Thursday, September 28, 2017

Happy 4th Blog-iversary to me!

Oh wow!  I started blogging four years ago, how amazing!  I love being able to come on here and share my quilting and life adventures, and I love that you visit and take part in them.  My most recent project has been a last-minute decision to make John's father a quilt for his 60th birthday.  That was 2 weeks ago and today I am getting the binding put on!  Here are some progress photos:
 
I taught John how to make his first EVER quilt block.  We felt it was a good time since this quilt is for his dad.  John also picked out the elk panel and all the fabrics used.  I just told him where we needed certain lights and darks to create contrast.  We are loving the tree fabric.
I quilted this on my Bernina 150QE.  Once I got the first row done I texted my mom and said "This will be so much easier on my longarm when it arrives!"

I think Thomas will be sad when he doesn't have freshly quilted piles of quilt to snuggle into though...
Another thing I want to share with you today is some shops John and I visited on our last trip to Montana in August.
 
First we stopped at Regal Fabrics in Spokane, WA.  I was blown away by all the amazing embroidered pieces they have in their shop!  I even got to meet the lady who does them all, her name is Michele Eickerman , she was really great to talk to.





Oh my gosh, isn't this amazing?!  It's a Crabapple Hill pattern (turns out the designer is from an hour from my home) and is called the Mystery of the Salem Quilt Guild.
 
Gotta have a snack table!





Our next stop was in Bonner's Ferry, we had time to check out the second shop we have seen there.  This one is called A Little Comfort Quilting and is on a really amazing Main Street.


I always enjoy seeing the Sweet Onion Cat outside Walla Walla, this shop had a lot of items different than what we've been seeing most of this summer.  I am always glad to see variety.


John was eyeballing the ruler selection, probably glad he doesn't have to worry about keeping rulers organized.



Then we got to go to the Quilt Cottage in Libby, MT.  I was so excited to visit here because when we came through last year it was after hours.  We had a lot of good conversation with the lady working this day as well as a couple other customers who were in while we were.  And we hung out for almost 45 minutes because there was lots to see and talk about!









The next day I convinced John to drive with me down to Kalispell's Sew & Vac so I could show him the classic machines they have there.  John ended up buying 6 yards of fabric and we learned all about the longarm they sell (but it's not the one we are getting, we just like to try out all that we can).

It was fun to play around!
 
I will have to take my mom in to see this wall of batiks next year when we visit my grandma again.






We went crazy with the black and white fabric, but all that on the right is John's.  Hahaha!

Our other stop in Kalispell was at the Quilt Gallery.  I have been in there 4 times now and have such a great experience each time.  This was John's first visit and we spent an hour and a half in there talking to the ladies about the Handi Quilter machines (thus I have no photos of our visit, sorry).

On our way home we were able to stop in to Bear Paw Quilting for our second visit to that shop, and man, I just love going there.  HUGE selection and great customer service.  I am super excited about that floral print on the left side of the photo below, I bought enough to make myself a Hawaiian shirt! 

 
 
You may have noticed a theme in the photos above, there are blue and green fat quarters in almost all of them!  That is because I collected those up for making a quilt for my good friend's son who turns 5 this year.  I have the top finished, actually, it has been sitting for almost a month now waiting for me to make up my mind about backing.
 
His birthday is mid-October so I really need to pull this one together!
Well, thank you for catching up with me, I hope you are all still enjoying the Christmas Caroling Row Along, there are another couple weeks to go yet and then there is a show and share!
 
Hope you have a wonderful day!
 
~Brandy
 
Belle and Thomas are very good at reminding me that it is important to take a break occasionally when free motion quilting... they full-on stopped production!
 

3 comments:

Louise said...

How fun to visit all those shops with John! He looks very proud of his first block, and rightfully so :) His Dad's quilt is really looking nice. I can't wait to see it completely finished!

Mary said...

Congrats on your 4 Year Blog-O-Versary. Missed seeing you and sharing Tiara Time at the Retreat. Looks like John and you had a better place to go.

allthingzsewn said...

Congratulations on your 4th anniversary. Great eye candy, I want to make the cat and the Christmas trees. If I ever get around to it , I'll link back to you. I don't have any quilting shops close by, luck you. And your hubby went to boot!