Absolutely nothing exciting

Why no posting? Because the only thing I've been doing the last 2 and a half weeks is cleaning out my basement! I know you are all jealous that you can't be cleaning out the basement too. I've made countless trips up and down the stairs and to Good Will. It's rather cathartic to get rid of all that crap. And it makes more room for fabric storage! Yeah! The hubby pointed out that most of what we were getting rid of is stuff that my parents kept bringing over to us whenever they visit.

That was part of the plan though. Dad says he's giving it to me, and I get rid of it, otherwise Mom would want to keep it.

I drew the line at the car seat from the early 1970's. I asked Dad why on earth they still had that thing and he replied "I don't know. Your mother told me to put it in the attic, so I did." I pointed out to him that that was well over 30 years ago and I'm pretty sure that it's considered a death trap now, and you'd be arrested if you tried to use it as a child car seat these days. I told Mom it was still up in the attic and she was shocked. Same goes for the 'vintage' playpen that was also up there. Ugh.

We bought flooring last weekend too. It's so exciting. It's only taken 10 years to get the basement going.  I have 'sewing room' creep happening, much to the hubby's dismay. He had a cozy little sewing room in mind. I, on the other hand, have taking over the entire basement in mind. We'll compromise with me having half the basement, as I keep telling him. I explained to him that it's stifling my creativity to not have gi-hugic cutting and ironing tables and a 7ft x 7 ft design wall. And that I need my 'Studio' to be really cute. This is a non-negotiable point.

I know I'm painting it Restoration Hardware Green, but I'm torn between going Nicey Jane:

Or French General:

I could do Nicey Jane for the Spring and Summer months and French General for the Fall and Winter! Oooo, I think that's the ticket! Now I have to take a class on how to reupholster a chair and ottoman. Add that to the 'to do' list!

I have to say, it takes an insane amount of time to refold fabric to fit Ikea bookcases and wire shelving units, but it's worth it to see it all lined up and organized.  I put my French General, Christmas and Halloween fabrics into their own Ikea Billy bookcases w/doors.

The cd towers are perfect for holding precuts such as Charm Squares, Jelly Rolls, Honeybuns, and Turnovers. It's also good for smaller things like ric-rac and the like. You can see it a bit there on the left. Why so much French General? Because I have at least 5 quilts planned for it, one finished and one in process. One project is a king sized quilt that has instructions which says cut 1526 of piece A, and it gets worse from there!

My next task is to rip apart all the rest of my stash and sort it by color. This could take quite a while. It took a day to get the blacks and whites done.

I think I'll need to make a few projects in between. I can't go that long with out sewing something!

Homemade Wedding

Well, it got a little crazy around here, but thanks to a team effort, the 15 table runners were finished in the nick of time forEmily's wedding!

Things were going well, but then my father-in-law had a mishap in Florida and had to have some risky surgery on his neck, so the hubby flew down to be with him the entire week that I was supposed to go to Paige's to quilt the runners. I couldn't very well leave the dogs locked up for 11 hours during the day, then lock them up at night again.

In a panic I asked others for help and Jennie, being the wonderful and amazing friend that she is, said she would quilt them for me on her Grandquilter in exchange for some of my Heather Ross collection. Emily and I found the perfect pantograph to quilt, but it needed to be shrunk down to fit the Grandquilter. Jennie's hubby was able to scale it down to the proper size and it ended up being better than the original size. And because Jennie is awesome, she also squared them all up for me! Isn't she the best?!?!?

Emily helped out with the runners too. She was my ironing minion. She was a big help. Ironing takes a lot of time, so having someone to iron while I cut and sewed was a huge time saver.

Here are the results or our efforts:

We searched TJ Maxx and Homegoods for the pots. Emily had found a few in the colors of the fabric, and we all went on a hunt to find enough of them. Emily's friends planted and nutured the herbs for them and made recipe cards featuring the herbs in that pot. I cut left over fabric to back the recipes.

The little pots are citronella candles that we found at TJ Maxx. They totally matched the pots and the fabric. And as a bonus, they kept the bugs away!

I quilted the pinwheel table runner myself. It's based on the Pleasant Home tablerunner. The fabrics are all Lantern Bloom by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller. It's the same line that I used for my boss's quilt.

The gorgeous pot was created entirely by Emily's friend, I think it was Alison, but I'm not totally sure, so I'll have to double check that. Isn't it perfect?

The cake was awesome! Check out those 3d lantern blooms!

The reception was held at the Glessner House, which has a great history to it. The Glessner family was very interesting, especially the women. If you are in Chicago, you should put it on your list of things to see. The park next door was beautiful too. The ceremony was in the park, and unfortunately, the 30% of scattered showers that we all thought wouldn't be a problem, was a problem.

Beginning of the ceremony:

The rain begins and the men all totally ignore it, but the women are all feeling like Emily.

The men continue to ignore it, but the bride takes action to protect her dress and everything else she worked so hard on. It was cute, she kind of grabbed the two men and they all shuffled to the shelter of the tree.

They planted an oak tree in honor of the Emily and Brett's wedding. The groom's friend performed the ceremony, and gave a little oak tree info while they walked over to it. He read that the oak is associated with Zeus, the god of lightening. He chuckled, looked at the black cloud overhead and said, "that's a little ironic."

The music the whole night was fantastic. The groom is a musician and two of his friends planned and performed all of the music for the ceremony. I didn't get pictures of them unfortunately. The acoustic guitar was really beautiful.

And the food, OMG! The food was beyond good, it was amazing! They did two signature drinks that were perfect for the heat. One was lemonade w/vodka and mint, the other was grapefruit juice w/gin and basil. Emily even found alcohol that was organic and produced here in the midwest. The hubby commented that he doesn't like gin, but he could drink the Death's Door gin all night. And then proceeded to do just that! Luckily the bartenders weren't overly liberal w/ the gin.

The caterer was City Provisions. They try to do things as sustainable as possible and use local and organic ingredients when possible.

Even the hubby, who usually doesn't pay much attention to food was carrying on and on about the food. The chef and I bonded. I really liked him. He told me not to miss the crab cakes, and he was not kidding. Holy cow, they were amazing. I was bummed because I missed the grilled shrimp on grits appetizer when we took the mini tour of the Glessner House.

It was just such a fun wedding. Everyone danced and mingled and talked to people they had never met. A very friendly crowd. Emily's Aunt Mary did the flowers, and they were gorgeous. Other friends helped design the invitations, and Emily took a letterpress class and printed them herself.

She didn't have any attendants, just the children of her friends, and they all wore what ever they wanted. Two of them had on ties made of Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey! The funny thing about that is that Heather Bailey is the sister-in-law to Laura Gunn, the designer of the table runner fabric! What are the chances! Of course no one realized that buy me, with my crazy fabric identification skills.

I have a ton more photos of the runners up close, as well as the zebra and hot pink You Go Girl bag and Fruitcake Christmas quilt that I also made during this time. The issue is that I took the SD card out of the camera to get the photos off of it, and now I can't find the blasted thing. I'm sure it will show up, and it will be someplace stupid where I left it.

Tomorrow I work out at Tammy Tadd's, and Sunday I have tickets to see Sting w/the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Ravinia!!!!!! Thanks Eileen!!!!

DiscoJen, Sophie, Ashley and I are going. The hubby commented that it will be an estrogen-fest. We have been planning our menus. It looks like there will be rain, so I'm going to try to whip up an oilcloth backed blanket tonight for it. And I will be able to use my super cute Liberty of London umbrella if it does rain, so it's all good!

Shop Hopping

I spent last weekend as the "bus mom" on a bus shop hop tour of Wisconsin and Minnesota for Tammy Tadd Designs. I hope all of my bus ladies had as great a time as I did, since I had a blast! I made some new friends, got to spend time with long term friends (see how I avoided the term 'old friends' I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea there. See how p.c. I am), learned some fabulous new quilting things and was uber inspired. The ladies were so much fun on the trip.

While all the stores offered great ideas and projects, there were two that really struck my fancy, and not just becuase of the great fabric. To me, atmosphere makes the store, and these two had it in spades. I love architectural detail. Today I'll feature Fourth and Main in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. I'm told that a website is currently under development, so in the meantime, check out the photos below to see just how wonderful this place is.

I want to live in Fourth and Main, yes, in the store. With or without the fabric. Either would be just fine for me! I couldn't help myself, I took a ton of pictures at this store. The building was originally two that they combined into one during their "extensive" renovation. I really enjoyed talking with Carol, who is one of the owners. She told me that one part of the building was once a bank, I think, or was it a post office. I can't remember now. Either way, Carol and Julie (and Steve the carpenter) did an absolutely amazing and fabulous job on the place.

The front window, not a great photo, but it was sooo cute!

Kind of straight-right-ish when you walk in the door.

Look at that ceiling!!

In the second building area....Some lovely quilts, including a gorgeous Ava Rose quilt. Don't you just love the molding on the shelves?

Looking down the second building room. Love that offset log cabin! And those shelves. Fab.U. Lous! They call them "Alberts". Carol explained to me that they name everything, so these are called "Albert." They have "fat Alberts" and "skinny Alberts"

That's Carol on the right. She's with two sisters that came on the trip. They were sooooo sweet! They put together a game and gave away fabulous prizes all on their own! So sweet and generous!

The window on the right of the log cabin quilt. I can only imagine how gorgeous it will be all decked out in flowers

A shelf full of happiness, Nicey Jane by the lovely and extremely nice Heather Bailey.

Back to the front door. This is the building to the leftish when you enter. I mean really, can it get any more fantastic? I think not

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To the left of the cutting/check out is a bathroom and the staircase to the upstairs. 

 

There's another bathroom at the top of the stairs. It had a shower area too. It looked like Restoration Hardware decorated the bathroom! The color in the photos is deceptive. All of the walls are really more of a Restoration Hardware Silver Sage green, which happens to be my all time favorite paint color. The tile floor was the original hexagon tiles. So wonderful!

Continuing on past the bathroom hallway you enter the kitchen / eating area. Do you see those cabinets?!?! Excuse me while I wipe up the drool on my keyboard.

There's a fabulous chandelier and office area behind the French doors.

And the best part is....

It's a little cluttered up w/the goodies for our group, but I think you can see how amazing the kitchen is! Seriously, I could live here!

Back downstairs for some sewing inspiration....

The red blouse is a Favorite Things pattern called Prairie Girl.

Check out those darling pleats on the Oliver + S skirt!

The corner in the second building had great clothing and bag samples. It really makes me think that I need to learn how to make some wearables.

This is the 'Classic Shirt' pattern, also by Favorite Things. Carol altered it to make it sleeveless. The fabric is Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley stripe fabric. She told me that she made it for her daughter. I think it's perfect for her and she will look gorgeous in it. She was working that day, so I had the pleasure of meeting her as well.

Carol let me into the courtyard out back to see the fountain, planters and most importantly, her fabulous lavendar bicycle!!!

 I think you can see now why I was so smitten with this store. Don't you want to live there too?

In case I don't get back to the blog before Sunday, I'd like to wish a  

Happy Mothers Day

to all of you mom's out there!