Happy Town USA

Ta-Da.   I finished my House Swap Quilt.   I had finished the top in March - where does the time go?   I am naming it "Happy Town" because everything about this quilt makes me happy!

47x47" square

Happy Town I did 60 degree diagonal quilting lines about 1/4" apart.  I marked one line  and then used the edge of my walking foot for the rest.

There are some variations in the widths and angles, but I'm okay with that.

I ordered some of this really great striped fabric from my friend Thimble Anna's Etsy shop.

You can hardly see where I joined the strips (on the left binding strip).

The backing fabric was a giveaway I won on my blog buddy, Rachael of Blue Mountian Daisy blog.  It is all cat fabrics and I knew that I would use it this way one day.  And this was the perfect quilt for it.

I made a special label with a black kitty like Luna, who we lost last November.  We're still sad and miss her.

Other Breaking News - I've added some of my Hex Vex kits to my etsy store.  You can check it out here.

** Just added Tuesday - I've posted a poll on the sidebar.  Would you be interested in a Fall 2015 block Swap?  I have a block in mind and would have a repro and modern group like last fall.

I hope you are having a great start to your week!

Super Sweet Suprise!!

A very special something came in the mail from my buddy, Kelly of Pinkadot Blog.   A while back we had agreed on a little "trade".  Which I had totally forgotten about.

Here is the Sew Together Bag that she made especially for me.  I LOVE the outer ViewMaster Reels.  I have a big collection of them.  The pink and white type fabric is awesome too.  

A bird fob?  perfection!

 the interior is just as perfect!  I love all of her fabric choices.  Needle rest and what cute laundry lines.

Pretty lettered fabric (I love all fabrics with letters).

 Sweet little irons on polkadots.

 Adorable little colored clothespins (which I also have a collection of).

 The colored zippers are so cute and the inside pockets are lined with pink bird fabric....someone get the paddles I was having cuteness heart failure.

The ends are pink polkadots - get it??  Pinkadots???  TOO MUCH!!!

All packed up and ready to use!  wee~

Have you ever received a gift that was so perfect, you nearly wept?  That is how I felt yesterday.   Thank you Kelly.  Your workmanship is superior and the fabrics are just the best collection ever.

This trade is not over.....Kelly has upped the anti.

For a bonus she sent some Halloween leftover fabrics which I will use in a Hex quilt.

Here are my most recent 4" Stars In a Time Warp stars.

This Cracks me up.  I took this photo of Coco at the farm looking over the fields.  It reminded me of "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth.

coco's world

Funny Right?  

Here is my favorite summer thing to do.  Cut up all sorts of veggies, sprinkle with sea salt, pepper and olive oil.  Top with fresh herbs and roast at 400.

 I eat this as a side dish, with pasta and goat cheese or over a salad.  Delicious!!

 Thank you again Kelly for my Sew Together Bag.  You are the STB queen!  I'll treasure it.

p.s. Thank you all for your nice comments about the publication of my Hex Vex quilt.  I offer a workshop on it and I'm going to add some starter kits to my etsy shop if you want to start one of your own.

Quilt World Cross Over

Happy Hump Day!

Early this spring I received an email from a communication firm requesting permission to use a photo of my Hex Vex Quilt in a book they were creating for the Mohawk Flooring company to distribute to Interior Designers.

Um....Sure.....

Here is my page.  It is in the section of the book about "what's to come".  I really love what it says here adjacent to my photo.

The cover on my side:

I was in this section:

They got the name right - hooray.

Here are a few of the other "inspiration" pages that I really liked.

When I asked how they found the image they said it was a google search their research group did.  As we all know, hexagons are very, very big right now.  I'm so glad that my name and website were affiliated or I would not have had this opportunity.

By the way, I did send them a Letter Agreement about usage, fees, etc. for their legal dept to sign.  Wouldn't want to find they made carpeting or wallpaper with the image....at least without permission.

It was a big honor to be part of this publication and reminded me of my days at Parson's School of Design.

Here are my latest Stars for the Time Warp - I'm still behind and hoping to catch up before too long!

Blotch Background Chintz

 White background Chintz

 Fancy Stripes x2

My summer is flying by with little sewing!  How about you?

Farm Report

Hot and Humid with a Chance of Family Fun!

I'm back from my time at Pioneer Farm in Illinois.  It's a family place that we are lucky enough to enjoy due to the foresight of my late mother and father in law, Geraldine and Blair.  Here are two other posts I've done on the farm.  This one is summer and this one is winter.

Happy Birthday to me!!  Mary brought me two antique R/W quilt tops!   They will be a nice remembrance of our recent trip to Paducah where we saw a great lecture on R/W quilts.

Bear Paw is 70"x82"   the HST quilt is 66"x82"

They are both hand pieced and I would label their condition as Tender but not Fragile. (fra-geee-ly)

Does anyone know the name of the set of the Half Square Triangle quilt?
Here is how she pieced and set the blocks.

This is how I would have done it:

Curious, huh?

Here are three quilts made bySheila.  She used my fan stencil for machine quilting on the far left star quilt.  She also suggests I do a little tutorial on how to mark it.

Sheila's Nine Patch from a little swap we had - love this!

My Step mother in law, Mary's, Prairie Garden.  It was her vision to covert this lawn area by the outer barns into an Illinois prairie.  It blooms from early spring through late fall with different flowers and plants.  It is hard to capture it, but it is wonderful.

I made a few different table displays.  This is one with green apples from the front yard.

This is the view that I LOVE when I'm at the farm.  So Simple.  So Inspiring.

On the way to the farm, we stopped at Ralphie's house in Cleveland.  Here is a sneak peak of a post I'll be doing at Christmastime.  

Here is Andrew and Hanna's BF, David, playing with BB guns a the farm.   The only thing we killed were cans.  Yes, that is a real Red Rider BB Gun in the lower left corner - so funny!

Thanks for making to the end.  I will be back with a 4th of July post.   and a few more farm photos.  Hopefully I will soon be backing sewing.......what's sewing???

Happy Friday Everyone!