Village Dry Goods and Pam Buda UFOs

I've spent a lot of time at Village Dry Goods lately (the quilt shop over the mountain). I've been to their "ChitChat, Finish That" days in March and April, and I also went to their 2-day UFO retreat in March.

Here is what I have to show for all of those sewing days, and a few snatches of sewing time at home. And as I wrote this post, I realized that everything I have to share was designed by Pam Buda. She has designed beautiful quilts over the years!

This is Pam's Pattern, "Every Little Bit", that was in the June 2015 APQ magazine, but I started it in 2021. When I was posting this, I checked and found a couple of copies of the magazine on Amazon, and a few on eBay, if you are interested.

There are two more vertical rows in the pattern, and then a couple of borders. Since taking this photo, I have completed two blocks for the next row. Also, I'll note that Pam designed it with 2 different designs in the cornerstones, alternating every other one. I opted to stick with just one. 

                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    At the Village Dry Goods UFO Retreat, I completed Row 4, and Fran (shop owner) thought it deserved to be modeled. :)             

At the VDG class I attended where Pam taught in 2024, we worked with these patterns shown below. I have already made the upper right design (see previous post), and I started on the lower one (Stargate) at a previous ChitChat day, only to realize that when I cut out all the pieces for every block, I cut something wrong. I corrected the problem before the UFO retreat, and I got this far with it. I am making every star in a muted Fall color--each a different fabric.

This Pam Buda design below was 12 years in the making, for me. It is called "Settler's Puzzle" and I started it in a VDG class with Pam back in January 2014. It was February of 2021 when I finally finished the top, and it had been hanging in my sewing room closet ever since.

Then recently there was a need in my family for a twin size quilt, in a hurry. I hadn't planned on adding another border to this, but to bring it close to a twin bed size, that's what I had to do. I happened to have enough left of the gold fabric, so I stitched it on, and had my quilter give it an edge-to-edge design, but with a border design in that outer border. (The colors at the bottom of the above photo are more true.)

This gives you a better idea of the quilting. I am currently halfway through the binding process (using the green fabric), so it should be finished before it gets too hot to have a quilt over my lap.

This last project is from Pam Buda's book "Vintage Patchwork". Every one of the 12 little projects in this book can be made from one layer cake of fabric. There is even a cutting guide included, so you make sure you can fit them all within those 10" squares.

This one is named "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". Each of the quilts is named for a classic book of literature, or a title character from such a work. I read "Tess" once in high school and once in college, and I loved it. I tried to read it many years later and I found it very depressing. 

The edges on this look wavy because I have just pinned the binding to the back and I still need to stitch it down. This is 10 1/2" square. I just used leftover HSTs from 2 other projects.

Our guild members each have this book of Pam's, and we have been making a different project each month. It has been fun.

I bought myself a new toy tool at the UFO Retreat. It is lovely and practical--my favorite kind of tool. This is a beautifully crafted, weighted clapper. I drooled over them the first day, but thought I would pass. Then I tried one, and knew I wanted one. Working with tiny pieces as much as I do, it can often be difficult to get the seams to flatten, even with a regular clapper. But this weighted clapper does an amazing job, and looks amazing while doing it.

That is the natural wood colors, not stains or dyes--even that purple wood. It is Purpleheart wood. There is Redheart wood in some of his other designs. This is 3 1/2" x 13 7/8".

These are made by a man who lives in my valley, but are sold exclusively through Village Dry Goods. The photo below shows a few more designs on their shelves. There are more coming because they are trying to stock up for Shop Hop coming up later this month.

Pretty cool, aren't they? It can be hard to choose a favorite. I wish you could see every design, but they are stacked in front of each other.

I will end with the beautiful bouquet-of-the-month for March, from my daughter. (April's bouquet comes this weekend.)

And I cannot close without a sunset, because there have been so many beautiful ones lately. This was earlier this week as I walked over to my sister-in-law's to drop something off. Taken from their driveway. They also live here on the family farm.

Flowers and sunsets are two of the things that calm my soul. I hope you are finding time for whatever does that for you!

Until next time,

Be creative, and be kind!

Janet O.