Happy Fall Y'all!

This past weekend was my local quilt shop's annual Backyard Quilt show. This wonderful show is Doris's way of showing her customers appreciation of the many quilts we all make and is the premise of the whole show! We all get our favorite quilts out and submit them to Doris, she sets them up with numbers on them and we all vote on our favorites. The winner of viewers choice then gets a wonderful prize to spend in the shop! It seems like this year had many more quilts than last for sure! Also this year, since the shop had moved to their farm, she also had a nice selection of vendors for us to peruse. Our guild also had a booth to sell the tickets for our the raffle quilt that was made, there was a nice selection of pumpkins and Indian corn to purchase and of course she also had an awesome supply of munchies. It was a great show!

Here is a mosaic of some of my favorite customer quilts and the vendors at the show!

....and here is the Lil Country Shoppe in all it's finery! You can see why I love going there!

....and one of the other really awesome parts of the show is the trunk shows that Doris gets for us to view....well that brings me to my exciting news! I was very honored to be asked to show my patterns as a trunk show this year!! It was a wonderful feeling indeed! Here are the quilts I showcased and their respective patterns!

This one is the latest of my patterns, Bluebird's of Happiness, and is made with wonderful fabric from Lecien's Floral Collection- Pastels. It has blanket stitch applique (which can be done needle turn as well) and buttons added for embellishment.

The first one is Blooming Bouquets and I made this sample using Sweet by Urban Chicks for Moda. It is fat quarter friendly with large blocks. Then there is Rolling Pinwheels, which is a jelly roll friendly quilt made with Beach House by Blackbird Designs and Patisserie by Fig Tree Quilts. All of these will be available in my etsy soon and I will post when they are!

It definitely was a lot of fun to see them hanging there at the show! I am busy at work on a couple of new patterns at the moment that I will give sneaks of next time but I can tell you that one is using Lecien's fabric I got from Spring Market and the other is using a jelly roll of Simple Abundance!!! Can't wait to show them to you!

Until then....

Happy Fall Y'all!

Cara

Candle Mat

Today I decided to finally make this cute little Valentines wool candle mat. This is one of the many projects that I picked up the pattern and the supplies for the last time I was in San Diego. It is a pattern by Bareroots and called "Hearts and Flowers". Not sure if it counts towards the OPAM challenge but it is something that has been in the queue for a while now. I replaced my house mat that I made for my kitchen island until Valentines day has gone then I will try to find an Easter one! Just a small finish but still something! I have a few of these patterns and they are a lot of fun to make. I did put buttons on the hearts though instead of felt just to make it a little different! Now I have to replenish my red button supply.

I am also continuing to work on my MODA Piece and Plenty blocks- 2 more appliques to finish and then I can finish the last 2 filler blocks! I have, however,started to put together the different sections that I have all of the blocks finished for. Hoping to have it finished this weekend to show at least the top! Otherwise, i have decided to go through my nook and make a list of my WISP's as well as other projects that are not necessarily started, but that I have the pattern and supplies for already. This way,I won't be at a loss for the OPAM challenge this month. So,back to work!

Happy WISPing!

Cara

2008 Finishes!

Here is my final list of Completed Works 2008:

Memories Among the Flowers*

Happy Apron

Stitcher's Angel Gifts
Houses Candle Mat
Flower Patch bag
Patched Quilt Carrier
Shabby Chic Baby Angel Lovey Quilt*
Organized Chaos (pieced in '07)
Shabby Chic Memories*

MOPS gift Pillows*
Shabby Chic Baby Angel Quilt*
Baffling Basket Case Mystery Quilt(actually, just quilted and bound it-pieced in 2007)

I decided to also include a pictorial list of this list as documentation to the year, since this is a journal about quilts! So please - Enjoy!

Thanks for recapping 2008 with me!

Catching Up!

Hello again! I feel like December has just gone by so fast and I have not had the chance to blog much. A lot has been going on over the holiday (Merry Christmas to those who celebrated) including the ENTIRE family being sick...so needless to say a lot of my 'to-do's' for Christmas did not happen (including blogging). So I thought I would play catch up and combine what's been happening this past month.

First I will start off with the aprons that I made for cooking Thanksgiving supper with my Mother in law this year.

I used this book and the pattern was actually one of our strip club samples ( Happy Apron) from the last year. I don't have a pic of mine but hopefully I will get one soon!

Then my wonderful friend Shelli sent me this wonderful bundle of fabric for my stash- Thanks Shelli! I am already putting it to good use!

And last but not least is the latest customer quilt that I did for his wife for Christmas. He wanted a garden theme and to have a couple of verses embroidered. Also he sent the t-shirts that his wife had designed so I pieced them together and used them on the back. All in all I totally love the way the quilt translated from my original design to the quilt you see here! Word is she loved it so now I am totally pleased!

I named this design " Memories Among the Flowers" and there will be a pattern for a similar quilt in 2009 in my etsy!

Well gearing up for the New Years celebrations tonight and hoping to get a great start to 2009. Hopefully I will get my 2008 finishes recapped soon!
Until next time I hope you all have a wonderful time with whatever you do tonight to celebrate the changing of the year!
Happy New Year!- see you in 2009

Stitcher's Angel received her gift!

Well, I got a lovely comment/email from Cici letting me know that she received her parcel in Sweden safe and sound! If you remember , in my last post, I gave a sneak peak of what I was making....here are the finished products....

I used a tutorial over here for this awesome collapsible bucket that is made out of canvas. I did not want to use canvas so instead I lined it with Timtex. The pin cushion is from my Quilts and More mag and is by Heather Bailey. I pieced the top piece of fabric though for a matchy look. And last but not least the Stitching folder is from this pattern by Renee Plains. Instead of the wool I used an angel applique from Nancy Halvorsen's book Angels Among Us and added my own stitchery touches. Most of the fabric is Moda and some is from my long stashed away Robyn Pandolph fabs (from when she was with Moda). All in all I had a great time both finding these gifts and then making them. So.....

...I am glad that they arrived to you safely! I also must say thanks to my accomplice, Stina, who was gracious enough to answer some questions for me so that I could make sure I was choosing things that Cici would like! Of course I would like to extend a BIG thanks to Helen for hosting this really cool swap!

Also, I found a great giveaway the other day...if you have not been to Camille's blog lately, hop on over there quickly and enter to win-get this- a quilt made by Camille!!! Isn't she just awesome to do this?! There is not much time left for this though so get and move on! There are also some great ways to get extra entries if you want to increase your chances! Thanks Camille- you are the coolest!

Well, I am off to see if I can get some of my Etsy stocked up and of course to do some work on my numerous WIPS! I will hopefully have something to show soon and maybe a sneak peak of the pattern I am working on!

Cara

P.S. A while back our guild had a sew in day for ConKerr Cancer and I have learned recently that Cindy Kerr, the founder of this awesome charity, has been chosen as one of 10 women to receive the 2008 Women Of Worth award. This is a wonderful charity and this is our chance to help out once again. Please go to http://www.womenofworth.com/ and vote for Cindy and if she is selected, ConKerr Cancer will receive $25 000! Hurry on over and vote as it ends November 24th! You can also help by making these pillow cases and donating them. Thanks for supporting this cause.