Improv?

I had a lot of Heidi Grace's fabric left over
from my Training Wheels Quilt which
I'm in the process of hand quilting.
So, several weeks ago; I decided to make another
quilt from the left overs. I didn't realize that I had
bought so much of it!
At first I started with strips of fabric sewn together.
Then I decided to add the white; there was really no
rhyme or reason to how I was piecing it in the beginning.

I had all of the paneled strips sewn together on
the first piece; then I did a second one. I thought
that if I decided to do free motion quilting it would
be easier for me to handle.

I decided to copy the birds from the fabric and started
to hand draw them. I thought that it would look better
if I embroidered the beak, legs and tail ~ so that's
what I did. After finishing the hand applique; I
thought it needed something more. So I cut out
flowers and the kitty in the heart and I used
Steam-A-Seam2 (which I love) to bond them to
the fabric.
I decided to free motion flowers in a kind of crazy
meandering pattern. I like how it's progressing.
This is the second panel. I hadn't realized how much
time it takes to free motion. I only work on it for
one hour because then I start to get tired.

This is the second week that I'm working on the
free motion part of it; so I figured it should be done
by this weekend.

Then I have to decide how to add the borders, etc.
It's kind of a large Quilt As You Go and also
"make it up as you go" because I still haven't decided
what to do with the rest of it. (-:

Happy 2010!

Hope everyone's Holidays were Great!

To ward off those "post holiday blues"; I

started and finished my Block 4 from Dawn's

BOM ~ Vicksburg. (see side bar for link)

I'm now caught up and will be working on block 5.

Haven't been sewing much for the past couple of
weeks but I have been knitting some.


I just love the feel of this yarn ~ it's called Sensations
Rainbow Boucle. I'm knitting together 2 strands and
I like the design that it's making. This yarn is
distributed by Jo-ann's Store. The colors are a
burgundy and tan and will be used as an afghan in
my living room.

To my absolute delight; I found out that a yarn store
just opened up recently in my neighborhood! It's
called Flying Fibers When I walked in I thought
I was in Yarn heaven! I couldn't walk out empty
handed now could I? So I bought this:

Isn't that beautiful! It's 80% cotton and 20% rayon ~
it has a light sheen to it. I'll have to search my patterns
to see what I can make with it.

And Oh, my daughter Lisa has been bitten by the
Crochet bug:

Is that adorable! She's making lots of baby sweaters
and hats for her friends. Check out her blog
A Stitch in Time She is a new blogger and she asked
what she should name her Crochet blog ~ I told her
name it The Happy Hooker but she wouldn't do it.
Kids! They're such prudes!

Lancaster City

Join me and my girls for another tour.
(I enjoy making little dolls. )
Check out the "Brooklyn" gum that my daughter
found and gave to me from New York! Cool

This time we are going to Lancaster City! yeah!

Last week, me and my quilting buddies Lee and Kathi

took a trip to the

Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum.

A view of the city from the second floor.

I have a thing for church steeples.

This building was formally a bank that

was owned by The Lancaster Trust

Company. After looking at the Espirit

Collection and the Navajo Weaving Exhibition (just gorgeous!).....



I was studying the architecture of the building.

I just loved the domed ceiling and that beautiful window!

You can view the quilt collection HERE

Click on panoramic video

You might have to download the Plugin and restart

your computer. It's worth it! And you won't be disappointed.

You can also view "Christmas through the Decades"



After viewing the quilts we had a delicious lunch of

grilled cheese and soup at the

Treats Creamery & Cafe. What a fun day!

On our way out of the city ..............



Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square the former Watt & Shand Building



This is the building where the new Quilt

Show will be in March! The Lancaster show for the last 22 yrs. has been in the Lancaster Host Resort but now will be at the Marriot in Lancaster City, March 24-27 2010 at the Lancaster County Convention Center.

Rita Barber the producer of the Quilter's Heritage Celebration is retiring. Rita has put on some great shows and we will miss her!

Our new Producers will be the

American Quilter's Society.


We have a local Quilt Artist in the area -

Sue Reno
Sue does just fabulous art quilts and has made
several of the Watt & Shand building - please
visit her blog to see her work- it's absolutely amazing!

On the way home I took this photo of

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
I love the structure of this old church and the steeple!

If you love stained glass windows as much as I do;
check out the above web site and click on
"Windows of Grace".

Look who is sitting out side my front window. I love to

see Cardinals when it's snowing. Their red color

against the white snow is so striking. (all the snow we

had melted - yeah! It's pretty to look at but not to

shovel it. It was freezing cold out today and windy

I'm not a winter person ~~~ Is it spring yet?)



Making Journal Covers for Christmas presents.

They are in various stages - I better hurry up and finish them!

Lititz, Pa.

Oh my gosh, a couple of weeks and it
will be Christmas already! Lots of
shopping to be done yet. So last week
I went to Lititz and did some shopping.
I love coming here. See the traffic and
the houses are close together. It reminds
me of Queens, N.Y. (where I was born)
I feel right at home here.

Wilbur Chocolate Factory is one of the most
popular tourists places (and for locals too!) I love to
buy the chocolate wafers and make my own concoctions.
I'll try to do a blog about making some easy noshes for
Christmas. Chocolate dipped marshmallows and pretzels.
No wonder I can't lose weight!Here's a shop up the street from Wilbur's; it's called
The Savory Gourmet.
Read the sign -Look at what one of the owners did to the statue of David(?)
I thought that was so cute! The bow is in an appropriate spot!
(I met the owner in one of the shops and asked
permission to use the photos for my blog and she said "sure".)Here's The The Broad Street Bazaar The owner is
Shelley and I asked her if I may take some photos for
my blog. (permission granted) This is where I sell my stuff.
Wait until you see the fun stuff in here! Everything
in this shop is handmade from local artisans.
Where to begin? Let's start with the photos. See the
photos on the red chair? I love this photographer's
idea - each photo looks like a letter of the alphabet
and spells a word. See the word FAITH? Love it!
(on top) Under it is the word LOVE.

Up on the wall is a woman who does hand crochet.
See that brown vest in the middle - I have my eye
on that - it's just my style!

On the opposite side of the photo on the blue chair;
is my friend Kathi's baby quilt. She has a couple of
these little beauties around the shop.



I'll tell ya - this shop is packed with goodies. I did
some of my Christmas shopping here but can't show
you what I bought... my daughter reads my blog. (-:

Lots of beautiful jewelry, handbags, purses and hand
made cards, etc.

My Rocking Horse

Look at all these adorable dresses! Oh, there's one
of my hand dyed handbags hanging on the wall.
And to the left side is my friend Kathi's grocery
bag. (orange one)




Update: This store has since closed

More Friendship Stars + Art quilt

This is my second Fabric Paper art piece. The fabric
paper is the tree trunk and leaves. The blue
background fabric is my hand dyed using Dylon
Dyes and the one under that is my shibori piece
using set-a-color paints. It still has to be worked
on with free motion and decorative stitches.




Here are two more of the Friendship Stars
that I did (see side bar for Block Party)

This is is more traditional with the four patch in each
corner. I'm not happy with the way it turned out;
mainly because the blue is too dark - to me anyway.


I chose red, white and blue for this block to honor
our Soldiers. The corners are intuitively pieced.
I like how this one turned out it looks happy.

I can't wait to try the next one that Block Party has up
- it's a variation of the Friendship Star and a little wonky.

Friendship Star Block 1

I joined the group over at Block Party
See my side bar for the page.

Here's my first Block:

I also finished my Fabric Paper Art Quilt
This was from Linda Matthews "Free Lunch"
See my side bar.

I really had fun doing this project! The flower is a
photo that I took of a nasturtium in my garden.
I then printed it on tissue paper - another one
of Linda's lessons.

The background is paper fabric and also the leaves.
I used free motion, decorative and hand embroidery
stitches. I added my hand dyed cheesecloth and lots
of beads. The orange fabric (border) is my hand dyed
fabric where I use Dylon Dyes.

This is my first attempt at an art quilt! I also
have two other paper fabric pieces to play with now.

I would like to encourage you to join Linda's "Free
Lunches"

Vicksburg block 3

I did remember to do my BOM for Vicksburg Dawn!

Dawn is doing a free BOM called Vicksburg.
If you would like to join in Click Here
Use fabrics from your stash.