Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival

Amy at Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting a bloggers quilt festival.  I am always so inspired by all of the beautiful quilts.  I decided to show my "Huckleberry Pie".  This quilt was made using the pattern "Blueberry Pie"  from Silver Thimble Quilt Co.  I started it last year from a kit that was put together by Little Quilts, in addition to the fabrics in the kit I added some of my own. This is the first purple quilt I have ever made, not sure what inspired me to do it, but I love it.  I decided to make the larger size, it is 64 x 80.  I had it quilted by Leisa Wiggley and as usual she did a great job.  Can't wait to see what everyone else is putting in the show.

Houston Quilt Market

I was lucky enough to be invited to go to the Houston Quilt market for the second year in a row by my good friend Pat over at Silver Thimble Quilt Co.  There were seven of us there this year and it was a blast, however, it got of to a rocky start.  Pat had shipped the actual booth and it was late in reaching the convention center for some reason.  Not Good!!  This meant that we were delayed in setting up the booth.  We went with plan B which was shopping at Painted Pony then setting up the booth.

Marti, Pat, Kristie, and BJ working on the booth.

Just before the doors to market open, me, BJ, and Kristie.

Ready to sell, sell, sell

After shopping and getting the booth set up, we went out for a quick dinner, then back for shopping at Spree.  Spree is absolutely crazy, especially the Moda table!!! It is a free for all, with fat quarter bundles flying everywhere.  I went to Moda first got what I wanted, then to Valdani for my first thread purchase.  I also bought a cute stitchery pattern, Kristie thought it was cute too, since she bought the same one.  After Spree we went back to the hotel for show and tell then off to bed to get ready for the first day of the show on Saturday.  More about that later.

New Project

New Project???  Like a I really need one.  I haven't been doing much sewing recently for lots of reasons, work, visiting my mom, having my MIL visit me, sinus infection, and my new project.  A couple of months ago, I decided that dyeing wool would probably be a lot of fun.  Big Mistake, it is too much fun.  I started out  buying skirts at the Salvation Army, I always go on Wednesday since that is 1/2 price day for clothes.  It is amazing the wool skirts I have found, one skirt had over a yard in one piece, all you have to do is be willing to cut them apart and felt them.  Then I decided to branch out and actually buy a piece of off white wool at JoAnn's with a coupon. 

My next stop was Big Lots to buy some canning jars, yes canning jars.  ( The first batch I dyed was with Koolaide, I have now moved on to "real dye".  When you use the canning jars you are able to dye a range of colors. 

I felt like a mad scientist.  I had already dyed some yellows with Koolaide, but wanted to try real dye.  I really like the way they turned out.  The only thing I will do differently with the next batch is try to make the colors vary a little more.  Some of the yellows were very similar.  I am getting so into this that I am setting up my own etsy shop.  Watch for more details. 

I feel like I have arrived!!!

I made the Little Quilts Blog!!!!  I made this version of Blueberry Pie from a kit Mary Ellen over at Little Quilts put together.  She wanted me to bring it over to share when I finished, never dreamed I would make her blog.  Yeah, me. 

Festival Quilts

Yesterday I told you about the Fall Festival at the John C. Campbell Folk School, all except the quilts. There were  more quilts on display this year than in past years, or I just don't remember all of them.  I didn't get photos of all of them because there were just too many people wandering around the room where they were on display.  The one to the right is made out of flannel and homespun, it reminded me of an Amish Quilt, very nice.

The one above, (which I think the photo is sideways, but I can't get it to rotate) is a sampler quilt (as you can tell).  It caught my eye because it has red, and my two favorite block patterns, the log cabin and a star. 

Love this one, made by Sammie Simpson.

Liked this one just because of the name, Joe Pye Weed. 

I would love to take either a quilt class or a dyeing class at the Folk School, but it is too expensive for me now, plus most of the classes are a week long and I just can't take off from work to  play for a week!!

Fall Festivals

I love Fall Festival time of year!  There is a festival almost every weekend or craft show almost every weekend.  Last week was the annual Fall Festival at the John C. Campbell Folk School, it is a wonderful festival.  This year the weather was absolutely beautiful, which lead to extremely large crowds.  We arrived shortly after 10:00, the festival opened at 10:00 and parking was already at a premium.  This is one of my favorite festivals, it supports the folk school and is in a beautiful setting.  Most of the vendors are people who have either taken classes a the school or are instructors.  The arts and crafts are definitely worth the money.  The only thing I make a point of buying every year is yarn.  I love alpaca yarn and at the festival I get to meet the alpaca's and pet them.  This year I found a gorgeous purple yarn that I plan on using for a scarf. 

Every year I look forward to petting the alpaca's and buying some of their yarn.

Not sure who this guy was maybe "The Fall Fairy".

Of course there were pigs.

Salvation Army shopping

A couple of weeks ago I wandered into the Salvation Army store down the street from the school where I work.  I had never been in there, for no other reason that I had simply not taken the time to go in.  It was a Wednesday afternoon, and lucky for me, it was 1/2 price clothing day.  I bought 4 wool skirts to use for wool applique. 

I took them room, cut them apart and felted them.  Three of the skirts came out really nice, one just ok.  (the red plaid one didn't do too well).  I am so excited over the way they turned out.  Now I just need to find a wool applique project to use them in. If anyone has a great suggestion for a cute fall applique pattern that uses wool I would love to hear about it.    I am also thinking about dyeing some of the wool. Can't wait to see how that would turn out.