Neat Idea for a Boutique

I found the neatest idea for a boutique. I happened upon it while searching the web for something else. There is a church craft boutique in a nearby neighborhood this Friday night. In addition to having things for sale, they also have tables that a person can reserve for working on crafts. People will be doing scrapbooking, card making, one person will do her Christmas cards, and I reserved a table for sewing. In addition, local businesses paid for a massage chair and operator. People can reserve a spot for a Free 15-minute chair massage!

I don’t know anyone else who will be there. I usually don’t join events with complete strangers, but this seemed too good to pass up. I told a knitter friend about it, and she is going to come and sit by my table and knit. I have been wishing I could find some extended hours to sew uninterrupted, so this is perfect! I am getting tired of having so many UFO’s. I want to get a bunch of them done. Hence my need for uninterrupted hours of sewing. (I know, this is something we all need.)

I am making a quilt to order (sort of). I’m going to get paid for it! I’m nearly done with it, and will post a picture as soon as it’s complete.

Moral Support

My husband made these wonderful dinner rolls for Thanksgiving, while I offered moral support. We had a great day and hope you all did, too.

A Last-Minute Quilt

I've been so busy! I didn't even know it had been so many days since I posted here. Time just flies by. It is mostly work that has kept me so busy. Thank goodness I will get a bunch of days off now for Thanksgiving (Th, Fr, Sa, Sun). Yippee!

Last Saturday I met another blogger in person. She and I are part of my other blog ring - St. Paul Daily Photo. She's from St. Paul, too. We met at a nice coffee cafe - I decided about 2 hours before meeting her that I wanted to give her a small quilt. I made this little quilt and had it almost done, but had to sew down the binding while we sat and chatted.



She said she is going to use it as part of her centerpiece for Thanksgiving. After we had our coffee and I finished sewing on the binding, we went downstairs to an open house at a new book store which is owned by Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame. He was signing autographs, so my blogger friend photographed me with him. Here we are - guess this might be my 15 minutes of fame, eh? Proximity to someone famous counts, doesn't it? He was nice and seemed genuinely interested in a short chat about what I do for a living.





We're making home-made rolls for our Thanksgiving dinner contribution. It's always so hard for me to not eat a bunch of them before we get to the family gathering! Here are my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal: dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. I can never decide which pie I want, so I usually have both. And I wonder why I look like a whale??

Happy weekend, everyone, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this U.S. holiday.

Stuff in a Bag Challenge

Remember a while back I said I was working on a project that I could not show you? We had a challenge at my guild: we each put fabric of our choice into a bag. The bags were redistributed, and when we received a bag, we had to make a small quilt and finish it. We didn't know whose fabric we were working with! Last night at guild we had the big reveal. It was amazing and so fun! Everyone made gorgeous quilts, and such a variety! This first picture is me with the quilt I made. You can't see it here, but there is white lace going around the inside of the binding.







This purple applique quilt is my favorite of the bunch. Sorry the picture is so dark.



This one is for me! In my bag I put all batiks and never imagined it would come back like this. It's really cute and quilted well for the penguin theme, too.

Back from Retreat

This weekend I went on a quilt retreat with my local guild. It was great! We were at a church camp in Wisc. Weather was a little cold, but we had sunshine on Saturday, and the scenery was beautiful. Take a look at the view I had from my work station. Not bad, eh?



Here's a top I put together for a woman who was recently diagnosed with cancer. I plan to add borders and get it delivered soon.



Here's our group at work, followed by some miscellaneous shots of the weekend's activities.

There was another quilt group there in a different building (also a large group of scrapbookers.).



This one is my quilt in process

My "Tote Bag"

The other day I impulsively suggested on someone's blog that we all make tote bags and compare photos. "Well," I thought, "since I opened my big mouth, I should probably make a tote bag." So I sat down with purple scraps and started to make scrap blocks that could go together to become a nice, purple tote bag. Something happened, though. I noticed that one of my scrap combinations looked like a letter "C." Then I remembered that I alrealdy had a letter "A" that was a reject from a previous project. That's almost half my name, so I went ahead and finished my name. I still thought it could become part of my tote bag design. But then I made my husband's name... and now I have a whole new idea as to how to use these letters. For all I know, the project will take another 180 degree turn at some point. They say that's how a lot of writers write a novel... it writes itself as they go along. We'll have to wait and see how this quilt designs itself. One thing I'm pretty sure of: it is no longer a tote bag.

Comfort Food/Comfort Quilts

Hooray! I finally got to do some sewing today. I put comfort food in the oven (meat loaf, potatoes, squash.) While those things baked, I got to sew! Earlier I had gone through my stash and cut squares from some fabrics that had just a little left. I made one quilt top from 9-inch squares, and one from 6-inch squares. The 9-incher is here:



I also got a top put together from blocks made by other people. Here's that top:



Both of these quilts will be for Wrap Them in Love.
Just for fun, here's the comfort food I enjoyed for dinner tonight:

Made in India

I went to an art fair today and bought this gorgeous piece for myself. Here it is with some fall items on top and then with some Christmas candles. I was trying to get some good angles to show how pretty it is, but as is true with all pieces of art, pictures don't do it justice.

My Son Did It!

I have not had time to do much sewing, so I'm showing you a quilt from the past. My son made this when he was 18!! He wouldn't let me help at all except for a bit of cutting and part of the binding. He made it for his girlfriend. The sad part is that they have since broken up. But what a sweet guy my son is! He did a great job, and I was (am) so proud of him!