Good Morning!

Just a quick post to say hi from San Luis Obispo! Heading home today. Hope you are having a good week!

Fat-Quarter Quickies Blog Tour Day 2!!

Good Morning!  Welcome to my stop along the Fat Quarter Quickie's blog tour!  You all know that Kathy and I are friends and I'm happy to have a chance to share her new book with you!  In true Teacher's Pet form, this book is filled with great patterns and easy to read and understand instructions.

 

Kathy also has a Creative Grids ruler that is a companion to the book, along with good instructions on how to use it. It's the perfect ruler to go with all those precuts you've been 'saving'.   The nice part though, you don't need the ruler to make these projects.

Kathy asked us each to pick our favorite quilt to talk about. No problem for me, hands down it's this Sail Away pattern.  I love it's a nice classic design, and look at the wonderful quilting on that! To me this quilt is timeless. 

What's the great thing about a blog hop?  The opportunity to win something!  Leave a comment for a chance to win and e-copy of Kathy's book, Fat Quarter Quickies.  Then check out all the stops on this hop to better your odds of winning! 

Monday:Tara at Sew Unique Creations
Tuesday: PamKittyMorning
Wednesday:Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts
Thursday: Martingale
Friday:Lissa at ModaLissa
Saturday:Pat at Silver Thimble Quilt Co
Sunday:Julie at Jaybird Quilts
Monday: Rachel at PS I Quilt
Tuesday: Kathy for the Wrap!

Monday

Hi there, how was your weekend?  We had a great weekend, perfect perfect weather!  I spent some time on the back porch.  My potted hydrangeas are suddenly blooming up a storm.  SO HOT PINK. All of them started out as blue but of course they turn pink, no matter that I feed them with the "turn blue" food. Oh well, they're all still pretty to me.

 

When I'm out in my pj's taking a million pictures of my coffee cup the neighbors must think I'm nuts. We have some new neighbors kitty corner behind us that have a 2 story.. they get an eyeful! I figure it gives them something to talk about, "you're not going to believe our crazy neighbor..."

 

I need the practice.  I always think about the beautiful pictures I see with the  different focal points.  Very interesting to me.  And people with beautiful gardens and homes.... I love to see those.  Pinterest keeps me day dreaming.

 

Ok, what else? Did you see my blocks? Early birds caught a glimpse of the finished quilt! I didn't follow my instructions and posted the whole quilt for an hour or so!  WHOOPS! Be sure and check out Kimberly and Debbie's blocks over on the Jolly Jabber.

 

Bret has the week off so it will probably be slim pickings around here.  I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!!! xo

 

 

School's out for the summer.... almost!

Hi there Happy Saturday and Happy Last day of school before finals!! I've had a blast sewing through Barbara's book Civil War Sampler with my friends Kimberly and Debbie and of course all the people who played along at home! The flickr group is full of great  blocks, you should take a look.  I love how the blocks can look completely different based on fabric selection, placement of lights and darks etc.  And sewing, isn't it just plain old fun?

 

So here's my last row of blocks.  Here's Twin Sister

 

Union Square

 

 

Rail Road Crossing

 

Grapes of Wrath

 

Court House Square

 

And here they all are.

 

I don't have a big enough spot to lay this out and get a photograph of the whole thing.  I'm only so daring when it comes to the ladder, so the footstool has to do!

Thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for hosting this fun sew along each month, I had a blast. Did you sew along with us?  I hope you'll put your photos up in our flickr group!  Hope on over to the Jolly Jabber and see the last row for Kimberly and Debbie. Then come back next month to see the finished quilt. 

P. S.  The early birds reading saw the whole thing....shhhh ! My mistake!

Thursday

Hi there!  It's Thursday already, can you believe it? I had another good sewing day yesterday, getting all the sashing on my quilt done.  Next up borders!

Many of you wondered if this would be a pattern and you're in luck, it's the free pattern to go with Pam Kitty Picnic!  It will be available for download later this summer.  Here's the cute Tic Tac Tulip page from our  sales booklet, Holly is showing three versions here to show you some different looks.  

 

Suzanne asked if those kitty tulips were cut by machine or by hand, and they're all cut by hand, but oh gosh, wouldn't a die cut be great?  I am totally in love with that tulip shape.  This quilt is inspired by a vintage childrens book illustration of a quilt. Anyway, thanks for all your nice comments!

 

I'm taking tomorrow off but I'll be back on Saturday with my final homework on the Back to School with Pam Kitty quilt.   See you then!

Dreamy

Good morning!  I've been enjoying my backyard paradise a lot since I finished up that canopy. Seriously, why oh why do I put stuff off?  There's just nothing better than sitting out there  seeing the birds and reading a magazine, checking instagram on my phone. You know, the usual.

 

Here's a surprise, I've been working on my little project, you know this applique I've shown many times, always in this state!  Somehow I managed to get it all fused to the background and blanket stitched down and sewn into rows!

 

Proof..

 

I know! I'm a shocked as you are!  I hope to get the sashing sewn up today and then finish it up.  I think it's turning out so cheerful!  It's a happy project to work on.

 

So what are you up to? 

Monday

Good Monday Morning my fine friends! How are you and how was the weekend?  We're still weekending here today, Bret has the day off and we're probably going to be a bit lazy.

 

I did get around to some sewing this weekend, how about you? I have a nice old swing on my patio, it has a fabric canopy that was a little worse for wear. The California sun can be pretty hard on fabric, and it was disintegrating  so I finally had to do something.  I'd been thinking about it for ages, and had even picked up the canvas I planned on using, but never wanted to get started on it.  I just find tasks like that to be a pain. But in a matter of a couple of hours I had made the canopy, washed and shrunk it to the perfect size (which was a lucky break). Pretty it's not, canvas gets awfully  wrinkly when wet and since I put it on the swing wet to dry and shrink up around the frame it's s little funky.  But I consider it all done and somewhat a miracle. 

 

Unspoken here is.. if it was so easy why did it take me months to actually do it?  Well that's my brand of insanity right there people.  Saturday was a scorcher but Sunday was positively blissful and I plunked myself out there with  a coffee and a magazine and enjoyed the cool morning.  Looks like we have some nice weather coming up, so I will put that canopy to good use!

 

Have a good day out there people!!! xo

Thursday

So what have you been up to?  I've been in the backyard working on cutting back my roses. It doesn't take many days of hot weather for all the blooms to come and go and leave the plants looking a little worse for wear.  So it's pruning season.  I've got a fresh sharp pair of clippers thanks to a practical Mother's Day gift, and I put them too good use. 

One last flower back there.  Always sad to see the yard get crispy and a little burnt looking. It's been ingrained in me too long to conserve water, having spent many years in drought conditions, so I water enough to keep things alive, but my yard will never be the lush green oasis that I'd love.

 

I do treat myself to a few pots of pretty flowers for my friends the hummingbirds.  I haven't seen much of them back there, occasionally one will fly in for a drink.  I'm always so grateful to see them.

 

 Bret has the day off tomorrow so I  will wish you a happy weekend now.  See you next week, come by and tell me what you were up to. xop

Tuesday

It's almost time to show off our last row in the Back to School with Pam Kitty. I can't believe we're coming to an end of this project.  I thought I'd bring you up to date on my sashing and border choices and necessary yardage requirements.

 

For the posts, I went with the red mini dot.  Originally I had intended to use all the different reds and while I still think that's a great idea, I'm not sure it's great with the multi color dot sashing I chose.  If you chose a white on white I think it's a great idea to use your leftover fabric.  Plus, I'm not going to lie, it was just much easier to cut it all at once.  I might have been influence by that!  My inner border is the pink stripe and the outer border the red floral.  One note before I get started, LakeHouse stripes run from selvedge to selvedge and my yardage reflects that.   I went pretty basic and my yardages are as follows:

 

Outer Border    2 yards

Inner border     1 yard (that gives you good long lengths to piece)

Sashing            1 yard

Posts                1/8th yard

Of course I have to tell you I saw Debbie's sashing on Facebook and it's adorable and I totally wanted to copy her, but that seemed rude.  Kimberly's sashing is still a mystery! I can't wait to see what everyone has chosen.

Ok, that's it for today. 

Monday

Monday has rolled around again bringing with it some slightly cooler weather. What did you do over the weekend?  The weekend here seemed short, Saturday I picked up Bret from the San Francisco airport, home after a trip to Atlanta and Virginia for work. Happy he's home!

 

Here's proof positive the tea cozy is done! There's even a teapot under there, and it's English! I'm super happy about how cute it turned out and Lynn couldn't have written a nicer tutorial for us all!

 

I felt restless this weekend.  Do you ever get that way? You  have tons of stuff to work on  but nothing suits your fancy. So I made a tiny tulip block. (4 inch square)  I am in love with this shape, you'll be seeing more of it come this fall, it's the tulip in my free pattern for Pam Kitty Picnic.  I'll show you that another day. In the mean time, did you see the link on the right for the swatch pages?  Just click and away you'll go to see the collection!

 

Ok, now seriously, I need to get busy.  Have a good day everyone! xo

p.s. I was inspired by Lori's cute little tulip pillows when I added this pot to my tulip shape today! Have you seen them? Totally adorable! I'm glad I have those thimble rulers !

A post full of warnings.

Good morning.  How did the week go for you?  I hope good. The weather has been nice all week, but it looks like it's going to be a warm  weekend around here.  FYI I'm going to try and not complain about the heat too much, but I make no guarantees. You've been warned.

So hey that's my mushroom and frog from Monticello Antiques up in Portland. Last time Elizabeth and I went to Portland we went and it was FANTASTIC.  So the whole time I'd been telling Holly about it I'd been hoping it would still be good.  AND IT WAS.  I would hang out there all the time if I lived close, it's crammed with treasures.  Do you watch Grimm? The ladies behind the counter were saying that a lot of the set props are purchased there and all the people are so nice! I love that show, and now I feel like a real insider. (not to mention being 2 degrees from all those people on set!)

Anyway, I had to show you I'm almost done with my tea cozy. You probably though it was going to be like a lot of PKM projects, started and then that's the last you see of it.  It was so easy to make, seriously, you have to give it a try if you're into Union Jacks and tea cozies. Or even just Union Jacks.  Honestly, I'm lame at paper piecing and even I could do it. Here's the link, so think about it.  I don't know what it is about stuff from England but I just can't get enough of it.  Is that the lure, the fact it's unavailable? Or it's so expensive to ship? Or worse, it's like that online site Dot Com Gift Shop. So far they don't even ship to the US, SO I'M WARNING YOU DON' T GO LOOK IF YOU ARE GOING TO OBSESS ABOUT CUTE STUFF YOU CAN'T HAVE. More warnings.  Honestly I don't get it. Someone here could be making a fortune with adorable stuff without hardly even trying. 

 

I have to be probably the second to last person on the planet to try these Clover Wonder Clips.  Normally I don't pin bindings at all, just fold over and hold them by hand.  That's just the way I learned. But the last time I made one of my bags with buckram I was wishing I had something besides pins.  I saw them at our new Joanns and I had a coupon so I figured what the heck.  And they're red, so who doesn't love that? Anyway, they look cute and now I own them. I  can't wait to try them on a bag. I think that's where I am going to love them.

 

Ok, that's enough of my ramblings for today right? It all starts to sound like crazy-talk if I go on too long! Hope you have a super fantastic weekend. xo

Thursday

Good morning peoples!  So yesterday I slacked on blogging but worked on accomplishing.   I was feeling pretty happy with myself at first.  Then I noticed that little short bit and  when trying to figure out if it was in the seam allowance, noticed that I missed a couple of pieces. 

 

I think the biggest problem I have is that whole flipping back and forth in combination with angles.  That's a huge area of weakness. I remember paper piecing in the past and I'd have a triangle perfect then flip and what do you know, it's going the whole wrong direction. 

 

Anyway I got it together and managed to get all the units done and sewn together.  It's undoubtedly off a smidgen here and there but it doesn't seem to matter.  And if it does, don't tell me! It was a challenge and I feel totally happy with the results. Lynn's wonderful tutorial is perfection and my mistakes and challenges are all my own.

 

Maybe tomorrow I'll be brave enough to cut it and assemble it into the tea cozy.

 

I love the look of paper piecing and OH MY that Ringo Pie group makes me practically faint every time I look at it. Every block is so clever and the fabric choices so fun. And even better, the large group of friends is certainly enviable.

 

So what's on your agenda today? Anything fun?

Tuesday

Good morning! How was the weekend? It was extra long for us, Bret had Friday off, which is always a nice bonus. I don't even remember what we did with that bonus day.  Saturday was a day to sew with the Debbies and it was a blast. Didn't sew on my cute little applique project at all, but worked on stitching my rows together on my Back to School Quilt. I think it's in three chunks right now, so maybe in another hour or so I can have the center done, then time to pick borders. I had fun, so I'm satisfied with what I got done.

One morning it was time for coffee on the swing, and I had some fantastic reading material.  Remember the Pink Book? I've talked about it before, as so many other people have, it's like happiness in book form. Japanese Craft book form that is. Well I found the next book by the same author (or at least I believe so) and it's really good. Is it as good as The Pink Book? Probably almost. I found mine here . Still looking for The Pink Book? Check it out, I found one here. Are Japanese craft books still popular? I don't see them on blogs as much as I used to, which might be better on my budget but I miss them a bit. 

 

Also a friend of mine made something fantastic and she's put a tutorial up for it.  You can check it out here.  Seriously, go take a peek.  It's on my list of things to make, maybe even this week. If I can get it together. 

 

I was totally grateful for the fantastic weather we had. Not prime beginning of summer weather like most people want, but cool-breezy-bit-of-rain weather that was delicious.  It will be turning into some 90 degree weather at the end of the week so I'll be living it up for sure until then. 

 

Ok everybody, have a great week! xo

Splash!

You maybe remember this post almost a year ago when I talked about my super favorite life changing thing. If you watched the video, you know that it's my Olfa Cutter. 

 

When I came home from quilt market there was a parcel waiting and inside... well isn't it lovely?  It's the new Olfa Splash, and it's just in time for me to dive into some summer sewing. And you can't start sewing till you get your fabric cut!  I'm an Olfa girl through and through, and I think I'll enjoy this newly updated model a lot.  Thanks Olfa for sending the Splash to me!

 

Turns out tomorrow is Sewing Saturday with my two Debbies. I have a project all ready and waiting, so I'll do some blanket stitching while I'm there. 

 

And if that's not enough then I'll stitch my Back-to-School quilt together. The rows are just waiting for me to get busy!  Do you have big plans for the weekend? Have a happy weekend!!!! xoxo

 

The one with the excuses

Here come the excuses.  There's a bunch of pictures to follow, but of course when I'm looking I see many many pictures missing. Because I forgot to take them in the excitement. Like OMG I have no photo of Monica, even though I saw her several times, but not enough times. For sure.  What about Polly and Laurie?  I'm a super huge fan and I did get to see them, a couple of times. Evidence of said meeting? Non-existent.  (Have you seen their new book? Dying over it. )Same goes for Barb and Mary, and  Bari! Ok, at least with Bari I have her booth.  Sweet sweet Ever Kelly, saw her. Even got to chat. Pictures, not so much. Nireko? I totally love her and chatted with her for ages. She's moving away and I'm so sad she won't be near in miles but of course always as close as my computer. What there is, tons of pictures with me in them on other people's cameras! YIKES. I'm usually behind the camera, not in front of it. 

So you can see, for all the pictures that follow there are twice as many friends who aren't here.  (Jona in her cute skirt, John, holy cow he's looking good, KATHY BROWN!!! Where is Kathy Brown? Roseann?  Mary? Vicki? Little Lady Patchwork, Kerri?)(I know I'm leaving out tons of sweet people and I HAVE NO EXCUSES.)( Holy crap, what about Sharon???? I don't have pictures of Sharon??)

Here's what I have in no particular order:

Shari Butler's Booth

Lori Holt's Booth

Tasha and her booth

Brioni

Busy Bee Quilt Designs.. love this little area. Sad to not meet them.

Jill's booth

Joanna's Booth (cute cherries right?)

The Totally Adorable Camille (miss you Bonnie)

Bari J. Love that wonderful pot of flowers. No good photo though.

Kimberly and Debbie with Holly and I

Cherri House

Gina, The LizzieB Girls always super fun!

The ever Lovely Sarah Fielke

Johanna from StitchCraft who was able to tell me she'll be in the next Quilt Sampler! Congratulations!

And that I'm sure is not even close to all the people who I met and hugged and chatted with. If you're not listed here it's because I'm lame! Forgive me.  The people are the best part of quilt market.

P.S. WHERE IS PAT??? What the....

and Sherri and Anna and the other Sherri and Anne and Candace..

Getting it together

Good morning my wonderful peoples! How are you?  I'm up and at it this morning, sure maybe not as early as usual, but I feel rested today. Yesterday was a nice relaxing catch up day, but today I need to get with it. My market stuff is all over the house and I can't get busy with anything till I start putting it away. 

 

So right off I'll share some pictures of the booth.  Can you believe how cute it is?  The banner Holly designed looks fantastic, and you can really see those nice picnic scenes that are in the Pam Kitty Picnic Panel. We're kicking off the 10 year Anniversary of LakeHouse fabrics you know!

All the projects in the booth are from the Pam Kitty Morning and Pam Kitty Love collections, LakeHouse sells on paper only, meaning we don't have any Pam Kitty Picnic fabric yet. Most customers know our quality and that we deliver what you see in the booklet. Selling this way also insures that we print enough fabric so everyone who orders during the sales period gets their fabric!  Having projects available shows off the nice color and quality and as you know, each collection goes with the previous collection! 

 

Here's my little work station! I loved sitting here and showing off all the wonderful fabric and projects! And speaking of projects,  you can see some of Holly's new patterns there!  It's Sew Emma is now publishing her LakeHouse Quilt Patterns and they're adorable.  You can see the Sweet Things series here, and soon there will be Pam Kitty Picnic patterns. Just wait till you see the Lunch Box pattern!

 

The first two days of market, I barely left this table!  I'm  excited that so many people came and ordered the fabric and so many people came by to say hi!   (how many times can I say 'so many' in one paragraph?)   Sunday I did sneak out for a bit to see some pals who also had booths.   I don't have tons of pictures, but now days there are plenty of photos on the internet for you to find!  You can also check out my instagram pictures here.  I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget to get out my actual camera and just take phone photo pictures.  Honestly, I'm in way more pictures than I took, which ... well YIKES!  Not my usual situation!

 

People it was amazing and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with Holly.  You know she's the real genius behind the scenes, and it's my good fortune that "I" have three wonderful fabric collections with LakeHouse.  I know that in the next few days  the LakeHouse website will updated and you can see all the wonderful prints coming in this collection.  You can get a peek at some of them on the home page. 

 

Ok, I'm going to try and get back to a regular schedule here. In the meantime THANK YOU  all so much for your support! You guys are wonderful! xo