Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Time to be Thankful

Thanksgiving Day is coming soon. This is one of my favorite holidays. My daughter is making some cute aprons using fall fabric and a maple leaf applique using my AccuQuilt Go Cutter.

Yeah! I was able to get my serger working to ruffle the fabric for the apron. My serger has been sitting idle for a while waiting on me to find the manual to figure out how to thread it correctly. Hubby keeps saying "I told you to buy the one that threads its self." What does he know right? I wish I had listened to him. At any rate, I was able to use the ruffle feature successfully. I see new ruffled pillow shams in my future. So, I suppose I am thankful for the intelligence to be able to get my serger working for all the fun projects I would like to complete. Simple things like the machines we use to get our projects completed are often taken for granted as is the God given knowledge to operate these tool. Take time to be thankful for even these little things that make our life simpler.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I am Thankful for UPS....

My UPS friend just delivered a new shipment of the chocolate brown Fun Flowers fabric prints from LakeHouse Dry Goods. McCall's Quick Quilts Dec/Jan and Quilts and More Winter 2011 both have quick easy quilts made using this great fabric line by Holly Holderman. Be sure and watch Holly's Blog for more information about fun quilts using the Fun Flowers fabric line.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Market Saturday and Sunday

Saturday: Our first day on the market floor!

One of my favorite things about going to market is getting to spend time with my daughter. She helps me out in the shop and has an eye for fabric for her generation. We enjoy discussing all that we see. My daughter has always wanted to make an Aunt Philly’s Toothbrush Rug. We stopped by Aunt Philly's booth where she was kind enough to show my daughter how to start her own Toothbrush Rug. Aunt Philly is such an interesting person. Look for her patterns on the website soon or come see the sample Lindsey is working on in the shop.

Sunday:

Were we tired for our last day on the market floor!

I was able to take pictures of the two block of the months that we will be starting in January. Kansas Troubles’ Block of the Month will be KT Favorites 10 Years and Counting program. The 2nd Block of the Month, The Night Before Christmas, by Bunny Hill Designs features the La Petite Ecole fabric line by French General for Moda.

Fall Quilt Market Review

Friday at Quilt Market!

My daughter and I went to Fall Quilt Market in Houston this weekend. We checked out all the latest fabric lines for spring, and its not even winter yet. Friday we both attended Schoolhouse. Schoolhouse is a full day from 10:30- 6:00p.m of 15 and 30 minute classes. These classes are designed to teach new techniques, show new fabric lines, and introduce new patterns. One of the most moving Schoolhouse presentations was a new program to make Quilts of Valor quilts that is being launched by Marianne Fons of Fons & Porter (picture 1). The new program, "Under Our Wings," will have participating Quilt shops mentor a new sewing/quilting student. The mentor will teach the student to construct a Quilts of Valor quilt for a current or retired service person or family. Nine different fabric companies will produce American Valor Fabric lines for this program and will donate a portion of their proceeds to the armed service charity of their choice. We have ordered Moda’s full collection called Quilts of Valor by Minick & Simpson (picture 2) and P&B’s full collection titled Tribute by Pat Sloan. A fun quilting template that was demonstrated was the The X-Blocks tool demonstrated by Patrica Pepe. Lots of fun and traditional designs are featured in her new book "Once Upon a time in X-Blocks Land Nine Magical Quilt Designs (picture 3)."