New Fabric!

The shelves are overflowing with new fabrics of all colors and styles!

Tons of new:

BATIKS

CIVIL WAR

30's

Plus...some beautiful new lines:

Butterscotch and Roses

By: Fig Tree Quilts for Moda

Cattails and Clover

By: Kansas Trouble's for Moda

and... 

Taza

By: Dena Designs for Free Spirit

So, don't miss out on these beautiful newbies!

Off to work on finishing my BOM!

~K

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

I came accross this cute little poem to share with you today!

Twas the Night of Thanksgiving

By: Lauren

T’was the night of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn’t sleep.

I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.

The leftovers beckoned, the dark meat and white.

But I fought the temptation, with all of my might.

Tossing and turning, with anticipation.

The thought of a snack became infatuation.

So I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door,

And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey,  and buttered potatoes,

Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.

I felt myself swelling, so plump and so round.

‘til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky,

With a mouthful of pudding, and a handful of pie.

But I managed to yell as I soared past the trees

"Happy eating to all, Pass the cranberries, please!!?"

May your stuffing be tasty, May your turkey be plump.

May your potatoes and gravy, have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious, May your pies take the prize.

And May your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off of your thighs!

I hope this day is a special one for you and that you're able to take some time to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for!

Enjoy the day and that turkey sandwich that will materialize tonight / tomorrow!
~K

Tofurkey!

So, I get to make the bird this year and I'm pretty excited...however, I just can't stop thinking about / laughing uncontrollably at this episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Seriously, it drops me to the floor and brings me to tears every time.

I think my favorite part is when Robert asks for the leg and his facial expressions pretty much through the whole scene.

Hope it this brought a smile to your face as you're scurrying around preparing for tomorrow!

Enjoy this day before Thanksgiving!
~K

Monday Night Madness!

Last night I....

1) stared at this beautiful bundle / kit itching to cut it up...but, there are other things that I need to finish up on first...however, this pretty stack is how I will be spending my black Friday!

2) Worked on my Civil War Tribute blocks...made a bazillion HST :)

First ya cut your fabrics slightly larger than the paper...I'm down to only needing 1/4"

Then ya sew on all the sew lines and then trim on all the trim lines

nip the corners off and then peel off all the papers...good thing the garbage man comes today!

and you're left with PERFECT HST that don't need any trimming!

3) And then I worked on some hardanger for Grandma for Christmas....

I started with a pattern for the basic outline and then just kind of made things up...not done yet, still needs a border and inner filling thingers, but you get the idea.

Hope y'all get some good stitchin time in today!

~K

Groovy Girls - Now at the Calico Hutch!

The quilt shop is excited to announce that starting January 2011, we will be hosting a Groovy Girls club!

Groovy Girls Club is designed by Terry Atkinson (creator of the Yellow Brick Road, Lucky Start and tons of other wonderful patterns) and is a chance for a monthly get together where club members can laugh, learn, and be inspired by creative ideas. Come and learn a new technique each month and use it to create a fun little project designed by Terry herself.

Projects will include things like: bags, table toppers, some home things, accessories and pretty much anything you could think of...well maybe not anything, but you get the idea :)

Visit Terry's Website
Check out her Blog

More details coming soon!
~K

If only I lived in a fairytale...

So, last night while I was cleaning up a little bit in my sewing zone, I threw the movie Tangled in. You see, I've always enjoyed a good Disney movie. Anyhow...I watched this portion numerous times because it simply amazed me...



You see...
1) she cleaned her tower top to bottom complete with waxing the floors in 15 min

2) She baked a pie and then later on she made cookies and still wears a dress size -4

3) She read the same books twice (they looked like long ones too!)...if her "mom" is going to keep her locked up in that tower, the least she could do is hook the girl up with an e-reader and a library card!

4) I estimate that in another 3-7 days she's going to run out of walls / ceilings to paint.....then what??

5) How many hours are in her day and why has the girl not yet learned to quilt??

Enjoy the clip! If your're feeling adventurous, watch the whole movie sometime...it's pretty cute :)
~K

~*~ Hummingbird ~*~

I finished it! I worked on the blocks at the retreat in the evenings last week and then this weekend I made more blocks, trimmed, and put the top together. I unplugged my iron, turned the TV off and shut down the sewing machine at 12:30 this morning....but, it's done and I won't have to put it away and drag it back out any more :)

Here's my Hummingbird!



Fabrics: Recess by Sandy Klopp for Moda (few years old)

Pattern: Hummingbird by Darlene Zimmerman.

Rulers:  30 deg angle template and the companion angle.



I'm lovin' the finished top! Puttsy piecing / trimming is so rewarding :)



5" finished block size +sashing

Can't wait to see it quilted!
~K

Snapshots of a retreat in action-

Few words...lots of pictures!
Here's a little of what happened at the retreat :)


Bonnie stitchin' away on her Civil War Tribute blocks



Workin' hard to maximize production!!!



Gotta love a good ol' Banana Split quilt. Designed by Jolyn Olson!



Piecing...piecing...piecing...piecing



And here's Jolyn....she has a great blog too!
Farm Quilts



And at the end of a great day of sewin' there's a message!

It was lots of fun and I got all the rest of my Hummingbird blocks done! Picture coming soon!

~K



Doodle Stitching

I'm prety excited that it's Monday. You see, I was in a wedding this past weekend and am so thankful that it is finally Monday so I can sit back and relax...kind of. Today through Wed I"m working during the day at my real job and sewin' at the retreat in Austin at night. I've taken to learning hand embroidery and am starting with Doodle Stitching. I have this book...

and a ton of floss....watch out! I'm dangerous and super duper in love with the concept! I've got a little trial run / sample doodle going now...can't wait to share!

Enjoy the Monday!
~K

My very own MacGyver (almost) moment

Happy day after Pumpkin Day!

This weekend I was a prime example of productivity at it's finest....kind of..
Friday evening I worked at the shop as usual and had the pleasure of waiting on the infamous Jo herself ...you know, the writer of one of my favorite blogs, Jo's Country Junction. If you haven't taken the time to parooze her fun stuff, you're missing out! She also (along with the help from her daughter who is also a ton of fun) has written several awesome quilt patterns/tutorials available for free at the Moda Bakeshop. I talked with her for a while and she encouraged me to go out of the box and try something new. I did just that and hope to share more with you about that adventure in weeks and months to come....Thanks Jo!!!!

Saturday I finished my Ruby quilt using a pattern from Little Louise Quilts.

I'm very happy with how it turned out and can't wait to see it quilted as it's headed to the shop today for quilting! When I finished all the Ruby goodness and got the back pieced and the binding sewn together, I also pulled out my Postage Stamp Posies (the Spring Darlene Zimmerman class quilt) blocks and tried to figure out what was next...pretty sure this is another project that got packed up at 80% complete....why do I do this to myself!!! Progress picture coming soon :)

Sunday after church I took a nap...a long one...a glorious one! I now know what being a cat is all about and I must say that it really isn't all that bad. Here is Miss Kitty demonstrating how I spent a bulk of my Sunday afternoon:

(PS: Miss Kitty is not supposed to be in the downstairs bedroom...I evicted her shortly after I took her picture. She looks crabby (like Maxine) because she knew she was in trouble!)

After the nap I put some serious time in on my very first hardanger piece and actually finished all the eyelets and cut it out. I'm pretty proud of this little piece of art and can't wait to start my next little doilie. Here she is in all her glory:

Seriously, I know it's small and not overly elaborate, but I'm so stinkin proud of it! I nailed the doves eyes and all the little eyelets around the edge...I feel like a second grader that just got her license to write cursive.

Then off to play in the community band concert which produced a very interesting / entertaining story that lead me on the path of believing that after all these years of hoping, I was finally going to get to say the dental floss saved my life....yes, a true MacGyver moment. You see, I play the french horn which has rotors...rotors have strings which help them move back and forth so the right sound comes out. Somehow in our quick pre-show run through one string came untied and pieces flew everywhere...screws were missing and my world had ended. For a moment, I thought I could just restring it using dental floss but I never did find one of the screws...but I did have dental floss readily available...thank you Dr. Potache for the little sample floss you gave me which I keep in my Jeep :) Fortunately our concert was in Alden (a suburb of Albert Lea) and across the street from the High School and lucky for me, the HS choir director was there who was able to send her daughter with me along with her keys to borrow a school horn. She was very happy to help me because every year I volunteer my time to play solo horn for the High School choir Christmas Concert. Small school = only one double horn which the beautifully helpful daughter informed me was "..um...really old, really smelly, really dented...and nobody EVER played it". Yes, she was correct, however she didn't know that it was an awesome horn. It didn't look good but like my usual horn, it (labeled FH#7with the good ol' label maker every school uses...I call her 007 for short -James Bond humor- ) was a Conn from the 60's. It looked a lot like this one I found on eBay just now so I could show you a pic...just add a LOT of dents..and LARGE dents at that and you have the instrument du'jour:

I paid an arm and a leg for mine about 7 years ago...yes mine has no dents, is still shiny, has beautiful scrolling on the bell, and doesn't smell...but this one had a very mellow tone quality much like mine and responded just like mine. Also, sweet little choir directors daughter who should remain nameless to protect the innocent, informed me that "just last summer the band director took all the horns down to the car wash and blew them out." I've never heard of taking the "horns" down to the "car wash", but it added an interesting element to my story.So, I played it and it was gorgeous. Moral of the story, I'm trying to buy it from the school for a spare and you also can't judge a book by it's cover. I'm thinkin 50 bucks should get the deal done.

When I got home I washed the horn stink off my hands (seriously, the horn made my hands smelly funky) and started in on the first months blocks for a new club that is going to start at the shop in January that I have committed myself to leading. More on that later...it will be awesome...I promise.

Enjoy the day!
~K