Fabric Chicks

A couple of months ago I blogged about visiting a booth at a local quilt show for a new shop about 35 miles from Reno.  Last week my daughter played volleyball right down the street, so I took off work a bit early so I could stop on by... just let me say I was not disappointed.  If you like bright, colorful fabric, it is worth the trip.  Here we go!

Pinks

Blues

 

For Cow Quilt, maybe on the back... pieced of course!

Halloween is right around the corner!

Just cuz.

Just in case you want to check it out:

http://www.fabric-chicks.com

Oh, I forgot my favorite thing... the bag.  And they had an ironing board covered with zebra fabric!

A New/Old Project

I may be a wee bit obessessive...

I recently rediscoved this project while moving my sewing room.  Fun for a road trip and easy to take along.

Blogging Friends/Steph's Stash

As most of you are probably aware, quilt bloggers are simply the best.  And here's my testament to that...  my quilt blogger friend  Kwiltz by Stephanie wrote to me last week and said she was cleaning up her sewing room and was sending me 1/2 of her collection of her Mexican/Skull fabrics, she said "I just cut everything it half!"  This afternoon I came home after work to a package, a 10 x 13 mailing envelope stuffed to the gills with fabric... you cannot believe what a generous gift I have received from Stephanie!  I carried the package around the house for a bit, just savoring it before opening it... (if you are a fabric-a-holic like me, I'm sure you understand.)  Here we go!

She MADE the cute little envelope underneath the stash as well!

a lil blurry :) 

Love the bright colors and the skull w/ the pink flower!

It's a FIESTA!!!!

And many, many more.  I heartfelt thank you Stephanie.  You have inspired me, the ideas are swirling around in my head, a very appropriate quilt for the Halloween/Fall season.

If you are a lurker, you know who you are... I would encourage you to start quilt blogging and enjoy the fun.  I myself am a former lurker and am usually somewhat reserved, you might surprise yourself.

Have the best weekend everyone...  I am already enjoying.

New Design Board

Hi there, good Thursday evening to all.  I have a new design board, or bulletin board for my sewing area.  I have to confess that I have been pinning blocks directly into the wall for the last four years... ouch it has been hard on the fingers.  So this Sunday I purchased a 4 x 8 foot, 2" foam insulation board and covered it with batting... and it was so nice to just "stick" blocks to the board.  However, the one 4 x 8 board was just not wide enough, so Monday I added another one, covered with batting and now I can very happily report that my fingers are on the mend.  The feature I really like and didn't realize I was missing is that you really can use it as a design area, and change blocks around very quickly... much quicker that all that pinning and pushing. 

I also have finally decided and made progress on the border for the cow quilt.  Should have a looksy ready maybe early next week.  (We are out of town Saturday, dang it... but I'll get my fill of stitching in on Sunday.)  I did go with lots of pink, following Mary Lou's suggestion, and let me tell you we are talkin' PINK!

Here's to the new design board!

You can see the two different boards, as I had two different types of batting stashed away... I'll probably never get around to changing them to match.  And, I am just leaning them against the wall, at least for now. 

Looking forward to that weekend!

Sure Honey, I'll pick the kids up from basketball!

Hmmmmmmm....

Three stores later...

Pac Man

Anytime!

Cow Quilt Update

The main part of the Cow Quilt is finished and it is G-R-E-E-N.  Now I'm adding appliques and thinking about the border.  I'm somewhat stuck, I have a bunch of ideas, but cannot find the color combination to make it pop.  I'll keep it hanging there on the wall until something just right works.

a closer look:

Look closely, I snuck in a peace sign.

I remember reading in one of Mary Lou's books to make the border/frame first...

oops!

FMQ

Too much to do, so little time... my mantra as of late!  Again I have been working on  FMQ and on my Cow Quilt.  I have finished the GREEEEEEEN background on the Cow Quilt and will take a picture this evening.  I took one with the iphone, however I'm not a great photographer and the iphone picture is even worse than my normal snapshots!

So for the time being, take a look at two little pot holders I have made while FMQ!  Basically, I am working on outlining and echoing.  I figure that should help with consistency before I attempt a larger project.  

For more pictures, check out our FMQ site Celebrating Big Girl Pants here! 

 

Happy stitching.

Yes, Fabric

Yesterday, I also had the chance to do a little browsing at fabric ;)while waiting as the new machine was packed up for her journey home.  I had seen this fabric online and all of the sudden it was staring at me and I quickly grabbed up that bolt; I had stumbled upon a treasure. The colors are wonderful.

I bought 1/2 yard, it was all I could do not to buy more!

and also along the same theme....

 

1/3 ea of these.

It is feeling a bit like fall here in Reno this evening.

I also worked on my Cow Quilt and did a little more FMQ practice as well.  So much to do, so little time! 

PS.  Happy Birthday to husband WKB and Happy 51st Anniversary to my folks Robert and Barbara.  9-11 is a special and thankful day for many reasons.

Hope you have had as great of a weekend as I.

New Addition to the Sewing Room

I  have been considering a new machine for quite a while and finally busted out today!  My main requirements were the larger sewing area and the ability to FMQ, other than that I really didn't want alot of bells and whistles.  TaDaaaa!

So I am still on the lower end of the learning curve, but after a couple of hours of frustration I did actually FMQ for my first time... poof!

I see many hot pads in the near future, practice, practice, practice.

Enjoy your weekend.

Making Fabric

Hi all, good to be back after a little break for real life, :).  I have been making green fabric this week as the background for my Cow Quilt, which is my first "story quilt."  I sort my scraps by color, (ok sometimes I sort them, usually I stuff them in the drawer and son Cort sorts them for me) so I pulled out the green bag and just start sewing them together.  I also add from stashed fabric and bought a few new greens too just for fun!  Here we go!

I can tell you story quilts are FUN, endless possibilities.

Also visited my 18 year old son Niles last weekend at the USAFA where he is a freshman...  needless to say, I am one proud mama.

Cort, Niles, Kat

Here's to Friday nights and the upcoming weekend!