Another Week

This busy week is almost over. I enjoyed my visit with my friend from Illinois. She used to live in North Carolina but moved back to Illinois a couple of years ago to take care of her dad. It is her home.

She is also a quilter. We met in the quilt guild. So one day while she was here we visited the quilt shops. She did buy some fabric and one shop was having an anniversary sale which was nice.
Before she left she gave me this lovely wool table topper which looks great on my small round breakfast table. She also made this travel wallet for me. She is very talented and has made some really fabulous quilts.
My husband is off for the next four days. Not sure if we will do anything special for Independence Day. One thing we will be doing is dog sitting a black Labrador who belongs to some friends of ours.

For those of you who live in the USA enjoy your Fourth of July weekend. Hip Hip Hooray for our Great Country!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange. Vincent Van Gogh

Remember the sneak peeks showing a project I was making using the Prince Charming fabric? Finished! I made the Vintage Spools pattern designed by the very creative Stephanie of Loft Creations. I saw the fabric at Karen's shop and I thought it would be perfect for this quilt. The fabric might not be vintage but the rick rack is. It is one of my antique finds and it is perfect on the quilt.
I added some of the left over fabrics to a dish towel with some more vintage rick rack.
It is official ladies. I am going to head up a Quilt Along using the pattern in this magazine. It is also on the lower left corner of the cover. See it here too. Several of my readers have expressed interest in doing one. Making th equilt together would be great incentive to get it finished too. I will be doing this next year only because I have so much going on right now. So if you think you want to participate get this current issue and be watching my blog later in the year for more information.

And feel free to mention it on your blog if you are going to Quilt Along with me so that others can get the magazine while it is on the news stands.
You know it is summertime when the blueberries are ready to pick. My husband is back to 4 day work weeks with Friday off. Today we went to the opening day of blueberry picking. It was so hot but we managed to pick 13 pounds today. Oh, they are so delicious. I made a blueberry crisp with some of them. The rest went into the freezer.
I will not be blogging for the next week. I have a friend and her husband coming to stay with us plus several appointments, plus teaching. So until next time.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Elefantz Home

No, you are not at the wrong blog. I just wanted to share some exciting news. To some of you this is not news because you are one of her 1400 followers. Jenny is such a sweet friend and I have enjoyed getting to know her and her family by reading her blog. I wish I could meet her and all my blogger friends in person. Jenny is so talented and shares so much of her talent with us for free. She has now taken on a new venture and is going to be publishing an online magazine with her wonderful patterns and also a free newsletter. You can go here to subscribe to the newsletter and read more information about the online magazine.

Congratulations!!! Jenny on your new adventure.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

ps Thank you all for the get well wishes. My nose has stopped running and the cold sore is healing. Looks like this stuff has been going around. Stay well yourselves.

I am excited to see that some of you would like to participate in the Sew Along using the pattern from the McCalls magazine. I am excited about it. Be watching my blog for more news about the sew alongwhich we will start in January. Until then you can be on the look out for some really great fabrics to use in the quilt.

I am turning of the comment option so I can catch up on other comments you have sent.

Plans Interrupted

Don't you hate it when plans get interrupted? Ugh! And the way mine got interrupted is one of the worst. First I had a sore throat for about 5 days. Then a cold sore popped up on my lip. Next a full blown head cold. Now this morning I woke up with the dreaded cough. Who can sew when you are constantly blowing your nose? So I have not really felt like doing much but I did manage to get this top and binding done so I can get it to my long arm quilter this week. I will show you all the whole quilt as soon as I get it back. I know the quilting is really going to add a lot to this top.

Thanks for the congratulations on my new guild VP position. I have speakers booked through June next year. Yay! I have more people to contact so that I continue to fill in the calendar.

I apologize for not replying to all your comments. I have not been on the computer for three days. I have read all of your comments and will try to reply to them this week.

Wishing you all stay well.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

ps Mandy made a suggestion that maybe we have a sew along making the pattern from the McCalls magazine that I showed in the last post. It seems like a lot of you like the pattern. It would probably not happen until next year but if you are interested making the quilt as a group let me know. Thanks for the suggestion Mandy.

Hunkered Down

Just wanted to let you know I am still here but I have been in my sewing room or on the computer. I am still working on the projects I showed in the last post. I am also the new Vice President of our guild and I have been searching and communicating with speakers for our guild.
but yesterday I had to go out to get some backing and border fabrics. While I was at Joann's I picked up the July/August McCalls quilting magazine and just had to show you this quilt. I wish I could stop everything and make it now.
When I was eating lunch I was watching this squirrel trying to figure out how to get the bird feeders so he could gobble down the nuts. I am a little peeved at him because he broke a branch in the Myrtle tree that he was trying to use a launching pad. He looks cute in the tree but he is a stinker.

I am teaching tomorrow and will continue to work on my quilts so if you don't see any posts for a few days you know what I am doing.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Weekend of Sewing

During the summer months my husband works ten hours for four days and has Fridays off. He decided he wanted to spend this weekend cleaning up his workshop and finishing up a few things he had started over the winter. So while he was in his space I was up in my space sewing the hours away which I have not done in a long time.
Worked on some Dresdens.
Almost finished this top.
Pulled out my handy dandy Accuquilt cutter to cut out hexagons from some of the left over fabrics from the above project.
Sewed a few more sashing sections for my Hop To It blocks.
And even made some of my husbands favorite cookies, Ginger snaps. Yum!

Hope you had time to sew this past weekend too.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

The Joys of Teaching

Did you ever play school when you were a child? I did many times. I never went to college to become a teacher but it is in my blood. I just love to share what I love with others. I homeschooled my children for sixteen years and tutored other homeschool children. I was a Sunday School teacher for several years. Now I am sharing my love for quilting with others and it is a joy to see the results.
This past Saturday I taught at the Dragonfly Quilt Shop. These photos are the borders that the ladies worked on while I was on vacation. Don't you just love the fabrics they are working with? These borders are from The New Applique Sampler. These borders were done by Patty, Debra, and Flo.
On Wednesday of this week was another day of teaching at Karen Gray Design. This class the ladies worked on making prairie points to trim their embroidered towels. This first towel was made by Paula.
These two were made by Shannon. As you can see she got her points done and sewn on her towel in class.These two towels were done by Linda. Sorry about the lighting. All the towels are white.
Well done ladies. I am so proud of you all. I even learned some new things from my students. Never to old to learn new things myself.
After class at Karen's I picked up of the newest fabric from the shop. It is called Prince Charming by Tula Pink. This is just a sneak peek of another project that I hope to teach soon.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

ps. I have added a new gadget. It is the "follow by email" gadget. I have seen these on other blogs and I like getting updates in my email. So if you would like to know when I have a new post just subscribe and it will come straight to your email.

Hop To It

Last Wednesday I went to my applique group. Here you can see we have been working on the very sweet bunny block. Check out the little bees on the top two blocks. I am going to add some bees to my blocks eventually.
I wanted to share some information about a product I am using for some of my applique pieces. When the piece is a light colored fabric sometimes the background will show through which it did on the bunny fabric. So what I did was use a product called "Form Flex." It comes on a bolt just like regular fabrics and you buy it by the yard. I got mine at my local quilt shop. It is a loose weave white fabric with an iron-on-adhesive on the back. As you can see I cut out the same shape in reverse and ironed it onto my applique fabric. Then I flip it over and hand applique it to the background fabric. I have also used this on some of the yellow fabrics. You could also cut the background fabric out from behind the bunny but I decided to use this product instead.

Edit: there have been a few comments about adding weight to the applique piece. Yes it is a little thicker but the form flex is very light weight so I don't think it adds to0 much weight. I have used batting which is really so much thicker. The form flex is so much easier to work with than batting.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Call for Help!

Not for me but for Carol at Brown Quilts. If you haven't read about the call for pillow cases you can read the story here. Maybe you can make a few as I did.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Quilt shops from Trip

I had a fun time looking for quilt shops in each town we stopped while on vacation. My husband has a blackberry that he can search for places using Google. We would do a search and then put up a map to find each place. One thing you might want to do is call before you try to go to the spot if you can. We found out the hard way that some places had closed.
The very first quilt shop I got to visit was Odegaard's Sewing Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. As you can see this shop was huge with a fabulous selection of fabrics.
Next shop was not too far from one of our campsites. This shop was in Williams, Arizona. It was called Quilters Mercantile on historic route 66.

Next shop was the Fabric Boutique Quilt Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada. (no picture) This was another big shop.

Next stop was Harts Fabric in Santa Cruz, California. (no picture) If you live in California you need to take a drive to Harts Fabric. Oh, what a great selection of fabrics they have. They also carry other types of fabric besides cotton plus ribbons and trim.

Oh, you talk about being overwhelmed when going into a quilt shop. When I stepped through the doors of The Material Girls Quilts it took my breath away. There was so much to see. I didn't really buy much because I couldn't make up my mind. This store is where Lori and Nanette sell their patterns. I saw some of Lori's new fabrics too.

After we left our campsite in Colorado we went into Fort Collins to eat breakfast and to do a little antique shopping. A lady at one of the shops told me about a quilt shop downtown so we went to check it out. It is called Mama Said Sew. Cute name! A small shop but nice selection. Fort Collins is a college town so there was a class going on with lots of young women sewing which was so cool to see.

The next shop was advertised on a billboard as we were driving along the highway. I was doing the driving and I decided I needed a break to stretch. This was another huge store. It was called Quilt Cottage Co. in Hays, Kansas. (no picture)

Onto the next shop which was The Quilted Corner. We googled it as we were driving through Cheyenne, Wyoming looking for a place to eat. It is located downtown and we got a parking place right in front of the shop.
This next shop my husband spotted the sign as we were looking for a gas station. Keamas's Quilts in Green River, Wyoming. A really nice shop too. Check out her Singer sewing machines on the top shelves.
The owner has this old Singer. She said it was a hemming machine. Check out the old washing machine her husband found for her.
The last quilt shop I visited was in Mascoutah, Illinois. The shop was located in an old house on 200 N. Jefferson St. No picture and she doesn't have a web site. If you live nearby drive fast to her shop because I bought Moda fabric for $7.49-$5.49 a yard. She doesn't take credit cards so bring your cash. The shop was full of fabulous fabrics. Here is her phone number just in case you live nearby. (618)-566-2652.

During our quilt shop stops we also did an little antique shopping. In the first photo of the collage I found a Magic Stitcher. It still has the thread in it. I have not had a chance to try it out to see what it does.

Last year when we went cherry picking I wished I had a cherry pitter. I finally found one in the original box.

I also found some sewing goodies.
I bought a few souvenirs. The first shows two fat quarters representing the west and route 66. I bought a scarf from the Grand Canyon. I also found this table cloth made by Moda representing California. As I looked closer at the cities listed on the map I noticed some are misspelled. Not sure if they did that on purpose or not.
I also found this cute tea towel with the embroidered lady shaking out a rug on the guys head. Also found a table scarf with pine cones on each side. Both were so different. I had to have them.
I bought these two books, some patterns, (not shown), and check out my stack of fabric. I bought something from each quilt shop I visited. What fun. My own cross country shop hop. lol
Well, that is the last post about my trip. I have lots of photos and lots of memories I will never forget. Now I am ready for the next trip but it will have to wait until next year since my husband used all his vacation time up on this trip.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Fun Sights from Trip

Hey Kids, look at some of the fun stuff we saw on our trip.




wishing you could have been with me and your dad to experience it all,

love,mom