Crafty

Today I had some last minute quilt show errands to do. One of them was to get some gift bags so I went to Michael's. Craft stores have not been a priority for a while and what a pleasant surprise! I found this fabric washi tape in pretty, floral colors. It is like a sticker, you peel the backing off to use it.

This is the brand and they had tons of cute things in a large range of colors. It was hard to narrow it down. I am thinking of using regular fabric, maybe with some glue?

I like the pack that has the 2 colors, again I could have bought every color....restraint.

I saw this idea in Country Living magazine and thought it would be a good grandchild project. We tried it with regular washi tape but you could see through it and it didn't look as nice. It works the best on a straight edge jar (not tapered). What a fun way to store my pins!
I am now hunting through the pantry for expired jars of food!

Kelly

Vacation Goodies

We only had one rain day on our vacation and decided to venture out to get the grandchildren some souvenirs. Of course I searched out a quilt shop and found some pretty fabrics. Aren't those blue sailboats cute?

In keeping with the Florida theme, I found these dish towels by Moda at the shop. I think Moda does vintage very well. I have always wanted to try out the Flatter Spray, so I picked some of that up as well. You use it like starch but it does not stiffen the fabric.

This is the scrap bundle I won last week from Retro-Mama. These have my name written all over them!

I put the pincushion in a bowl that I have in my front hall with some others. It looks right at home!

I think this will be my first project out of the book. I will be making 3, for some little boys.

I really missed my sewing machine while I was gone. I was so tired last night but did manage to get some squares sewn.

Our Penn Oaks Quilt Show starts this Friday and Saturday. Thursday we spend the whole day getting set up. I hope if you are local you will come and see our beautiful quilts. You can get more information HERE.

Not only will there be over 100 quilts but vendors, homemade food, door prizes, raffle baskets, mini raffle quilts and our adorable sewing themed cookies. Hope to see you there!

Kelly

Beach Basket Cottage

This is where I have been for the past 10 days or so. My husband and I escaped to Anna Maria Island in Florida. I loved this little cottage they call "Beach Basket" It is a vintage little place but with all the must haves, like air-conditioning!
It is one of the barrier islands near Bradenton and Sarasota. The beach was beautiful, sugary, white soft sand, turquoise water and lots of pretty shells. I did get sunburned!

The weather was amazing, the mid 80's.  At home they were getting freeze warnings!

They had pretty, beachy artwork, some by local artists......

We went for a bike ride one day and look what we found. How about this for some random street art?

Hundreds of beach toys stuck on a chain link fence. It was very colorful and very fun. Not so sure about the bottles though....

and pretty dishes that made it feel less like a rental and more like a home. I also love the wood cut outs around the shelf.

We spent a lot of time around the pool. We had coffee and breakfast every morning out here. My sister in law and her husband were here for a couple of days and she very nicely made bacon and eggs every morning.
After a day at the beach we would come back here, take a swim and then grabbed our books with a cocktail or two. All I can say is that is was extremely relaxing and you could walk to the restaurants which we loved. Two nights we walked on the beach to a restaurant called The Sand Bar and had to find our way back in the dark,  it was actually very easy.
If you want more information on the place and some better pictures, you can check it out here Beach Basket. All the opinions are my own and I was not compensated. It was just a very lovely place!

This is a crazy week but I hope to get back with some more sewing related content.

Kelly

Oh My Goodness, I Won!

This morning I turned on the computer to check my email and found out I won a giveaway from Kim at Retro-Mama!

The book looks great with lots of cute projects and if you notice those prints and colors have my name all over them!

Aren't these cute? With 3 new grandsons this year, these could be nice little presents for them.

These really caught my eye, as I have a weakness for a cute pincushion!
Thank you so much Kim I can't wait to pick out a project!

Kelly

Quick Sew

I really don't have time to sew today but I just wanted to try out 1 block.

I wanted to see how it would look with this background. The plan is to make a big pinwheel quilt. It's one of those patterns I have always liked and lends itself to scrappy. I am not sure about the background. I want something low volume  and think this might be too busy.

You can find the block in a new book called, Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt. She has great simple ways to make blocks and there will be a QAL starting in May.

I took a break from cutting up all those sections for my grandsons' baby quilts. Any guesses as to what pattern I am making? They will both be the same pattern, the colors will be mixed.
I am also going to get outside and enjoy this beautiful (finally) day and pick some daffodils!

Kelly

A Beautiful Monday

Today is a gorgeous. lovely spring day here. The temperatures are finally warm, yet cool and it feels wonderful after the long winter.
All I have to show from my garden for mid April is this tiny sprig of forsythia. My daffodils are still not open!
No sewing here today, enjoying the sunshine!

Kelly

Twirl and Mail

You really can teach an old dog new tricks! At our retreat in February one of the members, Myrna taught me how to "twirl" the centers of nine patches. I thought this was a very involved process and I couldn't be bothered. So when she was doing it at the retreat with her patchwork I asked her to show me how to do it.

Oh my goodness it is so simple and takes like 2 seconds! For those of you like me that don't know, all you do is take out the 2 little stitches in the middle and they just fall into place. Press and admire! The best part is they lay super flat, no hump in the middle.

Holy Moly batman, 2 pieces of quilt mail today!

My friend Barb of Fun with Barb sent me this very cool pattern. She made this quilt a while ago and I have always admired it. I am so happy she made it into a pattern. This is a pattern you can personalize to yourself so head over to her blog if you are interested in purchasing it. She is also working on another pattern that is a beautiful applique in red and green.

The name of her pattern company is Sweet Sparrow Designs and she loves birds, hence the artwork on the back of the envelope!

This also came in the mail. Similar to the Farmer's Wife blocks but much more simple and perfect for individual small quilts and gift giving.

Kelly

Baby Blues

I have started on the quilts for the twins. I looked and looked and looked for a background print and ended up with the dots. I think it was a good choice. I have a lot more blues to cut.

Kelly

Quilt Show Countdown

My guild, Penn Oaks Quilt Guild is having a QUILT SHOW in a few weeks. One of the ways we raise money is through our Acorn Shoppe where we sell miscellaneous sewing things, think of it like a thrift shop of sorts. Members are also encouraged to sell things giving a percentage of the sales back to the guild. It's a win-win.

Everything is usually a used pattern or book and just things you are looking to get rid of, a good time to clean out the sewing room!

These two pouches I am donating, they are 6 1/2"x 9". They will be in the Acorn Shoppe if you are interested.

This one is also 6 1/2" x 9" and will be in a raffle basket.
I hope if you are local you can make it to the show. For a small guild we do a great job! You can get more information HERE.

Kelly

Bound

Sprig

I decided to bind the quilt and am now glad I did! It is subtle and gives it just the right amount of definition.

I used that method of binding where you sew the top and bottom on first, stitch them to the back and then do the sides. I have never done it before and thought it would look better than it does. I didn't want to waste any of the vintage fabric. To me it looks crooked and a little lumpy. We'll call it "charming".

This is the back and the only stitching you can see is my embroidery, I hid the applique stitches well. I had a stop and start and did not like the way the knots looked so I stitched circles over the ends. I like it!

It does add a touch of whimsy!

Have you seen this quilt? I made it last summer and it was used to advertise our quilt show. It has disappeared I am hoping someone found it and will return it. Contact me by email kellymx@aol.com.  Great news the quilt has been found!

My day was brightened considerably when I opened the mailbox to some mail from my granddaughter. I hope we always get old fashioned mail, it made my day!

Kelly