Monday, November 29, 2010

vacation = fabric binge

My family has yet to catch on that any vacation/travel plans are well choreographed to include strategic stops for fabric adventures.




( Quilt Asylum in Mc Kinney Texas)

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Thanksgiving has become a 'local trip' holiday since no one comes to visit us and we prefer to travel to California to see family when we can make it longer than a week.
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(Sew in Heaven, a lucky unexpected find of Peas and Carrots)
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For the past three years we have found places within about 6 hours drive to spend the week.... the criteria being someplace that is not flat which rules out most of Texas.

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(more from Sew in Heaven, ladybugs and 1974!!!)

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This year we drove north through Oklahoma and east to Arkansas to a lake resort outside of Eureka Springs. Its in the middle of the Ozarks so it was small rolling mountains and we were lakeside which was a nice treat!
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(diva and 12 days panels from Banson Fabric Store)
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I normally plot out a route and a plan, list of potential restaurants, attractions, ect....
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(Country Fabric and Quilts, Hwy 69, OK)

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This year we just had the google map to our destination and a rough idea about Branson, Eureka Springs and golf..... turned out great! We loved Eureka Springs, reminds us of several towns in northern CA.... kinda a cross between Truckee 10 years ago and Ferndale ... on the side of a mountain.

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And I also found some fabric to bring home.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Sunday Stash - Bliss Love

There is lots of bloggy love out there for the Bliss line. I am not sure if I am just drawn to the red/turquoise or if these are the ones that are out there the most.... I was even inspired with my own stash stack ... but still ended up giving in and buying some of my own Bliss.

But then I got some of he green/cinnamon Bliss and I am in love.... I may be just the season, fall browns and all that, but I do love these fabrics.... and I did find some fabrics from my stash to play along.

Sew & Tell Friday!





This is a quilt I have been working on since about September. It is a Christmas gift for my sister, who I am quite sure does not follow my blog so I can share it before getting it in mail.


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It is a disappearing 9 patch pattern featuring Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow fabrics with a couple others thrown in from my stash, most notably the brown border with unknown origins and the backing which is from the Pieces of My Heart collection by Sandy Gervais for Moda. The solid is Kona Cotton Gold.







I quilted it with a variegated gold/brown thread which I liked a lot! I did find myself heading towards the dark squares when the dark thread came up but that made my quilting a little more random.

I'll be sharing at Amy's Sew & Tell when the internet gremlins fix her linky party :)
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And as a bit of house keeping, my husband (also known as the random number generator of the day) picked 21, which makes Shanan Z. the winner of the 100 post give away.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

100th post give away!




100 posts ... it took me a little time to get there, but this is my 100th post for my blog.


To celebrate I am giving away this set of 5 fat quarters of Merry Mushroom by Windham and 1/2 yard cuts of 2 of my favorite Kona cotton colors, Papaya and Green Grass. This was on e of those happy finds at Joann Fabrics in the FQ section that I over bought... think I got 5 bundles, so I thought if I shared maybe I would be inspired to use the ones I have!

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To enter just leave a comment. You can say congrats on 100, you can tell me about a happy find you have made at Joann, or tell me if you know of any great quilt stores in the Banson MO Eureka Springs AR area as that is where we are headed for Thanksgiving next week. I will close entries on Friday.

And another give away, sort of..... some of you may remember awhile back when I ordered some quilt labels from Sweetwater. Well, after getting them it occurred to me how easy it would be to make them myself so I proceeded to do so. What I failed to consider was the number of quilts I made by the end of the year needed to match the number of labels printed with the year on them. I must have been feeling very productive that day.....


So, I have one that does not have my last name.... If your name is 'Diane' spelled this way... throw up your hand and I will stick this in the mail to you :) Come the first of the year when I print new ones for me I will give away a set with someone elses name on it, but for now, only 'Diane' wins.



Saturday, November 13, 2010

50% off Kona Sale!





This week I filled in some spots on my Kona collection card thanks to a 50% sale at Hancock Fabrics.... good till Sunday both in store and online!

I got indigo, chartreuse, mustard, spring and khaki Friday at the local store. Then today when I decided I needed to go to Joann to get some variegated thread for quilting I thought ... hey... they take competitors coupons, I wonder if they match add prices... so I printed the add and took it with me

Guess what??? They do! So, I supplemented my white and ash and added buttercup and med pink to the collection. The add also has a 40% off notion coupon so I used it for the thread!

I never pay full price for Kona (well, that's a lie... I did get a couple pieces online that are obscure that are not carried in stores... but for the most part.... ) Hobby Lobby ALWAYS has it for 30%... always. It does look like HL's price only applies to in store only, but right now they have a 40% off any item online. 3 out of 4 weeks HL has a 40% any item coupon in the paper/web site which I take to Joann ... can't use at HL since the Kona is already on sale. Now that I know I can use printed adds for price match, that will add Hancock to this mix as well.

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Hmm, maybe I should get some extra.... looks like I have a milestone of 100 posts coming up and a giveaway of a selection of Kona might be in order.

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Do you have a favorite Kona Color? I think mine is Charcoal, or Sage... I really like Sage.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Go (insert favorite team) Go!

This was to be named GO Marcus GO, but the weather conspired against me from taking this as a good luck charm to the football playoff game last night and we lost.... in the last seconds.... pass to the end zone to tie the game was caught, but said to be past the line, out of bounds, no score, we lose.




See the blue skys and the toes in flip flops? Is was almost 75 degrees at game time and the temp never dropped below 65 making it a little warm to lug a quilt to the game.... maybe I should have anyhow.... for luck....

The loss officially ends the football / band marching season here, so.... I am going to instead name this GO Foothill GO in honor of my nephew being moved up from Varsity from JV to play the remainder of their season. The quilt will have to be good luck in abstentia since Foothill High School is in Northern California and the quilt is staying with me in Texas.
Here is the back, of the quilt and the holder... again, its the middle of November and its shorts and flip flops? Rain predicted and temps to drop this weekend.... I can't wait!
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I am sharing this on Amy's Sew & Tell. If you are visiting from there, welcome! If you came from elsewhere, be sure to go check ou the other projects for the week!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Champions, hedgehogs and mushrooms



My Texas State Marching Band Champion!



And, because although I am sure you think my daughter is lovely..... nothing gets the heart going like a pile a fabric....
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this is mostly an older line of Micheal Miller I had been collection, with some hedgehogs and mushrooms thrown in!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Its HOW MANY days away?

Someone needs to remind me how many days there are till Christmas because my list of to-do items is growing ... fast....

This needs to be completed for Thursday... just a little to go.... after I take out that section where the tension went fuzzy ... trying to quilt with red thread on the bottom and white on top is not fun....
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This is next on the list and is a gift so although I have a month till it needs to be in the mail, I am terrified that in 4 weeks it will still be in this state.... so it is next!!!


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This one morphed from an idea spawned from one of my new quilt books to what is now planned...actually found some yardage of this at a LQS to augment my charm packs. Those are my Whirlygig templates in the front.... It is a gift that I want them to have for the holidays so next Friday is the target to hit the mail...
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This one is for me... can't get this pattern/fabric pairing out of my head.... I would like to have it done by Dec 1st to enjoy for the holidays....

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And this is where I start to jump the shark... as I tell myself 'oh, but so-n-so would like this, it would be a great Christmas gift' .. as I order the Pie Basket fabric for the backing...
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So help me out here.... think for me while I sew.... if you were to throw one of the fabrics of this bunch out which one would it be? I am thinking the darker larger dots towards the left. Also, which solid to use? The Charcoal or the Sage? I know, one kinds determines the other...

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sunday Stash

I love playing with my fabric.... stacking it into piles of potential....

My husband calls in 'petting my fabric' .... I think he is jealous....


I bought these two books the other day, maybe they will provide further inspiration for turning the piles into reality.....






I already bookmarked a page in Simplify for this pile....

Friday, November 5, 2010

Fall Quilt Festival


This is the first time I have entered anything to show in Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival. Last fall I found the on-line show and was amazed at the gathering of inspiration in one place and I managed to visit every single entry, although it took awhile.




I am so happy to be able to participate. I almost missed it between being out of town and coming back to a broken computer monitor, but looks like I am going to make it with time to spare.... very little time, but some left all the same.
I am submitting my Rick Rack Rocks quilt.


This quilt exemplifies my quilt work style. I picked a couple charm packs of Authentic by Sweetwater. This was the first charm pack I had ever gotten and I wanted to just work with the squares, but it was not going to end up big enough, so I decided to frame the blocks of squares, then I decided I didn't want the quilt to be square so to add blocks I added some blocks made from strips rather than squares.
When I was done with the top I was not pleased. It looked kinda washed out and blah.... I had some rick rack sitting around for another project, but I had never used it on a quilt. I put the two together and loved it so I rushed to the store to get enough for around the border.
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This is definitely not the quilt I envisioned when I started, but I love the way it turned out.

Winner, Winner and Winner!

First Winner:






Marcus High School Band was awarded 1st place for large bands in the State of Texas Tuesday at the State UIL Marching Band contest in San Antonio!


They also won first place in the Super Regional Bands Of America contest over the weekend also in San Antonio.


The show finale, check out the flags in the back... those are 7 by 11 feet! That's my daughter in the front on the right side of the 50 yard line.

Second Winner!!! a tie!
A tie between the San Fransisco Giants, winners of the World Series ....

and ME! For scoring these wonderful finds on sale while in San Antonio at the band competitions.

Both of the above piles were 50% off , the charm packs were 30% off!! I found Arcadia and it was on sale!!!

I also splurged and got these as a little treat.... not on sale.

Third Winner:

Sara Craig is the winner of the 4 fat quarters from the Bad Blogger Giveaway!

Thanks everyone for playing! And for the input on the disappearing 9-patch borders. With the competition season over (till Winter Guard starts) I hope to have a chance to get some of my projects going again and I always appreciate the input and comments that you in blog land provide.