Organized!

Here's the before.

And here's the after! BOOM! Done! See those three bins in the middle? I'll be putting them in a closet today. So lovely to be done and organized. You will also notice that we hung my little Ikea bucket thing to store scissors, marking tools, and miscellaneous small things.

Here what the fabric looked like before...

And here's the after, pressed and neatly folded. Yes, this is all Kaffe fabric. Yes, I have a lot of it (this is only a fraction...).

I think I have my new schedule ready. I've decided to relegate all hand work projects (except hexies) to afternoons and evenings. And so these items will not appear on the schedule. These hand projects include Farmer's Daughter, Lollypop Trees hand quilting, and a Sue Spargo project - I have a few Sue Spargo wool pieces in progress and want to get back to them.

Monday-  Machine Quilting (finish Summer on the Beach, then Allietare, then Bliss)
Tuesday- New Bedford (new kit from Festival)
Wednesday- En Provence (Bonnie Hunter mystery)
Thursday- UFO - this quilt has baskets, clamshells, etc - my own design
Friday- HEXIES! My new Curved Hexie quilt!

So this makes EIGHT projects I'll be working on at one time. OH MY! On weekends I'll work on whatever strikes my fancy as usual. We'll just see how this works for a bit.

Okay, I'm off to the pool. I skipped yesterday so I really need to go this morning. Have a wonderful day!!!

More Quilts...

Here are a two more quilts from Festival that caught my eye. You know I love an animal quilt!!!

And isn't this cat adorable???

So here's the mess I'm dealing with in the corner of my sewing room. I'm determined to go through the remaining bins, sorting, pressing, folding, and putting away. The pile on top of Mickey's crate? Those of works in progress. I think I may bring a small shelf unit from storage to put where the bins are now to keep these WIPs sorted neatly - it will be much easier to grab one.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday working on this. This morning I'm hitting it hard and hope to finish the sorting. I'm determined to have this all finished and my sewing room neat and organized by Thanksgiving.

The only sewing I did was hand stitching on the next Farmer's Daughter block. I'll finish this block over the weekend I think. I'm still working on my schedule - so many projects! I think I'll continue to set aside one day a week for machine quilting - I have one quilt in progress and two more tops waiting. I need to set aside one day a week for En Provence. I'll figure it out later today! Next week I'll be on the schedule, but the following week is Thanksgiving so the schedule will be out the window then. I'll be busy cooking and enjoying family!

Enjoy your Friday!

The Quilts!

The Quilts! That's what we really go to Houston to see, right? Lots of bloggers have been posting photos of quilts. I'm trying not to show the same quilts that have been seen over and over. I'm trying to share quilts that maybe you have not seen on-line....

Each quilt is followed here with a photo of the placard giving all the information as to the title, maker, etc. 

This quilt really caught my attention. I loved the color, the lines, the composition.

But I was surprised as I got closer to see how it was made. Raw edged strips of fabric layered and machine stitched on top of black fabric.

Wow. So effective. I could see that the quilt was made in 9 squares that were later stitched together.

Another wow.

Look at all the vertical hand stitches over every single small strip of fabric.

This quilt struck me because of the subject matter. At first I simply saw a flag.

But when I got closer, I saw the tessellating guns.

I am a certified math geek. Got to love a Pi quilt!!! Look at the borders...the number PI is machine quilted around the quilt.

So these are just a few random quilts that struck my fancy. I still have a few more to share.

Great news! I finished the Bliss pattern yesterday! I'll publish it later today here on the blog - it will be under the Hexie Love tab at the top of the page.

I worked on planning my new quilting schedule to go forward. I'm still tweaking it - so many projects I want to work on! And now that Bliss is behind me (except for quilting it!), I'm anxious to start a new hexie project. I have the fabric picked out already! AND I learned a new-to-me hexie trick at the Moda booth at Festival - I'll share it with you once I get my new hexie quilt started!

So, I'm off to the pool. And then I'll work on....well, I'm not exactly sure what I'll work on today. I guess I need to finalize my schedule. And I have a few more bins to sort through to get my sewing room in tip top shape. That sounds like a good plan to me!

Hope your day is splendid!

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.