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PUTTING MY FEET UP....

After 13 hours of driving yesterday. (Chicago to NY)
and the 10 hours the day before that~(central MN TO CHICAGO)

I am putting my feet up for a bit today...
~~~~~~~I'm home!!!~~~~~~~~

(i got my little rug done while at the cabin! Isn't it darling?
I have to make another... it was so fun!)


Well, only for today and tomorrow.
Then I am off to my house on long island for the summer....
besides... my loft looks like this right now!

All packed up, and wrapped in plastic!
No, we're not moving, just getting a long over due paint job and some nice built ins...

Now that everything is off the walls, and packed up, I can see that it's time to spruce things up a bit and make a few changes.... after 11 years, it's time to change things up.
FUN!

I have so many great pictures to show you from our retreat. But my camera cord is packed somewhere I can't get to it right now...
so it's just me and my iphone...

We stopped in Cleveland to see Linda again on the way back... She quilted this
"not so old, ebay quilt top" of mine, for me to pick up... Isn't it fun?

And lastly, the other fun part of coming home,
is the
packages that have arrived that
You forgot about!

from Basics fabric donations!
by the way we just raffled off 2 $50 gift certificates...
if you are able to send a donation quilt in to Basics, you will go into the 75 quilt raffle. And don't you want a chance to win a sewing machine??

we need 200 quilts before I can give that away! we need baby quilts too...
so whip up a few and send them on their way!


to Fabrics,
this big stack is for two commission kids quilts...
Flowers and horses.. how cute and fun it will be to work on these!
(this does not include all the fabrics that came home from GRUBER'S at the retreat!) ;-)



to Books!
Here are my three latest...

The Journey of HOPE is the Obama quilts made...
The cover quilt is made by Sherry Shine, a member of our modern quilt guild...
She has several in the book, and we are so proud of her... It's a lovely book of
incredible inspiration... Fun to look through and tons of talent...

the second book, FABRIC PHOTO PLAY
is by Julia Wood. (click for her blog)
She was a part of our SAY CHEESE project. A great book
to look through and get a handle on a new technique.

And the third "CROCHET MOTIFS"
is some inspiration for getting myself to crochet a bit more...
"BIG CHEEKY GRIN... "
It maybe time for me to learn a few more stitches...
and use up the
BIG BOX OF YARN
I found while cleaning my studio...

(I'm hooked. hehe)

oh, it's good to be home!

Half wAy home

Our first NYC sign somwhere in Ohio ....

Yippeeee!!!

15 minutes

Have you "15 minutes'd today??"

Even in my tiny cabin, I had to "plug in" to get my 15 minutes of
sewing done today...

Are you hashing an idea in your head?
Wanna break out of the box and try something new?
Working on too many projects, but need to try a new idea?

15 minutes....

That's all it takes...

Don't pass up your creative inspirations...

Just take 15...

Bee blocks

I did get my bee blocks done at the retreat as well... I've had them
in their envelopes to mail... Sorry they are all wrinkly now! No use
for an iron at my tiny cabin!! :-)

I will get them mailed off today...

We've had just the craziest weather here... Hot, muggy, cloudy, rainy
and tornadoes.... Fun!

It can be icky out all day, then around 8pm it gets beautiful outside
and we all run to the lake or the pool for a quick swim... We head
back to NYC Tuesday...

Time flies.

Old things

Ok, I think this is my oldest piece of sewing... I found this
recently...

Can you guess aprox what decade it's from?

Mauve, green, flowers...

ScreAms 80's doesn't it?

I believe I hand pieced this when I was about 15... It has some super
puffy poly batting and I only half quilted it...

Oh, to be 15 again.

NOT!!!

Priceless

It's less weedy on the otherside of the lake... Heather was kind
enough to let us go swim at her dock... It's HOT hot hot, 8pm and
we're enjoying a good canonball off the dock....
Thanks heather!!

Fun times

A very fun and productive retreat!
I got 15 scrappy stars done and a lap quilt top pieced... By three
p.m. Sunday, I was bummed that I had to unplug my machine to pack it up!

I'm not sure there is any fabric left in Gruber's quilt shop.... A few
of us really bought the place out, myself is included!!

The MN quilt show was on also... Have a bunch of great pictures I will
post when I get back to New York next week.

It was great to hang out with a bunch of lovely women for a weekend...
I hope everyone got home safely, we had tornadoes around the state and
so much rain... But today of course it's glorious out here at the
cabin. The fish are jumping, birds are singing, and I Am wondering how
I can get my sewing machine plugged back in on my picnic table
outside, over looking the lake.... :-)

It's 12am...

It's twelve a.m.
Do you know where your quilters are?

Probably laughing hysterically somewhere....

Yes... We are having some fun....

I highly recommend going on a retreat...

Laughing is good for your soul...

:-)

Seeing stars

We're seeing our brains out!! Yippeeee!!!
After a week away from my machine , I've dove head first into my
scraps...
(I am by far the messiest quilter here...)
My scraps are everywhere and bits are flying!!

Gotta love it!!

I'm making fabric, cutting it up and smiling the whole time...

With all these great ladies,
who wouldn't be!!

Retreat!!!

Shelly and I, sat last night at my picnic table over looking the lake,
looking at fabrics.... Others might be fishing, or strolling around...
But we sat looking over our goods... :-) we head to the retreat today
and will meet up with the others today! What fun!!

Here is the antique quilt I picked up the other day... Can you tell
why I like it?

Orange... Gotta love orange!!! Mmmm, my favorite color....

I wish I could figure out how to post more than one picture from my
iPhone... Oh well, you'll all have to wait...

Happy sewing!!

Mr. Golden sun

The sun came out! For one lovely day... Picked up Shelly today and as
we were driving around and saw this lovely house... Do you wish it was
in your neighborhood? Picked up a lovely antique quilt and visited a
couple antique stores... Waiting for Friday to come to get together
with everyone to sew, sew, sew!!!

Have fun!!!!

Rain rain go away

We drove 15 hours on Saturday and then we only had 6 to drive on Sunday!
Pretty much the whole drive we had cloudy gloomy weather... And it
still rains!!!
Supposedly tomorrow is going to be lovely... Fingers crossed!

I wanted to show you the two quilts I picked up when I met Linda in
Ohio... But I can't, of course, lay them out when we have skies like
this!!

We're off to take a little excursion down to Walnut Grove today....
Since B watched the whole second season of little house on the prarie
on the way here, we thought it would be fun to go the the museum...
Then we'll loop over to Minneapolis tonight, and pick up Shelly from
the airport tomorrow! I'm ready to sew...
Sitting in a car that long you get BIG IDEAS!

Happy sewing!!!

Hit the road

See ya later, NYC!

And we're off.

I put this together a week ago...I dug out that bag of selvages I had
from all the donation fabrics. I made a bunch of solid pieces of fabric out of them,
by sewing them all together, then rolling them through my acuquilt go cutter,
using the tumbler die...
and like-ty split I had them read to sew together....
I had three pieces of fabrics I wanted to incorporate with them,
the polka dots, the red white and blue stripe/flower fabric in the big borders,
and a white with red ric rac print for the outer border.. They just looked so cute together..
Also couldn't resist some slightly wonky 9 patches in the corner... aprox 50" X 70" I think..
Maybe I will have it ready for the 4th of July!

I'm off to drive to MN bright and early, tomorrow morning, so my posts will be limited to my iphone... wow, I will be nearly disconnected... I don't have a lap top anymore! But, you know I will find something fun to post to keep you guys around!

The weekend of our retreat in St. Cloud, MN is the MN Annual Quilt show... What fun that will be to tramp through there and see whats happening in the mid west with quilting!

I can't wait to get everyone together... stay tuned for pictures from that event!
18-20th...at Gruber's fabrics

As we drive tomorrow, we will stop in Ohio to see Linda, and pick up 4 more of my quilts... (one's I've never gotten around to quilting for myself!!)
So that will be great fun for me!

I'm so excited, I probably won't sleep much!

Thank you all of you who sent me tips on my featherweight, "Sally"!
I already ordered a bunch of new parts for her, and a manual so I will
be ready to tinker with her when I get back in July.

I was walking around the other day and I walked past this building in NYC... it was entirely covered in IVY... it looks rather like a big fluffy Oscar the grouch building... doesn't it?

Happy Sewing!

See you in MN!

New girl!

Everyone, meet Sally.

My daughter's Librarian (Sally), gave me her old Singer Featherweight!!!
I'll be making her a couple quilts for this... I'm so thrilled...
It runs wonderfully! Box and all!!

Anyone got any tips for making her run even smoother?
I'm sure she needs a little tune up, and a new cord for sure....

She's my new baby... So I gratefully name her after Sally...
Hello! Sally!

;-)



I had to hang this from a pipe that runs across my ceiling to get a good shot of it...
Here' it is, Complete...
"Garden gate"
5 hours on the binding... Straight. non stop... But so worth it!

The quilt was delivered to its' new owner!...
I said, "OK, let's take a picture..."
so we sat for the picture then she turned to me, and said,
"Now get off my quilt!"

hahahaha!!!


And look who turned into a middle schooler!!!
Congrats to my growing girl!

thrilled

Well, What day to wake up to...
(click to enlarge)

This box arrived today....
With the GARDEN GATE quilt inside!
I chose not to quilt this commission quilt myself.
It was 116" square and frankly,
I loved it so much, it needed more that I could give it...

So off it went to Linda at Cottage garden quilts...



Look what she did to it!


Thank you Linda!
I'll see you soon, as we drive across 1-80 Saturday on our road trip to MN.
You will get a HUGE hug lady!

And if you want Linda to quilt something for you,
remember the BASICS QUILT GATHER!
when we get 100 quilts,
We will raffle off a $100 gift certificate for services provided by Linda!

Meanwhile, I am off to do the binding on this beauty
as it goes to it's new home tomorrow!

How many hours do you think it will take me?? 6? 8?
I may need new fingers by the end of today!!!

check, check, and check.

I rcvd my piece from Sujata today! I'm blown over at her thought process.
She sent me the nicest note explaining her process, and influences...
my garden, living in NYC, going to MN, the lakes, fishing etc... I 'm very touched by her thoughtfulness... I love it.

Sujata did a neat post about putting the quilt together... go see.

Sujata also rcvd her piece today! So I can now show you!
It was fun to work on... A bright cheery house block that she sent me initially,
I had to find a way to spice it up! I know if we ever met, she'd have this sunny disposition.
with a little zest! Hope she likes it too!

Goal for today:
Getting things off my list....

My liberated Amish challenge quilt is basted and ready for quilting! (check!)
Procrastination no more!
I plan on taking it with me to MN to work on....
I am quite pleased that I persevered and didn't rush the quilt...and let it speak to me..
The letters gave me to most trouble until I knew exactly what I wanted...
to find a balance in the form of the letters that reflected
the patterns in the quilt design itself...
I really love the backing piece too. It was meant to be!

I always forget to post, FiNiShEd quilts...
I figure you're so tired of seeing the tops in progress,
by the time I get them done, that you won't care to see
it with the binding on...
I was told by a few of you that was not the case, to
alas, my Kitchen sink quilt is DONE.( CHECK)
I just finished the binding today.

Hat vs. Rug...
I worked on this a little last night and this morning...
The extra stitches a few of you suggested did the trick! It's a RUG!
I will put this big purple border around it and call it quits... fun!
not much more to do... (almost a check)

I made one more of my Sunset blocks today. (check) I now have 20...
5 more to go...

You may wonder how on earth I get all this done today!
the trick is, I haven't eaten in over 24 hours, and I did not sleep well last night,
as I am having some more tests done today,
(due to my iron thing, which is why I haven't been able to eat- 28 hours of no eating)
so all I had to do today, was SIT on my behind,
and finish odds and ends...
So this quilt gets put into the "BRING TO THE HOUSE"
box for my summer projects... I'm sifting through all my started projects
to take to my house to finish up this summer, along with a few more basics quilts...
(you know I have enough of those to work on all summer, and perhaps the rest of the year)

hmmm, let's see, it's 2:05, in 2 hours and ten minutes I will finally get to eat...


Before I have THAT distraction,
what else can I tackle to day, on my butt, watching TV...

are you checking things off your list today?
or adding?

rag rug/hat...

A while back, like say, a year or so, I wanted to make a rag rug...
I cut some strips, braided them, then stitched them together....
Unfortunately, my attempt produced something of a funny shape....

My husband wanted to know if I was making a hat ....

Yes, a hat....

Does this look like a hat? well, OK, I see his point...
(Shela, you will appreciate this!)

Last night, I had the urge to break into a string scrap bag I bought in MN
last week and make a second attempt,
except I planned on crocheting the whole thing this time...

SO far, It looks good! It does seem to be curling up a bit.. any suggestions?
So I don't end up with a second stylish rag hat? I'm not so brilliant with a hook...
I can do a single chain that's about it...

the scraps are all Kaffe... yum, the colors are so great..

OK, so you've now had a good chuckle... ;-)

glad to brighten your day!

This little gift is on it's way to Sujata.

Fingers crossed, I hope she likes it!

What adventure will you take on today?

SPECIAL NOTE:
We are reaching 50 quilts for BASICS,
if you donate,
we will be drawing names for
2 - $50 gift certificates to PINK CHALK FABRICS!!

and more prizes to come. see the site for more info.

Bumble Beans Basics Quilt Gather

what a day

In one week, B and I will be on the road ....
Last fall, I organized a quilting retreat in MN, and we will drive out
to meet up with 10 Blog Quilters for three glorious days of sewing our brains out!

Shelly S, Shelly P , Andrea , Mary , Doris, Amanda,
Toni, Terri , Rene , Heather and myself.

If any of you are heading to the MN Quilt Show,
send me a email. We will be there too!

So, in preparing for that...
(Besides, packing, packing and packing!
what on earth shall I bring, perhaps just a large bin of scraps!)

I have two projects I need to finish before I leave.
two gifts, that I can only show you peaks at! (above and below)
fun little inspiring projects for two fab pals...

I may try to set up a retreat again for 2011,
if anyone in the Midwest area is interested for next year...
Let me know...

maybe even a New York one! Ooh that would be fun!

*******

I got these two beauties in the mail this past week...
ebay... ;-)

scrappy scrappy fabulous...

These kind of quilts me me so happy.... Why do I do anything else??
yes, it's fun to play but ultimately a good scrappy quilt makes my heart sing!
time to hit the scrap bins...

Is there a type of quilt that makes your heart sing?

My Jenny Egg. She is a very goofy, nervous. little gal... I sit at my computer desk,
she sits underneath... Instead of chasing her ball, well, she sits down on the job...
gotta love her!

play detour

Geese in a row
11"X14"
my 15 minutes of play went a little overboard today...
I wanted to try something new like raw edge applique...
then I couldn't stop til it was done...

oh well, it's been one of those days...
So many things to do, don't know where to begin...
SO I did something completely off track...

Ever have a week like that?


Perhaps I need to take this approach instead...
roll around in a happy place, and come up with a big smile on my face!
to bad I don't have a tail to wag!

this, that, and the other...

5 more BASICS quilt tops done, ready for quilting... That puts me at 25 quilts...
!!!!!
I usually make about that in a year!
See how helpful you guys are, sending those pre cut
squares, backings and bindings!!!
Barbara S., yes, I have TWO Barbara's (Barbara S. and Barbara A.)
who keep sending me Blocks and backings and quilts tops!

She sent me these pre made blocks, of three different patterns,
that I just had to lay out into a pattern that worked...
These were a challenge as they were so busy.

But I got a thumbs up approval from my daughter, so I think It will work!

Makes this very easy to finish a lot!

Thank you to EVERYONE
who has contributed! I have 15 more to go,
so I will be ready for 20 quilts each for two fundraisers in the fall...

My mother helped piece a bunch, also, then sent them to me to
select house
blocks to insert...
pheew. Thanks mom!

Then I took a break today to work on my way over due,
Liberated challenge quilt with Tonya...
I had the letters done previously and didn't like them.
I wanted the letters to reflect more the style of angles in the center of the quilt...
So today, I re-cut all the letters... I also wanted it less obvious to read... so I wrapped them
around the square, so that it reads more as a part of the quilt, then you discover the letters...
And I ran out of NAVY BLUE for the second time...

I'm thinking that's a sign, maybe it needs something other
than NAVY for the outer border...
I may even put it on point... just to be difficult...!!
We'll see.. I'm still playing...

I rcvd all my furniture back from the upholsterer... Remember this post?
Where is used all my fabric samples to make a pillow out of them? Well,
This is what I did... I was so tired of Neutral...
so I wanted to pull out all
the different colors out of my rug.
But also didn't want to go to DARK
as my floors
so I went slightly purple instead of navy...
I'm pleased with it. It's a little funky... funky is good...
Not crazy about all matchy match!
And all for a bargain price on those fabrics! yippee!


By the way,
If anyone knows who the maker of the tea cups is in the last post...
I want to get the teapots!!!
I can't find them anywhere...

UPDATE!
Here are the tea cups and teapots, from Holland
http://www.grubersquiltshop.com/FabricPanelsPage.htm