Busy busy.

Sorry for lack of posting, but we've been really busy with family and friends so I haven't had any time to blog, or do much of anything else. I've managed to work a little on my "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin" that I cut out before I left Montana. I'm hoping (brother and sister in-law are leaving early tomorrow, which we are sad about, but life around the house will quiet down) that I'll be able to get the blocks done before I head home on Friday.
I also plan to put the latest class schedule up tomorrow and send out the newsletter, so if you haven't signed up yet, click here. Then you won't miss any updates about new wonderful toys, books, coupons, classes, etc...
Happy New Year, and as always, happy quilting!

Safe in New Jersey!

Well, we had a long day of traveling on Monday and Tuesday, as a suprise Montana style blizzard sent us up to Billings on Monday night so we wouldn't have to worry about getting down for our flight Tuesday morning. The roads were thankfully not icy, but visibility, particularly when a semi passed, was frighteningly bad. But we made it. Our flight out of Billings was delayed enough (while we were on the plane, unfortunately) that we missed our (also delayed) flight out of Minneapolis. Luckily, a very merciful gate agent overbooked us on a 4:30 flight to Philly instead of the 7:30 flight, so we finally made it to Clinton at about 10Pm, which was two hours earlier than the later flight would have gotten into Philly.
It's so warm here compared to Montana I wore shorts today to go to the gym (ha! when 35 is warm, you know you've gone back to being a Montanan, not a North Carolinian). It's raining though, and freezing in spots, so you have to be careful not to end up on your rear on the frozen slushy mess that covers the ground. Nonetheless, it feels awesome compared to -20, or even 5.
I brought my mom's little Janome Jem Platinum with me as a carry on and got quite a bit of attention for it ("A sewing machine? What are you going to do with that?"--"Um, sew?"--"Huh. Sewing machine.") However, when we sprinted from one end of the Minneapolis airport to the other, its lightweight 11 lbs seemed, well, heavy as all hell. So, I got my workout.
I'm excited to have some down time to sew, sew, sew. I got a "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin" all cut out before I left, so that's first on my list. Updates soon on that.
Well, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas tomorrow, or happy Chanukah, or just happy quilting!

The great shake up!

Well, Karen has been busily giving the shop a makeover while I finish up all the last minute things before I head of to NJ for Xmas...It looks awesome in the shop with new quilts hanging and everything all tidy.


We also are lucky enough to have Big Fork Bay Cotton Company's Ty Livingston (search Ty Livingston in our online catalog at www.ltquilts.com to see all of his patterns that we have) trunk show right now, which are quite adorable.
My favorite is Peek-A-Boo (below)

Ty is a Montana artist, so I hope everyone will take a look at his other stuff. They're all very adorable. Here's our window displaying them (sorry for the glare):
Anyway, I'm off to NJ on Tuesday, so I'll try to post Wednesday since I'll be flying all day Tuesday.
Happy Holidays and Happy Quilting!

One block wonder...

Well, I finished the main body of my current One Block Wonder. I put in some extra pizzazz with a few tumbling blocks from One Block Wonder Encore (which I have, but apparently haven't put online).
The original fabric was huge blue poppies.
I also got the quilt for my mother-in-law all bound and shipped. So hopefully it will get there before we get there next Tuesday.
Happy quilting everyone!

Finito!!!

Well, at long last I am finished quilting the quilt for my mother-in-law, or more accurately, for dear husband and I, since she's buying it to redo his room at home. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Very fancy!
I ended up using five different colors of Brytes, including #1104, Sunflower, #1114 Ballerina, #1121 Gecko, #1118 Mood, and #1140 Hot Pants. I used yellow So Fine! in the bobbin, which is good, because it is extremely fine and I probably still used 30 bobbins! All told, I think I used about 1500-2000 yds of thread on the top and bottom. So here are some pictures...
There is the entire top...Sorry, I didn't have a good way to photograph it, but you can see some of the texture...
Above is the center medallion with feathers filling the star points and some swirlymajigs (the technical term) in the purple filler...I used this quilt to practice feathers feathers and more feathers, but I didn't want to put feathers in the purple and take away from the center.I tried to mark the elaborate design on the star above but failed to find any good method, so I freehanded them all...So they're like little snowflakes...unique. ;)
I did big, floppy overlapping feathers in the striped sections...I like how they turned out, especially on the minkee.
That's right. Minkee....Ooooo, I wish it photographed well, but the back of this quilt is quite possibly more beautiful than the front.

Another minkee shot...
Anyway, I'm going to bind it as fast as I can and ship it to its new home in NJ!
Happy quilting everyone!

Dead camera...

Well, I'm rolling right along on the quilting of my Crazy Eights with minkee--but I can't take pictures because my battery died and the charger is at home...So I will post pictures tomorrow and then, hopefully, I will be able to post pictures of the finished quilting. My mother-in-law is buying it from me for Erik's bedroom at home in New Jersey which they are remodeling since it still had bunk beds and baseball wall-paper.
I'm glad to be selling this quilt, but I'm glad I'll get to visit it. It's one of those quilts that I have a love-hate relationship with. We had some hard times in the piecing (courtesy of HUGE inaccuracies in the book), but ultimately I love how it looks and with minkee on the back, ooh la la. Anyway, I'm rushing to get it done so I can mail it before we fly back to NJ for Christmas...That and two other quilts! Eeek. I have a few late nights ahead of me, but it's much better than last year.
I will post pictures tomorrow!!
Happy quilting!

One more off the list...almost.

I finished quilting the above quilt on the longarm today...The wind is blowing a million miles per hour, so it was fairly quiet. Anyway, I made this top over a year ago (from "Forty Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts," one of my favorite basic quilting books) and just haven't had time to quilt it...It has minkee on the back and my poor husband is desperately in need of a cuddly minkee couch blankee, so I'm giving it to him for Xmas, though he may get it sooner depending on my motivation to bind. Below is the overall shot of the minkee because it shows the quilting so well...unfortunately it doesn't photograph very well, or maybe I don't photograph it very well.
I did an all over meander with random feathers sprouting here and there...It was a good way to practice free-form feathers. Some of them are mutant feathers, but I still like them, mutant or not. Here's a minkee close-up.
Here's one on the front...I used Superior Brytes #1104 to quilt. Mmmmmm...I love Brytes. They are my favorite solid colored thread...possibly even my favorite overall, but I don't want to hurt my other threads' feelings.

Ooops

Hi all, apologies for forgetting to post twice in a row...Black Friday was too busy and yesterday was my birthday, so hopefully you'll all forgive me! Pretty please.
Aside from that, I just feel like I don't have anything interesting to report. I got to see my adorable nephew, Max, over Thanksgiving. He's just so stinking cute! He was too shy to give me hugs, but I did get a couple of high-fives. I wish he was closer so he wouldn't be shy around me!
I haven't had much of a chance to sew with all the family stuff going on, but I did manage to finish my "Buttonholes" batik quilt that I started a while back. It was really fun and fast...I also really tried to go outside my box with colors. I love batiks and I wanted to do something a little scrappier.
The picture kind of dulls out the greens that I used for the "buttonholes", but we have a really nice selection of minty green batiks right now, and I just couldn't resist them.
Things are busy busy with Christmas just around the bend, but I'll try not to be as forgetful as I was this past week!
Happy quilting!