An answer and a little reno...

Well I have not really been getting much accomplished as the Nook is gettting a little freshening up and renovated (pics to come below!) so I am writing today about needle turn applique. Debbie (see April 4 post) recently asked me about my technique and since I have not figured out how to respond to comments directly ( and for some reason cannot get on her blog to leave a comment, Sorry Debbie!) I thought this would answer it best. I was actually taught to do needle turn in 2002 when I was taking a class from my LQS in North Carolina. There was a instructor, Shelli, that I loved and she was teaching a class called "Star of My Heart" ( one of my favorite quilts- hoping to be done soon! see the to be quilted list! ). This class was to teach us how to piece star blocks, applique and hand quilt. Some did the machine applique with the zig-zag stitch and some used needle turn- I chose needle turn. These little hearts were so fun to do! Well now we are a few years later and I wanted to do the Stars Around the Garden block of the month at my LQS. Again we had the choice of applique method and being a fan of hand work, I chose needle turn. Of course I needed a refresher so I asked and Doris recomended to use Needle Turn Applique Made Easy by Robin Pandolph. Wow! What a great book! I still reference it and it has a variety of techniqueas and projects. I use Roxanne's glue baste it to hold them in place and tend to use colored thread that is a match.

Well, thanks Debbie for asking me and I hope that this story helps! Thanks also to anyone else who has visited the Quilt Nook and left comments! I appreciated those encouraging words about things I have done. Kind bloggers are definatley a blessing I can be thankful for!


Now the reason I have not got quilting to talk about is this.....==>


We are doing some renovation of the Quilt Nook! My husband and I decided to pull up the green carpet and put down laminate! So here to the left are the before pics and of course the paint touch ups above started it all! We finished the floor last night and while there is some tweaking to be done, I am happily moving my stuff back in and hoping to get back to work soon. Today I am also going to build my new cutting table cabinet for the room! Yippee! I think this change will definitely feel like a "studio" to work in! I'll keep you posted and show the finished product soon!

So now I will leave you with a few more pics of the progress of the reno!

....and the final of the floor...

Happy Quilting!

T.T.F.N! ( in the words of Tigger!)

GOODIES!

WOW! That's the word of the week! Yesterday the post lady came and on my front porch were not one but two parcels just for me! When I got inside I could not decide which one to open first. SO I decided to open Stefanie's (Quilt Buddy) first. Well to my delight it was my birthday goodies she said she was sending! Yeah! This is a pic of the wonderful prezzies all pretty....
And then.....

Oh my! The Jim Shore bear is soooo soft and cute! I had to quickly whisk him up to my Nook so my daughter would not get a hold of him. The martini glass is full of buttons and champagne bubbles, the coiled mug rug smells cinnamony good (is that a word?) and of course chocolate cookies and Homespun magazine go perfect with a cup of tea! Thank you Stefanie! And on that note I would just like to say that the blogging bug has bitten my Quilt Buddy and I would love it if you could head on over to her blog and say hello! I know that am am thankful to all of you who have been visiting me and welcoming me ( Fiona, Paula, Peg, Mar, Karen, Debbie and anyone else I missed) Thanks! : )
SO... then I get to the next parcel and I suspect it is from a giveaway that I entered over at Pincushion Diaries. Sure enough it was and what came next was the biggest surprise! See for yourself!

Not only did I get the cutest little pincushion and spool pin stuck in it, but other Mary Englebreit goodies!!! Thanks so much Mar!! This is the first giveaway that I have entered in blogland! Thank you for your kind generosity!

So now I am off to visit some other blogs and later I will be trying to get some quilting done! Thanks for visisting!
T.T.F.N.

Sooooo Excited!

I think the title of this post says it all! I sawthis cute little stitchery block on Happy in Quilting's blog and ran straight over to see how adorable it is! I was hooked and today I just finished putting the itty-bitty borders on...on what you ask? On the Noah's Ark Stitchery BOM from Lynette Anderson's site. I love her patterns! I cannot wait until the rest of it comes out! I was sooooo excited with finishing them that I had to rush immediately to my camera and share them with you! If you have not already started these and or discovered her site, I say go for it! It is a cute project that is nice to stitch!

Obviously there will be more pics of these cute blocks as she releases them and I stitch them!! Well, off back to my nook to see what else I can accomplish!

Happy Stitching!

T.T.F.N

My Lucky Day...

Hello blogland! Just sitting here enjoying the very warm weather and wanted to share my guild meeting with you. We had a great guest speaker who in the 16 months since he started quilting had completed 64 quilts! Now he has someone quilt them for him but wow! He also designs patterns... not sure where to get them but they were very cool! Also I actually won both the door prize (the little mug mat) and the raffle prize! This has been a good week for me as after my guild meeting I went to the neighborhood bunko night and won there too! I guess I should have bought a lottery ticket! LOL! Until later....
T.T.F.N

Wonderful gift and some other goodies...

Well it has been a while since I posted but I had to go to Canada for my Nana's funeral service. While I was there I was staying at my Aunt's home and we were talking about quilting ( she is getting ready to be a grandmother and made her a beautiful quilt for the baby!) and I was showing her some patterns I was making for pincushions. Well she disappeared and came back with the cutest little pincushion that had cathedral windows on it. She said her quilty friend that she used to sew with made it and gave it to her and now she would like me to have it for my collection!! Of course I took it and thanked her profusely! I love when things have a special meaning.

As for my quilting, well it definitely has not been happening...although I did managed to work on my Piece and Plenty block 7 and 8 on the plane ride and a little at my Aunt's. Otherwise it has been a busy week., I did manage to spend some time giving the Nook a little bit of a clean out in time for spring and hopefully some new orders to come in. In that time I purged a little and rekindled the desire to do some projects. I also made a new bulletin board for my cutting table area. When I started reading the blogs I discovered on someones blog (forgive me, I could not find your post again- I know there were no pics, just a mention of it! I will post the link when I do find it!) a post about making fabric covered buttons into thumb tacks. So here is my efforts on the same! I also had this little magnets that seemed to be the perfect size so I made some of those to since the board is also magnetic.

And last but not least, the Nook's clean out prompted a visit to my LQS to purchase some supplies for a couple of small projects ( more to come on them) and this is the fruits of that visit! Of course when I got there there were so many new things that have come in this past month that it was hard not to come out with more! I had missed our "Strip" club this past week and the quilt was just beautiful!!!! I may have to go back and get the kit! At least it will entice me to clean out the to TBQ and WIP lists before purchasing the pattern!

As well I discovered Lynette Anderson's free stitchery BOM and have decided to do it! That is what the skeins of floss and the cream fabric above were bought for! I am excited to get started! SO off I go....oh ya, I just want to say welcome to Stefanie, the quilt buddy, and hopefully we will get to see some of her WIP's soon!

T.T.F.N!

Completed Moda U blocks

Our little quilt shop here is participating in the Moda U Piece and Plenty BOM so of course loving everything Moda, as I do, I jumped right on the bandwagon! Our shop sample is being done using machine applique with a zig-zag stitch but I enjoy hand work and decided to do needle turn. The one to your right is the last block I have completed. The shop just gave out block #9 and this is # 6 so I am almost caught up. I did not put pics of all the filler blocks but I am done most of those too. The exception being the PP ones as I am not really in the mood for it. LOL! Otherwise I am concurrently working on the applique for block# 7 and 8. As I complete these I will post.

My Quilty bud in San Diego is also doing this ( in fact we stockpiled the blocks until my January visit and then started them together) and hers is in Madiera. Our shop is doing the scrappy look and I love it, but it has a lot of pink in it. I love blue so I am adding a little blue here and there.

Anyways, a funny story and a question....

When I returned from my little vay-k to San D.

I had worked for the 5 hour ride meticulously and finished appliqueing the first 2 blocks ( minus the flowers on block #1) and got home pretty proud of that accomplishment. I went out to do groceries the next day and when I got home I noticed that in the middle of the living room floor was my stitching bag and the block was on top. (thought I left it on the counter but that was not a deterrent). As I investigated I saw that someone had taken my snips and made several heartbreaking clips into the first block....EEK!

The good news is that she only managed to snip the background. The bad news is I had to pick out all the stitches and re-applique them to a new background...more good news though- it went pretty quick since I had pressed the block and therefore did not have to turn the edges again. She is still to this day apologizing...she said "I just want to do what you do." How can I stay mad at that!

<= {the block in question, redone of course!}

So after that long winded story, my question to anyone who has insight- How do I know when I can trust my 4 year old with her own quilt?? Most books geared to teaching kids are age 8 but she is showing so much interest that I am afraid she will lose it if I don't jump right on it. I have allowed her to use her 4 year scissors to cut up my scraps and old freezer templates then glue them to paper but I know it won't excite her for long.

Gosh, it warms my heart that she want to quilt !!! Any help will be greatly appreciated! Until the next post! Happy Quilting!

T.T.F.N

Well, I finally got the pics downloaded from the quilt show in Lancaster...They are not as good as the goodies pictures as they are from my Blackberry but it will show a little of what I saw! There was this one quilt that I loved the colors and of course was in awe of the beautiful hand quilting....



Oops!! : ) LOL I realize as I add these pics I did not take a one of the whole quilt!! Oh well, the pictures will give you some idea of the beautiful work! Another quilt I absolutely would love to make a copy of is this beautiful Irish Chain! I love everything about it-but especially the applique!

While there of course were tons of vendors but I could only get to a few. This is because I had headed there with kids in tow and some were just very crowded (and of course I was one of those people who had a stroller ; ) ). I did however manage to get to the Rebecca Barker booth and I am in love with her work! It is so inspirational! You can see a few of the selections I got in the "goodies" pic to the right...I had more but I sent them to my best Quilty bud in her latest parcel. I also found Blackbird Designs newest line...At Waters Edge. Got some fat quarters that I absolutely think will need to have some yardage purchased! My daughter also picked out the puppy wall hanging pattern. This was at a neat booth called Rachel's of Greenfield. She was so happy to see it and said "mommy, I want that one for above my bed.Can you make that and can it be like my quilt on my bed?" How could I resist!LOL! So I have yet another project waiting in the wings and believe me, she will not let me forget it either!



The other great part of this past few days is that I recently purchased Electric Quilt 6!!!!!! All I have to say is WOW and you will understand.... but while at The Quilter's Hive, I also saw that they had received the new Moda line, Prairie Paisley. OMG! I went nuts! I had to of course get some. So while looking at the bolts, and not being able to pick just a few favorites, my will (and the kids patience) broke down and so I bought the jelly roll. I do however now have a specific pattern in mind for this jelly roll and will dig it out later this afternoon. Here is a pic of my scrummy fabric purchase...
Well, I noticed this morning that I could not find anything in my nook so I am off to have a clean out and see what I can do to organize myself again!

Happy Quilting!
T.T.F.N.