A great deal!

I always use Warm and Natural batting. It is my favorite. I usually buy it by the bolt and look for it on sale at JoAnn’s. Well, here is the best deal I have seen them offer in a long time!

This bolt is 40 yards of 90 inch wide 100% cotton batting. This little code will make it an even better deal: FAFS40 gives you free shipping as well!

I have no affiliation whatsoever with JoAnn Fabrics. I just love this stuff and if you do too, I wanted to pass on this great deal. I have no idea how long this sale will last.

Until next time….

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Northeast Arts Council Show

Every year, the Northeast Arts Council hosts a small, traditional quilt show. They are based in Standish, Michigan and the show is held in their building which is an old brick church. It is a lovely place for a show.

I have entered quilts in this show for a number of years. I have never made quilts specifically for this show, just take what I have on hand that fits their categories. These categories are mostly based on size. They specify and range for length and width for crib quilts, large and small wall hangings, bed quilts, lap quilts etc. Most of my quilts don’t fit neatly, they are too long or too short in one way or the other. Often I end up pulling out some oldies.  Here are my entries for this year:

This last one I made to hang in our school room back when we were homeschooling. I never expected it to win anything but like I said, it is a very traditional show. It was fun to make and it would be fun to do a funky modern version of this some time. Hmmmm….

Until next time….

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Wishing for green….

I so long for spring to come. I cannot wait to look out my window and see green!

So I suppose that is my motivation for pulling  out several of my hand dyed greens today, along with some cool batik strips I picked up somewhere.

I just wacked away at the hand dyes with my scissors, no measuring. They may get hacked some more. I am thinking about using these with them:

Maybe something long these lines:

I should have cropped these photos and clearly not a lot of thought has gone into design yet but I think I will play some more with this today.

Until next time….

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Spring in Michigan…..

Looks like this:

Nice, huh?

Until next time….

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A few WIPs….

I have been in a creative slump for a while. I have been knitting and finished several pair of socks this winter but have done precious little sewing.

I recently pulled out these blocks I have had for a while and finally started putting them together:

I actually bought the blocks at a garage sale. They are made from repro fabrics and are probably 10 years or so old. I found the poison green in my stash and that is what got me going on this. I am not sure what I will do at the ends of the rows yet or how big this will end up.

I also picked up some solid strips from Connecting Threads when they had their Cyber Monday sale.

I started playing with some ends like this:

I am not sure where this is going yet either but at least I have done something. I am hoping to do more sewing today once I finish doing my kid’s taxes. Blech…..

Until next time….

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Lucy

Once again, it has been an awfully long time since I have posted. Life has been busy as usual. But today, things should be necessarily slow……due to inclement weather once again.

Yes, it is March 23 and the schools are closed due to snow. They say we may get up to 10 inches by the time it is all said and done.

So I am sitting by the fire, drinking coffee, snuggled in an afghan, reading a good book and writing a blog post. Feels good. I mean, I hate snow but if you have to have it, get snowed in and enjoy it!

In other news, one month to the day we lost our Daisy, we brought home another cocker from SAFE, the same rescue organization we had gotten Daisy from. Here’s Lucy!

Lucy is now almost 16 months old and pure cocker. Pierre is still not too sure about her; though, she loves him!

But he does seem to like my new quilt magazine!

Next time, a few quilting pics. Until then…..

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A little something new…..

I haven’t done any sewing in  a while but today I decided it was time to try out an idea I had:

It is really hard to get a good picture in my sewing room. The colors here are a tad brighter than in real life.  There are my hand dyed fabrics. I will add a facing to finish the edges. The pieces are torn to size (except for the circles) and laid on top. They are held down by the machine quilting.  I intended to mount this to canvas for hanging purposes but it ended up just a bit too small for the canvas I had. Hmmm…..

Until next time…..

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Goodbye Daisy…..

4-1-2002 to 12-20-2010

How does it happen?

I am not a dog person. But I knew how badly my girls wanted a dog so we brought home a Bichon puppy named Pierre,  in the summer of 2001. A couple years later, we decided my father in law needed a dog (he really wanted ours!). We found Daisy, a two year old chocolate brown cocker spaniel at a SAFE rescue event at our local PetSmart store. We brought her home but he didn’t want a brown dog….so she stayed with us. She and Pierre were constant companions for more than 6 years. She was my youngest daughter’s shadow. She waited outside Hope’s door for her to come home from school. She was gentle, smart, kind. She never whined. Over the last year, she developed a number of health issues. On December 20th, it was time to let her go.

I knew it would be hard for the girls, especially Hope. I knew Pierre would miss her.

I had no idea how much I would miss her. 

Did I mention I am not a dog person? At what point did she work her way into my heart when I wasn’t looking? How did this happen? I thought I couldn’t wait until we were through with the dog years but I admit, I miss her.  More than I ever expected to.

She was faithful, loyal, and good. She loved us. 

And I loved her too.

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A New Job….

This past fall, I started a new job. I am working as a library assistant sub for the Saginaw Public Libraries. I am spending a lot of time here:

Sorry for the bad pic. But isn’t the building beautiful? Actually, this  is the main library and there are four other branches where I have also been spending a fair amount of time. I had lots of training this fall for my work at the reference desk. I can honestly say, this is the best job I have ever had! I am loving it!

It has gotten me back into reading which has cut into my sewing time a bit and obviously, my blogging time has suffered as well.

I do have a few new things (fiberwise) to share though and hope to get back to more regular blogging now that it is January.

Until next time….

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PHOENIX!

My husband and I just returned from visiting our son in Phoenix, AZ. We were able to travel out there for his graduation from UTI in automotive technology. We also got him moved into his new apartment as he has just started a new job out there as well.

Zach has ALWAYS loved cars. He owns a ’77 Trans Am that he has been restoring as he has time and cash. Here is a picture of “Betty”:

Nice, huh? Anyway,  he asked me to make a Trans Am quilt for him and I got it done in time for graduation. Here are some pics of the finished project:

I wasn’t 100% happy with the way it turned out but he loved it and I guess that is what matters!  I used a product called Liqui-Fuse on the edges of the bird. This meant that I didn’t have an layer of fusible under the entire surface. I learned this technique from Terry Grant over at And Sew It Goes.

Until next time….

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