My Quilt Shoppe

I love my shopping bag from My Quilt Shoppe in West Palm Beach! Not only did it carry my new fabric it serves as a great beach bag and I packed my swim shoes and suit in it to bring home in my suitcase. I love to reuse things and this bag was great for sitting on the beach, I think I even saw a few people checking out the logo on the side as they walked the beach.
The shop was great, large, well lit and friendly staff. I really liked the batik wall and the corner with Florida theme fabric. I bought some turtle fabric and batik to match, I have a shaded 9patch in mind. I also bought a Christmas kitty print on sale. Ok I know I have a weakness for kitty fabric....sure wish they'd quit making it, NOT!!! I wish there was a quilt shop in Pompano Beach, the 40 mile drive took an hour and a half, we did take the scenic route home along the coast. We are both amazed how easy it is to tell when you go from one town to another along the coast. West Palm Beach is all private mansions with private beach, Boca is condos and Pompano is resorts with beach access. Then down the way is Ft. Lauderdale with pubic beaches. I enjoyed the drive with Kevin and his new GPS, made it easy to find quilt shops!

We're home

Ok I love Florida! Warm weather and flowers...

Chicago

Well we have made it as far as Chicago, oh man is it cold.......it was just starting to warm up in Omaha when we left this morning but the cold front is still here in Chicago. I love Midway airport, it's so much easier to navigate than O'Hara, and I love to people watch! Kev is ready to be in 'Florida, he don't care for the travel part of the trip. I am looking forward to going to the Swap Meet tomorrow, the farmer's market there is so cool and I love baby bananas!

Vacation

We're on the way to Omaha to fly out tomorrow to Florida for a week, I'm not planning anything but a nice swim in the ocean. I did get smart and pack my watershoes this time, no torn up feet for me!

Cold

Oh my is it cold here!!! -11 this morning!!! My poor truck did not want to start!!! I'm on my way to work at the quilt shop this morning, I don't expect to see many people in the store today, just to cold. I don't have anything interesting to write about this week, I have been hauling corn the last 3 days......I did get the big truck stuck and have to hire it pulled out, that was my oops for the week. I am trying to get ready for vacation, a week in Florida will be wonderful! Tonight I pack and tomorrow we leave. I should of been packing all week but the condo has a washer/dryer so all I need is shorts and swimsuit! As long as I take my med's everything else can be replaced there if I forget anything. I'm not in the mood to take a lot of baggage thru the airport and Kev is gonna be amazed how light I am packing. (he might be amazed how much I bring home too!) Well the truck should be warm so off to work I go.......if anyone wants to visit via the web its quiltcandy.com

UFO's

I gave these table runners away for Christmas but this one is for me! (that's why it was never finished till now) I was having a terrible time quilting the Easter Quilt so after I got the machine to behave I put in the runner to test it out, I think it's stitching good again. I have a feeling the thread is not the best for my machine, gonna have to order my old standby Coats and Clark. I have coasters made out of matching fabric so now I'm all set for a summer table. I am feeling the short days of winter so my sewing reflects that in what I choose to sew, the brighter the better! I am working on a dark, dull Christmas quilt to match my living room also but I keep putting it aside in favor of pastels and brights. I am going to quilt two more runners to test the thread and stitching before starting another big quilt, try the same thread I used on the Easter quilt to see if it is the thread or my machine, only problem is they are fall table runners and I just ain't in the mood!

I think the top turned out really cute on Mom's Happy Block Easter Quilt. To bad my stitching sucks! I think I like her top better than mine, she had more focal fabric to play with the setting than I did so mine got borders and her's got spacer blocks. I also like the lone block with the eggs hatching chicks.......ok so one of my Happy Blocks from my quilt got mixed up with her's.....I didn't notice it untill I had the top together and by then I wasn't going to change it, no ripping! I do wish I would of left out that purple stripe block though, it's distracting! I am planning on keeping the binding fairy busy while I'm on vacation!

These are two of the three blocks I got done today. I got lazy and didn't take a pic of the third block. I like doing these because they look so different when finished. I like working with other people's color choices also. I would be bored out of my mind if they were all the same....

And a quick pic of my camera case. I'm not totally happy with the zipper but for a first try it will do. I am going on vacation with Kev in a week and I don't want my new camera banged up so I think this will protect it in my purse. I think it will be easy to stuff in a pocket when the camera is being used also. It measures 3x4 inches finished.

another day

Just another day in the studio, I started quilting the Easter Quilt I set together the other day but my thread is breaking alot so I'm taking a break from it. I started working on my 24 blocks for MFYB trade due in Feburary and got two more done. I've been trying to upload pic's of them but blogger don't like pic's today. I also made a camera case for my new camera, it's black and white and I love it! I don't know why it didn't come with a case(so ya have to spend more money?) I am rather impressed with myself for thinking of it and only having to rip once or twice.......

Sewing Day

Yesterday was a great sewing day, didn't work on anything to special, just catching up on a few things. The top pic is my Easter Happy Blocks Quilt from a couple years ago. I've been meaning to quilt it for a year but never had the right backing. I picked up a new sheet at the thrift store last month and it was the perfect colors so I slapped it on the back and quilted it last night. Like I said nothing special but fun for the holiday. I also pieced my Mom's Easter Happy Blocks yesterday and it's waiting for quilting.

I decided I better get to moving on the Pink Project for Heartstrings so I grabbed one off the shelf and quilted it too. I gave it a simple stipple because that's the fastest thing to quilt and I was on a roll yesterday and just wanted to get things done. I have 3 more in the pile ready to quilt with backs and bindings made so I'm hoping to keep moving on these this year. I love the pink quilts!

This is a quickie panel from the sale room at work, I got it awhile back and all I did was add yellow border. It will be bound with a green/blue binding that varies from stripe to stripe. (hard to describe) Sometimes I need a quick gift or if I have it hanging around to long I donate it. I also quilted the little baby quilt from my last post. I think the binding fairy will be pleasantly surprised when I give her all these to work on, she was worried she wouldn't have anything to do this weekend.

I am hoping to have a better year with my quilting this year, there were full months last year I didn't do any sewing and it sucked! I always feel like January is catch up month for me, I always want to finish up UFO's. I think yesterday was a good start, now if I can keep from bringing home new projects from work...........

New puppies

Sadie's babies are so cute! It's hard to get a good pic by myself........

Happy New Year Happy Blocks

Heartstrings Yahoo Group is having a sew in for the new year, Happy Blocks are the goal. I am rather slow at getting things done and sometimes I don't read instructions very well, the teddy bear blocks are going to be to small so I'm keeping them to make a baby quilt. The other blocks are ready to mail to Sue in MN.

I have 23 done but only 13 to mail.

So I got busy and finished up this small Happy Block quilt left over from Kristin's quilt last year, I needed my design board and it had been pinned up way to long, the black was a little wavy from hanging (love those bias edges) but it will quilt up just fine. I pieced the border from FQ's in my stash so it is pretty scrappy. I have one UFO top completed.......

It's been a good New Year so far, had a nice time out last night, my friend and her husband were in town so we hung out. I still have company and it's been nice having a little boy around for the week. Andrew is 6 and very curious. The guys put up new stove pipe thru the house yesterday and the test this morning is failing, Brad's room is full of smoke.........they opened the windows and shut the door! A collar fell off, it just sits on the pipe and is a poor design. So they are debating on how to fix it. I am going to deliver a girl to my friend then I plan to spend the day in the studio sewing, I think that's a great way to spend a holiday!