A Blast from the Past

This is a quilt that I thought I would never see again. Imagine my surprise when I walked into my MIL's living room a few months ago, and this quilt was on the couch!

Way back when I started quilting in 1991 or 1992, The first two projects I made in my quilting class were quillows without any piecing. The next project was an Amish Center Diamond wallhanging, which BTW is STILL a UFO. I'll have to dig it out and take a picture of it one of these days. After that, the next project I made was my first actual finished pieced project...the pink and blue monstrosity you see in this photo.

I decided that I would make a quilt for my in-laws for Christmas that year (1993 probably. I had no stash, but wanted a scrappy quilt. Somehow I decided that pink and blue pinwheels would be a good idea. I went to every store around to buy fabric, and I bought everything in 'those' colors that I could find. Apparently I didn't know about any values besides medium. LOL. I also didn't know very much about grainline, because I cut the triangles everywhich way and ended up with tons of bias on the outsides of all these pieces. Anwyay, this quilt is BIG, double bed size, probably. Can you tell by the picture that I tied it with embroidery floss, and sewed round the edges with RST then turned it right sides out. LOL, no binding.

I proudly gave the quilt to the inlaws for Christmas, she oooohed and ahhhed over it that day. Then I NEVER SAW IT AGAIN. FOr years and years and years. Once she told me that she has it stored in the attc because it was TOO GOOD TO USE. I was mortified, and angry. Ugh.

Fast forward to a few months ago: The kids were at MIL house, I went to pick them up and the pile of pillows and blankets that my FIL sleeps with were piled on the couch, and THAT QUILT was in the pile. I was shocked. I think maybe she decided that it was okay for FIL and the dog to use it.

Super Secret Project

Well, okay not super secret, but kind of secret. I'm working on my pay it forward gifts for Anita, Tracey and Vickie. Hopefully by the end of next week they will be on the way. Here is a little sneak peek of what I'm making. I'll even tell you that the pattern came from Marcie's Website. But that's all I'm saying until I finish!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!!

The books are here!

I'm impressed with Amazon. I ordered my books on Thursday afternoon, with free super saver shipping. According to my order confirmation, my books are due to be mailed on the 27th of March and arrive here approx. April 1-5th. LOL. Amazon always seems to give a worst case estimate, and once again they got my books to my house before the estimated shipping date. Hurray!

Now tonight I will sit and start to read. That works out well anyway, since I have to entertain my poor injured Thing Two. I don't know what he did, and he won't tell me (so I imagine he jumped off his dresser onto the bed or something), but he has a sprained ankle and is to stay off of it for an entire week. Sigh. What 5 year old boy wants to stay off his feet for a week??? And the dress rehersals for the dance recital start in 11 days. I sure hope he's better by then.

Sewing Weekend

Over the weekend, I did manage to get some time to sew. Here is what I worked on:
First, I made a pillowcase for Thing One with the Sudoku fabric we bought on the shop hop.


I also worked on a little fat quarter quilt with some strawberry fabrics that have been in my stash for a long time. This is one of those patterns ala yellow brick road or turning twenty. I think it is called Sticks and Stones. It is kind of cute, but a bit on the blah side. I think I might add some applique or some rick rack or something to liven it up a bit. I'm a bit peeved with it because I thought I had it laid out without any of the same fabrics touching (that irritates me), but apparently my helper rearranged things for me. Those of you with kitties know exactly what I am talking about.

This is how to the top looks at this point


Here is another shot of my helper. He's lucky his ear is not sewed to my quilt.

Goodies in the Mail!

A couple of day ago, I was very surprised to recieve goodies in the mail from Country Treasures Quilt Shop! I was the winner of one of that shop's door prizes during the shop hop! Yay!

This is a charm pack of the new Northcott Quest for the Cure fabric line, and a cute Raggedy Ann/Andy type doll head. Very cute!

Isn't Easter supposed to be in the SPRING?

Wow, this early Easter thing has been brutal! Here in New England, we are used to chilly Easters, but this is crazy! I was in Vermont on Saturday, and look at this, is this how you picture the day before Easter?????

There is a propane tank in this picture! Can you see it? I can't, and DH tried to shovel a path to it so that when the delivery man comes, he can get to the tank, but all this snow is frozen solid to the point that it can't even be shoveled! I hope we don't need a delivery anytime soon!


Do you see how tall the snowbank in front of the van is? That is not a hill, that part of the yard is FLAT! Its going to be a long, long time before that all melts.



Anyway, we had a lovely Easter Sunday, even though it was quite chilly.

I have succumbed

I was soooo tempted, but I was avoiding the temptation. Then my Mom bought them and has been raving about them. So today, I took a little container full of change to the Coinstar machine and got myself an Amazon e-certificate. There was enough change in that container to pay for both The Civil War Love Letters book and the Civil War Diaries book as well as two other books I have wanted for a while, Prairie Children and Their Quilts and Learn to Applique with Pat Sloan.



I will never in my lifetime be able to complete all these projects that I want to do, but I can have fun trying, right? LOL.

Stash additions

Okay, now its time for me to 'fess up and show what I bought on the shop hop. I bought way more than I should have, but some of these things have already been used! (the Runaround bag pattern, the kit for the pincushion/trash bag). Also, some of these things are the free fat quarters that the shops gave out as goodies and a couple things that my Mom asked me to get for her. There are about 6 pillowcase fabrics in there for upcoming occasions that I need to give some kind of a gift.

Shop Hop Day 3

We woke up Saturday morning in Burlington to a dusting of snow. There were 5 shops left on our list for the day, and we were on a shopping mission!

Our first stop was another one of my favorite Vermont Shops, The Quilted Lily in Johnson, Vermont, which is north of Stowe. Later on in the day, I heard several quilters saying that they did not particularly care for this shop. Interestingly, the reason they didn't like this shop is the exact reason why I like it so much...this shop has a very non-traditional slant to it. It is filled with more modern contemporary type prints: Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, batiks, etc. Even the decor and furnishings are more mod than traditional. Just wonderful!!!


Even their version of the shop hop quilt was quite different than that of the other shops


Next stop, Stowe Fabric and Yarn in Stowe, home of the VonTrapp family. Another tiny store. She has lots of nice yarn and a small selection of fabrics and patterns. She has a large section of quilts for sale and other 'gift' type things (sweaters, childrens and dolls dresses, pot holders, table runners, scarves, etc) for sale. I would guess based on the location, she does a lot of sales of those type of things.

Yet another version of the same quilt, courtesy of Stowe Fabric and Yarn


After that, we headed to So Many Treasures , in Williston. This is the shop where I had car trouble last year and was stuck at for several hours waiting for the locksmith. As soon as I walked into the shop this year, she said "aren't you the lady that had car trouble last year?" LOL. This is a very nice, good size shop with a varied selection...some of everything.




This is the only shop of the 14 that added an extra border on the outside of the quilt beyond what was given in the pattern.


After lunch, we were headed back south and towards home. Two more shops on the way down Route 7. The firt, Knits and Bolts,k in New Haven has almost as much yarn as fabric. And they have a lot of fabric! Lots to see in this shop!


I love the colors in their version of the Shop Hop quilt:



Our final stop, further south on Rt. 7 in Middlebury was Thread Connections. They have rearranged everything in this shop since the last time I was there. It looks like maybe they are no longer selling sewing machines, perhaps? Very friendly staff here, and while you are here, you can rent a tuxedo or get your wedding gown altered!

Once again, another version of the same quilt


And that is the end of our adventure! We went home and went to bed! Are you wondering what I bought? You'll have to come back for the next post see what kinds of goodies came home with me.

Shop Hopping Day Two

Friday the 14th, we visited a lot more shops.
Our first stop was Country Quilter's Emporium in White River Junction, Vt. was our first stop of the day. There was lots of snow in Southern Vermont, but up in White River Junction, there was very little of it still around. Being in the valley near the CT river must mean that this area is a bit warmer.

The shop hop quilt at this store:


After leaving White River Junction, we traveled over to Northfield to visit Maplewood Quilts. She had her two children with her in the shop, and I said to Thing One, I bet they are homeschoolers, too. And I was right, when we checked out, she asked me if Thing One was homeschooling and we had a nice little conversation about it.
Her version of the quilt had the appliques done with felted wool.

Northland Quilts in Barre was our next stop. This is a rather small shop located in the owners home. It appears that she converted her garage into a shop. She has some very nice things, including lots and lts of charm packs. If you are in Barre, don't miss Hope Cemetary

This shop's version of the quilt

Our next stop was Sewin' Love Quilt Shop in Marshfield. This shop is TINY. But she sells some lovely candles and it smells SO good in there!!

Her version of the quilt was probably my favorite, I'm such a sucker for purple and green! She also had it set up in such a lovely display in the front window!

Are you getting tired yet? We sure were, but we kept going because our day wasn't over yet! Two more shops to go today!
In Waitsfield, in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, we visited Cabin Fever Quilts in an old church in the center of town. If you are interested in owning your own shop in Vermont, this could be the one! I noticed that a sign outside the store said "Shop for Sale". Again, not a ver big shop, but she has tons of great novelty prints.

The shop hop quilt. Which one is your favorite so far?

And finally, our last stop of the day. Yankee Pride Quiltsin Essex Junction. This is a fabulous shop! If you go, don't forget to check out downstairs, where they have the classroom...that is also the location of the sale fabric! This shop has lots of reproduction fabrics.

And this version of the quilt.

Sigh. I'm exhausted just blogging about this long day! We were wiped out by this time. Quick dinner and then early to bed, there are still 5 more shops to visit!

Day One of the Shop Hop

March 8-15th was theVermont Shop Hop so Thing One and I took the opportunity to get away from the boys and visit some quilt shops. We spent Saturday the 8th visiting shops, then we went overnight on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th to visit the rest of them. In those three days, we put more than 600 miles on the Mom-mobile, stayed overnight in Burlington, Vermont and bought a bunch of fun fabrics.

As part of the shop hop, each store gave out a portion of a quilt pattern. This year, the quilt was called Yankee Thrift, and designed by Beth Ferrier. Each shop made up their own version of the quilt, and many of them offered kits as well. I took pictres of each quilt and will share each of the quilts with you in case you love seeing the same design made up in different fabrics as much as I do.

The first shop we visited was Country Treasures in Chester, Vermont. Ths is one of my favorite shops anywhere.

Her version of the quilt

Next up, Quiltaway in Westminster, VT. She has a lot of batiks, and a fair amount of Asian fabrics. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it is pretty big inside!

Quilt-Away's version of the shop hop quilt


The third shop we visited was The Norton House in Wilmington. This is the shop that is my LQS in Vermont. I am in there at least once or twice a month, since it is only about 3 miles from the cabin. Interestingly, even though we were shop hopping, I never thought to take a picture of the shop, or the quilt she made. I think that I go so often, it didn't seem like something out of the ordinary, maybe. Sigh. I'll get pictures the next time I am in Vermont to share with you. She recently changed all the lighting in the shop to Full Spectrum lights. Hurray!!

After visiting these three shops, we had to go home for Dance recital practice.