Fabulous Folded Bag

This is a pattern which we brought home from market.  So easy and so very clever.  Can be made into an iPad or Kindle cover too - with handles or without handles.

So very fun to put a gift into.  Imagine a basket of homemade cookies in here for a hostess gift!

Houston Quilt Market!

 This was my first time attending Houston Quilt Market.  It was truly one of the most phenomenal experiences to have.  It was an action packed weekend from the time we woke up on Friday morning before the crack of dawn until Sunday evening.  The venue is absolutely HUGE!  The first two photo's are taken through a portal window on the second floor, looking down at market.  The pictures do not do the venue justice.

Booths stretch as far as the eye can see.  Each one has been carefully decorated by the vendors.  Eye candy deluxe.  

Here is a picture of myself at a booth where the animals were made of minky

We met so many "Famous" people in the quilting world.  People whom I have admired for many years.  Here I was attending a demo by Sue Daly, the Queen of English Paper Piecing.  She is just the nicest lady you could imagine.  In fact they all are.  So helpful and full of hints for your store.  

What an incredible weekend.  I will remember it as long as I live.

Out comes the Crochet! Cooler days are Here!

I absolutely love to crochet.  That is essentially what got me started with loving hand made items.  Both my Grannies, Vera and Shelagh, taught me to crochet when I was very young.  They were so patient and taught me so much.  I will forever be grateful for the wonderful gift they gave me.  My Mom taught me knitting and how to read a pattern.  She did beautiful knitting and used to make jerseys for us.  

Anyway, I digress.  I have a work colleague who is expecting a baby.  So naturally out came the baby yarn and I have started on a baby blanket for her.

A small glimpse at the beginning!

Stitching Insanity!

I have an inability to throw away fabric!  No matter how small the pieces.  This particular insanity started by cutting triangles off the spools.  Just look at this!

These are the triangles cut off the top of the spool section!  So pretty and so precise!

Hmmm!  What can I do with these?

Make squares of course!

Completed 1.5" squares!  Not sure what I am going to do with them, but there they are!

Christmas Spools!

Moda Bake Shop has an awesome pattern at the moment for a spools quilt.  The spools are made from a charm square!  So they are nice and big.  I chose Aspen Frost for my charm pack and am so excited by how they are turning out.  I only have ten left to make and then I can start with the sashing and cornerstone blocks.

See!  They are so much fun!

He always likes to help a little bit!  

A "Scrumptious" Shop Sample Finish!

We took delivery of Scrumptious Fabric last week.  I made up a shop sample using a Villa Rosa pattern called Hide and Seek!  It makes up really quickly and it is a good pattern to show off beautiful fabric using a charm pack.

Sorry about the toes in the bottom of the picture.

Chicken Quilt Finished

I started making this chicken quilt in 2011! I finished the top and then it somehow landed in the UFO pile.  My husband had to work on the weekend so I prepared myself for some alone time.  On Friday I basted the quilt and got it ready for quilting.  I started on Friday night and finished on Saturday night.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  The quilting was a pain as I had to change colors soooooo many times.  It was worth it though.  The quilt is hanging up in my kitchen now.

Finished at last.

Fussy Cutting for English Paper Piecing!

There are a few different ways to do fussy cutting.  You can eyeball your pieces and place the papers down over a design.  Then there is a kaleidoscope method.  Using one piece of fabric you can get many different patterns just from placing your template in a different area of the fabric.  This is a super fun method and is a bit like the stack and whack process!  Try it out, you will enjoy it.

What is extremely useful is a mirror which you place around your template to see what kind of pattern you will be getting.

For this you need to cut out six identical pieces of fabric from six pattern repeats  using the same fabric.

Cut from the same fabric as the previous hexie!  Just in a different position.