A LITTLE SHOPPING TRIP ~~~~

We live in a very small rural community but we have a nice fabric store geared mostly to quilters.  This week the quilting cotton was $2.99 per yard so a trip to town this morning was very much in order.

Despite my self-imposed fabric diet I had to sample just a few of their offerings. 

Two darling Halloween prints.  I've used the bat print before on table toppers I made recently.  The cute ghosts with the toothy smiles are really cute.

 

 

These Christmas prints are so pretty.  I'm especially fond of the gray/purple/gold combo.  Nice for table runners for girlfriends.

 

 

 

 This print reminds me of Cotton & Steel fabric.  I will make a jellyroll quilt and incorporate a little of the fabric into the strips and use it again in the border. 

 

Not to be outdone, this darling Happy Haunting layer cake came in the mail today. 

I see lots of happy hours sewing in my near future.  I think I did very well without breaking the bank.

What are you making for the holidays??

CURVED LOG CABIN

The Curved Log Cabin I made for our neighbors for Christmas is finally done.  It took a few days for me to hand hem the binding but I enjoy the process so much it was worth it.

I wanted to make a Christmas quilt that wasn't totally Ho-Ho-Ho.  The fabric I chose is the luscious Incarnadine line by Robyn Pandolph.  The cream fabric is French Vanilla by RJR.  I seem to have a knack for falling in love with discontinued fabrics, but after a bit of internet searching I was able to come up with enough fabric to make two quilts.  Yes, I will be making another one for us.  The machine stippling was done by my LAQer Reggie, who always does wonderful work.

The Curved Log Cabin pattern is a basic log cabin with half of the strips 2.5" (prints) and the other half 1.5" (cream).  This particular pattern was built on the center square adding strips and trimming them as I went along.  I prefer this to having to cut stacks of pre-measured strips.  As long as the seams are a consistent 1/4" everything works out well. 

This is where I have to say something about the fabulous Stripology ruler I bought recently.  If you cut a lot of strips for your quilts I can't recommend this tool enough.  It's a little on the pricey side ($50) but worth every cent.  Yesterday I cut three yards of fabric into perfect 1.5" strips in 20 minutes without measuring anything!  The bonus for me is that the edges are clean cut rather than pinked, which I really prefer for accuracy. 

It feels odd having a Christmas quilt done in August but I prefer this to burning the midnight oil the night before the gift is to be given, which I've done so many times in the past. 

Wishing everyone a sweet weekend!

HEAD START ON THE HOLIDAYS....

I've been binding a few pieces I just got back from my quilter, Reggie.  I posted pictures of these items before quilting and here they are quilted, bound and ready to mail off. 

 

My daughter has a birthday this month and she wants the topper with the gray inner border as part of her birthday gift.  I made both toppers from half of a layer cake pack plus a little black and white and borders.

The curved log cabin I posted pictures of is in the process of being bound.  The hand hemming is torture on my hand so I have to take a day or two off from hand sewing.  Someone asked me if I got arthritis....I said no, I just got old!

Happy sewing everyone!