make some gifts from it. I am currently working on some projects, one is a purse-type tote and I'll probably create a larger tote back as well and then see what's left over to create a couple fun things as well. This is what I've been up to the rest of today after I finished my christms punch quilt top in the post below.

Then I thought I wanted to add a little personal label insdie my gift project so I grabbed some ribbon, white first and embroidered some wording on the ribbon -- then I saw I had some narrower brown/white poka-dot ribbon and embroidered on that too. I like the brown/poka-dot ones more.

Christmas Punch Quilt top is pieced!

2008-12-14T16:16:00.001-06:00

Well I finally finished piecing the Christmas Punch quilt top. I'm ready to bring that to mom's in another week so we can long arm quilt it on her Voyager. I like it - it's not perfect but i'm learning.

Curtain and Drapes sewing project

2008-12-13T12:25:00.000-06:00

A while back I began a long-term project for our friends Missy and Sonia to create curtains and drapes for their new home here in Louisiana. I measured and designed for their many tall windows and we went fabric shopping one afternoon. They chose some wonderful colorful fabrics, any stripes because they are not very florally people but that's OK - makes the sewing a lot easier because I didn't have to match up much of a pattern! Yipee! So here are some photos of their living room where some very bold stripes of green, red, brown, black and white really accent their avocado-ish green walls which is a similar color to our living room here at home which they loved and wanted something similiar. Their bedroom has a golden green/red stripe fabric -- both rooms are lined with blackout lining and interlined as well for that hot Louisiana summer sun! The black is great since these gals love to sleep in all morning so this helps them do that. In the office, they went with a green and pink strip which I made into some poof/ballon type curtain which really is just an accent - not much of a function - it covers these smaller square windows above the larger rectangular windows that go nearly to the floor.

SNOW DAY - Can you believe it!

2008-12-11T09:15:00.000-06:00

The last time it snowed in New Orleans it was Christmas Day 2004 and prior to that, any accumulated snow fall was back in 1989! Well, I work up today to snow falling - it started off as rain, went to a nice mix of sleet/ice/rain and quickly changed to a nice heavy wet snow pretty quickly and it's now accumulating and covering everything in a nice blanket of snow. The forecast is for this to last a few hours this morning before it stops and possibly goes to rain. As you all might not know, in South Louisiana, there are no snow plows and thankfuly, the roads are warm enough to keep the snow melting at it hits it but people are dumb and don't know how to drive on this slippery mix of stuff. Anyways, we're going to enjoy this great white fluff today before it melts quickly this afternoon.

I took a couple quick snaps this morning. I didn't go much further than my little covered entry porch -- I am in my night shorts and t-shirt still! O my it's frigid --- reminds me of being back home on Long Island growing up and listening intently on the radio for the news that school is closed today!

10:00am update -- the snow is now ice and rain but mostly small ice pellets. Lots of our bridges are closed because the road is icy so they are advising everyone to stay home and not drive this morning.

2:00pm update -- it's all gone except for the bitter cold! What a tease that was from mother nature! LOL

It's an Anniversary Give-Away - Check it out

2008-12-09T00:27:00.000-06:00

Nanette over at Freda's Hive Blog is having a one-year blog-anniversary with a 7 day give-away contest. Go check things out and leave a comment daily and you may just be a winner! I am just loving all these cool and wonderful blogs that are all linked together and everyone is just one big giant family!

http://fredashive.blogspot.com/

Holiday Quilt Continues

2008-12-08T23:58:00.000-06:00

So Judy's quiltathon may officially have ended with the weekend ending but I still have a bunch of work to get completed on this holiday quilt before I call it complete. Today was a long day in the photo studio - so many calls, so many emails, so many orders to push through because everyone needs photos and cards in time for the holidays. So as evening began to fall, it was time to get some quilting done too. I knew I had my border pieces to stitch into rows. Done. Cut the rows into two rows and stitch into border rows. Done. Now onto creating a smaller border that will go between the blocks and the larger stitched outer border. Since I only had two fat quarters of each Christmas Punch fabric, I was limisted on a king size quilt so I decided to use 2 fat quarters each of a biege and green holly print to create my 2" border strips which I sewed into alternatining strips. Here's my progress photos of that. Tomorrow, I need to attach the border strips and outer border rows to the quilt and then I think the quilt will be ready enough to take to Mom's in two weeks and machine quilt on her long arm. BUT I still need to find backing fabric and figure out the binding fabric too. I'm still waiting for my new Joann's circular for this week!

What's up with the postman

2008-12-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

I might have some sort of OCD thing going on with my post man and his delivery schedule. For the last several months, he comes later and later in the evening... Getting our mail delivered around 4 or 5 was OK - it was routine for nearly a decade. Then suddenly, things changed a little and he was coming around 6 or later -- a few nights he strolled the neighborhood delivering mail at nearly 8pm! Holy smokes - I wonder if the USPS pays overtime rates after 5pm?

Well anyways, my reason for the post is this - - - Upon our return from Tunica, MS over the Thanksgiving holiay, I just went about my business and I had been having a little fabric store withdrawl - so I searched for my Joann's and Hancock's circulars. Low and behold, I found them - Joann's was for the previous week and Hancocks was good through 12/6. OK, no big deal but then I was like, where's my new Joann's circular? I don't ever remember receiving it. So of course the days roll by and I pay it no mind because I didn't ever get out to go to Joann's nor to Hancocks. So here were are in a new week and Saturday's are usually the day my Joann's circular arrives in the mail. Well, low and behold Saturday arrives and what's in the mail box but my Joann's circular, FROM LAST WEEK - it was the circular for the post Thanksgiving sale through 12/6 -- I received that circular on 12/6 -- what good does that do me? Not much at all. No 12/6 has come and gone and it's now 12/8 and still no Joann's or Hancocks for the new week! I'm a bit P.O.ed at the PO. I wonder if there is anyone I can complain to about this tardiness of circulars.... is it OCD????

Editted - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:54pm: Maybe it was something I said but wouldn't you know it - as soon as I post something like this, the infamous Joann's circular finally arrived in today's mail and with two 50% off coupons inside! woo hoo! Still waiting for my Hancocks' circular to arrive ------ tapping fingers on laptop!

Moda Fabric Matcher Contest

2008-12-07T21:44:00.000-06:00

Moda fabric sent an email announcing a new contest for linking to their FabricMatcher which by the way is a pretty niftly online application for matching up your fabrics. I need to use it more but sometimes time takes the best of us. So if you'd like to check out this fun little application, be sure to visit Moda at http://moda.fabricmatcher.com

Half Way on the Quilt Top - Quiltathon with Judy and friends

2008-12-06T18:49:00.000-06:00

It's sew much fun to be a part of an internet quiltathon -- thank you Judy. http://www.patchworktimes.com/

I'm about half way through on the quilt top here at 7PM - taking a break now and will return to creating rows tomorrow. Sorry for the bad picture -- just threw it on top of the bed to take a pic. What I have come to find out in the quilting journey is that my design wall is too small or I need a better placement of it.

First Christmas Quilt - Progress

2008-12-06T15:37:00.001-06:00

So I had intentions of logging in earlier today when I was finishing up the half square triangle blocks, which are not perfect by the way but I tried, and then I started cutting squares and strips for creating the rest of the quilt block. This is how far I've gotten so far and I'm now using my make-shift design wall to design the quilt and piece the blocks together. My goal is to finish this by tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

I got iTunes radio dialed into country christmas hits and i'm just moving along. I think my quilt will be really busy looking at the end.... we'll see!

Saturday PM update is above this post or just click this link to read the update and see how far I got: http://whimzeestitches.blogspot.com/2008/12/half-way-on-quilt-top.html

After dinner and kitchen cleanup duty, I went over to my design wall and put the last 4 rows together and then stacked everything to get ready for sewing on Sunday morning!

Sunday 11:00am -- well I thought I'd be up early today - NOT --- Late sleep in today which felt oh so good! So now it's 1:00pm and i'm blogging - reading email - responding to emails and just switched on the Bernina --- but one of the cats had a field day with the thread last night - it's wound around the machine completely a few times --- Oh Kitty -- I have something for you! SMACK ---No not really!

1:05pm - I'm going to get started on sewing!

3:00pm - two more rows almost dones -- I have a total of seven rows in this quilt. I think I'll get it done -if I can stop chatting and emailing for a bit! LOL.

4:55pm - the top is pieced -no border yet but that's next. Here's what it looks like.. I like it - very colorful and once it's quilted at the end of the month, i'm sure it will be great I'll have to display it well after the holidays too! why not!

8:45pm - Back at it after a couple friends came over to visit - saw the quilt top and said can we order one from you -- i'm like, for next year sure! I was humbled but I can write it down and hope and plan for that during the summer 2009. They brought over their two adoable little chiwawa's which we took out back to my photo studio and captured some holiday fun image for their christmas cards - i'll have to post an image tomorrow after I upload the card. Well, after dinner and cleanup, I said I need to make some kind of border for this quilt so I looked at my Christmas Punch fat quarters and pulled several of them to create a pieced border - this is what I came up with - now I need to stitch the strips, cut them and create a border and sew that on to the quilt. I'll get that going and probably stop soon since it's getting late and I want to watch a little TV before hitting the bed tonight.

New Blog Background

2008-12-04T23:26:00.000-06:00

I just discovered that I can change the background of my blog as the seasons change and other holidays approach. What do you think of this festive background! I love it! It works so easily with Blogger blogs - just look a the upper left hand corner of the my blog and you can click on the link and find out more info about changing your blog backgrounds!

Holiday Decorating Time

2008-12-03T23:04:00.001-06:00

So it's my absolute most favorite time of the year not only because December is the same month for both my birthday and my Mom's birthday but it's also Christmas! I love decorating for the holidays ever since I worked for a big florist/greenhouse back in the Hamptons on Long Island - I have never lost that talent and nor have I gotten rid of much of the decorations I have collected over the last 20 plus years - the attic is busting at the seems with boxes and boxes of decorations I could probably decorate the whole neighborhood and still have some things left over. I guess I'm saving them all for that one day we buy a much larger house with many rooms and high ceilings. I can dream! Well - I did a little decorating this year even though we just got back from spending Thanksgiving in Tunica, MS with a little casino action and a very disappointing eating experience at the new Paula Deen buffet at Harrah's casino, and then we are leaving on December 23rd for a week and half to New Mexico to visit my mom and stepdad and I get to play with her new long arm she bought over the summer! Enjoy the decorations folks!

Since we don't have a fireplace, I decorate the tv cabinet in the living room like a large mantel - I went a little overboard on the pinecones and large green balls.

I dug out the bigger tree this year - I have a red/green theme going.

The mirror next to the tv cabinet - it needed something.

This is our entry way in the dining room - I love my big sugar pine cones - wish I could find more of these but not in New Orleans.

New Project in progress

2008-12-03T22:50:00.000-06:00

OK - so my best intentions of updating my blog more often didn't really work but I'll give it another try. So I've started a whole new project - actually it's my first pieced quilt project - here are two of the blocks that I am creating for a holiday quilt. The pattern is half square triangles from the December 2008 Fon's and Porter magazine and the fabric is all RJR Thimbleberries Christmas Punch fat quarters. It's coming along, slowly, and not so perfectly but i'm learning along the way. I hope to take some quilting classes in 2009 so I can get a bit better at having my pieces meet up better.

Second applique project

2008-12-03T22:30:00.000-06:00

OK - I had so much fun creating the first applique project I created a second just in time for Halloween. Yeah, I know it's almost Christmas and I'm just posting this now -- forgive me - I'm behind on the blogging. The pattern came from a recent Fon's & Porter magazine - loving that magazine subscription - there always seems to be a project or two in each issue that I want to create. Now if I can only carve out more time each and every day to create some quilting magic in my sewing room.

My first applique project

2008-09-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

So - for my first quilt project - I decided to do a fall applique. I picked up this pattern at the AQS show for a buck, yes, a buck! I found some fabric that appealed to me and thought would make this wall hanging come to life for me. Here is the pattern I picked up:

Now some may think i'm nutts for picking an applique pattern for my first ever pieced project but the pieces are pretty large, the smallest items are the applique leaves, acorns and stems but does that count as quilt pieces - rather applique pieces. What I did find is the the applique process is pretty time consuming... I dug out the small light table I have in my photo studio out back, that came in handy to trace out the applique designs on the heat-n-bond I picked up at Walmart. After I got into a rythm, things were rolling along.

As I got into my rythm, then it became clear that stitching around all these small applique pieces was either going to be fun or frustrating -- well, most of them were fun but some of them were just pure pains - I made some mental notes for future applique projects. The project really came along - I have yet to put the batting and backing together and bind it but i'll do that tomorrow or later this week.

A new addition

2008-09-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

This is my latest addition to my Bernina 200 setup - I bought the 18x24 arcylic quilters table. I've been wanting one for a while and finally ordered one from my dealer. I love it - it makes projects so much easier since I don't have a table that has the built in slot for the Bernina - maybe one day I'll setup something like that, but for now, this is great.

Starting a stash

2008-09-14T22:16:00.001-05:00

I am going to try and keep my stash as usable as possible and only add to it with specific projects in mind -- I know - I know - i'm crazy because it won't work that way even with the best of intentions. Well - I'll just let it do what it does and we'll see what happens over time. Most of my stash was recently purchased at the AQS show in Nashville - I tried to keep the different projects in mind but I wound up finding a few extra things that I just couldn't stay away from including a couple new Laurel Burch panels.

AQS Nashville - August 2008

2008-09-13T09:52:00.000-05:00

Mom came to visit last month from New Mexico. We planned earlier this year that we could drive up to Nashville for the American Quilters Society quilt show in August - we both rather go to the BIG quilt show in Houston in October but timing wouldn't be good for me so we chose the AQS show instead. We left on Tuesday 8/19 and arrived at the Opryland hotel later that evening - we made a couple stops along the way in Alabama to visit a couple quilt shops and I bought a couple yards of this and that.

This was my first ever quilt show since I am just a begining quilter, actually, I still have yet to complete my first pieced quilt, if you don't count that fleece rag schmatta I made while evacuated. The show was huge! We didn't take any classes, not that we didn't have the time, but the schedule and choices was a bit overwhelming. Lesson learned though, we'll register for classes next time. The show floor was not very full the first day but by Friday, the place was packed to the gils. Mom purchased a long arm machine from Hinterberg, the Voyager 17 - after we went and played with every long arm they had on the floor - she liked the Voyager the best for her budget. The Gammil was nice but with stitch regulator and all it was double what she really wanted to spend. I of course, focused on patterns and fabrics - I hit all the $1 and above fat quarter boxes and walked away with a pretty big stash to get me started on a couple new holiday projects ahead of me - i'll post some pics soon of my new stash.

In all - this was an exciting week and the show was full of friendly folks. The quilt exhibit was incredible - somthing I did find is that I really liked some of the traditional piecing quilts along with many of the non-traditional art type pieced quilts along with many of the applique quilts- WOW some of those were just incredible. I've posted a few of my favorite snapshots from the show below. Enjoy! More to come in a day or two!

This beige/brown quilt is full of embroidered panels - it was incredible!

This orchid/green butterfly quilt was a show stopper for me - -I was so drawn into this quilt - I am just amazed at all the artistry involved in show quilts.

This was the best of show winner! Just incredible! The photo doesn't do it justice - the detail and the perfectionism was just amazing.

Hurricane Gustav Evacuation Project

2008-09-10T23:33:00.000-05:00

So Hurricane Gustav created some crazy moments for us New Orleaneans recently when the city was ordered to leave under a madatory evacution along with most if not all the surrounding parishes (counties) which includes our parish, Jefferson. So we packed up that weekend and of course this time I took the Bernina and a bunch of fabrics with the impression we might be evacuated for an extended period of time and I for one did not want to be sitting in front of the television 24x7 watching hurricane devestation coverage like we did with Katrina. My goal was to begin and complete at least one halloween quilt project and I sure did reach that goal.

Before leaving New Orleans, I found and downloaded several halloween embroidery designs from http://www.embroiderydk.com/. I also hit my stash piles and took with me some orange and white fleece scraps (well, yardage to be more specific) with the intension of making some squares and creating a fleece rag quilt. Below is the result of my endeavor - what do you think?