Little Quilts

Goodness, I wonder if I am the only person who is constantly saving my scraps of fabric with the ideal that I will use those things sometime and they pile just keeps growing and growing until it become unmanageable?  For some reason I don't think I am the only one.  Now I have had friends that have actually tried to put a label on my savings habit (of which I am very proud) and one told me one day that she had looked it up and I wasn't a tightwad I was just frugal!  Now I thought that was a huge laugh.  I'm not much into putting labels on everything anyway so it didn't bother me.  I know that I am planning to retire this year from the daily work force and be able to stay at home.  Were it not for the savings habit, I would not be able to do this (and I still question every day or two if this is the right thing or not) until I turn 65 at least and maybe even later than that! 

In addition to my piles (baskets actually and bags) of scraps I have a virtual mountain of books that I have been collecting for years and telling my husband that I was saving those for retirement so I would have plenty of patterns to make quilts by during retirement!  These books are stacked on my staircase.  East step holds between 5-10 books and magazines and assorted patterns that I have purchased when I saw something that I really liked all with the intention of saving for my retirement!
I guess it could also be said that I am a pack rat because of all these books and patterns!

Regardless, I found another book at the quilt shop yesterday.  I just love my local quilt shop and the people who work there.  Sew Bee It in Ringgold, Georgia is just a wonderful shop full of friendly people and I always have an enjoyable time when I go up for a visit, which I do often.  As you can well imagine we are on a first name basis there!

Back to my story.  I found a new book "Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts" by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms.  I was drawn to the book by the cover picture which is a Pumpkin Peel Pattern.  The quilt is beautiful but I have to say I was not impressed with the directions.  This is definately a pattern for someone with experience.  In particular I don't like instructions that just say "cut wedges of varying widths".  I find this too general for directions except to experienced quilters.  I also wish they had included some indication of the quilting level required for each project.  I want people to have a successful outcome when they start to quilt and if they start a project that is very difficult and they do not have the experience needed they will get discouraged and I hate to see that happen to anyone.  I met a lady in Knoxville, Tn who wanted to learn how to quilt and the quilt she started on was a Baltimore Album.  The shop owner did try to tell her that her choice was not something that was normally recommended for a beginning quilter but she decided that she was going to try that one anyway!  I never did hear if she finished her quilt or not but fear it may have been too daunting a task for a beginner.  To be honest, I don't even feel up to trying a Baltimore Album but it is because I am not a fan of applique.  I am more of a person who likes to make progress quickly.

With all of that said you are likely wondering why I bought this book! Well, I have to try everything at least once it seems to see how it goes. One year I decided to do some paper pieced quilts for the ladies in the family. Sorry to say the pattern I choose was one that was very intricate and very time consuming and finally they were put away into the void of UFO's. Years later I pulled out the partially finished piece and squared up what was there and added borders and made myself a wall hanging. I will not tell you how much that wall hanging cost me, but it was more than I would normally spend for a full size quilt! Now after getting this book I'm starting another quilt with too many pieces. We'll see how it goes and if I finish a complete quilt or wind up with another wall hanging. In this one each 3" block has about 19 pieces. The squares are 1/2" finished and made into 4-patches and then the patches are put together with sashing between each one to make a 16 patch of 4 patches which are sashed together to form the large quilt. Boy that's a lot of work just trying to explain the pattern. I'll try to get a couple of pictures to show you how this thing goes together before I publish this post.

Not the best picture I have every made but this is one of the blocks!

This is one forth of the above square.

Of course this one is where I am putting the tiny four patches together to form the above block.

And this is the tinies with just the 2 squares together and in the top left corner is one I have put into a 4 patch.



  

(Okay I did good.  I got the pictures before publishing the post)  Wish I had more of it done, but as I said sometimes I am a little slow but I am still working on this.  I did mention to a friend of mine that maybe I should use the blocks I have put together to put on the back of some potholders that I'm planning on doing for Christmas and she cringed in horror and said, that is just too much work to put into a potholder!  She may be right.  So I'll continue to see how it goes!

 



Typically I will go on a writting binge and write several post and then put them up one at a time.  Which is where I am right now.  I do everything by binges, quilting, writing, cleaning!  Is anyone else like that?  At any rate since I am so very blessed with so many scraps, I'm trying my hand at this once again.  So thankful that I have had the opportunity to collect so many scraps and still have the health and resources to continue quilting.  Here's wishing you all a happy quilting week and I'll talk with you later! 

Road Trip

Road Trip

 

 

 

Got up the other morning and it was just one of those days that I really didn't want to do anything much.  Not that my "To Do" list isn't huge, but I didn't want to do those things.  I'm sure you understand exactly what I'm talking about here.  I asked my husband, what do you want to do today?  His response, "I don't know."   Hummmmm.  After breakfast I sat down at the computer and opened up my facebook page and was looking at recent things and there it was!!!  Several weeks ago I had found on facebook a quilt shop called "Chattanooga Quilts".  I had said I wanted to visit that shop and just had not previously had the time.  Well guess what, now I have time.  I asked tubby hubby if he wanted to ride with me and he said okay.  That is not normal for him to be agreeable to visiting a quilt shop with me!  Must be kismit!

 

Like the wonderful planner that I am (not), I got the address and put it in the GPS and off we went.  Drove straight to the place without incident!  Between 40-50 miles from my house so a nice little drive.

 

This shop was a very nice small shop and the lady who was there was very friendly, but a good salesperson.  She did not hover,  she did offer help and even offered to get a chair for my husband to sit in while I shopped!  That impressed him and made him feel good too.  There was a class going on at the time I was there and the classroom was held behind a curtained off area of the shop.  There were lots of samples hanging on the walls with the books depicting the patterns located next to the samples and they were clearly labeled as to which book had that pattern which is always nice.  Makes it easy to find anything that is of interest.

 

I am sure it was designed for the shop owner, but the way the cutting table is set up next to the check out area was a good ideal and the area was L shaped with the long arm of the L holding the cutting table and the shorter base holding the check out area.  This configuration is nice because if you have several people waiting to have fabric cut and then more people waiting to check out they are not crowding each other.  I have been in shops where it is one long area and it was hard to tell who was waiting in which line. 

 

If you have some free time, this shop is worth a visit.  You may even decide to go back once you see the prices are reasonable and cheaper than some of the other stores I have visited.

 

Oh I do have to tell you that while I was there I bought another book.  I am forever buying books and this is another one that will help you use up your scraps.  This one is titled "Friendship Strips & Scraps" by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.  Of course the sample on the wall is what prompted me to purchase this particular book.  The title of that quilt is Spool Quilt and I loved the strips used to depice the thread on the spools.  They had shades of blue which is one of my very fav colors in theirs.  The only thing is there is a lot of applique around the border of their quilt that I'm not too sure I will do!  Sorry I'm not really into applique unless it is by machine like a lot of  El's quilts.

 

At any rate this particular book has several different quilts using the fabric made of strips that are very intresting and something I may want to do after I retire.  (I keep saying that like I don't already have enough projects to keep me busy until I'm 100!)  Well at any rate this project is for a later date.  I've got too many on the back burner that need to be finished before I start another one!

If you have visited this shop already, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.  Believe me I can handle it if your opinion and mine are not the same.  If you decide to go here in the future, let me know what you thought when you visit.  I love getting the opinion of others.  I often miss things on my first trip to a shop and it would be helpful to me! 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful day, quilting and sewing with love for your loved ones!  Now on to my next project!





My "Working" Trip

Well double drat!!  I have to take a trip for work!  Gosh, those are so boring..well usually, but what can I do to make this one better.  Let's see...  I know that I can take a person with me and they can stay in the room with me at no additional cost.  Gee why not get someone to ride with me..  Now who to ask.  Dear hubbie refuses to go..he'll be bored, poor baby..  Hum, what about best bud..oh well, she just had surgery and is recovering and can't do much walking right now.  Darn, that won't be any fun for her and she will stress if she thinks I am passing anything up because she can't walk a lot right now.  Hum, oh I know.  I have another really great friend who shares a lot of common interest, quilting of course and gardening and most importantly to us both our Savior.  Hum, she loves going to Florida.  Maybe...... Yea, she can get off work and she doesn't mind riding with me!  Trip time.  Oh dear, I had to call those people in Florida and talk with customer service and they commented they were looking forward to seeing me so I thought why not and asked, "do you think you would be able to get the names of any quilt shops there so I could visit them while I'm down there?"  Oh boy, I got an e-mail from one of the people at the business in Florida and she is a quilter and will be happy to give me the name of her local quilt shop, and she will can't wait to talk with me and see my quilting.  Now what to take on my trip....Money....I do have one quilt that I love that I did some special quilting on, and I do have that book that I made several years ago of my quilting that year.  Those have to go into the car..

Time to leave and of course there are shops on the road that both Kay and I want to stop if we have time and anything else along the way.  Well if you are ever heading South on I 75 south of Atlanta at McDonough, GA,  "A Scarlet Thread" is a don't miss stop.  They have wonderful fabric, great samples, and friendly staff!  Of course we had to pick up a few things there including a pattern for some soft houseshoes and they even had the fabric to put on the bottoms.  (You know that really neat stuff that we used to see on the "footies" of childrens pajamas so they wouldn't slide.)  Goodness this is great stuff.  There was a pattern for casserole covers that I had not seen before and I have a friend who I know will use those so got to get the pattern.  And then there were a couple of the "Quilt Diva" patterns that I just had to have for sometime in the future when I have more time to sit and sew.  Boy I can't wait until I retire.  I'm really saving all this stuff so I'll have something to do then!  I'm afraid I may get bored if I don't have a lot to do. hehehe  I also picked up a flyer for the "Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop" which will be coming up in March.  Have to start planning now!

Well after leaving "A Scarlet Thread" we headed further south and eventually crossed the Florida state line and guess what...they have quilt shops down there too!  Saw a billboard advertising a quilt shop at Lake City, Florida so decided to stop by there.  Well golly gee when I got almost there I remembered, I've been here before but it had been a couple of years.  I can't believe I forgot this place.  Really great smaller shop where they cut their own 2 1/2" strips for jelly rolls and you can just drop in and buy some strips out of their basket so if you just need a few more lights or darks or whatever and don't really have anything you want to cut then they have you covered.  Lots of fabic and again lots of samples hanging on the walls.  "Fabric Art Shop" in Lake City has some wonderfully helpful people who are willing to help or just let you wander around and decide what attracts you.  Well I had to pick up a couple of things there also, some really great fabric that I know my bud will love. Oh, if you get by there be sure and pick up their "Quilt Witch Gazettte" and if you don't do anything else take a look at the classes.  Just reading the description will give you ideals galore.  Hum....

Oh well, got to get a move on if we are ever going to get there.  No more stops along the way.

Finally made it down to Weston and met a wonderful lady who is a quilter.  We spent some time ohhing and ahhing over each others pictures and Tessa was kind enough to share some of her ideals and things she does like putting this incredable little pocket on the back of her quilts with a little something special coming out of the pocket and using her embroidery machine to put a little something special in there.  So many new ideals!!  I've just got to remember them!!  Her love of butterflies and nature has her putting a butterfly signature piece on her quilts that is precious.  Her comment that she found this fabric at Walmart and she just loves the print gave me pause until I had the time to drive over to her local shop.  Then I understood why!! 

Walked up to the door and had to ring a bell to be "buzzed" into the quilt shop.  (Sorry, but we don't have this in my neck of the woods and it really doesn't make you feel safe and secure.  Oh well, let's see what they have...)  Some really cute samples hanging around with signs on some that indicate they have the pattern available for those.  Of course, wouldn't you know the one I loved the bestest was not available and when I asked about a pattern for that was told, well "if you don't have one of these sewing machines you really can't do that quilt".  Well excuse me, but maybe I can't do that exact quilt, but I may be able to do something very similar but no go.  Oh well.  Sorry I was not impressed at all.  While the fabric was good quality quilting fabric there really wasn't much to choose from.  This quilt shop seemed to focus more on knitting and selling machines and obtaining work for the owner to do on her longarm machine than helping quilters.  Of course I know if you don't make money then you can't stay in business, but a friendly attitude will increase sales dramatically.  Smile, your face won't crack!!!  I left feeling quite depressed that my new quilting friend doesn't have a "really good" quilt shop.  Went right back and invited her to come visit me anytime and I would be happy to take her to some "real" quilt shops!!!  I'm so thankful for our local shop and the friendly customer service and helpful sales people in addition to great samples and wonderful fabric!

Oh well, it's time to go home.  No more quilt shopping this trip.  After all this is a business trip!  Oh I've just got to stop by that hydroponic vegetable farm on the way home......

A great time was had, and I have a new quilting friend, who I hope will keep in touch and lots of new ideals.  Now let's get quilting!!!!