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.