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FREE PATTERNS!!!

Monday, June 18, 2012 1 Comment »
I like the Fat Quarter Shop.  It's a great site to cruise,  oogle and make wish lists.  But did you know that, in addition to selling fabrics and patterns, they also have quite a collection of free patterns?  F.R.E.E.  No cost.  Yours for the downloading. 

The patterns are from all the major fabric manufacturers and look like they are ones that were released in conjunction with specific fabric lines.  There are patterns from Moda. Art Gallery,  Michael Miller, Robert Kauffman, Henry Glass  & Lecein, to name a few.  Go take a look and build your idea stashDid I mention that the patterns are free?

Click Here To Go To FQS Free Patterns

Just Beachy

Sunday, June 17, 2012 5 Comments »
I just got back from a week at my sister's vacation house on Ocean Isle Beach, NC.  She was kind enough to lend it to my lovely daughter, Kate, and her husband, Paul.  They, in turn, invited us, as well as Paul's parents, and his brother, who was accompanied by his soon-to-be fiance.  Quite a full house!   Oh, did I forget to mention Alma?  Miss Alma is now 15 months old, curious about everything and really enjoyed being the center of the beachy universe.   Kate, who is six months pregnant, enjoyed two sets of grandparents sharing the child care responsibilities with her asd Paul.

Here is Alma with Mommy and Daddy:


and here she is all by herself:


She LOVED the ocean -- could not get enough of it -- and really liked playing in the sand.  One of her most favorite activities, however, was chasing down (stalking?) other children.  Any child under the age of 4 was fair game.  She would follow them around, trying to engage them in "conversations", or trying to give them a hug.  I think having been in day care has contributed to making her a real social butterfly.

I don't like to spend a lot of time in the sun, so I took my Baby (the featherweight), to work on some projects.  I finished the binding on the Flea Market Fancy quilt, got a good part of a wedding gift quilt done for Kate's best friend, and finished up the top from the McCall's Mystery Quilt.  You can read more about that Mystery here.  The fabrics I chose were very girlie, from Chez Moi's Sophie line.  This is not a small quilt -- it's 82" x 82".   There was no  particular recipient in line for this one, but Kate allowed as how Alma and her little sister might like it as a quilt to share. 

 



The back will be pieced with that print focus fabric (in a pink color-way), and the turqouise.  The binding will be turquoise.  I am pleased with how it turned out & would even consider doing it in other fabrics for a totally different look.
 
Well, I need to unpack.  There is also a very large pile of laundry wainting.  Back to work tomorrow (ugh).   I will post pix of that wedding quilt later this week, and will also post the Mystery once it's back from the long-armer. 

 

Fancy Fleas Finish

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 4 Comments »
The flimsey that I posted here is finished!  Just in time for Denise Schmidt's visit to the Philly Modern Quit Guild in a week or so.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out. 



My usual quilt holder was not avaiable, so I had to improvise with a few bottles of wine, 2 merlots and a shiraz,to be exact.    We quilters can be very inventive.   

A Wedding Kaleidoscope

Wednesday, June 06, 2012 5 Comments »
Many months ago, I saw an interesting quilt on SuBeeSews blog.  It was a kaleidoscope quilt, made with a 45 degree ruler.  Here are SuBee's posts about her kaleidoscope tops.  I wrote to Sue, asking about the method used to make the quilts, and she was kind enough to send me details instructions, and information on where to get the ruler.  If you are interested, I found a really good tutorial here.   




I thought I would try the technique for the first of many wedding quilts I need to make over the next year.  This quilt is for my nephew, Jesse Michael, and his beautiful bride Rebecca.  They are currently living in Atlanta, where Jesse is a chef at the Grande Hyatt in Buckhead.   They were married here in Pennsylvania on May 5th.   The wedding was absolutely perfect, with the predicted rain holding off.   It could not have been a more perfect day!  Of course the quilt was not done it time.




When I asked Rebecca what colors she liked, she told me that browns and pinks were her favorites.  I hope that the quilt is not too pink for Jesse.  If you look closely, you can see a fabric from the Pokey Little Puppy line -- the newlyweds have a black lab mix named Piper, that pretty much rules their lives, so I thought the paw prints would be fun.  The top is half-way done.


Any suggestions for borders?  I'm struggling on that one.  I could use the dark brown Kaffe.  I've also got a nice dark brown with pink dots and a darkish brown mottle.  Should I pull a narrow border of a light?  Decisions, decisions!Here is what I have so far. 

Do You Etsy?

Sunday, June 03, 2012 4 Comments »
I like to support my LQS, but there are many times when I'm looking for something a little different or for a piece of fabric from an older line -- and now-a-days, "older" can mean a line that just came out a few months ago.  There are also times when I'm looking for a bargain. 

One of the best places I've found to start my search is on Etsy.  Of course there are wonderful hand-crafted items, but there are also oodles of patterns and fabrics, as well as notions for fabric-related crafts.  Need the little D-rings and swivel hooks to make purses, wristlets or key fobs?  How about snaps for children's clothing, or the special laminated cotton for diapers?  The soft elastic bands and flowers to make infant headbands, or ground walnut shells for pincushions.  Zippers in any color and any length?  Etsy's got it all, and more. 


Sophie Collection by Chez Moi for Moda - 1 yard - Overlay - Paisley Flower Multi Color PinkWhere I really find Etsy helpful is in searching for fabric. Usually it's that one more piece from a line that I need for a quilt, or maybe one more charm pack. This week I needed fabric to complete a mystery quilt that Marsha and I are doing from McCall's magazine. I fell in love with a line of fabric called Sophie, by Chez Moi for Moda. Of course it's their old line --a new line is coming out shortly -- so the standard sources only have one or two prints left from the line. Off to Etsy I went.

I found a great new store that had just what I needed.  The owner, Connie, is just getting started on Etsy, but she is certainly an old pro at being accommodating and in communicating.  Within less than a day she had created a special listing just for me to reflect the extra yardage I needed, and adjusted the shipping accordingly.  My fabric is on its way! 

Please check out her store to see if there is anything that strikes your fancy -- her prices are great.  Her Etsy store is Quilt Fabrics by Connie.   She tells me that she will be getting a bunch of new fabric by the end of the month, too!

How do you Etsy?