McTavishing--or Kinrosswrighting...

I don't know how much my attempts at McTavishing bear any resemblance to the actual thing. I have a huge queue on my longarm right now, but I've been in a rut, so I wanted to experiment a little, so I put on one of mine and am doing some Kinrosswrighting (doesn't have quite the same ring) on it. She says that everyone's McTavish is different so they should just add an -ing to the end of their last name, but you didn't count on hyphenated names, did you, Ms. McTavish!
The pattern is from that wretched book Crazy Eights...some of you may recall another quilt, the one I made for my mother-in-law was very similar. That's because the pattern was so wrong I was sure I had botched it. So I made another one, meticulously, and as it turned out, the pattern was just horrendously wrong--it's since been pulled from the market, which is a damn shame, because having made other quilts from the book, they were awesome. Just the one she seems to have forgotten all her math skills on.
I did little dragonflies in some of the triangles and swirlies in others.
It's very intense. I'm definitely in this quilt for the long haul, but that's okay, more practice that way. So that's what's on the docket for today.
At open sewing Friday, this is what I accomplished (I'd started beforehand).
It's from Brenda Henning's Strip Therapy and made with a Kiwiberry Bali Pop, which are on my website, but backordered until July :( It was super-fast and mindless, which is perfect for gabbing and sewing.
Happy quilting!

Potluck and sewing!

I haven't done much sewing this week due to meetings and what not, but I'm having a pot luck and open sewing at the shop tonight, under the auspices of the Hoffman Challenge, but people are working on whatever strikes their fancy. Then they can leave their stuff here until tomorrow morning for Fourth Saturday Open Sewing at LTQ.
Pot luck starts at 5:30, sewing goes until the last quilter drops (try to outlast me, I dare you!), and open sewing starts at 10:00am tomorrow. Pot luck is BYOB (and LTQ is NOT a dry store :)
Happy sewing and eating!

More baggage

The good kind, that is. I made yet another of Amy Butler's delightful bag patterns last night: the Frenchy Bag. It was very fun, very easy, and pretty fast. I'd done most of my cutting another evening, but I did all the sewing last night in about an hour. I really got out of my box with fabric, and it came out as a sweet little spring bag:
As you can see it's already happily on display in the store. I was very proud of myself as I'd never installed a magnetic snap (or any other kind of snap) before, and it was a cinch.
Aside from that, I finally finished all my braids for my Hoffman Challenge French Braid quilt. Now I just have to put them together, but not before agonizing a little about what to use for the separator bands.
The richness of the colors just doesn't come through in the pictures, but I really like how these came out. We have this great brown minkee with a green paisley design that I might have to use on the back of this. Mmmmmm....minkee.
Happy quilting!

Bags, runners, and quilts, oh my!

Okay, except the quilts, I did get some stuff done on my lovely Monday off this week. I made another Amy Butler bag, the Nappy Bag, but I didn't make it for nappies, or at least not yet. I made it to haul my projects and other Lily-detritus around. I used some fabric I got on my honeymoon for the exterior and a couple different stash fabrics for the interior. It only calls for one fabric for the interior, but I wanted my pockets to be a different color so I could see them when I looked into the bag. Vision is awesome.

I think I may have to glitter some of the flowers...God forbid I should make something that doesn't sparkle a little. :) Just call me a crow.Well, I guess the inside pockets are fairy frost, but inner sparkle doesn't count for everything.

Then I also made a fun little table runner out of a Neptune charm pack using Little Charmers III and it was super fast--maybe 2 hours tops.
Man, I just love the colors in this line. Some Montanans seem to get hung up on the anchors and other maritime features, but all I can see is the beautiful colors and textures...Look at that navy! Anyway, that was what I was up to on my day off. I have a full weekend with hubby this weekend so I should finally be able to get some stuff done. ;)
Happy quilting!

Tired puppy

I'm finally back in action after the Big Sky Quilt Retreat last week. I had an excellent time and met lots of fun quilters and quilt shop owners. My humble little booth is pictured below (some people had huge, very fancy booths):
I bought a hat from the woman in the booth next to me, owner of the Big Yellow House in Absorokee. She works with women in Kyrgystan who hand felt all these wonderful things. I had to have the hat pictured below. One of my local quilters commented, "You have to have a lot of self-confidence to wear that hat" and I do...but more importantly I love it! I feel just like a little elf! It's felted wool, but fortunately lined so it doesn't make me itch (and it's merino, so it's pretty soft).

Most amusingly, however, the hat proves to be a very very frightening thing for my dog, Elli. I had it sitting on a table by my couch (which is more properly her couch) and she barked at it. Initially I assumed that she'd stepped on a pin or something, so I crawled all over the floor looking and feeling for a pin. Then, later on, once she'd crept back into the room, when I moved the hat, she fled in terror and when presented with it directly, she cowers with her tail between her legs, shivering in fear. Apparently it is a haunted (or maybe just smelly) hat.
I'll definitely be doing more shows--but I'll have to make more of an effort to sleep next time. I slept about four or five hours a night up there, and I'm definitely an eight hour kind of girl, so I'm still pretty pooped.
Happy quilting!

Rockin' the quilt show...

I'm having an excellent time up here at the quilt show. I don't have my camera cords so I can't load any pics from the show, but for those of you who read this--COME TO THE SHRINE AUDITORIUM on Broadwater in Billings, MT. The weather is beautiful, the quilts are amazing, the vendors are great fun, and of course, my wonderful self is here, what more could you ask for? I feel so lucky because my neighbor booths are both full of wonderful people--I have Bonnie and Tiffany from Rock City Quilts (in Valier, MT, google 'em) who have both been very helpful from tips for future shows to manning my booth so I can take a little tour of the ladies room...on my other side I have the Big Yellow House, which is not a quilt shop, but a woman (Paula) who works with women from Kyrgyzstan who make all these wonderful felted wool products and Paula sells them in the US...I myself have a very unique and stylish hat that I got for 50% off. The other booths are awesome too, I've just been too busy at my booth to really check out the other booths. I did meet a longarmer, Karen Parker, who is so fantastic and she's agreed to give me lessons, so I'm extremely excited about that and my new friend, Tiffany, from Valier is a long-armer too and is going to join me for lessons.
Anyway, I hope some of you will make it down tomorrow...It's open from 8:30-4:30. It's so very worth it. Very inspirational.
Happy quilting (and quilt show viewing)!
Pictures Tuesday!

Show show show

Just getting ready for the show. Will try to blog Friday if I have wireless at my hotel...If not, I'll be back next Tuesday!
Happy quilting!

Getting ready for the show

I'm off to be a vendor (my first time) at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat in Billings next week so I've been busily strategizing about that, working myself into a froth, and hoping for the best. I also haven't been getting much quilting done since last weekend. I've been working late and by the time I get home, I just want to eat, watch an episode of Deadwood (Dad got us the complete series on DVD--it's awesome, but not for the faint of heart or ear), and crawl into bed.
I can't remember if I ever posted pictures of my completed table runner that I had marked for quilting, but here it is, in its flawed glory...practice practice practice is what this was, and I think I'm gradually improving (done on my home machine):
Also, Thursday morning, I woke up to walk into my kitchen and see this:
Our giant cactus (which started as just an arm my cat knocked off a much larger cactus) silhouetted by the blizzard that had thrown up on our picture window. As it turned out, it had only snowed about 3 or 4 inches at our place, but the wind had blown every flake of snow from three counties up against my house, so we had some fun drifts and as pictured, a very snow-caked picture window. Then it all melted off by evening, only to snow again this morning. Oh Montana and your manic weather.
Happy quilting!

Quilt for the cure...

I love and carry many of Blank Quilting's ovarian cancer Inspiration fabrics (search ovarian cancer on at www.ltquilts.com and you can see them all if the link doesn't work) and I've been pondering for a long time the perfect thing to do with it and this past weekend, I finally figured it out.
It's a simple pattern by Atkinson called "Slideshow". It's a fat quarter quilt and the lap size is perfect to put minkee on the back (without borders). Anyway, I really like how it came out. I used Fairy Frost in Diamond as the background instead of doing a more traditional pale background.
I'm hoping to do some fun feather wreaths in the big squares, but I haven't quite decided. It's also vital to have a scant quarter inch seam allowance with all the tiny squares it's easy to end up a little short, so I did a bit of easing. Okay, maybe a lot of easing. It's not the flattest quilt I've ever made, but nothing a little blocking and dense quilting won't fix.
Happy quilting!