It's Raining Pom Poms

Hi Everyone and welcome to the Shake Your Pom Pom blog hop!!

I'd like to thank Thearica and Madame Samm for all of the effort they put into arranging these hops. It's a huge amount of work and they've done a great job!

I finally got my beloved Janome back last week and had an already scheduled girls quilting weekend, so I've spent the last 72 hours quilting like a mad woman! I've literally had 5 hours sleep in that 72 hours, so this is going to be short and sweet in order to keep it somewhat coherent. Even though I pulled 2 all nighters, I wasn't able to completely finish my quilt, but it's mostly done.
 I couldn't believe my luck when I found multi-colored blue poms that I think actually look like a rainy day.

This is my in fully assembled quilt top. I put the hot pink rain drops on pre-applique, but found that I couldn't quilt with them on, so I had to snip them off and will reattach them once the quilting is complete. I used my pom poms to symbolize rain drops around some of the cutest umbrellas possible.

I used white metallic thread and quilted a Morton Salt girl silhouette in the focus, beaded umbrella. I used blue metallic thread to quilt the umbrellas and rain.

My dear friend Sophie happend to be at the quilting weekend, which was lucky for me since she can draw and I can't. Stick figures are my forte, so the salty girl was well out of my league. Thanks Soph!!!

Unfortunately I had a mishap and some of the colors started to bleed onto the gray, so I had to quickly wash and dry my unfinished quilt, pins and all. I would not recommend this, but I was terrified the bleeding wouldn't come out if I didn't deal with it immediately.

This is it's current state:

Thanks for visiting and putting up with my sleep deprived ramblings. I'm off to sleep for about 14 hours now.

Here's my fellow Pom Pom Hoppers, I hope you get to visit them all and enjoy their Pom Pom Shaking as much as I do!!

April 29

Accio Fabric

Quiltsmiles

Scrapbook-chickadoodle

In The Sewing Basket

life, quilts and a cat too

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Meadowbrook



April Showers....

Well it's official, my beloved machine is broken! I have been without a machine for 3 weeks now and I've got one more to go! The bar that holds the needle and goes up and down is worn out and has to be replaced. Things are bound to wear out, so I really can't complain, and considering I've had it 11 years and I sew about 5 days a week, I've probably been lucky it's made it this far without needing major repair.

In the meantime I've been talked into joining the Shake Your Pom Poms blog hop at the end of this month by Thearica. I debated it for a while, because I couldn't come up with a project that included pom poms that the dogs wouldn't eat. Koda has been systematically redecorating my reading room curtains by plucking the pom poms off the trim. He chews them, decides they don't taste all that good and leaves spitty fringe all over the room for me to clean up.

Then it hit me. I bought the Laundry Basket Quilts "Dancing Umbrellas" pattern a couple of weeks back when my friend Pattie and I stopped at a local quilt shop:

As I totally love cute umbrellas, my first thought was "oooo, wouldn't this be cute in bright, happy fabrics!"
As I only have my small travel machine, which is fine for piecing but not heavy duty quilting, I decided I could at least get the blocks together fairly quickly. Then I realized it was Watchathon week and Comcast has all of the seasons of Downton Abbey for free. So I sat on my hiney most of the week and watched and watched. I did try to be somewhat productive though. I have 14 umbrellas together, not bad for the weekend, don't you think?
Here are my first two blocks: 

They aren't appliqued down yet, I just posed them because I was excited to see them all together.

I've mostly used Tanya Whelan's fabrics (who has a gorgeous new shabby chic line coming out that I'm sure I will need to have some of). I did through in a couple of Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line because I totally would love a real life Narwhal umbrella! The background is Kaufman's Mix Master Fizz by Patrick Loose.

Well that's all for today. I think I'll post the rest of my vacation while waiting for my machine to be fixed. I can't possibly forget to share the time I spent with the lovely quilting ladies at Borderland Fabrics in Jedburgh!

Happy Quilting,

Vicki

Material Obsession

Not the fabulous blog/store/books from Australia, but the kind that makes you want to work on nothing else until you have finished something with the material that your obsession revolves around. And just what fabric is so inspiring as to make me forget all else you ask? Behold...Strawberry Fields!

I was in the middle of a no-deadline commission quilt when I got a layer cake of it in the mail the last week of March. From the moment I opened the package, I wanted to do nothing but make something with it, NOW. I freaking love strawberry fabrics. Slap a strawberry on it, and I'm all over it. The colors are just perfection! It's so ridiculously gorgeous in person that my friend Pattie, who got her layer cake before me, told me "it's so pretty that I want to lick it!" I completely agree. The non-quilting people are now horrified, but you quilters out there know exactly what we mean, don't you?

I spent an evening deciding what project was worthy, then I had to run it by my SewMod friends, to verify that my choice was indeed the worthiest project and that my chosen background fabric was perfect.
We decided on the Coventry star pattern by Brenda Riddle of the Acorn Quilt and Gift Company.

And that gorgeous grey polka dot is from my all time favorite line, Ava Rose by Tanya Whelan. I actually had to order more, 5 yards was not enough! I'm actually making the quilt larger than the pattern, to fit the full bed in my guest room. Which also means I need to paint it since it's currently lavender and green. Yes, I am redecorating an entire room because of a little layer cake.

Since I started this quilt I've wanted to work on nothing else. I totally want to take a week off of my day job just to work on it! I've been designing another quilt to make with it, but have to wait for the yardage to hit the stores before I can make that one. Big, huge bummer. I know it's just 'til May, but that's just too long when you are completely obsessed!

I had finished about 40 blocks, but then had to get busy making a couple of grocery bags for the school raffle my bff Donna is running. Of course, just because I want to be working on something else, I  screwed them up and now have to make another set. I can't let Donna and the kids down!

And to add another worthy cause to my list, my quilting buddy Dori sent a note about some children left orphaned by the tsunami in Japan, where her daughter's friend is from, so I had to help out and get some quilts to the children (to be posted at a later date since it really deserves it's own post). You can read about it here. Fair warning, have the tissues ready.

And to put my obsession on the back burner even further, the hubby has been working on the basement which means that I've had to be upstairs since the tan dogs (Robbie and Daisy) are terrified of, well, everything to do with construction. Since I've waited almost 10 years for the basement/sewing room to be done, I don't want to discourage him, so my original spurt of sewing has been delayed until my retreat in two weekends. I don't know if I can last that long!

I put some of the blocks together to see how it was coming along. Yummm, it's lolly pop licking gorgeous!

Happy Quilting!

Vicki

So sweet my teeth hurt!

What do you do when you realize that the totally floofy-girly garbage can you bought for next to your ironing board is totally useless because it has more holes in it than Swiss cheese and all of your fabric bits and thread fall out of it's sides?

Why, you spend two and a half evenings selecting the perfect fabric, designing and making a totally gorgeous liner for it of course!

When you put them together, you get the sweetest darn-tooten waste bin evah!

I was going to use Nicey Jane, but then I happened across my fairly substantial stash of Ava Rose and decided that was definitely the way to go.

I think it's perfect, don't you?

I used an Ava Rose polka dot on the bottom. I know you won't ever see it, but I'm nutty that way.

I waffled between the white and turquoise of this flower print for the inside, but since I had a lot more of the white, I went with it. I used a darling turquoise polka dot on the bottom of the inside.
One of my friends suggested that it would be cute in a baby or little girl's room for storage.

Another angle.

I know it seems silly to do this for a garbage can, but it's for use by my ironing board, so it will only have fabric, thread and paper in it, no nasty icky stuff.

I am quite proud of myself for figuring out how to make a liner that's round and tapered. It's quite a feat for the math challenged (aka:me).

And now for a gratuitous cute dog photo:

Don't your teeth hurt from all that sweetness?

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

.

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!

Springy Easter quilting

I finally took a photo of my Bunny's Day Out quilt. Isn't it cute?

It was a free pattern from the manufacturer, and the bonus is that it was actually right! I can't tell you how many of the free patterns are only created electronically and have never actually been made with real fabric. Many of them have totally incorrect fabric amounts, cutting directions, instructions, etc...

I quilted the bajeezes out of the areas around the bunnies because I wanted the bunnies to really pop out. I did a terrible job tacking down the binding on this one though, so once it's off of display, I'll have

to rip it out and re-do it.

I also whipped up this cute little runner out of the Darla and Ava Rose fabric lines from Tanya Whelan. The pattern is the Table Treats for Spring by Bunny Hill Designs. Anne's patterns are just wonderful! I haven't stitched the embroidered handles on the baskets yet, and I'm not convinced that they need them. Thoughts anyone? I wanted to use the mini ric-rac (on the pink polka dot basket), but the curvature of the handle is too great for even the smallest ric-rac to handle. (get it, handle?)

Here's the mini swap quilt that I made for February. I'm pleased with the

way it turned out. The ric-rac on it is chenille! It's really excellent. I was going to photo copy a cupcake on the fabric and enlarge it, but a magazine did it for me, so I thought, why re-invent the wheel, or cupcake, if you don't have to!

I tried to trapunto the cupcake, but I only used Warm & Natural batting as the first layer, so it didn't poof out from the quilt the way I had wanted it to. I think I need to use a poofier, poly batting next time.

The pink chenille ric-rac was a coup. I bought it from when the Hancock's (not the same as the Hancock's of Paducah) closed in Arlington Heights. Binding Guru Karen had used the red chenille ric-rac as ribbon on my Christmas gift a few years ago. It was really a nice touch. So when Hancock's had everything on super clearance I bought up all the chenille ric-rac they had! I really thought the border fabrics needed something in between the pink and the black, so I went to my ric-rac/ribbon jar and there it was!

I really love these mini swaps, it's a good time to try out something new with out a major investment of time or fabric. And you get a darling little quilt from someone else to boot! Everyone sends little goodies with the quilts that are really fun as well. The hubby doesn't quite understand the concept. He said "so they send you crap and you send them crap?" I explained to him that fabric and sewing/crafty items are not considered "crap" by those of us participating in the swap and that we enjoy this crap!

Happy Easter everyone!

Vicki