Let's party some more..........

Have you been enjoying the Quilter's Blog Hop?? Only a few more days to visit everyone. It's been fun to meet so many new bloggers.

Because so many of you signed up for my giveaway, and because I am almost at 1100 followers (amazing!), I thought I would add a second prize :-)

You see I've been working with Homespuns making my little neighborhood for my Country Homecoming Quilt and I have extra Homespun fabric. So why not share?? Prize # 2 is three fat quarters and a copy of the September/October issue of Quiltmaker magazine.

Okay, can we get a rah, rah?? No need to leave another comment. Comments left on my Blog Hop post will count towards both prizes. I just get to pick two names instead of one! Yay :-)

Have a happy quilting day!

The Link

Okay friends and neighbors, if you wanted to know how to make the Whirl,

I contacted Ashley and she fixed the link!! Yay!! HERE IT IS!

Have fun, and if you do this, please let me know. I want to see :-)

Summer is almost gone ~

It has been a pretty busy summer. We've had several guests come to stay, plus our recent trip up north, so not a lot of sewing has taken place.

I'm just finishing the binding on this table runner. It is the gift to be sent to the family that hosted my daughter in Singapore this summer.

I'm not a great machine quilter, but I do love to make these little swirlies on the borders.They are easy for me and goes pretty quickly.

If you have a few minutes, please hop over to my Hospitality blog and read what I posted yesterday about scrapers. It may not happen to you, but it has happened to my other blog and it's been pretty unnerving and discouraging. As I only blog for a hobby, not to make money or profit, it's been a real downer to learn that some people are doing ugly things with the words I write and pictures I take.

I hope you have a wonderful quilting day!!

Show Off Friday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Sew Darn Crafty

The Whirl

Living in central Florida, we have green almost year round. I thought about this picture as we were waiting and watching for Isaac to make his move. Thankfully we were spared, only receiving some well needed rain. This picture was taken at an outing and I loved the little children walking with the dog. If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it for a closer look.

A couple of years ago I was blog hopping and came across this tutorial. Now I am not very computer savvy, but my son helped me with the directions and I had to give it a try. The link does not work anymore, but I have written to the author to see if she can send me the correct link.

Thinking of those who are in the path of TS Isaac. Many of which have experienced the ravages of Katrina. Let's keep them all in our prayers.

Be Prepared!

Here are crates of water stacked up at our local grocery store. Just in case we lose power, I will be back online as soon as possible.

Please be sure to sign up for my Quilters Blog Hop giveaway on Saturdays post. You can find it HERE.

As our friend from NOAA always says -

Let's all hope for the best but prepare for the worst (something no one really wants to think about)!

Quilter's Blog Hop Party

Welcome!! Are you ready to party?? I have to admit, the Quilters Blog Hop party caught me by surprise this time. But as I have participated before, I did not want to miss out of sharing a little giveaway this time around.

If you have visited my blog before, you know that I love scrap quilts and scrappy projects. So when I found this book "Scrap Basket Sewing" I thought it would be perfect for a giveaway.

And with fall just a few weeks away, I'm including fabric to make your first project.

No hoops to jump through. Leave a comment below. One entry per person You can tell me where you are from, as all are welcome and I always enjoy seeing where my readers are located. Please be sure I have a way to contact you. Giveaway will be open until Monday September 3rd.

Be sure to stop by and visit the other participants of the Quilter's Blog Hop party. And I hope you will come back and visit again.

PS - I've added a second prize. Hope over HERE but leave a comment only on this Blog Hop post.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED.

Lessons Learned?

Do you put your full faith and trust in the Quilt patterns you purchase? We all assume that patterns have been tested and are correct for construction.

I've had some patterns that were very difficult and instructions that were confusing but up to this time, never one that was wrong. Read this post from Quilts in the Barn for some valuable information concerning magazine patterns.

Another great quilt shop

We never found a quilt shop in our travels last week, but on our way home I asked my sweet hubby if we could stop in at Peggy's Heirloom Quilt shop in Ocala. Peggy's shop had moved to a much better location, pretty close to the Interstate.

I really loved her shop. Here's a few reasons why.

Lots of beautiful fabrics and a sale wall in the rear of the store. I bought a couple of yards of fabric, but could not get near the sale books. A lady had parked herself in front of the books and did not look like she planned to move out ;-) Anyway, I would love to go back and take more time. If you are ever in the area, it would be worth your time to stop in. Oh and btw, if you need a shot of refreshment, there is a Panera Bread Co. and a Starbucks in the shopping plaza!

Vacations are for summer, right?

Wow can you believe that summer is almost over? I'm really sad to see it go. I know a lot of people have had unbearable heat, but our summer in the deep south has actually been very nice this year.

Last week, we ventured out for an end of summer vacation. With youngest DS back to college this week, plus he celebrated a significant birthday, we thought we would squeeze in a birthday trip.

So where did we go??

Does this place look familiar?

Now I want you to pay close attention to this building. It sits directly across from the Smithsonian Archives.

Can see the balconies at the top of the building? Maybe if you click to enlarge you can see it better. What I wanted to point out is that my hubby and his company made the ballisters that line the two levels of balconies.

Cool huh?

My son had to upgrade me to Google Chrome, and it is not as easy to maneuver around on my blog post. Or else I would have posted more pictures :-(

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Outdoor Wednesday

Be nice to your Iron

Recently I've read several bloggers lamenting the loss of their irons. I bought my iron around 1998 and fortunately it is still going strong.

As I was re-reading the directions for cleaning my iron, this was the information they suggested -

Rowenta irons are designed to be used with regular tap water (up to 12 grains of hardness). If your water is harder than this, Rowenta recommends mixing half tap water with half distilled water. Never use 100% pure distilled water since this can cause the iron to spit and leak.

There are many types of household water softeners. Many of them are perfectly acceptable for use in an iron. HOWEVER, some types of softeners, particularly those that use chemicals such as salt, can cause the iron to leak or spit during use. If you experience this type of problem, we recommend that you try using inexpensive bottled spring water. NEVER USE 100% PURE DISTILLED WATER. Once you have changed water it will take several uses to correct the problem.

I know some gals have been experiencing major problems with leaky irons. These are suggestions from the Rowenta cleaning kit, but they may be applicable to other brands as well.

My Sewing and Quilting Space

Moda Bake Shop is hosting a Show Off Your Stash linky. While I do not have a quilting "studio" I have been pleased to have a space to call my own.

Here is my little set up -

I store my Quilting books and patterns in this Martha Stewart cabinet that I bought at K Mart years ago.



About a year ago I purchased these wonderful four drawer wire shelves at IKEA.

This has been the BEST investment I made for storing my stash of fabric.

Not only does it allow me to be more organized, I have sorted fabric by color, which makes it easier when I am looking to add something to a project. The fabric stash is housed inside the guest room closet, so it is accessible yet out of the way.

I love seeing sewing spaces. Do you have a special spot where you sew and create?

Some advice please

Okay peeps, help me out here. Can any one give me some advice on making a t shirt quilt? I've been given a bag of t shirt fabric that belonged to the Mom of a young man in our church. His Mom recently passed away, and I guess the son was clearing out the craft things from her home. These fabrics are ladies prints, so I know it wasn't something she might have been saving to make for her son. However, I wondered about making a quilt for this young man, using this fabric. I've not really decided to do this, as it really depends on how much time and effort it would take. I have not worked with knits in AGES and these knits are very flimsy.

So what say ye?? Any words of wisdom? Would you take on this challenge??

On to Singapore

When my daughter returned from a month long trip to SE Asia this summer, one of her requests was for me to make something for the host family she stayed with in Singapore. On our way home from a family vacation, we stopped in at Peggy's Heirloom shop in Ocala and picked up some pretty batiks.

Do you remember when I made this Fiskars pattern back in the spring??


I love how it turned out, so I thought I would try it again, but with a little variation, using the darker blue as a highlight.

Do you have any projects in the works??

Another Prim Block

Here is my next block for the Country Homecoming Quilt.

Each one is more and more fun to design.

These are the other neighborhood designers!

Cottons n' Wool
Quilt Hollow
Sweet P Quilting and Creations
Loves to Quilt
Kim's Big Quilting Adventure
Pondering Quilting
Cricketwood Prims n' Gardens

More Olympic News

First, I would like to congratulate all of the athletes who participated in the London Olympics. Whether you placed first or came in last, it is an incredible achievement to reach this level of competition.

And now that the Olympics is officially over, I wondered if many of you caught the overlooked events that were taking place somewhere in Ohio. It should have received national attention, but I suppose all of the reporters were in London and failed to get the memo.

So be sure to check out what our American Reporter, Kelly Jackson reported concerning TEAM USA on her blog. Check it out HERE.

Keep your sewing machine clean

A couple of years ago Diane Gaudynski's posted information about keeping your sewing machine clean. I know I can be lax in this area, so I thought I would post some sites that tell about cleaning your machine. I would think each brand of sewing machines would have a resource on how to clean your brand of machine. Here is what I found for today.

Diane Gaudyniski's blog -
http://dianegaudynski.blogspot.com/2010/01/lean-mean-clean-machine.html

Blueberry Buckle Quilt Studio -
http://blueberrybuckle.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/tuesday-tutorial-clean-your-machine.html

Janome Forum -
http://janome.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=19&threadid=480

Sewing machine care -
http://www.essortment.com/all/sewingmachinec_rfhp.htm

Keep those machines running clean :-)

Sew Darn Crafty

Sidelights

I've had this pattern for a while. I love the panel pictured on the cover. But alas, when we bought this pattern, the panel was already gone. A limited edition out of print. So I started looking for another print, hoping to find something similar. Every Asian pattern that I came across just did not do it for me. Until.......................

The colors are perfect. And I also found fabric for the large border with coordinating colors. And the really exciting part, it was available at my LQS when they had their 30% off sale :-)

It's always fun to find something that has been elusive.

Happy Quilting!

On to the next shop

Now this was a little bit of a disappointment. I have visited this shop many times, but because it is not very close to where I live, there may be stretches of time before my car makes it's way there.

What a total shock to see how the inventory was about half of what it used to be.

Not many newer patterns.

It was so very sad.

One sister mainly does machine quilting, which right now takes up a large section of the store.

Have you experienced this in your area? Do you notice your Local Quilt shops carrying less and less?? Where we live in Florida a lot of the quilt shops have gone mostly to modern and novelty fabrics. Which are all right, but not the majority of the fabrics I enjoy sewing with. One shop in particular used to carry the most beautiful Civil War fabrics. But the last time I was there, they only carried modern and beach theme fabrics. Is this the trend in your area?

A Little Shop Hopping

Just a little retail therapy :-)

Happy Quilting!

Can I get a Whoop Whoop??

Well friends and neighbors, here it is! The vintage feed sack blocks put together.

Whaddayathink?? Can I get a Whoop Whoop? I think it looks pretty cool.

I've decided to back it with unbleached muslin. Not sure about binding yet, but I'm sure I will find something.

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Vintage Blocks

Several weeks ago Barb from Bejeweled Quilts by Barb sent me these vintage blocks. What an amazing assortment of fabric. I was stunned when I opened the package.

Some of these prints looked so vintage. I have no way of knowing what time period they are from, but the coarseness of the fabric reminded me of feed sack.

I do not have a plan yet, but I did some squaring up, as the blocks were all catty whompis.

Any suggestions? As I do not have any more of the vintage muslin, would you put the squares together without sashings??