Beautiful!

Every year over Columbus Day, we head up to Door County, WI to enjoy the fall colors. We camp in Peninsula State Park with a rather large group of friends. Hiking, sharing meals, laughing and catching up around the campfire are a few of the great things about this weekend. But really, the show is of God's spectacular creation. This year is of no exception...take a look!

Sights along our hike.

A beautiful birch tree

Colors against the blue sky!

We hiked to the lighthouse...

and amphitheater...

where the kids like to perform for the adults :D

A recent storm left many trees down.

We found this friendly walking stick...no not the kind you use for hiking 

although there were plenty of those around too!

In town, we ate at the White Gull Inn for the traditional fish boil.

And breakfast at Al Johnson's

Fall reminders were everywhere!

I was able to finish these over the weekend too!

October's block and a new block for June. The original June block is too different from the rest so I will use it on the back as the label.

I almost have a another finish...I'm hand stitching the binding :D 

Stayed tuned!

Just a quick post

Argh! We have had problems with our internet service lately... hate when that happens. I wanted to do a quick post yesterday but again no internet service. Finally they came out today and hopefully fixed our service.  

Anyways...I had a couple of finishes that I wanted to show. The first being this paper pieced picture of a hummingbird. 

It is framed in a 9" x 9" frame.  The paper piecing was a little different because of the curved seams in the wings and tail.  On my first attempt, I used too dark of a turquoise blue and the poor little hummingbird kind of got lost. I am much more pleased with my 2nd go around.

If you remember, a couple post back I showed a table runner kit I bought featuring Hometown by Sweetwater.  I finished set aside some other WIP's to sew this kit. 

 I.am.smitten.

It goes perfectly in my dining room of deep red walls! 

And my favorite part...look closely and you can see my hometown. Here let me help you get a closer look. 

Right under Pittsburgh in the center is Chicago...yep!

It is fun to read all the different 'hometowns.' Have you found yours? 

Did you notice the giant rick rack trim? Too Cute! The pattern is Riff-Raff Runner by Silk Road Creations.  I am now waiting on more material to arrive so I can make matching place mats.  

A few other things are going on here but I can't say yet. So stayed tuned in.

Summer Bow Tie

I have a finish! 

First, a little bit about this quilt. 

As many of you know, this summer was especially busy for me. To keep my sanity mind focused, I joined the Summer Bow Tie Quilts on Facebook. It seemed doable since you were to make one bow tie block everyday during the summer. 

[Of coarse, I really made mine in 3 or 4 sittings at my machine but that's OK.] 

My idea was to use only fabric from my stash. I started cutting out one bow tie from each of the fabrics I pulled out of one of many drawers.  As I went through my drawers, I realized I have soooo much fabric that I don't really prefer.

Read more about 'less preferred' stash and my personal challenge here.

This quilt finished with 120 Bow Ties each made of different fabrics [and that didn't even make a dent in my stash.] 

The backing was also pieced using stash fabric. The only fabric that I purchased was more Kona Snow as I was running short. 

[I really don't count that because it is a staple for me]

...so the entire quilt made from my stash! 

The kept the quilting simple...1/4" around the bow ties and a double diamond in the white space. I bound this quilt in Kona Snow as it already had so many colors. 

[The quilting and binding was on hold for a while because my Elna was in for a tune-up. I did get it back in half the time expected and that made me very happy!!]

I wasn't sure how I would like this very scrappy quilt but I really do! It is fun to look through the fabrics and remember what each fabric was used for or if I inherited it or was it donated to me....

Are you a fan of scrappy quilts or do you prefer fabrics from one line?

A technology update: I figured out how to make and link a PDF of my tutorial for the herringbone quilt. Just go here and scroll to the end of the post for the link. I hope you enjoy and...

A quilt parade!

Last Saturday I went to a local quilt show and I posted some pictures of the beautiful quilts from a couple of the categories here. I promised a parade of the the rest. Here they are! These were in the large quilts category.

The green and blues were very pretty with the pale yellow contrasting fabric. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.

 Unique use of the flower embroidery panels...beautifully done.

I just love me some tiny log cabins!

The bright green and blue against the white really popped! The quilting was gorgeous too!

Traditional Double Wedding Ring - Love it!

Someday I will do this.

Very pretty and soft - quarter dresdens.

The quilting was pretty too!

The next category - wallhangings:

There was just something about the simplicity of this one...

A bouquet of hexies! What's not to love?

Pick-up-sticks

Another blue and soft yellow - maybe my next stash challenge quilt?

I'm getting close to some finishes. Promise to be back soon! Until then...

Take a moment...

Today I found myself with a day off from work. I had plans to work on several projects, play around with some designing, and do some hand sewing of the binding I sewed on yesterday.  

Oh did I have plans...but as I was reading Madame Samm's post over at Sew I Quilt this morning [while enjoying my morning coffee], I was deeply touched by this story over at The Scrappy Appleyard. This grieving family is in need of some star blocks.  I immediately knew that I would help. 

I decided to lay all my plans aside, at least temporarily, to work on a few stars.  I dug through my muted red, white and blue fabrics and found some that would work and I did a quick search for stars patterns. It really didn't take much time to cut out and stitch these blocks together.  

The blocks could be 8 1/2" or 12 1/2" unfinished. 

Before the morning was finished they were completed and off to the post office I went. If your willing to help, please go over and read about Tory's story. I'm sure you will be as touched as I was. 

I'm playing...

The Name Game today over at Live a Colorful Life!

Hop over to Cindy's blog to read about it. Take some time and have a look around. You will surely be inspired. 

If your new here, I welcome you to look around and hope you find something inspiring as well. If your a regular follower, I always love to hear from you.

Thanks Cindy for inviting me to play along.

My visit to a local quilt show

Yesterday after a meeting at my church, I headed to a quilt show in the area.  I haven't been to a quilt show since the International Quilt Festival moved out of Chicago! This show wasn't anywhere as extensive as that but there were some beautiful quilts! Here is a small sample...

These 3 were my favorites in the mini quilt category.

Love the use of different fabrics to make the thread!

Love mini hexies! All done by hand!

There is something about black and white outlined with a touch of red!

The next were throw size...here are some of my favorites...

Simple but interesting!

Some great snowmen scenes and cute embellishments!

Great embroidery of a favorite verse. Beautifully done!

This was my favorite of all. 9-patched pieced and applique in wool. The details and quilting were gorgeous!

The colors were magnificent! Love how the star spins!

Another beautiful quilt with great color!

A Frank Lloyd Wright window quilt. Love the blues to green.  I made a similar quilt for my mom and these are not the easiest. The black 'leading' is only 1/4" wide.

I'll leave the remaining categories for another time but I will show you my treasures from the vendors. What's a show without a little fabric therapy?

Can I say L.O.V.E! 

I am totally smitten with Hometown by Sweetwater. I just couldn't resist this little kit for a table runner. 

Do you believe that my LQS did not order this line? What were they thinking? I will be getting more!

I fell in love with these pretties...

Just had to have me some ginkgo leaves.

And finally some red/white dots for the binding on a future project and some green batik to add to what I showed here.

After dinner with my DH, DD1 and her boyfriend, I was able to finish the remaining 24 blocks on my personal challenge quilt. Now I'm working on stitching it together! Progress pictures soon!