What I'm working on...

I decided to hand quilt this. I made a small quilt (baby sized) with the two 12" blocks surrounded by A LOT of white. I wasn't sure what to do with it as far as the quilting goes, but then decided to hand quilt it. I'm pretty excited and I'm loving it so far. It was originally going to be a gift for someone having a baby girl, but I love this so much and with all the hand quilting and time,  I'm not sure I want to give it away for fear it won't be appreciated! So this may end up hanging on a wall in my house.

I finished my hst quilt top, but have not quilted it yet. That will be on hold for a couple weeks. I'm heading to my mom's in IL next week and I haven't been there in two years, so I'm rather excited! My sister is also going for part of the time. It should be lots of fun! 

 

I won't be blogging on my end the rest of this week and all of next week. But I'll be reading all of yours while I'm gone. I plan on bringing this quilt with and hopefully finishing it, but we'll see! 

Ty

Our Spouses Group was contacted earlier this week to see if we'd be interested in attending a taping of Ty Pennington's new show Greatest American Auction. Of course most of us wanted to go.  Anyway, it's a show similar to Antique Roadshow. It was fun hangin' with my girls, but the whole process of the day was actually rather boring. We were right behind the stage for the whole filming of it, so whatever footage they use, I'm sure we will be in some of the shots. It was neat to see, but lots of just standing around. Afterward, we did get a picture with Ty. He is a pretty funny guy and seems so down to earth. He had us laughing rather hard at times.

and I will say a majority of the time...we saw Ty's butt crack. I have a picture, but I'll be nice and not post it! ;)

Love in a Mist

I.love.this.block.

fabric: It's a Hoot by MoMo (thanks Crystal for the tutorial and the leftover charm pack!)

You can find the tutorial here.

 

I'm not sure how I like these fabrics/colors in this block, but I'm still going to make another one and one more but with only 2 fabrics. More to come this weekend! Have a nice one!

Are Joann's fabric taboo in the quilting world?

Let me start by saying...I won this from the lovely Alison of Little Island Quilting. I have to say it's been a while since I won a giveaway of fabric. So this was very exciting to me. Especially because these are some of my favorite colors and I have very little of them.

After I received them I shot Alison an email saying that I got them and thank you. She replied and said, "I look forward to seeing what you do with it...you're not allowed to stash ok?"

I'm SO GLAD she said that because honestly, I would have stuck the pretty fabric in my cupboard for another day. Because I feel like I have a ton to do right now and I keep procrastinating.  So because she wanted me not to stash, I thought about it the day I got it. I went through my cupboard of fabric to see what I had. I decided I was going to make a simple half square triangle quilt. I wanted to get started right away but I needed more blues. I didn't want to order any fabric because honestly in the past week or so I've ordered over $100 in fabric online. (Fabric I don't need, but was on sale and I couldn't resist.)

Ok so back to my blog title...I went to Joann's for fabric. I found lots of great fabric that will work perfectly. 

 So what's the deal....do people not use Joann fabric? Yes, their selection is sometimes limited, but I go there a lot and seem to find what I need most of  the time. I've had no problem with their fabrics. Yes, some are thinner than designer fabrics, but I usually skip those. I try to buy the better quality Joann fabric when possible.

Now I have all I need to complete my half square triangle quilt.

ugh....

one of my least favorite parts of quilting

is it just me? I hate trimming blocks....

Yumm-O

breakfast...

I love french toast made with a french bread loaf!

Aren't my new dishes cute? I love them so much. Thanks Trish for introducing them to me! ;)

Head on over...

to the All Things Vintage Sheets blog. I'm offering a giveaway over there for their "Birthday". Make sure you enter over there and not here!

Here's what's up for grabs!

21 Vintage Sheets fat quarters. 

(a couple slightly smaller, and a few quite larger!)

Swanky Lattice

One of my friends contacted to me to see if I'd be willing to make a quilt to donate for a silent auction to raise money for her son's preschool. I was more than happy to oblige. I had a "Swanky" by Chez Moi Jelly roll that I really had no idea what to do with. It's was something I purchased a long time ago originally to make a quilt for my daughter. Since then both our tastes have changed, so it was just an extra item I had. I do love the fabric though.

A long time ago, I saw this and knew I wanted to make one someday. Then there was this one and this one! I really love those. So this was born:

 

Quilt stats:

colored fabric strips: Swanky jelly roll by Chez Moi for Moda

white fabric: Ikea Dvala sheet

backing fabric: a fabric I really liked found at Joann's

binding fabric: another one found at Joann's

measures: 59"x69"

I quilted this one using Connection Thread's Essential PRO thread. It's 100% polyester. Why did I use this thread instead of my usually Essential thread that is 100% cotton? I just wanted to try it. It says it's for long arm users. Even though I'm not a long arm quilter, I wanted to see how it was. Here's my review. I had absolutely no thread breakage and very little, if any, lint. So that was nice. It quilted beautifully and I'm glad I tried it! I'm not sure of the weight of it, but it did seem a little bit thinner than the Essential cotton thread I normally quilt with.  But I really liked it and will use it again in the future!

I hope my friend's preschool gets a little money with the help of this quilt.