Quilt Camp!

Nervous? Excited? Yep!

I just registered for Quilt Camp through Pink Castle Fabrics!!!!

Wow! I have never really done anything even remotely like this - I never even went away to camp as a kid! I am so looking forward to it. YEA!!!

The Country Quilterie

Today I took a little drive to visit a quilt shop called the Country Quilterie that's not too far (20 miles is not too far for a quilt shop, right?) from our Pocono house. The shop is in Effort, PA. Of course I knew going in that there WOULD be purchases made!!!!

The shop is in a small building behind a charming little shopping area. The owner was in, and she was working on a baby quilt using flannels in soft pinks and greens - very pretty.  I browsed around for a while and picked out some more "low volume" fabrics for my collection that I'm intending to use for a king size scrap quilt. Yes, well, I don't have nearly enough "scraps" in these types of fabrics, so I'm collecting.

I also picked up a text print fabric from the American Valor line from Marcus Fabrics. I'm sure I can use it for the Liberty and Justice bee blocks.

And finally, my impulse buy was a ski racing print.

Since my husband and one of my sons have raced at Nastar Nationals the last two years, I just had to pick up a yard. I know I'll figure out a way to use it!  Here is my son from 2011 and the 2012 race:

 
Not too much sewing has gotten done this vacation week. We have been painting the new deck, and teaching to boys how to paint has really been fun. Not.

Who knew?

I'm linking up to:

 

I have an old sewing machine. Not vintage, just old - like maybe 10 years old. When I bought it, it was intended for basic sewing - mostly home dec stuff, valances and curtain panels. I was quilting at the time, or at least I had made quilts in the past, and my (also old) used Singer's tension was on the fritz for the second time in a short period of time. I figured I could get a new machine for close to the amount of money I would spend getting the Singer fixed and serviced - AGAIN.

I purchased a Euro-Pro Craft n Sew machine that was getting decent reviews at the time. It has been a very reliable machine and it did everything I needed it to do, even hemming thick denim jeans. I have never had it serviced in all of these years! Granted, it got pretty light usage for most of that time. Cleaning out and sorting through my old stash - I found the bag and manual that came with that Euro-Pro machine. Plenty of extra feet in that bag that I never had any use for before.

Lo and behold! A free-motion foot and a feed dog cover... could it be? I could actually free-motion on this machine??? You may laugh at this, but here it is - My very first ever attempt at free-motion!

Now, the amount of gripping and pressure this took on my hands makes it pretty much impossible for me to imagine doing on any quilt. I don't think I could even wrangle a throw quilt through this process. I'll be sticking to the longarmers, but maybe I could get to the point where I felt comfortable trying this on something the size of a pillow or mini quilt? Who knows! Anyway, it was fun...

Squeezing in sewing time

I have been running this week to appointments - Orthopedist, Physical Therapy, Orthodontist, Play dates for all three kids, and a day with my sister. Now we are up in the Poconos for a weekend with my in-laws. So, packing up for that too.

I did a few little things this week in my in-between moments - finished my August block for the Liberty and Justice Bee and sent it off...

Made one more wonky block for my Grinch Quilt...

...and that was about it. Hopefully this week and next I will be able to carve out a little more time for sewing. I still need to get the last of the templates cut for the quilt I designed. I only have one more color to go and then I can do the rotary part of the cutting, which should go very quickly.

I am also working on clearing out my office space and converting it to dedicated sewing space. I have had a laptop for a while now, and I find that its much more convenient to have it on the main floor of the house. The "office" is in the basement. I now use the computer on a small antique desk that I inherited when my grandma passed away last year. It makes me happy to use it, and it is a great size for the laptop! When my clean out and conversion is done, I will share!

Feeling Grinchy?

I am really loving what I'm working on with the Grinch fabrics from Robert Kauffman! I have combined a bunch of fabrics from that line, the panels and a couple of the others that have scenes from the book and the famous TV special.

I decided to alternate the blocks, making half with white at the outside, and the other half with color on the outer edge. This makes it really simple. And it's going very fast with me doing a block or two a day. I haven't decided yet how many blocks I will make - 5 x 6 possibly for a nice throw size.

Here are the blocks I did yesterday:

Love that Max! I have to do the Cindy Lou Who block soon.

This is quite a leap out of my comfort zone I have to say. Normally I like to plan ahead, and I think about exactly where I am headed before I start cutting fabrics. This time I am completely flying by the seat of my pants  - choosing fabrics for each block as I do them. Of course I did set some structure by alternating the edge colors of the blocks. And I am enjoying the freedom of this approach! I'm thinking a lot more improv is in my future?