Making pumpkins

 The fall season always brings out pumpkins.

So I wanted to make my own pumpkins. Last year I came across a very easy tutorial on Stacey Lees website.

These were so fun to make.  I wanted to make more!

Sew and Tell NTT  Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy

Sharing my thoughts

There have been many times when I've had such a burning desire to quilt, that everything else goes by the wayside. 

I was going through some old magazines, sorting them as keepers and give aways. There was an "aha!" moment as I leafed through a variety of older magazines.

 Quilting times have changed. More and more quilters have lent themselves to modern quilting. Modern fabric, modern patterns, modern quilts.

I'm not saying I don't like the newer brighter fabric colors. It's just that I have always been a traditional quilter, and I'm not finding much anymore. Especially since so many quilt shops have closed in my area.

Quilting magazines feature lots of modern patterns, applique and paper piecing. All of which I don't do.

Another thing I've noticed is the emphasis on long arm machine quilting. I don't know about you, but I don't own a long arm, and I don't know anybody who does. So are the magazines pushing quilters to buy a long arm? There certainly are lots of helpful hints for longarmers.

Believe me, I'm not downplaying modern quilting. It's just not what I enjoy doing. I like my fabric to coordinate, my patterns to have symmetry, and my points to match.  I'm just sharing my thoughts. We each have to enjoy what we are creating.

I do wish each of you Happy Quilting. No matter which kind you enjoy doing.

The end of the tour

 Finishing my tour, we ended up in some very nice shops.

Making our way over to VA found some awesome places.

I would definitely return to this shop. Big selection of fabric.

The Sewing Gallery in Princeton was a very classy and beautiful shop.

Batiks Etcetera was an amazing powerhouse of batik fabric. Although I don't usually do much with batiks, it was a treasure trove of the best batiks around.

If you are into batiks, this is the place for you. There had to be hundreds of bolts of gorgeous batik fabric.

Well there you have it. It certainly makes for Happy Quilting.

A Stitch in Time

We made a stop in Franklin, NC and found  A Stitch in Time quite by accident. 

A lovely shop with a large selection of fabric.

My hubby was the camera man, taking videos and send them back to my quilting buddies back home.

This shop was well worth the visit.

Tiny Stitches

 It is always such fun to find quilt shops when we travel. 

Tiny Stitches had so much fabric to choose from. And of course lots of inspiration.

I'm so grateful that my sweet hubby comes along with me. As a matter of fact one of the sales ladies said she would hire him :-)

Quilty travels

 Our trip started out in our new (to us) RV.

So much more room than our previous RV. We headed north amid lots of rain.  But after a couple of days the clouds and rain were gone.

It was a little bit of adventure finding quilt shops along the way. We ended up stopping in five quilt shops. Only one was not worth the time. 

First stop was Cottontail Quilts. A quaint little shop that I had visited once before.

LOTS of inspiration.

I did buy this Christmas Tree panel and coordinating fabrics to make for my daughter.

More to come!

Above the clouds

 I have been feeling a bit better. Still tire easily but I have been able to do more. So my dear husband took me for a short trip. Hoping to see some fall colors, we made our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

The mountains ahead.

And then we were above the clouds! What an amazing sight. Not much color change yet except for glowing orange and yellow aspens. But the mountains are always so beautiful.

My sweet hubby also took me to five quilt shops!  They were really nice and amazing shops. And I will post about them, and what I found.