::Fabric Shopping::

I went fabric shopping with my ONE and ONLY local quilting friend, Maura!  It's my favorite thing to do, EVA!  We were literally giddy with excitement on the one hour drive there.  And giddy with sewing and quilt talk too.  The store is enormous and we spent 2 hours roaming the isles and filing our carts.  Fabulous.  Heaven, I tell ya!

full cart

As soon as we pull into the parking lot, my mind starts racing with ideas and in my head I'm thinking, "omgomgomgomgomgomgomg."  When we get inside, I usually elbow Maura out of the way, grab a cart and start yanking bolts of fabric off the shelves.

tone on tone chevron from Riley Blake

My heart literally races and I zip around aisles trying to catch my breath.  The announcer from Supermarket Sweep is in my head urging me on.






I lose sight of Maura for a long while as we are both off in our own worlds.  Tackling the store in our unique ways.  I start right inside the front door on the left with the precuts and zig zag the entire left side of the store.  Then I head to the sale section in the back on the right hand side of the store and work my way back to the front.  Maura starts in the sale section and is usually waiting for me by the registers.

Noteworthy by Sweetheart

Sometimes we pass each other and peek to see what the other has gathered.  Some oohing and aaahhhing occurs and 'oh, where'd you find that?'

Lucky Penny by Allison Glass

She's much more thoughtfull and deliberate and sticks with her list of what she needs for a particular project.  Sometimes she'll show me a fabric she loves ( like the ninjas) and then SHE PUTS IT BACK ON THE SHELF!!

How does she have such control??  Ack! If I love it, I have to have it.  Even if it just sits on my shelf.  (I am still thinking about those cute ninjas and wishing I'd bought them.)

Ahoy Matey by Michael Miller

After two hours of adrenaline pumping, we sit in her car eating lunch and thanking the Quilting Gods that not one school nurse called us to come pick up a sick child.

Don't Be Crabby by Laurie Wisborn

miscellaneous stash builders

stash builders

more stash

On the long ride home, we talk all about the projects we want to work on and how we wish we had more time to sew.

novelty prints that I couldn't live without

florals

And when she drops me off at home, it's all I can do to drag myself up the front steps with my bag of goodies.  I'm exhausted, but the second half of my day is about to start as the kids are getting off the bus.

my loot

And then we text one more time.

Thanks, Maura!

 

::Fabric Selection::

Here's the stack of fabrics I've pulled for the Virtual Quilting Bee.  I'm happy with all the color choices but I may have too many polka dots in there.  I'll have to see as I go and make sure I space them around.

This stack was used for my first Block 1.  Love, love, love it and really happy with how the block turned out.  This block was designed by Sherri at A Quilting Life.

This stack I pulled was centered around the top fabric~ Marmalade Floral Pink by Bonnie and Camille.
I love how it looks but ended up changing it for Block 2.  I will try to use it again in another block.

Here's Block 2.  The tutorial is by Sukie of Sukie Don't Ya Know and it's fairly simple.

And because I'm loving this Bee, I made a second version of Block 1.  I hope to make two of each block but we'll see how that goes.  Doesn't hurt to try!

 

::Block 1::

Behold my pride and joy.  I'm smiling today.  Block 1 for Amy's Virtual Quilting Bee is done!  I was able to piece it without too many mistakes and am a little amazed that I was so accurate with all those points.

Choosing fabrics that go well together is hard and takes practice.  It's so much easier to start with a collection from a fabric designer~ and I've done that plenty~ but I wanted to take a risk and pull fabrics on my own.

The seam ripper is also my friend.  I sooo want to just leave a mistake if it's not too bad, but I always feel better when I rip it out and redo it.  I ripped out one of these seems 5 times.  It was worth it.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  I love the colors, the variety of scales and the placement of them. In looking at blocks that other quilters made, I was pretty sure I wanted the main square and points to be the focus with the background more muted and the corners to pop a bit.

What do you think?  Do you like?

::I Spy Quilt::

One thing I did for Sewing Summit was to join a fabric swap.  Wasn't sure what it was all about but I'm so glad I did it.  I got all these awesome squares of fabric in the exchange!  They are so cute and it's fun to see what you get.  This one was an I-Spy swap so all the fabrics have cute, little images.  

Coupled with Amy's inspiration and my daughter's teacher having a baby and voila!

Oooopssss.  I always have trouble with the darn corners.  Any suggestions to avoid that?

I decided to pin baste it and skip the spray.  I used the knitting/crocheting needle to help pull the pin tip up and out of the fabric.  Super easy.  All I could think of when I pinned was visiting my gram and watching her sit on the floor with her head and shoulders bent over and pinning her quilts on her family room floor~ most were very large.  She still quilts at 96 years young and it's so sweet to watch her work.  

More work to be done and I hope to do it soon!

::Work in Progress::

Happy New Year Friends!

What a great feeling to start fresh

in a New Year.

I am ready for 2012 to start.

I look forward to each and every day

and being the best person I can be.

This will be my last year

before I turn the big 4-0

and I'm going to leave my thirties better than

I came in!

and...

I'm gonna be finishing this project soon.

sewing the back of the binding is all that's left.

just in time for Christmas 2012.

-sigh-