Showtime!

If you're at Quilt Market come and say hi!

Thursday

Holly and I are living it up before we go finish up the booth! Hope its good with you guys! Xo

Month Six

Good morning!  By the time you read this, Holly and I will be in Portland for Quilt Market! I'm very excited to show people our latest collection, Pam Kitty Picnic. 

 

 

 

But first things first, it's time to talk about our homework for this month! We're six months into this so I better get cracking with sewing it all together.  I always have such great intentions, but right now the best I have is the blocks sewn into rows and the sashing rows put together.  Later this month I'll tell you what I'm using for sashing and posts, and give you the  yardage amounts. 

 

Ok, so here we go! First up is True Blue. 

Soldier's Aid Nine Patch

Log Cabin

 

 

Empty Spools

Old Maid's Puzzle

 

And here they are all laid out! It's huge right?

 

It's all very exciting.  If you haven't already been, head over to the Jolly Jabber to see what they've been up to. You can count on lovely photos with them, not to mention precision piecing.  Be sure and check out our flickr group too.

Ok, hope you're having a good week! xo

Monday

Howdy! How was the weekend? Did all you moms have a great weekend?  I had a fantastic time, my family treated me pretty darn nice.  And when I wasn't being catered to, I managed to get the last of the stuff ready for the trip.  Lots of odds and ends to find.  Holly has been slaving away on her side of the bay on all the fine little details of putting a collection together.  

 

Finished up one last thing.  I was thinking of a Simple Shopper, something soft that could be rolled up in a purse for a trip to the market.  Here in Alameda County we have a Reusable Bag Ordinance that prohibits single use plastic bags in certain circumstances, so carrying a shopper is a must. I like the shape and size.. so when I get home I'll work on pockets etc.  I've taken to just carrying my ATM card with me into the market, so some pockets might be cool.. well then it's just a purse right? It's a work in process.  But I think cute enough? And of course I'm IN LOVE with the spot handles from Inazuma. I hope they'll be at Spring Market. They have so many great handles, bag frames etc.

So I'm rambling.  Tomorrow our homework is due!  I've got that all ready to go while we're driving to Portland!  I can't believe it's the sixth month!  That might be it for me for the week.. I know plenty of people will be tweeting and instagramming and blogging from market so that will keep you busy till I get back. I am looking forward to showing off Pam Kitty Picnic and seeing all my twice-a-year market friends.   Have a great week everybody!!! xo

Friday

Hello Friday! It's a mixed blessing for sure, on the one hand it's always nice when the weekend rolls around but on the other HOLY COW IT'S ALMOST TIME TO LEAVE FOR MARKET.  Thanks everyone for the lovely comments and emails about Pam Kitty Picnic!

 

Here's a little teaser just to keep you interested!

Now back to business.  Yesterday was a cute mail day for me.  Tasha and I  had a little swap and look at the goodies I received yesterday!  Of course you all know my love of little florals and those top two are sewing sweetness aren't they?  It's all divine.  She included one of her little illustrations that could not be cuter. Everything about it adorable!

I'm so lucky to have meet so many wonderful people blogging, and Nanette is one of those extra-special friends to me. She gets me.  I received this cute little banner from her as a surprise. It's super cute, the little kitten is even wearing satin slippers. Extra special because, well Nanette is extra special.

 

I'm so very very lucky.  And lucky to have all you friends near and far who check in with me and see what I'm up to, leave comments, or even no comments, just hanging out. I know you're there and I hope you know how much  I appreciate you! Have a great weekend. xo

Wednesday

I have to be honest, it's becoming harder and harder to keep calm!  Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments about Pam Kitty Picnic!  I can't wait to show your more, but think cherries and roses and daisies and plaids and dots.. not to mention some adorable kittens and puppies! And the projects Holly has designed to show off the fabrics are simply charming.  I am pretty sure you'll love them. 

 

Today I'm off to the studio to help out with some odds and ends.  And one of the odds and ends here before I go is to name the winner of the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks magazine. Suze.. who said "Congrats on being included in the superb magazine. It is amazing. I like the yellow and white background. It really makes the Crossed Spools pop. Thanks for the generous giveaway. Your blog is the first that I have noticed that tells of a giveaway in the magazine, too. I think we all like giveaways." Email me your address and I'll forward it to Quiltmaker!

 

Ok friends.. time to get ready for the day!  I hope yours is wonderful! xo

Pack a sandwich!

We're going on a picnic!!!

Finally, I get to reveal my very exciting news!  Holly and I have collaborated on another Pam Kitty LakeHouse Collection. We're pretty happy about it and I hope you are too!  Working together with Holly is always great fun, for me anyway! While she's working hard to bring you a beautiful collection that has all the details you've come to expect from a LakeHouse line of fabric, I get to sit next to her and say things like "OHMYGOSH THAT IS SO CUTE!" and "OHMYGOSH OF COURSE WE NEED THAT IN 4 COLORS!"and the regular "OHMYGOSH I DIDN'T THINK THAT COULD BE ANY CUTER BUT IT IS!" 

 

You can count on Pam Kitty Picnic to play right along with Pam Kitty Love and Pam Kitty Morning.

 

I can't wait to show you more of the collection. If you're traveling to Quilt Market we hope you'll come by the LakeHouse booth at 2249 and say hello and take a look at our booklet! We've got a trick or two up our sleeves and we can't wait to tell the shops about it!

 

Thanks everyone!!! xo

 

Friday

So what are you up to? I can't believe (as I say every week) that another week has flown by.  Did you get what you wanted done or are you just happy to see the tail end of it?

 

Got some sewing done yesterday. Elizabeth has made my Fat Quarter Bag available in pdf form, and I thought I'd whip up a couple just for fun.  What I like about them is the ease of construction and the fact that I can make up a bag out of those fat quarters I've  collected!  I also like that the flap has a magnet sewn into the flap to keep it closed.

 

Anyway, that's about here. I hope you are still following the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks blog tour!  It's been fun right? Thanks for all the really nice comments yesterday. I totally appreciate them!!

 

Ok, hope you all have a happy weekend! xo

Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Blog Hop

Good morning!!! Welcome to the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 blog tour!  I'm always thrilled to be included in this great magazine.  Thanks to the people at Quiltmaker for including me!

My block in volume 7 is called Crossed  Spools and it's on page 71. It looks a lot more complicated than it is, and Quiltmaker has written  up some nice instructions for it. 

 

Great instructions and full sized patterns make this magazine a winner!  Also there's a Block Tester's Gallery, where you can see some pretty quilts made up with blocks from this volume.

Here's an option that I came up with.  Pretty simple, using my favorite yellow dot and yellow LoveBirds on white! You can always count on seeing something yellow on white with me!

 

I hope you leave a comment here, for a chance to win a magazine from Quiltmaker,  and be sure and hop to the Quilty Pleasures blog as there are prizes there as well.  When you get your magazine, check the last page for a contest there.  Did you know you could win the actual blocks in the magazine?

 

Ok, time for me to get to work! Have a great day! xo

Panic Season

Good morning!  It's another beautiful sunny (also hot) day here! I hope you're having a good week.  It's May 1, can't you believe it?  I'm just popping in to remind you that the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks blog tour is going on.... have you been touring all the blogs?

 

There are so many great designers with blocks in the magazine, it's been fun to travel from blog to  blog and see their posts and get to know some people you might not already know. Tomorrow is my day, so I'll be back to share my block!

 

Ok, back to work. It's countdown time, we leave for market in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.

A Coffee

Happy Monday friends! How are you!  I had a busy but still nice weekend.  It was sunny and warm, and I had my coffee on the swing.  I confess that Frankie and I binged on some Netflix Hemlock Grove as time permitted the past few days.   Famke Janssen has a crazy accent and she kept asking/offering a 'coffee' and it sounded so weird and cool that in my head that's how I'm going to be pronouncing coffee from now on.  And it's not a cup of coffee as I've been saying, it's just a coffee.

 

Yes I had a coffee on the  patio. It was delightful. I wish you could have joined me. I would have offered you a coffee as well.

 

So yeah it's true, I'm a weirdo. But that probably comes as no surprise. Today is the start of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine blog tour! Be sure and head there next and read all about it and see who's featured today!  The magazine is full of fantastic blocks and come Thursday you'll see mine here on the blog! Ok, skedaddle. I'm off to get a coffee. xo

Friday

Happy Friday! I can't believe the week went by so fast!  We've had a lot of sunny days, even the mornings are bright! We had some cooler days but it's warming up for the weekend again.

 

Do you have any plans? Usual stuff around here. Next week starts the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine tour and I'm excited to say my block is included  in Volume 7!  I can't wait to share my block with you! There are a lot of great blocks so be sure and hop over to the Quilty Pleasures Blog to get the latest news.

 

So that's all that's new for this week! I hope you all have a great weekend and come back here Monday and tell me all about it! xo

Yakkity Yak

Yesterday felt kind of laid back here.  I did a lot of around the house stuff, and then did some dorking around in the sewing room.  I'd seen a cute little quilt on, where else, Pinterest. Now I see that it comes from a book by Kathleen Tracy, I can't believe that I didn't click through to that link till now.  Anyway in the past I was a huge fan of Civil War quilts and primitive style  things, and did a lot of sewing in those colors. But my true love has always been colors of the thirties. I think a lot of the primitive designs would have a whole different fun look in cheerful colors, which is why I need to get back to my Yard Party quilt plans. Anyway, I have had those baskets on my mind and thought I'd try one out.

 

Blah blah blah, I yak a lot. What I need.... less talking, more doing! Just a quick note, are those the cutest little red scissors ever?  Alex had a pair and I finally tracked them down! Sharon had them in her shop and I snapped them up! My excuse, I need adorable red scissors for photos. 

 

The one nice thing about these longer days with nice weather, iced tea and a magazine out back.  We're back to high 70s and to me that's perfection!  I hope you're having a good week! xo

Wednesday

So what's happening today?  Usual stuff on the agenda here. Yesterday though I took a bitty break and made something that I had obsessed over since I saw it on Pinterest.   You probably already know about Amy, she's so talented and totally inspiring.  I love everything she does, the clever projects, the fabric selections, the photography. Anyway... she made this adorable pincushion.  I loved it when I saw it, but then I saw this one Pinterest with the little kitty face and just about died.  Sandra writes about needing that feeling of  instant gratification and that's just exactly how I felt.

Looking back I see I've totally forgotten that it was quilted and of course I had to mix it up with some mini pom poms which were practically impossible to stitch on. But I did it! And it was gratifying!

 

One of the things I did try was a different method of stitching it all together. You may already be familiar with this, but it was a life changer for me!

 

 I wish I could remember where I saw this. I've spent quite a bit of time looking for the blog..it's totally genius.  I usually leave a section around the edge open, then have trouble stitching it closed, especially on a circle, I get that lame edge spot.  This split back totally circumvents that problem. I would love to credit the very smart stitcher who blogged this.  GENIUS. Thank you!

 

And thank you guys, for hanging out with me!!! You're awesome! xo

Tuesday

Hi there.  How's it going at your place? Did you have a good weekend?  We had a pretty productive one here. I got a lot of sewing done, and Bret did a ton of yard work.  Best of all I had coffee with my two Debbies and that was the highlight!

 

Sad doings here too.  Friday morning out on the patio was lovely, the hummingbirds were feeding their babies.  I came back out after my shower to find that a huge blue jay had ripped apart the nest and had stolen the babies.  Later I saw him eating them.  Man nature is harsh and heartbreaking.  I have only seen the hummingbird adults a couple of times since then.  Hopefully they'll come back. 

 

I know it's still snowing places, but it's heating up here way too fast. It was in the low 90's over the weekend.  Yikes, it seems soon. 

 

Hope you're having a good week. xo

Pincushion Friday

Hi Hi HI!!! Happy Friday! So have you seen Ayumi's new book, Patchwork, Please! I've had it since it was first released and I figure I'm pretty much the last person ever to make one of these cute pin cushions! Monica posted her darling pincushion here, there's a flickr group here and there's even a Facebook page for a Zakka along starting next month! I've seen these pincushions popping up all over instagram and I can't resist it anymore. 

 

 

I haven't done any paper piecing in years, but it was easy to pick it up again, and this project  is the perfect jumping off point.  I pretty sure  I managed to finish it with in an hour or so.  It was just fun to be in my sewing room working on it.

 

All I can think about now is making the next one! They're the potato chip of pincushions I think.

 

I had a great week and I hope you did too!  Happy weekending!!! xo

Thursday

Good morning! I hope the week is progressing along as you'd hoped!  Yesterday I made a trip over to Dublin to the Joanns, our local store is moving and the inventory is really picked over. I needed some fusible. I guess fusible is  in hot demand lately, because they were sold out of my packaged choice.  Oh well, there's always another day!

 

My backyard is full of birds. My local squirrels are eating most of the mixed seed but there's plenty to go around.  This little Black Phoebe has spend the last couple of weeks flitting around my yard. He's enjoying what the squirrels knock to the ground, they're not feeder eaters.  He won't be here much longer, he's on his way somewhere else I'm sure.

I've left this picture small because wow, are these baby hummers UGLY. There's three in the nest, you can barely tell.  That bottom one looks pretty small, and I suspect it's chubbier siblings are getting all food. The mom comes and goes feeding them.  I've hung up some baskets of flowers and have a hummingbird feeder, but she must have some better source as she's constantly zooming out. Maybe she doesn't like my choices!

Ok, that's about it here.  Hope you have a good productive day! xo

Wednesday

So what's doing with you this fine Wednesday morning? I picked up my three quilts from Diana, my quilter, and have busily been sewing on bindings.  The timing is perfect because we've had a bit of a cold snap. 

 

Sure, it's not like we've got snow, but it's been pretty chilly here.  It seems sunny and should be warm, but you step outside and that wind feels a little icy.  Anyway, bundling up with a quilt seems perfect.

 

I had one of those lesson learning moments with this little stack of binding.  It's made of 10 inch strips left over from my thimbles.  It's very cheerful.  There are a  lot  of seams, so I decided not to do a little test run around my quilt, pinning the binding down to make sure that there were no seams on the corners. I mean with all those seams I didn't think it could be avoided.  I stitched up one side and then WHAM, right along the bottom, I run into a problem. A big chunk of binding is exactly the same as one of the thimbles. What are the odds I thought as I stopped and took out that chunk of binding and moved it to the end. Yeah, what are the odds?

 

The odds are pretty darn good. not a foot later it happened again.

 

Well you just have to laugh right?  Hope the week is treating you well. xo

Homework!

Good morning!  I can't believe another month has flown by and it's time to go Back to School and turn in our homework!

 

Be sure and stop head over to the Jolly Jabber and see how Kimberly and Debbie's homework turned out! They always get an A+ in my book.  You can also check out the Flickr group for more inspiration!

 

Block 21 Richmond

Block 22 Pinwheel

Block 23 Comfort Quilt

Block 24 New England

Block 25 Ladies Aid

 

And here they all are laid out.  Already it's a pretty good size.  Debbie showed off her sashing over on Facebook last week! She's way ahead of me. I'm still playing around on photoshop trying to decide exactly what I'd like to do.  Thin sashing? Medium sashing? What are your thoughts?

 

Ok, hop on over to the Jolly Jabber and check out their homework!

Recap

Ok, so how do you think the week went?  My week was pretty good.  Lots going on, rainy weather, sunny weather, having fun, working hard, feeling happy.  Pretty DARN good I guess!  So this week I thought I had a pretty good idea. I was thinking about all the strawberries I made when we introduced Pam Kitty Morning. 

So I got to thinking about cherries.  And how fun it would be to make some cherries to use at the table. I wasn't thinking of the same kind of production as the strawberries, just a few, for fun. But how would you go about it?  My mind was just cogitating on it while I was doing other stuff and then I thought, why not use a yo yo and a Styrofoam ball.

 

And now you can see not all things work out as you'd hoped.  It just doesn't say cherry to me.
  

Although if it was yellow it might say quince.

 

ANYWAY. Have a good weekend people.  Next week: HOMEWORK IS DUE!

 

Wedensday

Good morning!  How is the week going for you?  I managed to get some things checked off my list. Yesterday I headed over to Diana's to drop off my quilts.  I even scooped up an old one at the last minute, it's a top that's been folded up and laying around begging for attention so I told her to put in the 'when you have time' queue.  She quilts for Joanna as well as several other people who attend quilt market, so I have to get my stuff in before she gets swamped.

 

It's my favorite time of year around here, blue skies, nice temperatures and everything is green. Pretty soon it will all be crispy brown, it gets  pretty hot here in my little valley. Not like central valley hot, but close enough.  But my trees are leafing out and my Lady Banks roses are blooming.

They only bloom once, but they bloom their hearts out for you.  Mine are just starting.  I always think of Elizabeth when I see them. She's the one who told me about  them, and quoted something her dad said about the bloom, so to me they're a nice garden reminder of our friendship.  

 

My lilac bloomed out. You can see a busy little bee flying by, the yard is buzzing with activity.  Lots of lady bugs this year, hopefully eating up any aphid that I don't see without my glasses! 

 

Ok, I'm already one cup of coffee into my day so I better get to work! Hope you're all  doing well. I'm so sorry people who still are getting snow!  I would send you some sunshine if I could! xo

Monday

Good morning!  And super good because HOLY COW I finished my row along top. Of course I don't have enough space to get far enough away from it to get a good picture, so you'll have to trust me. 
 

Seriously DSLR people, what lens should I have to get good pictures of a whole quilt? So far I have a nice close up macro lens and the kit lens.  I guess it's figure it out or start taking picture through the window into the living room!

 

Anyway, lots of work done this weekend. What about on your end?  Sewing? Working?  I've done a little bit of it all, but what I really need to do today is clean up the kitchen  sink, I don't know that there are any clean dishes left! True confession. 

 

Have a great week everybody! xo