So many projects so little time.....

I’ve been very busy here, finishing up projects and writing patterns. Sometimes I wish there were more hours in the day as I can’t seem to get everything accomplished that I would like. My sewing machine has been on night and day it seems. So what is the end result of all this? Hero and Baby Hero are very close to being done. Hero will showcase a simple pattern for all of our machine embroidery enthusiasts as well as an alternate pattern for our regular quilters. Baby Hero was suppose to be back from the quilter last week but didn’t make it. We hope it will be here this week. Then it will be pretty picture time. I have also been going full steam ahead on Halloween! My quilt top is almost finished and Brunhilda's Midnight Ride from Crabapple Hill is complete and is my favorite addition to the Halloween decorations.

“Special Delivery” is a new wall hanging for Christmas and shows really cute Santa on his way to delivering gifts for Christmas! This new wall hanging uses the machine embroidery designs by Sweet Heirloom Embroidery and once the designs have been embroidered, it can be finished in just a matter of hours. If you don’t have any empty walls to showcase these Santas, it would also make a darling table topper. If you would like your own set of Santas and don’t have an embroidery machine, I have 4 embroidered sets available and will be adding them to my website. You can also send me an email and I will reserve them for you. Add your own fabrics for sashing and the border and you are ready to layer, quilt and bind!

I am getting ready to start my fall decorating. As far as I am concerned Labor Day is the end of summer and its fall. To celebrate the season I have a new table runner and I am having a bit of a problem deciding where I want to put it. Harvest Beauty is a very elegant table runner just in time for the fall season. It won’t take you much time to complete this beauty and have your fall table looking stunning. Will it go on my dining room table or on the sofa back table or on the island in the kitchen? The dining room table is winning right now.  The pattern will be available on my website this week for pre-order. The runner is easy and you can use up your left over fabrics or choose the new lines that are coming out.  It would be just stunning using Mill House Inn by Fig Tree Quilts. Joanna designs the most fabulous fabrics! Well peoples…its back to the sewing machine as I have more to finish and get ready. To help you jump start your fall sewing, for a limited time we are offering free shipping on our website so start something beautiful for fall.



May your bobbins always be full

Robin
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Post Traumatic Printer Failure

I am not sure that there is anything more confounding than computer/technology problems. Everything here comes to a screeching halt when the technology stops. I have been nursing my printer along for about two weeks now. I was in denial that it was about to go to the big recycle bin. I loved that printer. It was reliable and it was an old friend. Yesterday morning as I was about to start a project and needed it, I am way too busy for this. The fatal error message comes up. Its “internal parts have come to the end of their service life, consult my printer documentation.” Interpretation: Go Buy A New Printer. So off to Best Buy I went to purchase a new printer. I found just the right one. AND on sale. That is a twofer. To the checkout I went and home.
After several hours, many references to the manual, I finally got the printer installed. Its wireless so no more wires! Yea! Printing is faster now and oh what a really nice job of printing it does. I am over the mourning of a passing friend Mr. Printer and have started a new relationship with Mr. New Printer. My grandma always said that “a new broom sweeps clean”. She was right… technology the newness (is that a word?) and coolness of new technology. I just want to sit here and print till the cows come home. Today starts a new day for printing madness. I need templates for my embroidery machine; I need to proof read patterns…the new ones coming out soon. So I am back to work, with my new friend to help me along the way. Hope your day is a good technology day and that all your electronics behave themselves. Robin

My Favorite Season

I am starting to get excited, summer is winding down, the kids are back in school and soon it will be autumn, my favorite season. The colors, the smells, crisp air, HALLOWEEN, Thanksgiving, what’s not to like about fall? Oh and did I mention Halloween? It also stirs the quilting bug in me – more so than usual. I can hardly get through a day without sewing of some kind. If I can’t sit at my machine then hand work satiates my sewing cravings. I am just finishing up a fall table runner and it will be available on my website very soon. I am also writing the pattern for “Hero”. You remember the quilty wall hanging I did for my DH? His 37 years in EMS. Well my quilter Kathy Viera suggested some time ago (I already had Hero in progress) that I do a pattern for machine embroiders. She has gotten a lot of comments that they wish there were more patterns to showcase the beautiful machine embroidered motifs that are available. I also thought that we should do a Hero quilt that didn’t involve machine embroidery. Its size and simplicity makes it a perfect fit for a baby quilt, hence “Baby Hero”. Baby Hero is at the quilter and should be back next week.
Barbara and I took a day and spent it at In Between Stitches just wandering the store and touching and imagining all the things we could make with the beautiful fabrics there. Both of us bought Halloween fabric and are now working on a Halloween quilt. I am not going to embarrass myself by telling you how many Halloween quilts I have. Let’s just say its significant okay? I don’t think you can have too many. I use them all over my house. You will find quilts on tables, chairs, baskets, couches, loveseats, beds, and walls. And I have closets bursting with them.
How about digging out a project and finishing it up or grab that scrap bag and make a wall hanging, baby quilt, table runner or a donation quilt and get those fingers limbered up for full fledged fall quilting. Leave me a comment and tell me what your plans are for quilting this fall. Are you doing Christmas gifts, Halloween or fall? Placemats, table runners, or are you just trying to clear out that UFO stack? Whatever your project list is made up of, jump and get your quilting fix and make something beautiful, stunning…make something!

May your bobbins always be full,
Robin

Where have I been?

I have to apologize for the long dry spell in my blogging. I had to make a trip to the Minor Injury Clinic and am just now able to type and do things with my left hand. I am right handed but you would be amazed at what you can’t do without both hands! I had a disagreement with a new pair of scissors and they won. I bought a pair of Kai shears and good Lord; they are sharp to the very end. I was cutting fabric and Oops….. there goes my left index finger! Don’t get any blood on the fabric! After some debate as to whether to stitch or glue the gapping cut in my finger, the doctor decided I could get away with gluing. I as happy…I mean who wants to have a needle stuck in a laceration so they can numb it up? Glue it was. Took a bit longer for things to mess and heal up but we are there. My finger will be good as new again. Hope you will forgive me and I will try and catch up.
I went to the post office and look there’s a large white envelope in my box! Its fat, its soft, its fabric! Did you ever want to be a fabric designer? Do you dream about millions of yards of fabric with your designs on them? Well my budding designers you can and right now! I found a fabulous website that allows you to design your own fabric and have it printed! Get out those sketches and clean them up. Upload those award winning designs to www.spoonflower.com. And pick your yardage and pattern repeat. It’s that simple. You may want to do a test swatch (8” X 8”) or Fat Quarter first to check on pesky details like color and pattern size before you order your gazillion yards. Monitors are different everywhere and what may look like the perfect shade of purple may end up being a fuchsia. Yes it’s a bit pricey but hey can you put a price tag on your own fabric design? I think not. Okay I uploaded my logo… and aside from some color modifications…it’s just perfect! I was impressed with the fabric they print on, as I truly was expecting it to be shall we say “ a little less than desired”, but it’s really pretty good quality. And hey it is printed in the USA, which makes it so much more appealing to me. I like helping out fellow Americans to get jobs and keep jobs right here. So this can be a win-win all the way around. I know there are some other websites that do the same but Spoonflower has my attention. There is even an editor to do minor changes. While you are there browse some of the fabric designs that others have uploaded. Have a happy fabric day!


Robin

37 years and counting

It seems that the hot weather is here to stay for awhile. What’s a girl to do? SEW! I’ve finished up some older projects that have living in the closet for awhile now. I really am embarrassed to tell you how long they have lived there. Felt really good to get them off the stack. My hubby’s quilt has been on that stack for a long time and I dug it out and it’s ready to quilt. He has been in Emergency Medicine for 37 years this year and still going strong. I made him a small wall hanging with some machine embroidered motifs for his “I LOVE ME” wall. We laugh about his wall. He has pictures and golf balls on every square inch of that room. Not sure where he will hang the quilt but I am sure he will find a place. I had intended on making a lap quilt but he told me when he found out what I was doing that he would rather have the smaller size. I hope to have it quilted in the next 10 days.
Don’t know about you but my husband rarely gets any of the treasure from my quilting adventures. Not sure why that is but he has 1 quilt of flannel and that’s it. Guess it’s hard to think of things that guys would want from our hobby. Maybe we could all think a little harder what things we could make for our better halves. I know that without his support I wouldn’t be able to do this and wouldn’t get have as much enjoyment out of it. SO.. that being said, thank the man in your life for his understanding and support – even if that support comes in the form of silence. Sometimes saying nothing is worth everything. I am off to do more sewing where it’s cool. Fall will be here soon enough and we need all the time we can get to start and finish all those Christmas presents and projects we told ourselves we can get done before Dec 24th.

Happy quilting

Robin

First Quilt...Last Quilt

I think I am the last holdout. I mean for Camille’s blog post asking for us to show our first quilt and then our last quilt. I think go-go boots were in style.. Or maybe it was sooner than that. Not sure LOL. Think it was actually 2002. I hadn’t sewn in decades. I use to make all my own clothes and fell out of love with sewing. I had been through a traumatic time when I lost my parents and my 3 20 year old cats in a span of 2 years. I was desperately looking for a way to keep all the memories intact. My neighbor was a quilter and we talked about a memory quilt and what it would entail. I begged and pleaded with her to make it for me, but her pat answer was “You can make it”. I finally gave in and dug out the old sewing machine. I had to plan, no pattern just a thought. I gathered photos and bought some of that awful iron-on transfer fabric. Printed my animal pictures on it and began. I had no idea what a quilt shop was but Hancock’s was just down the street. I bought 2 fat quarter packs of PLAID HOMESPUNS! What was I thinking. I set out to make a wall hanging. That wall hanging now fits on my queen size bed. It’s still one of my favorite quilts and its place of honor is next to my side of the bed on a quilt rack. After that quilt there was no stopping me. I made 6 more that year. As for my last quilt well that would be Carolina Rose. As the saying goes..We’ve come a long way baby!

Funnel Cakes, Cotton Candy and More..

Our county fair is on right now and I always look forward to attending. I just love the fair. It brings back fond memories of my childhood growing up in Wyoming. Yes I was in 4-H. I showed livestock…lambs to be exact and entered in sewing, canning and cooking. Everyone did. My boxes in the attic have a few ribbons and rewards from my years in 4-H. What a great experience. I wouldn’t have traded those times for anything. This year as in years past I walk the entire fair. I look at every quilt and at every pie, jar of jam, pickles, and cakes. I don’t envy the judges at all. They all look so good! I mosey on down to the livestock barns and look at the entries there. I talk with the kids about their lamb, goat or steer. The bright and shiny faces, proud to show off the ribbons won and what their plans are for next year. The smell as you approach the barns are of hay and straw and yes the not so pleasant but it all mingles together to give that one of a kind memory. My photos are of some of the winners this year. While ribbons weren’t available for the photo as parents have securely tucked them away to the scrapbook at home, the winners themselves show in their velvet eyes the thrill of victory. Support these young people. They are learning valuable lessons for life that will make them outstanding citizens, responsible adults and productive leaders in our communities and our nation.
For us quilt lovers I have included pictures of some of the quilts, and one simply fabulous quilt shop. I apologize for the picture, but the “shop” was behind glass and it was difficult to take clear pictures of it. I think you can see how truly creative and fabulous this little shop is. And poor shot or not, warrants a place on my blog. Last but not least is the carnival. What child doesn’t have fond memories of the carnival? It’s a rite of summer and a rite of passage in our youth. What was your favorite ride? The Tilt-O-Wheel? the Ferris Wheel? or the carousel? Let me know that your favorite was and your favorite memory of the fair.

Make a Smilebox slideshow