The People!

The people!!! The people are what make Quilt Festival special! Here's one special person I got to finally meet IN PERSON! Rhonda Dort was standing by her prize winning quilt - Second Chances - which one 3rd place in the Embellished category!!!! Well deserved, Rhonda! We hugged and had a nice chat - I felt like I already knew her!!!

And how about these two - dressed for fun!!! Love their spool hats!

 This group comes to Festival every year, dressed in their period finery. They were impeccable from head to toe, makeup, accessories, shoes, hats, etc.

So these two are real people, but aren't they a cute pair??? Just had to include them!

Tomorrow I'll move on to my favorite quilts and why I like them.

I'm a bit late posting today - I decided to swim first. I'm pushing every single day to swim more laps. 

Yesterday's errands took longer than expected and we added eating lunch out to our schedule. I was hoping to come home with a new washing machine ordered. BUT... The store we use told us it would be better to wait a bit to get more questions answered. Who is going to take the recalled washing machine? And now we're hearing Samsung may issue recalls on some dryers. Hope they recall mine! Then I can justify getting a new matching set! 

Today I'll be working on the Bliss pattern with full force! I hope to get it finished or ALMOST finished today. I will say this: I promise to publish it by the end of the week!!!

Have a great day!

What I Bought...

I did a great job in shopping the show floor for my medium/dark grays and light grays - great success here! The two bundles you see in the picture were leftover from Sample Spree and so were wholesale priced!

I found this bundle of white background neutrals for En Provence (Bonnie Hunter mystery), again priced wholesale. Wish I'd bought another one at this price...

These are the only Kaffe Fassett fabric I bought - can you believe it???? A few half yard cuts of shot cottons.

There was one vendor who had fat quarters (good quality!) priced at 25 fq's for $20 - what a steal! Here are a few I bought - some of my 25 were grays and were in the photo above. I tried to pick mostly oranges and yellows for the rest as my stash could use more of these.

Aurofil thread!!!! I bought a cone of 50 wt. white because I seem to use a lot of white lately. I also bought four spools of their new fine 80 wt. thread - I'm going to try this out for hand piecing and stitching hexies together. And the orange cone of 30 wt. (the heavier weight thread)? I won that at their booth playing a game. Score!

My splurge... two quilt kits! I never found the Jen Kingwell patterns I wanted, but I did see this Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell kit. Had to have it! I've been wanted to make a Dresden Plate quilt and this fits the bill.

The fabric has wide stripes - no piecing within each wedge!

And I also bought this New Bedford by Denyse Schmidt quilt kit. It just screamed vintage and lake quilt to me - this quilt will live a the lake house!

I never found any knit fabric - I'll just buy that on-line. I felt I was very successful in shopping! I love everything I bought!

I just had to share this recipe for Artichoke and Spinach Roasted Salmon I found on Pinterest. I made it last night and it is such an easy and FAST dish- one of the best things I've cooked in a LONG time! We had roasted broccoli to go with it.

I did get LOTS done on the Bliss pattern yesterday - yay me! More to come today! After swimming, we have to go vote and run a few other errands. We're going to buy a new washing machine to replace our 'exploding' recalled Samsung that is only 5 months old. Samsung has offered us a free repair or we can choose to take a large rebate to purchase another one. We're choosing the rebate. The only concern I have is that a new one won't match my dryer. I've always had a matching set. Oh well. I'm hoping to at least find a washing machine that is the same height and color as my dryer. We'll see.

I'm off to the pool - hope you have a wonderful day!!!!

HOUSTON!!!

The International Quilt Festival in Houston is in the rear view. The equivalent of nine football fields of quilty goodness! More than 60,000 people! What fun I had!

I have so much to share. I have so many photos and stories. Today I thought I'd start with a few photos I took of color. As you can imagine, it is a colorful event! Color overload!

During this week I'll be sharing some of my favorite quilts in the show.

I'll share my purchases. Did I stick to my list???? Hmmm...

And I'll share some photos of interesting people.

I came home 'sew' inspired! I can't wait to get back into my stitching!

But first on my list is to finish patterning Bliss! I'll be working on it today!

Before that,  I'm going for a swim. Did you know I swam while in Houston? The Hyatt has a beautiful outdoor heated pool and I had a nice long swim one morning.

Yesterday I was busy doing laundry, and grocery shopping, and trying to save a puppy who had been hit by a car - I was too late. :( Now all the chores are done and I can spend the week concentrating on quilting. I've decided to forgo my schedule this week - I'll be patterning Bliss every day until it is complete! And then I'll need to design a new schedule!!!

Stay tuned for more Houston photos tomorrow!

Packing Day!

Food is cooked for Hubby. Laundry is done. Hair is cut. Teeth have been cleaned. Today is for packing! I have my smallest suitcase ready to fill. There is already one thing in it - a must have for a trip to Quilt Festival! And what may that be?

A collapsible duffle bag - empty of course. The plan is to load it with my purchases to bring home. Clothes? I'm packing light!

I have my list - this is the first time I've taken a specific list with me. It should help to keep me on track, though I'm sure I'll see some new products that I need (want!)

So what's on my list?

1. Light gray background fabrics - assorted fat quarters.
2. Neutrals with white backgrounds - assorted fat quarters.
3. Dark grays - just a few fat quarters
4. Jan Kingwell patterns: Delilah and Queens Cross
5. Copper Spice #18 nylon thread (for a friend)
6. Cotton jersey - medium weight - planning to make same clothes...

It's so good to have a plan! I can't wait to see the quilts. I've seen some of them in blog and Facebook posts from Quilt Market - gorgeous works of art!

I'll try to post here and there as I can. But if you don't hear from me, just know I'm having fun and will have LOTS of photos to share when I return home.

Another Block Ready to Sew...

I cut out the pieces for the next Farmer's Daughter block last night - a darker gray for the backgrounds this time around.

I'm late posting - busy morning of errands and dental appointment. The laundry is going. Lunch has been eaten.

On my schedule for today is patterning Bliss. I hope to get to that later this afternoon. My schedule might be a bit off this week - leaving Wednesday for Quilt Festival!!! Yippee!

Another Block!

I finished another Farmer's Daughter block while watching football yesterday.  I adore the little gray bicycles in the background. The is the type of white print I'd like to collect to use in my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.

 And here's a shot of four blocks side by side. I think it might be interesting to make some blocks using a darker gray background and make the fabric scraps lighter. I might just cut the next block pieces accordingly. FYI, the pattern calls for 25 of these blocks set on point...I'm getting there! I might do a 'quilt as you go' on the blocks.

This project has really brought Jen Kingwell to my attention. I love her designs! She has two new patterns out that I may look for in Houston.

After swimming (60 laps!), showers, and breakfast (in that order) we took the golf cart over to the Pickle Ball courts. There was a tournament going on and we wanted to see some games being played first hand. There were players of all levels of age, body shape, ability, and fitness. After watching a bit, we decided we could do this. It's sort of a cross between tennis and badminton - much less active than tennis. Once my foot it totally better we're going to give it a try. For now we are studying up on the rules online. 

The stew I made was really good! I used sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. Yum! I froze some of it for Hubby to eat while I'm in Houston with my friends. Today is bread making day! I've already cooked a batch of chicken and put it in the freezer for him. Yesterday I taught him to cook his own eggs for breakfast. He will not starve while I'm gone! (Though he needs another egg lesson this morning.)

Have a beautiful day!

A Finished Quilt Top!

I got the navy borders on Allietare! The border will not stay this wide - after quilting I'll scallop the edge and use orange binding. 

Then I played with the paint chips. Okay...I like the fabric in these colors much better than on the cards. I'm in with Bonnie's colors! I know that Bonnie called for a single constant magenta, but I'm pulling from what I've got - true scrappy!

 I've pulled some neutrals, too - see them over to the right? I'm thinking I may like more WHITEs though - those tans look a bit blah next to the pretty colors... may look for some white prints in Houston. 

I had ordered some new insoles to help my poor foot and they came in yesterday. These are from Spenco.com. The new one is on the right side of the photo. You can see how much more support it has then the one from the shoe...

I got new shoes yesterday after the insoles came. I took them with me shopping to make sure the shoe and the insoles worked together. I've had them on all day and they have done so well. FANTASTIC, in fact. Houston, here I come with my new shoes and insoles! My feet are loving me now!

I've already got a pot of stew simmering in the slow cooker this morning - dinner tonight! As soon as we finish our tea/coffee we're headed to the pool. And then...a day of watching football and sewing!

Hope you have a great day, too!