Friday, December 30, 2016

A little yarn therapy.....

Spent a couple days at my sister-in-law (Maria)  and brother-in-law's lake house after Christmas; and Maria and I did a little retail therapy in a couple yarn shops. 

At Thistledown Shoppe in Suttons Bay, MI  I found the colors of yarn I was looking for a particular pattern that I have been wanting to do for awhile.  I want to do the hat, the cowl and the mittens.  



The green is by Dragonfly Fibers and the color is called Celery Seed.  It is 100% superwash merino wool.  The raspberry yarn is from Madelinetosh, the Pashmina line and the color is called Coquette.  It is 75% merino wool; 15% silk and 10% cashmere.  

I, also, decided on making some boot cuffs after purchasing some Sorel boots that I thought needed a little umph, so I picked up this pattern along with some yarn.   This yarn is a 100% Extrafine Superwash Merino Wool and the color is called Oleaster.  It is hand dyed and has some slight coffee and cream variations throughout.  


Then we headed over to Traverse City at KnitKnorth (love that place); and the first color I saw when I walked into the door was this luscious lavender.  I didn't know what I would make with it, but I had to find a pattern to warrant buying it.  

This yarn is a Mrs. Crosby yarn and the color is called Monkey Orchid.  It is 75% superwash merino wool, 15 % silk and 10% cashmere.  It is soooo yummy!



Maria says that I have to have matching nail polish when I wear these, so I will have to hunt some of that down, too.  

Anyways, I am home and I am in need of a couple sizes of needles to get a couple of these projects started, so I am sure you can guess where I will be tomorrow morning.  Gotta hit the stores before they are closed for the holiday.  



Sunday, December 25, 2016

One and only......

I only had one Christmas gift this year to make as a gift for my dear daughter-in-law.
She asked for a Christmas tree skirt, but didn't know exactly what she wanted in the beginning.

We narrowed it down with some encouragement.


She showed me this 12" block that she found on the Internet and that at least gave me something to work towards.....but, she wanted a white snowflake on a white background with maybe some silver sparkle to it; and she knew she wanted some swirly quilting in the background.

I had to talk her into using some other color than "white" since nothing would have shown up if it were white on white.  All that work would have been for nought.  As it was, I had to quilt this in the dark with a black light just to see where I was, where I had been and where I was going.  

She wasn't too sure about an ice blue but finally relented and said to do what I thought best.  

Well, while in Houston, I found some fat quarters that were in white and light grays that had some silver designs/dots in them.  I could only find the fat quarters and 1 yard of the white with silver dots for the background. 



I got my son to enlarge the 12" block to 40" and thought I would paper piece the whole thing making it super easy to make.  Well, I was so worried about not having enough fabric from each of the fat quarters, that I cut out the designs  (6 each) from each fat quarter.  "sigh"  I didn't cut them out in reverse so that I could paper piece.  Oh well, now I was going to have to make this with templates.

In the meantime, I had to run to the quilt shop here in town to find more fabrics that would go with this.  I found some more light grays with silver running through them and one white with white snowflakes; and I ordered more of the white with silver dots for the background.  

 It was pieced in six sections.  


I pieced this in a  square to make it easy for me to load onto the long arm.  

Silver metallic thread was used in the white areas of the snowflake and white Glide thread which is a very shiny thread was used in the gray areas.  




So Fine white thread was, also, used in the background in the swirly design that she asked for to complete the quilting on this top.  



The the quilting was finished.


Hmmmm...these colors don't look as white as the fabric really is, but you get the gist of it all.  

I quilted this in a circle.and bound it just in time for Christmas.


Surrounding their Christmas tree is their Christmas Village and she was hoping that this would give the appearance of being a mountain with the village at the base of the tree.  

She was happy and said it was all she expected, but not being a sewer just didn't know how to express.  I think between the two of us, we did good.  


MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Thursday, December 1, 2016

Few more memories from Thelma and Louise's saga......

I am still reveling in the memories of this great trip.

Waco to see Magnolia.

This is one picture that I did not share in the "silos" where a lot of the shopping took place.


Houston to attend thee quilt show.

Here's a upwards shot of a Chihuly chandelier that I thought was great inspiration for a quilt.


Then there was the vendor mall, of course.  

I didn't get away Scott free there, although I was very conscious of having to bring things back on the plane.

I purchased long arm rulers that I have been wanting. 


Just a little fabric for a specific quilt project.


A Christmas Wee One for the stand that I already have. It's a wool project.


A few "needed" doodads.



I couldn't pass up this shawl pin.  Unusual ones are hard to find and I just loved this one. 


Another Christmas wool project.


There were more things purchased at the show (shhh....they are gifts and there were purchases in Waco....more gifts)

Both of my wool projects are now prepped and ready to stitch, but that will be another post when I finally get around to finishing them.  

Then there was the plane ride home.  My sister-in-law and I had brought along knitting projects that we "saved" for this trip, but we found that each night we were so exhausted that no knitting took place until we were on the plane ride home.  


So, now I have my memories and my pictures and longing for time to slow down  so that I can find the time to be creative.   Hopefully my next post will be of my finished wool projects and my knitted project, too.  

There is quilting to do; and the holidays are upon us already.  So time will tell just how much I can get done.  







Monday, November 28, 2016

Thelma and Louise - Saga II

I have to admit that I have been procrastinating doing this post because it seemed so daunting and that is because the Houston Quilt show was so daunting!  Wow...is that place BIG!!  I thought Paducah was big but you can probably multiply this place by TEN.

Here's a selfie with my sister-in-law and myself  with a "portion" of the vendors behind us.



Here's a couple more views.




These pictures don't even show where the quilt display even started.

Where do I begin with the quilts?

Oh my!!

I know you have seen many posted on many of the blogs, but I will share a few of my favs.

There were applique quilts.


Holiday quilts


Hawaiian quilts.


Log cabins.


Whole cloths.  


Antique reproductions.


This one had 80,000 pieces!  Yes, you read that right.  This quilter has to have had a lot of patience.



Baltimore albums.



Dolls


The Lion King


Beautiful colors.


Animals



This one reminded me of my grand-dog, Maggie.


Leather quilts



Dear Janes


A whole display of "dot" quilts.  Sorry these are on their sides, but notice the second one.  Can you see the hidden word (even though it is on its side!)




I could go on forever, but I just loved how this elderly lady was stitched. Just look closely at her arms. This quilt was amazing.  


I have so many more pictures.  Just believe me that this show was fabulous and if you ever get the chance to go, it was well worth it.  

You will be taking lots of "rest periods" though.  There is a lot of walking in big crowds.


Well worth it though.

Hope you enjoyed the "small" number of quilts that I have shared with you.  

My next post will be a little bit more about our Thelma and Louise adventure.






Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Thelma and Louise...Saga I

There were a few firsts for one or both of us the week we headed out to Texas.

First time my sister-in-law flew without her husband.


First time I have been to Texas.

First time either of us rented a car on our own (unfortunately it wasn't a Vette).


First time for me to go to the Houston Quilt Show.

First time for either of us to hail a taxi on our own.


Did we have a good time?  You bet!

What all did we do while we were in Texas?

When we flew into Houston, we picked up our car and headed to Waco first thing and our first stop was at Clint's (the woodworker for Chip and Joanna Gaines) shop called Harp Designs.

  

Here we got a little preview of some of the things that we see  on the Fixer Upper show.

There were a few guys in the back yard running their power tools on various wood projects, but we couldn't see who.  

Next morning we headed on over to Magnolia.  What a beautiful day we had.  


This is what we saw from the parking lot.

Below those two silos was the bandstand where they hold their concerts and the lawn in front of it during the day was a great place for kids to play.  


Heading into Magnolia, this is what you see.



(That's the cupcake bakery on the right)


Love the landscape.  


We were so lucky that there weren't lines waiting to get in, although once in, it did get pretty crowded.

Out back there is this adorable little garden center with a shop.



They, also, had a covered area out back that had picnic tables full of things to buy that were all marked down 40%.  We did make a small dent in that area.  


Who can forget about the cupcake bakery?

Oh my!  They are WONDERFUL!!!




We brought some back to the hotel.....cupcakes and cookies (oh the cookies).



(lemon/lavender and strawberry)

After our busy shopping day, we headed back to Houston.  It was a long couple of days once we got ourselves ready to step on a plane and head out to Texas.  We got some rest that night and the next morning we headed on over to the Houston Quilt Festival.  So stay tuned for Thelma and Louise's Saga II where I will tell you all about our take on this HUGE show,

Michigan quilters, take note

  Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.   Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling...