Weekend at the Quilt Shop

I work on the weekends at Tiny Stitches - the best quilt shop in Georgia! We are having a Labor Day sale that stated on Friday and ends tomorrow. We have lots of skinny bolts with 1 1/2 to 4 or 5 yards of fabric still on the bolt and we are selling them for only $5.00. No measuring - whatever is on the bolt is what you take home with you. Since we are putting out more blots every day, some of our customers are coming every day I work again tomorrow since both Maetha and Mary are taking the day off.

Of course, we are putting the bolts outside of the store on tables so that isn't fun - putting them out and taking them back in but it seems like everyone is enjoying the bargains! I have been resisting but Michele and I did find one bolt today that we couldn't resist. We bought it and split the fabric on it - we each got almost 2 yards for $2.50.

On my way to the shop yesterday, I stopped at Chick-fil-A to buy diet lemonade. While I was waiting to get to the window, I saw that they had decorated the back of the store with 3 of these planters. Aren't they beautiful?

When I got home last night, I found this in the mailbox. I had signed up for a bottle swap at http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/mib/mib-about/ and my bottle from Lisa Vollrath came today.

Here is the bottle opened but before I took the goodies out.

And here is the stuff from the bottle. I love everything I got and have one bottle ready to mail to someone else. Still need to work on the second one and find someone who is willing to receive/send two bottles. What fun!

We went out to dinner for Bill's birthday tonight. Went to Longhorn, his favorite place. I got him 1 1/2 pounds of fudge and a couple of turtle candies for his birthday. Also found a card with a photo on it of a puppy that looks like Max did many years ago.

Mary Lou Weidman

We had a wonderful day at guild. Mary Lou Weidman was our speaker and she had a wonderful presentation. Her quilts are absolutely breathtaking and she makes you think of all kinds of story's you would like to tell in quilts.

After the meeting we went to Ted's Montana Grill and had a great lunch. Here is Danielle and Mary Lou outside of Ted's.

Here I am with Mary Lou. I am wearing a Mary Lounie Pin that she gave me.

Mary Lou is teaching one more class tomorrow - Flower Power. I wish I was able to attend it but it is my regular day at the quilt shop. I really enjoyed meeting Mary Lou and feel so inspired by her quilts.

Christmas Story Quilt Class

Here is the class from today. Mary Lou is in the center, next to Ray.

I finally got started on my quilt. Here is the basic tree and the start of some of the ornaments/presents/memories on the tree. Obviously it needs a lot more things on the tree, plus a border. I feel good that I got this much done. Danielle made the stocking for me.

Here is Mary Lou making Hoochy Mama blocks. She did a brief demo of the blocks for the border.

We went to the evening meeting tonight after dinner and Mary Lou showed a couple of quilts that I hadn't seen before. She has a wonderful Halloween quilt that we were not able to take photos of. I absolutely love it and hope she will have a pattern or book available soon.

I gave Mary Lou a Magic Wand today. She had a good time with it and took it to dinner with us. I think we are going to do a Magic Wand swap on her yahoo group - I can hardly wait.

Tomorrow is the regular guild meeting in the morning. We will have more wonderful story quilts to look at and be able to listen to Mary Lou telling us about creativity. I really love being in the guild and am so honored to be President this year. If you are ever in Georgia, please visit us. Our website is here.

Mary Lou Weidman in Georgia

This is the quilt that I think I will base mine on. Mary Lou does hand applique and I think I will use fusible. While I like hand applique, I would also like the quilt to be finished sometime in my lifetime. With fusible there is at least a chance that I will finish it.

We have been waiting for Mary Lou to come to Georgia for a long time and today was the first day of a two day workshop for Christmas Quilts. Unfortunately, I had to teach my beginning class in the morning so didn't get the class until after lunch. I did manage to stop by and drop off my stash of fabrics that I was going to use. Of course, after starting, I decided needed different fabrics.

Here is one of the quilts that Mary Lou brought along with her. It is a feather tree.

Here is a wreath. Many of the people in the class are making one based on this. Pam is making hers featuring the 12 days of Christmas. Mary Lou drew special patterns for her - lucky girl.

Beyond Beginners Class

I taught one of my favorite classes last night. We are calling it Beyond Beginners - it is planned for students who have completed a beginning class or have that type of experience.

This is Stephanie's beginner quilt. I have named it Doggies Run Amok - all the fabric in it is doggie fabric. She quilted it herself and did a great job.

Here is the quilt that Stephanie started last night. She managed to find a close out on batiks and bought enough to make this quilt.

Here is the start of Lorie's quilt. Her husband went to the shop yesterday, picked out the fabrics and did all the cutting for her. He sure is a keeper isn't he.

The other two decided to make a table runner from flying geese.

We are using a Pat Sloan book called "I can't believe I am quilting beyond the basics". It is a great book and I recommend it highly.

Tomorrow I am going to the beginning of a 2-day workshop with Mary Lou Weidman. The class starts at 9:30 but I have to teach my beginner class so will go get set up and then rush back to the shop, teach and hurry back to the workshop. The topic is Christmas. Mary Lou makes story quilts. On her website she says that "every event in life is a quilt waiting to happen". It should be a lot of fun.

A few more purchases from Nashville

I finally got around to unpacking the last of my purchases from Nashville.

Here are two patterns for purses. I use the fact that I teach purses as an excuse to buy purse patterns. Sounds good to me! I especially like the purse on the right - they had a sample done in black and whites. It was great.

OK - I don't need another quilt kit but I really, really love this fabric. The quilt was so beautiful that I talked myself into buying it.

This is a cute little paper pieced cupcake pattern. They had a little kit available to make one of the cupcakes so I got it.

I was really happy to find this dog panel. We have the fabric in the shop but sold out of the panel almost immediately. I got the panel in Nashville and then got a fat quarter pack from the line yesterday. Not sure what I will do with it but love what it says.

12 Dog Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My owner gave to me

Twelve tails-a-wagging

Eleven frisbees flying

Ten cats for chasing

Nine bones for chewing

Eight ropes for tugging

Seven scraps-a-spilling

Six fleas-a-dying

Five puppy friends

Four falling squirrels

Three mailmen

Two tennis balls

And a fire hydrant so I can pee!

Isn't that perfect for someone owned by two little dogs?

Opryland

I am sorry that AQS is moving the Summer show from Nashville to Knoxville next year. It will be closer to drive but may interfere with the Las Vegas trip that my sister and I take.

Also, there is just no place like Opryland. The grounds are so beautiful and it is such a lovely place. We stay at the hotel, even though it is somewhat expensive, it is worthwhile not to have to leave. Some Augusts have been very, very hot and outside is miserable. This was not the case this time.



I took a few photos of the plantings in the courtyard. Not sure I will ever have a reason to go there again.

Dear Jane in Nashville

Last night we went to a lecture by the Author of Dear Jane, Brenda Papadakis. I am really glad we decided to go. She is a very interesting speaker and we got the chance to see quite a few Dear Jane quilts.


The above picture are of Brenda during the talk. Behind her is a quilt called Technicolor Jane made of batiks and a copy of the original quilt by Jane Stickle.

The one above is made from exchange blocks from a swap on the Dear Jane email list.

Here is a Dear Jane set in a unusual setting. I like this one a lot.

Apparently there was a Beatles challenge and this quilt and the one below are samples of that challenge.

Love the border on this one.

Here is one made with just a few of the blocks.

Another with an unusual setting.

This was from an Amish challenge.

Isn't it fun to see how different these little 4 1/2 inch blocks look when made from different fabrics?

Shopping at the Quilt Show

I did a little shopping today. I really don't need much of anything but did find a few things that were calling "Buy me, buy me" when I tried to walk past.

This first one is unusual for me to be attracted to. It is reproduction fabrics but I really loved the look of the quilt and the fabrics.

Here is the kit laying on it's side. Look at the wonderful blue fabrics. This will be great!

Since I teach purses every month, I am always on the lookout for new patterns. I found these two that I really like. Now to get them made.

This is a simple black and white fabric that I saw when I tried to walk past a booth. It is hard for me to pass up any black and white fabrics, especially with a sewing or fashion theme.

I picked up a couple of more things but packed them away. I will confess more shopping tomorrow.

We are going to the show for a couple more hours tomorrow morning before we take off for Georgia. Bill is cooking a turkey breast on the grill so we have that to look forward to when we get home.

East Cobb Quilt Guild Challenge Quilts in Nashville

I spent the morning looking at all the quilts on display. I took about 100 photos but don't like to post quilts from people I don't know. I love to take pictures of quilting to give me inspiration.

The quilts from my guild are in the Ultimate Guild Challenge. I have posted photos of all the quilts back in March/April so just took a picture of the sign today.

The quilts looked great hung here. This is the second year in a row that we were fortunate enough to get quilts in the exhibit. Last year our raffle quilt that I quilted was also here.

Made it to Nashville

We got to Nashville a little later than we had planned but got here safely which is all that really matters. We made a couple of stops between Marietta and Nashville. We went to the Lodge Cast Iron Skillet outlet store and each bought a couple of new pans. Bill has been wanting a very large frying pan so I got that for him and also picked up one of the grill pans like the cooks on Food Network use. I got one that fits over just one burner since we only cook for two people. They are really heavy!

Of course we stopped at Cracker Barrel. I think there is probably a law in Tennessee that says if you go on a road trip that you have to stop at least once at a Cracker Barrel.

We did get here in time to renew our AOS memberships and buy multi-day admission to the show. We made one run through the vendors - just looking. At first glance I didn't see anything that said I have to buy it. Of course we will be here all day tomorrow so I will report in again.

Tomorrow I plan on looking at all the quilts. Eight of the challenge quilts from East Cobb Quilt Guild are here and I can't wait to see how they look displayed.

More Shopping

We had a great time today. I picked up Linda at the area yesterday and we stopped at IKEA. We looked at everything there and I found a few things I would really like to have but I managed to get out of there with just a few small things.

Today we went out and did a little shopping again. We went to Fiber on a Whim and then to downtown Marietta. We spent a little time looking at Antique Stores and then went to the Rubber Stamp Fantasy store. Had fun there and just bought a couple of things.

After leaving downtown, we stopped at the Marietta Diner for lunch. We then went to Little Quilts where I picked up a couple of patterns and a book.


These are the patterns - an apron and a VOTE quilt. I probably won't make the VOTE quilt, but I really like it. I wouldn't put a date on it but it would be great fun to bring it out every election time. Of course, recently the election time is almost non-stop now, isn't it.

Also I love pincushions and couldn't resist this book. The pincushions in it are really cute and don't look too hard to make.

At Fiber on a Whim, I got two books. The one above is a Fabric Art book that has detailed directions for all sorts of good sounding things - Paint Sticks, foiling, dyeing, and lots of other ways to alter fabric.

The last book I have to show was also from Fiber on a Whim. I bought a Janome embellisher last year but really haven't done much with it. This book has ideas for using the machine embellisher and also ideas for hand needle felting.