This Weekend's Shopping...A Giveaway for May

The fabric above is the reason I went back to the shop on Saturday. I saw it while I was in my one on one Smith Street Designs lecture  and I didn't buy it. It was not a case of out of sight, out of mind, and I decided that since I was out that way on Saturday for the wedding 'tasting' that I'd swing by and satisfy my craving. I tried to find some other fabrics to go with it and in the end just decided that it was time to up my stash building from half yards to full yards (I know, I know, I fully expect to one day be buying 3-4 yards, baby steps....baby steps...) and purchased this with no specific project in mind. (Oh the horror!).

So the very helpful cutting lady gives me a sly glance and says..."did you happen to notice that we have those prints in blue as well"?

Put me down for 2 more yards.

And I had picked the print on the bottom to go with the red/butter prints above, but then I saw the maroon/gold and decided that this also had to join us (but only half yards of these...they'll more than likely be something other than a quilt.

My daughter mentioned liking paisley, so when I saw a few that went together well, the quest was on to find every paisley in the shop that might work together (fortunately, this is a rather small shop). A couple of them were half price, so I got full yards. I've now got 4 yards of paisley, so I think I can put it together somehow to make a suitable TV quilt.

I'm going to try to stay away from the fabric shops until G Street's Memorial Day sale.

When I stopped in Michaels to pick up the last of the drawer dividers, I found  a bunch of these cute, bright fabric flowers in little pots on display inside the front door. Just the happy type of display to catch your eye.

Being the quiltaholic that I am, I skipped right over most of them and my eyes locked on one that was was a stuffed flower. Light bulb moment.... PINCUSHIONS!

Don't you just love them? I do, and for that very reason, this is what is going to be May's Follower Appreciation Giveaway prize.  As always,  as long as you're a follower of this blog (and you are listed in the sidebar as one), you'll get one entry into the drawing for each comment you post during the month of May.  Good idea? Does anyone out there collect pincushions? What's your favorite?

Thread Storage Obsession - Mission Complete

There's no rest for the compulsive (or obsessive, or wicked....I've got it all covered).

The other day while I was in Michaels buying more lovely storage cubes (two 4-drawer units this time), I came across drawer dividers in the clearance aisle. They're made out of the same wood material the storage cubes are and they were marked down to $2.99. I came home with two.

My daughter stopped by on her way to drop off Ricky and picked up 4 more for me. By Friday night I had all my cotton threads compartmentalized.

And on my way home yesterday, I stopped in and picked up the last 3 in the store and now all my polyester sewing thread no longer has to feel jealous of the quilting threads.

OCD anyone?

Since the hubs hasn't been very proactive in picking flannel for his rag quilt, I've decided to pick up half yard cuts of what I think he might like to use when I run across flannel in the quilt shops. What he doesn't use can be used to back 2 preemie quilts for our guild charity, and what he does like I can pick up another yard of when I'm back at that shop.  Moda has some fabulous flannel releasing at the end of the summer, and I've dragged him on the online slide show, but he's not going there and wants to use more bright, non-coordinated stripes/plaids/dots. Whatever. It's his quilt.

This is the quilt. It looks like a lot of fun. It's two sided and it's constructed and quilted block by block. One side is the pattern, the other a solid square. If you're interested the pattern is Crazy Rag Time by Sandy Brawner and you can probably get it at http://www.quiltcountry.com/.

And this is what the hubs has started his collection of 8 prints needed with.

Today's plan is to sandwich and quilt DD's table quilt, and I need a dessert for Happy Hour with the ladies tonight (I know, it's Sunday, so we're calling it Happy 'Hour' tonight).

I'll be back tomorrow with the finished table quilt photos (fingers crossed), and pics of yesterday's exercise in stash building.

I hope you get a chance to visit some more of the Bloggers Quilt Festival posts throughout Blogland. I'm enjoying my tour. I've got Amy's site bookmarked and I'm working my way through the posts from the beginning as I have some time. Just be sure you write down the number of the next stop before you walk away from the computer.

Enjoy!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Spring 2011 - My Mexican Star

This is my Mexican Star. It's an experiment in curves and color. My second quilt using batiks and contrast.

I like that the curves are formed after it's pieced, so there's a dimensional quality to the piece.  

I used a combination of very square and very circular freemotion quilting patterns on the circular background, which was relatively painless and left little room for disappointment.

This quilt was one of those 'outside my comfort zone' projects that I'm glad I went for. It was a challenge picking the fabrics that went together (based on an instruction to choose 'light', 'medium' and 'dark"), and finding a background that worked. Especially since I'm generally one of those quilters who just picks a line of fabric and uses the various prints from within that line.

And what I really like about this little quilt is the back

.

When I saw this fabric in the quilt shop, I knew I had to have it. This was my introduction to Jinny Beyer, and because of this fabric, I've made a couple of trips to her shop in Great Falls, VA. You'll see her fabric turn up as inspiration fabric in a couple of my upcoming projects.

I'd like to thank Amy at Amy's Creative Side for once again hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. There's a link on my sidebar that I hope you'll use to view the many beautiful quilts and their stories from this Spring's participants. No need to rush through, they'll be available for a while and you can hop from one to the other through links posted by the participants. Enjoy the beauty, and I hope you find inspiration.