Monday, March 22, 2010

Reno, a fabric destination?


First, let me tell you that Patty is the winner of the note cards from last weeks Rick Rack Rocks give away.

Next, want to see my spring break fabric scores?
These are Fat Quarter bundles that I found at (gasp) Joann Fabrics! Yep... that's is Henry Glass, Cosmo Cricket by Andover, Michael Miller Dick and Jane and Denyse Schmidt. These bundles of 5 were on sale for $6.30. I have not seen these at my local store but I will be looking harder next time I am at Joann's.
Next, I found a bolt of this Katie Jump Rope at a store called Mill Ends and it was $3.60/yard. I bought all 4.5 yards they had. They had other interesting stuff and this store will be a stop for me next time I am in the Reno, NV area.

I found 4 traditional quilt stores and picked up these odds and ends, all on sale.

And what may have been the find of trip I discovered a store called Beverly's while surfing online and stopped at one on the way to the cabin from the airport. I would compare this to a Joann or Hobby Lobby, but, they had a fantastic selection of fabric, all quilt store brands. I got the Moda Pumpkins Gone Wild above for $1.98/yd and the Momo Wonderland below was $4.75/yd. I was never thrilled with this line but had never seen in IRL, and it is beautiful!

I have to admit, I had to buy a carry on bag to bring all this home, but geeze, who could pass this up?

Now, help a girl out, what do you think of the dots I have paired with the Wonderland? Do you like them or do you think I should save them for another day/project?

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Break!

We are having a great time at the cabin at Donner Lake!

We went to Sqeeze In in Truckee, recently featured on Bobby Flay Throwdown on Food Network. We have been going there for over 20 years, ever since I met my husband. My Mom came up and brought my nephew Michael who learned how to board.

Girls are perfecting their snow board techniques....



And I got these two quilt tops cut out, sewn, ready to go home for batting, sandwiching and quilting! I also went to Reno and hit 4 quilting stores! Now I have to figure out how to get the fabric I bought home!

Be sure to check me out first part of next week when I will be posting a sponsored giveaway!


Friday, March 12, 2010

Rick Rack Rocks!




I love Rick Rack!

I shared this quilt top last week and thanks for all the great ideas for a name. I was not thrilled with the contrast of the quilt and while quilting it out this week I felt the colors were reading somewhat anemic and bland. I dug around and found some wonderful cotton jumbo (aprox 1.5" wide) black rick rack that I had stashed in the bottom of a basket and WOW!




I decided to do a pieced binding (below) and I like it, but next time I will make the strips 1/2 WOF rather than full to break it up a little more.




I was even able to find a model to pose with this quilt!



RRR (Rick Rack Rocks) will be the name of this quilt! To celebrate my love of rick rack and to thank you for the name suggestions, I am going to giveaway this set of 4 note cards that feature red rick rack! To enter just leave a comment!

I leave you with this picture from my back yard. While posing the RRR quilt for its close up I got a whiff of the scent from these lovely signs of spring. We are heading to the mountains for our much anticipated spring break ski trip this week and expect to return to full-on spring at home!


Enjoy your weekend whatever season you are currently in and be sure to check out the other great projects on Amy's Sew & Tell.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Pinwheel Paradise

Week three of the Pinwheel Sampler and I am loving this fabric! It is Moda Hello Betty and I love the bright and clear colors of Grey, Red & Teal.


Here are all three weeks of blocks together. I think this is going to look great done! Seeing them together makes me want to work some more solids in the next blocks. Solids just seem to give it substance, KWIM?
Who else is working on these pinwheels?



I also cut squares/rectangles for another 'Road to Spring' quilt. The first one came together so easily and I had the fabric left over from the quilt yet to be named for a good sized lap size. Quilt yet to be named is 2/3 quilted and I need to get back to it now.... Have a great day!


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday Stash





This last week Amy shared about her love of Michael Miller's Dandy Damask. I love this stuff too, though I think my favorite is the Dainty Damask. This is what I currently have and after seeing her pink I think I am going on a Damask hunt! I just found the Orange/Black this week at one of my discount fabric haunts in the warehouse district. I got 4 yards, enough for the backing of a Halloween quilt should I decide to make one, otherwise, I will just stare at it, or as my husband claims, pet it.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Friday re-cap



This is what I have been working on this week... Front and Back! The back looks weird because I quickly tacked it to the garage wall for the picture and I did a poor job... sorry, but you get the general idea. The quilt top and back were in the garage because I decided to spray baste it there, hanging to the wall, and it turned out pretty good, except for the spot where the wall is not flat from me misjudging my parking entrance and running into it... yeah, well.... that's what happens when you have a suburban that has about 2 feet clearance front and back when the doors are closed.

Back to my quilt and not my driving habits... This was made from two charm packs of Authentic and some extra cut yardage. It is all basted and ready to quilt which will be my project for next week. This may be close to the largest quilt I have attempted to quilt myself, coming in at 60 x 72. I will post this weekend on the steps to spray baste on the wall if you're interested.

Any ideas for a name for this beauty? Naming my quilts is kinda new to me and I am not very inventive. (see list if you doubt that) So far I have been thinking of this as Authentically Square, but that was from when the quilt was made only of squares and was a square and I deviated from that. Ideas welcome!!! Help!!

Check out some other end of week re-caps at Amy's Sew & Tell!