On my coffee table...

From the bottom, up:
1) The Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Knits, because I can knit now! I'm so excited! Pics to come...
2) June 2008 BHG. Good recipes (I think I'll actually try a couple), lots of decorating inspiration, and a large article on gardening (surprise, surprise) which I probably should put to good use but probably won't.
3) Encyclopedia of Crochet, checked out from my local library. A pretty good selection of stitches, granny squares, etc., but the projects were a little uninspiring. Probably b/c the book was published in 2002.
4) The Crochet Stitch Bible, recent purchase from Amazon. I don't know if I would necessary call it the crochet bible, but it does contain a lot of stitches, granny squares, edgings, and even some tunisian crochet. This is not a project book. It's a stitch book. It's not all-inclusive, but I'm not sure any book could capture every possible crochet stitch. Definitely a handy reference.
5) Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker, checked out from the library. This is one I may have to buy. It's a decent stitch reference guide, and there are several projects I would like to make from this book. As a matter of fact...
6) ...I've already started one. I'll wait until it's done to show you which one I picked.

Flea Market Finds, Episode 1: The Fabric Menace

Okay, so I mentioned that I'd been to the local flea market. First just let me say that the flea market is a dangerous place for me to visit. I spent entirely too much money. Entirely. I felt the need to "adopt" half of the store. I spent a good hour and a half in there, and when it came to decision time I felt like I was choosing puppies to be saved from euthanization instead of shopping from a multitude of other people's castoffs . However, I'm really happy with what I bought, and like so many other things I want to buy, I have now forgotten about most of what I decided to leave behind.

This is part one of my flea market purchases, "Episode 1", if you will. (Please indulge me the corny Star Wars reference.)

First up is a piece of lightweight Winnie the Pooh fabric hemmed around the edges (it was labeled as a "baby blanket"), and a somewhat wonky quilt block. I'm not sure if the quilt block is salvagable or not as it isn't square and doesn't lay completely flat. That's a project for another day (or year).

And please ignore the wrinkles in anything you see here. I can't be bothered to iron just for pictures. I'll do that when I actually want to use the stuff.

In this photo, from top to bottom:

1. a bunch (haven't counted) of hand-pieced 4-patches.
2. over 3 yards of 36" wide pink gingham, which I am totally stoked about since that's the new Tie One On theme.
3. a large, oval tablecloth. Maybe has a future as a bag.
4. another table cloth, large & oblong. Love the pattern on this one...could end up as a bag also.
5. my favorite piece (from this group, anyway) a hand-embroidered baby quilt top. There are 8 embroidered blocks, set together with plain pink squares. Here is some detail of the blocks:
   

They're just too adorable. I can't decide what to do about this one, but I think I'm going to take it apart and reconstruct a small quilt out of the blocks, squaring things up as I go and probably using a better quality fabric or maybe even some quilt blocks to set it together. And maybe I'll even get ambitious and hand quilt it when I'm finished. I might be getting a little ahead of myself with that one, but it's a thought.

We're forecasted to get some really nasty weather tonight, so if you're reading this from, I don't know, anywhere in the Midwest stay safe. My hubby has requested this for dinner, so I'm going home to fry bacon and either embroider or crochet.

Stay tuned: Flea Market Finds, Episode Two!

Intervention, please

Seriously, people, it's time. I have a problem. I can't stop starting new projects. Typically I don't worry too much about having too many UFO's laying around, but it's really starting to get out of hand. I thought about making a list, sort of like a confession, but I'm not sure I can remember everything, so I'll save that for another day. For now, here's my latest:

It's the Babette blanket (pattern by Kathy Merrick and available from Interweave Crochet). I know I shouldn't have, but can you blame me? Take a look at the flickr group. Who can resist? Not me. Obviously. This picture is from last week...I know have all 50 2-round squares finished along with 20 4-round squares. Lots to go, but I'm making progress. Not that I'll ever finish it, because, ya know, that's not what I do.

More good news. I dropped my cell phone in a sink full of water on Friday, and the phone no longer functions. The good news about that is that I got a new phone. Isn't it pretty? It's called a rockr, which is cool, but I haven't "rocked" with it yet. My sister-in-law is 16...I'll have her figure that part out.
It does have a 2 megapixel camera on it, which I used to take this picture. A little blurry, but I think that's from enlarging it. And because I can't hold the damn thing still. Whatev.
This is my sad little camera. It's 5 or 6 years old, and a few months ago I dropped it and broke the battery cover (hence the scotch tape). I know, I'm hard on electronics. It's about time for a new camera anyway.

Last but not least, I got a new pantograph in the mail today for the longarm, so I decided to try it out.
It's called feathered curls. I'm really liking it. I think it could work on variety of quilts. I'm really digging how it looks on the back of the quilt.

This is a view from underneath the quilt machine. So if you've never sat under a quilt machine, this is what it looks like. Come by some time and I'll let you sit under my machine. It's sort of like sitting under a table covered by a tablecloth. Except when you sit under a table there is less of a chance of sitting on a straight pin. Yes, I've done that.

We're off on a long weekend to a graduation and to visit my folks, so the blog will be quiet until I get back next week. Have good weekend!

Look what I got!

Wednesday night was the end of the year meeting for my quilt guild. Part of the evening was the grand finale of the a quilting-themed scavenger hunt. Everyone who wanted to participate was given a list of items to find - one per month from September to April. So this is what I received... I was so excited. There are some quilting notecards, a yard of white, black & red fabric, a log cabin style pin, a spool of metallic red thread, a sewing machine picture frame, a yard of red fabric from Moda's new Prairie Paisley line (yeah!), another red floral fat quarter, a quilting-themed calender/mouspad combo, a couple of patterns, and of course the container! What a lucky girl I am!

This and that

Sorry about the hold up on the pics. I said I would post some during the commercials of American Idol last week, but I chose to eat instead. Sorry. I love blogging, but if I have to choose between blogging and food, food wins hands down.

I was telling you last week that the mail had been good to me, and it has. For instance here's a pic of me and my new bag, purchased from Artsy-Crafty Babe.

Please ignore the dirty mirror and the lotion bottles. I didn't realize the mirror was that dirty. Guess what, it's still like that. Oh well. Anyway, I immediately transferred purses when this little beauty came in the mail, and I love it. Love. A lot. So cute, and just the right size. And did you notice the button pin on the handle? Love these. They are so much cuter in real life than they are in pics. I'm going to have to try some. Check her blog for more info.

And just because I didn't have anything better to do (yeah, right), I started a new quilt. I was straightening up in the shop the other day, and I ran across this pattern from Calico Printworks. I think the pattern has been here literally since the first day I opened the shop, but all of a sudden I was inspired by it. What do you think?

The paisley in the side-setting triangles is a bit overwhelming, but I think once the whole quilt it done it will be good. The quilt is big, queen-sized I think, so there are a lot more blocks than this picture shows. It's coming along rather quickly, and I'm excited to finish it. I have a million other things I should be doing (and other quilts to finish for that matter), but sometimes you just have to sew, ya know? I seriously think I have quilting ADD or something, because I can't stick with one project for too long.

Well, I think that's enough for now...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

I can hardly contain myself

Are these not the coolest containers ever?! I saw the Coats & Clark ones at another vendor's booth at the OKC winter quilt show, and I knew I had to order some. I love the vintage look. I have a couple of antique Singer sewing machines in their original cabinets, and these tins look so cool next to the machines. Plus, they're just so useful. I mean, who can't use a container for fat quarters, thread, marking tools, trims... all sorts of stuff. By the way, these are available on the shop website.


And this Disney Cars tin... my nephew's birthday is next month, and he is going to flip when he sees this. I'm going to try to find some small toy tools to put in it. If I can't find any, I might just go with candy. He already has a Cars quilt, or I would roll a quilt up and stuff it inside. I'm getting excited just thinking about him getting excited.

And....what's this.... is that a border? On a quilt of mine? It certainly is. I love this quilt, and I'm determined to finish it by the end of the month. Period. Because if I don't self-impose a deadline, it will never get finished.

On that happy note, I'm off to sew more borders!

More Halloween

Here is my pumpkin quilt with the borders added. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, but I had a revelation this morning. While I was at the computer eating my cereal and reading blogs, I saw Tonya's latest post and thought to myself, "I should have put letters in the borders." So I think that's what I'm going to do. Inspiration has yet to hit me over the head with an idea for a project in her class, so I'm just going to start making letters with this quilt in mind. I'm not going to take the current borders off, however, until I have new borders ready to put back on it.

We went grocery shopping last night, and I went to a local home dec store this morning to by my mother-in-law and my dad birthday gifts. So I've done quite a bit more shopping than usual in the last 24 hours. Naturally, I picked up some things for myself along the way (I'm really bad about that.)

Clockwise from the left are:

1. The lastest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting, full of fun Christmas quilts.


2. Thank you cards that I couldn't resist buying for myself this morning at the home dec store.


3. Sticky notes (also from the home dec store) that say, "When you're on your third margarita, stay away from the phone. Never mind how I know this." I've never had a bad phone experience after drinking margaritas, but they are my favorite drink, so I had to have this notepad.


4. Bias tape for my Halloween costume (see #5).


5. A pattern for my Halloween costume. We have a costume party to go to at the end of the month. I wanted to be Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, but my husband didn't like that idea. We recently saw the movie 300, so he wanted to be Spartans. I grudgingly agreed. So now I'm going to attempt, with my very limited sewing skills, to make myself a Spartan wife costume. I'm going to make the longer one, but without the wrap. I'm thinking I can use bleached muslin for this, but we'll see. If you've never seen the movie, here's a picture of the queen. This is sort of what I'm going for, minus the cleavage.

Notice what the guy in the background is wearing? Yeah, well, we haven't really decided what my husband's costume is going to look like exactly. He doesn't have any leather underwear, and he wouldn't look that that guy in them even if he did, so we're going to improvise a bit. Don't worry, I'll definitely post pictures of us in costume on the big night.

Quilt show

I'm relaxing my little heart out today, because the last few days have been spent in a whirlwind preparing for and vending at the Little Balkans quilt show. It was a very nice show, and everything went off without a hitch (thanks, in part, to a very late night for me on Friday night cutting kits and taking care of last minute details). Here are just a few of the quilts that I thought to snap pictures of:

It was hard to get a good picture of this one, but it is very pretty. Look at all of that detailed applique. Not my typical taste, but I couldn't help admiring it.

This quilt was right across from my booth. It is an antique Sunbonnet Sue. I don't care much for the peach sashing (which was probably a brighter orange when the quilt was made), but I love how the maker arranged the blocks. She did her best to make the quilt somewhat symmetrical so that either way you're looking at it you see a right-side-up Sue. It is also hand appliqued and hand quilted. Very lucky owner to have this in her family.

And I didn't get a chance to look up the details on this one, but I just love it. It looks very old-fashioned, even though it can't be because of the pictures in some of the blocks. It's scrappy and bright, and it just makes me smile.

And just so no one can say I don't support my local quilt guild, here are my purchases from the boutique. I was so excited to see the Christmas yo-yos already strung together in a yo-yo garland. That's something I wanted to do myself, and now I've got a headstart. I also couldn't pass up the little pouch. The fabric looks like the style that was popular when I was a kid - in fact, it may be vintage fabric (if you want to call early 1980s "vintage"). And with football season getting started this month, the purple batik checkbook cover is just the accessory I need to show my K-State pride.

I also made a dash into Wal-mart the other morning for bottled water, shampoo, and coffee creamer, but this ric-rac somehow made it into my cart also. I've never actually used ric-rac, but I'm very excited about the possibilities. Such fun colors!


And my hands gravitated toward this as I passed the Halloween aisles...


I finished several quilts just in time for the show, but I'll save those for another post. Since today is my day off, I think I'll tinker around with this fabric this afternoon. I'm thinking a purse, but we'll see what happens.

Enjoy your Labor Day!