Carrots

Aren't these so cute?  My friend Sandy, yes that chick again from Quilting For The Rest Of Us, turned me onto this video from Missouri Star Quilting Company.  This is for sure not the first thing I made from a Missouri Star video.  They have great videos on You Tube.

Nearly done 1000 Pyramid Quilt

Must add some borders and get this thing quilted.  It has been a long time coming.  There are no repeaters so it has taken me a while to collect them.  Well, you know, there may be a couple repeaters because I may have forgotten that I already added it.  They are five inch isosceles triangles.  Very scrappy don't yah think?

Thank you Sandy of Quilting For The Rest Of Us for helping me out with some triangles.  It helped and it definitely spurred me on to finish it.

Easter Egg Dyeing

 What did I do this past Sunday?  Yes, I colored eggs with my daughters. 

 Fun!

 Just the basic kind of dyeing, squirt of dye, tablespoon of vinegar and hot water.

Don't yah love the blue and really the purple had me swooning as well.  The green, eh, not so much.

Fall Table Runner

I was able to use a bunch of scraps for this table runner.  The pattern Autumn Stars, is in the book, Lots of Scraps: Its Time To Quilt, edited by Jeanne Stauffer and Sandra L. Hatch.  House of White Birches publishing.

I borrowed this book from the library and fell in love with a lot of the patterns.  I figured it was a keeper so I bought it used off Amazon.

And yes I know it is the first day of Spring and I am posting something fallish.  Stay tuned something Springy coming up soon.

Frumpy Fun Purse

I fell in love with this purse- had to make it.  I love how casual it is.  A great purse to take along to the market or out on a summer day.  Yes, I am dreaming of summer.

The instructions were pretty good.  Its funny whenever I look at a pattern it is always daunting to me.  I read it all and I think I don't know if I can do that.  Then I talk to myself and say, Lori, one step at a time.  Just do it one step at a time.  That's what I did with this.  And yes, this purse is simple.  After I was all done I could see how simple it was.  Looking at the finished project though I wondered if it would be.

Yes, my skin is that dry.

Here is a favorite trick of mine.  I recently acquired a new orange stick to do this instead of the letter opener I usually use.  You tuck the sewed in into the tube and the push in the stick.  Holding the stick with your belly or whatever, take your thumbs and move the fabric down over itself.  Once you get it all the way through, then push out the corners on the sewed end.  Then pull the rest all the way down.

Fold over the end that isnt sewed to make it so there is no raw edges.  On this pattern it doesnt matter but I  but I wanted it to show you.  Now press.

Purse pattern taken from Quilts and More, Winter 2012.  There are a lot of great ideas in this particular magazine.  Its a keeper.

New Pillow Covers

I bought some pillows at a garage sale for a dollar a piece.  Its been probably about four years since I bought them.  I generally don't buy pillows but these were in great shape.  I didnt mind the pattern on them but I did plan on recovering them anyway.  Yes, time flies.  Here it is four years later (maybe even five...) and they are done. 

I bought a scrap bag recently and there was a lot of strips in there.  I was able to use them and just a bit of fabric on the front to make court house steps and a square in a square.  I am really pleased with the results.

Love this quilting idea.  I saw it over on Crazy Mom Quilts and fell in love with it. It's easy and makes a very cool pattern and affect. They look real nice with the microfiber one that I made.  That was a happy accident because I never even considered it.

I use an envelope style because I can switch them up if I want to.  I have some for Christmas that I like to change off with at Holiday time.

Yes, I put blankets on my couches to protect them.  Hey, its better than plastic, and with little kids around I sure need it.

Retreat Highlights

I didnt take nearly enough pictures.  There was other stuff that was beautiful and why it didnt make it onto my memory card, I will never know.

See the flower laying on the table.  She made more and they surrounded the piano keys.  Why didnt I take a picture of that?  I dunno.

She had more blocks made up--- beautiful.

Easy Street with my Quilting Peeps

Here are some of my friends Easy Streets.  Mine is at the bottom.  I hope to get a pic of a few more of the ladies that also did Easy Street.  It was such a blast doing it all together. 

Stash Sale Findings

Yesterday my quilt peeps, Jan of Quilting Revolution and Sandy of Quilting for the Rest of Us and I went to a stash sale.  I found some great stuff.  Some embellishments.

 Some magazines, like Stitch and Fons and Porter Quilts...

 And of course some really pretty fabric.

I even found some quilted material for a good price, considering the stuff in the store is 20 dollars+.  I simply won't buy that stuff for the full cost.

Here is a shot of the room where we bought our stuff that my friend Jan of Quilting Revolution took.

Among the highlights, Sandy found 15 yards of PFD silk for 30 bucks!  Wowzer!  And Jan got a free bag- lucky duck.  I so need to copy the bag pattern!  A Lands End bag for free! Dang!