A case, a pouch and some charms

I received my needle case from my swap partner and it is lovely! The talented Sylvia hand painted a gorgeous rose that she embelished with thread. I will use it for all my portable sewing projects. Thank you, Sylvia!

I'm not afraid of zippers anymore! I used Noodlehead's gathered clutch tutorial, with some added advice from the Flickr swap discussion boards. I will be testing out various zippered bag patterns to show my nephew's fiancee. She asked me to make cosmetics bags for her bridesmaids, so please let me know if you have a favorite small bag pattern.


Pat Sloan started a quilt along today called Lucky Charms. You can find it on her website and on the Old Red Barn Quilt Along Flickr group. Jackie gave me this charm pack the last time we got together and it will be perfect for this little project.


It's going to be a beautiful weekend here, so we'll be at the beach!

Stripedy Fun!

When I was flipping though Anita Grossman Solomon's new book, Rotary Cutting Revolution, I really didn't think I liked the Xcentric Block. But when I was looking for fabric to make the Arrowhead block, I found this awesome stripe. What the heck. I'll give it a try.

I love these blocks! I quickly and easily made 4 cute little blocks. Of course, I didn't follow the directions to start with 8" squares. Mine were 4.5". What can I say. I'm a rebel! Four identical squares produce 2 Xcentric units and 2 Concentric units.

I couldn't stop at 4 blocks, so I kept cutting and pinning and sewing. Here's my 15" top!


I turned my first set of blocks into pincushions with vintage buttons.
CUTE!


While I'm cleaning up my sewing area, I'll be sure to look for more stripes!

Pins, Piecing and Planes

I probably could have split this into two posts, but i like the alliteration!

PINS
My hexie table runner is basted and ready for some hand quilting on the beach.


PIECING
I forgot to show you the loot we picked up at the Lowell Quilt Festival:

• Some African fat quarters to replenish the stash
• A layer cake of Fandango which may be incorporated into the wedding quilt
• A book I've been wanting since it came out

While we were eating Italian ice in Lowell, I picked out this block, Anita's Arrowhead, to try first. This block took me about 15 minutes, start to finish, reading instructions, and all. I'm sure, once you get in a rhythm it would go much faster. This fabric combo is a little busy, but I love the block and can't wait to make more! Anita is a genius!

PLANES
My nephew Eric is an artist (industrial designer, actually) and last summer he worked at Fisher Price designing these cool planes. Here he is showing them off to Grandma!

This is the plane he designed, virtually start to finish. It's from the imaginext line. This number 3 plane is called the Twister Jet. It's so exciting to see something he designed in production for the first time!

He had a hand in creating the other planes, painting decals and working on the flight suits. Each plane retails for about $10. (We bought 2 Twister Jets yesterday at Walmart!) The aircraft carrier is about $40 and comes with 2 planes.

If there is a boy in your house, he might enjoy playing with these, even if he is over 8 years old!

The best part is that Eric is starting a new job next week in Rhode Island! He'll be working for a company that makes electronic drumsets, among other things, so Pete can't wait to get one of those with Eric's employee discount!

Posy Needle Cases

I'm really happy that I finished these posy needle cases this morning, days before the deadline! One will be mailed to my swap partner tomorrow. The other is going to a guild friend who gave me a bag of selvedges at our last meeting.

The brighter case will go to my swap partner with the additional gifts of chocolate from a local shop and some fabric scraps. Her favorite things!

I used only Nancy's selvedges for the lining of her needle case (the purple one). The larger circle (Asian print) was from a large piece that still had a few inches of print attached. That print dictated the colors of her applique.


Speaking of applique, I used Erin's technique and it went really quickly. I need to get started with her Floribunda blocks. They are so gorgeous! Her tutorial for the needle cases is in two parts: here and here. If you'd like to see the other needle cases that are being swapped, visit the Flickr pool.

I tried grabbing my photos from Flickr, but I can't get it to work. If you use Flickr and Blogger, please drop me a comment and let me know how you do it. Thanks!

Blue Ribbon

Look who won a Blue Ribbon at Images (Lowell Quilt Festival)!
Woo Hoo!

Remember when this quilt was kicking our butts?
We unquilted, bought better batting, re-layered and quilted again.
Much better!

The Youth category was hanging upstairs in the auditorium.
The tumbling blocks quilt was very pretty.

We loved the other Brownie quilt.
They used the Girl Scout fabrics and hand-pieced their blocks.
Nice job, girls!

My Geese in the Forest was accepted, but no ribbons for me!

We always enjoy seeing the car quilt!
Julia blends in, wearing her selvedge skirt. That skirt has become her quilt show uniform. It gets a lot of attention.

Quilt shows are great inspiration for finishing or starting quilt projects. This week, I'd love to finish my Mod Bento quilt, my hexagon table runner and last year's 9-patch swap.
Goals are good!

Playing Catch-up

Hello, Blogland! It's been a while.

To catch up:

Pete came home from the Jamboree with lots of new friends, great memories and dirty laundry.

We took the teenagers on their first college tour- Union College in Schenectady, NY.
The last stop on the tour was the Nott Memorial, where the Unity Quilt panels are hanging from the balcony. We were excited to see our family block in the lower left corner of this panel.


We attended my family reunion in Albany, New York.
Since we had to contribute something crafty, Julia and I made a dozen Italian-themed centerpieces. The white flowers with text are photocopied pages of Pinocchio, in Italian, of course. The containers are parmesan cheese shakers that I picked up at Michael's for $1 each.

Here's my family- about 120 of us!

We celebrated my niece Debbie's birthday on Lake George in the Adirondacks.
The kids (including my husband) jumped off this 50 foot cliff into the lake.
OK, it was only about 12-15 feet, but from the top it felt a lot higher.

Our last adventure of the weekend was a rafting trip on the Sacandaga River with Bill's nephew David as our guide. Doesn't he look like Tarzan?

It was an amazing family-filled, fun-filled long weekend.