A Little Spring Chickie

This was a lot of fun!  At the Auntie Ju's Quilt Shoppe booth, I took a "make it and take it" class. This is the first time I needle punched, and it was really fun.  The little chickie was already punched for us (thanks Linda!), so all we did was fill in the background and sew the pin back on, but it was a great introduction to something I'd wanted to try.  I think it looks quite at home on the strap of my Farm Bag. 

Well, whatever changes Blogger has in it, I will just have to adapt.  Here are the Coffee Filter Fans Quilt setting ideas from Debby Kratovil.  The bright one in the middle is the idea on our patterns with one small difference; we have 12 fans and this one has 16.  I like the pastel setting better, but it also has 16 blocks, so I will have to be creative about what I put in the 4 corners.

And this lovely green and orange is a sample Debby Kratovil is working on.  I love these color and am fascinated at what a difference the setting makes.  Personally, I think the squared off fan base works the best in this setting.  I will have to play with my blocks to see what I end up choosing.

One confused blogger here.

I don't know what is up with Blogspot.  I watched 5 pictures load, but only one is showing.  I am confused.  Anyone else having blog trouble?  Is it my computer?  Could it be eating downloaded photographs?  Ah well; let me tell you what this photo is.  This is from a class I took yesterday at the Original Sewing & Quilting Expo in Duluth, Georgia.  In Debby Kratovil's Coffee Filter Fans class I learned how to paper piece.

This is the assembly line construction the student behind me was doing.  My table was a little more messy, so hers made for a better photo.  Debby showed us three different ways to set the blocks when we finished piecing them.  Those were the other photos I downloaded. 

Vintage Quilt and Cleaning the Sewing Room

Mr. Simon-from-work has given me a wonderful quilt! I think this one may be from feed sacks, but I cannot be sure, since I am not familiar with how to identify real ones, but this is definitely vintage. Simon purchased it near the Fort Donelson National Battlefield when he was working on a project as an engineer (I think for DNR).

I love, love, love this quilt. Look at this edge! It makes me wonder what happened. Did someone spill something on it? Did she run short of backing fabric? One thing for sure: She is human which means prone to imperfection. She made the best of her situation though. I am in love with what she has done.

The back of the quilt has a bit of a sheen. Does this mean it has linen in it? It is a wonderful piece of utility fabric.

Thank you Simon!

Ah, and now to the mess I have been wanting to fix:

I was in Walmart the other night (too late, I think running around in the cold weather is why I am sick), and I found these shelves which will fit this many plastic boxes:

So I bought two sets of shelve, and a whole bunch of plastic boxes. I had so much stuff already that I didn't get a single new box on a shelf. But it looks so much better already. And, as I told the Mister, I certainly have plenty of room for a fancy sewing table for my Bernina. I plan to look at tables when I go to the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo.

Last time I attended the show, I won free classes and admission to this year's show. Yippee! At the last show I took a class and made a bag (See it here). I also tried some new sewing techniques (See stuff here). This year I am taking "Coffee Filter Fans" and "Peacock Pincushion." It should be fun. I am going to take a real good look at the sewing tables at the show.

Sue Spargo's Michelle Pillow

Thank you, Aunt Katie! In the mail today was the brown wool blend thread I needed to complete a small part on the Michelle pillowtop I started in Sue Spargo's class at Gwinnett's Original Sewing and Quilting Expo last October. My sweet Aunt Katie (Primitive Woolens) sent me an entire spool even though I said I only needed 2 yards. I will have to do a lot more wool work (I really enjoy it)! I am not sure my pillow top will make it to a completed pillow though, since pillow finishing is uncharted waters for this novice sewer (oh man, look at that word). I guess you have to be a novice seamstress because you can't be a sewer except out loud, otherwise it looks nasty. But if you know a lot of hookers...

Anyhow, I can't wait to get done with work tomorrow so I can spend some time with my Kitten in my sewing room being a seamstress and blogging with hookers.

Sweatshirt Jacket with Great House Design!

Here is a sweatshirt jacket that I really wanted to get at the show yesterday, but I just didn't want to start another "big" project. I figured since I hadn't done a jacket yet, I would start with the smaller "Pretty in Pink" design. Both are available at Auntie Ju's Quilt Shoppe.

Sunday Blogger

It looks like I am a Sunday blogger. Since I started working on Aunt Millie's Garden, I have been obsessively hand appliqueing on weekends, and not accomplishing much more than one slow block at a time. So I must apologize for my infrequent updates to the blog. There just isn't much new at my house in the way of quilting. HOWEVER, this Thursday I am attending a class at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo at the Gwinnett Center, and Saturday I take two more classes. Then Sunday our Atlanta Unity quilters group meets and we will get a new installment for our mystery quilts. So stay in touch. If I am not too tired next Sunday, I should have lots of great stuff to share!