Connecticut quilt shops

Yesterday my friend Jean and I took to the roads for the day and headed to Connecticut. The goal was to see at least four quilt shops and to go out for lunch, which we did! Of course, no road trip would be complete (for me anyway) without a stop at McDonalds to get a large Diet Coke.This was our last quilt stop. Thimbles is a great little quilt shop in a lovely little town called Woodbury. Jean is getting Christmas fabric that is 40% off. We both decided that we would spend the month of January finishing all of the Christmas projects that we did not get done.

Of the four shops we visited today, Common Threads was by far the best!! This shop is packed with great fabrics that you cannot always find everywhere. For example, she has a huge selection of homespuns, plaids, and wool! She also has kits for a million projects that range from easy to hard. The owner was an absolute doll, so spending money with her was a joy!

This is the owner, who was so helpful, friendly and gracious. I blabbed forever about my new Ipad (I am not ashamed to say that I am obsessed with it. I even told Jean that I could not wait to get home to my Ipad!) The owner and I discusssed different podcasts that we like and she told me to check out Mark Lipinski's. Even though I am not too crazy about him, I did listen to one for a few minutes when I got home. I liked it. His voice is nice and even though he is hyper, it was fun to listen.

Jean and I both got a wool project. Plus we are going to do some paper piecing next week, and got some patterns for that.

After a great day, it was time to go home and dream about quilting and fabric and Ipads. Today I am going to work on my Sunbonnet Sue. I got three done the other day and want to get at least three done today. They are actually coming out really cute.

clean sewing area!

You can tell I am off for a week!! First of all, I rarely get to post anything on my blog during the week because I have been so busy with school this year. Don't really know why except that I do tutor a student a few days a week until almost 5:30 and by the time I get home....you know how it is. I am done with the tutoring though, so should be able to keep up with it a little more often. Our parents do like to see what we are up to since we are all long distance and all, so I will make a good effort.
Today I cleaned out my little sewing area by the dining room. It really is teeny, tiny, but I do all of my work in there when it is too cold to sit in the attic or at my machine out on the front porch. I promised my friend Colleen at the quilt shop that I would show pictures! Of course, I had to show my new Ipad, which was playing an Alex Anderson podcast while I cleaned and then sewed. She is a great quilter and I love the sound of her voice.

All neat and tidy again after Christmas sewing and wrapping. You can see my sewing room from the dining room and kitchen, so I like to keep it neat (which I usually do since I work better that way anyway.)
I used to have this green cabinet as our entertainment center, but it is now too small for the current televisions, so we moved it into the sewing room where it houses my ancient computer (with a tower and everything!!!LOL) which I use for my embroidery machine. I usually hang projects I am working on right on the door so I remember to finish them and so they are handy.

The doors do close all the way to keep it looking neater, but today they will be open all day.

Here it is with the doors open. I have my big cases of thread in there with a little set of drawers which hold my ribbons, buttons and velcro. On the screen is the embroidery piece that is on the machine right now. I have always wanted a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, so that is what I am making with embroidery. All of the scenes are of her doing something sewing-related. This will be a wallhanging. I know A LOT of people just hate Sunbonnet Sue, but as a long-time quilter, I thought I should do at least one with her since it is tradition. I am using a yellowish background fabric that I thought I hated, but it looks pretty cute. Then I will use 30s fabrics as frames around each block.

Workers and slackers

When Evelyn's boyfriend Jon came over today, all the kids were done plowing, shoveling, cleaning, etc., so they went sledding down our driveway and in the back fields. Evy is pulling Jon (who is about a foot taller than she is!) down the driveway. Jon had to shovel for hours to get his driveway cleared out! Plus he had to make a space for Evy's car so she can come over later----he said that took the longest! Penny knows how to stay warm in the blizzard! Although she was a maniac when she first went out this morning. It is funny to watch the dogs run wild in that snow. They are like puppies again.

Millie is 12 years old today!! She never has a problem finding a warm couch with a blanket on it. Let the two legged animals do the work if they want to--that is her motto.

It sure is nice to have a grown son around to help out on days like today. He enjoyed it so much that he went to three other neighbors and cleared their driveways secretly.

A snow day

I made this VERY quick quilt top yesterday for Evelyn (she doesn't know about it yet though) from a kit I got in Connecticut a few weeks ago. It is all flannel and the fabrics are so pretty. It literally took about an hour to cut and sew. I have tons of flannels in my attic sewing room, so will use them all up to make these for people.

Rob took these pictures of a bird on our woodpile on the front porch. Smart little birdy knew to get close to the house.

Rob did most of the snow plowing today. He had to chop a tree that had fallen in the driveway before he could finish. It is still blowing hard out there, but it is not too cold even with all the wind. Evelyn wanted to make something fun for her boyfriend's mother, so when she saw this owl clothespin hanger, she had to have it. We had some fun laundry fabric, so she cut it all out, did the fusing for the eyes and some of the sewing. I sewed most of it though, and I am glad I did because even though the pattern said it was easy, it really was tough at times and a novice would have thrown it into the woodstove after a few hours of fussing with it.

On Christmas Eve, Rob and his girlfriend Ali made a gingerbread house. It came out so cute. Ali is pretty cute too!

Bargello table runner and some aprons

Last month we started this bargello table runner at Pieceful Quilting. I had never even tried it before, so a few of us signed up. Once you get the hang of it, it really is easy. You just have to be careful to cut and sew very accurately (not one of my best traits!:)
I also made a few aprons for a friend right before Christmas. I had some great vintage fabric for Christmas, so used them for these two aprons.

I love this apron pattern. It is called Vintage or Totally Vintage...can't remember. It was easy, and I thought the little scalloped front piece was adorable!

A few days ago, the weather channels were calling for a nor'easter, but we were not supposed to get too much snow. Yesterday, that had all changed and we are sitting in for a major amount of snow. This is how the sky looked this morning.

The snow has been falling now for about 10 hours. I have shoveled out the walkway and the steps by the door at least four times. The wind is howling, and I am sitting here all cozy by the woodstove. I made a super easy quilt today (8 inch strips all sewn together---gorgeous flannels too) and I played Scrabble on my new Ipad!! I love that thing. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

The best sister-in-law!!

Kenny's sister is one of my best friends in the world!! We have had a very close relationship since the minute he and I started dating, so I consider myself to be very lucky to have her (and her lovely family) in my life for all of these years. She is very talented in the needle arts and has made me a lot of beautiful things over the years. Two winters ago she and I picked up a gorgeous needlepoint picture and she made it for me that year. Well, I finally had it framed at Micheals and you should see how it looks!!! The wooden frame is rustic and then I had three mats put around it to bring out the colors in the picture.

I still squeal when I look at it!! When my friend Deb came over for her weekly sewing lesson last week, she could not stop raving about it! Both of the kids have claimed it when I pass on! :)

We plan to hang it upstairs in the hallway in a spot that will make it the first thing you see when you go up there. I cannot say enough how much I love it!!