Busy Little Quilter

Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival

2010-05-21T00:00:00.020-05:00

If you have never visited my blog before, welcome! My name is Amanda, aka "Busy Little Quilter".

Every time my neighbor, Pushpa, calls me, the first thing she says is "Amanda? Are you busy, busy, busy???" in her high pitched voice. She knows I'm always busy doing something; there's never a dull moment around here. If I say that I'm busy quilting, she says, "You're such a busy little quilter." So, that became the name of my blog.

Not only do I love quilting, but I love to garden, as well. Sometimes my quilts are inspired by a color combination that I see in my garden ( I love pink petunias and yellow marigolds together) and every once in a while, by a flower bed theme.

It wasn't until my first grandchild was born that I was inspired to make a quilt that reflected my love for my butterfly garden. Since I had a butterfly garden I thought my little grand daughter, Alexis, should have one, too. I looked in quilting magazines and quilt books for ideas, took bits and pieces from each one, and came up with "Alexis' Butterfly Garden". The fabrics are 1930's reproductions. It is machine appliqued and the antannae are hand stitched. The quilt is machine quilted by Judy Laquidara.

(Photo snatched from the pages of a scrapbook.)

It's amazing how a sweet little 6 pound 13 ounce baby can make a baby size quilt look huge and bring such joy.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. Thanks, too, to Amy for organizing this event and to the many sponsors. The quilt festival is from May 21-28.

Have fun!

Amanda

Spring Quilt Market and the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival

2010-05-20T20:29:00.000-05:00

It seems as though everyone has gone to Minneapolis, MN for the 2010 Quilt Market. I wish I could be there, too, but I don't have a quilt shop, I'm not a designer, but I do love to shop! It will be exciting to see the new fabrics, patterns, and gadgets that will be in our local quilt shops or our favorite online quilt shops, soon!

Just so I can make sure I don't miss out on too much, I'll be tuning into KMKM's Quilt Market Reports with Pam Kitty Morning and Happy Zombie, as the weather girl.

I'm sure Miss Happy Z will see clear skies with lots and lots of sunshine as she debuts her first fabric line. Check out her blog, too! There's free patterns and more!

And to add more fun, Amy is hosting Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival. It's a virtual quilt show that starts tomorrow. If you have a quilt you would like to enter, it's not too late. I have my post written and ready to go, so be sure to come back to see what I entered.

Amanda

Thank you!

2010-05-19T11:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and sweet comments concerning Izzie. My family and I have loved seeing your cats, dogs, and the stories that you have shared about them and their quilting adventures. I didn't realize there were so many quilting pets in blogland! I love it!

Thanks, again, for thinking of us.

Big hugs to you all.

Amanda

My Cat Izzie

2010-05-05T21:47:00.000-05:00

Izzie Harvey

August 2000-May 5, 2010

It's too sad to write about Izzie, today, but I had to honor him in some way because he was so much a part of my quilting life.

He was terrible at arranging quilt blocks, but he always approved the way I arranged them and sewed them together.

He would sit and look at them, or he just had to touch with his paw,

or with his tail.

He was a funny cat and always made me laugh.

Last year I rearranged my sewing room much to Izzie's surprise. I wrote about it here, but it seems fitting to have the pictures in this post, too.

Izzie was with us for almost 10 years. He was left abandoned in an old farmhouse where the farmer fed him cornbread and bologna. The farmers daughter (my neighbor) told him that she knew someone that would love him so much and take good care of him. We did.

When I first saw Izzie I thought "she" looked like Liz Taylor with a big fur collar and that cute little spot above "her" lip, so I named "her" Lizzie. I took "her" to the doctor to find out that "she" was 6 months old and weighed 3 pounds. For two weeks I treated "her" ear mites and other things that were wrong with "her".

I took "her" back to the doctor and when she kept saying "he" I said to her, "My cat is a girl." She said, "No. I don't think so!" I was in total shock! I guess I didn't get as up close and personal as I thought I had! I said, "I guess I should have named him Richard!". You know, Liz Taylor and Richard Burton? The young girls in the office didn't know what I was talking about. Since I had been calling him Lizzie for two weeks, I decided to call him Izzie instead.

I will miss our quilting time together, playing hide and go seek, his cute little back leg that always stuck out (you can see it hanging off of the fabric cabinet), our little afternoon "cat naps" where he would jump in the recliner with me and take a 15 minute nap, his hugs, his constant need to be in my lap, and his adorable personality. I will be forever grateful that God blessed my life with something that loved me and my family, brought us much happiness, and taught us all about unconditional love.

We love you, Izzie!

Friday Night Sew-In Project

2010-04-17T18:02:00.000-05:00

I hope it's not too late to show everyone what I sewed on last night for the Friday Night Sew-In with Heidi.

I woke up early this morning only to find that the Internet wouldn't connect. We had a storm last night, and I guess it knocked the cable out, along with the high speed Internet. I'll have to admit, though, it was kind of nice to be unplugged to the outside world.

Here's what I made: another bag. I keep making bags! They're so fun though.

I bought the pattern from Alicia last year. It's her "Jane Market Bag".

I sewed the pattern just like she said, but I added cotton batting to it to firm it up a bit. I like the softness of the batting, and yet it helps the bag to maintain it's shape.

It's perfect for my "Party in a Basket". I sell Scentsy Wickless Candles. The "Party in a Bag" or "basket party" is an alternative to a home party in that the hostess gets to carry a warmer, all 80 of the scents, catalogs, order forms, and a hostess handbook everywhere they go to share with their friends, family, and co-workers. The hostess doesn't have to clean house or make refreshments, but she still gets the same hostess rewards. I thought if someone is going to take the time to sell Scentsy for me, the least I could do is make a cute bag for them to carry everything in.

Of course I get the bag back for the next person who wants to host a "Party in a Bag".

I do home parties, too. They're fun. Every time I go to work I go to a party!

I can't wait to see what everyone else was sewing on during the Friday Night Sew-In. It's fun the think about all of us sewing at the same time.

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Sew and Tell Friday

2010-04-16T13:13:00.002-05:00

Terry and I are heading to Paducah next week to the American Quilter's Society Quilt Show. We feel very fortunate that we live close by, especially when we talk to people who have traveled across the world to get there. Personally, I can't imagine doing that, but maybe that's because I live two hours away. I'm spoiled, I guess.

We're leaving Wednesday morning and picking up friends along the way.

This is Terry's purple car. Isn't it adorable?!!

Our friend, Julie, has a sister-in-law that has a mansion in Paducah so that's where we'll be sleeping. There won't be much hanging out there, because we'll be too busy shopping and eating at some of Padcuah's fun restaurants down town. We may even shop at a few of the antique stores, too.

Speaking of downtown...our friend, Betty Cummings from The Village Mercantile, will have a store front shop downtown, as well.

I just clicked on her website to see where she was going to be, and she has a 10 percent off coupon for everyone who shops at her "store" in Paducah. Click here to get your coupon, too!
It will be great to see her and her husband, Steve. I love them both!

I'm sure I'll see Eleanor Burns, from Quilt in a Day.

I owe this quilting obsession to her, and that's a good thing. Her shows are fun and the fabric deals are fantastic.

I hope to see, too, my quilting/blogging/facebook friend Tammy Tadd. (Please go visit her. She has fantastic news.)

Every time I see her I want to say, "Woo Hoo"!! Her shop is always bright and cheerful. I love her pink and green.

Of course it wouldn't be Paducah without visiting Hancocks of Paducah. It's fabric as far as you can see, and then some.

I think we should have started saving money ever since last year! It's a good thing we're getting a refund on our taxes!

See that cute bag Terry is wearing? Every year Terry and I make a new bag for our Paducah trip.

This is what we made for this year's trip:

Her's is the green polka dot, and mine is the one that says "Authentic". The pattern is by Sweetwater and it is their Market Bag. It was easy to make. This is the only thing I sewed on this week, so it's my finish for Sew and Tell Friday.

Do you remember how I told you that Terry was getting trading up for a newer long arm quilting machine because we both thought she may have worn the other one out?

Well, she did! It's official!!

At one point the two machines were next to each other. I heard the old one was telling the new one how sweet Terry is, and what a good home and loving family she has, but that was while Terry was standing there.

When she walked away I heard the old one whisper to the new one, "Good luck! You'll need it!"

Be sure to stop by Amy's to see another week of Friday finishes for Sew and Tell Friday.

I almost forgot...It's Heidi's Friday Night Sew In! I better get busy and finish cleaning my house so I can sew tonight!!!!

I Have an Accounting Abnormality

2010-04-15T19:51:00.000-05:00

For years I always looked forward to April 15. It was the day "tax season" was over and we would take Mom out to dinner for a celebration.

Ever since my mother was in her early 20's, she worked for Mr. Hawkins, at his accounting service, along with her friend, Alice.

I grew up going to Mr. Hawkins' office every day after school. He set up a desk for me so I could write, draw, or do my homework. When I got a little older, 12 or 13, he let me "keep books" for a couple of his customers. I would write down numbers in these huge books with columns. I think it was called a ledger. I didn't know what I was doing, but I always thought it was fun. It was even more fun when he would pay me.

Eventually one day, Mr. Hawkins decided to retire, so my Mom and Alice bought his business. They would keep businesses' books all through the year, but come January 1-April 15, "tax season", they were busy doing their regular business and individual taxes.

I remember Mom talking about how some people are organized, and some people would bring their information in brown paper sacks. I guess they would just throw receipts in the bag and hope for the best, or hope that my Mom would be patient enough go through everything. She was. Her heart would break when people would owe a lot of money, and she was happy when people broke even or got a refund. She always said that it was better to break even, but I really like getting a refund. How about you?

Mom was happy sitting behind a desk. She typed so fast you couldn't see her fingers, and she could punch numbers on an adding machine just as fast as she could type. She loved accounting and would spend hours trying to find the reason why two columns didn't add up to the same amount, even if they were just a few cents off.

When I graduated high school and went to college, I decided to major in accounting and work with Mom. That idea soon came to an end when I took my first Accounting class. I knew when my teacher begged me ~~three times in the hallway~~ to drop the class, accounting wasn't for me. I really didn't care if two columns didn't equal each other. I say take some change from your pocket and get yourself out of the misery of spending hours trying to find where the problem is. Evidently there is a little bit of obessive compulsive nature that accountants have that I don't have, so I changed my major to Elementary Education.

You know what's funny? My niece is a CPA, my cousin (Mom's niece) is a CPA, and another niece is an accountant. The accounting gene skipped me!

Mom loved to sew, cook, bake, clean house, garden, and craft. Those genes didn't skip me, thank goodness, but you wouldn't know it by looking at my house, my flower beds, the chili dogs we're having for dinner, or the lack of sewing I have done lately (I did get an adorable bag made this week to show at Sew and Tell Friday that I will show you tomorrow).

Heidi is hosting another Friday Night Sew-In tomorrow night. Maybe this will inspire me to get my house cleaned and maybe a few flower beds de-weeded. We'll be sewing Friday night, sharing photos on Saturday, and our names will be entered into a drawing on Sunday for a door prize. I haven't decided what I'm sewing on, yet, but I may make another bag or two. You should join us!

April 15 isn't as exciting as it was when my Mom was still living and "tax season" was finally over. It is a good feeling, though, not to have to think about it for a while, especially since I still have an accounting abnormality.

Have a great day!

Amanda

Sew and Tell Friday

2010-04-09T16:31:00.001-05:00

Easter sort of sprung up on me really fast, and for some reason I didn't decorate until the day before. That's so not like me!

I have a Red and White Hoosier cabinet standing in my kitchen. I bought it about this time last year at a flea market. Happy Birthday, Miss Hoosier.

Yes, she's a girl. How do I know? I just do. She looks as though she is standing there holding out her little apron (her marble table top). Sometimes she holds the cup of water for me while I get the dogs water bowl, but, for the most part, she holds mixing bowls, a couple of cook books, and a turquoise flour sifter. She sort of has a June Cleaver look about her, especially when she has pearls around her neck.

A Hoosier cabinet wearing pearls? Sure!

Well, they're not pearls, but they are to me because they make her look so pretty. See. Vanessa has a tutorial on her blog about how to make your own little banners. I have made Miss Hoosier several of these for different seasons, but I haven't made her one for Spring. She needed some Spring fashion!

Look how sweet!! And they're so quick and easy to make. I used 6 1/2 inch squares, instead of the 5 inch square that you find in charm packs, and double fold bias tape.

A couple of bunnies, a wreath with plastic Easter eggs hot glued on, a chick cookie jar that I bought from Target last year, and a cute Happy Easter sign made Miss Hoosier look so pretty for Spring.

The banner is the only project I finished sewing on this week. Be sure to go see what everyone else sewed this week at Amy's blog. I'm always amazed at the talent the Sew and Tell Friday sewers have.

Charming Girls and Guy's Quilt Club

2010-04-07T20:00:00.001-05:00

I agree with Kelly that these months are going by fast in the Charming Girls' and Guys' Quilt Club. It seems, though, that I haven't been able to finish my goals, but this month will change. It has to! My Quilt Guild is having a quilt show at the end of June, and I have got to get busy!

Terry's long arm quilting machine broke, wore out, and bit the dust. For two weeks she is going to be without a quilting machine which means...we can get together and sew before her new one comes in!!. I can't wait!

We're getting together on Monday. Our goal is to finish a project that she and I started 6 years ago. There is a lot of piecing and a lot of applique. We have all of the piecing done, but I still have some of the applique left to do. My homework for Monday is to have all of the applique completed before I come to her house so we can sew the quilt together.

The only thing is, though, I can't show you the entire quilt because we want it to be something special for the quilt show. It's always fun to have a surprise or two for all of your friends to see. It's deffinitely going to be a "WOW" factor. I haven't made anything this beautiful in a long time.

My other "homework" is to have the backs sewn together for a couple of quilt tops so, when the new machine comes in, they will be ready to quilt. The one above is one of my grandsons' race car quilts. My other two grandsons have one, too, but they are already quilted. The museum has a Speed Museum display, and their race car quilts will look great hanging beside a race car.

I really need to get back into my "One Hour a Day" sewing. I seem to get more done when I plan my sewing time. The quilt show will be here before I know it, so it's time to get busy and get something finished! Wish me luck!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T06:40:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter!

Happy Last Day of March

2010-03-31T22:29:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe it's the last day of March! It was a busy month, for sure.

Every Saturday this month, (except for one. I went to Louisville on a business trip. That sounds so odd!) I helped Terry and Rita with their beginner quilting classes.

Here is Terry (in the green) teaching this lady how to cut.

Now, here's the part where I tell you that our daughter, Julia, got her drivers license this month, and we bought her sister's old car for her to drive. She's excited, but I'm not. I never see her! She works, goes to school, and hides the camera cord to my other camera so I can't find it. (Oops! I wasn't supposed to tell you about the camera cord, but if you have teenagers you know what I'm talking about!) I'm not really sure if she would know where it is even if she were here right now. So, for right now, my pictures of the beginner quilt classes, Julia with her license, and my business trip are stuck in my other camera.

Terry says that she isn't a teacher for a beginners. I think what she means is that it's hard to un-teach a person once they have been taught the wrong way to cut, sew, and press. I guess you could say that she likes to start them young.

Okay, maybe not that young, but isn't this a sweet picture of her with her youngest grand-daughter? All of the girls in Terry's family (and me!) went to her daughter's lakehouse to sew for the weekend of Terry's birthday. All 19 of us left with a Turning Twenty quilt top completed, even the baby. Now if we could just get them to touch their machines before we go again next year!

I didn't get a chance to quilt on anything this month. I have done some sewing, but not much of anything quilt like, unless you consider using batting instead of interfacing for a bag that I made.

I guess I quilted it when I sewed down the ric-rac along the seam lines. It's my one finish this month for the One Project a Month challenge. I was really hoping to get my Bulls Eye quilt completed (my one goal for the Charming Girls and Guys quilt club), but maybe next month.

I can't leave without showing you what Steve made. I love it that he is a woodworker because he understands my need for good materials, good tools, and lots of fun gadgets that make life easier. He built this cabinet for Terry.

Terry likes primitive, so the more beat up it looks the better. It was hard for Steve to bash it with a hammer and sand paint off of the corners. I told him he should beat it with a chain and he just looked at me funny. I guess he hasn't watched the same shows that I have watched on HGTV. Now that I think about it, it would look odd to see Norm Abrams beat a piece of furniture on PBS.

Take care!

Amanda

I have added this post to the Sew and Tell Friday group over at Amy's. It's always fun to see what everyone else has sewn for the week. I just added this to Vanessa's blog, too! It's her first "link up". It's so fun to see what everyone is creating!

Happy National Quilting Day!!!

2010-03-20T22:36:00.015-05:00

Happy National Quilting Day!!!

I don't know about you, but I love, love, love that there is a national holiday for the hobby that we love so much.

This is the first time in years that I didn't celebrate quilting by going to a National Quilters' Day event with my guild and three other guilds that usually celebrate the day together. I didn't even go to a quilt shop today!

This is about the only thing I have seen as far as quilting goes today:

a barn with a painted quilt block mounted to the side. It sits on the county line right after you cross the bridge from Indiana to Kentucky. Isn't it beautiful? I have always wanted a barn, and now knowing that I could mount a painted quilt block to the side of one makes me want one even more!

I'm excited to tell you this, though. My community is in the process of creating their own quilt barn trail!!!

See, a few years ago I was the chairperson of the National Quilters' Day celebration for my Quilt Guild. I had heard there were quilt barns in eastern, Kentucky, so I invited someone to come and be our guest speaker that day to talk about the barns and maybe show us slides of barns in the area.

I don't even know where this quilt barn is located, but I needed a photo here.

What was so cute about it all is that when I called the lady to see if she needed a slide projector, or some other piece of equipment to share her photos with us, she said, "Sure! I'll go outside and shoot their pictures now!" For some reason knowing that she could just "go outside", wander down the road a bit and get chased by dogs, crawl through a ditch and climb over a fence just so she could shoot pictures of the barns, made me wish I lived there, too.

During her presentation, I was so overwhelmed by their beauty. Words can not express the feeling I had inside of me. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it. It's silly, I know, but there's something about a barn sitting on a hill, or peeking through some trees, that does something to me. And one with a painted quilt block mounted to it...I just can't explain!

I don't think these are some of the same barns that Hope showed us that day, but just so you can see what I'm talking about you can go here: http://rcquilttrail.tripod.com/locationofquiltbarnwebsite.htm. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom where you will see the names of the quilt blocks. Click on the block and you will see the barn with that particular quilt block mounted to the barn.

Although Terry and I had this dream of inspiring barn owners of our community to agree to have painted quilt blocks mounted to their barns, some life altering events that happened to both of us (we never can do things alone. What happens to her usually happens to me.) prevented us from having the time and energy it would take to devote to this project. However, we are thankful that someone else had the dream, and is seeing this through. You can't imagine how excited we are that our community will soon has it's own quilt barn trail. Quilt blocks are being painted as I write. It's exciting!!! I'll let you know as soon as they are ready for viewing.

Well, I got a little sidetracked, and it's getting late. I may just go in my sewing room and piddle around for a little bit while I'm waiting for my youngest daughter to get home. She started driving. Uggghhhh!!!!!

So, what did you do to celebrate today?

Edit: Okay, now I'm really excited! I had heard a comment here and there about a quilt barn project happening in one of the counties not too far from where I live. It is in Ohio County. So, I googled them, and it looks like their quilt barn project is completed! You can click here to see their quilt barns. I'm sure there's more by now though.

And, another exciting thing that I can't wait to announce to my guild is that Eleanor Burns' newest book features barn quilts with quilt blocks on them. Patricia Knoechel, her sister, is traveling around the country doing demos on this book and another book named Orion's Star. She will be coming to my guild in June to our Quilt Show and will be giving demos both days. I talked to her the other day, and told her about the quilt barn trails close by and how my community is in the beginning stages of creating one, and she's excited, too. It's perfect timing!!!

Charming Girls' and Guys' Quilt Club

2010-03-03T23:57:00.002-06:00

It's time to post what I would like to get finished in March for the Charming Girls' and Guy's Quilt Club. There are a lot of things I would love to get finished, but March is a busy month for me.

Did you know that March is National Quilting Month and that March 20 is National Quilting Day? So, what are you going to do to celebrate the whole month?

I'll tell you what I would like to do. First of all, I would love to unpack my sewing machine from when I went away a few weekends ago and finish my Bull's Eye quilt. I decided, afterall, it would look beautiful hanging in my Quilt Guild's Quilt Show in June. I am remaking some of the super, duper wonky blocks and make them look a little prettier. This will be the perfect quilt for finishing up especially since I started it in 2000.

Next, I will be helping my best friend, Terry, and another dear friend, Rita,teach beginner classes every Saturday in March at one of the museums here in town. I am so excited! There are about 10 people that signed up to learn everything there is to know about quilting. There are no better people than these two to get beginner quilters started in the right direction. I'm excited about helping them!

Thursday (today) is my Quilt Guild business meeting, which is always fun. Last month we had over 20 show and tells! Most of it was from a challenge that I issued to the guild to finish up some projects. They have been working like crazy getting things finished for our big prize drawing in May, which may be extended because everyone is having so much fun. The prizes are worth it, though. First place gets a free machine quilting from Terry. Second place gets a handmade basket from Rita. Third place gets a wooden quilt holder from me (which I will be buying from a wood crafter that makes quilt related wood projects). The best prize of all, though, is finishing projects and seeing them hang in our Quilt Show.

The third Thursday, Terry is teaching a "Start to Finish" class where she talks about all things quilting from tools to her "Theory of Color Relativity" which is so awesome. The class uses her stash that she brings along to choose fabrics for a quilt while learning more about value than color. Sometimes we travel to other guilds, and I help hold quilts and fabrics while she teaches her "theory".

This isn't a picture of us at one of her theory classes, but this picture makes me laugh everytime I see it. Terry taught this heart quilt at a retreat that I went to. We didn't shop together to get our fabrics. I didn't even borrow any of hers. What makes me laugh so hard about this picture is that it looks like we just delivered this baby from it's mama behind us. I've got a big grin with, what looks like a stethoscope (but is my sizziors) hanging around my neck. Terry looks as though it was a hard delivery! (It probably was. This quilt is a booger to make and teach).

This one is better.

I probably wouldn't be a quilter if it weren't for Terry. Let me put in another way...

I would be a quilter, but my color choices in quilts wouldn't look pretty and my piecing might not look so great. She's a fun friend to have, and even more fun that she's a quilter.

So,what are you planning to do for National Quilting Month?

Amanda

One Project A Month

2010-02-28T16:22:00.001-06:00

When Peg and Kris challenged their blog readers to completely finish one project a month, I thought to myself, "I'm sure I could do that!"

It's a low key challenge, but in order for something to "count" it has to be completely finished. This means that if it is a quilt, it has to be quilted and bound. If it is a bag, or some other "soft project", it, too, has to be completely finished.

So, you've seen these before, but for the month of February I finished the valentine quilt "Text Messages"

and the diaper bag I made for my friend.

It's a good feeling to get something fully completed.

Have a great day!

Amanda

Edit: One of my projects that I said that I would love to complete in the Charming Girls' and Guys' Quilt Club was the diaper bag. I think this is the first time I got something completed since I joined! I always have such good intentions.

Sew and Tell Friday

2010-02-18T22:43:00.000-06:00

I didn't mean for it to almost be 2 weeks before I posted anything on my blog!

There's been a lot of this: One snow storm after the other.

A lot of this: teenagers out of school hanging out at my house (which I love).

There's been a little bit of

sewing. I got the diaper bag finished.

(This is my Sew and Tell Friday Finish. Be sure to check out Amy's blog to see what everyone else finished this week.)

and a little bit of sleeping late (really late) which is unusual for me.

There's been a whole lot of this: doing the Quilter's Winter Olympic Challenge with Pat Sloan.

It's harder than I thought to watch the Olympics while sewing! My finger came close to getting sewed in the seams of the diaper bag. (I've done that before. It's not fun!)

After I finished the diaper bag I started

fusing the applique to a quilt that I started 5 years ago.

This is as far as I got. I still have the top, bottom, and side borders to fuse together, but this will keep me busy (along with several other projects) when I take it with me to

the lakehouse with me this weekend to celebrate Terry's birthday. Her entire family of girls/women (from 1-65) and me (there's 19 of us) are going to sew all weekend. Terry and I will be teaching them how to make Turning Twenty quilts.

We'll sew, eat (they requested I bring my Italian Cream Cake. The link to the recipe is on my sidebar.), and most likely get snowed in. Yes, another snow storm is on it's way.

And, speaking of snow storms, I finally figured out who's fault it is that we're having all of this unusual snow. It's Sharon, little miss red geranium cottage herself. She moved to St. Louis (4 hours from me) from California. All she has talked about since she moved there is how much she wants to see snow. Well she got it, and she's enjoying every bit of it!

I'll be back next week!

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Charming Girls' Quilt Club

2010-02-08T19:18:00.000-06:00

It's time again to announce what I would like to finish this month for the Charming Girls' Quilt Club.

I forgot about it last month, but that's probably because I had just gotten back from our trip to Louisiana to see our families at Christmas.

I am invited to a baby shower this coming Saturday. The mother-to-be, Fallon, used to take care of my grand-babies when they stayed in a day care center while my daughter was at work. She loved the diaper bags that I made, so I decided to make her a diaper bag for her new baby girl.

Amy Butler's pattern, Nappy Bag, is roomy, has lots of pockets, and it's easy to make. Fallon likes black and pink, so I thought these fabrics were perfect.

The black and pink swirl will be the outside of the bag, and the pink polka dot will be the inside.

My next project I need to finish this month is another "Butterfly Love" designed by Elizabeth Scott of

Late Bloomer Quilts.

I taught this as a class for my Quilt Guild this past June. I posted about it here.

I have the opportunity to teach at a retreat in the Fall. I have to turn in a teacher application the first of March. Although I have already made the quilt, I want to make one again using different fabrics. I love Sandy Klop's (aka American Jane) fabric line "Snippet's" from Moda. I bought a fat quarter pack when I went to Hancocks of Paducah when I went to the AQS Quilt Show this past April. It has been sitting on my shelf just waiting for the perfect project.

The little florals, stripes, and polka dots will make pretty little butterflies.

I want my quilt to be larger, and maybe do 10" butterfly blocks. I figured it up that I would have to make 45 butterfly blocks. That's a lot of butterflies!

Another project I would like to finish ~~because it's strewn all over my sewing table after the Camping Trip with Pat Sloan~~ is my Bull's Eye quilt that I started in the year 2000. If you scroll down to the next post, you can read about it there.

I think these projects will keep me very busy this month.

To see what the other girls in the "Charming Girls' Quilt Club" are working on this month click here.

Happy Quilting!

Amanda

Happy Monday!

2010-02-08T12:47:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope you all had a nice weekend. I spent most of it on my virtual camping trip with Pat Sloan, sewing, and watching the Saint's win the Super Bowl with my family. Way to "geaux" Saints!!!

It was the perfect weekend for our virtual camping trip. It was snowy at my house, but not as snowy as it was at Pat's house. She got 25" of snow! Looking at her photos brought back memories of when we lived in PA. Snowstorms weren't something that we experienced living in Louisiana, so you can imagine how shocked we were to see our first real snowstorm which brought 36". I think the most snow we ever saw, though, was when it snowed 48"! That's a lot of shoveling!

Pat designed this really cool block that is perfect for busting your stash. You can find the block here.Yesterday, she had a little contest and asked us to name her block. One of the campers named it "Tent Flaps". My idea was to name it "Possiblity" since there are so many different ways to lay out the blocks. "Tent Flaps" was the winner, which is perfect for the theme. You can see everyone's blocks here and their idea for laying out their blocks. I love them all, but my favorite is the Zig-Zag. I would have never thought of that idea. .

My blocks are the two circles that you see in the photos. I decided that this would be the perfect time to ~~wipe the dust off~~ pull down one of my UFO boxes that held the parts to a scrap quilt, "Bull's Eye", that I started in the year 2000. One of the women in my Quilt Guild taught it as a workshop. Evidently I was talking (imagine that!) and not paying much attention to the placement of each of my circles.

Obviously I did the "slap down and sew method", which looks okay here, but

not so much here!

This one is a little better, but not that much better!

Are you laughing? So am I.

I think this quilt will drive my kids crazy because it isn't perfect.

I'm not about to undo all of those blocks or toss them in the trash and start over. My fabrics bring back lots of memories of where I was when I bought the fabric. The black with the pink little flowers is the fabric from the last dress my mother made me before she passed away in the late 80's.

Since it's rough edge applique (where you sew 1/4" around the edges of the circles instead of satin stitching or blind hem stitching to finish the edges), I'm sure, once the quilt is put together and thrown in the wash, all of those little unfinished edges will ravel and they won't even notice that everything doesn't match.

They'll notice.

Looking at these blocks has made me realize how far I have come since I first began to quilt. I have learned about value of fabrics, variety (of my background fabrics), and, hopefully, I'm a little more accurate in my piecing.

The quilt may not hang in my Quilt Guild's quilt show this coming June, but I'm sure it will be perfect for snuggling on the couch, covering the grandbabies when they fall asleep on the floor, or, who knows, maybe it will go on a camping trip!

Thanks, Pat, for a fun weekend! I'm looking forward to another one!

Have a great Monday!

Amanda

Sew and Tell Friday

2010-02-05T23:39:00.000-06:00

It's time for another Sew and Tell Friday. I am excited to say that my finish for this week is...

(drumroll please)

TA-DA

My Valentine quilt

~~that I have talked about for the past 2 weeks that you're probably sick of seeing.~~

The little last minute changes I made before I gave it to Terry to be quilted is that I added two more rows

of ric-rac. It just sort of evened things out and made the quilt not look quite so bottom heavy. If it were only that easy in real life to make my body not look so bottom heavy. I could wrap ric rac around my head to distract from the bottom half. Hey, that may not be a bad idea! I digress.

Terry did a beautiful job quilitng it, as always. There are feathers, swirls, and who know what else that she free hands. Each little section is a different quilting design. And I love that she changes thread colors. Gone are the days of white thread all over my quilts (thanks to Judy and Terry).

It's all ready to be snuggled up by the kids. It looks sweet in it's wooden quilt holder.

I was trying to figure out what to name the quilt. I thought about Love Notes, but then I thought about

"Text Messages" since that's the reason for the "love u!". What do you think?

Be sure to check out Amy's blog to see what everyone else has finished this week for "Sew and Tell Friday". I'm always amazed at how much people get finished. To be honest, I really should start something called

"Say It Ain't Sewn Wednesday". I would have something every week to show for sure!

I'll be back this weekend with my "hope I get them finished this month" projects for the Charming Girls' Quilt Club.

I'm late to Camp Sloanie. I could say that the 1-2feet (can you imagine!?) of snow that Pat is getting is the reason, but

she will blow the whistle at me on that one!

Have a great weekend, everyone. Go Saints!! or as us Louisianian's would write Geaux Saints!

Amanda

Happy Groundhog's Day!

2010-02-02T18:35:00.000-06:00

Thank you for all the sweet comments about the Valentine quilt I made. I made a couple of little last minute changes and gave it to Terry (BFF) for her to put her "pizzaz" on it with her quitling machine. It will be a surprise for you and me, both, to see it quilted and finished!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I can't believe this, but I forgot all about it being Groundhog's Day until I heard the weather on the Today Show. Back in the early 90's we lived about 20 miles away from Punxy (as the locals call it) in another little town in the snowbelt of Pennsylvania. We have lots of fun memories of getting up early, drinking hot chocolate, and watching on TV to see whether or not "Phil" (the groundhog) saw his shadow. Julia came home from school today and told me that I forgot it was Groundhog's Day. I told her I remembered it later on. Then she said, "Why aren't you wearing your sweatshirt?"

I forgot about it, too!

According to Phil it looks like we're going to have six more weeks of this:

It snowed 6 inches on Saturday.

Julia and I say, "Yay!!" We love snow days!

********************************

Have you heard about Pat Sloan's "Camp Sloanie"? It's a winter stashbuster and it's this weekend. Pat has gone through her stash and shot pictures of all of her cute, polka dotted storage bins. It's nice to know I'm not alone (not that I have polka dot storage bins, but I do have an overflowing stash). If you start reading her blog posts from the 26th of January until today, you will see how she is organizing her sewing room and clearing out spaces.

Over the next few days I will be going through my stash and unfinished projects trying to decide what I am going to work on during Camp Sloanie and for the Charming Girls' Quilt Club.

I think I overheard the weatherman say that another snowstorm is heading here this weekend. That's perfect stashbusting weather! Thanks, Phil!

Have a great day!

Amanda

Valentine Sewing Party II

2010-01-24T23:00:00.002-06:00

Even though I didn't get to sew as much for Kelly's Valentine Sewing Party as I would have liked to, I did, however, manage to get one finished! Woo Hoo!

I stayed up unitl 2:30 this morning sewing the peiced borders on the Valentine quilt I started last weekend.

This quilt is so easy and perfect for using holiday fabrics that you don't want to cut up into tiny little pieces. It's a lap sized quilt which will be perfect for cuddling on the couch watching chick-flicks.

After I looked at it for a while I decided it needed something a little fun added to it. Last week Natalia posted a quilt in the Moda Bakeshop, which I l.o.v.e.d!!! So, I decided to tweek this quilt a little and do this:

It's amazing what a little ric-rac and some fun lettering will do to add some pizzazz.

My kids will probably be the ones to use this the most. And, since I'm getting really good at texting both of them these days, I thought I would applique them the perfect message: Love U! (or is it supposed to be Luv U ?)

Thanks, Kelly, and the rest of the girls, for a fun weekend of Valentine sewing.

Amanda

Edited: I have linked this post to Amy's "Sew and Tell" Friday link on her blog amylouwho.com. You can go there, too, and see what everyone else has sewn this week!

Valentine Sewing Party

2010-01-23T11:46:00.000-06:00

Today is the day for the Valentine Sewing Party at Kelly's. There are several of us joining in on the fun.

I am having a party at my house today (an Open House, so you know what that means: lots of cleaning!!). I won't be able to start sewing until later on tonight. I can't wait!

How You Can Help

2010-01-20T12:01:00.002-06:00

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti and to the many people that have gone there to help.

Here's how we can help, too!

Go here to find The Fat Quarter Shop's silent auction, Helping Haiti, and click here to go to Craft Hope for Haiti.

Amanda

Valentine Quilts on the Brain!

2010-01-18T07:23:00.000-06:00

I've got Valentine quilts on the brain and I can see a lot of other people do, too!

Kelly, is hosting a Valentine Sewing Party on Saturday, January 23. It's another "virtual" sewing party, so you don't have to go anywhere! All you have to do is gather your Valentine fabrics, find an easy pattern, and start sewing.

I nearly fell off my chair this morning when I clicked to see what was baking in the Moda Bakeshop. I know a lot of you have probably already seen it, but just in case you haven't it's an amazing Valentine quilt that you can put together in an afternoon!!!!! It's perfect for the Valentine Sewing Party. And you just have to visit the designer, Nalalia at her blog. There are lots of pretty quilts and great tutorials .

Have a fun day!

Amanda

More Sewing for the Friday Night Sew In

2010-01-17T13:15:00.001-06:00

Do you remember the Valentine fabric kit that I put together for a quick quilt? Well, here it is. I changed the fabrics, though. After looking at the photo I showed you I could see that there wasn't enough contrast going on there. It's that "value thing" again.

There are 6 1/2" squares of each of the fabrics that are used for the borders, but I don't have time to put them on today. I am going to a baby shower, and my daughter and my grand-babies are coming over for dinner. We'll probably pull out my Wii (I'm such a cool "Mom-Mom") and dance with the new game that just came out. I've been wanting to try to dance to "Who Let the Dogs Out". I'm sure there will be lots and lots of belly laughs.

Thanks to Heidi for the weekend of sewing fun.

Amanda

Friday Night Sew-In

2010-01-16T22:51:00.001-06:00

My Friday Night Sew In got started kinda late. It was 11:30pm. I didn't plan it that way. It just happened.

Long story short, and it's a long one (I just deleted 7 paragraphs of my explanation), a puddle of water in the family room led to a huge investigation by two plumbers, Steve, and a probe with a little camera on the end (when did plumbers get so high tech?) only to find (after removing part of the wall in my bathroom) that there was a leak where two pipes connect. Thank God they found it because it could have been bad. Real bad.

We were tired and hungry after all of this investigating, so we went out to eat and went to Target. And that's the reason why I didn't start sewing until 11:30.

I started sewing on my little snowmen. I kept falling asleep while I was machine blanket stitching my little snowmen, stars, and trees. As I was dozing off it occured to me that this quilt looks a little bland (which could be the reason I was sewing myself to sleep). Then I realized that I started making this quilt probably 9 years ago. That was before I learned "Terry's (Bff) Theory of Color Relativity". It's all about value, and this quilt needs some value. Besides that, it looks a little Christmasy, so I put it away. Maybe I will finish it in July.

I didn't have anything else prepared to sew. I looked over and saw a couple of charm packs (Love is in the Air by Deb Strain for Moda) that I had bought last year for Valentine's Day sewing, so I took them and made a disappearing 9 patch tablerunner.

This is as far as I got on any sewing this weekend, so far.

I put a little kit together for a fast Valentine quilt.

I have a lot of Valentine fabrics and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I decided to search Flickr to see if anyone had made a Valentine quilt and uploaded it to their flickr account. There are lots of Valentine quilts on Flickr.

I had to laugh because the quilt I liked the best belonged to Jody at Pleasant-Home. She made a Happy Hour (a Terry Atkinson design) out of her Valentine stash.

I think I have enough for several Happy Hour quilts, and then some.

Be sure to check out all the other people who linked up for the Friday Night Sew In over at Heidi's blog. There was a lot of sewing going on in Blogland this weekend!

Amanda