Anniversary, a Yarn Shop, a Top Done, and Pets on Quilts!

John and I celebrated our 5th anniversary last Saturday, and mainly chose to just spend time together.

 

 

 

We went to the Tri-Cities, which is the closest thing we have to a big city in this corner of Washington, and wandered around the mall, Craft Warehouse, the motorcycle shop, and even went up to Prosser and visited the Sewing Basket.  I am pretty excited about the pillow case kit I bought, it's Coca-Cola fabric.  Their kit selection has grown immensely!  I only noticed because I managed to trip over a pile of them at one point.

 

As we were driving around I spotted a strip mall behind an Albertson's in Richland, and John said we should go explore the shops, as there was a specialty bicycle shop as well as a yarn shop.  The yarn shop was amazing!  Check this out:

 



 

They have a fabulous variety of color and type, I highly recommend visiting their website.  I linked the photos so you can click on any of them to be taken there.  And if you're nearby, I stop in and visit with the ladies and Winston the shop dog.  Nothing beats handling the fibers in person, or seeing the vibrancy of the colors.

We met Debra and Holly Folger when we stopped in, and Debra taught us about drop spindles, which I had not heard of before.  It was fascinating for me.



 

These vases and bowls are being made by a friend of Debra's (Robert Skiba is his name) and she's selling them for him.  I guess he was going to just throw them away... NOOO!  I'm so glad she talked him out of doing so.  I love this white and black one.  I ended up buying a skein of Merino Wool, the tag says "malabrigo" as the brand name.  I am not well versed in yarns, but I do crochet on occasion and this wool is SUPER soft, so I am making a surprise for my mom.  I have decided I want some red and green for myself, maybe enough to make a small lap blanket with, I am loving the feel of this wool.

 

My sister's birthday was Thursday, and I got the top of her quilt complete and given to her, as well as a pillowcase.  She got to keep the pillowcase, I made her give me back the top...

 

It was really windy after dinner, so this was Jen's initial way of displaying her quilt top.

She is only showing half of the quilt, it turned out to be a great size!  Lengthwise it will cover a person head to toe, sideways it can cover two people on the couch nicely.  She's excited for it to be finished up.  I just need to work on cutting out the pieces for the back.

 

Belle was helping me work on the layout for the back of Jen's quilt a few weeks ago, which reminds me...

 

Coming in August!  Click the picture to visit Lily Pad Quilting to learn more about the sponsors and their giveaways.  All you do is take a photo of your pet on a quilt, submit it to the linky party in August, then vote for your favorite after the linky party closes.  They also do random drawings for winners.  I was so fortunate last year, I was a random drawing winner for a $35 gift certificate to Abbi Mays Fabric Shop!  My favorite parts of the Pets on Quilts show is reading the funny stories, seeing all the different Quilt Inspectors, and all the amazing quilts.  Hopefully you will join in the fun this year!

 

Ok, I have laid in bed all morning, and the cats keep coming in and telling me to eat, so I best get on my way.  I'm surprised John has let me stay in here this long, he knows I have quilting to get done!

 

Let's all get out there and sew!

~Brandy

 

Or go soak up some sun!

Maggie Ball trunk show

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending the Maggie Ball trunk show put on by our guild.  Maggie is from the Seattle area, so was able to drive down with LOTS of quilts!  I am just going to put my photos in now, and will add notes to the ones I can remember. :)

 

Maggie worked with a school her son attended to create auction quilts with each grade.

This class wrote down a word that came to mind when they thought of trees.

The snowflakes were created by cutting them out of freezer paper, ironing them to the white fabric, sponge painting with fabric paint around it (the students did that part), then peeling the freezer paper off.

The hearts were hand appliqued down with a blanket stitch, then hand quilted by the students after the blocks were sewn together.

Maggie's version of a Trip Around the World.  She likes to take classic quilt ideas and incorporate blocks into them.

An example of how color placement changes the look of a block.

Every one of these blocks is the same layout, just different color placement.

This is one of my favorites, every bear claw block has different base-blocks.  And the border is neat too.

I believe this is an example/proof that she does hand quilt :)

I ended up purchasing this one, it was too awesome to pass up.

A neat idea for a sampler, or for those practice blocks we all have laying around.

The following are examples of her Bargello quilts, and again how color and value placement, as well as incorporating sashing can change the look of a single block.

She came up with the neat inner border idea because she ran out of the green fabric, so made those stepping stones in the centers to compensate.

Making our way through the pile of quilts.  She's showing off her mini-Feathered Star.

And here is the full sized version.



One of the two classes she taught that weekend was her Template-free Kaleidoscope Puzzle Quilt, which I just love. You can click on the photo above to go to her website.  She has demos on her website as well.

Maggie says she presses her seams open so the intersections are easier to quilt over.

This one is based off an 8-bit formula (I'm pretty sure...). The design came from the brother of a lady she had in a class.  It has black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (8 colors), starts in the center with black, then circles around with the other colors clockwise and keeping in order.  Pretty incredible.

Examples of the amazing work her long-arm quilter does.

Maggie helped found a quilting center in Mongolia, in an effort to better women's opportunities there.  You can follow this link to learn more.

This one is made of silk, and is just luscious.

The wall hanging on the right was made in the early years of the group.  The one on the left is from the last couple years.

If I had the money, we would own this.

This was made for Maggie by the ladies from Mongolia.

A sample of the items for sale, the camels and horses are made of cashmere, the slippers probably are as well.

I got the pattern and a little silk purse that is very beautiful.  It currently is holding my quilting cash.

Maggie is full of all sorts of great information, and inspiration.  If you can, you should have her come visit your guild!

This is the second trunk show I have attended and I just love how much I am learning from these ladies.  If you ever have the opportunity to attend one I highly recommend going.

Have a great day!
~Brandy