And the Winner is....

I have so enjoyed reading all of the comments left about holidays.  There are a lot of people out there who like Halloween.  The winner of the fabric and the books is....BitnByAQuiltingBug.  Please send me your address and I will get your goodies in the mail to you.  Now I need to figure out what happened to my blog background.  It has just disappeared. 

Halloween in July

I know that everyone has heard of Christmas in July, how about Halloween in July? I love holidays, all of them. Christmas and Halloween are my two favorites. I have several Christmas quilts and one small Halloween quilt, when I saw this pattern last year while on retreat with Sharon and Shannon. I just had to have it! Lisa and Pat bought it also, and we challenged each other to complete it by this year's retreat. Well as you can see all I have left is to pick on a backing and get it quilted. I think that I won!!! In honor of my completing this quilt I am doing a Halloween give away. I have four yards of an Alexander Henry Halloween print, two books (0ne with just Halloween patterns, the other with all holidays), and four fat quarters that coordinate with the yardage. Just leave me a comment telling me about your favorite holiday memory, (if you become a follower you will get your name put in an extra time. ) . Since this is a Halloween post I will tell you my favorite Halloween memory. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as going to the store and buying a costume, my mom always made mine. My favorite one was a witch costume that she made, complete with hat and cape. The actual costume had a broom appliqued on the front of it. The cape was long and flowing, and the hat was really tall and pointy. I loved that costume. I remember waiting all day to put it on and go out and get candy. Back then my mom would just drop me and my brother off and we would go to several houses then walk back to the car. Boy have times changed. I seem to remember getting more candy that year and I just knew that it was the costume. I insisted that we save it because I wanted to wear it again the next year. We did save it, but by the time the next Halloween had rolled around, I had gotten a lot taller and there was no way that I could wear it. I still like to get dressed up and hand out candy at my house. I usually try to do something special to the front of our house to scare all of the trick or treaters. What is your favorite memory? I am heading out of town again tomorrow and will determine a winner when I come back on Saturday. (Close up of the yardage)

Pigs and Quilts

I think is amazing that no matter where you travel you always find things that interest you, like pigs and quilts. My DH and I just came back from a few days in Asheville, NC and I managed to find plenty of both pigs and quilts. We actually went up for the Belle Chere festival, which is always wonderful. It is a combination, art, craft and music festival that is held in downtown Asheville the third weekend in July. The arts and crafts are always outstanding and the music is wonderful, we always hear some really good bands. This year we went up a couple of days early just to have some quiet time away from everything and everyone. We went to Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, Bat Cave, The North Carolina Arboretum, Mt. Mitchell, The Vance Birthplace, and Craggy Gardens. When we go on vacation, we usually don't miss anything. The pig statues were at one of the squares in Asheville. I don't know for sure why they were there, but there were cute. I noticed that I wasn't the only person taking a photo of them. I also found pigs in several restaurants, and at the blue Ridge Parkway Visitor's Center. Quilts were also in several different places. Several were painted on the sides of old barns and different buildings that we passed. The one above is on display at the North Carolina Arboretum. It was beautiful. I wanted to get to the quilt shop in Black Mountain but we ran out of time.

I can't believe that I only have one week before school starts back, hope I can get some of my sewing projects finished.

Stitch in Day 1

Today was the first day of stitch in, and wouldn't you know it, I had to stop by school first and I was late to sewing. Once there I didn't waste any time catching up with everyone and sewing my little heart out. I had originally planned on attending for the entire week, but since I would like to spend a few days away with my husband I am only going for two days. Pat, our fearless leader our did herself with our goodie bags, there was hand cream, a notebook (you can never have too many notebooks), quilting sticky arrows, and a thread mitt; all really useful stuff. I worked on my Grandpa's Best. I hope to at least finish the blocks tomorrow. It was great to see everyone. Sarah was the first person to finish a project, a tote bag, that was so cute. I just realized that I didn't get a picture, maybe tomorrow. It is so much fun to spend time with people who enjoy doing the same things that you do.

Sewing Day

Yeah, Thimbles weekend is finally here. It feels like forever since I have been sewing with everyone in the group. I wasn't able to go last month because of my foot surgery, so it has been a while. It was great to see everyone yesterday, unfortunately there are no photos, I forgot my camera. Everyone was busy working on their own projects. I love to go around and see what everyone is doing. Suzanne was working on a George Washington quilt, she loves Civil War fabrics. Teresa was working on a Bonnie Hunter scrap quilt, Becky was working on the "stones" quilt. Kathy, Becky's friend joined us and was working on a Yellow Brick Road in LSU fabrics. It is going to look great. Pat our fearless leader was working on another neutral quilt. I started my Grandpa's Best, all of the fabrics are cut and I made one of each of the two blocks in the quilt. I wanted to get a feel for how they were going to look. I decided that I needed to add a couple of more reds, and blues. I have been through my stash today and found just what I needed. Next week is stitch in, and I plan on going on Monday and Tuesday. I should be able to get most of the blocks put together. I do have several other projects packed and ready to go, who knows what I will work on. Can't wait for Monday.

One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where no matter what nothing goes as planned. Bright and early this morning I headed to the sewing room to finish the skirt I started before I went to my mom's house. Well, that didn't happen, I realized that I didn't have the right size elastic to go in it. I did as much as I could without the elastic. I will have to go out shopping tomorrow. I then decided to cut out a pair of pants and a top, I had bought the fabric earlier in the summer. My plan was to try out some patterns that I bought at the last Sewing Expo. I usually stick with either Vogue or Butterick, but I really liked the look of these and decided to be brave and try something new. The pants are different in that they only have one seam. I am using a cotton and linen blend in a neutral twee with little flecks of gold and blue. The top is a gold handkerchief linen. I actually wanted to start sewing on the top, but no gold thread, so that project was put on hold. I definitely need to make a trip to Joann's.

After very little luck in the garment sewing department, I realized that I needed to decide what I was going to take to Thimbles this weekend. I have a couple of projects that are at that almost finished stage, but I really didn't want to take them. I wanted a new project. I decided to take the project that I purchased on my last trip to Sweet Home, I had a gift card that I wanted to do something special with. At Sweet Home there was a sample on the wall of a pattern called Grandpa's Best. I fell in love with it. I decided that I wanted to get that pattern and put together fabrics in red, cream and blue for the project, with Becky and Melissa's help I was able to put together some great looking fabrics.

They don't look that great in the photo, but they really look good together. I can't wait to get started on it.

Glad to be home!

I am really glad to be home! I have spent the last week in Mississippi with my mom. I love to spend time with her, but it is so good to be home. We really didn't do that much while I was there. We had planned on taking a trip up to Virginia to visit with my brother, however, the day before we were to leave my mom decided she didn't want to go. I still haven't figured that one out, but whatever makes her happy. I wanted to get her out of the house, since my dad died, she tends to stay at home too much by herself. There really isn't that much to do around where she lives, I did find that there is an apron museum not to far from her, so on Friday we headed to Iuka, MS to find the world's first apron museum. To my surprise, it was wonderful. The lady who owns and runs it was " a font of apron information", she has several hundred aprons, some dating back to the early civil war. I had the best time looking at all of them. My mom even enjoyed it!
One of my favorite aprons was the one above that had a looked like a face. I never knew there were so many different kinds of aprons. If for any reason you are ever in North Mississippi, I would highly recommend a visit to the apron museum. All in all in was a good trip. I managed to see relatives that I rarely ever see. I was able to spend time with cousins, and their kids. I had not seen some of them in over a year, it is hard to believe how quickly they are growing. It makes me wish I could spend more time with them.

Now that I am home, I realize that school will be starting back all too soon. I have so many projects that I had planned on completing this summer, that still aren't complete. I guess that means that I am going to be very, very busy in the next few weeks.

Mini Shop Hop

I love that quote, "a bed without quilts is like the sky without stars". That is a sign at A Scarlet Thread, one of the stops on our mini shop hop on Monday. It was definitely mini we only went to two shops, but that was enough. We had a great time. Our first stop was A Scarlet Thread. It is one of the best shops, they have everything!I found a great skirt pattern that I just had to have. They even had one made up, and it is made from a Jelly Roll, what will they do with those things next? I also bought a jacket pattern and the fabric for the jacket. Too bad I didn't find any fabric for a skirt.

They always have some great samples made up!!

Our second stop was Intown Quilters, unfortunately I forgot to take my camera in with me. I did find fabric for a skirt, actually two different pieces. I managed to be a good girl and only buy those two pieces.

My new favorite notion

On Monday, Kristie, Becky, Pat and I went on our own mini shop-hop. It was a great time. Our first stop was A Scarlet Thread, that store is awesome. It is so big and they have so much fabric. I was bad and bought a jacket pattern, plus the fabric for it, and a skirt pattern. (Yes, quilt shops sell clothing patterns). I also saw Kristie with a new glue pen, and I decided that I needed one. It is the new Sewline Glue Pen. I am so glad that I bought it. I have already used it to prep the next block for my Carrie Hall Sampler. It works great. It is much better than any other method I have used for my applique. I am definitely sold on it. Now I will just have to find the refills for it. More our our mini shop hop later.