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