Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, VA Feb 2013

It's been so long since I've posted I thought my first post back in should be quilt related and, well, just plain fluff.

Mom and I attended again this year, together. We make a full day of it and have a great time just hanging out. Here, I made her pause in the cold and windy weather to take a photo for you.  She'll always stop for a photo!

Also, I was sucked in. Sucked in, I tell you, in purchasing the following fun items:

This bundle of fabric that I love but have no use for.  It was a 5 yard bundle for $30. There was another lady petting it but her friend talked her out of it, told her it wasn't very pretty. What's up with that? I think it's beautiful!

Fat quarters for the #sweatnsew challenge I was running on Instagram (now you know that between home life and work, my other free time has been on Instagram).

A nifty tool for making Lemoyne stars blocks. I'm convinced this is going to make my life easier with these stars that I love and will be reporting soon on this particular tool.

Small, pre-printed whole cloth fabrics. I want to use these and practice some tarpunto quilting by machine. This is a quilting bucket list item for me.

A paint kit so I can dye my own fabrics.  I've seen this for years but this year, I decided to take the plunge and get some tools. I think I'm really going to enjoy letting a little creative out of me with this but as with the star tool, I want to clean some things off my plate first before I add more to it.

Lastly, one of those things to clean off, mom bought these fabrics so I can make her a tote. Don't you think this will look great! She's got a love of batiks and the price of these was unbelievably good. Almost a steal!

As for the rest of the show, I think I'll let most photos speak for themselves.  The labels first, then the quilt.  Enjoy.

I really wanted to take this one home! :)

Cheers!
Beck

Happy Mail

This week was the week for happy mail.

I participated in a Kokka layer cake swap with 25 other people and here the fabrics all came.

I bought a new patter by Logan over at Logan Makes a Mess  and strips that I initially thought would be used for another quilt of valor scrappy trip quilt but now that I've seen them I might keep them and use them for this skirt pattern or a quilt of my own. I love them!

Finally, a surprise, surprise, surprise. The wonderful and talented Barb over at Bejeweled Quilts by Barb sent me a pillow cover for a sewing chair pillow that she made.

She designed, sewed and quilted it for the Moda's Sliced Challenge early in 2012 and you can see her photos and comments here of FRONT and BACK.  Isn't this beautiful? Isn't she talented?

Isn't she super generous for surprising me with this? I am so excited since I will be replacing my stool very soon for a backed chair and this is going to be the icing on the cake (or should I say support on the back?). With that nifty buckle on the back, it will hold in place on the chair and not fall each time I stand up. You know how often we all do that with all the up to press, down to sew that we do.

Thank you, Barb. You humble me.

What a great week of mail.

Cheers!
Beck