Saturday's Block, Many Roads, #15, plus #12

Saturday was the pick up day for Block # 15 of our Saturday surprise Sampler Program, It is called Many Roads:

I did in fact sew it, but I forgot to take a photo of it before I took it to the store.  
Speaking of forgetting,
I also forgot to post this on Feb 15th, it was block 12 for the Sticks and Stones Sampler Blocks:

Art to Heart Basics

This is a group that we have in the shop, and I've been dipping into it quite a bit lately…

It's a basics group in that it doesn't have any strong focus fabrics, but a lot of really nice blender fabrics. The designer, Nancy Halvorson, has written a couple of books to go along with the grouping

This project is in the book called Table Please, Part One:

Then, just because the fabrics were so prettily sitting on my cutting table, I decided to use them in this pencil case, a project from another book called so gifts

I think I'm going to make this pencil case again, and this timeI will make the outside of it quilted.

I think I'll choose a different color for the wooden part of the pencil as well, since this one doesn't have enough of a contrast with the background gray fabric.

But I must say I do like the orange inside, especially as it contrasts with the bright blue zipper.

Oh yes back to the art to heart fabrics, I am currently sewing another project with them! However I will make a new post all about that another day...

The shop on Thursday

Just a few shots from around the store today,

Happy flowers that would be really cute in a babies room

Gorgeous new sample sewn by Patti, called Boxtrot, using some new Renee Nanneman fabrics

A shot looking toward the front entry, this is the other little Yellowbrick road out of flannel that I mentioned a couple days ago.  I guess it has more turquoise in than I remembered, in addition to the pink and grey,

And here's looking towards the the front windows

Saturday surprise sampler, block 14, Mosaic

I forgot to post this last week!

It is called Mosaic diamond.

Much like that previous block it is composed entirely of Haskwar trial units that finish at 3 inches square.  So much you can do with just one simple shape, especially when you start playing with value, shades of light and dark and medium.

Yet another baby quilt

A couple of weeks ago I just wanted to do some basic sewing. I ended up starting a couple of flannel Yellowbrick road in the baby size.

One of them is Made of pinks and grays and already finished and it's at the shop already. Sadly I have forgotten to take a photo of it. 

However it the second one which is in brighter colors including a print with wonderful lions on it is now ready to machine quilt.

The last one I quilted with some straight lines so this one I think I will do a pattern with more curvy lines on it

Again, I'm using minkes on the back. It makes it so soft.  

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in a sunny bay window in our dining room. It's a great place to sit and watch the birds come to the birdfeeders. We've had a lot of them this last week. Including many goldfinches, or  yellow finches.

It's also nice to see the water running out of the drain spout from the melting snow. Spring is a wonderful time of year.

Baby quilt

We got in a sweet little baby panel in neutral colors, and so of course I needed to sew one up right away!  

It has some woodland creatures on it -- an owl, a squirrel and two bears

I just sewed some blocks to add to either side, and a small outer border, easy-peasy

This afternoon I wrote up some instructions for it, and finished the fmq,  

It turned out to be about 42" x 48", which is a nice size for a baby, I think, 

The ware cart is finished

This is what it looks like in use!  

The bars on top can hold 4 quilts, although  only two are on it right now.  

Finally, we have a way to have a kit, the quilt and the fabric all grouped together in an efficient way, 

The pipes tend to rub off some black stuff, even after being washed in soapy water, which is why I crocheted the covers, plus they are cute. 

Store furnishings update

This is the bulletin board that I was working on the other day.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out,

The idea is that it supposed to look like a piece of looseleaf or lined paper.  I added a few photo transfer images that I had in my drawer,  the bottom left-hand image is from a children's picture book of Snow White,

I am constructing a ware cart.  It is made of wood and plumbers pipe.  There is still a bit more to add to it, but I have to crochet more pipe covers before I can add the other pieces.

Bulletin Board

Just doing some embroidery on the new bulletin board cover for the foyer of our new shop location, 

Using big stitches,,!

 

Back to some sewing

After spending the past two months renovating and moving and unpacking, I have finally spent a few days getting back to the best part, sewing.

I finished the disappearing nine patch kids quilt and it is at the shop as a sample for some kits.

Finally got the borders on the batik quilt I started eons ago, and it is being quilted by Margo,

Got intrigued by the idea of five inch squares.  I know, it doesn't take much some days.

I had a couple of charm packs of Honeysweet, by Fig Tree by moda.   I sewed connector corners on to two sides of the squares, and then combined four into one block. 

Some sashing, and now it's ready for a border.   

I'm thinking that I might be able to quilt it myself if its not too large, 

Child play

It has been many weeks since I spent any time sewing, and so today I decided to make something simple and straightforward.  More than once I had admired some fabrics by Makower that have little birds and elephants and clouds on them, and I decided to make a Disappearing Nine patch baby quilt.  

I ended up using red for the centres of the nine patch blocks, and so they turned into the small squares.  

I tried laying out the blocks so that the red squares all faced the same direction, but it seemed to regulated for me.

So I went back to the first layout, but I moved things around so that all the animals in the big squares faced the same direction.

I think I will use a small border of red, and then a wider outer border.  I will have to go find those fabrics later since I only have the fabrics for the blocks right now. 

I think this might be one of those projects where the quilting design is important to add to the overall effect of the quilt, so I will have to put some thought into how to quilt it.  

At the post office, there was a nice display of art made by some local schoolchildren,

Unpacking continues....

Mountain ranges of fabrics,

New Art to Heart fabrics by Nancy Halvorson!

(Plus lots more new fabrics... Batiks, Lynnette Anderson,, Atomic Cats by Alexander Henry...)

The thread station

We've only now got to the stage where we are unearthing the quilts to put up on the walls, 

Block 13, Chevrons

Block 13, Chevrons