Since It's Raining I Am Indoors Today~~~Quilting!!!

Today is one of those drippy misty rainy days that Washington sees frequently. Out of the yard I come and back to the inside things I like to do. The Food Network channel is on, brownies in the oven~~~~~~

This floral block the the first steps for a 14 inch decorative pillow top. Notice no triangles just squares.

The pillow is the current project with the Monday Quilters I meet with.




Some of you may recognize this wild fruit fabric from a shopping spree at the PNW Sewing Expo earlier this spring. I finally found a pattern that works. Then I had to go on a hunt for the right bright blue to compliment this.

The pattern is from a book I had purchased eon's ago called, AT HOME WITH THIMBLEBERRIES QUILTS, by Lynette Jensen. It is a good thing books with idea's never get old. This is the first pattern I have done in this book. It is my quess I have had the book about 15 years.


I appliqued the teapots using a fusible web. Then the button hole stitch to secure the edges. I am a beginner at the appliqueing and this process works the best for me.

At this point, the four blocks are together and I am working on the first border. Then outer border and binding need to be done.

Another Completed Project

This is a completed project from one of my purchases from the Sewing Expo.

Here is the front of the tooth fairy pillow. I put bows in her hair and added a string of ribbon roses at the bottom. There are flower buttons on the front of her dress too.









This is the back. I hand embroidered her name, who it was from and the date. There are buttons added on this side too.

This pillow was fun to make, easy. The yellow's, lavender and blues are great for spring.

Now it's time for the birthday wrapping.

Birthday Pillowcases

Today was a productive day in the sewing room. I had seen samples of homemade pillow cases and thought it was time I give it a try.

Most of the seams are french seams. I treated the seams this way because I wanted the pillowcases to be able to live through a few pillow fights. Mom doesn't sew or mend and they are moving to Japan in the fall. Kids will be kids you know.

This is the Cinderella pillowcase.

This one is Barbie Princess fabric. I did not have a lot of yardage of this fabric. I pieced several different sized strips until I had it the length I needed.

Here is Spiderman. If you check a posting from last month I had purchased this fabric at the Sewing Expo Shopping Spree! Don't tell Spiderman that the fabric is attached to the border going in the wrong direction. This is for my grandson who thinks he is "Spidyman". Maybe this will help with bedtime.

They were fun to make. It is much easier if I have yardage and only need to add trim as in the Spiderman pillowcase. Piecing the other to get the pillowcase large enough was time consuming. A pain to say the least. Now to wrap them in birthday paper.

My Shopping Spree at the Sewing Expo

After announcing a shopping day at the Sewing Expo I wonder how many of you have checked back to see how the shopping went. I arrived at the gates at 8:30 a.m. and left about 5:30 p.m. What a wonderful day.

I have been carrying around this pattern for this dragon fly quilt. By the time I had been through every booth I had collected enough fabric and a little more to make this small quilt. Mostly batiks.

Who can pass by a deal on buttons and beads? Not me!

Here is my purchase of YELLOW! Don’t ask, I am not a yellow person. There is not one speck of yellow in my house. Out side you may find yellow daffodils that is it! So here I am with fat quarters of fabric with banana's on it! I just had to have it I guess. I may redo my thinking on this and see if I can set it off with some wonderful blues and omit the brown fabric. Then it will fit in my daughter in laws kitchen. It would make a nice gift for her. I can get his finished before they leave for Japan in the fall.

Then in another isle I found a project I could not leave behind! Tooth Fairy Pillows for Kendra, Elizabeth and Gracie! The angel holds the tooth, the striped fabric is the ruffle that goes around the pillow. On the back there is a place for names and birthdays. The finished size is about 12 x 12. I need to get busy because all three grand daughters have birthdays between March and July.

Here is some Spiderman fabric. An exhibitor had used it in a jacket but my grandson Kayden thinks he is "spidyman". I purchased enough fabric for a pillow case for him. He probably needs another pair of Spiderman jammies so one pair can be in the wash occasionally.

I also like snowmen! I purchased this Christmas fabric at $1 a yard. It was another one of those deals. Everyone knows we don’t leave good deals behind!




I found several booths of Heirloom sewing and checked out the trim. The purchases I made were from Oregon and another from Holland. I felt they had the best deals and sized I needed for Crazy Quilting. My purchase included yardage and motifs. Take a look at this photo.



It is hard to get a clear photo of the fat quarters because they are wrapped in shinny cellophane and I don’t want to take it apart just yet. The FQ kits included bobbin and thread to match. At $5 it was another one of those deals I had to have. When I got home I had wished I bought more.



There were also a lot of hand outs. Some were advertising from different shops. I came home with several magazines for quilting. It definitely was a great day! Thank goodness they were passing out shopping bags to help carry all the beautiful things. Bag check was good too because the bags kept ripping and became too heavy to carry.

What all this means is I need to hide out in my sewing room and get started. So if you don't hear from me for a while.......I am........actually sewing.

Sewing and Stitchery Expo~2007

http://www.sewexpo.com/expo/index.html

I have a very busy day scheduled for tomorrow. A trip to the city for a day of shopping. The sewing expo is held at the county fair grounds each year. It is full of venders from the US, Europe, and Japan. I am sure there are more countries who are represented. As I start to plan my "shopping experience" I am seeing snow falling around me. There is no way that snow is going to interfer with this shopping day.

What will i fill my shopping bags with? I don't know!! I know that EdMar Threads will be there, I will look for lace trim, buttons, beads and charms. I will probably skip shopping the regulars like JoAnns, Hancocks because those stores are in my area. Martha Pullen will have a spot, she always brings laces.

They are listing the exhibitors at this link:

http://www.sewexpo.com/expo/exhibitors.html

I will also look for "that perfect, gotta have it project" to do. Wish me luck!

I love the snow, but I am watching these huge fluffly flakes fall for hours on end this morning. Oh dear! I hope I am not just dreaming about this shopping day!