Quilt Fest

Friday I took the day off and went to QuiltFest with Jeannine of Sleepy Weasel Studios. We had a great time! I'm just going to show you a few photos.

This little quilt amazed me because it's 1/4" hexagons. The quilt was not much larger than my hand.

This quilt was designed, pieced and quilted by a 9 year old! Can you imagine?!

We were also fortunate to sit in on Bonnie Hunters trunk show. She is pretty funny and is a talented quilter and scrap user. The hour just flew by. This is her current quilt that she is hand quilting. She takes it with her to work on when she has some free time while traveling.

I left the house Friday morning at 9 am and besides coming home for a quick hour to meet a service guy, I didn't return until almost 11pm as I went to knit night, dinner with friends and then to Barnes and Nobles. I was exhausted but in a good way!

I made a purchase that I'll show you later. Other than that, I just bought fabric, a marking pencil, a stencil, some needles, crushed walnuts and a couple of pin cushion patterns.

Oh! I forgot to take a picture of the Best in Show. Part of it was micro micro stippled. The quilter used a magnifying glass to quilt it. It was so small that I wasn't even sure it was quilted as I could not see the stitches or pattern.

I hope each of you had a great weekend! Happy Stitches and thank you for visiting my blog!

Newbie Mistake Sends Me to the Frog Pond

There used to be a commercial on TV that promoted reading. It's tag line was "Reading is Fundamental". It's proven to me over and over again that we often learn life lessons early in childhood. Take this for example. I'm a newbie stitcher and I just missed this.

Look at the difference. In my mind, this outside work wasn't backstitching per se. It wasn't until I looked at a photo in blog land that I realized the error of my ways. I'm not frogging this now. I'll come back to it later.

Lesson Learned: Reading IS Fundamental.
Seriously.

There has been little knitting content here lately. That's because Quilting has taken over much of my free time. Plus I'm working on 2 big projects that don't show well in progress.

This weekend is QuiltFest and I'm looking forward to attending and maybe do a little retail therapy! My quilt show generally has more traditional leanings so I'm hoping to find some Jo Morton fabrics. I've just joined Jo's Little Women Club and do not have a red that I like for our project. I only need a 12" strip 1.5" wide. Still, it's a big deal to me - that red has to be perfect! If I don't find it this week, I'm going to have to move on with what I have which is more rust.

Are you on Facebook? Did you know that AccuQuilt gives away a GO Fabric Cutter every Friday on Facebook? Several blogging friends have won one! I want to be next but thought I'd share with all of you as I was talking to someone last week who didn't know. Hey, if I can't win one, I would rather a blogging friend get one. At least I can send you fabric to cut for me because you all know how much I dislike that part of the process!!

I hope everyone is having a great week! As always, Happy Stitches!

Small Finish...But a Finish Nonetheless

I finished LHNs Pear Tree ornament from the "All Dolled Up" series yesterday. I don't have a beading needle so the beads haven't been added. This goes off to the drawer with the other ornament I've finished stitching until I'm ready to do the final finishing. The only complaint I have about this series is that the ornaments are bigger than I'd like. I'm on auto ship from Drema at NeedleCraft Corner for the pattern and fabric (which is nice because you get all the extras too). I might call and see if she can offer a larger count fabric for next year.

I also finished another Stitchers Garden block. This one and the block before are 2 of my favorites. I'm finding that I really like using buttons in my quilting. Yo-yos not so much.

The lesson this month was making pintucks with Bernina foot #31. We didn't use the cording as demonstrated in the video I linked. It was fun and easy! I made mine really close together. A double needle was also used for the background. The pink thread is darker than I'd have liked but it really isn't as glaring in person as it photographs and once the quilt is finished it will be a non-issue.

I've been working on re-establishing an exercise routine and for the past 4 weeks I've exercised at least 3 days per week. It's dropped below 90 here so I've been trying to exercise outside as much as possible. I'm doing it but beginning to think all the hype about endorphins is an urban legend. I really envy those of you that enjoy exercising and hope one day I can say the same!

Snails Trails and a Good Report

Today I worked on my $5 quilt block for next weekend. As you may remember, I've had some trouble with my blocks turning out too small. This one was too big. I'll make it work because I'm certainly not doing this one again. It took a long time. Overall, it's not my favorite block.

Cody and Kenzie had their spa day this week. You can now see their faces.

Kenzie was playing in the wet grass. I had to post this picture though as generally her face comes out black due to her coloring.

They get a report card when they get groomed. Cody was a "Little Angel". Not sure I believe that because he just tolerates these visits. Kenzie, however, got a blue ribbon and a note that she was a sweetheart. She IS a sweetheart but under all that don't kid yourself - she is Alpha dog. All 10 pounds of her! She is small for her breed but she thinks she is a German Shepherd.

Greg and I were off all week and stayed at home. Had a really nice relaxing week together. I did a lot of reading which is my ultimate activity for chilling. Today Greg had his first 100 mile bike ride (bike as in bicycle). He did really well though his back is a bit sore. My exercise efforts have been respectable for me though I've been sidelined for the past 2 days. Hopefully I can get back to it tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Monday so it's back to work for me. I hope you all had a great weekend. I appreciate your visits to my blog and your comments. It's also wonderful getting to know each of you. Have a great week. Happy Stitches!

I Need to Spend TIme on Ebay!

I think my mojo is coming back. I was able to get this next block in my Stitchers Garden BOM completed. There is something about yellow and blue that is always so crisp.

This block featured the cording foot #25 from Bernina to sew down the DMC thread which becomes the stem of the flower. I forgot to do decorative stitching so the applique was blanket stitch.

My favorite part of this block without fail is the background stitching with the twin needle. I really like the way it looks. I've definitely gotten comfortable with using a twin needle and can see doing more of it in the future. It's not as scary as it looks! I think it would be great to use on bag handles.

Last weekend a lady at the quilt shop brought this beauty in to show everyone. It's a 1939 hand crank Singer sewing machine in fantastic condition. She paid $63 for it on Ebay. With $35 shipping, her total cost was just less than $100. To me, that seems like a great deal! I don't spend any time on Ebay but I'm now thinking I need to visit there every once in a while. Another great thing about this machine? She can keep sewing if her electricity goes out!

I'd love to have a vintage sewing machine!

I hope you're having a great week so far. Happy Stitches!

Out of Jail!

In late May while we were on vacation, Cody tore his ACL so we turned around and came home so he could have surgery. Since then he's been on a leash or in his crate. He's managed that much better than Greg and I have. It wasn't until we saw how much it hurt him to even be on the leash that we realized we needed to comply 100% with the vets instructions and give him a lot of crate time. In the last 2 weeks, he was deemed fit enough to be off leash. He has now resumed his rightful place on my new couch!

Kenzie maintains her rightful place on Greg's back. He's napping and so is she!

Both dogs have gotten so shaggy and are hopefully being groomed this week. I just didn't feel comfortable taking Cody to the groomers while he was on restricted activity. Since he has a little anxiety when he's separated from Kenzie, she didn't go either.

Cody and Kenzie are truly part of our family and we're all glad to have his surgery and recovery behind us. We've noticed he's not quite as active and I'm hoping that he'll get stronger over time. Hopefully our next vacation will go as planned!

Not a Walk in the Park

Last Saturday our Sampler Guild had our monthly get together. Linda and I arrived quite a bit before anyone else so we had a great chance to chat with each other. I thought I'd show you the beautiful piece she has almost finished. It's called the Six Hem Sampler by Indigo Rose.

Here is a close up of Linda's wonderful stitching. As a newer stitcher, I can't imagine doing this!

After I took these 2 pictures, I put my camera away and forgot to take any more pictures. Too busy chatting! Karen and I also had brought some of our yarn to show each other - indie dyed stuff so we could compare. Needless to say I had a great time!

I mentioned in my last post that I had intended to get up that morning and take a walk but it was raining. Lo and behold it quit raining right after I hit "publish" on that post. So off I went. I live in a neighborhood but to walk any distance you have to leave the neighborhood if you don't want to walk the same route over and over. No parks nearby to walk in as my walk took me along what can be a busy street.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't exercised in months. Greg booked our cabin in the mountains for later this year and if I want to hike while we're there, I need to get off the couch now. How does a girl train for elevation changes when she lives in Florida? Bridges and overpasses. Here is the one I walked over - it's an overpass over an interstate. Looking at the picture, it looks just as flat as everything else around here.

Who am I kidding? I better get my rear in gear and get back to the gym. I have to say, it's not something I enjoy. Endorphins? What are those? I'd love to be one of those people who look forward to exercise. Maybe enjoy it a little. Is that too much to ask? I think it quite possibly might be.