Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Simply Splendid!

Happy Wednesday!  Popping into to share photos from our trip to Vermont.
Hotel Glamping is the BEST if you're driving and have the space.
I like to bring my own bar and order pizza in.  To lay around and read magazines, sew and not go out after a long drive is heaven.
We visited Ben & Jerry's for a factory tour and a scoop.  Very Fun.
Hey Ladies - the B&J classic cows.
Here are some of my favorites from the Quilt Festival.
One of TOP FAVORITES at the show.  I thought it should have gotten a lot more of the judges love.  If you know her, please tell her for me.
Best in Show - incredible artistry
What a beautiful basket quilt - congratulations Laura!
Congratulaitons Karen!
Congrats to my buddy Wendy!  I told some women about your potholder process.  It had a great location at the show.
Gladi did a wonderful Post on Vermont here.  Here is her quilt.
what a delight
I shared a couple on IG click on the sidebar link to see them.

Cynthia also has awesome photos on her Post on Vermont here.

Kathy, of Kathy's Quilts sent me these fun socks.  How stinking cute are they?  Quilters are the kindest and most thoughtful people.  I love the card too. 
She's been working on machine quilting her Red and White Broken dishes from the FunwithBarbswap2016.  She got the socks from Quilter's Ninepatch.

Do you have a favorite?  It think it is hard to pick with so many good ones.

Have a Happy Week.
xo

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Summer! BLOGGER FIX

Happy Summer!  Thank you all who left nice comments on my last post and for your encouragement to continue blogging.

Here is another early peek at my new Liberated Piecing Project.
I have plans for a series like this.  There are some more details to add.  Very different but it's exciting to do something different.

Yay! There seems to be a fix for blogger email connection to comments.  I have heard of a couple but this is what worked for me:
Open Blogger
Click Settings
Click Email
Add your email to the box and SAVE CHANGES.
If your email is there, like mine was.  REMOVE IT - SAVE
Close all windows
Re-open Blogger
repeat above then "add" your email and SAVE CHANGES
Your should get an email to subscribe to "emails" in your email inbox.  Follow email instructions and you should be good to go.

Good Luck!

I have also been working on a new workshop sample based on my Lollipop Garden Quilt. 
In progress~
Still needs to stitched and borders.  It has been fun making circles and doing machine applique' this week.
Susan McD sent me a photo of some rag balls she made with African fabrics.  Aren't they fabulous?
Lifestyle Section~

Do you have a Morning routine?  I used to watch about 2 hours of News in the morning and I've weaned myself completely off and I'm so much happier!
Now I read, meditate, sew, dream and plan....aaahhh that's better.

Here is a great recipe I tried this week.  It whipped up in about 30 minutes and was great for a summer dinner.  I think it would be good for a 4th of July BBQ too.

Meatball Sub Casserole - click here for Recipe
If you shop at Costco I highly recommend their Green Matcha Tea.  It is good hot or cold and look how clever it rests on the top of your cup/pitcher/glass.
Alice Payne is on Display at the  Shipshewana Quilt Festival.  Give her a little love if you see her :)
I'm off to the Vermont Quilt Festival tomorrow with Hanna - yay!  There will be Ben & Jerry's and Flea Marketing this time.

xo

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Blogger Bummer

Hello!  Hello??  Anyone there??  See the end of the post for my rant about Blogger.
Friendship Medallion - 35" x 35"
I finally used my paint by numbers fabric.  I love this fabric.   You can see all the quilting.  I really do like the fans in the corner. What do you think?
I will never, EVER use wool batting on a small machine quilting project again!  I fought it the whole time! Too Puffy!!  I am going back to 80/20 or cotton.  What do you recommend for machine quilting?  
I had to quilt it much more than usual and the tension of the stitching skewed it - arrrgghhhhh
marked it with Crayola Washable Markers and the Blue Water-soluble Pen.  All marks came out fine with the help of these products.  My son laughed about my Alchemy.
I gave it a 30 minute soak then lots of squeezing and squishing followed by a rinse and spin cycle in my machine.  Here is a beauty shot.
I makes a good table topper for my DR.  Maybe I'll offer a pattern for it in my Etsy Shop.
It was National Sewing Machine Day yesterday.  I sewed all day.  It was wonderful.  I'm working my way through the entire Twilight Zone series on Netflix.  They early ones are really interesting and weird.
Starbuck has been on duty chasing the chipmunks.  I'm so frustrated with them they are digging up all my flowers :(      Do you have any suggestions?  By the way, he's already brought 1 upstairs in the house and caught another yesterday and waited for us to open back door.  
 Here is a peek at what I worked on yesterday.  I'm working in a new direction with a series in mind.  It fun to be excited about something new.
I wish you all a Happy Day 
xo

Now for the rant.....
Blogger is has made a change to not publish open ID comments.  So only people with a Blogger or Google profile can leave one.  I blog to connect to a community of quilters but this is really getting in the way of that!   Also, as you all have noticed email notifications on comments have stopped too.

This is not a PROBLEM this is a CHANGE made by Blogger.  What to do now?  I am emailing commenters directly from my email since I know most of them.  I am not, however, going back to all the blogs I leave comments for follow up responses which may or may not be there.   

I recommend that you use the orange button on this screen shot and send them a message about how unhappy we are with the changes.  
this button right here 

One thing you can do after posting is leave a comment on your own blog and click the box that says "follow up" emails then you'll get them, but you still won't be able to email responses  from that.......

waaaa.  waaaa.  waaaa.  Maybe it's time to use own website domain, which I already pay for and get off Blogger or drink the Kool-aid and just post on Instagram.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Happy June

Hello!
Back from a little blog break with a new finished quilt top~

Friendship Medallion -  40" square

It has a little twist - can you find it?
Why the name?

Three churn dashes were gifts from the 2018 swap.
The two blue dutch floral borders are a gift from Doreen.
The red broken dishes blocks are from the 2016 swap.

Thank you Everyone Who contributed!
This is another sample for my new workshop: "Magic Medallions".  These are not my typical colors but I really like them together in this quilt.

I ordered this beautiful little self published book from Gwen Marston.  She told me she had been wanting to make this book for many years.
each page has a Tree quilt and a poem or proverb.
It is delightful in every way!!  One of the things I've been busy with is planting my summer pots.  I've planted 10 this year.
I think you might be able to get yourself a copy of it here.

I received this hilarious oven mitt as a Birthday Gift.
 see anything weird about her cooking utensils?
Check out the funny details on the tag....lol  Thanks, Sheila!
I leave you with a photo of the Watercolor that Kelly sent me.  Isn't it sweet?
Happy June - See you Soon
xo