The Gathering Place, Gifts, and a Giveaway

Last week I mentioned that DH and I were going to a favorite quilt shop that was on the way to nowhere. Actually, it used to be on the way to DD#1's house, but then she moved across the country and I hadn't found another reason to head in that direction--until my birthday weekend. We drove 2+ hours to The Gathering Place. (Photo swiped from their blog.)

This shop is in Rupert, ID, and claims to be the largest quilt shop in the state. I don't know if it is the biggest or not, I am just happy with the selection of "dark & dirty" fabrics, patterns and wool.

There is so much more to the store than I have shown. I just wanted to share a few of my "happy places". They have something for every quilting taste.

I came home with these goodies.

A scrap bag, Valdani floss, a quilt hanger, a magazine, a pattern,
a bunch of fat eighths, and several half-yard cuts.

I had a couple of real surprises as birthday gifts. When we had been to NH last month we visited a Shaker Colony. I have always loved Shaker boxes and wanted to buy one at the gift shop. But it was  our first day out and I didn't dare purchase one of the beautiful, but pricey creations, not knowing where else I might need the money. Imagine my surprise when DH produced this for my birthday.
Look at the wonderful birdseye maple! He bought a small one that he could hide in his pocket. Isn't he sneaky, and very thoughtful?

Well, sneakiness seems to run in the family. My two daughters had conspired with Julie at Me and My Stitches blog to make another charm for my "Charming" bracelet. This one was created using scraps from quilts my mother has made. It is the second charm from the right. Such a sweet keepsake--I love it!

I recently had a basting marathon for a bunch of small quilts. I got a couple of them quilted.

 There is still a pile ready and waiting.

By now you are probably wondering, "Where is the giveaway?" Look no further! If you have stayed with this post, you can participate in my Belated Birthday Giveaway. It includes one of my recently completed little quilts (9" square), a charm pack of Primitive Gatherings new Floral Gatherings line, and (as usual) a pack of my herbal soap.

Leave a comment to be included and I will draw a winner Monday evening.

Just so you know, I respond to every comment. If you have commented in the past and haven't heard back from me it is because you are a no-reply blogger, whether you know it or not. Google+ has thrown a bunch of you into that category, even if you were not there previously. Lori of Humble Quilts recently addressed this very thoroughly. If you need to fix your settings, check out her post here. If I draw a name that is "no-reply" and you haven't left your email in your comment, I will draw another name. (Doesn't that make me sound mean?)

Until next time,
Janet O.

Drawing is now closed.

Borders and ornaments

Has it really been almost two weeks since my last post? And I have so little to show for all of that time.
Faithful (from Lori's QAL) is a completed flimsy. I had planned to make all of the solid borders from the same black fabric, but came up just a few inches shy on the last round. Would you bind this in black or red, or maybe even orange?

I made more HSTs than I needed as I was making this. The leftovers went into a "baby sister" quilt which I think I will name "True". Faithful and True--it just seems fitting.




These little pineapple and log cabin ornaments have been my focus most of my sewing time. The first four are finished, the next four just need hanging loops and the last eight need stuffing, stitching closed, and loops. I believe I will have them finished for the craft fair/fundraising booth next weekend.

I know some of you have been making, or planning to make, some of these little ornaments, so I want to share a tip. If you enlarge this photo you should be able to see that where I leave my 2" opening for turning, I stitch onto, and off the fabric edge as I start and finish, backstitching each way. This keeps the stitches from pulling apart as you turn it right-side-out. It is a tight fit, and can stress the seam. It also helps keep a more uniform line after turning, when you fold the sides down to stitch closed. Maybe this is not new to you, but just in case you are like me and didn't know that already, now you do. : )

A few wool ornaments have been completed. When we were in NH last month we visited a Shaker Colony historic site and I picked up this small peg rack in the gift shop. Makes a great place to hang little ornaments.

This mini is now to flimsy stage. The small 9-patch blocks were assembled months ago from the scrap basket. As usual, I had stalled on the borders.

A couple of days ago, while rummaging in the sewing room, I came across this fabric that I thought would be a good border. Now it is marked and ready for basting and quilting. It may need tea dying, too.

View from my sewing room a couple of mornings ago.

I am heading to a distant favorite quilt shop today, to celebrate the birthday that I have tomorrow. Stay tuned. I believe I feel a giveaway coming on. : )
Janet O.

In The Works

I didn't have a chance to sew all week, but I managed a little time Saturday night. These are the projects currently "in the works"--at least the ones that I can show. Holidays are coming, you know.
Faithful
This is the beginning of my version of Lori's (Humble Quilts blog) most recent QAL. Recognize the center block? I deconstructed its previous setting. I'm starting to wonder if adding that outer row of HSTs will overpower the compass in the center. Maybe this will be the end, as well as the beginning, of this little quilt. I'll have to ponder that one.

Crabapples (aka It's So Vermonty)--Bonnie Hunter pattern from Adventures With Leaders and Enders.
I only stitched up one more block, but during the week I had purchased a green, leaf print batik and had cut the setting triangles. What do you think? The greens in the tree blocks are brighter, but I don't know that it matters that much.

Pineapple ornaments
I put borders on three ornaments that I had stitched up last month. I had finally picked out the paper foundations earlier this week (I guess I was hoping the paper foundation removal fairies would find my home). When the backs are on and they are stuffed, they will finish at 2 1/2 inches.

After these three are completed, I have 8 more to make for DD#2's fundraising booth at a craft fair Thanksgiving weekend.

Here are the completed ones DD#1 and I have made so far, adorning my little sewing room tree. I think we will need a bigger tree. : )
For those of you accustomed to my rather wordy posts, don't go into shock or anything, but that's all for now!
Until next time,
Janet O.

A Little "Season"-ing

Fall
Lest you think all I ever do is work on tiny things, I thought I would show you the progress I have made on my "It's So Vermonty" quilt. (The inspiration for this quilt and its name are explained in this post.)

Yes, this really is made from Bonnie Hunter's Crabapple pattern in her Adventures With Leaders and Enders book. I wanted it to fit my Queen size bed, but I didn't want to make more trees than originally called for (see all the ones I have yet to sew are lined up at the bottom on design boards). So I cut up some fall colored batik yardage to make setting squares. If you enlarge the photo you may be able to see that I have fussy-cut swirls that are in the batik. Haven't yet decided on what to use for the setting triangles, but I will wait until I have the trees finished before I worry about that.

Halloween
I never did get the Halloween decorations out this month. I mostly use scarecrows and pumpkins (Halloween is not scary at my house), but they are still in their boxes. The only decor I managed to muster was stitched stuff--the collection of little black and orange quilts I made last year, plus the Flying Scarecrow pillow designed and stitched by the very talented  Kaaren (The Painted Quilt blog) that I won in her drawing last year. Fun bit of trivia (for me, anyway)--Kaaren and I discovered that we share the same birthday. We already knew that we share a similar taste in fabric. : )

One of my little Halloween quilts never got quilted. I had every intention of quilting it this year, but as the holiday approached and I could see it wasn't going to happen, I hung it up anyway. Maybe I should have trimmed the fraying threads first.
This quilt was based on Julie Letvin's Pool Lil' Punky Pincushion pattern. I made a bunch of those, and managed to keep one for me.
Once I had made those I felt the urge to incorporate the happy little gourd into a small quilt. I wanted to make it in Halloween colors, but use repro fabrics. This is what materialized--and maybe one day I will actually get it quilted.

Christmas
This summer I saw a cute set of "wool" ornaments hanging in a LQS, but there were no patterns nearby. Upon inquiry I learned that they came as a kit, and you could not get the pattern by itself. I didn't want the kit--I have plenty of wool, and it appeared that the kit included felt, not felted wool. I decided I could live without them. Fast forward a few months and I found myself in another, more obscure, LQS. My mother had asked me to take her to try to match a fabric, that she had been unable to match in the other local shops. As she decided on a fabric, I browsed the notions and patterns. Lo, and behold, there was the ornament pattern without the kit. I nabbed it. This evening I was not in the mood to stitch, though there is plenty of stitching I should be doing, so I grabbed some wool and the pattern and started tracing and cutting. I made a good start. They aren't as dark as this photo makes them appear. Even with a flash, the colors wouldn't lighten up. I am trying to make them just a bit more primitive looking, so I am adapting some things. I probably won't get to stitch these up until December, but it was a nice diversion for me to cut them out.

BTW, the pattern, by Rachel of Greenfield, is available online here.

I'm pooped. I wasn't going to write this post in the wee hours, but when I looked at my schedule for the coming day, I thought I'd better get it done. Now I'll be a zombie all day for lack of sleep, but I guess I can get away with that on Halloween.

Until next time,
Janet O.

Done and Done!

I have now completed all of the challenges I plan to do as part of the SewCalGal 2013 FMQ Challenge. With the deadline less than a week away, I can breathe a sigh of relief!
I had only planned on doing one more, but you will see that I succumbed to two!

"It's All About Borders" was a challenge provided by Patsy Thompson. Her challenge in Dec. of 2012 was what I was working on last year when feathers finally started to click, so I have a soft spot in my heart for her. : )
For this challenge we were to create a quilt, table runner or wall hanging with 8-10 borders. In each border we were to quilt a different design, with at least two of them coming from Patsy's 2012 tutorial. We could design it in any way we wanted. Here is my finished piece.

Hard to see the quilting in that photo. Here are some close-ups.

The back side.

The fourth and eighth borders were from Patsy's tutorial. The third border was a variation on one of those designs. The first, second and sixth borders were made using stencils. The fifth border was based on Sarah Vedeler's Spiral tutorial in the November 2012 SewCalGal FMQ challenge. The seventh border was my take on a border design from LuAnn Kessi's sketchbook.
I had a lot of fun putting this together and choosing and quilting the border designs.

The last challenge I chose to complete was Quilted Postcards by Janet McElroy. We were to create one or more quilted postcards, with the option to participate in an organized exchange.  I dug into my batik scraps to make these four postcards, using Janet's tutorial.

This gives you a little better view of the quilting on them.

 These were fun to create, but more time consuming than would be practical any time I want to send a postcard. : )

They are all now addressed and ready to send off. Hope to get them in the mail tomorrow. I am not participating in the swap, but am sending them off to mostly unsuspecting recipients. What fun!

This is about all the quilting that has happened around here this month. Prepping for our trip to NH, taking our trip to NH and recovering from our trip to NH took a good chunk of the month. Then I spent a couple of days sick, and finally, on Tuesday I looked out my kitchen window to see my MIL lying in her driveway (she is my neighbor, across the pasture). She had tripped and fallen, breaking her upper femur and lower hip. So I have spent many hours this week at the hospital. I have been stitching on my little house blocks there. Maybe I'll share those next time.
Until then,
Janet O.

Back Home Again--So Much To Share!

Still trying to get back into routine, but thought I could share a few things with you.
The night before we flew out I had an idea and I pulled out the little "Building houses from scraps" kit. I put all of the houses out on a design board and started switching up the pieces, so they took on a scrappy look. This was the result (excuse my very thready design board).

I have not pieced by hand in years (other than hexies--and that is a whole different thing). My goodness, my skills were rusty! I couldn't even seem to stitch a straight line. When the lines are stamped on the fabric, that is pretty silly not to be able to follow them.
By the time we touched down in Manchester, NH I only had 1 house finished and another nearly done (we were up at 2:45 a.m. to catch our flight, so I dozed a lot). We were always on the go while visiting DD#1 and her DH, so I didn't pick it up again until awaiting our flight home. I got three houses finished, total. I need to unpick my first attempt. Those Y-seams stumped me at first, and house #1 is pretty wonky. It is the house in the upper right of the photo below--isn't even the same size as the others. I am really liking these little scrappy houses. Tempting to just work on them, but I am going to try and keep them as my "on the go" project, and let it get finished whenever! Thanks again to my dear friend Annie Miksch for this thoughtful gift!

Since DD#1 lives 10 minutes from Keepsake Quilting, a visit there was inevitable. Blogging friends Grace (acityquilter blog) and Vic (Park Hill Farm blog) had arranged to make the effort to meet up with us there.

Vic, me, and Grace

Tough decisions made at the cutting counter.

I had been saving my pennies for this experience. I had been warned that Keepsake did not have a large selection of CW repro fabrics, but must say I was very surprised at just how small it was. MY LQS, whose selection is not huge, carries more than Keepsake. Luckily, KQ had very different lines of fabric from what I can get at home, so I found plenty to purchase. Now, if it is batiks you are looking for, you will find a room full! That overwhelmed me. I had to walk away and think about it and return with a narrow focus of what I wanted to buy.






After that very hard work of making decisions, carrying bolts of fabric and opening the wallet, it was time for nourishment. Vic and Grace took us to a lovely establishment called The Canoe, where we dined and chatted and laughed.



The day before this grand adventure Angie and I had visited Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH. This shop was a recommendation from Mrs. Goodneedle, and it did not disappoint!

 So here is my haul. To the left is the fabric, Aurifil threads and Valdani flosses I picked up at Keepsake Quilting.

On the right is the fabric I purchased in Quilted Threads.






The Primitive Gatherings pattern was at Quilted Threads, and Patchwork Stars was in the sale bin at Keepsake.

Angie and I have been making pineapple and log cabin ornaments for my other daughter's fundraiser in November. Angie has her share all finished and I was able to provide them transportation back to Utah. Aren't they lovely? Now I need to get my share finished!

When we were at Quilted Threads Angie found some 1/4" hexie papers. Oh, my goodness, they are small. She vacillated as to whether or not to buy them, but they finally found their way home with her. The night before we left she actually started playing with them. Can you believe this? Can you even see it? I left the needle and thread in the photo so you could get the proper perspective. That is a small spool of thread.

We had a wonderful trip. There was so much to do in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. I will leave you with this shot as DH and I took a canoe ride in the canal behind our daughter and SIL's apartment. It ends up in Lake Waukewan.

Until next time,
Janet O.