A busy weekend

On Saturday, Thing One and I went to Bennington, Vermont to the Bennington QuiltFest, put on by the local guild in that area (Quiet Valley Quilters, I think).
This is a nice local show with a good number of vendors. It makes for a very enjoyable day. It seems that someone in that guild must teach scrap quilt workshops for the guild members on a regular basis because every year there are always lots of scrappy quilts made from the Nickel Quilts books. I have both of these books, but haven't made any projects from them yet. Again, I left the show saying "I really need to work on a couple of those designs". We'll see if it actually happens this year!

I only took a few pictures at the show, and maybe I'll share a few later in the week, but today, pictures of projects I have been working on myself!

A couple of Friday nights ago, Thing One and I went to the Gallery Walk in downtown Brattleboro Vermont. This is a monthly event held on the first Friday of the month. Finally we made it to this, I only wish we had been before. Almost all of the shops in the downtown area stay open late on Friday night ('till 8:30 or 9) and there are all sorts of art related things going on: most of the shops have some sort of artwork on display (photos, sculpture, paintings, etc). There are also lots of live bands, street performers, the local circus arts school puts on performances in the little park. It is a very festive, fun atmosphere and there are tons of people around. Thing One and I enjoyed many of the sculptures and creations made from found objects. It was a very inspiring evening, both Thing One and I came home inspired to work on several new projects.

One of the thing I bought that night was this book. It came from the Indian store and is a tree of life applique on the outside of a handmade book. According to the information in the store, the fabrics are old Saris. Isn't it pretty? There were lots of other textile things like pillows, curtains, quilts etc made from the old Saris, and on some of them the beadwork was amazing. If I had more money, I sure could have spent a lot of it there!

I've been stitching up a storm lately, mostly because I can sit and watch movies with Hubby while I stitch, using the sewing machine is too distracting during the movies!
I'm working on the armchair pincushion pattern that was provided for the Stitcher's Angel Swap (the pattern is here). I've got the stitching done and the pieces cut out. Now I've just got to assemble it.


I finished the August block for Bea's block of the month. I was ready to Septembers, but I ran out of the right color of floss. In the next few days I will get going on Septembers block.


I completed the bag from May Britt's pattern for the Stitcher's Angel Swap. The pattern is here


Finally, I decided to make myself a bucket. These have been popping up all over blogland. I found the patternhere. There are definitely going to be more of these in my future, perhaps in different sizes, this is quite small, but oh so adorable!

My bag is in the mail

I'm just back from the post office, and my bag is in the mail beginning its long journey to its new home. I sure hope that its new owner likes it as much as I do!
I was a bit surprised when I started putting it together, it is much larger than I pictured it in my mind. But a big bag can hold lots of stuff for the quilter on the go, so that is a good thing! The pattern is from Bareroots, if anyone is interested. I did change the handles a bit (I used webbing inside them, made them longer and omitted the stitchery on the handles).

Now onto the Stitcher's Angel projects (the first one is almost done).

Bag Sneak Peek

All of my stitching on my bag for Linda's Bag and Bucket Swap is finally finished. Now I just need to finish assembling the bag I am making. I plan to finish during the day tomorrow and get it in the mail by days end.



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Bullseyes

Great.
Thing Two was complaining that his arm hurt. He had a couple of bug bites (I assumed) and a big lump on his arm below his elbow. He told me that he fell of the kitchen counter stool a couple of days ago, so we thought maybe he broke his arm or something (he screamed when we touched his arm). So we went off to the ER (I would have gone to the pediatrican, but we were in Vermont at the time).
While we were sitting in the waiting room (for hours), I noticed that his arm looked like this

Hmmm...those look like bullseye rashes. Uh oh, any one who lives in New England knows that likely means Lyme Disease.
We've done a blood test, but waiting for results until tomorrow night. Thursday we go to the pediatrician here at home for a follow up, and we assume that he'll be on antibiotics.
In the meantime I'm educating myself about Lyme Disease, and hoping that the doctor will give us some
answer. IfI'm not here for a few days its because I'm trying to get Thing Two to take an antibiotic. I know that isn't going to be fun.

Four Seasons Summer Quilt Swap

Over the weekend, I received my long anticipated package from Ana A. containing my Four Seasons Summer Doll Quilt Swap. It was definitely worth the wait! She used (I assume) the 9 degree wedge ruler to make this gorgeous round quilt! According to the description on her Flickr page, it has 880 pieces! I'm glad she mentioned that because I certainly wouldn't have counted them!!
It is just beautiful, Thank you so much, Ana!! I love it.
She also included a pack of Moda Marbles charm squares, a spool of gold metallic thread and machine needles for using with metallic threads. Wonderful stuff that I will definitely be using.

MayBritt's Pincushion

For a long time, I've wanted to make May Britt's pincushion (the pattern is on her bloghere) Last week I found a cute 30s fabric printed in running eighths, with 4 different prints across the width of the fabric. The combination of the red, pink and turquoise really caught my eye, and I decided that it was time to make the pincushion.

In her pattern, May Britt says to be careful how you put the pieces together, because if you shift things the wrong way, you'll get a pincushion, but it won't look anything like hers. I can vouch for that. I read the pattern many times and I was positive that I was putting it together the right way. Then I turned it right sides out, and realized that I messed up! LOL. Instead of the design I was expecting, I got this:


Now I knew for sure what I did wrong and how it was really supposed to be. So I cut out more squares and tried again. All the work was worthwhile because now I have this adorable pincushion. Unfortunately, I don't get to keep it...this is going in the mail later this week to my swap partner. I hope that she likes it as much as I do!


Thanks May Britt, for a beautiful pattern!

Yet Another Tote Bag

A Couple of weeks ago, when Mom and I had our super-short visit to Country Treasures, I bought a bunch of Batik fat quarters. Since then, I made myself another cute tote bag. This one is in the book Lets Do Lunch by Terry Atkinson. This pattern was very simple, the directions were clear and the end result was very nice. I've gotten lots of compliments on it in the last few days.

I've also been working on the bag for the bag swap. No hints about that yet, I'm leting the suspense build! I can tell you that I am stitching and stitching and stitching on this one!!

Back in Town

Okay, so I'm back from my trip and have tons of updates. Dial up was totally non cooperative last week, so I couldn't share all my tidbits. Be prepared for many posts in the next couple of days!

Firstly, DH came home from work today to let me know that he is laid off. No surprise, he knew it was coming, plans are already in place for the next job to follow. Honestly, he is happy about it. He has been working 70-80 hours and now he'll be back to 40 hours.

Our new year of homeschooling is in full swing now, we've completed 7 days of classes and everything is off to a smooth start. Thing One is enthusiastic about her coursework this year, which is a huge relief to me. Last year she disliked the curriculum we used, and everyday was a fight about doing her work. This year she is much happier with all the subjects and texts, and she has been quite enthusiastic so far. Lets hope that continues! Thing Two is happy to be a Kindergarten homeschooler and he's going to keep me on my toes keeping him busy!

Dance classes started today for both Thing One and Thing Two as well as DH. Nice to be back into our routine!

I did do a tiny bit of sewing last week. The biggest thing I did was my August Bag for the BQL Tote Bag of the Month Challenge. This bag is a little purse that would be more suitable for a night on the town. Since my life doesn't involve litte purses and nights on the town, this bag isn't much my style. I do think that I can toss it into my big tote bag full of junk and use it to stick receipts, papers and things like that so that they aren't cluttering up my bag.

Here it is: