Announcing...Bloggers Bar Hop Quiltalong

I am so excited to tell you all about the Bloggers Bar Hop Quiltalong starting October 1st!

Here is an expert from Scott at Blue Nickel Studios explaining the Quiltalong:

Now lest we offend some of you along the way with our reference to a Bar Hop, let us all remember that Bars come in all varieties.  Tavern/Pub bars, yes, but also: Candy Bars, Snack Bars, Breakfast Bars, Sand Bars, Tea Bars (okay, that would be a Tea House, I know…..) Ice Cream Bars, Behind Bars, etc.   So pick YOUR favorite Bar and Hop along with us!

The fabric we are featuring has been generously supplied by Clothworks from their European Taupe VIII collection by Kinkame.  Soft, subtle, and maybe just a little more “traditional” in tone.  We have fourteen bloggers with styles ranging from very modern to the somewhat more traditional side of the quilting street. We believe the “wall” that sometimes comes up between quilters on those lines should be torn down, so that is part of why the collection has been chosen. If you choose to make your blocks out totally modern or totally traditional, they will work just fine.  We love to see the variety of blocks that emerge from these quiltalongs!

Each designer was given four fat quarters from the collection and told they could add one solid and one print of their choice OR two solids and that was it. The other requirement was that they had to use at least one rectangle (bar) in the block  somewhere.  The blocks will all finish to a useful 12” x 12” size.  Feel free to post your blocks here as you hop along with us!

Here’s the line up!

October 1 Amy Ellis

October 2 Lynn Harris   

October 3   Heather Jones    

October 4   Jackie Kunkel    

October 5 Ashley Jones HERE!!!

October 6  Emily Cier 

October 7 Scott Hansen

October 8 Jan Peoples

October 9 April Rosenthal

October 10 Amy Lobsiger

October 11  Cara Quilts

October 12   Konda Luckau

October 13  Alethea Ballard

October 14 Charlie Scott

I hope you will join us to make these blocks with some awesome bloggers!

Whew!

*** First, I want to say "hello" and "thank you" to all of my new followers!  I get so excited to see new followers and read your comments.  It makes my day! ***

I have some great finishes to share with you today!!!  These items were all made for the High Hampton Apple Festival taking place on October 7th in beautiful Cashiers, North Carolina.

First, some awesome journal covers.  I have made 10 so far:

And some really cute (if I do say so myself!) reversible tote bags:

I have also made 17 of these adorable laminated cotton makeup bags:

I still have some WIPs (Works in Progress) to finish, but I have a really great start on some everyday aprons as well as some Halloween aprons.  These are also reversible!  I have flipped up the underside of these to show you:

These aprons are almost done!  I just need to add some ties to finish these up!

I have also pulled these fabrics to make some Halloween treat bags like the reversible tote bags above.  So FUN!

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Sewing Sisters

Is there anything better than sewing with friends?

Not that I can think of, except when that friend happens to be your baby sister!  When she called me and said that she wanted to come to my house for the weekend AND that she wanted to sew, my little heart skipped a beat!

A little background info....my sister is quite a bit younger than me......as in, she is in college and I have been out of college since the Stone Age for a little while...

She wanted to make skirts with her school colors that she could wear to tailgate and to the football games.  Off to the fabric store she went, armed with her great sense of style and some yardage requirements.  Of course, when she got here, we had to search through my hoard stash for just the right finishing touches.  We couldn't be happier with how these skirts turned out! Aren't they darling?

To make the skirts, we used the pattern pieces in Tanya Whelan's book, "Sew What You Love".  We decided to add a lining to these skirts to make them a little heavier and make the drape of the skirt more defined.  Just a simple elastic waistband, and tah-dah!  If you have a chance to pick up this book, there are some great projects in there, including clothing and home goods.

I hope you have a great weekend!  I plan on being chained to my sewing machine (in a good way) working on more festival sewing!

Busy Bee

As I previously mentioned, I am participating in a craft show in October, so I have been sewing like a crazy woman!  Would you like to see some Christmas stockings that I made for the show?

Aren't these FUN?  There are some traditional ones in the bunch, but I especially like those that are the Christmas novelty prints, like:

Pink Flamingo

Surfer Santa

Sock Monkey

Clothesline Christmas

I am also starting on some baby quilts, but pulling the fabrics is all that I have done so far.  I would like to make a baby girl quilt, a baby boy quilt and a "neutral" quilt.  I have pulled these fabrics for the baby girl quilt:

And these for a baby boy:

I am totally in love with that bear print, it just makes me smile!

What are you working on?  I would love to hear!

Eye Candy

I know we all have those moments when we see a fabric and think "I HAVE TO HAVE THAT!!!".  I feel like sometimes (well, maybe all the time...) I say that with every fabric that I see.  I would definitely put myself in the category of fabric hoarder collector.  

When I saw this fabric online from Ikea, I just knew that some of it would have to be mine...and that maybe some of it would have to belong to my great friend, Alethea.

Isn't it the best!?!?!?  These eyes are so large - 10" across and 6" high.  I find myself being more and more attracted to large scale prints lately.  They seem so bold and they make such a statement.  Here is a close-up of one of the eyes:

I can't wait to get started on a project using this fabric.  But...that will have to wait for a little while longer because I have signed up to do my first craft show.  I have everything cut out and I am just starting to get it all sewn together.  Have any of you ever done a craft show?  Any tips?  I feel like I am pretty well prepared, except that I don't know what to expect.

Speaking of "eye candy", recently Trish from the blog www.notesofsincerity.blogspot.com posted that she had found some out of print Michael Miller fabric.  I had some in my hoard stash that I offered to send to her because I didn't have a plan for it.  In return, she sent me these darling crocheted pincushions:

Aren't they awesome?  Thanks so much Trish!  I love them!!!

Giant Granny Panties and Customer Service

I'm curious to see what kind of attention that title brings my way!

Have you heard about The Giant Granny Panties Quilt Along that is going on over at www.thatgirlthatquilt.com ?

If not, you really should go over and check it out!  This is really going to be a great quilt!  I'm a little behind on the cutting portion, but I hope to have that all done this weekend so that I can start sewing!  These are the fabrics that I chose:

When I read the instructions for this, I got so excited because the individual squares are going to be a generous size, so I can finally use this great Kokka strawberry print:

Isn't that scrumptious?  These strawberries are BIG - 5" tall!  I can't wait to see this quilt come together!

Now for the customer service....There is nothing like great customer service - am I right?  Last year at Christmas, my husband bought me a Juki 2010Q.  I was so excited!  I had wanted one of these for awhile, and the TL98Q before that, so on Christmas morning I was one happy girl!

Fast forward 8 months and I'm sewing like crazy and loving every bit of this machine.  Then, I got a letter in the mail last week from Juki.  I wasn't expecting it, so when I opened the letter and found out that there was a recall on my machine because of a "faulty thread cutting solenoid", my heart kinda sank.  Not because of the machine, but because my hubby bought it online from a dealer in Arizona.  Not a problem, but we live in North Carolina and all I could think of was having to ship it back to Arizona to be fixed.

I should have read the letter a little better before I let my mind wander, because at the end of the letter, Juki said that they were going to send me a new machine for FREE!  I couldn't believe it!  I called and spoke to the person in charge of the recall and she was so great!  She said that it was likely that my machine was fine since I had not had any trouble with it, but because they wanted to make sure that everyone was satisfied with the quality of Juki, they decided to replace all of the machines in that production lot.  In less than 5 minutes, I had a new machine coming my way!  I still have to pack up the old one and send it back, which is kinda sad, but if it keeps me from having issues later I don't mind.

I loved my Juki before all of this happened and I would definitely buy one again.  After all of this, it is really great to know if I ever have an issue, I am confident that Juki would give me great service and make sure everything is fixed.

I hope everyone has a really great weekend!  I'm off to start cutting those beautiful strawberries!

(kinda) Wordless Wednesday

I have seen many blogs that post a "Wordless Wednesday" post, but I felt this needed a little more introduction.

This is Jax, the namesake of Spotted Dog Quilting Blog:

And her sister, Camilla, a not-so-spotted dog:

This is how they sleep when they ride in the car:

I hope everyone had a great long weekend!  I'll be back tomorrow with a more "quilty" post.





Have a great day!